The Class Project: How To Kill A Mother
Bob Mitchell
Key Porter Books
ISBN: 978-1-55263-929-0
Non-Fiction, True Crime, Current Events
Reviewed by Chris Gerrib

The Canadian readership of this site may have heard of the Bathtub Girls or the Pajama Girls in the news over the past few years.  As an American, the first I heard of them was via Bob Mitchell’s new book The Class Project: How to Kill A Mother.  Due to Canadian law, the true name of the Pajama Girls (so called because they declined to change out of their pajamas when they were arrested, and so appeared in PJs in court) can’t be revealed, so Bob Mitchell has dubbed them Sandra and Beth Andersen. 

The Class Project is an encyclopedic review of the Bathtub Girls case.  On January 18, 2003, two girls, then 16 and 15, murdered their mother by getting her drunk and drowning her in the bathtub.  After she was dead, the girls went off to Jack Astor’s in Mississauga, Ontario for dinner.  They dined with high school classmates, who not only knew of the murder but had provided advice and logistical assistance.

The girls initially got away with the murder.  The police assumed that their alcoholic mother had accidentally drowned, and none of their high school friends, many of them fellow druggies, told a soul.  Eventually, the girls told somebody who cared enough to go to the police, and armed with their tape-recorded confessions and Internet chats, the girls were convicted (as juveniles) and sentenced. 

Bob Mitchell provides an unstinting and detailed view of a very unsavory condition.  The girls’ mother, “Linda,” was a neglectful, alcoholic single parent.  Her girls, born a year apart, were heavy drug users as were their friends.  The girls’ other family members are painted as at best clueless and at worst apathetic.  It’s not a pretty picture. 

I have to admit that I found this work at times too detailed.  For example, Mitchell devotes an entire chapter to each girl’s pre-sentencing report.  However, the author is trying accurately recount the story and debunk a number of myths which have arisen from the case.  If you’re interested in true crime stories or just want all the facts about a sensational case, I recommend How To Kill A Mother.