The Murder of Jennyann

A Shocking True Crime Story

By: Rod Kackley

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Not every woman is meant to be a mother.

The Murder of Jennyann: A Shocking True Crime Story pulls back the curtain on a horrific crime that shook rural Georgia in the early 1980s—and nearly slipped through the cracks forever.

Children in one family were dying -- one by one -- every time Earl went to see his lover, Stanley.

Everyone said it was coincidence. Everyone looked the other way.

But the truth was far more horrifying: Martha Ann, their mother, smothered each child by lying on top of them—silent, deliberate murders carried out in the shadows of family shame.

And it was Earl and his lover Stanley—the very ones who triggered the killings—who kept pushing until someone listened.

One Atlanta newspaper reporter and a determined state police detective refused to let it go. Where institutions failed, they stepped in—digging past red tape, uncovering buried records, and chasing a truth no one wanted to face.

In this newly enhanced edition of Mommy Deadliest, veteran crime writer Rod Kackley exposes not just a monstrous act of maternal betrayal, but the broken systems that allowed it to happen—and the two unlikely heroes who made sure justice was done.

Told with chilling detail and deep compassion, this true crime account asks a haunting question: If they hadn’t stepped up, would anyone have?

Perfect for fans of If You Tell, The Cases That Haunt Us, and Shattered Innocence, this story will stay with you long after the final page.

That Voice

There is absolutely zero reason to use Virtual Voice with an accent, especially in nonfiction. It was twangy/drawl-y/back-country uneducated - no disrespect, it's a major accent around here and at least in this area, the stereotype of it being "rural, probably dropped out of school to help on the farm" is actually true. (Just to be clear, uneducated does not mean stupid, but it can often affect word pronunciation.)

The story was a bit more docudrama than I had expected with a lot of the mother's possible thoughts added in, but they tended to be along the lines of "I couldn't have hurt my babies" and it didn't really seem realistic that she could actually believe that. If you murder all your kids, one by one, seems pretty unbelievable that you don't know you did it, especially with the reason for the murders.

It wasn't awful though, short and fairly decent for an easy background listen.

Surprisingly good AI voice

Munchausen’s Syndrome by proxy.

This was my first audiobook ready by AI. Aside from a few mispronunciations, it was surprisingly well done. I wouldn’t have known it was AI. I’ve heard some readers sound more mechanical than this version. I do think audiobook producers should listen for mistakes and correct them.

Kinda weird

The story is interesting and it gives lots of details without dragging on; which I liked. But, the story is also somewhat told in a sort of first person view of the mom. It gives thoughts and experiences that only she could feel and it makes it feel like fiction. Im assuming this is a true story but some parts had me thinking otherwise? Theres also parts where it almost makes you try to almost feel bad for the mom too? I don’t know it was kinda all over the place… also the AI voice isn’t bad.

Virtual Voice is terrible!

The story itself isn't bad; although many phrases and adjectives are painfully overused...to the point of being fodder for a drinking game.

The virtual voice narrator is so poor that it is cringey. A sound recommendation would be to set the speed to 1.20 to move it along.

Bad virtual voice

Many words and names sounded like a child’s Speak & Spell. Very fake sounding . The overall story was good