Hi. I’m Joan Renner, and I have a passion for true crime. I am an author, social historian, and TV commentator.
Author Joan Renner
My interest in true crime began in grammar school. I was 7 years old when I read about the kidnapping and murder of three boys near the Chicago suburb where I lived with my family. I followed the case, and a month after they found the boys, one father died. He had a heart attack, which I read as a broken heart. The story stuck with me.
I may not always understand the perpetrators, but I can, and do, try always to honor the victims. I want to tell their stories. I want people to get to know them so that their loss becomes personal. Nobody, no matter who they were in life, deserves to be murdered.
Murder isn’t the only crime I write about. I am fascinated by many anti-social behaviors. I think most of us are. Other people’s crimes beg the question—could I do the same thing?
Being in Southern California, my focus is primarily on the historic crimes of Los Angeles. In 2016, I wrote The First with the latest: Aggie Underwood, the Los Angeles Herald, and the Sordid Crimes of a City. The L.A. Weekly selected the book as one of the top ten true crimes books about the city.
I was fortunate to contribute to the Los Angeles Times bestseller LAPD ‘53, written by James Ellroy and Glynn Martin. It was a memorable project.
My stories have appeared in true crime anthologies and in Los Angeles Magazine. Because I love sharing stories about Los Angeles, I give presentations to public groups and private organizations whenever I can.
Since 2009, I have appeared on over 60 true crime TV shows and podcasts such as, City of Angels, City of Death; Deadly Women; Evil Twins; Evil Kin; Ice Cold Blood; Buried in the Backyard; Bloodline Detectives, Killer Soundtrack, Hollywood & Crime, and many others.
My blog, Deranged L.A. Crimes, covers historic misdeeds in the City of Angels. This is why I’ve written OF MOBSTERS AND MOVIE STARS: The Bloody ‘Goden Age’ of Hollywood for WildBlue Press. Between 1919 and 1939, Los Angeles witnessed the commission of some of the craziest and most diabolical crimes in its history. Where else but Los Angeles would a man plot to murder his wife using two venomous rattlesnakes named Lightning and Lethal? Let us not forget the woman who kept her lover in her attic for years.
I look forward to sharing these stories, and many more, with you.
When I’m not writing about or researching true crime, I cyber-stalk old felons on ancestry sites and in vintage newspapers. I also volunteer as an archivist and historian at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Museum.
I live with my husband, Scott, who doesn’t understand my obsession with crime but wholeheartedly supports me anyway.
