Category: True Crime

Blog Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Zenith Man by McCracken Poston, Jr.

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for ZENITH MAN: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom by McCracken Poston, Jr. on this AME Bog Tour.

Below you will find an author Q&A, a book synopsis, my book review, an excerpt from the book, and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!

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Author Q&A

How did you do research for your book?

Since my book is about a murder trial in which I was the defendant’s lawyer, the research was first done for the trial. Beyond my case file, I did other research in the media archives and other places to piece together the strange story of Alvin and Virginia Ridley.

Which was the hardest character to write? The easiest?

Unplanned, my book also became the true story about the relationship between me and my father. I wrote it truthfully, but any time you are writing about a loved one, it can be hard. The easiest character to write about was my client, Alvin Ridley, although he was a tough client!

What made you write a book about the Zenith Man?

This was the most incredible story to live through. After the trial ended, I immediately felt that this would be a good book.

Where do you get inspiration for your stories?

So far, I have written nonfiction.

There are many books out there about true crime. What makes yours different?

My story is the inside account of being the criminal defense lawyer for a most unusual defendant.

What advice would you give budding writers?

Write the bones of your story down quickly. You can add the other stuff later. Save the stories!

In your book you state….”The voters would get their change, but mostly the faces would stay the same.” Why is that?

The rash of partisan party-switching that took place in Georgia after my last political race (and first defeat).

Do you have another profession besides writing?

I am a full-time criminal defense lawyer, thanks to the second act that Alvin Ridley gave me, and for 28 years I have been a part-time juvenile court judge.

How long have you been writing?

I have been writing down experiences and stories all of my adult life. Social media allowed me to share vignettes and short tales, all true stories.

Do you ever get writer’s block? What helps you overcome it?

Maya Angelou once said “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Until recently, I understood this agony. She was speaking to me.

What is your next project?

I have been blessed with many interesting legal cases, but I am also drawn to trying my hand at fiction – perhaps based on true stories.

What genre do you write and why?

Nonfiction. The story I had to tell is a true story.

What is the last great book you’ve read?

I recently reread The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy

What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?

Someone I know told me that they could hear my voice in the writing of my book.

If your book were made into a movie, who would star in the leading roles?

I refuse to jinx it, but the Alvin Ridley role is Oscar bait!

If your book were made into a movie, what songs would be on the soundtrack?

I would love classic 1980s Athens, Georgia music, to wit: Pylon, B52s, R.E.M.

What were the biggest rewards and challenges with writing your book?

I was frustrated in the telling of the story in other ways over the years.

In one sentence, what was the road to publishing like?

For years like the tortoise, then at once like the hare!

What is one piece of advice you would give to an aspiring author?

Keep at it.

Which authors inspired you to write?

Grisham, Turow, King

What is something you had to cut from your book that you wish you could have kept?

My first draft was 177,000 words. Obviously, lots had to go. But I think it came out about right.

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Book Synopsis

Was this small-town TV repair man “a harmless eccentric or a bizarre killer” (Atlanta Journal Constitution). For the first time, Alvin Ridley’s own defense attorney reveals the inside story of his case and trial in an extraordinary tale of friendship and an idealistic young attorney’s quest to clear his client’s name—and, in the process, rebuild his own life.

In October 1997, the town of Ringgold in northwest Georgia was shaken by reports of a murder in its midst. A dead woman was found in Alvin Ridley’s house—and even more shockingly, she was the wife no one knew he had.

McCracken Poston had been a state representative before he lost his bid for U.S. Congress and returned to his law career. Alvin Ridley was a local character who once sold and serviced Zenith televisions. Though reclusive and an outsider, the “Zenith Man,” as Poston knew him, hardly seemed capable of murder.

Alvin was a difficult client, storing evidence in a cockroach-infested suitcase, unwilling to reveal key facts to his defender. Gradually, Poston pieced together the full story behind Virginia and Alvin’s curious marriage and her cause of death—which was completely overlooked by law enforcement. Calling on medical experts, testimony from Alvin himself, and a wealth of surprising evidence gleaned from Alvin’s  junk-strewn house, Poston presented a groundbreaking defense that allowed Alvin to return to his peculiar lifestyle, a free man.

Years after his trial, Alvin was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, a revelation that sheds light on much of his lifelong personal battle—and shows how easily those who don’t fit societal norms can be castigated and misunderstood. Part true crime, part courtroom drama, and full of local color, Zenith Man is also the moving story of an unexpected friendship between two very different men that changed—and perhaps saved—the lives of both.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157995299-zenith-man?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=AH1gVat6bE&rank=2

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

ZENITH MAN: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom by McCracken Poston, Jr. is a captivating debut true crime/court room novel told by the small-town Southern attorney of a man accused of murdering his wife no one knew he had. This is the first time I have heard of this case. Court room dramas can sometimes be very boring or dry, but this case is fascinating, and I could not put the book down.

Alvin Ridley had been considered “different” his entire life in Ringgold, Georgia. One day in October 1997 Alvin called 911 to report the death of his wife. No one knew he was married or that anyone was even living with him. Alvin tried to tell the authorities he found his wife dead in her bed with her face in her pillow after an epileptic seizure, but the coroner believes it is a murder, and he is arrested.

McCracken Poston, Jr. returned to his law career after a failed Congressional election and failed marriage. Alvin was known to Poston as a local character who used to sell and repair Zenith televisions. Alvin asks Poston to represent him after his arrest and he agrees because he just cannot believe Alvin is capable of murder.

Alvin is a difficult client, but Poston learns how to bargain and deal with his idiosyncrasies. As evidence is disclosed, Alvin and his wife’s lives are examined, and Poston spends more time with Alvin, he is determined to prove Alvin innocent.

This is a story that pulled me in from start to finish. Mr. Poston’s storytelling brought Alvin to life on the printed page. He is honest about his personal failings and his misunderstanding of Alvin, who was years later diagnosed to be on the Autism spectrum, even as he grows to care about his client personally. As the story progressed, I felt more and more compassion and empathy for Alvin. His care of his mother before she died, his love of his wife, his care of his cats, and his love and pride in his TV repair shop all showed how he tried to always do what was right, but because of his paranoia and autism, many others in his small-town ostracized him. What we do not understand, we fear. His chosen inscription on his tombstone made me cry. With Alvin not being diagnosed at the time of his trial, you wonder how many other “different” people have been wrongly accused and imprisoned over the years.

I highly recommend this debut true crime novel with a defendant I will not soon forget.

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Excerpt

Prologue

October 4, 1997

Emerging from his late parents’ run-down house on Inman Street, itself for years the target of local innuendo, Alvin Ridley, failed television repairman and the town bogeyman, abruptly turns to lock the door. Glancing around to see if his perceived tormentors are watching him, he pulls open the formidable homemade gate and then slowly drives a thirty-two-year-old Chevrolet pickup truck through it. Then he jumps back out and quickly closes and locks the gate with chains and a padlock.

Two-tenths of a mile down Evitt Street, he carefully drives the 25 mph speed limit right past the local volunteer fire department, visibly staffed with an ambulance and professional EMTs always on the ready, and turns south on U.S. Highway 41, away from town. Thinking better of it less than half a mile later, he pulls into the roadside monument for the 1863 Battle of Ringgold Gap and turns around.

Continuing to drive slowly, as if it were a usual lazy Saturday morning, he pulls into the ShopRite parking lot and tries the pay phone on the exterior wall. Unsuccessful with this attempt, he gets back into the truck and drives through two parking lots to a pay phone located along LaFayette Street, behind the Catoosa County Courthouse Annex and Jail. He puts coins in the phone and calls, if you believe the later speculation, a funeral home to retrieve a dead body from his house. He most certainly calls Erlanger Hospital in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, but is instructed that this is a matter for the Catoosa County authorities.

Reluctantly he dials 911. The Catoosa County 911 office is just across the street. The operators could look out the single window facing LaFayette Street and see the stooped figure making the call.

“Catoosa 911. Where is your emergency?”

A pause, and then he answers flatly, giving his home address.

“What’s the problem?”

Again, lacking emotion, he says, “I think my wife’s passed out.”

The operator confirmed the address.

“Yeah.”

“Is she breathing?”

“I don’t think so—it’s behind the steel plant there.” He adds matter-of-factly, “I’m calling from a pay phone booth.”

“You don’t have a phone at your house?”

“There’s no phone there.”

This is the portion of the 911 call, in the detached voice of the caller, that is instantly spread around the world upon the revelation that a dead body was found in the ramshackle house on Inman Street. The immediate problem for investigators is, who was this soul? Certainly not the alleged spouse of the infamously solitary Alvin Ridley. Ridley said it was his wife, but can produce no identification for her. The body of the woman he calls his wife—Virginia—is declared dead by the coroner Vanita Hullander, who plans to take it to the hospital across the county in Fort Oglethorpe, and the next morning,deliver it to the state crime lab in Atlanta.

The portions of the 911 call not shared with the public or played on the news stations were the parts where the caller shared that his wife was, in his words, “epi-letic”, or that he ended the call with a request: “Please hurry.”

Later that morning, five miles to the south, an extremely hungover failed politician, failed husband, and marginally failing lawyer, rises. Too down and broken to even drive to Athens to see his beloved University of Georgia Bulldogs play, and seeking something for his blinding headache, he drives slowly into town.

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Author Bio

McCracken King Poston Jr, is a criminal defense attorney and former state legislator in the Georgia House of Representatives. He gained national attention for his handling of several notable cases that were featured on CNN Presents, Dateline NBC, A&E’s American Justice and Forensic Files.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.mccrackenpostonjr.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/McCrackenPostonJr

Twitter: https://x.com/RealZenithMan

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mccrackenpostonjr/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mccracken_poston_jr

Purchase Links

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3MR4iaL

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157995299-zenith-man

Author Marketing Experts tags for social media:

Twitter: @Bookgal

Instagram: @therealbookgal

Feature Post and Book Review: A Tangled Web by Leslie Rule

Book Description

In the tradition of her acclaimed mother, Ann Rule, author of The Stranger Beside Me, bestselling author Leslie Rule exposes the trail of a sadistic sociopath, identity thief, and killer . . .
 
It was a bleak November in 2012 when Cari Farver, thirty-seven, vanished from Omaha, Nebraska. Texts sent indicated that the hardworking mother had quit her job, abandoned her son, and cut ties with everyone. Cari’s boyfriend, Dave Kroupa, accepted the breakup at face value. Her mother, Nancy Raney, however, had doubts. “I need to hear your voice,” Nancy begged. When the texter refused to speak, Nancy reported Cari missing.  
 
While no one saw or spoke to Cari, more than 12,000 sinister emails and texts were sent in her name over the next years. Police believed Dave and his girlfriend, Shanna “Liz” Golyar, when they reported that the missing woman was cyberstalking them. The tormentor was eerily aware of Dave’s every move, knew when Liz visited and threatened the couple. It never occurred to Dave that Cari was a victim—that the real stalker had killed before, and was planning to kill again.
 
Leslie Rule tracks the heart-pounding path to long-awaited justice—from a twisted past to the deadly deception and the high-tech forensics that condemned the killer to prison.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45554640-a-tangled-web?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=9St0CrdWbg&rank=1

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

A TANGLED WEB by Leslie Rule is an engrossing true crime account of a cyberstalking sadistic killer’s manipulations carried out over years that destroyed multiple lives and escaped justice until law enforcement used high-tech computer forensics to catch them. While I watched this story on a TV crime show and learned the facts from that, Ms. Rule’s book is a detailed hypnotic account of the facts of the killer’s past, their reign of terror, and the investigation that finally entangled them in forensic facts that sent them to prison.

Dave Kroupa has split from the mother of his two young children. He loves his children, but he refuses any permanent relationship which leads to the split and his dabbling into online dating. He meets Liz, who is also a single parent who claims to want no permanent relationship. It works well for a while, but soon Liz is demanding a commitment Dave is unwilling to give. The back-and-forth drama lasts for months until Dave meets Cari and the two hit it off immediately. Dave begins to spend all his time with Cari until she leaves an out of the blue message that she is leaving town.

Cari is leaving terrible messages not only for Dave and Liz, but also her mother and son who have begun searching for her. Cari is blamed for not only horribly vicious emails and texts, but also arson and violence. Many victims are terrorized for years until web savvy detectives begin to unravel the web of lies.

I really loved this book and the author’s inclusion of the killer’s entire life history, not just the recent murder and cybercrimes. This is a study of a true sociopath and the destruction they can cause in so many lives. It took years for law enforcement to believe Cari was even a missing person and then they took the word of all involved in the case that she was the person responsible for the terrorism. It is truly terrifying what a sociopath can do with an internet connection. The surprise twists and turns this case took over the years make it the perfect case to keep the reader engaged. It showcases the potential dangers of online personal information and communications in today’s online world.

I highly recommend this true crime story and I hope that Ms. Rule is as prolific as her mother was in this genre.

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About the Author

Leslie Rule’s true crime debut, A Tangled Web, covers a frightening Omaha love triangle murder. “I chose this case because I want to warn readers that the female sadistic sociopath may be the most dangerous killer of all.” A veteran author for over three decades, Rule’s other works include two suspense novels and five nonfiction books on the paranormal, including Coast to Coast Ghosts—True Stories of Hauntings Across America. Rule was only seventeen when she started attending murder trials with her mother, author Ann Rule. “It was my job to shoot the killers—not with a gun, but with my camera,” says Leslie. Many of her courtroom photographs have appeared in her mother’s books. In addition to her bestselling books, Leslie has published dozens of articles in national magazines, including First for Women, Woman’s World and Reader’s Digest.

Social Media Links

Website: https://authorleslierule.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leslie.rule.9

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeslieRules

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/leslie-rule

Feature Post and Book Review: A Killing in Amish Country: Sex, Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Murder by Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris

Book Description

At just 30 years old, with dark-blonde hair and freckles, Barbara Weaver was as pretty as the women depicted on the covers of her favorite “bonnet” stories – romance novels set in Amish America. Barbara had everything she’d ever wanted: five beautiful children, a home, her faith, and a husband named Eli. But while Barbara was happy to live as the Amish have for centuries – without modern conveniences, Eli was tempted by technology: cell phones, the Internet, and sexting. Online he called himself “Amish Stud” and found no shortage of “English” women looking for love and sex. Twice he left Barbara and their children, was shunned, begged for forgiveness, and had been welcomed back to the church.

Barb Raber was raised Amish, but is now a Conservative Mennonite. She drove Eli to appointments in her car, and she gave him what he wanted when he wanted: a cell phone, a laptop, rides to his favorite fishing and hunting places, and, most importantly, sex. When Eli starts asking people to kill his wife for him, Barb offers to help. One night, just after Eli had hitched a ride with a group of men to go fishing in the hours before dawn, Barb Raber entered the Weaver house and shot Barbara Weaver in the chest at close range.

It was only the third murder in hundreds of years of Amish life in America, and it fell to Edna Boyle, a young assistant prosecutor to seek justice for Barbara Weaver.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114295-a-killing-in-amish-country?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=UljD9K801m&rank=1

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My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

A KILLING IN AMISH COUNTRY: Sex Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Murder by Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris is a surprising true crime saga from a community we associate with innocence and peacefulness, but just as in all societies, there are individuals who break the rules, both moral and criminal. This story is told through the eyes of the investigators and the prosecutor with snippets at the start of each chapter taken from the murdered woman’s personal writings.

Barbara Weaver has always been content with her Amish way of life. Growing up she was a fan of Amish romance books and dreamed of finding her own “Happily Ever After”. Now at 30 years old, she has five beautiful children and a husband named Eli.

Eli Weaver has never been satisfied with his Amish way of life. He has abandoned his wife and children to live among the “English” several times over the marriage, but always repents and returns. With the cell phone he is not supposed to own and the computer at his business, he goes on-line to dating sites and finds women as “Amish Stud”. Eli wants freedom from his family but is not willing to give up his business or home.

Barb Raber is a Mennonite driver who is used by Eli, not just for transportation, but also for sex. Eli asks several of his girlfriends to kill his wife which they take as a joke, but Barb takes him seriously and agrees to do it. Just before dawn as Eli is on his way to Lake Erie to fish, Barb enters the Weaver home and shoots Barbara Weaver in the chest while in her bed sleeping.

I was shocked when I heard about this criminal case. I live in Ohio and have visited Amish country many times. While I knew “Who did it”, the forensics of this case are not the only focus of this case, the psychological analysis is what pulled me in. Eli Weaver was a manipulative sociopath who was immature and only interested in his own pleasure. He was abusive to his wife, dismissive of his children, and a liar. He was able to pick just the right type of women to manipulate and Barb Raber was his ultimate conquest. Eli was not sophisticated enough to know how to cover up his crime, but he was smart enough to push as much of the blame as possible on to Barb Raber. My only problem with this book was it is repetitive in places which at times slows the pace, but the story is still overall so interesting. It is a sad story that happens in our society often, but you just do not expect it in the Amish community.

I recommend this true crime murder investigation for an intriguing read.

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About the Author – Gregg Olsen

I live in rural Washington State (about a mile as the crow flies from Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard’s infamous Starvation Heights sanatarium). My thriller, THE LAST THING SHE EVER DID was an Amazon Charts bestseller. LYING NEXT TO ME was a reader favorite, charting at No. 1 in the Kindle store and the bestseller’s list at the Washington Post. My true crime book, IF YOU TELL, found a home on Amazon Charts for more than 140 weeks. In fact, it was the bestselling Kindle ebook of 2020 (and the second-bestselling of 2021). I’ve been a guest on Dateline NBC, NPR, Good Morning America, The Early Show, FOX News, CNN, Anderson Cooper, Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, Extra, Access Hollywood, 20/20, Snapped, Deadly Women, William Shatner’s Aftermath, and A&E’s Biography. You can find out more about me at www.NotoriousUSA.com.

About the Author – Rebecca Morris

REBECCA MORRIS IS THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of Boy Missing: The Search for Kyron Horman; If I Can’t Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children; A Killing in Amish Country: Sex, Betrayal and a Cold Blooded Murder; Ted and Ann: The Mystery of a Missing Child and Her Neighbor Ted Bundy; a true-crime memoir, A Murder in My Hometown; and other books. A native Oregonian, she worked as a journalist in New York City, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon. She appears frequently on network and cable TV as a crime expert, and works with other authors as a book coach and consulting editor. She lives in Seattle where she teaches Journalism, Researching and Writing True Crime, and Playwriting.

Please read about her books and contact her at RebeccaTMorris.com.

Feature Post and Book Review: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI: by David Grann

Book Description

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.

As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29496076-killers-of-the-flower-moon?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Na1KjaELps&rank=1

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann is an enthralling true story of the murder, greed, and fear that permeated the Osage Indian tribe for years in 1920’s Oklahoma. This is an extensively researched look at the oil rich Osage and the prejudice which allowed white guardians to exploit the system to steal, embezzle, and murder their charges for their shares of oil rights and the newly formed FBI men who took on this murder investigation.

Molly Burkhart watched as one by one her Osage family and friends were killed. Some by gunshot, some by poisoning, and others never designated with a method of death since the tribe became the richest people in the U.S. due to the oil under their land. In the 1920’s, the Osage were considered unable to handle their wealth and the Federal government decided that they should be appointed white guardians. When anyone questioned the deaths, they would mysteriously end up dead.

The murder rate exceeded the national average when the government decided to send in men from the newly formed FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. At first, they did no better than the corrupt local law enforcement until Hoover sent in Tom White. He put together a team of his choosing who all entered the region undercover and soon began to piece together a conspiracy tied to the most influential rancher in the area.

This book is intricately plotted not only making the characters come to life for the reader, but to show the Osage were set up to be exploited (hopefully) unintentionally by the Federal government’s decision that put the Osage under guardianship. The local white population took advantage of this system to follow the money and kill off family lines until the white guardians inherited the Osage money and oil rights. While this book focuses on the one conspiracy of criminals publicized in that time that were brought to trial after the FBI’s investigation, the author discusses many other murders that were never investigated. I was outraged by the prejudice, heartsick by the killing, and that is what I hope to feel and more when reading a book about a historical atrocity. The descendants of the Osage are still looking for justice and closure which will never come.

I highly recommend this compelling historical true crime mystery.

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About the Author

DAVID GRANN is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books “The Wager,” “The Lost City of Z,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the author of “The White Darkness” and the collection “The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession.” His book “Killers of the Flower Moon” was recently adapted into a film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro. Several of his other stories, including “The Lost City of Z” and “Old Man and the Gun,” have also been adapted into major motion pictures. His investigative reporting and storytelling have garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award and an Edgar Allan Poe Award.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.davidgrann.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidGrannAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidGrann

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/david-grann

Feature Post and Book Review: UNMASKED: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes

Book Description

I order another bourbon, neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, to this point. Something is happening to me lately. I’m drinking too much. My sheets are soaking wet when I wake up from nightmares of decaying corpses. I order another drink and swig it, trying to forget about the latest case I can’t shake.

Crime-solving for me is more complex than the challenge of the hunt, or the process of piecing together a scientific puzzle. The thought of good people suffering drives me, for better or worse, to the point of obsession.

People always ask how I am able to detach from the horrors of my work. Part of it is an innate capacity to compartmentalize; the rest is experience and exposure, and I’ve had plenty of both. But I had always taken pride in the fact that I can keep my feelings locked up to get the job done. It’s only been recently that it feels like all that suppressed darkness is beginning to seep out.

When I look back at my long career, there is a lot I am proud of. I have caught some of the most notorious killers of the twenty-first century and brought justice and closure for their victims and families. I want to tell you about a lifetime solving these cold cases, from Laci Peterson to Jaycee Dugard to the Pittsburg homicides to, yes, my twenty-year-long hunt for the Golden State Killer.

But a deeper question eats at me as I ask myself, at what cost? I have sacrificed relationships, joy—even fatherhood—because the pursuit of evil always came first. Did I make the right choice? It’s something I grapple with every day. Yet as I stand in the spot where a young girl took her last breath, as I look into the eyes of her family, I know that, for me, there has never been a choice. “I don’t know if I can solve your case,” I whisper. “But I promise I will do my best.”

It is a promise I know I can keep. 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693618-unmasked?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=cZOsxygT1Q&rank=1

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RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

UNMASKED: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes is a candid look into the professional and personal life of a man who chases monsters. This book is part true crime, part memoir and wholly fascinating for a person interested in true crime like me.

Paul Holes was fascinated with the TV show, Quincy growing up and he aspired to be just like the character. He went to college and received a degree in biochemistry and was hired initially in a crime lab to process biological evidence samples, but he continually studied and read books in other areas of forensic study and investigation. He wanted to be in the field and not just in a lab. He was inquisitive and pushy enough to meet and befriend investigators who helped him advance with both sides of criminal investigations and cold cases, forensic and investigative.

He discovered he was especially intrigued with cold cases and giving the victims and their families resolution. The cold case file on the East Area Rapist (EAR) was the case that led to his obsession with these types of cases and ultimately, even with all his other successes, it was the one that led to the trail and ultimate unmasking of the Golden State Killer (GSK). Even though he has retired, he continues to investigate cold cases across the country and co-hosts a podcast with Billy Jensen called The Murder Squad.

I found the cases in this book engrossing, and I was also impressed with Mr. Hole’s candid accounts of his personal problems. I find the people willing to chase the most depraved killers and rapists as interesting as the crimes and criminals themselves. Mr. Hole’s admits to personal problems his professional obsession has caused and yet he continues. He has an empathy for victims and their families that continually pulls him into that next case.

I highly recommend this true crime/memoir!

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About the Author

Paul Holes retired as a Cold Case Investigator after spending over 27 years working for the Sheriff and District Attorney’s Offices during his tenure in Contra Costa County located in the Bay Area, California. Having experience in both forensic and investigative assignments, Paul throughout his career specialized in cold case and serial predator crimes, developing and applying investigative, behavioral, and forensic expertise in notable cases such as Zodiac, Golden State Killer, and Jaycee Dugard. Paul is frequently sought out by investigators to consult on the most complex and high profile cases and has played a part in putting several serial predators on Death Row such as Darryl Kemp, Joseph Naso, and Joseph Cordova Jr.

As an FBI Task Force Officer while employed with the DA’s Office, Paul teamed with FBI and Sacramento DA personnel to apply innovative technology that identified Joseph DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer, the most prolific and cunning serial predator in U.S. history.

Since the arrest of DeAngelo, Paul has been very involved on the media side continuing to assist law enforcement and victim’s families with their unsolved cases, through the television show The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes and with the podcast Jensen & Holes: The Murder Squad.

Feature Post and Book Review: The Doomsday Mother by John Glatt

Book Description

In The Doomsday Mother, bestselling true crime author John Glatt tells the twisted tale of Lori Vallow, accused of having her two children murdered to start a new life with her new husband, doomsday prepper Chad Daybell.

At first, the residents of Kauai Beach Resort took little notice of their new neighbors. The glamorous blonde and her tall husband fit the image of the ritzy gated community. The couple seemed to keep to themselves—until the police knocked on their door with a search warrant. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell had fled to Hawaii in the midst of being investigated for the disappearance of Lori’s children back in Idaho—Tylee and JJ—who hadn’t been seen alive in five months.

For years, Lori Vallow had been devoted to her children and her Mormon faith. But when her path crossed with Chad Daybell, a religious zealot who taught his followers how to prepare for the end-times, the tumultuous relationship transformed her into someone unrecognizable. As authorities searched for Lori’s children, they uncovered more suspicious deaths with links to both Lori and Chad, including the death of Lori’s third and fourth husbands, her brother, and Chad’s wife.

In June 2020, the gruesome remains of JJ and Tylee were discovered on Chad’s property, and the newlyweds were arrested and charged with murder. And in a shocking development, horrifying statements revealed that the couple’s fanatical beliefs had convinced them the children had become zombies–a belief that may have led to their deaths.

Bestselling author and journalist John Glatt takes readers deeper into the devastating story of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell in an attempt to unravel the lethal relationship of this doomsday couple.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693511-the-doomsday-mother?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=JMT9MgkbKX&rank=1

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE DOOMSDAY MOTHER: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and the End of the American Family by John Glatt is the true crime account of the lives of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell and their twisted religious beliefs that became the theological justification for the murder conspiracies which led to the deaths of their spouses and Lori’s two minor children.

Lori Vallow had a turbulent young life. Even being a devout Mormon, she was married several times and moved continually. Finally with her fourth husband, she begins to find stability and happiness for herself and her children. But it was not to last. Lori began to study and follow extreme preppers and doomsday zealots that preached the end days were upon us and one of these people was Chad Daybell.

Lori begins her extreme belief in everything Chad teaches. Both lose their spouses, who are at first deemed natural deaths, and within two weeks of Chad’s wife’s death they are married to each other with no children in sight.

In a multi-jurisdiction investigation, the authorities begin to uncover a web of deaths surrounding the couple and then the remains of Lori’s children are found buried on Chad’s land.

Mr. Glatt’s writing brings you into Lori and Chad’s lives and beliefs with even handed descriptions that let the reader make their own conclusions of the crimes. They both had many supporters until the day the children were found. Some felt Lori was brainwashed and this was all Chad’s doing while others believe that Lori was just as guilty and smart enough to manipulate her brother’s involvement in the deaths and set up financial gains from every death. There is no conclusion to this horrific story currently with Chad still awaiting trial and Lori in a mental health facility unable to contribute to her own defense at this time.

I feel this true crime book is full of interesting information that I did not get while the case was in all the headlines. It is also heartbreaking and scary in this case and many more the way religion can be twisted with cult-like beliefs and destroy so many lives.

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Author Bio

English-born John Glatt is the author of Golden Boy Lost and Found, Secrets in the Cellar, Playing with Fire, and many other bestselling books of true crime. He has more than 30 years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. Glatt left school at 16 and worked a variety of jobs—including tea boy and messenger—before joining a small weekly newspaper. He freelanced at several English newspapers, then in 1981 moved to New York, where he joined the staff for News Limited and freelanced for publications including Newsweek and the New York Post. His first book, a biography of Bill Graham, was published in 1981, and he published For I Have Sinned, his first book of true crime, in 1998. He has appeared on television and radio programs all over the world, including ABC- 20/20Dateline NBC, Fox News, Current Affair, BBC World, and A&E Biography. He and his wife Gail divide their time between New York City, the Catskill Mountains and London.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/johnglatt