On the night of October 12, 1913, a beautiful and popular high school sophomore was murdered in the peaceful community of Hagerstown, Maryland. Upon discovering that her mentally-disturbed sixteen-year-old son Emil was the killer, Gretchen Heider was forced to make a choice. She could turn her son over to the authorities. Or she could conceal the truth. Unfortunately Gretchen Heider made the wrong decision. However she had made her catch-22 choice out of love for her son. The murders continued. Eight years later Gretchen Heider was faced with a similar dilemma. Would she be able to save her son from a society ill-equipped to deal with the mentally-disturbed? This is the story of Emil Heider.