Ron Franscell, Author at Ron Franscell

Cry later.

Not long ago, I stood with my wife Mary at the Houston grave of murderous Texas mother Andrea Yates’ five children, whom she drowned in her bathtub. I was writing […]

by Ron Franscell

Let me tell you about my first time

I started reading young. I fell in crazy-mad love with books, or at least became addicted to the way they made me feel. I began to wish that I could […]

by Ron Franscell

Tour dates for new true crime book ‘Alice & Gerald’

Now you can meet Ron Franscell, the Edgar-nominated author of “Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story”—a new true-crime book ripped from Wyoming headlines—at readings, Q&A, and free book signings […]

by Ron Franscell

Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story

Available now!16 pages of color photosIn trade paperback, ebook, and audio Would you kill for love? ALICE & GERALD tells the grisly story of a loving couple who killed at least […]

by Ron Franscell

Atticus Finch and the #MeToo movement

You know the story: A young lawyer named Atticus Finch is appointed to defend a black man against rape charges in Depression-era Alabama. His defense is vigorous, but ultimately futile […]

by Ron Franscell

History repeating? Anita Hill, Kavanaugh … and George Hennard

While he ate alone at a small table, he watched the TV over the beer cooler. The evening news was replaying yesterday’s clips of the Senate hearings into […]

by Ron Franscell

Stealing pennies from dead kids’ eyes

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” —Rahm Emanuel, Obama aide and Chicago mayor Today, the Left is outraged that the Right has instantly politicized the murder […]

by Ron Franscell

Dead Man Talking: Killers’ last words can be humorous … and monstrous

As it does fairly regularly, Texas executed a killer on Tuesday. Christopher Young, 34, shot a San Antonio convenience store clerk to death in 2004. The victim’s family had begged […]

by Ron Franscell

A father, a son, and the longest day

Excerpted from “The Sourtoe Cocktail Club,” by Ron Franscell (Globe Pequot Press, 2011). While Matt sleeps, I watch the subtly changing sky as the sun circles around to the north […]

by Ron Franscell

A modest proposal to relieve the burden of immigrant kids

It is a sad thing to those who walk through this great country, when they see the streets crowded with immigrants followed by three, four, or six children. Instead of […]

by Ron Franscell

Is true crime as entertainment morally defensible?

I’ve been writing true crime for 10 years. I confess to occasional pangs that I am reopening wounds for a few people, but the old-school journalist in me rationalizes that […]

by Ron Franscell

20 years ago today, ‘Angel Fire’ was published

On this day—June 4—in 1998, a tiny publisher in an Alabama small town released a little book, a first novel by an unknown writer in Wyoming. It didn’t change the world but it changed the writer’s life. The little book was titled “Angel Fire.” And the author was me.

by Ron Franscell

Just hanging out at the library

In my hometown of Casper WY, the Natrona County Public Library is celebrating local authors such as CJ Box, Craig Johnson … and me … with colorful banners along the […]

by Ron Franscell

For writers, endings are beginnings

“I hate writing; I love having written.” —Dorothy Parker Once upon a time, early-day typesetters recognized the end of a newspaper story when they saw “XXX” at the bottom of […]

by Ron Franscell

DARKEST NIGHT among 10 Most Underrated TC books, says website

A popular crime website and podcast has rated THE DARKEST NIGHT one of the 10 Most Underrated modern true-crime books. TheLineUp.com put the story of the horrendous 1973 abduction, rape, […]

by Ron Franscell

Broken Windows: One thing we can do tomorrow about school shootings

We are engaged—again—in a great, uncivil war. Another mass murder, this one a school shooting, fuels a debate that often seems to threaten to rip the fabric of our American […]

by Ron Franscell

Old West serial killer

In 1868 in the boomtown of South Pass City, Polly Bartlett ran a boarding house … where she reportedly liquored up a couple dozen travelers and poised them with arsenic-laced steaks. […]

by Ron Franscell

‘Wine of Wyoming’

Prohibition was in full swing in 1928 when Ernest Hemingway came to Sheridan and met an immigrant couple making their own wine in a little house on the outskirts of […]

by Ron Franscell

Was the genius artist Vincent van Gogh murdered?

The feverish life and curious death of Vincent van Gogh have become a kind of myth, partly true and partly what we wish to be true. His disappointments, his genius, […]

by Ron Franscell

The Black Dahlia dissected again

Today, it’s been 71 years since Elizabeth Short’s grisly parts were discovered in a vacant Los Angeles subdivision, sliced cleanly in half and posed lasciviously. This obscure waitress suddenly became far […]

by Ron Franscell

New earthy, Wyoming true crime by Ron Franscell is in the pipeline

The good news is, I have just signed the contract for a new true crime book with Prometheus Books of New York. It will be published in Spring 2019 and […]

by Ron Franscell

Before Vegas and Orlando, there was Luby’s Cafeteria

The entire restaurant was eerily silent, except for the pop-pop-pop of George Hennard’s guns and his profane ranting. Frightened diners hid the best they could, sometimes protected by nothing more […]

by Ron Franscell

The flags of our killers

In the last couple football seasons, Americans have exhausted a lot of very personal energy arguing about our flag. What it stands for. Whether it’s bigger than us. What respect […]

by Ron Franscell

How pioneer rocker Gram Parsons went up in flames

One night, Gram told his friend Phil Kaufman that when he died, he wanted to be cremated and his ashes sprinkled over the Cap Rock outcropping in the park. Kaufman took it as a solemn responsibility.