Karla's Web: A Cultural Investigation of The Mahaffy-French Murders

Toronto: Viking, 1994. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 8vo. Quarter purple paper over grey paper boards. 328 pp. B&W photos in text. A number of passages in the hardcover edition were blacked out to respect the publication ban on evidence at the manslaughter trial of Karla Homolka. Those passages are included in this edition as a supplement with the redacted passages underlined. Some light edge wear to boards, else fine in fine jacket. Karla's Web is a unique and provocative exploration of our fascination with Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo - and of what that fascination tells us about ourselves and the future of Canada. It looks at the way the media developed two rape-murders into an ongoing soap opera by portraying victims as saints, perpetrators as monsters, and the media themselves as major characters. It examines how the press ban, even though vigorously opposed by the media, ultimately helped the campaign to keep the story alive. It compares our celebration of the case with the American frenzy of the OJ Simpson story. And it explores how such disparate phenomena as the glamorization of violence, the global information revolution, and the paternalistic response of US media to the ban all threaten Canadian sovereignty by favouring individual rights over the collective good.