Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell

I had trouble rating this book. While I found no problem with the technical aspects, other than misspellings and wrong names, the topic itself made me crazy. I don't know which bothered me the most, the religion or its followers. Probably both. To promote such ignorance and control of women is a travesty.I had a difficult time understanding just how a woman could undergo such treatment at the hands of their doctor and not know what he was doing. I understand PERFECTLY the unwillingness to talk about it, to keep it hidden, but what I DON'T understand is their ability to set it aside and continue to allow the assaults. It's not like they didn't have a choice of doctors. Allowing their daughters to be "treated" by this monster is hard to believe.The "justice" system failed the women who were brave enough to come forward; they had far more to lose than to gain.Shameful behavior on so many levels.

I thought that the case was more current but when I found out the years that the rapes began to occur, it became clear as to why it took so long to bring to light and why the attitudes were so divided. What made it worse for the town was that it came on the heels of another sex scandal involving a doctor with an otherwise good reputation in the close knit community.Rape has always been a difficult crime to prove and prosecute because it comes down to only the word of the victim against the rapist. Even today studies found that less than 50% of rape cases are reported. Of those reported, less than 40% are prosecuted and less than 30% of the prosecuted incidents result in a conviction with most perpetrators receiving no real jail time.It is never easy for a victim to come forward because of the feelings of shame and self-blame felt by the victim. There is also the fear of not being believed. There is the indignity of the exam and obtaining the sample for the rape kit. Then there is the questioning by the police where a victim will also feel she or he is to blame or is lying. The average rape victim is not going to get the sensitive detectives from "Law and Order SVU" in real life.It was not unique at the time most of Dr Story's assaults took place for women, LDS or not, to comfortably discuss sexual matters openly especially in a smaller community.Even in sophisticated and worldly New York City, Jennifer Levin was pilloried by the lawyers defending her rapist and murderer.I can somewhat understand the attitudes of some of Dr Story's supporters. One gets the sense that there were some buried hostilities in the town between LDS and non-LDS and this may have brought some of that animosity to the surface. In addition, most of these people had been patients, did business with him, worked with him, and in many cases worshipped with him for many years. They thought they knew the man but only knew the public image he so carefully constructed. That some believed it was a conspiracy yet spent so much time pouring over the transcripts to discredit the victims, it never occurred that some of the victims were not LDS. It did not matter that some activity was discovered by the PSI to have occurred as early as 1958 before he came to Lovell.It is obvious that Dr Story did many good things. In other respects he was a good doctor. He helped bring healthcare where services were they were needed but that does not excuse his taking advantage of that trust to assault some of his female patients. "First do no harm" is how the Hippocratic oath begins and he broke that oath.I can understand his wife standing by him. She did what she believed was the right thing to do. He had a long time to dominate and manipulate her into submission and belief in his infallibility. If she admitted to herself that he was capable of such egregious acts, it would destroy her whole belief system.The women, who were just a small fraction of his victims, who braved the publicity and wrath of their neighbors were heroic in their efforts to put a stop to this perpetrator. It took courage to speak out against someone so well regarded and with some very powerful friends. They persevered and prevented him from hurting more girls and women. They endured what almost every victim of rape experiences. Police that do not take action, being called liars, having their sexual histories paraded to the world, being branded as whores, or being accused of revenge for unfulfilled sexual fantasies. Yet they prevailed and survived.It was sad to find out that Dr Story was released from prison. From his attitude expressed in the book, he never admitted responsibility for his actions and still believed he was the wronged party. He was also as arrogant as ever about his superiority over everyone else.Hopefully he will never get his license to practice medicine again and whatever community he settled in is aware of his record as a sexual predator.I do recommend this book for the details of the investigation and legal process. It is also insightful about the dynamics of life in a small community and the mythology that in small towns everyone knows his neighbor. It also raises questions about Christianity, forgiveness, and loving thy neighbor.

DOC is one of the most deeply disturbing and powerfully compelling books, of any genre, that I have ever read. My most sincere regret is that Mr Olsen is no longer with us to read these accolades.Superbly balanced, compassionately written, this book is a "must read" first and foremost because of the insight it provides to rape, a crime that even as 2016 dawns, still lurks as one of the most misunderstood crimes, and one of the most vicious against the victim as so often the victim is made to pay the price. She, or he, is far too often ridiculed, subjected to harassment- from the first reporting through trial, dis-believed, mocked, put on trial herself, humiliated, and, in essence, raped again.The other part of this distressing tale that Mr. Olsen tells so flawlessly is the overpowering role of patriarchal religions, and how blind faith and adherence to God's hand in all things can lead to divisiveness and ultimately, injustice. When authority replaces individual responsibility, common sense, and the ability to think rationally, chaos follows.In the case of Lovell, Wyoming, somewhere between 200 to 1000 plus women and children as young as 8 were sexually molested and raped for 25 years....but the victims remained silent, locked behind shame, guilt, uncertainties, patriarchal rule, bishops of the Mormon Church who did nothing or blamed the victims, police authorities who did nothing because they either did not believe the victim against the word of the good doctor or could not see how justice could prevail.Yet, against all this, Arden McArthur did prevail, forming a band of woman together who scratched and clawed their way to justice.If this book does not make you cry, you do not have a soul.Every single woman and every man who has ever loved her and the daughters of those should read this book.We live in times when there are forces and people dedicated to moving us not forward but to pushing us backward. Dedicated to not expanding freedoms within our country for all, but curtailing and eliminating them.This book is what happens when one angry man is backed up by the forces of authority, by his church, by the police. When one man becomes a wrecking ball upon the most vulnerable of people, women, of classes he decides do not belong in his country.But it is also a book about the unimaginable strength of those vulnerable women, and thus, of all of us who chose to do not what is expedient, but what is right.You will never forget this book.

This is really quite an extraordinary tale - quite well told. But I don't feel like it covered the subject of how it affected the community aftewards very well. There was a lot of falling out between people but it left me wondering what had changed and how the people saw it in the end.

This is a million miles better than the usual true crime fare. Beautifully written, fascinating, sensitively handled. Not as sensationalistic as other books in this genre, but makes others seem tawdry by comparison. Literary true crime at its best.

A bit repetitive but Olsen was one of the best writers of true crime - he really sets the scene with a nice literary style.

Quite complex read in terms of characters. Not sure that it's a very interesting read though....a bit like making a long book out of a simple, albeit horrific, story.

Listened to this Audio-book and was amazed that something like what happened to all these religious women by a so-called 'religious' Doctor, could go on for so many years!!This book was overly long-winded and very repetitive, though it did spell out all the details quite succinctly. The full number of women this sick,evil man raped or assaulted and degraded probably will never be known, due to the reticence of his victims to tell even their husbands, parents or best friends. Or for that matter, to talk about it in Court - though I guess a lot of people would fall into the latter category.This book was very disturbing as it followed the rape and assault of many innocent women through to their final victorious day in Court. They still had to live with this man's evil consequences and the snide remarks by his sympathizers.