Bonjourno, amici nostra! Welcome to UNDERWORLD, my spanking new blog about organized crime (“OC”) and the Italian-American Mafia, coupled with helpful hints about how to improve your own budding criminal career. Rather than waste time about my motivations for doing so, or about my bonafides as a self-proclaimed expert, let’s just get right to it. Today’s topic is all about debunking the Tinsel Town-perpetuated myth that Mickey Cohen … [Read more...]
Author Caitlin Rother; Taking a Look at the Death Penalty, Nationally and in California
When Governor Gavin Newsom issued an order to extend the moratorium on executions in California in March, the lead detective and the victims’ families in the Hawks case were all very upset. After sitting through three trials in this case, two of which resulted in death sentences for defendants who killed their family members, they have been waiting a decade to see these murderers receive the ultimate punishment. But they are likely going to … [Read more...]
Rother Looks Back on the Career-long Coverage of a Murder Case
As a professional journalist for the past 32 years, I’ve published thousands of news and feature articles for newspapers and magazines. I’ve also written and coauthored 13 books since 2005, penned countless blog posts, and I’m working on two new books as we speak. But now that I’m looking back over my career, I realize that I’ve been researching and writing about the case of the transgender killer, Skylar Deleon, and the murder of Tom and … [Read more...]
New York Times Bestselling Author Caitlin Rother Releases Updated Edition of DEAD RECKONING, Packed With New Details
I’m thrilled to announce that I’m working with WildBlue Press once again, this time to release a newly revised and updated version of my book, DEAD RECKONING, one of my most popular books. So much has changed since the book was originally released in 2011 that I barely know where to start. But suffice it to say that this meaty update provides lots of up-to-the-minute new material, including recent photos, many of which can be found on the … [Read more...]
DEAD RECKONING Photo Gallery
Dom Stasi On Apollo And Aviation
Aviation has always been a passion of mine. Given that it can also be a world rich in mystery and adventure, it provided the template for my debut novel, THE STRAIT. Given this lifelong affair with flight, it’s only natural when looking back, that my first real job would have been with an outfit like Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. I’d been out of the Air Force barely a week when I found myself being escorted to the aerospace … [Read more...]
PLAYING DEAD Photo Gallery
Dom Stasi; Hand Shaking
It was 1990 when I found myself and my twin Beechcraft airplane grounded by a spate of late Spring thunderstorms. As anyone who’s spent the steamier months in south Florida will attest, these monsters roll through here in afternoon waves. Sometimes they come in one behind the other embedded in powerful squall lines, other times they’ll form spontaneously right around you in a process called convection. Either way, they love to eat light … [Read more...]
Larry Sells On The Murder Trial And The “Fire In My Belly”
The trial was decades ago, but when I even try to speak of it, I find myself rising to my full height, pacing like a lion, ready to roar. Outsiders often view trial lawyers as eggheads who spend their time researching obscure points of law so that they can outwit their opponent in the courtroom. That image makes for great tension on television, but in real life, trials, especially trials for violent and deadly crimes, are about people. I mean … [Read more...]
Margie Porter On How Ghost Writing Should be Haunting
The problem with ghostwriting is that you are revealing a story that was never yours to tell. It’s someone else’s story, someone else’s pain. The glory of the task is that, as you immerse yourself in the story, it becomes your own. You connect to the people and begin to feel all the layers of their experience. You begin to visualize the people and the actions that you are trying to describe on paper. In the process, the story evolves from … [Read more...]