“My parents adopted a murderer”

Amity Bitzel recently disowned her father and somehow the worst thing he did to her and her sister as kids was not adopting a double murderer after his release from prison.

In 1984, in the quiet and modestly affluent suburb of Cape St. Clair, Maryland, a 17-year-old boy named Larry Swartz murdered both of his adoptive parents. In 1993, after serving nine years of his 12-year sentence, Larry was released from prison and came to live with us.

An unbelievable story. (via @doreeshafrir’s best 2012 Longreads)

• Amity Bitzel