A graduate of the UA Faculty of Journalism told the story of the kidnapping of Polly Klaas

Parenting in America changed with the kidnapping of Polly Klaas on October 1, 1993, in peaceful Petaluma, California.

Parents across the country are gripped by varying degrees of fear: “stranger danger.” Kim Cross, author of In the Light of All the Darkness: The Kidnapping of Polly Klaas and the Search for an American Child, writes: “The days of free-ranging childhood were becoming a thing of the past.”

Blackberry:Novel explores an old murder mystery in Birmingham | DON NOBLE

Thirty years later, some parents are still reluctant to let their children walk to school, the corner store or the local park. It seems safer to have kids at home and play video games.

With the same attention to detail, detail-by-minute recounting as she did in her bestselling book What’s Worth in the Storm about the April 27, 2011, tornado in Tuscaloosa, Cross recounts the abduction, the search for Polly, the perpetrator’s arrest, interrogations and trials, and also consequences, positive and negative. Since beginning her research in 2015, Cross conducted nearly 300 interviews and had access to police reports, FBI records, recorded interviews and transcripts.

The story begins under the most unusual circumstances.

Twelve-year-old Polly Klaas was spending the night with two friends in her bedroom at home when a stranger came through the bedroom door with a knife, tied up Polly’s friends and took her away. Polly’s mother and sister were in the other bedroom, just a few feet away.

The kidnapper did not wear a mask and had no connection to the family or area. It seemed completely random, unlike many kidnappings that end in custody disputes. However, Polly’s father, divorced from her mother and living elsewhere, was cleared of suspicion very quickly.

Police considered the possibility of a hoax, but after about a day it became clear that the kidnapping was real. This was critical because in cases where a kidnapped person is killed, the killing occurs 89% of the time within the first 24 hours. The Evidence Response Team examined the crime scene with the utmost care – every fingerprint, hair, fiber, dust.

Local police and the FBI cooperated fully rather than competitively, and this is now standard. A profiler and sketch artist were involved along with forensic experts. New methods of using and interpreting polygraphs were used.

Cross details the small mistakes police made during the investigation—none of which could have changed the outcome.

Because they initially suspected a hoax, the police seized on small inconsistencies and questioned Polly’s two friends too aggressively, causing further trauma. They were even asked to stage a crime. Interviews are now conducted much more smoothly.

This was then a fairly new practice: it was quickly decided to involve the media in advertising and encourage volunteers to call and give advice, look for clues and look for Polly.

More than 1,000 friends and neighbors volunteered. Large sums of money were raised, with celebrities such as Winona Ryder and Robin Williams sometimes involved in fundraising events, and Polly’s photograph was reproduced and distributed by millions on several continents. The practice, which extended to photographs on milk cartons, became widespread over time.

As we know, Polly was killed, her body was found, and the killer, a repeat offender, was sent to prison. However, when it was revealed that the killer was a repeat offender, a kidnapper, and had actually been on parole just three months before Polly’s kidnapping, there was a strong reaction and revulsion.

California, like many other states, has enacted a “three strikes” law under which three felonies can result in life in prison. These new “tough” crime laws imposed various mandatory sentences, limited the sentencing powers of judges, and reduced the flexibility of parole boards.

These laws were not carefully thought out, and prisons in California and elsewhere quickly filled with people guilty of drug possession, illegal firearms, simple robbery, and so on, but not violent crimes. Many of these laws have since been revised.

Although not a novel, the facts in this detailed true-crime account are as compelling as those in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, drawing the reader along and showing the dire psychological toll of the kidnapping and investigation on everyone involved: family, friends, police.

Across the country, millions of people were emotionally involved in the search.

It is no exaggeration to say that for a time Polly was “America’s child.”

Don Noble’s newest book is Alabama Noir, a collection of original stories by Winston Groom, Ace Atkins, Caroline Haynes, Brad Watson and eleven other Alabama authors.

“In the Light of All the Darkness: The Kidnapping of Polly Klaas and the Search for America’s Child”

Author: Kim Cross

Publisher: Grand Central

Pages: 464

Price: $32.50 (hardcover).