The Secrets They Kept: The True Story of a Mercy Killing That Shocked a Town and Shamed a Family

The following exceprt is from a story by James Chilton in the October 13, 2013 dition of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Goodness… Some story…

CHEYENNE [Wyoming] — Growing up in California, Suzanne Handler never knew her aunt.

In fact, until she was 50, Handler didn’t even know she had an aunt.

But once she found out, she tried to learn more. What she discovered was a hidden shame that her mother and uncles had been hiding for decades.

“It was a secret in the family,” Handler said. “I never knew, and my cousins never knew, that my mother had a sister and that my grandfather shot and killed her.”

Handler’s search for the truth is now chronicled in a book, “The Secrets They Kept: The True Story of a Mercy Killing That Shocked a Town and Shamed a Family.”

The book was released last year, but it was only this past month that Handler’s quest to honor her aunt’s memory finally came to a conclusion.

Read the full article.

About Leland Meitzler

Leland K. Meitzler founded Heritage Quest in 1985, and has worked as Managing Editor of both Heritage Quest Magazine and The Genealogical Helper. He currently operates Family Roots Publishing Company (www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com), writes daily at GenealogyBlog.com, writes the weekly Genealogy Newsline, conducts the annual Salt Lake Christmas Tour to the Family History Library, and speaks nationally, having given over 2000 lectures since 1983.

One Reply to “The Secrets They Kept: The True Story of a Mercy Killing That Shocked a Town and Shamed a Family”

  1. I hope you understand that to read the full story, you will probably need paid access to the Casper Star-Tribune Website; OR, you can do what I have for years: scroll up and down the darkened text and read behind the subscription box.
    Yes, it’s quite a story! The father suffered so much.

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