**SPOILERS** It wasn't enough that Dr. David Farris', John Ritter, first wife Ellen, Marg Helgenberger,ended up in the hospital with what later turned to be an acute case of selenium/cyanide poisoning his second wife Lorraine,Megan Gallagher,of some 14 years now came down with the very same symptoms. These strange events had the now ex-wife Ellen suspect that not only was she poisoned by her then husband David but that he pulled the same dastardly deed on Lorraine as well.
Lorraine turned out not to be as lucky as Ellen dying from so-called "natural causes" at the ripe young age of 38. David acting the part of the grieving husband and father of his and Lorraine 12 year-old son Graham, Miko Hughes, put on an act that would fool everyone but for some strange reason Ellen didn't fall for it. The similarities of her and Lorraine's illness were just too convenient, for the grieving David Fariss, to be just mare coincidences. They were acts of attempted, and in the case of Lorraine, and first degree murder.
The film "Lethal Vows" has you wondering if David Ferris is either innocent or just so psychotic and pathological that he's actually a murderer but convinced himself, in his own sick mind, that he isn't. Ferris it turned out is a man with absolutely no conscience at all and even when confronted with the truth of his actions he just lies his way out as if he's been accused of just stealing cookies out of the cookie jar.
What was really shocking about David Ferris' actions in the movie is just how cold-blooded selfish and unfeeling they were. All Ferris wanted out of life was getting whatever struck his fancy like a new and younger wife every ten or so years and discarding the old model, like Ellen & Lorraine, as if she were a broken down jalopy. In fact after Lorrine was dispatched, or murdered, Ferris didn't waste any time getting married again to young pretty and rich Catherine Moray,Kim Huffman.
Based on a true story, the murder by poison Richard Overton case, the movie would be almost impossible to believe if it didn't really happen. Farris covers all the bases and destroys all the evidence that can connect him to his crimes but as usual, this in the very early days of the internet, he's a bit unfamiliar with the new technology of hard drives and computer memory systems. Erasing the evidence from his computer, in how to murder his wives, just didn't work with a permanent record still left on his computer hard-drive. Maybe if he destroyed the whole thing, his computer, he may well have gotten away with it.
Going so far as to invest $5,000.00 in an almost worthless gold mine Ferris had excess to the both selenium and cyanide that was used to process the gold ore. It was those two poisonous elements that he used to do in both of his wives! Wife # one, Ellen, getting out of his marriage with her and wife # two, Lorraine, by getting her out of his and her life all together.
In the end the wheels of justice caught up with Feriss who in a last desperate attempt, after poisoning his lawyer who wouldn't go along with his insane scheme, tried to implicate the local police in his second wife's, Lorraine, murder! Lorraine having been elected to the town council was supposed to have the goods, whatever they were, on the police and was murdered by them, so the crazed Fariss told a shocked courtroom, to shut her up!
It was a good try on Fariss' part but by then he just about plain ran out of tricks as everyone was finally on to him even his up until them loyal and naive son Graham. A heart-broken Graham left his father hanging as he pleaded for his support at the prisons visitors glass partition booth. Feriss should have thought about Graham's feelings before he poisoned his mother and, with him now being sent away for life, left him an orphan.
Lorraine turned out not to be as lucky as Ellen dying from so-called "natural causes" at the ripe young age of 38. David acting the part of the grieving husband and father of his and Lorraine 12 year-old son Graham, Miko Hughes, put on an act that would fool everyone but for some strange reason Ellen didn't fall for it. The similarities of her and Lorraine's illness were just too convenient, for the grieving David Fariss, to be just mare coincidences. They were acts of attempted, and in the case of Lorraine, and first degree murder.
The film "Lethal Vows" has you wondering if David Ferris is either innocent or just so psychotic and pathological that he's actually a murderer but convinced himself, in his own sick mind, that he isn't. Ferris it turned out is a man with absolutely no conscience at all and even when confronted with the truth of his actions he just lies his way out as if he's been accused of just stealing cookies out of the cookie jar.
What was really shocking about David Ferris' actions in the movie is just how cold-blooded selfish and unfeeling they were. All Ferris wanted out of life was getting whatever struck his fancy like a new and younger wife every ten or so years and discarding the old model, like Ellen & Lorraine, as if she were a broken down jalopy. In fact after Lorrine was dispatched, or murdered, Ferris didn't waste any time getting married again to young pretty and rich Catherine Moray,Kim Huffman.
Based on a true story, the murder by poison Richard Overton case, the movie would be almost impossible to believe if it didn't really happen. Farris covers all the bases and destroys all the evidence that can connect him to his crimes but as usual, this in the very early days of the internet, he's a bit unfamiliar with the new technology of hard drives and computer memory systems. Erasing the evidence from his computer, in how to murder his wives, just didn't work with a permanent record still left on his computer hard-drive. Maybe if he destroyed the whole thing, his computer, he may well have gotten away with it.
Going so far as to invest $5,000.00 in an almost worthless gold mine Ferris had excess to the both selenium and cyanide that was used to process the gold ore. It was those two poisonous elements that he used to do in both of his wives! Wife # one, Ellen, getting out of his marriage with her and wife # two, Lorraine, by getting her out of his and her life all together.
In the end the wheels of justice caught up with Feriss who in a last desperate attempt, after poisoning his lawyer who wouldn't go along with his insane scheme, tried to implicate the local police in his second wife's, Lorraine, murder! Lorraine having been elected to the town council was supposed to have the goods, whatever they were, on the police and was murdered by them, so the crazed Fariss told a shocked courtroom, to shut her up!
It was a good try on Fariss' part but by then he just about plain ran out of tricks as everyone was finally on to him even his up until them loyal and naive son Graham. A heart-broken Graham left his father hanging as he pleaded for his support at the prisons visitors glass partition booth. Feriss should have thought about Graham's feelings before he poisoned his mother and, with him now being sent away for life, left him an orphan.