Broken Doll. Burl Barer

      Acknowledgments

      This book is an account of events adapted from trial transcripts, police records, and interviews. Conversations, statements, legal arguments, testimonies, and all other remarks quoted herein are adaptations of such as recalled from memory. For purposes of clarity, concision, and continuity, statements and conversations often necessitated condensation and emendation. All efforts have been made to retain the original intent, and any errors are unintentional.

      This book would not have been possible without the exemplary cooperation of the Everett Washington Police Department, and the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office.

      Heartfelt appreciation is expressed to the dedicated health-care professional, Donna McCooke, RGN, of Great Britain, whose views of the issue at hand were of significant value in helping the author retain a sense of perspective.

      My editor, the patient and unflappable Michaela Hamilton, deserves credit for the book’s readability. Heartfelt gratitude to Charlotte Dial Breeze, my literary agent for a decade, my dear friend for life.

      An individual who chooses to surrender to the promptings of his material nature can sink to levels of depravity and bestiality which are abhorrent to the discerning eye, and which are totally unworthy of the human station.

      —’Abdu’l-Bahá

      The more often the captain of a ship is in the tempest and difficult sailing, the greater his knowledge becomes. Therefore, I am happy that you have had great tribulations and difficulties.... Strange it is that I love you and still I am happy that you have sorrows.

      —’Abdu’l-Bahá