What one wouldn't do to protect an innocent child. Beth Ann Carpenter was willing to end a life to save her little niece, Rebecca, from Rebecca's abusive step-father, Buzz Clinton. Beth Ann vamped her besotted boss, Haiman Clein, not only into finding a hitman but also paying the hitman's fee. All Beth Ann had to do was provide a photo of the intended victim, Buzz Clinton.
This tale of love turned to obsession (the obsession of Beth Ann for her little niece, Rebecca, and the obsession of Haiman Clein for Beth Ann) really starts with the Carpenter family. As the author says, in the Carpenter family, Beth Ann could do no wrong and her sister, Kim, could do no right in their parent's eyes. So when Kim gave birth to a girl with developmental problems, of course her parents stepped in to care for the baby since Kim was a loser who was, according to them, an unfit mother. Kim, not known for her strong character, let them run roughshod over her and she pretty much surrendered her responsibilities to her parents and her sister, Beth Ann.
The picture changed when Kim met Anson "Buzz" Clinton. Buzz provided the backbone that Kim lacked. With his encouragement, Kim moved to bring Rebecca back into her life and home, igniting a custody fight with her parents & Beth Ann who were now not only trumpeting Kim's unfitness but also claiming that Buzz was abusing both Kim and Rebecca. This despite repeated investigations into the abuse allegations that never revealed any trace of abuse.
The Carpenters were further alarmed when they found out that Buzz was planning to move Kim and the kids to Arizona, a long ways from Connecticut and a state where grandparent's rights didn't weigh much with the courts.
Not only is this case interesting because of the desperation of the Carpenters to protect Rebecca from a person they saw as an abuser, but also because of Beth Ann's involvement of Haiman Clein. Haiman Clein was completely enamored of Beth Ann, a young, pretty lawyer who had recently started working at Clein's law firm. Clein was not the upstanding citizen he appeared to be at first glance. An officer of the court he may have been but he lived as though laws were for everyone but himself. Embezzling clients' monies, abusing legal medications and using illegal drugs, involved in wife-swapping and other sexual shenanigans, Haiman Clein was quite a piece of work. It is not surprising that when Beth Ann suggested that Buzz Clinton should be taken out that Haiman Clein was all for it. He even had the perfect guy to go to for it, his drug dealer, Mark Despres.
This is a riveting tale, one that almost makes one believe in fate. So many times in this story, if one person would have stood up and said, "Enough!" then maybe Buzz Clinton wouldn't have been shot to death and left to lay on the highway. The author presents the case clearly and tells the tale of the untimely end of Buzz Clinton in such a way that leaves little doubt that justice was served when Beth Ann Carpenter, Haiman Clein and Mark Despres received their sentences for murder.
Review from True Crime Book Review: http://truecrimebookreviews.blogspot.com/2009/03/lethal-guardian-by-mwilliam-phelps.html.
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