A few weeks ago I wrote an item about an upcoming Hadley Fund talk by Kennett Square author Mark Bowden about his new book, "The Last Stone." The book sounded intriguing, so I borrowed it from the library. It's a cliché to say "I couldn't put it down" -- but I really couldn't. I finished the 340-page book in three sittings.
Most of the nonfiction book consists of interviews between investigators and Lloyd Lee Welch, whom the police suspect of kidnapping sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyon, ages 10 and 12, from a shopping mall in Wheaton, Maryland, in 1975, and murdering them. Their bodies were never recovered. In 2013 Montgomery County, Maryland, detectives finally got a break in the cold case and were able to home in on Welch, an early suspect in the case, who was serving a prison sentence in Delaware for child sexual abuse.
The tactics of the investigators are fascinating as they continue to talk to Welch over a period of months. He is unapologetic about changing his story whenever presented with a piece of evidence he can't explain away.
Welch finally ended up pleading guilty to killing the girls and was sentenced to serve an additional prison term in Virginia for the murders after he finishes serving his Delaware sentence in 2026.
Some critics have complained that the interviews are repetitive and the author should have just summarized some of them, but I disagree: my attention never wandered. I also enjoyed his accurate recreation of the 1970s milieu. I should add that some parts of the book, as you might imagine, require a strong stomach due to violence, perversion, and utter creepiness.
Mark Bowden will discuss the book at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16, at Kennett Friends Meeting, 125 W. Sickle St., Kennett Square.
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