Tell Edith Goodbye - by Michael Grimm (Paperback)

About the Book

"For more than 50 years, Michael Grimm was both intrigued and bewildered by the mystery of his father's childhood--a dark period in the family's unfortunate past. With a background in forensic science and a love of historical research, Michael set out to learn all there was to know. In Tell Edith Goodbye, he reveals the true story for the first time. It's the summer of 1935, and a stranger known simply as the Finn has arrived in the Skagit Valley. Like hundreds of other out-of-work men during the Great Depression, he is looking for employment. But what he finds is a family who welcomes him into their home--and into the life of an eleven-year-old girl... Young Edith's infatuation with a drifter who will stop at nothing to secure a permanent place in her fragile heart results in a tragedy that will rock a far Northwest community and continue to shape one family's lives into the future."--Publisher's description.

Book Synopsis

It was one of the bleakest times in US history, the Great Depression. People were desperate, some to believe neighbors would help each other while others were desperate to claw their own way to survival, no matter the cost. High in the Cascade Mountain Range, a destitute family and a man using all his wiles to save himself from a similar fate crossed paths. The results were destructive and deadly.

The Grimm family, author Michael Grimm's own ancestors, befriended a seemingly harmless drifter. In the months that followed, the family found no peace but was instead tormented by him. His eventual prosecution received national attention.

The Grimm family still carries the scars of those events. As a forensic scientist for four decades, Grimm knows first-hand not only the generational pain of such an event but the research behind such pain. Tell Edith Goodbye: A True Crime Story of Depravity and Obsession During the Great Depression reminds us that regardless of who you are and where you live, horrific things can occur without provocation.