Ron's early novels now in ebook editions!

Got Kindle or Nook? My first three novels -- ANGEL FIRE, THE DEADLINE and THE OBITUARY -- are now all available as ebooks at Amazon.com and BN.com! These books were the foundation of the bestselling storytelling to come later in books such as THE DARKEST NIGHT and SOURTOE COCKTAIL CLUB.

Just click on the book covers and go straight to the Kindle versions.The Nook editions are at:

ANGEL FIRE (on Nook)

THE DEADLINE (on Nook)

THE OBITUARY (on Nook)

DELIVERED FROM EVIL among 2011's 10 best!

The readers and editors of TrueCrimeBookReviews.com have named my atmospheric true-crime DELIVERED FROM EVIL -- and exploration of the lives of 10 survivors of mass murder and serial killings -- among the 10 best true-crime books of 2011.


The impressive list included Ann Rule's "Don't Look Behind You," Caitlin Rother's "Dead Reckoning" and M. William Phelps' "Love Her to Death" -- so it's an impressive company in which to be included!

It's just the latest plaudit for a moving crime book hailed by bestseller Gregg Olsen and CBS 48 Hours Correspondent Erin Moriarty.

“In Ron Franscell’s captivating account of the darkest chapters of our history, the author skillfully reminds all of us the meaning of grace and the triumph of the human spirit,” Olsen said.

Moriarty's endorsement emphasized the book's focu son victims and survivors, not criminals.

“In an age when we glamorize killers, Ron Franscell gives a voice to the forgotten victims, a voice you won’t and can’t forget,” the Emmy-winning Moriarty said.

Think you know where the bodies are buried?Play my new CRIME SCENES QUIZ!

http://www.ronfranscell.com/quiz

Sharp on crime history? Know where all the bodies are buried? You'll love my new CRIME SCENE QUIZ site. Play every Monday and win prizes from some of America's biggest crime authors! Check it out by clicking here!

All you need to do is identify a Google Earth image of a place with some significance to American crime history. Post your answer first at my Facebook author site and you win! Prizes include signed books by bestselling crime authors like Kathryn Casey, Caitlin Rother and Burl Barer! No entry fees, no sign-ups ... just plain fun!

So c'mon over and play!

Huffington Post explores SOURTOE COCKTAIL CLUB!

This week, the Huffington Post went deep into my new memoir, THE SOURTOE COCKTAIL CLUB, the true story of my extraordinary road trip to the Yukon with my teenage son Matt to find the infamous cocktail containing a mummified human toe.

"Fathers and sons traditionally bond over a shared experience -- hunting, fishing, playing catch -- but it's highly unusual for that familial moment to involve sucking on a dead man's toes," wrote HuffPo's David Moye.

Moye's story went on the detail the journey as well as the final encounter with the dead digit at Dawson City's Sourdough Saloon, home of the Sourtoe Cocktail. The story was also my son Matt's initiation into the mass media ... his first interview by a major outlet!

"Meanwhile, Matt Franscell, who is finishing up a history degree at the University of Nebraska, looks back fondly on the time he 'toed' the line with his Dad," Moye wrote. "'When my friends find out I did this, I have to tell the entire story,' he told The Huffington Post. 'I didn't realize when I did it, how important it really was.'"

~~~~~~

THE SOURTOE COCKTAIL CLUB, just published, is now available at all bookstore in the real world and online. An ebook version is also available for Kindle, Nook and other formats.

And the winners are ...

And the winners of our SOURTOE DEBUT drawing are (drum roll):

$20 OMAHA STEAKS GIFT CARD
Eileen Rissler

TWO AMC MOVIE PASSES AND FREE DRINKS

Kim Kelly

Don & Marjorie Richard

ONE AMC MOVIE PASS AND FREE DRINK
Melinda Pontruff

  

AUTOGRAPHED FIRST EDITION OF

'ANGEL FIRE'

Ann Kaplan

Michelle Kodis

AUTOGRAPHED FIRST EDITION OF
'OUTLAW ROCKIES'
Rosie DeLlano

 

 AUTOGRAPHED FIRST EDITION OF
'DELIVERED FROM EVIL'
Julie Franscell

13th & Center Streets, Casper, Wyo

The house below is on the nw corner of 11th and Center streets. Note the octagonal cupola.

Are you smarter than an outlaw? Take the OUTLAW ROCKIES quiz

Think you know the crime history of Colorado, Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains? Test your outlaw brainpower with this quiz. If you blow it, you'll want to read THE CRIME BUFF'S GUIDE TO THE OUTLAW ROCKIES, a new crime/history/travel book coming Sept. 1 from bestselling crime writer Ron Franscell and Globe Pequot Press. And if you ace it ... you're really gonna love OUTLAW TEXAS! It's a book that's right up your dark alley.

Just like Ron's popular CRIME BUFF'S GUIDE TO OUTLAW TEXAS, this quirky and fascinating travel book literally takes you to the scene of the crime with photos, maps, histories and GPS coordinates! From the Wild Bunch and Tom Horn to Columbine and Ted Bundy, OUTLAW ROCKIES promises to be a headlong romp through the criminal history in the heart of the Rockies. Put it on your 2011 Christmas gift list for the true-crime and history lover in your family!

Ron Franscell's fall book tour coming to Colorado, Wyoming!

My fall book tour in Colorado and Wyoming promises to be a wild and wolly tumble through the Rockies! In the nine-day, nine-stop tour, I'll be talking about my two newest books -- THE CRIME BUFF'S GUIDE TO THE OUTLAW ROCKIES and THE SOURTOE COCKTAIL CLUB -- at a series of free public events, culminating at the legendary Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver.

Here's the lineup. Stop by and say hello!

• WHEATLAND (WY), OCT 6, 2011 @ 5PM: Wheatland Mercantile Book Nook, 875 Gilchrist.



• CASPER (WY), OCT 7, 2011 @ 7PM: Natrona County Public Library.



• BUFFALO (WY), OCT 8, 2011 @ 7PM: Johnson County Public Library.



• CHEYENNE (WY), OCT 9, 2011 @ 3PM: Barnes & Noble on Dell Range Blvd.



• LARAMIE (WY), OCT 10, 2011 @ 3PM: American Heritage Center on UW Campus.



• ROCK SPRINGS (WY), OCT 11, 2011 @ 7PM: Rock Springs Library, 400 C Street (in the Ferrero Room).



• LOVELAND (CO), OCT 12, 2011 @ 7PM: Loveland Public Library.



• LAKEWOOD (CO), OCT 13, 2011 @ 7PM: Barnes & Noble at West Village on West Colfax Avenue.



• DENVER (CO), OCT 14, 2011 @ 7:30PM: Tattered Cover, 2526 East Colfax Avenue.

Soundtrack for the Apocalypse

Here's a playlist for those of us who are unlikely to be snatched up in Saturday's scheduled Rapture. Click the links to listen:

1. Apocalypse Now (The Doors)

2. End of the World As We Know It (REM)

3. Don't Fear the Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult)

4. Knocking on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan)

5. Sympathy for the Devil (Rolling Stones)

6. I Shall Not Be Moved (Elvis Presley version)

7. God Bless Saturday (Kid Rock)

8. DOA (Bloodrock)

9. Waiting for the End of the World (Elvis Costello)

10. Rapture (Blondie)

11. Eve of Destruction (Barry McGuire)

12. Disintegration (The Cure)

13. The Four Horsemen (Metallica)

14. Something to Die For (The Sounds)

15. The Man Comes Around (Johnny Cash)

16. Ride of the Valkyries (Richard Wagner)

17. It's Not My Time (Three Doors Down)

18. Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)

~~~~~~~~~~~

What would you add?

Osama got off easyAmerica hasn't always treated its dead monsters' corpses with such respect

In the end, Osama bin Laden got off easy.

Killed yesterday in a daring night raid on his compound in Pakistan, Osama's corpse was whisked away by American Special Forces so they could prove that the world's most feared monster had been dispatched.

But now that this colossal dragon had been slain, what would we do with his carcass? Certainly many among us fantasized gruesome indignities, or at least something akin to being trapped in a jet fuel-soaked, burning skyscraper as it crumbled to dust.

But in civilized societies, fantasies and societies often diverge. In this case, DNA and photos were taken and before the sun set again, Osama was quietly sent on his way to Allah and whatever rewards awaited him in Jannah, the Muslim heaven.

Today, a U.S. government official said, quite simply, that Osama was buried at sea and his body was “handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. This is something that we take very seriously, and so therefore this is being handled in an appropriate manner.”

For being on the short list of history's most hated and feared monsters, Osama received a more respectful burial than many lesser enemies of the state. In fact, for all our self-righteous preening about our superior civilization and manners, the United States has actually treated the corpses of its worst antagonists with contempt and irreverence, occasionally bordering on post-mortem sadism.

History is full of examples. Ordinary criminals and evil-doers generally were usually dumped in unmarked graves outside the fences of our "proper" cemeteries. Some were lynched and their bodies defiled in grisly ways (such as Old West train robber "Big Nose" George Parrott, whose skin was turned into a pair of shoes for the governor, and whose skull became a candy dish.)

In 1942, eight Nazi saboteurs landed secretly in America to wreak as much havoc as possible, but their evil plot came unraveled. Six were executed and buried in a remote potter's field in Washington beneath wooden slats bearing only numbers. In time, the graves were lost completely, and that was just fine with American authorities.

Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth (ironically, also mortally wounded in a bold night raid by soldiers) was dissected and initially packed in an old musket case and buried in an unmarked grave on a Washington Army post in 1865. Later, his box was moved to a warehouse where it sat for several years until it was returned to his family (who buried it in another unmarked grave.)

Almost 40 years later, a strange story arose that Booth had eluded his captors and had committed suicide in an Oklahoma hotel room. On the off-chance that the body they tended was, in fact, Booth, the local morticians mummified him and propped his corpse in a rocking chair (reading a newspaper) in their front window for several years, until his body was claimed by a Tennessee lawyer who sold Booth's Mummy into the carnival sideshow circuit. It toured freak shows for decades until disappearing in the 1970s.

In fact, presidential assassins never fared well.

Charles Guiteau, who murdered President James Garfield in 1881, was hanged and dismembered before all but his brain (shipped to a doctor in Pennsylvania) was dumped into an acid vat. His bleached bones and a few other morsels are still in the U.S. Army's National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington.

Leon Czolgosz, President McKinley's anarchist assassin, died in the electric chair in 1901. His body was laid in an acid-filled casket and buried unmarked in New York.

JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was treated slightly better in death, but hardly with generous respect. His funeral in 1963 was deliberately scheduled at the same moment as JFK's services because authorities knew all eyes would be glued to the president's televised funeral, not on Oswald's. In fact, not even Oswald's wife attended his simple graveside service in Fort Worth. Six reporters had to be drafted to act as pallbearers ... because only reporters showed up.

So while it's not known if an imam said any final words over Osama's corpse as it was assigned to The Deep, it's clear he got a slightly better send-off than many of America's enemies have gotten. And in the end, maybe there's some reason to think we're actually starting to get the hang of this civilization thing.

UPDATE 12:12 PM CDT: "Today's religious rites were conducted on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian sea. The ceremony started at 1:10am and finished at 2:10am ET," the second official said. "Procedures for Islamic body were followed. The body was washed and placed in a white sheet. A military official read prepared remarks, which were then translated into Arabic by a native speaker. The body of Osama bin Laden was placed on a flat board, which was then tipped up, and allowed to slide into the sea."

Supplies limited! Two signed books by Ron Franscell!

Are you a collector of signed books? Waiting for a better price at Amazon? Just haven't gotten around to buying these books yet?

Well, now's your chance of a lifetime (or at least of April) to get Ron Franscell's two newest books, both signed by the author, at a bargain price!

The combined cover price for DELIVERED FROM EVIL and THE CRIME BUFF'S GUIDE TO OUTLAW TEXAS would be $43 (plus tax) if you bought them at most retailers. You can get them for $30 at some online stores. Here's the best deal you'll see anywhere: Until Ron's small supply of books runs out, you can get them both for only $29 with free shipping! And signed!

To get instructions on how to take advantage of this deal, just email Ron today at ron@ronfranscell.com. Once your order has been placed, you can pay by check or PayPal, and your books will be shipped right to your home!

Email Ron today!

NOW ON NOOK! My first books

Good news for my Nook-reader friends! Starting today, my first three novels -- ANGEL FIRE, THE DEADLINE and THE OBITUARY -- are now all available at BN.com as ebooks for the Nook reader! If you Nook ... please look!

Just click on the book covers and go straight to Barnes&Noble.com!

DELIVERED FROM EVIL book trailer

THE CRIME BUFF'S GUIDE TOOUTLAW TEXAS

Texas rightfully claims a celebrated place in the “wildest” West of both myth and reality—which makes it truly stranger than fiction that The Crime Buff’s Guide to Outlaw Texas is the first-ever travel guide to the many sites related to the Lone Star State’s renowned rambunctious past, complete with GPS coordinates that put you at the scene of the action.

From outlaws like Sam Bass and John Wesley Hardin to Bonnie & Clyde and Houston’s notorious Candy Man killer, Texas has dozens of places where true-crime buffs can actually stand close to history. For many readers, the attraction to these sites—some well-known, some obscured by time—is irresistible.

COMING NOV. 9 TO ALL BOOKSTORES!

"The research in this book is simply amazing! Ron Franscell has basically re-mapped Texas, specifically pinpointing where all of our most notorious outlaws lived, performed their gruesome deeds, and died. On top of that, he's uncovered riveting stories about outlaws in far away corners of the state that very few us even knew about. For everyone interested in Texas' great outlaw past, this is an indispensable guide."
— Skip Hollandsworth, executive editor of Texas Monthly


"Texas has more than its share of unforgettable crime stories that cover a full range of human emotions-from the tragically comical to the unspeakably horrific. None of those stories can be fully understood without the context of place and Ron Franscell's OUTLAW TEXAS, an effective combination of interesting stories, directions, and GPS coordinates, gives us the "what and where" necessary to understand our uniquely Texan true crime heritage."
— Gary Lavergne, bestselling author of "A Sniper in the Tower" and "Bad Boy from Redbud"


"Gifted crime writer Ron Franscell takes you along on an absolutely fascinating road trip. And along the way, be prepared to often hear yourself saying, 'Damn, I didn't know that!'"
— Carlton Stowers, dean of Texas true crime and Edgar-winning author of "To The Last Breath" and "Careless Whispers"


"Can't wait to fire up my GPS. A fascinating trek through Texas crime."
— Kathryn Casey, author of the Texas true crimes "Shattered" and "Descent into Hell"

NOW ON KINDLE! Books by Ron Franscell

THE DEADLINE

Named One of the Top 25 Best Crime Fictions of 1999 by POISONED PEN

Former Chicago Tribune crime reporter Jefferson Morgan is living his life-long dream of running a weekly newspaper, The Winchester Bullet, in the Wyoming town where he grew up. But when an infamous child-murderer comes home to die and begs Morgan to help clear his name, the dream becomes a nightmare. Under the gravest deadline of his life, amid an extraordinary backlash from his neighbors, readers and advertisers, Morgan struggles with his own conscience to tell a story no matter the consequences, digging deep into the town's past, and revealing a killer who's hidden himself for almost 50 years.

"Ron Franscell has undeniably hit his mark. His masterful storytelling strikes hard at the heart. It leaves his readers stunned one moment, and tenderly moved the next."

—The Denver Post

~~~~~~

THE OBITUARY

When a world-renowned forensic anthropologist journeys to Winchester, Wyoming, to examine the long-dead remains of a woman who claimed to be Etta Place — the Old West’s most mysterious and legendary female outlaw — he’s not expecting to find a man’s headless corpse in her crypt. The grisly discovery plunges him and Jefferson Morgan — the editor of the weekly Winchester Bullet — into a shadowy and deadly world of satellite-savvy highway pirates, rural meth labs, computer hackers and old-fashioned corruption. And they might not survive the fall.

This is the "lost" sequel to Ron's award-wnning 1999 mystery THE DEADLINE and is released as an exclusive to Amazon Kindle readers!

"Ron Franscell's THE OBITUARY is gorgeously written, complex and satisfying — a damn near perfect book." — JOHN LESCROART

~~~~~

ANGEL FIRE
A stunning literary debut listed by the San Francisco Chronicle among the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century West (No. 74)

A modern classic that continues to gather a loyal readership, ANGEL FIRE is a haunting tale of two brothers on separate odysseys of self-discovery. Twenty-four years after war correspondent Daniel McLeod is killed in a Viet Cong ambush, his only brother Cassidy is mysteriously drawn to their Wyoming hometown, where he must confront a lifetime of his own ghosts. Their story is about how we seek equilibrium, a delicate balance between memory and the unknown, dislocation and homecoming, loss and restoration.

Set against the deceptive simplicity of a small town on the high plains, Angel Fire is a story of mythic proportions. It resonates with the rhythms of tales told for millennia, but they are written anew here, fresh as a Wyoming summer breeze. It resonates with the rhythms of a small town, the blessings of memory, and the pain of loss.

"Reminiscent of Charles Frazier's 'Cold Mountain' ... (Franscell's) themes involve a fresh approach to our rural roots as a font for the elusive American spirit." -- USA Today

AVAILABLE ON KINDLE NOW!

Ready, aim ... firing-squad execution awaits

On Friday, barring any clemency in the next few days, Utah killer Ronnie Lee Gardner will be executed. That's not especially noteworthy except that Gardner chose to be killed by a firing squad (he was sentenced before 2004, when lethal injection became Utah’s default execution method. His other choice was hanging.)

The same old debate about capital punishment is, of course, unfolding. Let it. As with all hijacked conversations in our hollering society, it ignores a large majority that can see times when the death penalty is appropriate and times when it is not. We've heard all the radicals' talking points before, ad nauseam.

What we haven't heard very often is the sound of gunfire in the death house. Firing squads date back to the invention of guns, but only two killers have actually been legally and officially shot to death in the United States, in 1977 (Gary Gilmore) and 1996 (John Taylor). It's not a default method anywhere, but remains an option for condemned inmates in Utah, Idaho and Oklahoma.

Gardner chose the firing squad because it was "easier" and maybe quicker. The process is cloaked in some secrecy, but in the past five sharpshooting volunteers from law enforcement agencies are chosen. The condemned man is strapped in a backless chair, wearing a hood and a target over his heart. The squad is set up on a sturdy firing platform 20 feet away. On a command, they fire simultaneously. One of the shooters' .30-caliber rifles is loaded with a blank cartridge so that any one of the five might reasonably surmise he didn't fire the fatal shot.

Is it cruel? If you radically oppose capital punishment, even lethal injection is cruel. If you radically support capital punishment, it isn't cruel enough. There have been difficulties with all methods (although not with firing squads in the USA because they are used so rarely). But should four bullets not shatter a human heart as expected, an alternate shooter stands by to administer the coup de grace.

Some have argued that firing squads offer a soldier's death, and that hanging more befits common criminals. Opponents say it is a grotesque, "old style" method that's needlessly cruel and messy; proponents say it is swifter and surer than lethal injection, and therefore less cruel.

What are your thoughts about firing squads as a method for carrying out the public's promise to killers? Better or worse than other methods we've used for more than 200 years?

Journalist Ron Franscell is the author of the upcoming DELIVERED FROM EVIL, an extraordinary study of 10 survivors of American mass murderers and serial killers. It will be released in January.

Computers will predict juveniles' future crimes ... what could possibly go wrong?

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice has just bought state-of-the-art IBM software that they hope will help them identify juvenile criminals who are likely to commit future crimes.

This software will crunch the kids' criminal history, home life, drug habits, gang ties and peer associations -- and more -- in a scientific attempt to predict which juveniles are more likely to be future problems. The idea is that the hard cases can be separated from the rest and given more intensive rehabilitation. Florida officials stress the software will be just one way they try to zero-in on the most dangerous young offenders and tailor rehab and punishment more suitably to all the 95,000 young criminals they get every year.

"Predictive analytics gives government organizations worldwide a highly-sophisticated and intelligent source to create safer communities by identifying, predicting, responding to and preventing criminal activities," said Deepak Advani, a predictive analytics expert at IBM. "It gives the criminal justice system the ability to draw upon the wealth of data available to detect patterns, make reliable projections and then take the appropriate action in real time to combat crime and protect citizens."

Similar systems are already in use in the United Kingdom with adult prisoners. No data on the effectiveness is yet available.

Although it sounds a lot like the plot for "Hal 9000 Gets a Job as a Profiler," it will be hard to argue with this high-tech crystal-balling if it can be shown to reduce juvenile crime and recidivism. I mean, all we had before was Father Flanagan's intuitions. Questions remain (in my mind, anyway) about what kind of a computer-concocted, digitized, and possibly errant "permanent record"might follow these young offenders around for the rest of their lives, even if they never offend again. I also wonder about the unproven effectiveness of these robotic analysts to really see into a human heart. Thoughts from you expert crime-watchers?

Bestselling true-crime author Ron Franscell's haunting study of 10 mass-murder survivors, DELIVERED FROM EVIL, will be released in January 2011.

DELIVERED FROM EVIL: The cover design

Here's the book-jacket design for DELIVERED FROM EVIL, my upcoming book profiling 10 survivors of mass killings. It will be available everywhere January 2011.

The image on the cover is of a young woman cowering in fear moments after Texas Tower sniper Charles Whitman killed a young man just a few yards away.

The publisher's description: "Delivered from Evil retells the stories of mass murders from the harrowing perspective of a sole survivor. Drawing from extensive research and 1st person interviews with the survivors, the most notable cases will be given a fresh and disturbing new perspective. Using survivor’s accounts, some of which have never been told until now, readers will feel like they are actually walking through the event moment by moment Written in a can’t-put-down-style, Delivered from Evil explores what it takes to be a survivor of a horrific crime in the moment and in dealing with the aftermath of the event."

DELIVERED FROM EVIL ($26, Fair Winds Press) is also available now for pre-ordering at Amazon. Just click here and reserve your copy now!

Five Important Contributions by Prison Inmates (not counting eyeball tattoos)

If you brushed your teeth this morning before settling down to read whatever fascinating new material was posted at In Cold Blog, you were unwittingly celebrating a prison inmate.

That's right. In 1770, British merchant William Addis was doing time for causing a riot. That's when he decided that the customary tooth-cleaning of his day -- rubbing your teeth with a sooty, salty rag -- wasn't the best idea. So he cadged a small bone from a piece of prison meat and bribed a guard for some horse-hair bristles, which he tied in tufts and inserted in small holes in the bones. Voila! The first modern toothbrush was created.

In fact, more contributions to the betterment of the world have come from prison than you might imagine. In a bawdy recent post at Cracked.com, blogger Manhammer (?) listed five of the most notable inventions or ideas to come from behind bars, including William Addis' toothbrush.

You might be surprised to learn the Erie Canal and the modern carbine were prison products. You've heard of the Birdman of Alcatraz (pictured above, looking nothing like Burt Lancaster)? How about Don Quixote?

OK, so these guys were the overachievers of the hoosegow. Face it, most inmates devote their imaginations to tattooing naked women on their scrotums and trying to figure out how to make a shank out of a cockroach. How many times have you said to yourself, "If only these criminal masterminds would put their creative energies to work for the benefit of mankind, the world would be a better place?"

Well, here you have it. Isn't it nice to know that some inmates have put their "time" to good use?

You can now follow author Ron Franscell at Facebook and Twitter.

ONLY ON KINDLE! Ron Franscell's 'lost' mystery

This juicy mystery somehow got lost as Ron was on his way to bestsellerdom, but now it's being made available exclusively on Kindle for only $5.99!

Praised by bestselling thriller authors like John Lescroart and Michael Palmer, THE OBITUARY revisits the little Winchester, Wyoming, where history and mystery entangle small-town newspaper editor Jefferson Morgan. When the grave of a reputed Old West outlaw queen divulges its unexpectedly grisly secret, Morgan is plunged into a world of satellite-savvy highway pirates, Internet porn and old-fashioned corruption.

And now all of Ron's e-books -- ANGEL FIRE, THE DEADLINE and THE OBITUARY -- are only $5.99 at the Kindle store!

(And if you are a traditionalist, Ron's books are still printed on paper and still available at Amazon and othe booksellers!)