Preacher's Girl: The Life and Crimes of Blanche Taylor Moore

Blanche Taylor Moore, the beautiful daughter of a womanizing, intermittently drunk itinerant preacher, was almost certainly sexually abused by him, according to Schutze. That may help to explain why she poisoned at least three men between 1973 and 1989. She drugged her first husband, killing him, and then a co-worker to whom she had gotten engaged; he died, too. Then she poisoned her second husband, a preacher whose career had been interrupted when his 16-year affair with a parishioner was made public; he survived the arsenic Moore fed him. Brought to trial on circumstantial evidence, Moore denied every allegation. Convicted in 1990 of the murder of her fiance, she was sentenced to death; her appeal is pending. This excellent true-crime study is strongest when Schutze ( My Husband's Trying to Kill Me! ) explains the enormous difficulties the state of Texas faced in preparing for Moore's trial. Photos not seen by PW. Movie rights to NBC-TV. (Feb.)