Polly Franks, a Thalidomide baby, had never walked without crutches much less tried to bring a sexual predator to justice, when in 1997 she took on the challenge of stopping one of America's most prolific sexual predators from her wheelchair. Devil at My Door is the story of Joseph Frank Smith, a sexual predator, and of one woman's determination to end his trail of pain and misery. The book begins with the early activities of the sexual predator in 1983 San Antonio, Texas. It then traces the lives of Polly and her nemesis as they become forever entwined, ending in a state courthouse in Richmond, Virginia in 1999.
During Joseph Frank Smith's crime spree between 1982 and 1998, he was linked to a minimum of 286 incidents of sexual crimes. No one knows how many of his attacks remained unreported or were not linked to him. Polly s involvement in his case began in 1995, stemming from her experience as the mother of two children who were victimized by a former neighbor and family friend who turned out to be none other than Joseph Frank Smith. Although she uses a wheelchair, Polly was determined to take a stand in light of the failures of the courts and legal system. One of her first steps to help fight this predator was to become a licensed private investigator.
The story is an alarming look at the American criminal justice system including the failures of the various, prosecutors, courts, and judges who were charged in keeping society safe from Joseph Frank Smith. While ultimately, justice would prevail and law enforcement would identify and get their man, for over a decade and a half, hundreds of women and young girls were terrorized and assaulted. In a country, where we see so many of our freedoms being overwhelmed by the information age, the complete failure of the law enforcement and legal systems to follow one violent and dangerous criminal from one jurisdiction to another and ensure that the terms of his conviction were followed is almost incomprehensible.