L'emprise du mal

The moral of this excellent series: never mindlessly trust someone who's all charm on the surface no matter how educated or "normal" they appear to be. The educated can be sociopaths too. Also, women shouldn't be so desperate and man-hungry that they'll fall for the first man who gives them affection and attention. How Susan Reinert could have allowed herself to be so easily manipulated and controlled is both puzzling and disturbing, especially since she had two children to consider. Both Peter Coyote and Robert Loggia give outstanding performances, but it's also infuriating that the real-life characters were able to do what they did while Bradfield's minions blindly believed his lies and (obvious) manipulations again and again. Those complicit morons should have been thrown in jail just for their cluelessness and blatant stupidity.

Just happened to see this web site. I was the Lynn Reinert that was featured in the film. My then husband, Ken Reinert, and I had been married about 2 years when all this occured. The movie is very accurate. Joseph Wambaugh sat down with me for a month and interviewed me for the book. It was a nightmare and is still hard to believe that it happened to us at all. If anyone has any questions about the whole thing, I'll try to answer them. Ken died 2 years ago this June. At least now he's with his children and knows what happened to them. It was a very disturbing thing to go thru and something that I hope no one else ever has too. As I said, if anyone has any questions I'll be happy to try to answer them.

I live in the town and attended the school where this took place around the time when it occurred. the frame work of the story is true, and the names of the people are true, but little else is true. Upper Merion is not on the Main Line, we did not go to school in a Gothic cathedral. Many of the people portrayed in the story are portrayed poorly and maliciously. These events permanently have harmed them, and this movie has not helped. These events did occur and affected the school and the people involved. However, this does not reflect the real stories behind the people and the school.

This is a fine movie for entertainment value, but please do not believe everything portrayed in it.

I went to Upper Merion High School in 1973. The school was a regular school to me. Mr. Bradfield was my English teacher. I learned a lot from him. I invited him and Sue Myers to a bar-be-cue at my sister's house that summer and they came together and he brought me a parting gift which I still own to this day. A swiss Army knife. We all liked him and thought he was the best English teacher. Of course I did not speak any English at that time. So I owe that to him. I left UMHS that summer and based on what happened 6 years later I was glad I did. I could not believe what happened. I was shocked to say the least. I have read Echoes in the Darkness and watched the mini-series when they came out. As recently as one month ago I found out there were two other books out on this; Principal Suspect, by William Coustoupoulus and Engaged to Murder by Loretta Shwarts-Nobel. After reading all books I have concluded that Bill Bradfield masterminded the whole thing and may have paid someone to commit these atrocious crimes. I don' believe that the Mr. Bradfield I knew was capable of such heinous crimes but based on his economic circumstances I believe him capable of masterminding it all. Mr Smith may or may not have anything to do with this. According to the Pa Supreme Court Mr Smith was found guilty with lies from a convicted perjurer cop (Martray) and hearsay from all Bradfield's friends and lovers and that evidence was not admissible. So the state's investigators and lawyers messed that one up since Wambaugh wanted to have a good ending to his novel. Now Smith is a free man and Bradfield died in jail in 1998. Whew... I am glad I got that out.

The night Part 1 aired on tv, I was inexorably drawn in. When Part 2 aired, I recorded it because I had to work that night. It was the same night a horrible storm hit--when I came home to my VCR, I'd discovered that the entire episode was UNWATCHABLE! This forced me to buy the novel to find out what happened. The novel is much more graphic and involved, but it turned me on to Joseph Wambaugh because it was the only true-life-horror-mystery-tragedy that I actually laughed out loud while reading! The book is very morbidly funny! Years later when I acquired the video, my girlfriend lamented that it was too long--until we started watching it...when Gary Cole utters the final lines of the cliffhanger--"What kids?" then we saw "To Be Continued..." flash across the screen, I jokingly said: "Well, it's late and I need to be leaving, I'll show you Part 2 some other time." She grabbed me and told me that I WASN'T GOING TO LEAVE until we watched the second video! Yes, it's that good! Watch it if you like true crime--but read the book too!