On December 27, 2011 Russ Ferria of Troy, Missouri, was arrested for brutally killing his wife, Betsy.  He had found her body, called 911,  and ended up in jail with very manipulative police officers. He got an attorney and.was released but was later arrested again and after about 18 months the case went to trial. Joel Schwartz, Russ’ defense attorney was experienced and very highly regarded. The prosecutors were incompetent from the police officers on down, the judge was brand new and made serious mistakes in not allowing evidence which would incriminate someone else. Ferria’s defense attorney, Joel Schwartz, is the co-author.  

Bone Deep: Untangling the Betsy Faria Case
By: Charles Bosworth, Joel Schwartz; 2022 
Read by Gary Bennett, 11 hrs and 20 mins
Rating:  8 – A  / True Crime 

This was a brutal knife slaying with dozens of stabs wounds and a knife left stuck in the victim’s neck. Russ was totally horrified but he had a solid alibi. He was horrified by the event and his arrest. Schultz was filing an appeal.  Should they get Dateline on it?  You bet. 

And so it goes using every twist and trick that crime fiction just makes up. There aren’t any chase scenes in Bone Deep but I had to re-listen to sections to make sure I really got what all was there.   As I’ve noted before, with true crime, especially those books with lots of courtroom drama, some repetition is to be expected. The witnesses usually tell the truth and they want to say the same thing as before and as other witnesses will say. The evidence doesn’t change. It’s going to be the same story from different people possibly with their own agendas. One of the reviews says it’s 

There are several different Dateline NBC episodes about the Russ Ferria case which appear over a rather long period of time. You can find them online as they were very popular episodes of Dateline.