Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell

This story about the impact of a malevolent family physician on a tiny Wyoming town is my favorite of Jack Olsen's true-crime books so far. In measured prose worthy of a literary novel, Olsen gives life to the docile but ultimately stalwart characters of a mother and two adult daughters who were raised according to Mormon strictures about sex--including "the garment," a cotton sack that they were supposed to wear next to their skin for every single moment of their lives. These three were among hundreds of naive girls and women who trusted their beloved Dr. Storey so much that they submitted to his molesting and raping them under the guise of unnecessary pelvic exams. And they became the reluctant leaders of the fight to bring him to justice--a fight that divided the community between the doctor's (mostly) Baptist supporters and his Mormon detractors. Doc won the 1990 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime.