CLEWS Your Home for Historic True Crime

Recommended Links in the Theme

I am catching up on hundreds of emails that stacked up as I adjusted to my new life as house counsel for a certain company. This Inbox offers a huge collection of fascinating links in the theme, including many suggested by true crime authors and fans. 309 emails later, I am almost caught up and here are some of the best of them.

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My new favorite time-killer: http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/home.html

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The New York Post on the Phil Spector Murder Trial – In a word, wow

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Book Review: The Poisoner's Handbook Dallas Morning News “In this bubbling beaker of a book, Deborah Blum mixes up a heady potion of forensic toxicology, history and true crime....”

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“Psychologists theorized that women’s appreciation of true-crime literature may arise from a fear of crime and a wish to learn how to avoid it; it was further theorized that what women learn from true-crime books just makes them grow more afraid and buy more true-crime books.”

-    Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette

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Robert Graysmith's latest true crime book has them singing his praises. Says one reviewer of his latest: "Graysmith exposes his personal trait to obsess over details once again, Lord bless him, and the result is yet another intensely detailed true crime text...”

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Jerry Mitchell, one of my favorite journalists ever, has begun a blog about his interesting work. Some recent gems:

A mobster takes on the KKK

New details on the FBI paying $30K to solve the Mississippi Burning case

Clues on who got the $30K to solve the Mississippi Burning case  

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And here is a reference book oriented towards true crime writers. This is going on my Christmas List. WANTED! U.S. Criminal Records weighs in at 388 pages and 2 lbs. It lists, state by state, where one can find historical prison records, criminal court documents, parole records, pardon records, execution information, and more...Ron Arons is the author, to be found at http://www.ronarons.com

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 True crime historian Albert Borowitz has penned another book. A review:

Author takes look at crime in music

Akron Beacon Journal

“The Bermondsey Horror: The Murder that Shocked Victorian England gained Borowitz a Gold Dagger nomination for true crime from the Crime Writers Association....”

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True crime author wins $700,000+ prize now I must lay hands on The Return of Martin Guerre

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 True crime fans among library offenders (Toowoomba Chronicle )

“DO-IT-YOURSELF mechanics, expectant mothers and true-crime buffs are some of Toowoomba's worst offenders when it comes to returning books to the City Library...”

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Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History (Salon)

 “Every true crime narrative ought to feature a few unanswered questions. That's one of the pleasures of the form, that little shiver of possibility...”

On Valentines Day Weekend 2003, thieves broke into an "airtight" vault in the international diamond capital of Antwerp, Belgium. They made off with $500,000.00 in treasure which still hasn't been recovered. FLAWLESS: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History (Union Square Press, 2010) is the very first book about a heist of historical proportions, billed as "a real-life Ocean’s Eleven." The early reviews of this book are flawless as well, and my prediction is an Edgar nomination for this book, as early in the year as it is for such things. I'm so impressed by a troika of big reviews: "engrossing" (Kirkus), "well-polished" (Publishers Weekly), and "a must-read" (Booklist). The authors are Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell. Details

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Chilton native's 1968 Seattle homicide case gets break (Appleton Post Crescent)

 “It was a mystery that one time made the pages of a true crime magazine. Here, it was heartache and hopes that eventually fizzled as year after year passed...”

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 Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial: With new DNA storage and testing law, Ohio leaps into the 21st century

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The Devil's Rooming House is M. William Phelps's latest, and this crazy woman might sound familiar….

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"It is not often that a book captures an entire state's attention," begins this article about a new biography of the "Trunk Murderess," Winnie Ruth Judd.

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On the senator who stood up to the Purple Gang - and lost

The gangland slaying of Michigan Senator Warren G. Hooper was such shocking news in 1945 that it swept war headlines from the front pages of newspapers across the Midwest. Decades later, his brutal death is still something of a mystery.

Senator Hooper, elected from Albion, had made the courageous decision to testify in a probe of rampant government corruption, a legacy of Prohibition. His was to be the critical evidence in the investigation. He was slain before he got the chance.

Warren Hooper was ambushed on his way home from the capitol in Lansing to his home near Albion. That a public servant could be taken out so brutally and blatantly by a gang of thugs seemed like something born of the nineteenth century west and was a tremendous shock at the time. The image above is from www.newspaperarchive.com and typifies the banner headlines the murder generated. (The top-of-page-one, very graphic photograph of the senator's body in situ was also typical of the time.)

A new book about this old puzzle will come out in November. It fictionalizes the case. It is To Account for Murder by William Whitbeck (New York: Permanent Press), who so happens to be Chief Judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals.  Thus the author is continuing a Michigan tradition; Michigan Supreme Court Justice John Voelker (better known as Robert Traver) was the author of Anatomy of a Murder, another thinly fictionalized account of a true murder case and one of the most phenomenally successful titles of its type and time.

For more about Judge Whitbeck's book, which is already commanding attention in Michigan, see the publisher's site.

Links in the theme

So while novelist David Peace reminds the fictionists that they really can't make this stuff up,

Author Aphrodite Jones is getting her own TV show, though I swear I read a similar notice long ago,

The Daily Beast will become a true crime publisher with a book about Amanda Knox,

There's an umpteenth online retelling of the White-Thaw-Nesbit affair,

Vanity Fair dredges up Dominick Dunne's report on the Claus von Bulow case,

True crime fans come out of the closet and reveal themselves to be otherwise respected book reviewers, in this instance Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune,

Everybody says the book is disgusting (including me, actually) but somebody's buying it,

and a TV station did a book review (!) of a true crime paperback (!!) and the lucky author was Diane Fanning.

New study tries to explain why "women read true crime"

Why do women read true crime? Well, men read it too, but mostly it's women who go for it. This is true of virtually everything, but a new study (available online for free for a limited time) sets about proving that women read and enjoy them more and asks that old question: Why?

Unfortunately, the authors begin their supposedly scientific work with a goofy fallacy. They claim that true crime has become extraordinarly popular "since the publication of In Cold Blood." That is ridiculous. True crime has been extraordinarily popular in English for at least 500 years.

Setting aside this absurd beginning, the study has some interesting things to say. This paper points out that women read true crime to:

1) Learn the motives and methods of murderers and to prevent becoming victims; some books contain defense tactics and escape tricks. The Stranger Beside Me is cited. I think this is true, at least for younger readers.

2) Learn about the psychology of violence and understand the warning signs. (This is true, too. As Diane Fanning wrote in her latest, Mommy's LIttle Girl: "We want to know why, because until we do, we cannot do anything to prevent it from happening again to another child. We have to believe there is a way to prevent such a death, or we slide into an endless pit of despair. Our only hope is knowledge, awareness of the red flags that portend disaster and an ability to recognize the warnings in real time.")

This study was fascinating but I was a bit disappointed. It contains a lot of assumptions about women and a lot of assumptions about this genre.

The true crime genre is vast. It is older than the printing press. It has had many a heyday.

It also has many discrete sub-genres. Fans are very specific in their reading tastes. The reader who snatches up the latest biography of Al Capone does not reach for the latest Ann Rule. Some eschew serial killer books, or outgrow them.

Speaking for myself, I'll happily plunk down $7 cash for any spousal murder story, but you'll have trouble getting me to read even a free book about a big heist. What strongly appeals to one true crime fan is  snubbed by the next.

This study also does not attempt to explain the popularity of Snapped or the enduring fascination with such anti-heroines as Belle Gunness or Lizzie Borden.

Bottom line: True crime is older than some experts think and it's too big for generalizations.

New books

New Mexico Mystery A new book by author Corey Recko has gotten much buzz.

Murder on the White Sands: The Disappearance of Albert and Henry Fountain [Amazon; B&N] (University of North Texas Press) has been hailed as an award-winning, impeccably researched look at an unsolved double homicide from New Mexico Territory.

The victims were a man who crusaded against cattle rustlers and his eight-year-old son. The disappearance of Albert Jennings Fountain and Henry Fountain has haunted the state and has been called its greatest murder mystery.

This title, it is said, replaces more than a century of rumor and supposing with as many facts as can be gleaned, and the author's nicely done website promises that the book reveals at least some partial truths about the mystery.

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San Francisco's Colorful Crime History is presented in photos and text in Historic Photos of San Francisco Crime [Amazon; B&N; Turner Publishing] celebrates the storied city's most infamous characters and places.

Included in the collection are photographs of some of the most infamous prisons in the world, Alcatraz and San Quentin. The cases highlighted include the notorious murder defendant Fatty Arbuckle.

Historian Hannah Clayborn culled nearly two hundred images from libraries and museums, including the Library of Congress, for a narrated visual tour of the criminal history of the city by the bay.

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Other new books getting good press are The Best American Crime Reporting 2009, edited by Jeffrey Toobin (which got a thumbs-up in a thoughtful review by the Minneapolis Star Tribune) and another that made it onto my To Get list (even though it's set in New York) with a terrific Publishers Weekly review.

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Pulitzer-winning science writer Deborah Blum was hailed as "enthralling" -- a word this genre doesn't see every day. The book follows the careers of two forensic pioneers in the Big Apple. The author "cleverly divides her narrative by poison," per the gushing reviewer in PW, which to me sounds like an interesting if unorthodox way to tell a story.

2010 Edgar Nominees for True Crime

Five books made the cut to become official nominees for the coveted Edgar award.

In the true crime category, they are:

Columbine by Dave Cullen

Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn

The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston's Racial Divide by Dick Lehr

Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo

Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R. A. Scotti

Congratulations to the authors!

The cream of the crop

So I received a gigantic pile of brand-new true crime paperbacks for my birthday and cheerily dug in to what I thought would be weeks of good reading. Unfortunately, I got through all of them in less than a week. Almost every book was poorly done. And even that's being generous.

When I read a true crime book, I want to know three things: why, why, and why. Why did the victim make the choices s/he did? Why did the killer do what s/he did? Why did this person end up dead? Some details cast light on these questions. Alas, some authors can compose 300-page books packed with details that don't even come close to answering the fundamental query.

Most writers in the pile bored me to skimming with the wrong details. Who cares to know which brand of camera was used to take the autopsy photos? Apparently some authors think this is such an important point that they dwell on it.

Why is it necessary to write two hundred pages about the trial? That's not the story. Who cares where the judge went to law school? What time the trial began? The occupations of each juror? I really don't think any true crime fans want a long, drawn-out account of a trial. (And this is coming from a trial lawyer!)

But there was one book that did not disappoint. Suspenseful, insightful, considered, and aimed at answering the great why, the best book of the bunch, by far, was Deadly Secrets by M. William Phelps. I would call it a fatal love triangle, except I don't think that there was any love involved. The story of a manipulative psychopath, Fred Andros, and the women he destroyed is also a good cure for gullibility (not to mention the seven-year itch).

The next time my DH wants to surprise me with my favorite reading material, I think I'll nudge him with a list of authors - with this one at the top.  

Edgar Award submissions (updated)

This is the new list of books submitted by their publishers for the true crime genre's most prestigious award. Since my own made the list, I'll hold off on sharing my strong opinions on which should (or should not) make the final cut. Not to mention that half the list is comprised of my writing pals and correspondents. So I'll hold mum (until there's a final cut, anyway.)

Though -- I can't help myself -- it ought to be said that the absence of a book from this list means nothing. And the presence of a book on this list does not mean it has no fictional details (which ought to disqualify a book, IMHO). And if Ann Rule is robbed again, they ought to just give her a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ballard, Michaele, BEAUTY SLEEP: A GLAMOROUS MOTHER, A WOMAN FROM HER PAST, AND HER MYSTERIOUS DEATH

Bartlett, Allison Hoover, THE MAN WHO LOVED BOOKS TOO MUCH: THE TRUE STORY OF A THIEF, A DETECTIVE, AND A WORLD OF LITERARY OBSESSION

Beattie, Robert, LANGUAGE OF EVIL

Beebe, Michael, THE BIKE PATH KILLER

Benson, Michael, THE BURN FARM

Billups, Andrea &, Miller, Steve, A SLAYING IN THE SUBURBS: THE TARA GRANT MURDER

Boser, Ulrich, GARDNER HEIST: THE TRUE STORY OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST UNSOLVED ART HEIST

Brown, Ethan, SHAKE THE DEVIL OFF: THE TRUE STORY OF THE MURDER THAT ROCKED NEW ORLEANS

Butts, Edward, LINE OF FIRE: HEROISM, TRAGEDY AND CANADA'S POLICE

Caine, Alex, BEFRIEND AND BETRAY: INFILTRATING THE HELLS ANGELS, BANDITOS AND OTHER CRIMINAL BROTHERHOODS

Carlo, Philip, THE BUTCHER: ANATOMY OF A MAFIA PSYCHOPATH

Chadwick, Bruce, I AM MURDERED: GEORGE WYTHE, THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE KILLING THAT SHOCKED A NEW NATION

Ciotta, Rose, CRUEL GAMES: A BRILLIANT PROFESSOR, A LOVING MOTHER, A BRUTAL MURDER

Cohen, Lisa R., AFTER ETAN: THE MISSING CHILD CASE THAT HELD AMERICA CAPTIVE

Crandell, Doug, FEAR CAME TO TOWN: THE SANTA CLAUS, GEORGIA MURDERS

Crowl, Thomas, MURDER OF A JOURNALIST: THE TRUE STORY OF THE DEATH OF DONALD RING MELLETT

Cullen, Dave, COLUMBINE

Dash, Mike, THE FIRST FAMILY: TERROR, EXTORTION, REVENGE, MURDER, AND THE BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN MAFIA

Delano, Det. Dennis, Schober, Jeff &, BIKE PATH RAPIST: A COP'S FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF CATCHING THE KILLER WHO TERRORIZED A COMMUNITY

DiCosmo, Bridget, SERIAL MURDER 101

Dobyns, Jay, NO ANGEL: MY HARROWING UNDERCOVER JOURNEY TO THE INNER CIRCLE OF THE HELL'S ANGELS

Emmins, Alan, MOP MEN: INSIDE THE WORLD OF CRIME SCENE CLEANERS

Fanning, Diane, A POISONED PASSION: A YOUNG MOTHER, HER WAR HERO HUSBAND, AND THE MARRIAGE THAT ENDED IN MURDER

Fanning, Diane, MOMMY'S LITTLE GIRL: CASEY ANTHONY AND HER DAUGHTER CAYLEE'S TRAGIC FATE

Flacco, Anthony, THE ROAD OUT OF HELL: SANFORD CLARK AND THE TRUE STORY OF THE WINEVILLE MURDERS

Folsom, Tom, THE MAD ONES: CRAZY JOE GALLO & THE REVOLUTION AT THE EDGE OF THE UNDERWORLD

Glatt, John C., SECRETS IN THE CELLAR

Guinn, Jeff, GO DOWN TOGETHER: THE TRUE, UNTOLD STORY OF BONNIE AND CLYDE

Hallcox, Jarrett &, Welch, Amy, BEHIND THE YELLOW TAPE: ON THE ROAD WITH SOME OF AMERICA'S HARDEST WORKING CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATORS

Heidenry, John, ZERO AT THE BONE: THE PLAYBOY, THE PROSTITUTE, AND THE MURDER OF BOBBY GREENLEASE

Henderson, Tom, AFRAID OF THE DARK: THE TRUE STORY OF A RECKLESS HUSBAND, HIS STUNNING WIFE, AND THE MURDER THAT SHATTERED A FAMILY

Hodel, Steve with, Pezzullo, Ralph, MOST EVIL: AVENGER, ZODIAC AND THE FURTHER SERIAL MURDERS OF DR. GEORGE HODEL

Hoobler, Dorothy & Thomas, CRIMES OF PARIS

Hunter, George, LIMB FROM LIMB

James, Laura, THE LOVE PIRATE AND THE BANDIT'S SON: MURDER, SIN AND SCANDAL IN THE SHADOW OF JESSE JAMES

Johnson, Larry &, Baldyga, Scott, FROZEN: MY JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF CRYONICS, DECEPTION AND DEATH

Keefe, Patrick Radden, THE SNAKEHEAD: AN EPIC TALE OF THE CHINATOWN UNDERWORLD AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

Kimball, Camille, A SUDDEN SHOT: THE PHOENIX SERIAL SHOOTER

King, Jeanne, SIGNED IN BLOOD: THE TRUE STORY OF TWO WOMEN, A SINISTER PLOT, AND COLD BLOODED MURDER

LaRosa, Paul, SEVEN DAYS OF RAGE: THE DEADLY CRIME SPREE OF THE CRAIGSLIST KILLER

Lasseter, Don, YOU'LL NEVER FIND MY BODY

Lasseter, Don, HONEYMOON WITH A KILLER

Lazar, Zachary, EVENING'S EMPIRE: THE STORY OF MY FATHER'S MURDER

Lehr, Dick, THE FENCE: A POLICE COVER-UP ALONG BOSTON'S RACIAL DIVIDE

Levenson, Thomas, NEWTON AND THE COUNTERFEITER: THE UNKNOWN DETECTIVE CAREER OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST SCIENTIST

McDonald, Brian, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT: THE SHOCKING TRUE STORY OF A FAMILY KILLED IN COLD BLOOD

McMurray, Kevin, DESIRE TURNED DEADLY: THE TRUE STORY OF A BEAUTIFUL GIRL, HER TEENAGE SWEETHEART, AND THE LOVE THAT ENDED IN MURDER

McPhee, Michele R., WHEN EVIL RULES: VENGEANCE AND MURDER ON CAPE COD

McRae, Donald , THE LAST TRIALS OF CLARENCE DARROW

Mustafa, Susan D., BLOOD BATH

Pappas, Kevin, GODFATHER OF THE NIGHT: A GREEK MAFIA FATHER, A DRUG RUNNER SON, AND AN UNEXPECTED SHOT AT REDEMPTION

Phelps, M. William, DEADLY SECRETS

Phelps, M. William, CRUEL DEATH

Puit, Glenn, FATHER OF THE YEAR

Puit, Glenn, IN HER PRIME: THE MURDER OF A POLITICAL STAR

Rayner, Richard, A BRIGHT AND GUILTY PLACE

Robisheaux, Thomas, THE LAST WITCH OF LANGENBURG

Rosen, Fred, DEADLY ANGEL: THE BIZARRE TRUE STORY OF ALASKA'S KILLER STRIPPER

Rother, Caitlin, BODY PARTS

Rule, Ann, BUT I TRUSTED YOU

Salisbury, Laney &, Sujo, Aly, PROVENANCE: HOW A CON MAN AND A FORGER REWROTE THE HISTORY OF MODERN ART

Sands, Stella, BEHIND THE MASK: A TRUE STORY OF OBSESSION AND A SAVAGE GENIUS

Scott, Robert, RIVERS OF BLOOD

Scott, Robert , LUST TO KILL

Scotti, R.A., VANISHED SMILE: THE MYSTERIOUS THEFT OF MONA LISA

Seal, Mark, WILDFLOWER: AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE AND UNTIMELY DEATH IN AFRICA

Sekulich, Daniel, TERROR ON THE SEAS: TRUE TALES OF MODERN-DAY PIRATES

Sherman, Casey, BAD BLOOD: FREEDOM AND DEATH IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS

Silver, Vernon, THE LOST CHALICE: THE EPIC HUNT FOR A PRICELESS MASTERPIECE

Smith, Carlton, THE PROM NIGHT MURDERS: A DEVOTED AMERICAN FAMILY, THEIR TROUBLED SON AND A GHASTLY CRIME

Sofios, Alysia &, Rother, Caitlin, WHERE HOPE BEGINS: ONE FAMILY'S JOURNEY OUT OF TRAGEDY AND THE REPORTER WHO HELPED THEM MAKE IT

Sullivan, Kevin M., THE BUNDY MURDERS: A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY

Sweetingham, Lisa, CHEMICAL COWBOYS: THE DEAS SECRET MISSION TO HUNT DOWN A NOTORIOUS ECSTASY KINGPIN

Van Meter, William, BLUEGRASS: A TRUE STORY OF MURDER IN KENTUCKY

True crime on ebay

On ebay you can navigate to Books -- Nonfiction -- True Crime. There are 4,600+ active listings at this moment on Ebay N.A. - and our friends in Australia have 1700 offerings on Ebay Australia. I'm thus distracted by curiosities I've never heard of before, and paperbacks sold in lots of 20! ....

True crime title cracks Amazon's Top 100 for 2009

In the Top 100 Amazon's best books of 2009 doesn't even include a true crime category. Not that Amazon's opinion on anything is worth consideration. I hate that company. Anyway, there was one true crime book published this year that managed to crack the list (at 97) of Top 100 Amazon Sellers in 2009. The book was Columbine by Dave Cullen.

Named as Notable True crime author Mardi Link's second book, Isadore's Secret, was named a Michigan Notable Book, which is a pretty big deal around here. Details!

Controversy continues The most controversial true crime book of 2009 was hands-down In the Middle of the Night by Brian McDonald, and the dust-up isn't over.

Celebrating 900,000 hits CLEWS rolled the odometer again on Christmas Day. Hm. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch would wag a finger at us all for indulging our true crime habit on that day. Commenting on MSNBC's Christmas Day true crime marathon, a columnist said "That's just wrong." What condescension! Is Bad Santa really better than Dateline? Bah, humbug! No Christmas is complete for this true crime fan without homage to John Waters.