Table Of ContentEvil Beside Her
The True Story of a Texas Woman’s Marriage to a
Dangerous Psychopath
Kathryn Casey
To Linda Bergstrom for her courage and her willingness to tell her story
so those who follow may be believed. And to Ashley Bergstrom—may
she always remember that children are not responsible for the sins of
their fathers.
Contents
Author’s Notes
Prologue
The wait, like September’s typically hot Texas weather, was stifling.
Part One
Chapter One
What attracts one person to another has long fascinated poets,…
Chapter Two
That night on the phone, James told Linda a little…
Chapter Three
Pearland, Texas, where the Bergstroms settled, was founded in 1882,…
Chapter Four
Of course, no one in the Martinez family knew of…
Chapter Five
When James arrived at Devoe & Raynolds on the following Monday…
Chapter Six
The week after James and Linda’s first date, the phone…
Chapter Seven
In January of 1986, James submitted a request for a…
In January of 1986, James submitted a request for a…
Part Two
Chapter Eight
In October 1986 James Bergstrom returned to Houston with all…
Chapter Nine
Linda’s initial disappointment over the apartment disappeared quickly. She
discovered…
Chapter Ten
The apartment seemed empty after James left. In a strange…
Chapter Eleven
At six the next morning, Linda drove to the base…
Chapter Twelve
Linda’s prediction that the patrol would give her and James…
Chapter Thirteen
Thanksgiving came and passed. Linda roasted a turkey with stuffing,…
Chapter Fourteen
When the Ohio pulled out of Puget Sound on January…
Chapter Fifteen
A month after their hasty move, James was on patrol…
Chapter Sixteen
January 30, 1989: The Ohio pulled out of Puget Sound.
Chapter Seventeen
Wheeler was plainly worried. He had reason to be. Like…
Chapter Eighteen
The next day, all of Central Kitsap County buzzed about…
Chapter Nineteen
In his then seventeen years in law enforcement, Undersheriff Wheeler…
Chapter Twenty
As soon as she’d handed the detective the receipt for…
Chapter Twenty-One
That Wheeler and his staff hadn’t been able to charge…
Chapter Twenty-Two
After that night, all Linda’s doubts disappeared. In a visceral,…
Chapter Twenty-Three
In mid-June 1989, James Bergstrom pleaded no contest to a…
Photographic Insert
Part Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Linda and James Bergstrom’s twenty-four-hundred-mile drive back to Houston
from…
Chapter Twenty-Five
At one time or another, we all make some sort…
Chapter Twenty-Six
At first, Allen Gibson, Caesar, and James Bergstrom’s other co-workers…
Chapter Twenty-Seven
In his 1992 book Out of the Shadows, Patrick Carnes,…
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It was obvious that James Bergstrom had reverted back to…
Chapter Twenty-Nine
After that October blowup, James and Linda moved out of…
Chapter Thirty
Living with James Bergstrom took an incredible toll on Linda.
Chapter Thirty-One
In the fall of 1991, doctors scheduled Gino’s wife, Benita…
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Mrs. Bergstrom,” a man with an East Texas drawl said…
Chapter Thirty-Three
In the rush from Hoggen’s unequivocal identification, Gallier had a…
Part Four
Chapter Thirty-Four
Depression had toyed with Linda Bergstrom over the years, but…
Chapter Thirty-Five
By February 1992, fantasy ruled James Bergstrom’s life. The dark…
Chapter Thirty-Six
In March, Linda visited Colt Hargraves in the hospital, where…
Chapter Thirty-Seven
At 3:30 P.M. on March 16, 1992, Sandy Colyard gossiped…
Chapter Thirty-Eight
On Friday, March 20, 1992—four days after the attack on…
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Linda Bergstrom would always remember March 1992 as a nightmare.
Chapter Forty
On Sunday night, March 22, a ski-masked intruder stalked the…
Chapter Forty-One
Tonry was working a homicide investigation that Friday afternoon when…
Chapter Forty-Two
When the first newspaper account of Bergstrom’s arrest ran in…
Chapter Forty-Three
The two camps—prosecution and defense—formed quickly after James
Bergstrom’s arrest.
Chapter Forty-Four
The phone rang continually in Linda Bergstrom’s apartment in the…
Chapter Forty-Five
Jury selection in the sentencing trial of James Bergstrom commenced…
Chapter Forty-Six
When the gavel sounded in Judge Walker’s courtroom the following…
Afterword
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Praise
Other Books by Kathryn Casey
Copyright
About the Publisher
Description:Sleeping with a monsterAt first, Linda Bergstrom's marriage to her husband James was idyllic. They were young and in love; he was about to enter the Navy and she was eager to start a family. But it wasn't long before the dream exploded. James became abusive and violent, prone to sudden bursts of ang
