A Far, Far Better Thing: Did a Fatal Attraction Lead to a Wrongful Conviction?

In 1985, socialites Derek and Nancy Haysom were found brutally stabbed to death in their home in Boonsboro, Virginia. When suspicion turned to the Haysoms' beautiful but troubled daughter, Elizabeth, and her German boyfriend, Jens Soering, their case became one of the most notorious in the Commonwealth's history. After fleeing with Elizabeth to Europe, Jens ultimately confessed to the crime, under the illusion that as the son of a German consular official he'd be granted diplomatic immunity. He believed he was nobly sacrificing his life for love--just as Sydney Carton does for Lucie Manette in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Now published for the first time in English, Jens tells his side of the story: of how a na ve and reckless scholar fell into a world of deception, drugs, and ultimately murder. His compelling, revelatory account is accompanied by the painstaking analysis of Bill Sizemore, a journalist who's followed the Soering case for over a decade. In parallel with the 2016 documentary film about the murders, called The Promise, A Far, Far Better Thing not only points to a miscarriage of justice, but also showcases the tragedy of misplaced love and a catastrophically foolish declaration.

Author: Jens Soering, Bill Sizemore
Publisher: Lantern Publishing & Media
Published: 02/15/2017
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781590565643

About the Author
Soering, Jens: - Jens Soering is the author of six books and three translations, including The Way of the Prisoner, a hands-on, practical approach to medieval mystical texts; The Convict Christ, a twenty-first century, North American take on liberation theology; and One Day in the Life of 179212, an homage to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.Soering, Jens: - Jens Soering is a German author who spent more than 33 years in American and British prisons for a double-murder he did not commit. After the discovery of new DNA evidence in 2016 he was released to Germany in 2019.Sizemore, Bill: - Bill Sizemore retired in 2014 after a thirty-five-year career as a reporter with the Virginian-Pilot, the state's largest-circulation newspaper. He was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting for a series of stories on Blackwater, the private military company, and he received more than twenty-five awards from the Virginia Press Association.

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