The funniest true crime writers?

We say laugh in the face of evil.

Or that could be the motto of  true crime writers who can't resist cracking up, even though.

So I received a note from a true crime author and lecturer with an interesting genre question.

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Dear Laura:

The Missouri Writers' Guild has asked me to give a talk in April of 2011 at a breakout session. The person organizing it wants me to talk about "Writing True Crime With Humor."

I plan to talk about my book, and I plan to talk about yours. I am going to re-read Jimmy Breslin's The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Can you think of other true crime books that used a great deal of humor? Please give it some thought and let me know what you come up with. I've got time to prepare and do this right.

Sincerely,

(An Author Friend)

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I take the occasion to list some of the true crime authors who can make me both laugh and cry ( of course reserving the right to amend this list) .

I think of:

* Keven McQueen, whose books are so hilarious that I once dropped one in a fit of laughter

* Edmund L. Pearson, which is precisely what made him one of the most famous true crime writers of all time

* William Roughead, ditto

Which true crime authors do you think of?  

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A quote from the inimitable William Roughead.... to follow when I've found my vade mecum....

 

Comments

[MCM]

Hey is that Steve McQueen on that magazine cover?

[laura]

That sure is Steve McQueen :) Good eye.

[sallygw]

Well, if you consider presidential assassinations to be true crime - and why not? - my vote is Sarah Vowell and "Assassination Vacation", which is funny, heartbreaking, and filled with more historical information than I'd ever thought I'd love. And note: it's even funnier on audio, where you can hear her strange little-girl voice (kinda like Lisa Simpson) going on about such points of interest as Charles Guiteau being probably the one person who couldn't get laid at the Oneida commune, famous for its free love doctrines.

[Jeffrey Bloomfield]

Off the wall humor appears in many cases and trials. Supposedly John Wilkes Booth, as a boy, talked of his idea of real fame to his friends and mentioned the old story about the man who set fire to the Temple of Diane (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) in order to become immortal. One of his friends then said, "Tell us Wilkes, what is this fellow's name?" Flummoxed by the question (the guy's name is remembered by scholars only) Booth couldn't answer. More recently, John George Haigh was being transported to court for his murder trial (the "Acid Baths" case), when traffic was delayed due to a horse and cart. Haigh looked out the window, smiled and turned to the constable with him and said, "I know a great way to make that horse disappear!!"

[Jeffrey Bloomfield]

William Roughead (in his essay on the Ardlamont Case) mentions that he overheard Alfred Monson (the defendant) stand up at the trial during the start of a recess, turn to the press and make a joke, "Why is my back, after a long sit, like a train locomotive?" He answerd the reporters, "Because I have a tender behind!" Roughead did not like this tired joke.