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by Pete Dove (Author)
Lisa and Rob Whedbee seemed to have it all. He ran a successful insurance business; she was the former high school cheerleader whose pretty looks, blonde hair and bouncy personality made her the centre of social gatherings.
Indeed, their romance was like something out of one of those middle-class Disney movies the company poured out in the seventies. Rob was the football team captain; the jock with brains as well as brawn; the guy who got the girl about which every beta male dreamed. Lisa was his catch; one he'd never look to throw back.
The couple were even labelled Ken and Barbie. Those squeaky-clean Mattel dolls engineered youngsters into the look to which they should aspire; he muscle bound and square jawed, she a woman of her time; courageous, entrepreneurial, intelligent but never forgetting her first job - to look beautiful.
But in the same way as the Barbie theme offers just a thin veneer to cover the realities of life, so this Ken and Barbie couple presented a blistering coat of varnish to the outside world. Under the surface, their relationship was rotting away. It would end in a vicious attempt on Rob's life, one which involved a weak and inept lover and a bungled legal case littered with unproven assertions that flew like indiscriminate pellets from a child's toy gun.
The cartoon character perfection of the early years of their relationship fell into soap opera tragedy; one that held the attention of the nation.
