.com Jennifer Toth tells the ghastly story of Johnnie Jordan, a 14-year-old boy from "Toledo's ghetto" who had worked his way through 19 foster homes before finding himself placed with Charles and Jeannette Johnson, an elderly couple who agreed to take him in. For reasons that remain obscure, Jordan murdered Mrs. Johnson. Toth presents him as an example of "an apparently new phenomenon of young, rage-filled killers taking lives with motiveless passion or no remorse." They've struck all over the country--Jonesboro, Arkansas; Springfield, Oregon; and Littleton, Colorado. What Happened to Johnnie Jordan? is exhaustively researched and includes detailed interviews with people who touched Jordan's life--family, psychologists, lawyers--plus Jordan himself, from behind bars. Jordan may be a monster, but Toth identifies plenty of other villains, such as the social-service agencies responsible for him that still refuse to accept any blame for what happened. When society fails vulnerable children such as Jordan, it allows them to become "superpredators," writes Toth. "There is never justification for murder. But there are reasons why children kill and why, if we do not heed their cries of pain and intervene decisively to help them, we will see countless more children who murder," she concludes. This is a troubling book, but one that we ignore at our peril. --John MillerFrom Publishers WeeklyIn January 1996, just outside Toledo, 14-year-old Johnnie Jordan killed Jeanette Johnson, his elderly foster mother. The crime horrified the community and confounded those who knew the victim and perpetrator, in part because there was no clear motive; Jordan claimed to like Johnson and her husband and wanted to stay with them. But as journalist Toth (Orphans of the Living) reveals in this powerful and unsettling book, Jordan rarely had any control over his own life. Through interviews with the adolescent, lawyers, police and parole officers, social workers, psychologists and others close to the case, Toth pieces together the dark saga, from its roots to its aftermath. Scenes from Jordan's childhood, which was torn apart by an "extremely chaotic, abusive, and neglectful family," are particularly haunting. Both his parents were drug addicts and his father was a convicted rapist and pedophile. Before arriving at the Johnsons' home, Jordan had been in nearly 20 foster or group homes, and he'd already exhibited violence. Yet as he traveled through the foster care and juvenile corrections systems, he repeatedly fell through the proverbial cracks. Jordan's fate is not a surprise: he confessed to the crime, was tried and convicted in adult court and setenced to life imprisonment with parole eligibility after 30 years. "The greatest tragedy in cases like Johnnie's," Toth reflects, "is that many teachers and caregivers read danger signs... but fail to act until it is too late. There are almost always warnings." Though there is no happy ending, Toth concludes her engaging narrative by suggesting concrete changes in the foster care system, adjustments that could prevent more bloodshed. The thoughtfulness and care she exhibits throughout provide a glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak landscape. Agent, Keith Korman. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.From The New YorkerIn accounts of dysfunctional families, children are often the victims of violence; here, though, a child is both victim and perpetrator. The child in question is Johnnie Jordan, a fifteen-year-old Ohioan who brutally murdered his foster mother in 1996, hacking her to death with a hatchet and then setting her on fire. Through a series of interviews with Jordan, his foster father, and others within the child-welfare system, Toth constructs an agonizing portrait of a boy who was repeatedly abused from a very young age and repeatedly failed by the system responsible for protecting him. Though she tries to link Jordan's story with other famous American teen-rage cases, she is somewhat limited by the exceptional nature of her subject. Nevertheless, her report is cautionary in the strongest sense. Copyright 2005 The New Yorker where can i download free books What Happened to Johnnie Jordan? The Story of a Child Turning Violent
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. ... written kudos to the Author she really did a great job with this book given the sensitive natureBy BrandonChloeJenniThis book was well written kudos to the Author she really did a great job with this book given the sensitive nature. This is a very sad but true story that everyone might not enjoy reading. I enjoyed it!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A deeply troubling story that you can't put down.By CustomerAn amazingly heartbreaking story of a young man who didn't stand a chance, either in his birth home, the foster care system and most especially the Lucas County Ohio court system. Tragic from page 1 till the end. The author did a great job with the story and I know it was a difficult one to tell. So many years have passed now, even since the writing of this book, and I wonder does anyone yet know what happened or who he became some 20 years later.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. amazingBy kaitlin.elizabethwhat an amazing book. extremely sad. i felt awful for johnny, even though no one else did (except the author); a good read for anyone who enjoys reading non-fiction; about foster care and the system failing for these children