ABSTRACT
MOTHERS TELL THEIR children that there is safety in numbers, but for twenty-two-year-old twin sisters from Sidney, Ohio, this timeworn guidance would be as false as the security it promised. The midsummer sun was still high in the sky at seven in the evening on Saturday, August 20, 1988, when the young women left the Best Products store near the Dayton Mall. Their shopping trip for a bridal shower gift1 had been fruitless, and they decided to give up for the day and head home. They had just slid into their red Chevy Camaro when a tall, stocky man suddenly appeared. He said that he was a store security officer and that he needed to see their purses.2
