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Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder (1988) is a non-fiction crime tragedy written by American author Jerry Bledsoe that reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Bitter Blood is composed of various newspaper articles (from the Greensboro News and Record) and eyewitness personal accounts of several homicides in 1984 and 1985. The setting for the majority of the novel is in rural North Carolina, and more specifically, Rockingham and Guilford County.

In a statement released by Barnes and Noble, Bitter Blood is described as a, “…real-life drama of three wealthy families connected by marriage and murder. Bledsoe recounts the shocking events, obsessive love, and bitter custody battles that led toward the bloody climax that took nine lives.”

Plot
In 1984, Susan Newsom and Tom Lynch got divorced and many intense custody battles ensued over their two sons, John and Jim. Shortly after the divorce and power struggles, Susie Newsom became intimate with her first cousin, Fritz Klenner. Fritz Klenner was a gun worshipping “doctor” who had a long history of dishonesty. Fritz followed his father’s footsteps and started his own medial practice in Reidsville, North Carolina. However, Fritz was a fraud and deceived many people (including his father) becuase he did not actually attend college nor receive a license to practice medicine.

In the summer of 1984, murders began to occur across the country. At first, Tom Lynch’s mother (Delores) and sister (Janie) were murdered in cold blood in Louisville, Kentucky. The two were killed at their home as they returned from a Sunday morning church service on July 22, 1984. The police originally had no leads and no suspects were under investigation after these two mysterious murders.

Then on May 18, 1985, Susie Newsom’s father (Bob Newsom), mother (Florence), and grandmother (Hattie) were also slaughtered in their home in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Before his murder, Bob Newsom agreed to testify in favor of Tom Lynch at an upcoming custody battle. Investigators now had a suspect. Because of this lead, police began to speculate that Susie played a role in the murder of her family.

Soon after the death of her family, police began gathering information, heavily scrutinizing many parts of Susie Newsom’s life. Police soon discovered that Susie was in a relationship with Fritz and both became prime suspects in the murders of Susie’s family and Tom’s family. By July 1985, investigators had gathered substantial evidence and were closing in on the arrests of Susie and Fritz. However, an unpredictable and shocking event happened instead.

On July 3, police forces entered the apartment complex of Fritz Klenner in Greensboro, North Carolina. Fritz became outraged and fired multiple gunshots in the direction of the police. He then proceeded to flee the scene with Susie and her two children, John and Jim. Fritz and the police became engaged in a low speed police chase that lasted all of 15 minutes. Fritz soon became completely surrounded by the police, and something went horribly wrong.

The car exploded, becoming completely engulfed in flames and killing all who were inside.

All in all, nine people died in 1984 and 1985 due to the events recounted in Bitter Blood.

Aftermath
In the wake of the deaths on July 3, 1985, the police began to heavily analyze the bodies of Fritz, Susie, John, and Jim. Surprisingly, both John and Jim were found to have large amounts of a toxic gas, called cyanide, in their bodies. Doctors speculate that John and Jim were unconscious throughout the police chase due to the cyanide. In the autopsy, it was discovered that the boys died from gunshot wounds. It is believed that either Susie or Fritz shot the children during the police chase but before the explosion of the bomb. Susie's body was mangled from the waist down and many pieces of the seat were entangled in her corpse. This led investigators to believe that the bomb was positioned underneath her seat (the passenger side seat of Fritz's Chevrolet Trailblazer). Fritz was alive when police officers found him among the wreckage however, he soon died from internal hemorrhaging, which resulted from blood filling his lungs.

The next day, July 4, 1985, the police searched the Klenner household and found numerous firearms, explosives, and prescription drugs. Over 15 guns, 30,000 rounds of ammunition, grenades, illegal military equipment, and a couple of claymores were found at Fritz's house. The police also found a case and a half of dynamite that was stored behind the Klenner residence. It is assumed that the other half of a case of dynamite was the cause of the explosion in the car. Inside of Fritz's office, the police found numerous implications that Fritz was an avid supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan.

It is a common belief that Fritz Klenner killed Tom's family and Susie's family, however it cannot be proven. Detectives believe that Fritz had the means and the motive to commit the murders however to this day it remains a mystery. Susie's role in the murders also remains unknown. There are two theories that are still currently in questioning. Did Susie persuade or convince Fritz to murder her family and Tom's family? Or was Susie naive enough to believe that Fritz played absolutely no role in the death of her family and Tom's family?

After the deaths on July 3, 1985, a conspiracy theory arose concerning Ian Perkins and his pecuilar relationship with Fritz Klenner. It was believed that Ian Perkins was knowledgeable about Fritz's involvement in the murders of Tom's family and Susie's family. In 1985, Ian Perkins went to trial and was sentenced to four months in jail along with over five years of probation. The key piece of evidence that inhibited Perkins from a getting a life long sentence was a note from Fritz Klenner that read, "This is to certify that my friend Ian Perkins was in no way involved in any wrongdoings of any kind." The judge noted Ian's naiveté, gullibility, and immaturity as factors in his sentence.

Prior to the murders, in 1981, the SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) was given anonymous information that Fritz Klenner was "a dangerous psychopath who was practicing medicine without a license." However, no investigation ensued after the discovery of this information. In retrospect, the attorney general of the SBI, Rufus Edminsten, said that this vital piece of information was never brought to his attention. Edminsten later admitted that he wished he had done something about the situation prior to its escalation.

Adaptations
In 1994, a television movie based upon the novel was produced and named In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride & Madness. Jeff Bleckner, who also directed Medium, Hawthorne, and Boston Legal, was the director for this film. In the Best of Families has a runtime of 200 minutes and it was originally released and played on CBS in a two part series on January 16 and 18 of 1994.