Owner: FALL URL:http://fallbook.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:31:47 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: "FALL: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town" is a true story of two girls, two men and an entire town -- all changed by one harrowing night. But this suspenseful, atmospheric and moving account is more than a typical true-crime yarn; it’s a cl Site statistics:Click here
PRAISE FOR 'FALL' 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "Ron Franscell's breathless 'FALL' [is] a true-crime tale that grabs readers on the first page and doesn't let go until long after the final word. ... Thanks to Franscell's daily journalism experience, his polished, yet conversational writing style appeals to the Everyman. 'FALL' barely stumbles as Franscell delivers a crackling story of lives and innocence lost." ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS ~~~ "Few authors understand what makes a true crime book stand out like a beacon from the mass of prosaically gruesome re-telling of police reports. Ron Franscell does! 'FALL' explores the true story of this unholy sacrifice of youth and misplaced trust in a gripping, throat-tightening way. It is an almost-hypnotic read, hard to look away from. But it is also compassionate as we question the awful fate of the victims, sadly singled out by fate or luck or whatever shapes our destinies. This is a very, very, good book--a gem for readers who look for the whole story, written by a very, very, good w
Rocky Mountain News' review 1970-01-01 00:59:59 An outstanding review
of 'FALL' by RockyMountain
News writer Karen Algeo Krizman appeared in today's "Rocky." Here's an excerpt:"Ron Franscell's breathless 'FALL' [is] a true-crime tale that grabs readers on the first page and doesn't let go until long after the final word. ... Thanks to Franscell's daily journalism experience, his polished, yet conversational writing style appeals to the Everyman. 'FALL' barely stumbles as Franscell delivers a crackling story of lives and innocence lost."For the entire review, click here.(And, yeah, for those who wonder, it does feel good to get a good review this one!) Read more:Rocky Mountain
Dr. Alvin Augustus Jones and me 1970-01-01 00:59:59 In the midst of a 20-city radio tour, I have come to one conclusion only: Some talk-show hosts are very smart and very eloquent. Not all, but some. (A few -- horrors! -- don't even read the book before the interview!)Among the best talk-radio hosts is Dr. Alvin
Augustus Jones, who has interviewed some of the most provocative figures in modern American literature, sports, politics and entertainment ... always with an eye toward messages we can all glean from their experiences. Listen to my interview with Dr. Alvin Augustus Jones on WCBQ-AM in Raleigh. N.C., recorded on Wednesday, Jan. 17.
Chicago Sun-Times review 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The Chicago
Sun-Times
is the latest to weigh-in on FALL. Its review
by author and professor Stephen J. Lyons ("Landscape of the Heart") says, in part:"Heartbreaking ... the girls' last terrifying moments are delivered with such vivid texture that they are almost too painful to read. The technique and execution is not unlike Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' ... And just when your heart is broken by this terrible tragedy, Franscell adds a coda that will further disturb your peaceful sleep." -- CHICAGO SUN-TIMESRead the whole review by clicking here. Read more:Chicago Sun
Subscribe to FALL today! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Bloglet has apparently bitten the dust, which means that if you were a Bloglet subscriber to the FALL blog ... well, you aren't anymore. They're kaput.No problem. Just scroll down the index at right to the FeedBlitz subscription box (right below my links) and fill in your email address. You'll receive notice of updates at FALL as they're made. And don't worry, your email isn't shared with anyone or anything.Hey, it's free! Read more:Subscribe
Subscribe to FALL today! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Bloglet has apparently bitten the dust, which means that if you were a Bloglet subscriber to the FALL blog ... well, you aren't anymore. They're kaput.No problem. Just scroll down the index at right to the FeedBlitz subscription box (right below my links) and fill in your email address. You'll receive notice of updates at FALL as they're made. And don't worry, your email isn't shared with anyone or anything.Hey, it's free! Read more:Subscribe
Midwest Book Review weighs in 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Founded in 1976, the Midwest
Book Review is one of the major book-reviewing journals in the USA, publishing several monthly publications for community and academic library systems. Here's what the editors had to say about FALL:"FALL: THE RAPE AND MURDER OF INNOCENCE IN A SMALL TOWN tells of a Casper, Wyoming crime involving two girls who were raped, tortured and thrown off a bridge. The citizens struggled with the crime in all its ramifications, and FALL traces this struggle, comes from a journalist who was a teen neighbor to both girls at the time of the crime, and who revisits the scene here 30 years later to explore the crime's ongoing impact upon the town. A 'must' for any lending library strong in true crime exposes."
One crime, two visions 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "It all depends on how we look at things,and not how they are in themselves."Carl JungOne dark night, two girls, two killers, and one desolate bridge. And as time passes, the players all rearrange themselves in the wake turbulence of an enormous tragedy ... which plays out its next act, on another night many years later, on the same desolate bridge when the survivor returns to face her demons. The facts are known, the memories still a little too vivid, the sense of justice a little murky.Ah, but that's all a long time ago. Now, all we have are stories. The girls were my friends in the small town where we grew up. Thirty years later, I went home to write about the crime
on Fremont Canyon Bridge ... and the endless ripples it caused in my hometown, and my heart. I told the story the best I could, relying on a lifetime in newspapering, and the whispers from deep down inside.But someone else was telling the same story, at almost exactly the same moment. The result was a display of the fas
The Louie B. Free Show 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Louie B. Free reads books for a living .... then talks about them on his radio talk show at WWOW-AM in Cleveland. This morning, he planned to spend a half-hour talking to me about FALL, sandwiched between his interviews of Joe Pistone (you know him as Donnie Brasco) and his new book, and bestseller James L. Swanson, whose "Manhunt" chronicles the 12-day hunt for Abe Lincoln's assassin. Heady company.But Louis, who'd read FALL, was entranced with it. We went an extra half hour talking about it. The story was very emotional for him, and his interview was remarkably passionate (it will be posted here when it is archived by Louie's producers.) Among Louie's praises of FALL was this:"Amazingly well-written, this is an important story for America today, maybe for the world."LOUIE B. FREETalk-show host at WWOW-AM, Cleveland Thanks, Louie, for the air ... and for the kind words. Read more:Louie
See you in Houston Feb. 17 1970-01-01 00:59:59 If you live anywhere within a comfortable drive of Houston
and you're free next Saturday (Feb. 17), come to the Alabama Theater Bookstop, 2922 S. Shepherd Drive in Houston for my next book-signing! It'll be 2-4 p.m. Saturday afternoon, and any time spent with a reader is time well spent. Y'all come!
Sweet home ... Alabama Theater 1970-01-01 00:59:59 A view of the Alabama
Theater Bookstop's beautiful main floor from the 'balcony' It's easy to think that if you've seen one Barnes & Noble, you've seen them all ... bargain books up front, New in Paperback in main aisle, fiction to the right, nonfiction to the left, kid stuff in the back, the scent of Starbucks everywhere ... well, OK, maybe you've seen most of them if you've seen one.But not-so-hidden in Houston's Montrose District is the Alabama Theater Bookstop. Built in the restored shell of a 1930s-era Art Deco movie palace, with a few distinctive upgrades, it might just be Barnes & Noble's most unique store. Manager Cathy Nezuh gave me a personal tour before my Saturday book-signing at the Alabama, from the "balcony" (now the Starbucks Cafe) to the "stage" (now the newsstand.) The screen area is intact, and my name appeared on the marquee where the names Brando, Peck, Hepburn and Bogart once appeared.Many of the Art Deco touches remain in the theater/bookstore, whic Read more:Sweet
Swimming in the Dead Pool 1970-01-01 00:59:59 You might not think a weekend with a bunch of coroners, death investigators and medical examiners would be a lively one (pun intended), but you'd be wrong.This past weekend, I addressed a gathering of such professionals. They didn't invite me to talk about CSI stuff like cause of death, Y incisions or corpse-eating bugs. Rather, because my new book FALL explores a 30-year-old abduction, rape and murder that destroyed two childhood friends of mine and swept my small hometown up in its wake, they wanted to hear about the ripple effects of a single crime in a community and what lessons can be gleaned beyond the morgue slab.There's not much obvious parallel between coroners and newspaperman authors, but if you aren't constrained by the obvious, you can see we are both explainers of death. Yes, we approach our "storytelling" in different ways, but the result is the same: We interpret dying for the living, and where we can, we try to find meaning. Most deaths defy meaning, but i Read more:Swimming
Back on the airwaves 2007-03-02 18:25:00 I'll return to the nation's airwaves next week (March 4-9) to talk about my new book FALL with listeners in Oregon, Missouri, Minnesota and Wyoming. If you're within broadcasting range of any of these stations, please tune in!MONDAY, MAR. 5: 2 p.m. CST on KIML/KAML (1270 AM) in Gillette WYMONDAY, MAR. 5: 4:10 p.m. CST on KLFD (1410 AM) in Litchfield MNTHURSDAY, MAR. 8: 10 a.m. CST on KLBM/KBKR (1450 AM) in La Grande ORTBA: on KKID (92.9 FM) in Rolla MO
The Big Bopper returns ... one night only 2007-03-06 13:30:00 Today, I will attend the exhumation and autopsy of J.P. "The Big Bopper
" Richardson, who died on Feb. 3, 1959, in a plane crash that also killed early rock stars Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.Nobody knows what remains, but for the first time in more than 48 years, his family might know what actually killed the 28-year-old Beaumont, Texas, deejay who bellowed, "Hellllooooo Baaaaaby!" at the start of "Chantilly Lace."Let's hope.
The Bopper has left the building ... again 2007-03-07 17:41:00 Jay Richardson spends his first quiet moment alone with the father he never metIn every exhumation, there's a tense moment just before the casket lid is raised. What's inside? How has the natural process of decay reshaped this human?It was no different Tuesday at the exhumation and autopsy of J.P. "The Big Bopper
" Richardson, a native Beaumont son who grew up to be one of rock 'n' roll's earliest stars and one of it's earliest tragedies. He died on Feb. 3, 1959, in a plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.Some 48 years later, during the process of moving his remains to a more visible new grave in Forest Lawn Cemetery, the Bopper's only son asked renowned forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass to examine his dad's corpse and offer an opinion on the cause of his death. You see, over the years, wacky conspiracy theories have arisen about gunplay on the plane and the possibvility that the Bopper died while trying to go for help after the crash.The results of th
Wyoming tour gallery 2007-03-16 03:36:00 Signing at B. Dalton Books, White Mountain Mall in Rock Springs, Wyo., Thursday 3/15Signing at Wheatland Mercantile, Wheatland, Wyo., Wednesday 3/14Outside Whistlestop Books, Douglas, Wyo., Wednesday 3/14Visiting with a reader, Books & Briar, Riverton, Wyo., Tuesday 3/13Signing at Hastings Books, Gillette, Wyo., Monday 3/12With a Sheridan Press reporter, Book Shop on Main, Sheridan, Wyo., 3/12 Read more:Wyoming
Badlands 2007-03-15 06:38:00 Ron at Hell's Half Acre, Wyoming, a true badlands where death is just a part of history. (Photo by Mary Vandeventer)My second tour in Wyoming with FALL has taken me into the hinterlands of a hinterland state. Before it's done, we'll drive 1,400 miles in 9 days, with 11 book events. Just halfway through, it's already been more churn than homecoming, with a few personal visits interspersed with a lot of book business. The moments of relaxation have been few, but so far so have the obstacles (the usual stuff ... one bookstore that goofed on the date in its ads, and another that didn't get its books until less than 24 hours before I arrived.)When I debuted my new book FALL last December in Wyoming, it was a sort of soft launch a month ahead of its official national release in January. I wanted the readers of Wyoming to get something first, for once, and it was their story, after all. Now that it’s been two months since FALL hit shelves, I am returning to Wyoming, my home, to do som Read more:Badlands
Tales from the Big House 2007-03-17 05:12:00 Speaking to a small audience at Off The Beaten Path Books in Rawlins, Wyo., home to the Wyoming State Penitentiary, where one of the FALL killers remains behind bars. (Warden Michael J. Murphy at right)In one of the most extraordinary book events of this tour, I was joined tonight in Rawlins, Wyo., by a number of past and present prison workers -- from the current warden Michael Murphy to caseworkers and prison guards -- to talk about FALL. Why? because, in part, the book explores the lives of two killers they all have known ... one of whom remains behind bars today.It was extraordinary because many offered personal observations about their two tenants that enlarged my view of them. Where they had previously been described as lifer-loners who kept to the quiet, safer edges of prison society, tonight I got a larger -- if not different -- view of these two pivotal characters in my real-life murder mystery.Among the readers who came to my signing at the intimate, warm Off The Beaten Pat Read more:Tales
, House
Rev. Chuck Swindoll tells Becky's story 2007-04-07 05:15:00 Rev. Chuck
Swindoll is a minister, an author and one of America's favorite radio pastors. He is the pastor of the Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, but his reach extends bigger than Texas itself ... it goes around the world by radio, translated into as many as 40 languages. But Swindoll (pictured at left) also maintains a dynamic web site, Insight for Living, where his words are archived and his reach extended even farther.On April 4, I witnessed his reach. In one of his pre-Easter sermons, Swindoll told the story
of Becky
Thomson, whose horrifying ordeal is the centerpiece of FALL. In Becky's story, Swindoll finds a parallel in the Easter story of forgiveness amid shame, of rising again, and of the guilt that can debilitate, even kill, us.Listeners throughout the world began to explore my web site and ordering FALL from a variety of online booksellers. Some sent emails to me, wanting to know more about this monstrous crime and the role faith played. Suddenly, in a few wo Read more:tells
So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut is dead 2007-04-12 16:46:00 KURT VONNEGUT, 1922-2007 I was in high school when I read "Slaughterhouse-Five," only a few years after it had been released. For someone weaned on Jack London and Ernest Hemingway and the frustrating oeuvre of classroom classics, Vonnegut
seemed so ... refreshing. His prose was lyrical and loopy and ... fresh. I wanted more, and I quickly blasted through everything he'd written to that time: "Welcome to the Monkey House," "Breakfast of Champions," "The Sirens of Titan," "Cat's Cradle" and all the rest. I didn't know at the time that I was reading the best books he'd ever write, but I became an insatiable 15-year-old Vonnegut fan."Slaughterhouse-Five" remains one of the great influences on my writing life; the way he handles his non-linear narrative still impresses me like no other author, except John Fowles. And if one considers its commentary on the human tendency toward self-righteousness, and the need to speak of atrocity and injustice, then maybe Vonnegut secretly influenced m
Signing San Antonio: Next stop, Alamo City 2007-04-18 16:39:00 San Antonio
's Mission San Jose (Photo by Ron Franscell)Any excuse for me to visit San Antonio is a good excuse, and when it's to sign "FALL: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town," it's the best excuse ever! If you are in -- or anywhere near -- San Antonio this weekend, please drop by my book-signing 2-4 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at San Pedro Crossing, 321 Northwest Loop 410.Great reviews for FALL keep rolling in. Look at these from this week:"Ron Franscell's FALL gets everything right: Casper, Wyoming in the boom-town 1970's, the effect of an unspeakable crime on an entire generation of residents, and a diligent search for why it happened when the only answer can only be true evil. I know he got it right because I was there. I remember Amy Burridge and Becky Thomson before the crime and Becky after. I remember the names "Kennedy and Jenkins" spoken only with naked hatred and contempt. And I remember where I was when I heard how Becky dealt with the horror and violenc Read more:Alamo
VIRGINIA TECH:The coming storm for immigrants 2007-04-17 17:16:00 Today, authorities have identified the Virginia Tech shooter as a South Korean immigrant named Cho Seung-hui, a 23-year-old English major. No motive has yet been offered for his likely slaughter of 32 people before killing himself.Last February in Salt Lake City, a young Bosnian immigrant killed five mall shoppers before off-duty police killed him.How long before the radical anti-immigration crowd begins to agitate for tighter borders? And can otherwise undecided Americans be swayed by the notion that these senseless bloodbaths might have been avoided by a more exclusive immigration policy?It's unlikely the anti-immigration people will mention that just two weeks ago, a red-blooded, native-born American named Anthony LaCalamita allegedly burst into his former Detroit employer's office and shot three former co-workers, killing one. Most mass murderers in American history have been Americans born and bred -- Charles Whitman, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Charlie Starkweather, Tim McVe Read more:immigrants
In the company of writers 2007-04-23 04:36:00 Edgar-winning mystery writer Rick Riordan (left), me and true-crime writer Corey Mitchell, at my San Antonio signing this weekendA book-signing is almost always a good time. Authors love the direct contact with readers because, after all, they're why we write. But sometimes, even other authors show up, making the event even more delightful and interesting ... especially for passionate readers who might show up in the middle of shop talk!In San Antonio this weekend, the first "reader" to visit me at Barnes & Noble was Corey Mitchell, a veteran true-crime author and founder of the upcoming In Cold Blog. Corey has pulled together a rather remarkable team of authors, criminalists, editors, anti-crime activists and even a death-metal rocker to blog on crime issues. After June 1, you'll be able to log into InColdBlogger and read the intimate and immediate thoughts of people like Aphrodite Jones, Dr. Katherine Ramsland, Joyce King, Gregg Olsen and many others (me, too) on crime and crim Read more:company
Goin' Cajun: Louisiana book events 2007-05-02 19:54:00 Down here in these parts, we don't tell blonde jokes. We tell Cajun jokes that usually star a couple characters named Thibodeaux and ... Thibodeaux.But I love Cajuns. Full of spice and passion. A beautiful accent. And great food. And this weekend, I'll be in the heart of Cajun bayou country for a book-signing and (I hope) a lunch with a bunch of real Cajun authors.I'll join the conversation with the Bayou Writers Group from 10 a.m. to Noon on Saturday at the Carnegie Library in Lake Charles, La. (By the way, the president of the Bayou Writers Group is Pam Thibodeaux.)And then from 2-4 p.m., I'll be signing books for the public at the Books-a-Million store, also in Lake Charles (2934 Ryan Street, 337-436-3577)Somewhere in between, I hope I can make at least one crawfish's sacrifice worth his reasonably brief and muddy life. Read more:Louisiana
, events
In Cold Blog: To miss it would be a crime 2007-05-31 06:23:00 Is your VCR set permanently to "The Forensic Files"? Is your dream date Dr. G? Have you bookmarked The Smoking Gun? Would you rather watch a cop's dashboard video than the next Lindsay Lohan film (which, come to think of it, might be the same thing)? Well, I've got a great new blog for you!It's In Cold Blog. And you're gonna love the true-crime
figures it puts at your fingertips every day. Maybe even Dr. G will drop in.It's the brainchild of Los Angeles Times best-selling true crime author Corey Mitchell of San Antonio, author of "Hollywood Death Scenes," "Dead and Buried," "Murdered Innocents," "Evil Eyes," and "Strangler." He's cajoled and corralled 30 of the most interesting names in the field of true crime ... and me ... to spill our guts every day about crime and punishment. The topics will range far and wide, I promise, and it's likely that more blood will be spilled than in an Ann Rule paperback.Among the bloggers will be best-selling author and O'Reilly Factor correspon
When memory fails us 2007-06-08 08:22:00 "Although I tried, I couldn’t remember much about the crime, just the skeletal facts. Their abductors’ ruse, the bridge, Becky’s desperate climb out of the canyon … like everyone else, I knew what I thought I knew, but nothing was clear anymore. … time had scattered its lies throughout my memory."From Ron Franscell’strue crime/memoir FALLThirty years had passed since her 11-year-old daughter was flung like a pebble from a towering bridge into a black river carving the bottom of a fearsome gorge, but a mother’s memory of such a brutality carries the painfully exquisite quality of crystal clarity. She could remember the night sky as she searchd desperately for her missing daughters, the gravitational tug of sleeplessness, the grayness of the sunny next morning, the bite of autumn in the air … the sight of her little girl on a morgue table.But she got one thing wrong. A detail you wouldn’t imagine a mother could misremember.“Amy was raped, you know,” she told me a fe
Justice parlayed: Paris gets out of jail free 2007-06-07 11:47:00 This just in ... This morning, Paris
Hilton was released from LA County jail after only four days in lockup on what was to be a 23-day drunk-driving probation violation beef. Why? She "wasn't eating much of the jail food" that was served, according to sources quoted by CNN.Our poor little rich girl will wear an ankle bracelet at home for the next 40 days. Undoubtedly, it will be a very fashionable piece of jewelry.Can you imagine a judge reducing the sentence of just any ol' drunk driver just because he didn't like the food? There might be more to this story -- one hopes there is -- but the appearance of special treatment for this celebrity Hilton heiress hangs heavy in the air at the moment. Read more:Justice
Fade to black: Serial-killing heroes? 2007-07-07 23:23:00 You simply haven't lived until you've traveled more than 9,000 miles with a family of serial killers.Maybe you know them: Otis B. Driftwood, an on again-off again albino serial killer who makes sculptures out of his victims, or skins them to wear as costumes; Baby Firefly, the blood-thirstiest hot chick since Patricia Krenwinkle; and Captain Spaulding, Baby's creepy clown father (and the white brother of a black pimp) who's named after a Groucho Marx character.Ah, but I was never in any danger as I hurtled toward (and home from) the Arctic with my 19-year-old son Matt in our three-week adventure. This ever-so-extraordinarily dysfunctional family is the creation of monster-metal auteur Rob Zombie in his indie film "The Devil's Rejects" (actually a sequel to "House of 1,000 Corpses"), and they were safe in my son's vast DVD collection. They came out only once, when Matt popped the disc into the portable DVD player somewhere between Valhalla Centre and the tundra, but they left thei Read more:Serial
, heroes
Gag Me: Omaha judge bars the words 'rape' and 'victim' ... in a rape trial 2007-07-11 12:48:00 Can you imagine a murder trial in which the words "murder" or "kill" cannot be spoken? Or a burglary trial in which the words "steal" or "break-in" couldn't be uttered? Hard to imagine, isn't it?Well, an Omaha
judge believes that if anyone says "rape" or "victim
" before the jury in a rape trial, the jurors might become prejudiced.I'm not sure how using the words "sexual assault" might be more genteel. And Roget's and I can come up with some really good synonyms for "rape" ("ravish" is such a quaint word and "violate" just doesn't reflect a rapist's violence.) Substituting another word for "victim" might be harder.One problem with lawyers and judges is their trumped-up language, where we have learned that a whole case might depend on what the meaning of "is" is. Too often in the Halls of Justice, precision of language is measured by the number of syllables spoken.But plain folks like me (and jurors) understand shorter, more evocative words ... like "rape." In those four letters ar
Mailbox BaseballHomeowner knocks two out ... and gets benched 2007-07-26 12:05:00 Every homeowner harbors a common suburban revenge fantasy. They all dream of ways to confound -- and possibly wound grievously -- teenagers who play "mailbox baseball," a late-night game in which vandals skulk around destroying mailboxes with baseball bats. My personal fantasy involves rigging a small nuclear device to the mailbox that explodes when somebody hits it with a bat, killing or blinding everyone within 16 feet at the moment of impact ... presumably the cretins who bashed the mailbox.Like most fantasies, making it happen is a lot harder than imagining it over and over. I admit I know nothing of making nuclear devices, especially ones that would be limited to 16 feet. And I like my mailman too much for there to be an atomic accident that would kill him and all my neighbors and their pets. And I'd hate to cause nuclear winter, even though it might be preferable to global warming. And I'm not sure when I transitioned from fantasizing about swimming with Farrah Fawcett to dayd Read more:Mailbox
, knocks
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