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Every Breath You Take:
Allen Blackthorne (2001)

Ann Rule

Every Breath You Take is a true story of obsession, revenge, and murder. Sheila Blackthorne Bellush had long warned close friends that she feared her ex-husband's reprisals and went so far as to request, "If I'm not here, find Ann Rule and have her write my story." Shelia was found dead in the kitchen while her toddler quadruplets were left to walk through her blood. The police raced to link the crime to Allen Blackthorne, the man who vowed to monitor Sheila's every move in his obsessive quest for power and revenge.

Shelia Walsh was born on October 19, 1962 in Topeka, Kansas. In 1982, she married a Texas millionaire, Allen Blackthorne, and had two daughters, Stevie and Daryl. They were divorced in 1987. Blackthorne, who had stalked his wife since their divorce, wanted custody of their two children. He was unhappy with his divorce from Sheila, and began to harass her after she won custody of their children.

Sheila Blackthorne married Jamie Bellush in 1993, and had quadruplets two years later. They moved to Sarasota, Florida when Jamie got a promotion.

When the Bellush family moved to Florida, Blackthorne tracked her down and decided to hire someone to scare her and possibly kill her. He contacted his golfing buddy, Daniel Alex Rocha, a minor criminal, to help him put his plan in motion. Rocha contacted his friend Samuel Gonzalez, who introduced him to his cousin Jose Luis Del Toro. Del Toro agreed to do the job for $4,000.00.

On November 7, 1997, Del Toro traveled to Sarasota, Florida in a car registered to his grandmother with the intention of killing Sheila. He stopped at a sports store to purchase some camouflage clothes, and a gas station to get directions to the address Rocha had given him. On his way to Sheila's house, Del Toro was spotted by a suspicious neighbor who memorized his license plate. This would later lead to his capture. When  Del Toro arrived at the Bellush home, he broke in and waited until Sheila came home. When she arrived, he shot her in the face with a .45 Caliber gun and then slit her throat in front of the quadruplets. Her body was found a few hours later by 13-year-old Stevie when she returned from school.

Jose Del Toro fled to Mexico after committing the murder. He was extradited to the United States in July 1999, and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and armed burglary charges. Circuit Judge Paul Logan gave Del Toro two consecutive life sentences.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in June 1998 in a plea bargain. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Rocha chose to go to trial and was convicted of first degree murder in January 1999 with Gonzalez's testimony. He received a life sentence.

Blackthorne was convicted of first degree murder and given a life sentence in 2000.

Blackthorne was convicted of federal charges of interstate conspiracy to commit murder and interstate domestic violence. He received two concurrent life sentences in a Texas federal prison and will never be eligible for parole. In 2001 he was almost killed during an attack by a prison gang, after which he was segregated from the general prison population and eventually was transferred to a Florida facility.

Ann Rule's Full Length Bestsellers
with Case Background
 

• Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal(2007) - Tells the story of a Georgia dentist named Bart Corbin, and how two women, a beautiful dentistry student named Dolly Hearn, and Bart's wife, Jennifer Barber Corbin, found themselves fatally involved with Corbin over the course of two decades.

• Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer-America's Deadliest Serial Murderer (2004) - This is the extraordinary true story of the most prolific serial killer the nation had ever seen -- a case involving more than forty-nine female victims, two decades of intense investigative work...and one unrelenting killer who not only attended Ann Rule's book signings but lived less than a mile away from her home.

• Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death (2003) - An idyllic Hawaiian wedding held the promise of a wonderful future for handsome, athletic Chris Northon, an airline pilot, a confirmed bachelor-turned-devoted family man; and Liysa, an acclaimed surf photographer, loving mother, and aspiring Hollywood screenwriter. But few, including Chris, had seen Liysa's other side -- her controlling behavior and dark moods, her insatiable hunger for money and property. And no one anticipated the fatal outcome of a family camping trip in an Oregon forest. Liysa soon revealed herself as a victim of domestic abuse that culminated at the campsite, where she shot Chris in self-defense. But crime scene evidence led detectives to wonder if Liysa was a killer, not a victim.

• Every Breath You Take: A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder (2001) - Although happily settled securely in a loving second marriage, and a new family of quadruplets, Sheila never truly escaped the vicious enslavement of her ex-husband, multi-millionaire Allen Blackthorne, a handsome charmer -- and a violent, controlling sociopath who subjected Sheila to unthinkable abuse in their marriage, and terrorized her for a decade after their divorce. When Sheila was slain in her home, in the presence of her four toddlers, authorities raced to link the crime to Blackthorne, the man who vowed to monitor Sheila's every move in his obsessive quest for power and revenge. Shelia had said, "If anything ever happens to me... find Ann Rule and ask her to write my story."

• And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer (1999) - On a June evening in 1996, 30-year-old Anne Marie Fahey, secretary to the governor of Delaware, vanished without a trace following a restaurant rendezvous with her secret lover of more than two years: Thomas Capano. One of Wilmington's most prominent and respected figures, a millionaire attorney and former state prosecutor, "Tommy" was a charming, soft spoken family man. But in the weeks and months that followed Fahey's disappearance, investigators would gradually uncover the shocking truth: Capano was a steely manipulator driven by power and greed -- and capable of brutal murder.

• Bitter Harvest: A Woman's Fury, A Mother's Sacrifice (1998) - Rule probes the case of Debora Green, a doctor and a loving mother. A small-town girl with a genius IQ, she achieved an enviable life: her own medical practice, a handsome physician husband, three perfect children, and an opulent home in an exclusive Kansas City suburb. But when a raging fire destroyed that home and took two lives, the trail of clues led investigators to a stunning conclusion.

• Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? (1995) - When attorney Cheryl Keeton's brutally bludgeoned body was found in her van in the fast lane of an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was the likely suspect. But there was no solid evidence linking him to the crime. He married again, for the fifth time, and his stunning new wife, a physician named Sara, adopted his three sons. They all settled down to family life on a luxurious estate. But gradually, their marriage became a nightmare....

• Everything She Ever Wanted: A True Story of Obsessive Love, Murder, and Betrayal (1992) - For their wedding portrait, petite Pat Taylor and handsome Tom Allanson posed as Rhett and Scarlett.  Less than two months later, their dream exploded in terror and murder: their beautiful home mysteriously burned to the ground and Tom was convicted of the brutal slaying of his mother and father. Pat's only brother had died in a puzzling suicide, her grandparents-in-law were poisoned with arsenic, and no one -- from her wealthy employers to her own children -- was safe when Pat Allanson didn't get her way. It took Georgia lawmen more than two decades to stop her for good -- if indeed they have.

• If You Really Loved Me: A True Story of Desire and Murder (1991) - David Brown was a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown unfolded revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games. Did David Brown convince his own daughter to prove her love by killing for him?

• Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder (1987) - A shocking and powerful account of the destructive forces that drove Diane Downs, a beautiful young mother, to shoot her three young children in cold blood.

• The Want-Ad Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1983) - After his first grisly crime, Harvey Louis Carignan beat a death sentence and continued to manipulate, rape, and bludgeon women to death--using want ads to lure his young female victims.

• The I-5 Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1984) - As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all--a star athlete, good looks, and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.

• Possession - A Novel (1983) - Joanne Lindstrom's camping trip to Washington's Cascade mountains goes terribly awry, leaving her husband dead and Joanne's only hope for survival in the hands of a twisted stranger. (This is Ann Rule's only novel. Based on a real Northwest Case.)  

• Lust Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1983) - To his neighbors, Jerry Brudos was a gentle man whose mild manner contrasted with his awesome physical strength. To his employers, Jerry was a fine worker. To his wife, he was a good husband. And to the Oregon police, Jerry Brudos was the most hideously twisted killer they had ever unmasked.

• The Stranger Beside Me - Ted Bundy: The Classic Story of Seduction & Murder (1980) - Ann Rule was a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass-murderer. Little did she know that Ted Bundy, her close friend, was the savage slayer she was hunting.

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