Synopsis
SCARED SILENT
In this riveting memoir, Mildred Muhammad, the former wife of convicted "D.C. Sniper" John Muhammad, breaks her silence about the domestic violence she suffered during their marriage and the tragic events that occurred after their divorce, which led up to the October 2002 sniper killings in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
Mildred witnessed firsthand John's bizarre behavior after he returned from the Gulf War, but no one — including her family, friends, and local police — took her warnings seriously. Even when John kidnapped their three children for eighteen months, changed their identities and lived with them on the run in Antigua, or when he threatened to kill Mildred, her pleas for help went unfounded and she was forced to live undercover for eight months in a women's shelter. Everyone knew John as a charming and intelligent man. No one could fathom that he posed a serious threat to Mildred, let alone the ten innocent victims he and his seventeenyear-old accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo would later kill to carry out John's heinous plot to get custody of his and Mildred's children...permanently.
What began as a domestic case eventually victimized millions. And it has taken years for Mildred and her children to heal from the fear and psychological trauma they endured.
In Scared Silent, Mildred shares her personal story to show how domestic violence devastates entire families, including the children, and hopes that what she reveals will give new insight on this national social ill.
Library Journal
Muhammad met the man of her dreams, married him, bore him three children—and endured years of suffering under his brutal verbal and emotional abuse. After leaving him, she was hounded, stalked, and threatened and her children were kidnapped in a custody dispute. When, in October 2002, she was asked by the police, "Do you believe your husband, John Allen Muhammad, could be the D.C. Sniper?" there was only one answer: yes. This excellent memoir might not have been published without the D.C. Sniper angle, and that would have been a shame: Muhammad speaks up for all abused women, reminding us that scars aren't always visible and that emotional abuse is as devastating as physical abuse. Her insight about abuse in military families is clear-eyed and sensible as well. Even those who come to this book asking "How can their families not know?" will come away with a new understanding of and respect for this brave woman, whose faith saw her through to the end. VERDICT Readers of true crime, memoir, and women's issues will appreciate this book, which also includes valuable advice and contact information for abused women.—Deirdre Bray Root, Middletown P.L., OH