Fb2 Shake the Devil Off: A True Story of the Murder that Rocked New Orleans ePub

This is a heart breaking story. Anyone who's worked with trauma survivors (any sort - soldiers, sexual abuse, child abuse), can see how things just went WRONG for this couple. They both had huge issues, and no help. No real support. Drug providing friends are not support! Yes, I read that in a review, that the couple "had friends!" Yeah, adding cocaine and alcohol to emotional issues is certainly going to do a world of good. *Rolls eyes.

Now, the author goes into a detailed background about Zach, not so much Addie. He lists one of the reasons for this (in an article interview he'd done for a book review) as not being able to piece much together about Addie's upbringing. Which makes a lot of sense - especially if her family/hometown had something to do with her abuse. The info the author could gather was mostly during her time in NOLA. Which he does write in depth about. One of the other reasons the author lists is key. That the "perpetrator" in this story IS Zach. People want to understand how he could do such an awful thing. And after reading this, you certainly could.

Now, he doesn't "blame the victim" - Addie - in this story. At least not from my perspective. She was an intense, difficult personality by all accounts. Which fits with her background as a trauma survivor. You have Zach who was more the hold-it-all-in, slow simmer til you blow type, and Addie who was in-the-moment, let it all out, venom-spewing personality. The old saying "it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for" comes to mind. In this case it was certainly true. But put those two opposing personality types together and you get a perfect storm of disaster.

The reason for listing four stars in my rating is this - I wish the author had done an authors note on why he chose the path he did. Going deep into Zach's life and not so much Addie. I understood it, many people do not. Also, most true crime books gather all their photos together in color - sounds petty but I wished he had done that here. As well as pictures of things like the suicide note and spray paint at the crime scene. Not for crime scene photo gore, but I wanted to see exactly how Zach had written these things. What's the handwriting look like? Do I agree with the meaning interpretations? Like when Zach wrote "I love her" on the apartment wall. It's thought that he's referring to Addie, BUT it's directly under his wife's name and phone number. I would've liked to actually see the pictures of that, to come to my own conclusions. Maybe photos weren't available - out of deference to the family or something like that. If that's the case, it would've helped to read that in an author's explanation.

All in all, this was a good book. If the author came out with another version doing the things I wrote above, I'd definitely give it a 5 star.

For anyone who's been caught up by the mystery of New Orleans, this book offers a thoughtful, emotional view of how it keeps ticking -- even after tragedies like a murder-suicide or the Katrina in-recovery. I expected this to focus mostly on the story of veteran Zackery Bowen, but a good half of the book pulled back for a larger view of what French Quarter friends and neighbors were struggling through at the same time. Excellent read, more of a social study than a crime story.

This book intrigued me primarily because I distinctly remember the initial news story that first drew national attention to Zack Bowen and Addie Hall: Two young adults who weathered the wrath of Hurricane Katrina and found a way to find happiness together amid the devastation. While the story was meant to be a "feel-good" story, I distinctly recall the accompanying pictures telling a different story ... battered survivors finding a way to keep the N'awlins party spirit going. There was an ominous sense that the "happiness in the midst of disaster" scenario (and the relationship, for that matter) would be short-lived and the individuals would simply fade into obscurity. So, the subsequent murder-suicide of Zack and Addie a year later was somewhat of a shock ... even more-so once the grisly details were revealed. SHAKE THE DEVIL OFF presents the titillating opportunity to delve deeper into lives of at least one of these two tragic individuals and follow his path of destruction. While author Ethan Brown delivers a descent overview of the general story, he comes across as a little too sympathetic to Zack (the perpetrator) throughout and appears determined to blame all Zack's wrongdoings on prior military service ... even though he presents other logical rationale for Bowen's demise.

The story of Zack and Addie simply serves as another colorful tile that comprises the mosaic that is New Orleans, a city that can simultaneously embody the light and dark sides of mankind. A city that embraces the exuberant highs of Mardi Gras and accepts it's mysterious and seedy underworld as a trait that makes it unique. Brown's account of Zack and Addie's lives (and their demise) is almost symbolic of post-Katrina New Orleans ... damaged souls struggling to survive against the odds. While the book covers the murder-suicide story, the majority centers solely on Zack, a gangly and awkward Californian with a difficult childhood. Brown paints Zack Bowen as a tragic figure from the very beginning by detailing his troubled home life, his difficulty in school and a burgeoning drug habit. His eventual move to New Orleans seems almost romantically fitting ... a lost soul finding happiness in a place that gladly accepts all types; where the outcast finds a familial sense of security among all the other outcasts. Brown details the process of Bowen's maturation from bartender to husband/father to career-oriented soldier. Just when readers are getting use to this upward trend in the young man's life, the Iraq War changes everything and the young man's once-promising future hits a major roadblock as Zack suddenly bails on his military career and ends up with a "less-than-honorable" discharge that simultaneously destroys his marriage. Rebounding back to familiar territory in New Orleans, Zach meets Addie and tries to balance life with his new girlfriend and child when Hurricane Katrina arrives to deliver a final devastating blow to Zack's fragile mind.

An intriguing read throughout, Brown provides a great deal of detail on the issues he chooses to cover. The book is clearly centered on Zach, who somehow comes across as both protagonist and victim, but never quite a villain (even though he commits a grisly murder). Brown's thesis seems to focus on Zack's stint in the Army and more importantly, his time in Iraq as events that planted the seeds of evil in the young man's brain and heart only to come full bloom following a visit from Hurricane Katrina. The premise is that the horrors of Iraq and the insensitivity of the US Army initially destroyed the man's psyche and the violence of Katrina triggers a dormant PTSD-related homicidal rage within him. While this angle is certainly plausible, Brown appears to have chosen this angle and run with it, rather than explore other avenues enough to provide some balance to the story. Readers are only briefly introduced to Zack's drug use, as well as his unfortunate up-bringing and self-esteem issues ... serious problems that may have significant, detrimental long-term effects on any person (especially when they are all combined). We get relatively no background on a big piece of the puzzle ... Addie. When Brown introduces readers to Addie ... she's portrayed as being less than pleasant ... nasty, actually. Temperamental, loud, aggressive and petite ... she's the absolute opposite of Zack. Rather than a potential catalyst herself, she simply remains the unfortunate victim of a bigger victim, Zack. Even interviews with the mother and ex-wife paint a sympathetic picture of Zack ... the Army and Iraq bear the brunt of their blame for his demise. Most people already get the point, war is horrible and it can further destroy already fragile minds, but Brown's point-of-view is that Iraq is the sole cause for this tragedy, even though he leaves the door open to speculate other causes. One has to wonder why Abu Ghraib is designated an entire chapter in this story when it had nothing to do with Zack other than to speculate the event triggered Iraqi rage that resulted in a close member of his unit being killed ... speculation, not fact.

While I was engrossed by the story, the author pushes his war-theory a little too much for me. It would have been more appreciated had readers been given a broader, more balanced overview of the story that allowed us to draw our own conclusions. The more the author presses in finding excuses for Zack's behavior, the less empathy I felt toward Zack as being a victim (he is, after all, a murderer). The biggest hole in the story, though, was the lack of information about Addie. We never really get to know her like we do Zack ... no family recollections, only mutual friends ... we get nothing. Addie is the saddest aspect of the entire story in that her sacrifice seemingly meant nothing to anybody.

Amazing story & this was the original 1st press of the Book. Incredible 1 of my favorite murder mystery stories, EVER!!! ZACK & ADDIE, SO SAD, SO SCARY, SO... NEEDS TO BE READ, ASAP! THIS IS TIMELESS, THIS STORY MADE ME MAD, SAD, CRY & JUST HONESTLY WANTED TO KNOW MORE N MORE ABOUT THE 2 & WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, AND WHY?!?!

I believe Mr. Brown really felt compassion for these two and seems to be trying to tell their story with the details that will allow the reader to better understand what happened to cause everything to turn so sadly wrong. While it may be that the great amount of detail he goes into about the war experiences, the history of New Orleans, and the hurricane is somewhat extreme, he must have felt that all this was needed in order to fully follow the events leading up to the horrendous conclusion. I personally thought the book was well researched and well written.

I was very interested in this story when I saw it on the ID Channel. The book did give a lot more information that I was hoping to find. But overall at a certain point the details seemed to stop and the book became a bore. I didn't feel like it was a waste to read this book and I am keeping it with my other true crime books. But I wish it had focused more forensically and also on their love-affair more than skipping over those details and focusing mainly on their lives before they met so much.