Elizabeth Haysom: Reality Check

Elizabeth Roxanne Haysom (*1964) is the protagonist of one of the most spectacular crimes of the last decades. In March 1985, she had her parents murdered by her lover Jens Soering, the then 18-year-old son of a German diplomat. To this day, there is speculation as to whether Haysom herself was at the crime scene. – The gruesome massacre was preceded by a fierce love affair between the highly gifted students. Letters that Haysom and Soering sent to each other before the crime, as well as a joint diary they kept during the escape, are characterized by high literary quality and intellectual brilliance – and this primarily applies to Elizabeth Haysom’s writings. The two perpetrators, each sentenced to 90 years, were released on parole in November 2019 after more than 33 years in prison. Elizabeth Haysom has remained silent since her conviction. Only a column that she wrote between 2003 and 2008 for a regional newspaper, the ›Fluvanna Review‹, gives insight into her feelings and once again shows her great writing talent. These numerous essays are collected in this book, as well as a more recent statement from the year 2019.