Peace, Love & Murder in Placitas
Bestselling crime author Ron Franscell, a Placitas resident, will talk about a shocking double-murder on a seemingly peaceful hippie ommune in 1970. Along the way he’ll tell some of the […]
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52 years ago this week, a different terrorist unleashed himself on New Orleans
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 […]
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‘ShadowMan’ on Dead Air
Ron will talk about his true crime “ShadowMan: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling” with co-hosts George R. Lopez and Ken DeCosta. Their KGRA Digital Broadcasting […]
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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 […]
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Which is harder to write … true crime or crime fiction?
My true crimes like SHADOWMAN and THE DARKEST NIGHT are the product of old-school research and investigation. I’m an old-fashioned reporter who believes in first-hand, up-close sensory experiences that tell […]
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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 […]
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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. […]
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How many serial killers are out there? You’ll never leave home again
One of the world’s most celebrated forensic psychologists called this morning, just to chat. It was a casual conversation. Richard and I talked about the weather, his latest case, Scotch […]
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So you wanna be a crime writer, eh? Forget these myths
You’ve been exposed to so much Hollywood crapola that I’m surprised you aren’t already on Ducky’s slab.
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Patty Nieman narrates ‘ShadowMan’ audiobook
“I’m an actor by training and a lover of words by nature,” she says. “I want to build the bridge that travels from the author’s intent, through the text, to the reader’s imagination.
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SHADOWMAN: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling
The entangled tales of a harrowing crime and the introduction of the FBI’s newest forensic tool: criminal profiling
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How many murder victims can you name? Go …
Because you’re here right now, it’s safe to assume you’re fairly conversant in matters of mass- and serial-killing. You know your Mansons from your Bundys, right? Well, it’s Monday and […]
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Pre-order SHADOWMAN in bookstores everywhere
We know you have many choices for your reading pleasure … so you can pre-order Ron Franscell’s upcoming true crime at your favorite bookseller here.
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Missing White Woman Syndrome and the silence of minority advocates
The Gabby Petito case has stirred fascination, sympathy, and a hornet’s nest of unrest about “Missing White Woman Syndrome,” an accusation that racist white media prefers stories about pretty Caucasian […]
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How many times can one life change?
SHADOWMAN cover revealed!
New book trailer for SHADOWMAN
Just a taste of Ron Franscell’s chilling tale about a real-life nightmare … and how it changed forensic history
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Set your DVR for ‘Alice & Gerald’ on Oxygen network
They killed at least five people and damn near got away with it. Then a lucky break changed everything.
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Happy Earth Day! Ira Einhorn loves you to death
In the 1970s, smelly hippie guru Ira Einhorn had been a radical protester during the Vietnam War and a co-founder of Earth Day. The burly, unkempt college professor spewed New Age nonsense to lure naïve young girls to his bed. One of them was Holly Maddux.
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The Resurrection of Elmer McCurdy
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 […]
Read More… Peace, love … and murder
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, […]
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The entangled histories of 'In Cold Blood' and narrative journalism
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 […]
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The best true-crime books of all time? Maybe not
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 […]
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Murderabilia, the podcast: ‘Hey, buddy, want some Manson toenails?’
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 […]
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