She Fooled Them Once, But…
Review by Kim Cantrell
Barbara Terry Ford Stager can take care of herself.
When her first husband, Larry Ford, and father of her two sons, Bryan and Jason, got in the way of her affairs and manic spending, she shot him in the chest as he slept.
The end result: she was able to claim insurance funds when political disputes resulted in Ford’s death being declared “an accident.”
Forward a few husband-hunting months later, Barbara marries Russ Stager.
It doesn’t take long for her adultry and spending habits to resurface.
While a spender himself, Russ Stager has enough sense to realize when he’s in over his head and attempts to, with the help of his parents, curtail his and Barbara’s financially frivilous lifestyle.
But, as is expected, this doesn’t stop Barbara from spending freely and living the high life.
When Russ discovers that his wife is willing to steal from his personal accounts, something has to be done.
And once again Barbara is widowed from an “accidental shooting” that she claims occured when she accidentally fired a pistol under Russ’ pillow, shooting him in the back of the head while he slept.
I don’t believe in coincidences and neither did the Durham County law enforcement officials who investigated this case.
At first response, they believed Barbara’s story but when Russ Stager’s ex wife, JoAnn Snow, brings to light the circumstances surrounding the death of Barbara’s first husband, the Stagers’ financial dillema, and conversations between her and Russ, detectives derive a new theory on why Russ Stager died.
Barbara is arrested this time for murdering her husband, much to the relief of Stagers’ parents and Larry Ford’s parents, who have longed for justice for their slain son.
I found Before He Wakes to be extremely well written and thoroughly researched.
Unfortunately, I had watched the Lifetime television movie about this story before reading this book.The book greatly outdoes the movie. The movie freely used creative licensing to fictionalize a lot of details. So be sure to read the book first!
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UPDATES FROM THIS BOOK:
After her sentence of Life without Parole was commuted to a Life sentence in 1993, Barbara Stager became eligible for parole. In 2009, Barbara was denied parole. The next date she is eligible for parole will be in 2012. Barbara will be 64 years old. You can keep track of Stager’s inmate status at the North Carolina Department of Corrections website.
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