Who Named the Knife: A Book of Murder and Memory

by Linda Spalding

Book Overview

Like Ruskin for a new age, Spalding brilliantly interweaves her own life and her subject's in this story of a sensational murder case. In 1982, as Linda Spalding was about to leave Hawaii and embark on a new life in Canada, she was called to jury duty, sitting for the trial of a young woman charged with murder. Maryann Acker was Mormon, eighteen years old, and married to a petty crook and hustler who had hauled her into a life that led eventually...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 077108224X
• ISBN13: 9780771082245
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Length: 295 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Who Named the Knife

It was a very interesting book, and of special intest to me as I knew Linda Spalding growing up, but have lost touch, so it was great reading some of her life. For me the best was learning of her father's involvement in the integration of the public schools in 1954. Although we were family friends, and I was in school in Topeka at that time, I never knew the full story!!

A Wasted Live/Maryann Acker

I don't ususally feel any real sympathy for the perpetrators of crimes, nor for their companions in crime, but in this case, I felt that Maryann Acker was simply a young, naive and in-love, woman, who was set-up by her husband, William. William Acker was a sociopath, a snitch, a pathological liar, and a worthless jerk who saw another chance to "make a deal" with yet another prosecutor to lessen his own punishment. He sold his young wife down the river for his own personal gain, and she has spent thirty years locked up because she fell in love with a real weasel. Yes, she should have had better sense, and no, she should not have remained with him until they were arrested....she should have run screaming to the nearest police station as soon as she knew what she had married, but she did not. Perhaps in her later years she will have the opportunity to do something constructive with what remains of her life.

Powerful and though provoking memoir

In this true-life story, Linda Spalding is chosen to be a jury member. The person on trial is 18-year-old Maryann Acker. She is accused of two murders, one in Hawaii and one in California. The key witness is her husband, William Acker. Linda goes all through the trial, except on the last day she is five minutes late because her dog was sick. They tell Linda she is excused from the jury for being late. The jury comes back with a guilty verdict, and Maryann is sent to prison. Linda has regrets about being late the last day of the trial. She believes she could have made a difference between the guilty and not guilty verdict. She has a strong feeling that Maryann is serving time for what her husband William did-not her. She decides to locate Maryann. Maryann is still in a woman's prison even though it has been eighteen years since the trial and twenty-two years after the murders. Linda begins to write to Maryann, and even visits her in prison. William has a history of passing the blame of his crimes onto others. He has been in and out of trouble since he was six years old. He had sent letters telling Maryann she would get off and not to worry about it. Then when he testified against her in court he blamed her for everything-including being the shooter in both murders. Linda talks about own her life throughout this memoir, and gets Maryann to tell of hers as well. We find out about their childhoods and religion-both of which can affect a person's life. This was a good book and very interesting. It makes you wonder how someone who was sentenced to a reasonable short term keeps getting denied parole and is still in prison. Reading the book had me wondering just how fair our juries and court systems really are. If there is even a little doubt that Maryann committed the crimes, then the case should be reopened. Armchair Interviews says: True story of two women's lives connecting.