Like a Moth to a Flame

In this book, the forensic pathologist Dr William J. Allender presents a selection of case stories from the many that he was involved with over the years. Some have led to successful prosecutions and some haven’t.

Like a Moth to the Flame look at cases where good girls have become involved with bad boys. Unfortunately, matters become even more intense and extremely dangerous when controlling behaviour, in some cases coupled with drugs, become involved in such relationships. Then, the naive ‘moth’ (the victim) ventures too close to the ‘flame’ (the offender) with the most disastrous results, often with serious injury (physical and/or mental) or, at its worst, death.

Included is a number of earlier cases for example, (‘Brides in the Bath murders’, ‘The Black Dahlia’) and later stories such as (‘Fifteen Floor Fatality...’; ‘A Fiery Fiend..’) because they are relevant to the theme of the book in that they illustrate how dark forces, if not constrained, can dominate their victims to the point of ruin and very often death; hence the phrase and title of the book Like a Moth to a Flame, which means to be irresistibly and dangerously attracted to someone or something.

These stories that follow in particularly, the latter ones in the book, illustrate this phenomenon perfectly. But more importantly, how we need to protect the mothers, wives and children from the terrible aberrations which can occur when these relationships fail through the controlling actions of a misguided, brutal and/or eventually, a murderous partner.