On a cold, winter's night in early 1963, mob enforcer Rocco Anthony Balliro and a pair of associates stormed a darkened apartment on the outskirts of Boston and engaged in a fierce gun battle with several assailants (police officers, it turned out) waiting in ambush for the ex-convict and recent prison escapee. In the aftermath, a young woman and her toddler son lay dead. The story of Rocco Balliro, a petty criminal and enforcer for New England … [Read more...]
Was It An Accident? Or Was She Pushed? Read ‘SAVING ANNIE’ From New York Times Bestselling Author Steve Jackson
Book 3 Pre-Order Coming Soon! In March 2009, pretty, vivacious Rhonda Casto plunged to her death from a 300-foot cliff in the Oregon woods. The only witness, Stephen Nichols, the father of her nine-month-old baby, Annie, told police investigators she slipped and fell. Yet, Nichols’ story didn’t mesh with the facts. And some of his other actions raised suspicions as well, including just days after her death trying to collect on a … [Read more...]
WildBlue Press Teams Up With Criminology Podcast To Bring Readers THE CASE OF THE ZODIAC KILLER
In the late 1960’s, and early 1970’s, an enigmatic serial killer terrorized the San Francisco Bay area of Northern California, and teased the police tasked with stopping him. Through bold letters and cryptic ciphers mailed to local newspapers as well as taunting calls to police, the Zodiac left his mark on the state of California. Without warning he was gone, but not before achieving infamy in the annals of true crime history. Just who was the … [Read more...]
A MURDER IN MY HOMETOWN by New York Times Bestselling Author Rebecca Morris
On a fall evening in Corvallis, Oregon in 1967, seventeen year old Dick Kitchel, a senior at the high school, disappeared after attending a party at the home of a couple in their twenties who often hosted gatherings and provided beer to a younger crowd. Dick was spoiling for a fight. He often had fights, but, surprisingly, he didn’t have enemies, or none that anyone knew of. Before his parents divorced, Dickie, as he was called in grade school, … [Read more...]
THE BEAST I LOVED’s Robert Davidson Warns “Don’t Believe The Con Man”
Domestic violence is all about power and the need to control, which comes from the monumental insecurity virtually all batterers suffer from. Like little children, they have a constant, nagging, inescapable fear of abandonment that they never outgrew like normal children do, and so carry around their warped perception of a fearful world that leads so reliably—and unfairly—to the abuse of their partners. Because most batterers have experienced … [Read more...]
New York Times Bestselling True Crime Author Rebecca Morris
I’m often asked how I began writing true crime books after a long career in broadcast and print journalism that took me from Portland, Ore. to New York City, and back to the Pacific Northwest. In 2007 I was free-lancing for The Seattle Times and spent time with Beverly Burr, the mother of an eight-and-a-half year old girl who had disappeared from her Tacoma home in 1961. Part of the article focused on an idea that had circulated for years – … [Read more...]
Robert Davidson Answers The Question “Why Didn’t She Just Leave?”
There are many issues regarding domestic violence, but the one that, to me, is most infuriating, most unfair, and most misunderstood is the most commonly asked question of all: “Why didn’t she just leave?” But that should not be the question. The question should be, “Why do men batter women?” And as a society, “How do we stop it?” That’s what we should be asking. Why don’t they leave? There are many issues involved, and very complicated ones … [Read more...]
Robert Davidson
Robert Davidson speaks nationally and has written numerous columns for various publications. In The Beast I Loved, originally published by Ballantine Books in 2000 under the title Fighting Back, now revised and updated with new material, he examines family dysfunction, the psychology of violence, and the resulting tragedy. He was the winner of New England’s venerable Seacoast Writers Association award for Best Nonfiction. He also wrote How … [Read more...]
THE BEAST I LOVED: A Battered Woman’s Desperate Struggle To Survive
Before abuse hot lines and safe houses were widespread, June Briand shot four bullets into her husband’s head and was sentenced to fifteen years to life. This is the shocking true story of survival—and the intense bond June shared with her pathologically violent husband, a monster who physically and sexually tortured, degraded and dominated her so relentlessly that she refused to believe he was dead even after she killed him. What kind of woman … [Read more...]
Dr. Phil Show To Feature John Paul Fay, co-author of THE SHAWCROSS LETTERS
After a little more than three days in Hollywood to tape an appearance on the Dr. Phil Show, I've returned to Boston. The three days before the show were wrought with the seemingly insurmountable logistics of being chosen to appear, and then dealing with numerous family members signing releases and even uncertainty if they would even participate. So, by the time I was actually sitting with Dr. Phil, it was the least stressful part of the whole … [Read more...]
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