The Family Next Door by John Glatt

The Family Next Door by John Glatt

From New York Times bestselling true crime author John Glatt comes the devastating story of the Turpins: a seemingly normal family whose dark secrets would shock and captivate the world.

On January 14, 2018, a seventeen-year-old girl climbed out of the window of her Perris, California home and dialed 911 on a borrowed cell phone. Struggling to stay calm, she told the operator that she and her 12 siblings--ranging in age from 2 to 29--were being abused by their parents. When the dispatcher asked for her address, the girl hesitated. "I've never been out," she stammered.

To their family, neighbors, and online friends, Louise and David Turpin presented a picture of domestic bliss: dressing their thirteen children in matching outfits and buying them expensive gifts. But what police discovered when they entered the Turpin family home would eclipse the most shocking child abuse cases in history. For years, David and Louise had kept their children in increasing isolation, trapping them in a sinister world of torture, fear, and near starvation.

In the first major account of the case, investigative journalist John Glatt delves into the disturbing details and recounts the bravery of the thirteen siblings in the face of unimaginable horror.

John Glatt is the author of many bestselling true crime books, including Lost and Found, Secrets in the Basement, and others. He has worked as an investigative journalist in both England and America for more than 30 years. Glatt dropped out of school at the age of 16 and did a number of jobs, including tea boy and messenger, until landing a job as a reporter for a small weekly newspaper. He freelanced for numerous English newspapers before moving to New York in 1981, where he joined the News Limited staff and freelanced for Newsweek and the New York Post. In 1981, he wrote his first book, a biography of Billy Graham, and in 1998, he published For I Have Sinned, his first true crime novel.

He has appeared on Dateline NBC, Fox News, A Current Affair, BBC World News, and A&E Biography, among other programs, all around the world. His time is split between New York City, the Catskill Mountains, and London with his wife Gail.