On a hot July night in 1995, Janet Downing was stabbed 98 times inside her Somerville, Massachusetts, home. Within hours, police identified 15-year-old Eddie O'Brien, the best friend of one of her sons, as the suspect. Eddie had no criminal history, no clear motive, and no apparent opportunity. Yet his case emerged during a national panic over juvenile "superpredators," when Massachusetts officials were pushing to prosecute more children as … [Read more...]
Meet Author Dan Lawton
I'm a writer and lawyer. My short fiction and columns have appeared in The Recorder, Los Angeles Daily Journal, The Pensive Quill, The Daily Transcript, and Sheepshead Review. ABOVE THE GROUND: A True Story of The Troubles in Northern Ireland is my first work of narrative nonfiction. I was born in Los Angeles and raised in Fullerton, California, along with my three younger brothers. I earned my undergraduate degree … [Read more...]
