Feral House's video: If You Can t Quit Cryin You Can t Come Here No More: A Family s Legacy of Poverty Crime ...

There’s another version of the “hillbilly elegy.” It’s the reality of multi-generational trauma, poverty, and how our society has abandoned wide swaths of Americans to suffer the ravages of a system they don’t control. On May 12, 2013, 48-year-old Vicky Isaac of rural Puxico, Missouri—a woman with a history of learning disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, and drug addiction— loaded a .22 caliber handgun and shot her violent addict husband while he slept in the trailer they shared with Vicky’s schizophrenic adult son. Her sister, Betty Frizzell, escaped her family’s legacy of crime, addiction, and abuse to become a respected law enforcement officer and teacher. Now she’s drawn back to the town and people of her past, as she works to uncover the facts of Vicky’s crime and reconcile her family’s long history of violence. Her investigation reveals the sad realities about mental illness, small-town politics, and modern American society that doesn’t care about “poor, white trash.” What you think you know about the rural Midwest will be challenged by Frizzel’s harrowing story about people whose path to prosperity culminates in low-paying jobs and easy access to oxycontin. Betty Frizzell is the former chief of the Winfield, Missouri Police Department. Now retired from policing, Frizzel teaches courses on sexual assault investigation as an adjunct professor of criminal justice. She holds an M.F.A in Writing and an M.S. in Criminal Justice Administration. Frizzell currently resides in Seattle, Washington, but remains closely connected to Missouri.