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
Who needs Match.com? These guys can help you dig up a date in Wisconsin 2007-07-27 11:26:00 In Connecticut, it might a felony to bash the vandals who bashed your mailbox, but in Wisconsin
, it's entirely legal to have sex with a corpse.Last September, three guys went to a cemetery in Cassville, Wis., to dig up the body of Laura Tennessen, a 20-year-old girl killed a week before in a motorcycle crash. Seems they'd seem her obituary photo and thought she was a hottie. So naturally they wanted to have sex with her. Apparently the "being dead" part wasn't a deal-buster.But a judge dismissed the necrophilia charges against twin brothers Nicholas and Alexander Grunke and Dustin Radke, all 21. Why? In Wisconsin, it's not against the law to have sex with corpses. (These fun-loving fellas still face misdemeanor theft charges, because it IS against the law to steal a corpse in Wisconsin, just not to diddle it.) An appeals court has upheld the dismissal of the charges.Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know our justice system isn't perfect, it's just the best one we have. But if our justice syste Read more:Match
When life imitates art imitating life imitating art 2007-08-09 11:13:00 In a true story that would make a great plot for a novel that was about a true story, a Polish mystery writer is facing murder charges for allegedly committing the real torture-murder that he fictionalized in his grotesque best-seller "Amok." My head hurts already. When cops realized that the murder described in author Krystian Bala's novel matched the actual facts of a grisly murder in Wroclaw, Poland, they busted the author. The author (pictured above), claiming he merely used newspaper accounts of the killing to write his story, passed a lie detector test and was actually halfway around the world at the time of the murder. But investigators found that the victim had been involved with Bala's estranged wife, and that Bala himself had sold a cell phone exactly like the victim's missing phone four days after the crime. Even better, the lead investigator is a detective named Jacek Wroblewski. Can you just see the the book-jacket now: "A Jacek Wroblewski Mystery." That's better than
Why do you read true-crime books? 2007-08-08 09:28:00 Who reads true crime
books?That's a pretty important question to true-crime authors (and their editors), who should know their audiences intimately. But what do we really know about the typical true-crime reader?Well, the one of most startling facts to me is that the typical true-crime reader is a woman. What, you thought bloody crime stories were only male territory? I did ... until I wrote one. In fact, the number of female true-crime readers is said to exceed the 60% of general female readership of all books (although probably somewhat less than the 99% female readership of romances.)The numbers hold true in reader responses about my true crime/memoir FALL. Easily 2 of every 3 letter-writers and readers at a signing or other book events are women. True, it's a story about a crime against two young women, randomly chosen and brutally terrorized by a couple of male thugs ... talk about most women's worst nightmare. But I never saw it as a "women's book." Why are women drawn in gr
Texas will execute No. 400: What took so long? 2007-08-13 16:46:00 Sometime this month, Texas
will execute its 400th killer since 1982, when it resumed executions. Five Death Row inmates are scheduled to die in August, and that's OK by me.Now, depending on your view of capital punishment, 400 dead men walking might seem like a senseless massacre or merely a good start. The second most aggressive state, Virginia, has "only" executed 98.A news report by Reuters (following on a similar PBS report) chalks up Texas' Death Row sensibilities to the state's huge population of evangelical Christians, a legacy of racism, and its Southern and Old West roots, "with a cowboy sense of rough justice."It also reports that 41% of Texas' Death Row population is black, even though the state is only 12% black. The article does not report, however, the percentage of black population where the condemned inmates' murders and rapes happened, nor whether accused whites, Asians and Hispanics really have higher rates of dismissed cases or not-guilty verdicts. Didn't the m
We're a nation of non-readers 2007-08-22 10:26:00 Unless you work at a library, one of every four people you see today will not have read a book in the past year.According to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released yesterday, Americans' fat and lazy habits extend to reading, too. The typical American claimed to have read four books in the past year -- half read more and half read fewer.Who is reading ... and who is not? Nearly a third of men and a quarter of women are non-readers
. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious.Readers tend to include slightly more women, college graduates, and older Americans. Democrats and self-described liberals typically read slightly more books than Republicans and conservatives. Westerners and Midwesterners tend to be the most well-read; Southerners the least. But Southerners who do read tend to read more religious and romance books than everyone else. Anglos read more than blacks and Hispanics. And people who never go to church read almost t Read more:nation
The Longest Murder: Can a murdered man take 41 years to die? 2007-08-23 09:46:00 On a winter night in 1966, 23-year-old rookie cop Walter Barclay (pictured at left) was shot several times as he investigated a late-night burglary at a Philadelphia beauty salon. The bullets didn't kill him, but they splintered his spine and permanently paralyzed him. Later, the burglar -- William J. Barnes -- was convicted in the shooting and sentenced to 10-to-20 years in prison.This week, Barclay died at age 64. The coroner ruled his death a homicide because Barclay died of a urinary tract infection directly related to his paraplegia -- which was directly related to being shot by Barnes.Barnes (pictured at right), now 71, is a career criminal who served his time for the shooting, and has been in and out of prison in the past 40 years. He was picked up yesterday at a market where he works ... right across the street from the funeral home where his victim's funeral will be later today.Meanwhile, prosecutors are considering whether to charge Barnes with murder. Was the death a dire Read more:Longest
, murdered
The color of his skin? 2007-09-20 10:51:00 This racism thing confuses me. It seems like every time I think I've got it figured out, they change the rules. I'm trying really hard to be a color-blind white guy, but I keep getting rear-ended by the fact that some people of color are anything but color-blind.Don Imus (who is white) calls some college girls '"ho's" and loses his job ... the NBA's Isiah Thomas (who is black) calls a female team executive a "ho" and it barely gets noticed. Then Thomas says he winces when white guys use the word "bitch" but it's OK when black guys do it.Now Rev. Jesse Jackson says presidential candidate Barack Obama (who is black) is "acting like he's white." What the hell is that supposed to mean? What stereotypical white behavior is the founder of the so-called Rainbow Coalition referring to? And if a white power-broker accused a white candidate of "acting like he's black," wouldn't Jesse Jackson (and his buddy Al Sharpton) be in the front row of the lynch mob calling for his disembowelment
The Darkest Night: Coming in paperback 2007-10-10 22:39:00 One of the unique thrills of being an author is seeing the cover of your next book for the first time. I got that thrill this weekend. "The DarkestNight
" is the St. Martin's paperback version of "FALL: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town," my true-crime/memoir published earlier this year.It will be released in March 2008, although pre-orders are being taken at all online booksellers (hint, hint.)
Natural or nurtured? Are sociopaths born or made? 2007-10-09 09:50:00 It seems as though I've written about sociopaths from the time I typed my first lede 27 years ago. I started my journalistic life as a cop reporter and, now 27 years later, I'm still interviewing criminals with at least some passing interest in understanding the "why" of their acts.But last week, a true-crime reader friend who is even more intensely interested in criminal behavior asked me if I believed sociopaths -- the politically-corrected word for what we once called "psychopaths" -- were the products of genetics or their circumstances. Not having any bonafide psychological training beyond what I've picked up on the street -- and you know what Mom said about picking up things on the street -- I equivocated. I told her I believed criminal sociopaths were the product of a "perfect storm" of nature and nurture ... incomplete souls who are born into poisonously fertile homes or neighborhoods. Some piece is missing in them and they are made worse -- made criminals -- by their familie Read more:Natural
Book of the Year finalist at Foreword Magazine 2008-03-07 16:10:00 "The Darkest Night," the St. Martin's paperback edition of "FALL: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town," had just hit shelves this week when Foreword Magazine
named its hardcover version among its Book of the Year finalists in true crime.The winner will be announced in May at the Book Expo America in Los Angeles, Calif.Foreword is a trade magazine for America's independent publishers -- all those small- to medium-sized houses that are publishing the bulk of U.S. books these days.
Podcast: Interview with host Steve Shaman at Earth Frenzy Radio 2008-04-29 12:48:00 You might think online booksellers are a miracle of modern technology, but here's something even more modern and miraculous: Internet radio. No more transistors and rabbit ears. No expensive satellite receivers. No worrying that you're out of the reception area. Host SteveShaman
of Earth
Frenzy Radio
conducted an hour-long interview about THE DARKEST NIGHT on April 29, 2008. In case you missed it, here is the podcast:DARKEST NIGHT interview with Steve Shaman Read more:Podcast
'FALL' wins two gold medals in Los Angeles 2008-05-30 22:28:00 PRESS RELEASE -- Author Ron Franscell won two gold medals in True Crime for his atmospheric 2007 true-crime "FALL: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town" (New Horizon Press) during BookExpo America in Los Angeles
Friday night.One was awarded by the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and the second by Foreword Magazine. Both ceremonies were held Friday in conjunction with BEA."FALL" is p Read more:Los Angeles
DNA SNAFU: Questions erupt about strange matches in FBI's DNA database 2008-08-06 17:19:00 Ron Franscell, author of the bestselling true-crime THE DARKEST NIGHT, will be the guest on Burl Barer's Internet radio show at 4 p.m. CDT Saturday (8/9). Listen on your computer by clicking on OutlawCrime.comBy Ron FranscellYou might think from watching the dizzying array of TV crime fare that DNA evidence is the incontrovertible defense killer (or in some cases, the golden key to the jailhouse d Read more:matches
, FBI
Old Crimes, Long Memories: Bonnie and Clyde are bullet-riddled dust, but they are immortal in our imaginations 2008-09-09 11:03:00 Bonnie Parker and Clyde
Barrow, two of the most infamous outlaws of America's Outlaw Age, have been rotting for 74 years in their Texas graves. But still today, you can buy a 1-inch square swatch of Clyde's blood-soaked trousers at one of two roadside museums, just up the lonely backroad from where the star-crossed lovers -- and cold-blooded killers -- were fatally ambushed by lawmen in 1934.The B Read more:Crimes
, Bonnie
, bullet
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