House of Secrets

Lowell Cauffiel

Apr 2014 · Kensington Publishing Corp.

About this ebook

The epic horrors of psychopathic mastermind Eddie Lee Sexton from the New York Times bestselling author who “knows how to dramatize true crime” (Elmore Leonard).
 
For years, Eddie Lee Sexton ruled his large family like Charles Manson. The depraved patriarch dominated his ragged brood of twelve children mentally, physically, and sexually, and enforced every cruelty imaginable, from vicious beatings to raping his daughters and fathering their children. Finally, in 1992, Sexton’s eighteen-year-old daughter Machelle, seeking refuge in a women’s shelter, revealed the shocking, sordid details of her father’s abuse to authorities.
 
As the law attempted to catch up to Eddie Lee Sexton, he moved his family to a mobile home in western Florida. Ultimately, Sexton’s efforts to escape prosecution led to two grisly murders in his own family. Yet Sexton’s sick genius almost helped him elude the justice he deserved. Lowell Cauffiel’s true-crime masterpiece vividly exposes the horrors of Eddie Lee Sexton’s psychosis and the shattered lives of those who survived.
 
Includes sixteen pages of photos
 
“An odyssey into American pathology . . . Deeply disturbing.” —Detroit Free Press
 
“Incest, rape, murder, infanticide, torture, psychological abuse . . . House of Secrets is bedtime reading for devoted true crime fans!” —Booklist
 
“A balanced and grimly engaging account of one of the weirdest domestic situations this side of the House of Usher.” —Publishers Weekly

Ratings and reviews

Well just to say this is my family. We heard Eddie Jr.s side of the story on "Evil Lives Here". Maybe all of us should hear the rest of the stories. But I must say even though Eddie Sexton is my cousin he still discusts me even after his death. Sorry Lannie but maybe you should have told the story a long time ago.

If you gathered togethe r some of the most creative horror authors available i doubt they could come up with a cast of characters as seriously twisted as the members of this familywhat makes this more disturbing than any movie or book is the fact its true.the pictures at the end really send a chill down the spine.not overly graphic but totally unforgettable.

This book is an excellent study into the madness and horror endured by the Sexton family at the hands of their parents. It is not for those with a weak stomach. However it is important to read all of this book which was heavily researched and written using extreme care in the portrayal of the entire family. It is hard to grasp at times you feel no sympathy for some of the children while at the same time pitying them as well. Joel Goods treatment at the hands of this family proves the most difficult to read.

About the author

Lowell Cauffiel is an American true crime author, novelist, and TV producer. A native of Michigan, he was an award-winning reporter with the Detroit News and Detroit Monthly Magazine during the 1970s and 1980s. Cauffiel began his book-writing career in 1988 with Masquerade: A True Story of Seduction, Compulsion and Murder. That title and the 1997 New York Times bestseller House of Secrets have appeared on numerous critics’ lists of the best works in American true crime. In 2002, Cauffiel began writing and producing crime documentaries. Cauffiel is a surfer and motorcyclist. He has worked in alcohol and drug rehabilitation circles as a volunteer and headed a research grant about alcohol problems among young people for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA) for the National Institutes of Health. Visit him on Facebook.