Elmer McCurdy was a two-bit outlaw, a wannabe desperado who overshot the Wild West and landed in the 20th century. Nobody knew his name, and nobody in the Oklahoma Territory cared much. In 1911, Elmer was 31 years old, usually drunk, and flat broke when he decided to hold up a train. His booty: $46…Read More…
How long did you think it would take me to find a good true-crime story in my new digs, the tiny village of Placitas in northern New Mexico? Yeah, well, I never bogart a good yarn. This’ll blow your mind. In the 1960s and ’70s, Placitas was a far-out satellite in the hippie universe, man.…Read More…
According to the Mayo Clinic, narcissistic personality disorder — related to sociopathy under the umbrella term Antisocial Personality Disorders — is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of…Read More…
It was after 2am and the graveyard-shift nurses drifted like ghosts in the hallway, tending to the dead and dying. It wasn’t that Michael* couldn’t sleep, even with meds he refused to take. He fought sleep with every fiber of his fragile body. He had fought in a war he barely remembered. A crucifix hung…Read More…
Gentle Reader: Like all of you, Days 1-4 of my coronavirus self-quarantine were largely spent laughing at toilet-paper hoarders. Then I needed toilet paper. Sh*t got real. In case some future archaeologist or home invader finds my mummified corpse in the chimney, I decided to keep an epic journal of my experience so future self-quarantinees…Read More…
Lecture: 9:30am to 11am on Feb. 20Book-signing immediately afterwardCasper College (WY) Humanities FestivalMusic Building’s Wheeler HallAdmission is free Ron Franscell, who has been called one of the exciting voices in narrative nonfiction by some heavyweight authors like Ann Rule and Vincent Bugliosi, will deliver a lecture about how his particular style of crime journalism has…Read More…
Last weekend, USA Today published a Goodreads list of the “Best True Crime Books of All Time.” There are some truly great books on the list, compiled from various Goodreads features like reviews, lists, and ratings from 90 million members. Ninety million readers can’t be wrong, can they? In this case, sort of. The meaty…Read More…
The term “murderabilia” was coined by my friend Andy Kahan, who advocates for crime victims for Crimestoppers of Houston. But the word is actually more innocuous than Kahan’s feelings about the weird, lurid, and occasionally baffling crap that true-crime collectors covet. In recent years, for example, you could buy a serial killer Angel Resendiz’s foot…Read More…
I recently visited a Facebook group where true-crime fans gather to chit-chat about the latest foul play. The group’s members are mostly women because, well, women are overwhelmingly the most voracious readers of true crime (some surveys have found as much as 75% of the TC market is female). There’s no question about their earnest…Read More…
Back in the 19th century, when photography was young, post-mortem images of dead loved ones was fashionable as a way to remember the deceased. But it also became a way to calm the citizenry’s fears about outlaws, highwaymen, and brigands of all kinds when news of their deaths came. They wanted proof. The truest kind…Read More…
There are a few moments in a book’s life that are special for authors. One is when a box of finished books arrives on the front porch. Another is when you see somebody reading your book on a plane or in a park. And then there’s the moment when you know your next book is…Read More…
Once upon a time—which is how all worthwhile stories begin—I knew a man named Herman who had reached a moment when there was more of his life to look back upon than lay ahead. This would be a perfect time, Herman told me, to “sum up,” or to sort through memories and other junk to…Read More…
The Golden Age of serial killers—the 1970s and ‘80s—is over. According to National Institute of Justice, the number of serial killers is down 85% in the past 30 years. Reasons abound, including the introduction of DNA and criminal profiling since the 1960s, Add in longer prison sentences (and less parole), a proliferation of security cameras,…Read More…
Pixcom, an international production company based in Montreal, has optioned our book MORGUE: A LIFE IN DEATH—co-authored with world-renowned medical examiner Dr. Vincent Di Maio—for a true-crime TV series, the company announced today. “Pixcom is growing its true crime offering, and we’re excited to partner with powerhouse talent like Dr. Vincent Di Maio and Ron…Read More…
Remember that story about wild man Earl Durand who killed five people in Powell in 1939? The horrible rampage ended partly because of a teenager named Tipton Cox, who wounded Durand at the end. But even more interesting: Tipton Cox grew up to become a pilot in WWII. He was one of two pilots who…Read More…
In 1939, mountain man Earl Durand went on a rampage. He killed five people during a sprawling chase through the mountains, ending in a daring daylight bank robbery in Powell. A wounded Durand shot himself dead at the end. He had become a national media sensation. So many people wanted to see Durand’s body at…Read More…
In 1964, at Jackson’s famous Wort Hotel, two little girls were raped, strangled and bludgeoned brutally with a large rock. .Andrew Pixley, a 21-year-old transient dishwasher, had sneaked into the room through an open window. Convicted and sentenced to die, Pixley asked to be executed in 1965. And his one other request was also granted:…Read More…
In 1957. actress Judy Tyler had just wrapped up her first starring movie role, playing opposite Elvis Presley in “Jail;house Rock.” She was heading back East to appear on a CBS game show when she was tragically killed with her newlywed husband in a car crash outside tiny Rock River. She was 24.Read More…
You already know Butch Cassidy was the most famous outlaw in the infamous Wild Bunch. This is his 1894 mugshot from the Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie. What you probably didn’t know is that in the late 20th century and even into the early 21st century, the Wyoming Department of Corrections refused to release the famous…Read More…
In 1876, not long after he’d shot the famous Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood SD, Jack McCall was in a Laramie bar boasting about the murder. A deputy U.S. Marshal sitting nearby immediately arrested him and tossed him in the Laramie jail. McCall was eventually sent back to face a trial, where he was convicted…Read More…
Wild Bunch outlaw Bub Meeks helped Butch and Elzy Lay rob the bank in Montpelier, Idaho, in 1896. But the pathologically unlucky Meeks was captured and sent to prison. He escaped but was recaptured. He tried to kill himself in prison and was sent to an Idaho insane asylum, from which he successfully escaped. His…Read More…
In 1934, 21-year-old Olga Schultz married Wyoming oilman Carl Mauger just a few weeks after they met.They spent their honeymoon elk hunting. One day. Carl reportedly left Olga to rest beside the trail while he hunted. When he returned, she was gone. Massive searches ensued but Olga was never found. Runaway bride? Murder victim? Bear snack?…Read More…