mass murder Archives - Ron Franscell

We’ll always have mass murder

This essay was originally written just two days after the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in 2012. Last night’s tragic shooting in Lewiston, Maine, makes me want to re-run it, as […]

by Ron Franscell

5 Yuletide Crimes: Death doesn’t take a holiday

The song says it’s the most wonderful time of the year—but it has historically been a lot less wonderful for some. Crime doesn’t take a holiday. In fact, evil celebrates […]

by Ron Franscell

Beware of fast, easy answers about Uvalde’s tragedy

WHY is a natural and human question. I’m not a psychologist, I’m a journalist who has spent a career exploring what some evil, disturbed humans can do to fellow humans. […]

by Ron Franscell

Mass killers often care less about ‘who’ than ‘how many’

At least one person was killed and eight others were wounded when shooters opened fire Tuesday inside a suburban Denver middle school. Two suspects—an adult man and a juvenile girl—have […]

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

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

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

45 years ago today, Mark Essex unleashed himself

This was excerpted from Ron Franscell’s DELIVERED FROM EVIL, a book that explores the lives of 10 ordinary people who survived mass killers. One of those monsters was a racist […]

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

Every generation has its bogeyman

Excerpted from The Crime Buff’s Guide to Outlaw Los Angeles (2017, WildBluePress) Every generation has its bogeyman. Before 1969, maybe it was Adolf Hitler. After 2001, Osama bin Laden. […]

by Ron Franscell

Whistling in the graveyard

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” —William Faulkner So the would-be mass murderer at Ohio State University this week was apparently inspired by the hateful words of American-born cleric Anwar […]

by Ron Franscell

A season of slaughter is coming

Where I grew up, you learned the smell of rain coming, and could damn near tell the exact day, maybe the exact moment, the seasons changed. Well, a dark season […]

by Ron Franscell

Can you spot the killer?

Winston Mosely murdered New York bartender Kitty Genovese in an infamous 1964 knife attack that raised questions about the role of bystanders in crime. When he died in prison this […]

by Ron Franscell

Delivered from Evil

True Stories of Ordinary People Who Faced Monstrous Mass Killers and Survived Who’ll speak for the dead in some of America’s deadliest mass killings? In rare instances, only the survivors […]

by Ron Franscell

Evil at the Front Door

Part of the NYTimes bestselling Notorious USA series! Louisiana – famous for its Mardi Gras, spicy cuisine, and Dixieland jazz – is also the scene of some of the most […]

by Ron Franscell

Nightmare at Noon

Part of the NYTimes bestselling Notorious USA series! Everything is bigger in Texas—even murder. Two of America’s best crime writers, Ron Franscell and Gregg Olsen, team up to tell the […]

by Ron Franscell

Southern Fried Crime

Boxed set of Notorious Texas, Louisiana & Mississippi! Evil lurks from the scorched earth of West Texas to the suffocating bayous of Mississippi … where darkness is deadly and screams […]

by Ron Franscell

Outlaw Texas

Winner of 2010 EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD TrueCrimeBookReviews.com Texas rightfully claims a celebrated place in the “wildest” West of both myth and reality, but nobody has ever written a travel guide […]

by Ron Franscell

Outlaw Rockies

‘The best damn crime travel series ever published!” Just like the popular CRIME BUFF’S GUIDE TO OUTLAW TEXAS, this quirky and fascinating travel book literally takes you to the scene […]

by Ron Franscell

Outlaw Washington DC

Includes Maryland and northern Virginia Washington D.C. isn’t known as the “District of Crime” or “Murder Capital of America” for nothing. Though the capital city’s motto is “justice for all,” […]

by Ron Franscell

Outlaw Pennsylvania

From America’s first school shooting in the 1700s to modern-day serial killers, a new book from a bestselling crime-writer and a local historian covers the fascinating gamut of mayhem in […]

by Ron Franscell

Outlaw New Mexico

OUTLAW NEW MEXICO continues the popular series that critics, true-crime fans, historians and travelers have hailed as “the ultimate guilty pleasure,” “thorough and unflinching,” and “the best damn crime travel […]