[book review]
Poisoned Love
by Caitlin Rother (Pinnacle Books), July 2005, softcover, $6.50 ($8.99 CAN), 475 pgs, http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
Review by Dick Chinley
Greg de Villers was an ordinary, “All-American”-type: a good-looking, nice guy who had a great career, had many friends and was well-liked. He was one of those people who epitomized the good side of the American character; charming, outgoing, helpful, unselfish, but also, typically American, he was ambitious, willing to take a risk and wanted to be a part of that great fantasy of living the “American Dream”.
Stefan Gruenwald, Greg’s boss at a big biological/genetic engineering company, ended up leaving that company and started his own business, doing the same, but on an independent basis. Eventually de Villers left too, joined Gruenwald and began working for him – that sure does show some willingness to take risks, huh?
Greg was Mr. Dependable; he had never missed a day of work without calling and letting them know what was up and was about as reliable as one could get. So, that morning when Greg didn’t show up for work and didn’t call, his boss was already worried: this just wasn’t like Greg; he tried calling Greg at home but got no answer.
So begins “Poisoned Love”, the 475-page book by Caitlin Rother. “Poisoned Love” is a detailed narrative that delves into the lives and histories of the main characters in this true-life made-for-TV drama.
For me, it seems that somehow, somewhere Greg made a serious lapse in judgment, one that would eventually cost him his life.
It was total serendipity that brought Greg together was Kristin Rossum. They were both at the same bar one evening; Greg had shown up with several friends and coworkers, ready for a night of relaxing and unwinding after a tough week or so of busting their asses, working. Well, during that evening Greg just happened to bump – literally – into Kristin and in doing so knocked whatever she was carrying to the ground, which Greg quickly helped to pick up for her. From then on it seemed that the two were smitten. It was like some badly written TV movie for the Lifetime Channel or something. But it really is true!
Anyway, in a nutshell, Kristin Rossum was a young woman with a chequered past – since she was a teenager, Rossum had been using methamphetamine quite a bit. She had, with the intervention of her parents, gotten clean a couple of times, but just couldn’t seem to kick those insatiable cravings.
“Poisoned Love” is a narrative that was put together in the intervening months since this sensational story broke – the murder case that had all of Southern California abuzz because it contained all the requirements of a titillating story: sex, drugs, lying and eventually murder – murder committed by a cold, calculating femme fatale – a femme fatale with a predilection for methamphetamine.
Greg and Kristin got married, Kristin cleaned up and things looked like they were brightening up for a time. But bliss doesn’t last forever: soon Kristin couldn’t keep her predilection for speed under control and soon she also met one Michael Robertson – a new love
Author Caitlin Rother did some back-breaking research and legwork in order to get this book finished before everyone forgot about the story. But then again, good true crime authors can wow us readers with a real-life tale of something obscure and totally forgotten about that happened back in the 60s or70s.
Kristin Rossum was a normal, everyday So-Cal girl. She grew up in a middle class household, born in 1976 and so came of age in the late 80s and early 90s. But somewhere along the line Rossum fell in love: the love of her life was speed. In fact, one could say it was “love at first hit” – she struggled all through her teenage years and with her parents was able to fight her addiction for a bit, but of course, as with most dope fiends, she just couldn’t put the speed behind her and started using again, after going away to college. Anyway, this was a familiar story – a drug addict struggles with a habit and depending on the drug they’re into it can be anywhere from difficult to impossible to get – and STAY – clean.
The story doesn’t just end with one young woman’s battle against chemical dependency; the denouement is spelled “M-U-R-D-E-R” and things began to look not so great for this woman who, if she could’ve only stayed clean laong enough might not be sitting in prison for life without parole. In the end, it seems, Kristin Rossum’s first and only love – crystal meth – plus Michael Robinson – won out over the doting, dutiful husband, Greg and Rossum plotted and planned the coldly calculating murder-by-poison which was viciously successful.
All this and more is covered, copiously, by Caitlin Rother, who dutifully covered the story from the beginning through the curious trial and down to the sentencing.
At first, Rother gives us the biographical details of the principals of the story, giving the reader plenty of “back stories” to help make some sense out of why Rossum would murder her husband.
But once you get into the book you are soon immersed in the drama of the courtroom proceedings of Rossum’s murder trial. Each witness, all the testimony and the little things – the different goings on, the sparring between defense and prosecution, the intrigue and machinations that were constantly spinning in front of and away from the jury, all bring a stranger-than-fiction situation brightly to life as written by Rother.
You also get the life stories of the two principal families involved – the de Villers and the Rossums. If you ask me, Greg’s family seemed to be the more interesting of the two – the bond between the similarly-aged brothers, their parents emigrating to the US from France, growing up speaking two languages and the inculcated intellectual life of the whole family. Rossum’s story was not as flamboyant, but neither was it a torrid story of some sort of depraved childhood; hers was a typical, middle-class upbringing that was only the same as everyone else’s on the outside. Inside was another matter, especially when Kristin got turned on to meth, which really was a burden on the family, as they struggled and fought for years to get their daughter clean. It was Greg, a boy whom they didn’t quite like at first, ironically, who was to be Kristin’s “savior” when it came to helping Kristin get clean.
And the story goes on and on and on – “Poisoned Love” makes a good read, it’ll keep you, the reader, turning page after page to keep on finding out what happened next. It’s got a smooth narrative, one with a well-researched background and it opens up the door wider for those of us who only knew of these people from the newspaper.
– DC