In the Best of Families The Anatomy of a True Tragedy

On a cool California evening in the exclusive ocean community of Palos Verdes Estates, a police cruiser pulled up to 2019 Via Visalia, a rambling ranch house nestled in the hillside. Inside, the police found a shattered pair of eyeglasses, a bloody pile of clothes, and the naked body of a middle-aged woman that showed signs of being raped and beaten. In the hours that followed, two astonishing facts would come to light: that the woman's husband was the personal attorney to President Ronald and First Lady Nancy Reagan. And that her younger son Michael was the prime suspect in her murder. The crime made the national news wires and rocked the conservative community of Palos Verdes. But the story behind the murder was that of a family tormented by a dark, painful secret destined to end in tragedy. Dennis McDougal, an acclaimed Los Angeles Times reporter and the author of Angel of Darkness, the account of serial murderer Randy Kraft, takes us on a frightening journey into the Miller family's world. From Roy and Marguerite Miller's impeccable, conservative, and religious California background to the well-heeled childhoods of their sons Jeffrey and Michael, from Roy's rise as a prominent Los Angeles attorney and his connection to Ronald Reagan's famous "kitchen cabinet, " and Marguerite's obsessions with healthy food and holistic medicine, the Millers sought to build a bastion of success, family values, and spiritual enlightenment. But slowly and steadily both of their sons were dragged down by an insidious, dark force marked by violent behavior, religious and sexual ravings, and outright paranoia. First one, then the other of Marguerite Miller's sons were stricken with schizophrenia. As eachboy descended into his personal hell, Marguerite, who had never missed a PTA meeting or a school recital, turned to a succession of holistic health cures - including expensive treatments with health food and hypnotherapy. But at age 23, older son Jeffrey Miller, once an overachiev