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 those the days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, too. You already know that burglars, muggers, identity thieves, and carjackers run rampant during the holidays, […]
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This essay was originally written just two days after the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in 2012. This weekend’s tragic shooting in Colorado Springs CO and yesterday’s workplace violence in Chesapeake VA make me want to re-run it, as I have several times when such senseless events happen. It appears anew here now, with only minor […]
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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. But while it might be natural and human to want to know, we must be patient. Partly because it’s not always evil we’re seeing. We […]
Read More… 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 been arrested. During a wider-ranging press conference today, a visibly angry District Attorney George Brauchler implored the media to show restraint when reporting the names […]
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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 Anita Hill’s sexual harassment charges against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Suddenly, George Hennard hurled his half-eaten burger across the room at the […]
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“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 of Iowa coed Mollie Tibbetts by a reported illegal Mexican immigrant. Tomorrow (or at least soon enough) the Right will be outraged that the Left […]
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“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 a reporter’s typed page. Since “XXX” was also Latin for the number 30, the end of a typewritten story came to be signified by “-30-” […]
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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 life. But in fact, it’s just déjà vu all over again. It’s cold comfort that the very debate is the same one that erupted within […]
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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 sniper named Mark Essex, who perched in a downtown New Orleans hotel in 1973 with an evil plan to kill as many white people as […]
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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 than the hands covering their heads, hoping not to attract the killer’s attention. Paralyzed by fear. Waiting quietly to die. —from DELIVERED FROM EVIL (2011) […]
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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 it deserves. Ex-quarterback Colin Kaepernick might have ignited a wildfire that illuminated the differences in our patriotism, and it continues, zero percent uncontrolled. In a […]
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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. But for those 30 or so years in between it was unquestionably an aspiring musician, deeply damaged outlaw, and hippie Svengali named Charles Manson. On […]
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“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 al Awlaki, al Qaeda’s most powerful recruiter before he was obliterated in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011. A few years ago, I […]
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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 lies ahead. In 2009, in the earliest, scariest days of the Great Recession and the uncertainty of a new presidential administration, I predicted an uptick […]
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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 week at age 81, his old mug shot (far left in the lineup above) was splashed across the Internet and we all thought simultaneously, “Yep, […]
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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 can give voice to the horror of confronting monsters and living to tell about it. This book explores the survival experiences of 10 people who […]
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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 notorious crimes in the country. Bestselling authors Ron Franscell and Rebecca Morris write about a sultry, Southern beauty who proved to be a deadly hitchhiker; […]
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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 stories of a serial killer who slaughtered more people than any other psychopath of his day … without ever being noticed; two of America’s most […]
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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 go unheard. “Southern Fried Crime” comprises harrowing crime tales from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, all from the files of the New York Times-bestselling Notorious USA […]
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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 to the many sites related to the Lone Star State’s renowned outlaw past … until now! Whether you’re a day-tripper, a true-crime buff or a […]
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‘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 of the crime with photos, maps, histories and GPS coordinates! From the Wild Bunch and Tom Horn to Columbine and Ted Bundy, OUTLAW ROCKIES promises […]
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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,” D.C. has a darker side, including an extensive history of crimes and misdemeanors, some political and some not. The Crime Buff’s Guide to Outlaw Washington […]
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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 the Keystone State’s past. And it’s all there: Pennsylvania sites tied to the Sundance Kid, Doc Holliday, Ted Bundy, Al Capone, and Elliot Ness, among […]
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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 series ever published!” This rollicking romp across the historic New Mexico crimescape promises all the can’t-look-away allure of its predecessors … and a few surprises! […]
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