Invisible Darkness: The Strange Case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka
- Book Review,
by Stephen Williams
Amazon.com
The horrifying sex murders committed in southern Ontario by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka caught the attention of the media and public of Canada like few, if any, cases in that country's history. Readers of either of the two previous books about the case (Deadly Innocence and Lethal Marriage) may be skeptical that another retelling is necessary, but Invisible Darkness benefits from Stephen Williams's prodigious research and his unique perspective on Karla's culpability. Williams had to jump several legal hurdles unique to Canada's "Crown disclosure" protocols, but eventually was able to gain access to more than 70 hours of videotaped police interviews with Karla, interviews with Paul by his defense attorney, and even psychiatrist's notes. Williams uses vivid vignettes to tell the story, and refrains from unnecessarily graphic details about the crimes. As the Winnipeg Free Press writes, "If any readers still believe [Homolka] was a victim of post-traumatic stress, abused into submission by Bernardo, this will put that idea to rest."
Jack Olsen, Edgar-Award winning author of "Son" and "Doc," Jan, 1999
"I found Invisible Darkness a superior example of a dying breed the straight, unhyped, literate work of true-crime."
Judge Lynn King, The Toronto Star, Sep. 1996
"Williams has performed a remarkable, if unconventional, feat in the annals of true crime."
Lynn Crosbie, The Globe and Mail, Dec. 1997
"By far the most intelligent and subversive of the Bernardo triptych."
Bart Johnson, The Edmonton Sun, Sep. 1996
"You may think you've heard enough but you haven't heard the half of it. It's a must read ....Based on court documents....as well as countless interviews with police, lawyers, psychiatrists and friends of Paul and Karla, it is well-researched and thought-provoking."
Helen Dolik, The Calgary Herald, Sep. 1996
"This book lets it all hang out....You can't help but be drawn in by this tale of sex, death, lies and videotape...."
Leonard Stern,The Ottawa Citizen, Sep. 1996
"Readers will leave Invisible Darkness knowing that it's nothing short of obscene.....Homolka could be out of prison as early as next year."
Ted Wakefield, The Winnipeg Free Press, Sep. 1996
"If any readers still believe she was a victim of post-traumatic stress, abused into submission by Bernardo, this book will put that idea to rest."
Maggie Siggins, The Globe and Mail, Aug. 1996
"Invisible Darkness offers up Karla Homolka, 17 years old at the time she met Paul Bernardo, as a Devil Incarnate just waiting to meet her Svengali."
Pete McMartin, The Vancouver Sun, Aug. 1996
"There is much in this book of merit....He begins intriguingly....with a nun waking up to see a pert Karla Homolka sitting in bed beside her....One moment in the book, Bernardo and Homolka are two suburbanites...caught up in their own melodramas, the next moment they're raping teenagers and severing heads."
Book Description
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka were the Ken and Barbie of murder and mayhem; the shocking true story of the "perfect couple" and their secret life of kidnaping, torture, rape and murder.
From the Inside Flap
Invisible Darkness is the story of one of the more bizarre cases in recent memory--killings so sensational that they prompted the Canadian government, in the interests of justice, to silence its national press and to lock foreign journalists out of the courts.
To all appearances, Paul and Karla Bernardo had a fairytale marriage--beautiful working-class girl weds bright upper-middle-class guy and they buy a fashionable dream house in the suburbs. But, bored with his straight, prestigious accounting job, Paul soon went freelance as an international smuggler. He also revealed his boredom with conventional sex--enough so that, one Christmas Eve, he persuaded his wife to drug her own sister and engage in a menage a trois, during which the sister died (a bungling coroner ruled her death accidental).The couple then upped the ante, kidnapping and imprisoning several high school girls for sexual marathons, which they videotaped before savagely murdering their captives. When the girls' bodies were found, the police were stymied (although Paul had been accused of rape and given a DNA test that vanished for two years and only recently was linked to some fifty sexual-assault cases) until Karla tried to have her husband arrested for wife beating. During questioning, she confessed to the crimes and is now serving two concurrent twelve-year sentences for manslaughter in exchange for testifying against her husband who was jailed for life.
About the Author
A direct descendant of Horace Greeley who said "Go west, young man, go west" (whereupon Greeley went east to found "The New York Tribune,") Stephen Williams began his career as a poet. First published at 19, he studied with Marshall McLuhan, Northrop Frye and Irving Layton. Shortly thereafter he got a job picking books in the Toronto warehouse of Oxford University Press. After picking many cherished and rare volumes for his own library, he became a bible salesman in southwestern Ontario. Mr. Williams specialized in Oxford's Bride's Bible, the white edition. His affinity for books and bibles led him to be assigned field editor. After a stint with Holt, Rinehart, he finished his formal book publishing career as the Editor-in-Chief of Clarke, Irwin. Having made the acquaintance of many poets, writers and painters including Joe Rosenblatt, Patrick Lane, William Ronald, Leonard Cohen, Robert Kroetsch, Robert Markle, Barry Callaghan and Tom Hedley, Mr. Williams proceeded to guide certain manuscripts through the publishing process. He w as the agent for books by at least three recipients of the Governor General's Award including Patrick Lane for his "Collected Poems" published by Oxford University Press. It was at this point that Mr. Williams was appointed "Literary Editor" at Toronto Life magazine. He also began to publish his own journalism. His first published work, "Me: A Magnificent Obsession" is alleged to have been the a prototype for Tom Wolfe's "The Me Generation." Williams began to pursue the dark visions he saw emblazoned on the sallow skins of a generation of amazing narcissists. Titles like "The Ultimate Failure of the Self-Made Man" attacked the fabric of false realization that weaves every man's fantastic version of his chances; "The Way We Die Now" examined the Renaissance idea of Grace against the modern, technologically inspired reality of the End. "Adventures in the Loneliness Trade" was about a strange, sado-masochistic, exotic, suicidal Sylvia Plath-like creature one might find in a pornographic Paul Auster novel whom the author met when he answered a personal ad. He wrote a number of profiles, all written as confessions. For example, "The Confessions of Leonard Cohen," "The Confessions of an Ex-Priest" and "The Confessions of Guy Lafleur" -- these portraits remain definitive today. Mr. Williams was twice nominated for the prestigious National Magazine Award; once for "The Confessions of Leonard Cohen" and and again for "Sympathy for the Devil," his unrelenting portrait of the pedophile and murderer, Saul Betesh. The investigation into the Shoeshine Boy Murder and Saul David Betesh took him into prisons and hospitals for the criminally insane; where he studied the idea of the psychopath with psychiatrists and law-makers, and so became an avowed watcher of this largely fictional construct both in and out of prison. Newsweek dubbed Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka "The Ken and Barbie of Murder and Mayhem." Williams' definitive book about the case entitled Invisible Darkness was published in hardcover on September 3, 1996 by Little Brown & Co. In June 1997, Invisible Darkness was published in paperback and has remained on the Globe and Mail national best seller list since. The book was also published in a mass market edition by Bantam Books, New York. On April 15, 1997 the CBC's "Fifth Estate" aired an hour-long program based on Mr. Williams' book and research. The program achieved the highest rating in the "Fifth Estate's" 30-year history. Recently, Court TV twice aired the "Fifth Estate" program on cable television in the United States. "Invisible Darkness" has been optioned for feature film. On October 28, 1998, Mr. Williams was arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police for writing too well about the Bernardo-Homolka case. He was criminally charged with two counts, disobeying a court order and the case is currently before the courts. He is writing a memoir about his experiences investigating and writing "Invisible Darkness" and his subsequent arrest and prosecution. Mr. Williams is also writing a true-life novel based on a Jewish mobster named Nathan Klegerman who was a diamond merchant active in Toronto, New York, North Korea and Antwerp during the 60s and 70s. Klegerman was also a Spinoza scholar. He is the only known made man with a Phd in Philosophy. The book is tentatively called "Mademen." He is also working on another true-life novel called "Pasadena: A Memoir of Serial Murder" as well as a novella inspired by the fact that Carolyn Dover did not have a belly button.
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