The True Story of the Brutal Texas Murder That Destroyed a Family

This is very much an accurate account of what occurred that tragic night in East Texas. I live just a few miles from this terrible family tragedy & to this day I can't get it out of my mind. I pray for the father every day ~ going through this had to be so horrific.

Terry lived a horror, his wife and kids muredered, than finding out his daugher survived, But then inform that she was involved made it more painful. How does this man find God and touches his heart to forgive his murderes

I thought that this book was amazing the details and facts that this author used really were descriptive and just consumed me I would read this book again. I am already looking for more books by the author.

I really appreciate the author sharing such a painful event in his life, but I would have liked this book so much more if he would have told more of his story and left out the religious part, it just seemed like he was preaching but I guess that's what preachers do.

Knowing that this story was true made you really stop and consider the chain of events all the more. Makes you wonder if your faith could be as genuine as that of Terry Caffey's (the author and main character). Can't even begin to imagine the nightmare of losing the majority of my family in such a brutal way all at once. I think Terry's forgiving nature and his reliance/faith in a loving God should be an inspiration to all of us!

I have a difficult time believing that this man is telling the whole truth. I believe it is only his perspective on how their lives truly were. how could his daughter commit such evil and complete and utter hatred towards her family if there was this much religion and strong faith in their family? the bible teaches thou shalt not kill and love one another in the beginning stages and to show compassion towards one another as human beings, not to mention how close we are to our family. I am not here to judge but is unbelievable to me.

Everyone should read this book. Anyone who has even small doubts about God's love and mercy should especially read it. Terry Caffey is an amazing man and God spared his life so he could share with the world His love and grace. Never doubt that God is present in your life and take comfort in knowing He is in control!

I will not forgive. There are too many losses to deal with. Life needs some peace. It is fine if others do. This is one area where I am willing to discriminate. I have learned to deal with reality. Reality hurts sometimes. Just wait.

Possible spoiler alert; I haven't read all the reviews so I'm not sure how much is revealed elsewhere.) I understand that a tragedy of this magnitude could warp anybody, and I don't begrudge the author a renewed life. I think his parental devotion to his daughter in the face of their calamity absolutely admirable and inspiring. But something is just....off. He makes a lot of hay from the story of Job and writes something like "God blessed me with a new family after taking my old family." Well yeah, but a mere 8 months later? That's kinda fast even for God. I don't think the author renewed his life as much as he dissociated himself from it.
Unfortunately, his keen ability in dissociation tainted the story for me. It felt automated. Press button. Voila! Instant morality tale instead of any deep search for understanding and meaning. He alludes to great reconciliation of extreme familial and societal dilemmas through Grace. Only, well, later. Sometime in the future, since neither he nor his daughter nor God are going anywhere soon he muses. Then why write the book now? His attitude makes me think very unflattering thoughts about his possible motives and I don't want to think this about someone who's been through what he has experienced.
He answered none of the questions I really wanted answered. How did this happen? What was going on in the lives of the principals that could shed light on their actions. Can we learn anything that might help us as a society to recognize those symptoms of group psychosis that can bloom into such violence in the future?
I found the book decently written, but I felt drawn in only briefly by his surface scratching. For me, it all amounts to empty Christian proselytizing in the absence of personal insight.

On March 1, 2008, author Terry Caffey's life changed forever.

Caffey and his wife of almost 19 years had set firm rules with their sixteen-year-old daughter, Erin, in regards to her romantic relationship with eighteen-year-old Charlie Wilkinson.

She saw only one way to escape her parents rigidity: their death.

And on that fateful night, Penny Caffey would die; along with her two young sons: Matthew, 13 and Tyler, 8. Erin's father Terry would (barely) survive.

Terror By Night is Caffey's first hand account of the events that would change his life in ways he could have never imagined.

From a true crime readers standpoint, it's an interesting case but only about half the book is dedicated to the actual crime.

Terror By Night should be approached with the mindset for which it was intended: inspirational.

Readers are invited into the heart and soul of a man who lost (literally) everything and struggles to understand why while coping with a daughter's betrayal.

If you're looking for strictly the cold, hard facts of the crime, this book probably isn't for you. If, however, you enjoy a story brought forth by survival and hope, then I highly recommend Terror By Night from Terry Caffey.

Would have been better if written in third person by an experienced true crime writer.

Teenage daughter decided to slaughter her family after parents told her she needed to break up with her boyfriend.

I also think this father is giving his murderous daughter too much benefit of the doubt in accepting her claims that she didn't orchestrate the annihilation of her family.

Some believe only teens from abusive homes do that, but there enough other cases to dispute that. Once the hormones are raging over someone, there are other cases of teens killing family over some loser.

Story makes me dismiss religion as man- made and too flawed even more than I already did, though I am glad this man found a way to experience happiness again.

I don't believe accepting Jesus as one's savior is enough to go straight to heaven as this author does. I think that makes right and wrong irrelevant.

Caffey began dating within months of murder of wife and 2 sons, and was married only 8 months after murders. That's disrespectfully too soon, although I see that his decision was based on loneliness and pain.

Words, even a book full of them, cannot adequately describe what Terry Caffey has gone through. I saw him tell some of his story on Katie Couric's talk show recently. He seemed so very sincere, so I read his book because I wanted to learn more. That he could live to tell the tale of this brutal crime and move forward with his life is quite simply incredible. You could not know or understand what this man went through, or how he feels, unless it also happened to you. He manages to deal with each and every single one of the outcomes from this horrific crime. He faces all the legal issues head on. He does not allow himself to just be the shell of a man to whom life dealt a tragedy. He is able to return to work, to maintain relationships with friends who support him, and he even finds new love, a reason to carry on and a reason to care. I don't have words to describe what this is about him that he can move forward, other than to be amazed.

On a side note, I liked the written style of the book. It moves at a good pace, never lagging. By page 31, details of the crime start to emerge. As the story moves on, Mr. Caffey describes a family member's personality, or a family get-together that gives you a fuller picture of the world that was taken from him.

I wish the very best for Mr. Caffey.

It would be impossible to write this book without God's grace. Like others, it was difficult for me to put the book down once started. Can anyone truly imagine the horrors Terry faced? In the usual run of life, we all face problems...some easy and some pretty tough..but nothing like Caffey's. It would be hard enough to lose a family member, a spouse, a friend through an act of murder but to have most of his family gunned down and having to crawl to safety when his home was torched,,nearly unbelievable. Hollywood might conjure up such a story but to know this was non-fiction made it even the more horrific. Confronted with all the distress, it would be easy to identify with Caffey when he thought about ending it all. The book moves from extreme ugliness to a brighter day for all involved... as God made something good from the bad. Did God cause the 'terror?' Hardly! In ways we have difficulty understanding, bad things happen to a lot of good people... evidence we live in a fallen world. Those who love God also know that He makes things better, the promise of Romans 8:28.
We may often find ourselves with hurtful feelings toward others and don't see forgiveness as a possibility. Caffey felt that way; who could blame him? Yet God was in the picture and brought happiness to replace the doom and despair. This account needs to be read by many, as a reminder that even when things are tough, God is there..and He's been there all along.

Terror by Night
As the mother of a teenage girl, I can't think of anything quite as heart breaking as watching my daughter make mistakes that will have lingering repercussions. I pray for her to make right choices and avoid danger. I pray for her wisdom and discernment especially where people are concerned. I pray that she won't find herself in situations that would compromise her beliefs. Somehow, I think Terry and Penny Caffey prayed many of the same prayers for their daughter Erin.
I think of how often I've gone to bed feeling that all is well with my family. What a shock it would be to go to bed one night, only to wake up to being shot, my spouse killed and my other children screaming or a burning house. It would be worse to find out that my daughter had been involved. It must have been beyond devastating for soon-to-be-ordained pastor Terry Caffey to learn that his only daughter, who had been raised in a loving home, was implicated in his attempted murder and the killings of her mother, little brothers and arson of the family home.
As I read, there were many times Terry's ordeal seemed so great and so surreal, too devastating and too sad. Each step exposed such raw emotion. But it still touched me. I still wept for his losses. When he went back to the remains of his home, to see what had survived the fire. How he treasured what remained. I would read for a while and set it down until the next evening. I had to know. How does a man of the cloth deal with such things?
I'm grateful that Terry had the guts to share his story. How many times do Christians think they have to be perfect, or that they can't share their feelings about a bad day, or the true circumstances of their lives?
What I relate to most about Terry, is that he didn't hide behind a façade and pretend everything was going to be okay. Life would never be the same. He really didn't know how it could be. But if he can tell that story and survive it, I can tell my story and survive it. If he can be honest about his feelings and he got through it, I'll get through my bad stuff too.
Life is messy. Even for Christians. And what Terry Caffey shows me is how to endure with real class even in the midst of mind blowing evil.

I picked up this book and, utterly unable to tear my eyes from the pages, read it straight through, forgoing dinner and everything else I was so absorbed.

The author, Terry Caffey, lived through the greatest agony imaginable--the brutal murder, not only of his much loved wife of many decades, but of his two young sons. In one terrible night, three killers attacked the family and then set fire to the house. They spared no one. In an act of utter callousness, the killers hunted down the youngest son and knifed him to death.

The author himself was shot three times, once in the head. It is a mystery that he even survived those bullets. Even granted that he miraculously lived through the gunfire, how, how did he find the strength, bleeding and desperate, to stagger out of his home, which the killers had left a burning inferno? And then, how did he manage to crawl across underbrush to make it to help?

But the real core of the book is Terry Caffey's tortured realization that the killers who attacked and slaughtered his family were, apparently, led by a member of his own family. I won't say anything more here to spoil the story for you, but the truth is shocking.

It was sheer grace that he could face this person later, and find the grace to forgive and go on living.

Truly, this is one of those rare books that you will never forget.

the daughter. Thot doesn't mean she should not do her time, but I was quite able to take myself back to that age and understand her emotional state of mind prior to the crime. I'd never heard of this crime prior to reading this book, but it was quite obvious in a short amount of time that the father is the kind of overbearing, absolutist type who dismisses anything other than his own beliefs as wrong and probably "non-Christian". That kid felt emotionally stifled and trapped under the weight of all that. The teenage brain doesn't work like an adult brain, and it's often impossible to see beyond the present situation. Add to that the intensity of emotions and the susceptibility to peer pressure, and it's not hard to see how she came to her decisions. I suspect she only wanted the father gone, but she ultimately caved when one or both men pushed for going for the entire family. I'm sure that she was flooded with remorse once the deed was done and the enormity and finality of it all sunk in. Her life is ruined and the father basks in the self-knowledge that he was right all along in his beliefs, never really allowing himself to ponder the fact that she was dating the types she was for a reason. It's truly tragic about the mother and brothers, but when someone is under the immense pressure she felt, she's either going to rebel or cave in.

Terror by Night is Terry Caffey's story. After midnight on March 1, two men broke into the Caffey home, killed Terry's wife and sons and left him for dead. After crawling to his neighbor's home in order to identify the killer, Terry's only wish was to die.

Then his daughter was accused of master minding the plot to kill her family. Just a few short hours before the devastation, Erin wrested and played on the floor with her dad and brothers. Terry walked through the next few months, alternating numb and suicidal while the state of Texas charged Erin as an adult in the capital murder of her mom and brothers.

This book is a great companion in difficult times. Caffey talks openly about his depression and grief - but not as one who still walks in depression, and not as a mood disorder personality, but as one who can identify every pylon in the valley of grief. He walked through his grief, and found joy in the morning. Warning: bring your tissues. I sobbed through huge sections of this book.

For anyone who has experienced grief or loss, this book is a righteous companion. For those who wonder how bad things can happen, this book addresses the question without trying to give placebo answers.

Going by it's title, the short description beneath the title, and it's probably placement in the 'True Crime' section of your local bookstore, it's easy to assume that this is an in-depth examination of a brutal homicide, covering the crime, trial and the usual elements. I generally read the front and back covers carefully before I purchase, but in this case, I was at the library, unable to find anything interesting, so when I discovered "Terror by night", I simply glanced at the front and took it home.
It only took a couple of pages to realize that this book, co-written by survivor Terry Caffey, whose wife and 2 sons were murdered, was not the usual Ann Rice type of fare. On one hand, the name and appearance of the book are somewhat misleading. Then again, had I read the inside dust jackets, I may have known what I was getting into.
First things first: All the details that usually make up a true crime novel are indeed present. The writing itself and prose are fine. And of course, one can't help but feel deep empathy for Mr. Caffey, who suffered unimaginable despair. So why did I end up skimming most of the way through, skipping pages at a time? Because, frankly, this book is strictly for churchgoing, practicing Christians. Approximately 75% is preaching, testifying, bible quoting, etc. There's nothing wrong with that, if that's your thing. Problem is, I'm not at all religious, and found myself feeling as much annoyance toward Caffey as I did sympathy due to his constant usage of the ol' "Invisible man in the sky" and 'His mysterious ways' to excuse or explain everything in his life, from a surprising job offer to his own survival of his family's massace at the hand of some deranged punks.
If you believe that a god is responsible for 100% of your life's activities, discoveries, misfortunes, and happy surprises, that the reason you twisted your ankle on the way to work this morning was due to divine intervention by a deity who has his (inexplicable to living humans) reasons....then by all means, enjoy "Terror by night". But for those of us who are not in seminary school, or handling snakes at the revival down by the crik, then take a pass.

Terror by Night is chilling.

The author, the only survivor of a horrific triple murder and house fire, tells a story that is unimaginable.

The Caffey family was living the classic nuclear family existence. The only sign of trouble with their 16-year-old daughter was her boyfriend and some choices she was making. The events that unfolded are nauseating. Not that the author shares gory details to the point that the reader feels the need to take a shower. There was very little gore. But the horror that a seemingly well-adjusted young woman could make the decisions to help/plan/participate in the death of her family rocked me to the core.

As horrifying as this story is, there is a fascinating secondary story of Caffey's faith jolt/jostle and his journey to peace and forgiveness.

Not for the weak-kneed. This story is very disturbing so be warned. However, the cloud is silver-lined and a thing of beauty once the sun begins to come rise.

This truly is a book of God. The determination of a tragic loss that if not for his faith, I believe he wouldn't be here today. I think that being able to forgive for his sake was the only way he could move forward and rebuild his life. I hope that someday, Erin, will have the strength to be honest and finally tell him the truth. He has never stopped loving his children or his wife yet has been able to add to that by loving and rebuilding his future. God Bless him and his love and faith in God!