Bristol Publishing Company
(806)793-1996
bristolpublishing@sbcglobal.net
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Jessica
McClure Rescue Leaves Legacy Of Tragedy
Type the name “Jessica McClure” into about any
Internet search engine, and you’ll be rewarded with a quarter million or so
“hits.” Jessica, the toddler plucked
from a
Clean-cut firemen and no-name, shaggy oil field
roughnecks who dropped what they were doing to lend a hand to save a life
carried out the “made for television” moment.
It was also an event that, sadly, led to the eventual destruction of
lives and careers. And it tore at least one segment of
Jessica dropped into an uncovered well shaft in October
1987. For 58 hours, firemen, police and
drilling crews labored through nearly 35 feet of solid rock to bring her to
safety. Cheers erupted around the world
as the bandage-swathed toddler popped to the surface.
But, over time, the cheering stopped and the rescuer’s
grip on the spotlight slowly slipped away.
For some, despair and tragedy followed.
A new book, The Rainbow’s Shadow, examines the
life-changing experience the rescuers suffered through. Bristol Publishing Company of
Lunsford, a
He follows up on all the major players: From the all-American fireman hero, Robert
O’Donnell, who lathered Jessica in surgical jelly and plucked her from her entombment
“like a squashed plum” to Andy Glasscock, the career-track police detective
sergeant, who sang children’s songs to Jessica from the rim of the well. O’Donnell fell into depression and
prescription medication induced madness, later taking his own life. Glasscock was a good cop, gone bad, who is
serving long stretches in prison for rape, child pornography and holding a
garage full of bombs and hand grenades.
The story is “one for the ages,” says Clayton Williams, a
The Rainbow’s Shadow will soon be available
nationwide or through the publisher’s website, bristolpublish.com.
NOTE: Review copies are
available by emailing bristolpublishing@sbcglobal.net.