Mary O'Neil Author:James C. Lombardo Mary O'Neil was a 15-year-old girl in 1939 Milwaukee who was considered mentally retarded and mute. She could only utter low guttural sounds. She gets brutally raped by 10 neighborhood boys, and tragedy followed. Mary was of Irish and American-Indian descent, and most of the offenders were of Italian descent. The story tells about the terrible i... more »njustice of the times, how it affected many people, and the illegitimate child that she bore. The story goes back to the 1800s and takes the reader all the way to 1997. There are many twists and turns along the way. The book touches on organized crime. The reader will go on an emotional roller coaster, experiencing just about every possible emotion one can imagine. The book is about hope and inspiration. It talks about alternatives to abortion but is not heavy handed. It makes the reader think about how important life is. The story is fiction based upon fact, in that in the early part of the book some of the story line is fictitious in an attempt to link the story together, based on a crude, loose diary of Mary O'Neil's deceased older brother.« less