Ron Franscell Archives - Page 6 of 7

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Vincent van Gogh: Suicide or homicide?

Among the historic, infamous, and heartbreaking deaths we explore in the brand-new book MORGUE: A LIFE IN DEATH (St. Martin’s Press) is the presumed suicide of the troubled genius Vincent […]

by Ron Franscell

Is ‘felon’ the new dirty word?

If government was required to generate 1,000 jobs for every new word it tried to insert in the cultural lexicon, we’d all be employed. The Washington Post recently ran a guest column […]

by Ron Franscell

Click here to see somebody die

Would you click to watch someone die? Maybe you just did. The proliferation of cameras—smartphone, news, surveillance, security, webcams, dashboard, GoPro, cops’ body-cams, and “old fashioned” digital models—means the moment […]

by Ron Franscell

Amazon puts MORGUE in Top 10 for May!

A week after Goodreads picked MORGUE: A LIFE IN DEATH among its best May books, Amazon has named it one of the 10 Best Nonfictions hitting the shelf this month! These are marvelous endorsements […]

by Ron Franscell

Goodreads picks MORGUE for May!

Goodreads has recommended MORGUE: A LIFE IN DEATH among its best May books! This is a coveted honor. If you’re among the 39 million (or so) active and engaged readers who […]

by Ron Franscell

MORGUE book trailer

Click here to watch! Then pre-order at Wind City Books, Amazon, and bookstores everywhere!

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

Outlaw Los Angeles

“Meticulously researched guide book into the baddest of the bad in LaLa Land. Franscell confirms what history has always known: Los Angeles is the ‘Queen of Angels’ and the ‘King […]

by Ron Franscell

Eyeball tattoos (and other prison brainstorms)

More contributions to the betterment of the world have come from prison than you might imagine … or want to imagine.

by Ron Franscell

The day I planted Dermot Healy’s potatoes

The potato patch behind Dermot Healy’s stone cottage wasn’t much bigger than a parking space, but the Irish winter had left it dog-eared and bedraggled. “The first thing,” Dermot said as […]

by Ron Franscell

‘Lost’ pieces of ‘The Darkest Night’

Tomorrow, THE DARKEST NIGHT celebrates eight years since it was first published in paperback. Almost immediately it became a bestseller and readers continue to find it in great numbers today. […]

by Ron Franscell

10 Ideas for Loving a Creative Person

For a long time, I resented that my mother accused me of being a dreamer—”accused” being the operative word. To her, it was less than I was capable of. To her, […]

by Ron Franscell

A message from the past

As I write this, my birthday is still about 13 hours away, but my first birthday well-wish has arrived from the other side of the world. It comes from my friend […]

by Ron Franscell

What would be your last meal?

Your last breath is only a few hours away. The governor isn’t going to call. People are gathering outside to cheer your death. The Death Row chaplain has run out […]

by Ron Franscell

Voices in my head

Every crime writer has heard this little heckling voice, usually from the cheap seats, but sometimes from inside his own head. It isn’t always loud, but it’s often piercing. My […]

by Ron Franscell

Welcome to ronfranscell.com!

For more than 16 years, you’ve watched Ron’s career blossom right here, growing from just two books when we first launched in 2003 to 17 (and counting). Now, www.ronfranscell.com is […]

by Ron Franscell

16 Pages of Shocking Photos! (Did you peek?)

WARNING: Some morgue and crime-scene photos appear in this essay. Funny story. Not long ago, I was telling a fascinating little yarn about the autopsy of a deranged killer whose […]

by Ron Franscell

The radicalization of Luke Skywalker

A long time ago in a library far, far away, a mythologist named Joseph Campbell conceived the notion that all of humanity’s stories—from cavemen’s fire pits to religious myths to […]

by Ron Franscell

Never lost, always home.

We have lost the sense of story in most of our mass media. We express every unfinished thought, take pictures of our food and our cats and ourselves. So when a genuine story comes along, it feels … different.

by Ron Franscell

Crime buffs only!

If you’re into true crime and history, you’ll love Ron’s Crime Buff’s Guides! There’s no better way to explore the crime history of places like Texas, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Arizona, […]

by Ron Franscell

The origin of “hunker down”

Every hurricane season, two words pop up like a tropical depression in the Cape Verde Islands: hunker down. As a survivor of Hurricane Rita, which smashed into Gulf Coast Texas […]

by Ron Franscell

Mystery of the Booth Mummy

Ready to play Gumshoe? While researching THE CRIME BUFF’S GUIDE TO OUTLAW TEXAS, I came across the intriguing story of the long-lost mummy of John Wilkes Booth … or at […]

by Ron Franscell

Morgue: A Life in Death

2017 EDGAR nominee! Now in US paperback from Picador and and various foreign languages around the world. Forensic science is booming. TV dramas, books and movies have made morgues cool. […]