THE DREAMS OF ADA

THE DREAMS OF ADA

By Robert Mayer

It’s always a little unsettling to say that I “loved” or even “enjoyed” a true-crime story. How can anyone love or enjoy true tales of abduction, rape, murder, torture or any number of heinous crimes? I’m not sure either of those words even actually describe my feelings about the book, so I’ll just say I was absorbed in the story.

*Some spoilers for those who aren’t aware of this case* – In 1984, a young woman named Donna Denice Haraway was allegedly abducted one evening from the convenience store in Ada, Oklahoma where she worked. A witness, driving up to the store, saw two men walking a woman out of the store and into a pickup truck. Based on descriptions of the men, Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot were later arrested and convicted of her kidnapping and murder, even though her body had not been located even by the time they went to trial. Both men had confessed to the murder, although Tommy Ward insisted that his confession was merely a dream that he had told the police, and Karl Fontenot stated that his confession was only given due to interrogation tactics. Neither confession matched the actual details of what was later determined to have happened.

Much of the book deals with the trials of these two men, and although this was a little tedious, I also found it interesting and typical of what we see at times in regard to some lawyers and their tactics and antics both in the courtroom and in preparation for trial. There were horrible missteps within the Ada police department, some intentional and some not, and there were also what seemed to be prejudicial actions by the court itself. One such action was glaring and incredulous to many, in that both men were convicted of murder although no body had been found, so there was no proof the woman was actually dead.

Although it may seem from my comments above that by the end I was convinced that both men were innocent, but that’s not the situation. I thought the author did a good job of presenting both sides of the case, the details, the evidence or lack thereof, and the pain of the family members of all. I found myself consistently going back and forth on whether I thought the defendants were guilty or innocent. I would never even assume to make that judgement anyway, as I wasn’t there, I don’t know all the facts, and as I indicated above, neither the defense team nor the prosecution team seemed to be above twisting things to suit their purpose. But the author did a good job giving us the details as he found them.

For those who don’t know the outcome (and I didn’t before I read the book), I won’t give anything else away. Make your own decision on guilt or innocence, if you will. But certainly make your own decision about whether you liked the book or not. I thought it was…absorbing.

Reviewed September 2017