Snake Eyes

January 3, 2022
In an arresting debut, Martin delves into how one violent man rocked her hometown, Hot Springs, Ark., in the 1960s. When 13-year-old Cathie Ward was killed while horseback riding at Blacksnake Ranch outside Hot Springs in the summer of 1966, the ranch’s owner, Frank Davis, claimed she fell off her horse and was dragged to death. Rumors suggesting Davis was somehow responsible swirled, but it would take another death before the truth about the riding accident came out, that of Davis’s fourth wife, Sharron, who left Davis and filed for divorce, and was fatally shot by Davis in January 1967. Davis was indicted for his wife’s murder as well as Ward’s, based on a letter Sharron left behind implicating him in the girl’s death. When charges in the Ward case were dismissed, no one seemed to mind since Davis was sentenced to death for killing his wife. Later, Davis’s sentence was commuted to life, and then he was paroled in 1984. Martin does a good job portraying the tensions between the respectable residents of Hot Springs, a gambling haven, and the notorious characters—Al Capone, Lucky Luciano—who often visited. This sad and frustrating tale of when the justice system fails and a killer pays only a small price for his crimes deserves a wide audience.

February 1, 2022

Martin never forgot her junior high friend Cathie Ward, whose death in Hot Springs, AR, in 1966 was at first called an accident and later a murder; this book is Martin's ultimately failed attempt to revive Ward's story and flesh out the life of multiple murderer Frank Davis. Davis is described as a ne'er-do-well and ranch operator who allegedly murdered his estranged wife Sharron in 1967, in front of their sons. While investigating Sharron's murder, police discovered hidden documents that led them to charge Davis with Cathie Ward's earlier death. Police now alleged foul play, though Davis claimed that Ward, who on the day she died went riding at his ranch, had been killed when her foot got caught in a stirrup. But in the end, police dropped the charges against Davis for Ward's murder, and he ultimately served 17 years for only the murder of Sharron Davis. For this book, Martin interviewed many people directly involved in these cases, but she fails to follow up on some of the claims made in passing (like that Davis might have murdered a young Black boy to cover up the Ward death), and the book often reads like list of facts instead of a complete narrative. VERDICT Cathie Ward's death clearly affected a generation of children from Hot Springs, but Martin's work offers no unique angle to the true crime genre. Not recommended.--Jessica Hilburn

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