He Heard His Brother Call His Name: The true story of psychological warfare between Texas’s legendary Hale twins

This book is a memoir about the twin Hale brothers of Fort Worth, TX, Bobby and Billy, and told by Billy’s wife Patsy. It begins on Christmas Eve 1997 when Bobby shows up unexpectedly at Billy’s home with his wife, four kids, a large dog and a horse. Bobby and family have been traveling like gypsies and living out of their large truck. Permit me a brief aside here. I bought this book because of another one that I read three months ago called Pilgrim’s Wilderness. This one by Tom Kizzia tells the story of Bobby Hale, starting with his arrival at the Alaskan town of McCarthy in 2002 with his wife and fifteen (yes, fifteen) children in tow. Back to 1977. In short order, Bobby takes charge of Billy’s home and plays the role of boorish and inconsiderate guest to the hilt. Patsy is hugely upset about this but Billy is reluctant to face up to his brother, trying instead to be the patient Christian. The first chapter is tedious, too long, has lots of “name dropping” (e.g., Governor John Connally and Lee Harvey Oswald) and is filled with too much information. The book gets better in the second chapter but what a bog to wade through to get there. Bobby goes through a theatrical conversion at church and becomes a new man. He starts giving bible classes to the family and tells them that God is speaking through him. He also makes them destroy all toys and the TV because they are sinful idols and sources of evil. The kids are sad, Patsy is angry, but everyone else accepts it. Patsy is afraid to speak up but Billy is even worse and will not support his wife. Bobby and his family finally decide to move and get a place of their own. Their destination is New Mexico, near Taos, and up high in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Patsy’s and Billy’s troubles are over, right? Not by a long shot. It gets worse. Much worse. Nine years after Bobby’s move, Billy & Patsy, plus others in the family, take a big trip to visit Bobby on top of the mountain. To say that it does not go well would be a gross understatement. Both Billy and Patsy finally recognize Bobby for the sociopath he is and retreat quickly from the mountain with their family. This book demonstrates well how a family can be easily destroyed by false and over-zealous religious fervor. It is also too wordy and should have had a good scrubbing by a copy editor.   There are numerous errors in formatting, punctuation and grammar. For these reasons, I gave it 3 stars instead of 4.

I personally knew the Hale family. I want to say I loved the entire family and still do. I am very proud of Patsy and I am appalled at the negative comments about her. She was the most kind, gracious and Christian woman ever. That being said it was a hard book to read because I was 7 years old when Bobby showed up that Xmas and we went over to see his family and I had the best memories playing with his children. I knew the story from a child's eyes and put down the book several times crying my eyes out because I didn't know what was going on in the background. She was not name dropping because these people really existed and played a role in the the story. Some of the missing things people talk about were not in the book because they had no place in the book. I can't bring myself to read the book about Bobby Hale. I knew him, his wife and children and I don't think I can handle it. In fact our family went to visit him in New Mexico one summer when I was a kid.I choose to remember the Doc Hale that I loved and hold on to some great memories of the family. Doc Hale was regarded as one of the best vet's in Fort Worth. It pains me to think what Patsy went thru behind closed doors and she handled herself with great pride. Because I was upset through much of the book I can't really give advise on others experience reading it. This was accurate and really did happen. I still think of the daughter I was close to growing up and pray for her often. The family is strong and I am very glad Patsy shared her story.

Mesmerizing.....riveting.....compelling.....all words that have been used in the other reviews, yet they are so completely descriptive of this intriguing and well written story that I need to use them all again. I knew Patsy and the twins in high school. I didn't know Patsy really well, but I knew that she was a gentle, soft spoken, and kind person. Everyone knew the Hale twins, and knew they were good looking guys who lived their lives on the edge, even back then. Nothing could have prepared me, though, for the gripping and horrific turn their lives would take. I truly couldn't put the book down. I felt such sadness for Patsy and how her life was turned upside from wonderful to frightful in such a short period of time. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to experience losing her husband and her life as she knew it, to the almost hypnotic lure of his psychotic twin brother. I am so grateful that she had the courage to write her story, going through the nightmare of it all again, so that her readers could know the truth of what really happened. If you want to read a really great, and often hanging on "by the seat of your pants" book, then read this one. You won't be sorry! I promise!

Now, I must first say I am biased. I live in Fort Worth and know friends that attended high school with the brothers and Patsy. The friend who recommended the book was actually in vet school at Texas A & M with Billy. He said he was an outstanding surgeon. My friend also was at a dinner guest at Billy & Patsy's home.With regards to the book, it's a disturbing story. I kept reminding myself of the decade involved, hippies,free thinking etc. in order to understand Patsy's behavior. Her reluctance to step in and say "Enough...out of here now...these are my possessions and don't you do this to my children (nbr #1 in my mind) was confusing to me. I can only believe she had such a conservative background where she was groomed to be subservient and be the one to make peace for all.My interest reading was that it involved the area I now live in. It was a total shock that this was going on here. My working years were in Los Angeles. This whole story was unreal.