John Glatt - Playing With Fire: The True Story of a Nurse, Her Husband, and a Marriage Turned Fatal (St. Martins True Crime Library)

TITLES BY

JOHN GLATT

FROM THE TRUE CRIME LIBRARY
OF ST. MARTINS PAPERBACKS

Playing with Fire

Secrets in the Cellar

To Have and to Kill

Forgive Me, Father

The Doctors Wife

One Deadly Night

Depraved

Cries in the Desert

For I Have Sinned

Evil Twins

Cradle of Death

Blind Passion

Deadly American Beauty

Never Leave Me

Twisted

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Shelly Michael was born Michelle Lynette Goots at the United Hospital Center, Clarksburg, West Virginia, on January 29, 1972the first child of Michael and Kathi Goots. Her greatgrandfather had come from a small town in Italy, emigrating to America at the beginning of the 20 th century, settling in West Virginia.

Nestled in the rolling hills of north central West Virginia, Clarksburg lies where the West Fork River meets Elk Creek. Known as Jewel in the Hills, it was founded in 1785 and named for General George Rogers Clark, an American Revolutionary War hero known as the Conqueror of the Old Northwest, for forcing the British to cede the territory to America as part of the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

Clarksburgs most famous son was Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson, who was born there in 1824, leaving at the age of 18 to go to West Point. During the Civil War, it was an important Union Army supply depot, and the remains of Union earthworks are still on display in Lowndes Hill Park, attracting thousands of Civil War buffs each year.

In the 19 th and 20 th centuries, Clarksburg owed its prosperity to coal mines and natural gas fields. It was a flourishing industrial and shipping center, producing high quality glass and metal products. But in the second half of the 20 thcentury, the town fell into a deep decline, with the population dropping from 32,000 in 1950 to just 18,000 today.

Michael Goots father John Batista, known to everyone as J.B., was born in Clarksburg, working most of his life as manager of the Broughton Dairies. His wife Geraldine bore him nine children, and Michael was born on November 18, 1950.

A good-looking, ambitious boy, he was always fascinated by his Italian heritage, dreaming of one day seeing the old country for himself.

At 16 he met Katherine Grant, who was two grades below him at Notre Dame High School, and they started dating.

It was love at first sight, recalled Michael.

Im not so sure I would categorize it that way, said Kathi. But we go a long way back.

The two teenagers courted in local church coffee houses, going dancing on the weekends. After graduating from Notre Dame, Michael went to refrigeration school, before getting a job with a local company called Wuchner Equipment.

In early 1971, 18-year-old Kathi found herself pregnant. So on June 11, the young couple were married at the Immaculate Conception Catholic church, moving into a trailer on Chub Run Road, in Mount Clare, just outside Clarksburg.

The following January, Kathi gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. They named her Michelle, after her father.

She was a good baby, recalled Kathi. I was lucky.

Soon after Michelles birth, Kathis father William Grant died from alcoholism. Then Kathi, who was also now working for Wuchner Equipment, hired a babysitter to look after the new arrival.

In summer 1974, Michael Goots moved his family out of the trailer to 204 Grant Street in Clarksburg, next door to his parents. He then began an extensive remodeling of the whole house.

At 2 years old, Michelle, who had been dubbed Shelly Bean by an aunt, had eye surgery for strabismus, a condition where one eye cannot focus with the other.

Soon afterwards, Kathi became pregnant again. On November 11, 1975, she gave birth to another daughter, who they named Jennifer.

With a growing family, Michael and Kathi worked long hours to make ends meet, employing nannies and babysitters to look after their daughters.

When the owner of Wuchner Equipment died, Michael Goots took over the company, renaming it Thermex Refrigeration. He appointed Kathi as office manager, officially incorporating the new company on the Bicentennial.

July fourth, 1976, is the day we started, remembered Kathi. Well, thats what we put on our business papers and everything.

Over the next few years their new company prospered. As Michael worked long hours and was on call around the clock, he rarely saw his two little girls. Shelly would later remember one of the many nannies her parents employed, as being very strict, often hitting her with a paddle if she misbehaved.

As her grandparents, two aunts and an uncle all lived on Grant Street, Shellys fathers house became the neighborhood hangout. Some of the little girls earliest memories are of playing hide-and-seek and kick-the-can with her cousins.

At the age of 5, Shelly started kindergarten, soon impressing her teachers with her keen natural intelligence.

She was just real high-spirited, said her mother. Bouncy and tomboyish, and she liked just about everything.

At kindergarten, the tiny dark-haired girl became best friends with Renee Orme, whose parents were close friends of the Goots family.

We were baptized on the same day in the Immaculate Conception, said Renee. Our first interaction was in kindergarten, thats how far back we do go.

One afternoon, Shelly was walking home from kindergarten with an aunt, when they saw a woman get hit by a car and thrown into the air and injured. Shelly suspected it was her mother, still lying on the ground awaiting medical help. And as her aunt led her away from the scene, she kept asking if it was her mother, but the aunt refused to answer.

Later Shelly discovered it had indeed been her mom, who spent several days in the hospital with a broken hip.

On April 23, 1979, Michael and Kathi had their third child, a baby boy they named Matthew, who would complete the family.

That summer, Shelly and Renee started at St. Marys Elementary School, in Clarksburg. It was part of the Catholic School System, with nuns providing a strict religious education. All the girls had to wear severe navy blue uniforms, and Shelly was embarrassed by her mother making her wear a plaid jumper with matching tie on school picture days.

Years later, Kathi admits to having been a disciplinarian, imposing an 8:00 p.m. curfew and always expecting her children to be well-behaved. She laid down strict rules to be followed at home and would punish the children if they didnt obey.

I was very very strict, she explained. I guess I was a little too strict maybe.

Michael, who was seldom at home, left the childrens discipline to his wife.

But we had no real problems with Shelly, said Kathi. She might lip a little... but thats about all.

Shelly would later describe her parents as not very affectionate people, complaining that she rarely received hugs and kisses. She also felt that her father did not give her enough quality time, as he was so busy building his business.

Shelly hated her mothers curfew, as her friends were allowed to stay out playing far later. Often, after doing her homework, Shelly would sit alone in her bedroom, playing her favorite Blondie and Michael Jackson singles over and over again on her record player. When MTV was launched in late 1981, she became addicted to watching music videos.

She and her best friend Renee loved participating in the annual St. Marys Christmas pageant and other talent shows. They once dressed up as the Go-Gos, performing their big hit that year, We Got the Beat, as well as giving several roller-skating performances.