Public Safety Writers Association

This is your newsletter, please contribute articles, your news, book reviews, or anything else you think might be of interest.

Dear Public Safety Writers,

The last few months have been a very exciting time for the Public Safety Writers Association. Your conference chair Marilyn Meredith has worked diligently and assembled an amazing roster of speakers for the June conference. Please go to the Conference page of this website to check it out.

We already have more people signed up than attended last year, but are still anxious to involve as many of you as possible. While you can certainly receive a lot of invaluable information on this site and through the materials available on a members-only basis, as well as join the lively discussion on our listserve, nothing compares to the experience of meeting your fellow members personally and networking with them during the three days of the conference. Register now and take advantage of the early registration rate.

Hopefully, many of you have also sent your work to the Association's annual writing competition. Competition chair Michelle Perin reports that the submissions so far are really terrific and illustrate once again what an incredibly talented group of writers we are proud to include among our membership.

If you have a "work in progress" that you'd like some help completing, be sure to take advantage of the one-time free manuscript review available to every member. An experienced professional editor will read your work and offer a comprehensive overview of your existing manuscript and recommend ways it can be even better. If you've already used your one-time manuscript review option, there's good news in the making.

Beginning this spring, renewing members will soon have the option of an additional mini review. Keep checking the website for more details on this great member benefit.

To take advantage of the lower conference fee, you must sign up by March 31st. Don’t miss out on the best PSWA conference ever, and in my humble opinion one of the best writing conferences for mystery writers and non-fiction writers anywhere. I’m probably prejudiced since I’m the program chairperson.

Frankly, I’m impressed by the outstanding professionals who’ve stepped forward to offer their advice and talents at our conference.

I attend a lot of conferences and conventions and I can guarantee you won’t be lost in the shuffle like can happen at some of the bigger cons. Our conference is small enough that you will get acquainted with the other attendees and you’ll have plenty of time to network. And who can ask for a better place to both get to and enjoy yourself during the off hours?

Remember, if you want to be on a panel, you must register by March 31. Everyone will receive their panel assignments by the end of April.

If you have books you’d like to have on sale, bring them with you and our treasurer and her helper will be manning the bookselling tables. It will be helpful if you’ll put a 3 X 5 card in each book with your name, address, title of book and price on it. PSWA only keeps 10% of the sales.

If you have more questions, feel free to email me, Marilyn Meredith, mmeredith@ocsnet.net

Rifles and shotguns are far superior weapons as compared to handguns, but long guns are usually associated with the military. Cops carry handguns, and most American cops wouldn't consider going to work without one.

The original handgun was a flintlock-style pistol. These were in popular use for most of the 18th and part of the 19th century. They are still made and shot by “black powder” enthusiasts. Their design was similar to the flintlock rifles of the same era, and they had most of the same limitations. The biggest of these limitations was that they were capable of firing only one shot before they had to be reloaded, and reloading was a process that took the better part of a minute, assuming you had the powder, wadding, tamping rod, and ball ammo or shot handy. If a shooter anticipated taking on several aggressors (or victims), he would more likely carry a “brace of pistols” (e.g. several of them) in his belt. The pistol was a backup weapon to the sword or cutlass that men of arms usually carried.

Flintlocks were close-in weapons. They had no sights, had relatively short unrifled barrels, and were notoriously unreliable. Sometimes they would fire as expected, sometimes not at all, and sometimes they would blow up in the shooter's hand. This latter problem was often brought about by being too generous with the block powder charge.

There were some early and mostly unsuccessful attempts at producing a handgun that would fire multiple shots without reloading. The most common of these was the "pepperbox," a gun that had a separate chamber and barrel for each round. As you might expect, these guns were bulky, heavy, and not especially reliable. The first successful multiple-shot handgun design was the one from Samuel Colt, patented in England in 1835. His design was the basis for the handguns we know today as "revolvers."

A revolver uses a single barrel with a separate chamber for each cartridge loaded in the gun. The chambers are contained within a cylinder immediately to the rear of the barrel. When the hammer is pulled back (cocked), a new chamber rotates into position behind the barrel, with the primer of the cartridge positioned where the hammer will fall. In the traditional design, the hammer is at the rearmost upper aspect of the revolver, and has a spur that can be pulled back with the thumb. Forward and opposite of the spur is the firing pin. Pulling the trigger releases the hammer to strike the firing pin, discharging the cartridge.

Early revolvers were single action models, meaning that it required two separate movements by the shooter to fire a round. The first action was to pull back the hammer until it latched in the cocked position, rotating the cylinder to a fresh cartridge. The second action was to pull the trigger, releasing the hammer and firing the gun. This was a time when it was something of a novelty to mass-produce any kind of precision device, so that parts were interchangeable. The mechanisms of early revolvers were often rough, so that it took considerable hand strength to pull the hammer back. Keeping the hammer cocked wasn't a good idea, because any pressure on the hammer or trigger might cause the gun to fire unexpectedly (the "Barney Fife Effect"). In fact, it was a standard practice to carry only five rounds loaded in a revolver with six chambers, so that the hammer rested on an empty chamber.

The movies portray Old West gunslingers as lightning fast with their guns, and there is no doubt that some of these pistoleros existed. But the reality is that firearms marksmanship was a lot more difficult than it is today because of the comparatively primitive guns, and ammunition was expensive and could be hard to come by. There persists a similar myth today, in that police officers are supposed to be expert marksmen. The police are often the most prolific propagators of this myth. But more about that later.

Single action revolvers are still sold and are in use. Most are used in quick draw contests and Wild West shooting competitions. Revolvers carried for personal protection or for professional use are more likely double action, meaning that pulling the trigger causes the hammer to move back, the cylinder to turn to a fresh cartridge, and the hammer to fall, firing the gun, all in one smooth motion.

A double action revolver can be fired like a single action, by first cocking the revolver manually and then pulling the trigger. This is an action used by shooters in the movies, usually right after they have warned the prospective shootee of the consequences of not complying with their orders. The mechanical click of the hammer being cocked adds great drama to the scene. As a practical matter, this is a stupid move. Pulling the trigger of an uncocked double action revolver requires a rearward force of five to seven pounds (typically). It is unlikely this will happen by accident. When the revolver is cocked, a pull of one pound or less will drop the hammer. If the shooter is startled, trips, or tenses his muscles because of stress, the gun can go off unexpectedly. In the days when revolvers were the standard sidearm of law enforcement officers, most agencies forbade their officers from cocking their guns.

Most revolvers can be ordered as "double action only" or DAO. This configuration does away with the latch that holds the hammer back when cocked, so the gun can be fired only by pulling the trigger through its full travel. This is a safeguard to ensure against the gun being fired on single action.

Although revolvers are actually more mechanically complex than semi-automatic pistols, they are considerably more reliable. Most of the works of a revolver are behind a sideplate which requires a screwdriver and some prying to remove, and there is seldom any reason to do so.

Unless the ammunition is very dirty or defective, revolvers almost never jam. When they do malfunction, the revolver is usually out of the fight, but this is so uncommon that it's not worth worrying about.

Despite their inherent reliability, revolvers have several disadvantages as compared to semi-autos. They are slower to reload, as the empty casings first have to be dumped from the cylinder, and then each new round has to be inserted into its chamber individually (there are some workarounds). They are wider than a semi-auto of comparable caliber, so they are more difficult to conceal and carry comfortably. But the biggest shortcoming, and the primary reason that American law enforcement shifted from revolvers to semi-autos during the 1980s, is ammunition capacity.

Revolvers typically hold six rounds, although smaller models might have only five, and a few have seven or nine round capacities. This reduced ammunition capacity as compared to semi-automatic pistols was the primary reason for law enforcement's shift from revolvers to semi-autos during the 1980s. Gang violence was on the rise during this time, and cops found themselves frequently outgunned on the street. Moving to semi-auto pistols provided the opportunity to carry more ammunition and to reload faster in an extended gunfight—even though these are fairly rare.

With rare exception, cops carried .38 Special or .357 Magnum revolvers. Dirty Harry carried a .44 Magnum, but very few real-life agencies would have permitted their officers to carry a weapon firing ammunition of that size.

.38 Special and .357 Magnum cartridges are exactly the same circumference, but the Magnum rounds are slightly longer. A .38 Special round will work just fine in a .357 Magnum revolver, but the .357 Magnum rounds will be a little too long to allow the cylinder of a .38 Special to close. Many cops whose agencies permitted them to carry only .38 Special rounds carried .357 Magnum revolvers because they preferred the (slightly) larger gun, because they already owned one, or in the hopes their outfit would ease up and allow the more powerful ammo.

Samuel Colt may have invented the revolver, but Smith & Wesson has controlled the market for more than 50 years. From the 1960s until law enforcement started transitioning to semi-autos in the mid-80s, there were probably more S&W Model 19 and Model 10 revolvers in cop holsters than any other gun. Colt continues to produce rifles, but is now out of the handgun business.

The make and model of revolver carried by a cop said something about the person. Makes such as Ruger, Taurus, Charter Arms and Dan Wesson (not the same as Smith & Wesson) were and are reliable, but any cop who carried one had to be prepared for some "Why don't you get a REAL gun?" ridicule. Colts were more popular than any of these brands, but not nearly as common as Smith & Wesson. A big reason for this was price. A Colt cost two to three times as much as a comparable Smith & Wesson model. Colt owners were fond of bragging, "There are two kinds of cops: those who own Colts, and those who wished they owned Colts." The model of choice was the Colt Python, a .357 Magnum revolver with a distinctive rib or rail mounted on the upper face of the barrel.

There is another, arguably trivial, distinction of Colt revolvers. Revolvers made by Smith & Wesson and most other manufacturers have cylinders that rotate clockwise, as viewed from the perspective of the shooter. Colt cylinders rotate counter-clockwise. There isn't any advantage to either direction where modern revolvers are concerned, but it could make a difference if you were trying to cheat at a game of Russian roulette.

The standard metal finish of a revolver is blue steel. It starts off as regular silver-colored steel, then the frame is immersed in a boiling solution of potassium nitrate, sodium hydroxide, and water. The chemicals convert the outer layer of the metal into a dark "blue" iron oxide, which is more resistant to rust and scratches and reduces glare. The bluing layer does wear off over time, especially on the surfaces most frequently brushed while cleaning or those in contact with holsters. In the 1970s, some gun models were offered in stainless steel without bluing. These were even more resistant to rust and scratches.

Nickel plating was also available as a finish, and produced a bright, mirror-like surface. These were flashy weapons, often called "pimp guns." A few cops carried nickeled revolvers, and coming to work with a nickeled six-inch barrel Colt Python was the police equivalent of wearing a diamond ring on every finger. Cops who had these lethal works of art in their holsters were regarded as compensating for some dreadful physical or psychological shortfall.

The grips on the officer's sidearm were another indicator of his working personality. The typical stock grips that came with most guns were carved, varnished wood with visible grain and "checkering" on the side panels. Checkering created a rough surface by crosshatching the wood, and was intended to make the grip less slippery. Its actual effect was to tear up the shooter's hand through abrasion. Officers who left these in place were more concerned with appearance than functionality. A few officers would buy custom-carved grips made from exotic woods. Some of these actually did improve the grip, but more commonly they were valued for their uniqueness alone.

The serious, function-over-form cops bought black rubber grips. Most of these came from a company called Pachmayr (PACK-my-ur). These were ugly, but they had a slightly sticky feel that was consistent in any weather and were easier to grip. They weren't much good for carving notches into, but the serious cops didn't feel the need to advertise.

* * *

My law enforcement career began in 1961 upon graduating from the Miami-Dade Police Academy. I served 3 years as a road patrol officer and then motorcycle officer for 5 years. In 1969 I transferred to the Organized Crime Bureau in a newly formed gambling unit. There was little emphasis placed on fighting this type of crime until this OCB unit was expanded in 1970. My unit was to be involved in pursuing bookmakers, poker gaming establishments, and busting bolita houses.

Bolita was and probably still is one of the most popular numbers betting vices in the Cuban and African-American communities. Numbers are drawn on a daily basis out of a bag full of numbered ping pong balls. Very similar to today’s Lotto games that are legitimate in several states. My assignments were executed in whatever clothing or disguise techniques that was deemed necessary to pull off the investigation. Two of my most productive undercover operations were the take down of an established liquor lounge involved in big time gambling that had connections to organized crime. This night club investigation amounted to an owner who ran bookmaking on all major sporting events and distributed football parlay cards.

To work my way into his trust, I borrowed a Ford car dealership mechanic’s uniform from my neighbor and began patronizing the bar every evening. I rubbed grease from under the hood of my rented unmarked car on my arms and uniform to look authentic. After about three weeks, I was able to gain their trust and started playing the football parlay cards. I told the owner that my coworkers at the car dealership would love to play the cards.

Once the club owner felt comfortable with me, he actually made me a runner for his operation. I was given the same deal as his other card runners. I was offered the standard pay of 10% of everything I collected. After getting cards every week and having them all filled out and returned, I gained more evidence by placing bets on horses and ball games.

After 3 months of steady betting, I secured an arrest warrant and a search warrant for the premises. The subsequent search turned up all types of betting receipts and cash. The proprietor ended up with a jail sentence and lost his liquor license. This case was of interest to the FBI because this operation connected to existing files on organized crime gangs operating in the Miami area. This particular night club had connections to a Boston crime family, so the FBI was very interested in adding a much broader case. To be successful in any investigations of this type, you have to play the role of the people you were investigating. The parlay cards I was allegedly selling to my car dealership coworkers were played by other OCB officers. None of us were ever able to beat the point spread and collect on any of the cards. We never collected one thin dime, showing how the everyday gambler has little chance of winning.

Another masquerade I pulled off was when I got wind of a bolita operation that employed runners who traveled to blue collar worksites around the Miami area. One site was a hotel-restaurant commissary that prepared its own food. I boldly walked into the commissary and disguised myself as a worker. No one questioned me as I took a white freezer coat off of a hook and put it on. I figured the numbers runner showed up at the employees’ coffee break time. I spent time in the men’s room, waiting for the break. Like clockwork, the numbers seller arrived at break time, and the employees wanting to play the numbers formed a long line. As the seller walked the line, he wrote down the players’ picks for the nightly drawing and gave them a carbon receipt. I stood in line and bought my numbers. When the seller left, I hung the coat back up and followed him on his rounds to the other business stops. By taking photographs of him at his other daily stops, I was able to show that he was part of a large operation. I eventually tracked him to the counting house. This was where all the money was turned in by all the runners and where the evening the numbers was actually drawn. They use a bag of numbered ping pong balls. Someone reached in and pulled out three balls. These numbers were the winning combination for that night. Numbers were drawn seven days a week. I secured a warrant for the search of the property that ended in shutting down a large numbers operation that netted thousands of dollars a day in profits. It sent a dozen of these well-established group members to jail. The IRS took over from here and sought to prosecute for income tax evasion.

One interesting investigation I conducted was at several horse race tracks in and around Miami. Bookmakers would actually operate at the tracks, saving customers from standing in lines at the ticket windows. They always dressed in a fashion to make them stand out to the track visitors. One such operator wore a coat with a fur collar in warm weather to be spotted easily in the crowd by his bettors. After placing a few bets with him, I arrested him on the spot. This type of criminal activity kept money from going to the betting windows where the money was taxed by the State.

An open bookmaker case that was previously hard to solve involved a suspect who operated out of an apartment somewhere in Miami. He was alleged to be a big time bookie, and no one had been able to locate his actual place of business. The phone company’s policy was to not divulge to authorities any locations of multiple banks of telephones that was necessary to operate a large bookmaking operation. To get the records, a subpoena was needed. Phone company employees were never trusted because of their opportunity to make side money by working for bookies and tipping them off if records were subpoenaed. I was assigned the task of trying to make a case after several failed attempts. One morning, I brought a lawn mower from home and was mowing the grass of an empty home for sale three houses down from where our bookie lived. Heading out to work that morning, he drove by very slowly and gave me the evil eye. I ignored him until he left the area. I radioed his route to three other undercover units. Through parallel street tailing they were successful in following him to his final destination, a rented apartment We rented an empty apartment across from his and started photographing and logging his comings and goings.
We collected trash receipts from his garbage can when he placed it out at the curb at the end of the day. This was how confident he was that no one was investigating him. While most bookies used water soluble paper, he just tossed his out in the trash. Serving a search warrant after a couple weeks of the stake out, we discovered that his operation alone was netting some $5,000 a day.

Most bookies had to pay a percentage to an organized crime family to continue to operate. Florida was supposed to be a neutral state where the crime bosses could come and relax because no one organization had any real operations set up. This wasn’t entirely true. They were all greedy and had their fingers in many pies. There was a popular boat manufacturer in North Miami Beach who built super fast cigarette racing boats for the drug smugglers who brought dope in from the Bahamas. He also built boats that ran a little faster and sold them to the DEA and Customs. This wasn’t a wise move because the smugglers eventually figured out what he was doing. One afternoon as he left his shop a sedan pulled alongside of him. He was shot in the head and died instantly. He was playing both ends and making big bucks until he was murdered.

The OCB Vice Squad had an undercover agent staying at a posh hotel on Miami Beach. They were conducting a high priced prostitution investigation. He checked in as a tourist. After a couple of days, he made connections for the weekend and needed a second officer to act as the witness. Miami-Dade dotted their I’s and crossed their T’s to make sound prosecutable cases. No one was able to run over to the hotel, so they found me by chance and asked if I’d mind assisting in the arrest. I made it to the room before the prostitute was to arrive. I took my position in the closet. On a predetermined signal and when the cash transaction and scope of her services were finalized, I sprang out of the closet and affected the arrest. This was the first and only time I assisted in this type of case.

Undercover work was very exciting. Each and every group I was able to penetrate and arrest was very gratifying to me.

USING CONTESTS TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS
by Judith Pittman (Atkins), author of the Indian Creek Texas Mysteries
www.judeatkins.com

Once your book is released you can take advantage of Press Release sites like PR Web
http://www.prwebdirect.com/ to send out a free news release, and while you’re at it this is
a perfect time to hold your first contest.

In your Press Release you can announce your contest and invite everyone to visit your
website where they can enter to win a copy of your book. This is one of the best ways to
attract visitors to your website and get them interested in your book.

Of course, you’ll need your own website. Here you’ll post information about your book,
including blurbs, and excerpts and links to your publisher’s buy page, as well as links to
Fictionwise, Amazon and other commercial sites where your book is available – make
sure your publisher’s Buy page is first and most prominent though as that’s where the
best purchase deals will be found. If you don’t have a dedicated website and feel you
can’t afford one, don’t despair, there are lots of places where they will host a free page
for you. Yahoo and Google both offer free basic websites, as do AOL and MSN. Then
there are places like published.com (http://www.published.com/) and Author’s Den
(http://www.authorsden.com/) where you can design your own author page and add your
books to their promotion libraries.

Some of the best places to promote your book and your contest are social networking
sites like Facebook, My Space and Ning. There you will find communities of people
interested in the subject of your book. Search for reader pages under topics related to
your book and join as many as you find as a fan. Most of these fan pages will allow you
to post announcements about the release of your book and a link to your website on their
Walls. As well, you’ll find book clubs, book review sites, and lots of other subject
specific locations where you can post information about your book. The more you
explore the more places you’ll find where you can drop little notes about the subject of
your book. Use the location of your book, the interests of your characters, the theme of
your book, all of these topics are potential promotion areas for your book.

Online Sweepstakes http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/ are examples of great locations for promoting your contest. There are hundreds of listings there, but because your prize is a free book, the subject matter narrows your visitors down to those contestants who are interested in winning books, and thus makes it more likely that you’ll be attracting a “reader” audience to your site. After all, you are only giving away one book, but you want all of the visitors to your website to “covet” your book, and that way, those who don’t win will be encouraged to come back and buy a copy for themselves.

Always be sure to have cover art, links, and Buy buttons prominently displayed on your contest site. There are always going to be those visitors who don’t want to wait for a possible win, they want to buy your book right now. Make sure that it’s easy to find your contest on your webpage. Type the terms in clear, bold print and make them simple. Ask contestants for their first and last names and email addresses (include state or province) if you want an idea of where your visitors are coming form. Do not, however, request personal or address information on line; you don’t need this information and people are justifiably reluctant to give this out.

You’ll want to “glean” your email for future mailings and to build a database for your
own newsletter. I make it a point to advise contestants that they’ll be added to my
newsletter database unless they request an “opt out”. I’ve received fewer than 1%
requests for opting out, and most visitors are delighted to be notified of future contests. I
also give them an unsubscribe option in every newsletter or mailing, and whenever
someone requests that I unsubscribe them I do so immediately. This is very important to
establish your credibility. You’ll find that some people will unsubscribe only to come
back again and sign up for a future contest and stay subscribed.

SERIAL KILLERS, A HOMICIDE DETECTIVE’S TAKE
by Captain Nelson Andreu, West Miami Police Department

1. Credentials and Interest

It was during my tenure of over 20 years as a homicide Detective and Detective Sergeant with the Miami Police Department that I investigated six serial murder cases. I like to think that the experience I gained in those investigations has given me a most rudimentary glimmer of understanding as to what motivates a serial killer in undertaking his atrocities.

These six serial murder cases, which accounted for the murders of nearly 50 people, all took place in the Miami area. All six offenders were men: two Hispanic/white males, two African-American males, and two white Anglo males. They all had different, although equally macabre, reasons for their acts. Three of the killers confessed their crimes while the others took their reasons to their graves, dying of AIDS while in prison or taking their own lives. The three men who confessed provided us with many, sometimes distressingly vivid, details of how, why, and when they committed their crimes.

Although part of my job as a homicide detective is to analyze the motives of killers, my interest goes beyond the requirements of my job. I have acquired and extensively studied a lengthy and well-written dissertation prepared by a convicted and, to me unknown, serial killer, and material from this document is incorporated into this article. Because I do not know his name I cannot give specific credit to its author(1).

I can, however, vouch for the validity of this document by providing some history about how I obtained it. While working the Rory Conde case, the investigative team was receiving copious leads, but none were panning out. One of the investigators assigned to the Task Force received by mail a letter from a local therapist. The author of this glimpse into a killer’s mind prepared it as part of his psychological treatment at the request of his therapist, who chose to protect the identity of his source. The document that we received was a photocopy of what had apparently originally been handwritten on a lined legal pad in a consistent fine point that appeared to have been ink. The letter was perfectly legible and the printing was so nearly perfect that at first glance it appeared almost to have been typewritten. Close inspection revealed, however, the slight variations of human penmanship. The writing was meticulous, a nearly perfect hand that neatly compacted two rows of text between every two lines. Approximately five pages long, the document showed no mistakes and appeared completely free of erasures, strike-outs, even hesitation. If the writer employed such precision and planning in implementing the hideous deeds he described, it seemed nothing short of miraculous that he was ever caught. With hundreds of years of collective investigative experience behind the assembled investigative team, or Serial Killer Task Force as we were called, we harbored no doubt that whoever had written this document was a perverse, sadistic, frighteningly sick individual who was highly likely to have committed the unspeakable acts that he reduced to writing.

Revealed in this article are presumably candid thought processes provided by this protected source, as well as information provided by serial killers whom I have investigated. Although serial killers vary in the details of their mental constructs, certain procedural similarities are common among them, and enable us to construct a very general profile. In this article I attempt to track similarities among people who kill strangers.

During the six serial killer cases I investigated, I dealt extensively with Criminal Profilers from both the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). Their training and work experience are extensive and years in the making, and I have found these specialists to be truly invaluable resources(2).

First, a few statistics. Keep in mind, of course, that these are generalities; always there will be those who fall outside the bell curve. The following is a consensus of the majority of criminal profilers, based on actual cases they have investigated. Serial killers tend to be mostly white males; between 20 and 40 years of age(3) . Most, although not all, serial killers begin their lives as petty criminals; initially they may have been peeping-Toms, animal torturers, arsonists, or any other of a wide range of pre-killing crimes. I have yet to hear of a provably “upstanding” citizen who begins his life of crime by killing people for personal and/or sexual gratification. In addition, as you may have observed from the examples given above, the “petty crimes” engaged in by nascent serial killers tend away from harmless “pranks” such as vandalism and opportunistic burglary and in the direction of more highly “anti-social” behaviors.

Serial killers frequently suffer from low self-esteem, often complicated by some sort of sexual dysfunction. Many were themselves the victims of sexual abuse and/or were raised in violent households. Never having received much training in social graces and lacking in confidence, they tend to be introverted and friendless. Some, like emotional adolescents that never reach adulthood, maintain unhealthy ties to a family member, often the mother. And although certain serial killers have counted their mothers among their victims, in my belief such instances are not sexual in nature, but more a revenge or to halt years of real or perceived domination. In nearly all cases, deviant and recurring sexual desires and fantasies are what drive these people to murder multiple victims.

Spending much time alone, those who will depart the social norms tend to inhabit an imaginary world. Their fantasies, which in my experience always involve sex, begin small. At first they are able to achieve gratification merely by imagining these scenarios, and in that way they may not differ from other people who for reasons of their own concoct socially unacceptable fantasies that never see the light of day.

For those who develop into serial killers, at some point imaginary scenarios start to become insufficient. When thoughts and self-stimulation no longer suffice, some of these people may act their visions out in the limited but sometimes quite realistic realm of sado-masochistic sex. In time, even that is not enough. For reasons of their own, some people require more and greater stimuli to satisfy their turbulent desires, until finally they enact the killing of their first victim.

This is a big step, even for a highly aberrant mind. The perpetrator himself may be shocked and frightened, even disgusted, and it may take a while for the first-time murderer to reestablish his personal mandate. While doing so, he may relive his actions over and over in his mind, thus receiving again that gratification obtained during the actual murder and, perhaps, by doing so actually setting the stage for his progression. Some killers take something, a trophy if you will, from their victim. It may be an article of clothing or a photograph, a swatch of hair or piece of jewelry, something of use to embellish their mental re-living of their actions. This suffices for a while but, in time, their ability mentally to revisit their victim’s demise will fade. By the time this happens, if he has reconstructed his entitlement and begins to hunt another victim, such a person has come to fit the classical mold of a serial killer.

How does a serial killer select victims? The traditional school of thought holds that generally they select victims based on certain physical and/or personal characteristics. This assertion presupposes that, within the mind of each serial killer, there evolves synthesis of preferred characteristics and, ultimately, a clear, specific picture of his “ideal” victim, be it male or female, black or white, young or old, short or tall, large busted or small, shy or forward, and so on. Then, when that “typical” serial killer begins an active search for human prey, he will go to certain lengths to capture and victimize only those individuals who closely fit the mold.

Unexpectedly, I have observed that most serial killers never actually find and kill their “dream victim.” People fitting such detailed and perfected images may not only be hard to come by, but may also not be easily available in the venues haunted by “hunting” serial killers. So when that ideal victim cannot be found, and when their internal impetus becomes powerful enough, they will settle for a substitute. Ignoring for a moment the disparity between deviant human and normal feline behavior, a serial killer can be compared to a hungry lion that lies in wait for his favorite meal. It may be the lion knows an impala has the most tender or tasty meat. He waits for an opportunity to kill and eat the impala and in doing so may allow easy but not-so-attractive prey to pass unmolested. In time, hunger pains growing and no impala in sight, the famished lion will settle for an unwary bird that happens by. After devouring the bird, which gives his hunger a brief respite, the lion again has time to savor the taste of an impala, and the cycle begins again.

Like the lion, a serial killer just will not defer acting out his urge to kill simply because his “ideal” victim refuses to materialize at his beck and call. But his reason for settling for something less diverges from that of the lion. There are two basic, interrelated reasons for this disparity. The first centers on the extra caution exercised by a serial killer in his search for a victim; the second, upon the nature of the compulsion that drives him to violence.

Addressing the former reason first, it can be said that a serial killer is among the most alert and cautious of all human beings. Such caution can be explained by his foremost concern, that being to carry out his activities without being caught, that he may continue to enjoy his pursuits. Incidentally, this awareness of right versus wrong, at least to the extent of shielding his own identity, distinguishes the mental processes of a serial killer, however deviant they may be, from the insanity manifested by true psychosis. However much he has inwardly justified his intentions, he nevertheless does have an unacknowledged sense or awareness of the heinous—not to mention illegal—nature of the acts he will commit. He is aware of the stakes involved—that there is absolutely no room for error—and therefore will mark no one for his prey unless he perceives the odds to be overwhelmingly in his favor. His motto may well be “whom I cannot seize safely, I will not seize at all.”

In theory, a serial killer could reject all other easy prey until; at last, his “ideal” victim was to appear in circumstances perfectly suited to his caution. If that were often true, however, we may not have run across many instances of serial murders. But this intense and mounting hunger for real-life violence against a real-life captive can be contained only so long before it inevitably compels him to settle for second-best. The ideal victim of a human serial killer may be a voluptuous blonde movie star or a beautiful brunette model, but his search for this richly imagined victim may well meet with failure. Failure is something the serial killer cannot tolerate, so he settles for an easier target, usually a prostitute, or a homeless or drug-addicted woman. These types of victims, although not the killer’s “ideal or dream” victim, make easy targets. They are usually willing to go with the killer to another location with the lure of money and/or drugs, thus giving the serial killer the opportunity to have the victim on his turf. Additionally, the killer may have prepared a killing scheme that can include restraints, knock-out drugs, or a variety of contingency plans that he has carefully prepared to snare his victim.

The first time he kills may not be perfectly choreographed. Sometimes it may actually take the perpetrator by surprise or be accidental in nature. But, inspired by the intense satisfaction the killing produces, he starts to plan in earnest. As he perfects his trade, future victims may increasingly undergo a more torturous, orchestrated, even ritualistic death.

As a serial killer steps away from his base, whatever it may be, to begin the hunt for human prey, it is almost always true that he knows absolutely nothing about the person who is fated to become his victim. This is true even in the case of such serial killers as William Cody in Colorado, who cultivated his victims over lengthy periods (acquiring their possessions as well as their trust) before finally and viciously ending their lives. But for him as well, each future victim began as a stranger about whom he knew nothing. In this way does a serial killer differ from a man who, in a burst of anger, kills his adulterous wife, as well as the cold-blooded planner who kills for revenge?

It may be that having no prior knowledge of a future victim further enables the process of that victim’s objectification. For as far as he is concerned, his next victim is not even a human being, in the accepted sense. So, well before he ever crosses paths with his next victim, he has already stripped that person of all human meaning and worth; he has unilaterally decreed from afar that the person is deserving of no human consideration whatsoever. Thus, then, in a serial killer’s perception of his victims; past and future: that each is nothing more than an object, depersonalized in advance, existing only for himself and his enjoyment, and solely to be seized and used as he sees fit. Moreover, he perceives his unseen prey not just as an object to be used, but as an object unworthy of any consideration, worthy only of extreme contempt, vicious abuse, and ultimate destruction.

Why does the serial killer hold such an extreme and irrational disregard for others? How can he so utterly despise and count worthless another human being whom he has even yet to meet? The answer to these questions is that, after years of privately nurturing and reinforcing his compulsion for violence, a serial killer has arrived at a place where he is compelled to act out his brutal fantasies. This mandates the killer to perceive living human beings—the only pool from which he can obtain real-life victims—as worthless objects deserving the violence he desires to mete out. Mentally he transforms them into hateful creatures, because, in the twisted morality of his own making, it is only against such richly deserving objects that he can justifiably and joyfully inflict his personal brand of justice. Perhaps, in the carefully constructed mentation of a serial killer, no one but himself really deserves to live.

To preserve this mentation, a serial killer must lie to himself. He lies as he denies his own “badness” and projects it upon his as-yet free, future victim. He lies as he stands in judgment and pronounces his victim “guilty” for the “crime” of imagining him- or herself a worthy human being. All such self-serving justifications, of course, are nothing more than self-delusion that has come to be, in the killer’s mind, reality. To a serial killer, such a construction of reality is entirely necessary. For deep inside of himself, each serial killer contains an unacknowledged awareness of the fact that his future victims are innocent human beings, utterly undeserving of his wrath. Yet, to admit this fact, he would also have to recognize that he, and the violence he intends to inflict, is altogether unjust and wrong. And, for a man grown accustomed to the :”goodness” and “rightness” of his proclivity for violence and the pleasure it provides, any such admission of actual wrong is impossible to countenance.

Once a serial killer is in possession of a living victim, and has this victim where he feels safe enough to act out his fantasies, the acts he carries out are often performed as if on “auto-pilot.” The killer’s acts appear to be a close reenactment of what he previously did in his imagination. So, from among an array of violent fantasies, he picks and chooses the individual cruelties that he feels will assure the most in the way of “self-fulfillment.” Yet, if a serial killer places this kind of special emphasis on the careful and systematic acting out of his favorite mind pictures, it is only because of the tremendous meaning and pleasure he derives from watching the degrading, dehumanizing effect they have upon his victim as he methodically carries them out. To him, nothing is more important than to see his victim reduced to the very lowest depths of misery and despair. For if there is any single reason that a serial killer does what he does, it is so that he may feel enlarged and magnified in his own eyes—through the willful and violent degradation of another human being. This need for self-magnification is always, I believe, a mandatory pre-requisite to any episodes of violence.

As for the actual commission of the murder itself, I believe this is usually nothing more than a postscript to a serial killer’s overall scheme of violence. His real gratification comes from the subjugation, terrorization, and brutalization of his victim, and almost not at all from the actual murder itself. Thus, from a serial killer’s viewpoint, his victim might be likened to a disposable paper cup, from which he takes a long and satisfying drink of water. Once the water is gone, his thirst quenched, the cup has served its purpose; it is useless, and therefore can be crushed without thought and thrown away without concern. Since he has met his need to terrorize and abuse, his victim is perceived as an object of inconvenience, a worn-out and no-longer-needed piece of baggage. So, his only concern now is for quick extermination and safe disposal of the victim he no longer needs or wants.

Once he murders his victim, a serial killer’s tactics for disposal of the body remain entirely self-centered. If, for example, he takes the time and effort to bury his victim’s remains, he almost certainly does this not out of any last-minute concession toward decency, but, instead, simply to hide the evidence. Should conditions be favorable, he will simply dump the body unceremoniously someplace where prompt discovery is unlikely, unwilling either to make the effort to dig, or risk being seen digging, anything so eye-catching as a body-sized hole in the ground.

Eager though he may be to be rid of the victim’s body, a typical serial killer, if he has a choice, is not apt to dispose of the body in open view, where it can be quickly and easily found. Although certain serial killers have done exactly this, taking additional and special delight in flaunting their atrocities, I believe most have no desire to advertise what they have done. They have already had their excitement and experienced their relief. Anything else is anticlimactic. They may go to great lengths to cover up their tracks, only so that a body cannot be traced back to them. One Florida serial killer, Danny Rolling, took a great deal of pleasure in strategically and carefully positioning his dead victims in the most shocking pose he could concoct. When police entered the victims’ rooms, they were greeted by the deceased bodies positioned in a variety of graphic and ghastly poses.

A serial killer generally does have an idea for where he wants to dispose of the victim’s remains, or at least, he has a general idea of the type of locale that would best suit his needs. Usually, this is a remote or secluded locale, a place where he can discard the victim’s body quickly and without the likelihood of being seen, yet which affords some ready concealment over his victim’s remains. If the whole violent episode occurred at such a locale in the first place, he will simply kill and leave his victim right there. If not, he will generally always put forth some effort to reach a secluded and preferred dumping ground. But, as always, his every action will be governed solely by self concern.

It is fortunate for us, investigators trying to solve these brutal crimes, that serial killers are not perfect. Because of their human nature, they, in most cases, unknowingly leave clues behind. It is a known fact in criminal investigations that, as well as leaving something behind, a perpetrator will always, even if unconsciously, take something from the scene of the crime. This is true not just of serial killers, but of nearly all crime scenes. These clues are often very subtle and nearly impossible to identify and collect. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to secure a crime scene and search for these faint clues the killer has inadvertently left behind. If we are to have any hope of solving these cases, it is imperative that we not overlook or miss those subtle clues the killer provides.

Some of the serial murder cases I investigated conformed to these generalities while others did not; variations in such exceptionally deviant behavior are only to be expected. In the case of Charles Williams, one suspect who died of AIDS in a Florida penitentiary, many of what we came to believe were his victim’s deaths were not initially classified as murders. The original detectives and medical examiners investigating these cases in a predominantly low-income area of Miami found large quantities of drugs in the bodies of women, most of whom were, based on previous arrest histories and family interviews, known prostitutes and/or drug addicts, and consequently most of these deaths were initially classified as drug overdoses. But as the body count among such women in a relatively circumscribed area continued to rise, we homicide investigators became increasingly concerned that a pattern was emerging. Consequently many of the cases were reopened, bodies disinterred, and autopsy findings reviewed.

Williams was born and raised in Miami and lived in the same neighborhood that the murders took place. He would lure his victims, provide them with drugs, have sexual intercourse with them, and manually strangle them during the sex act. I speculate that he derived his pleasure from not only the sexual act, but also by being in such total control that their lives were given to satisfy his unnatural needs. In one instance, a Miami police officer ran right by Williams as he was having sex with his victim in a field. The officer, involved in a foot chase of another criminal, glimpsed but paid no further attention to the couple. It was not until the next day when the victim was found lying in the precise spot where the officer had seen the couple that realization dawned. Unfortunately but understandably, given the circumstances of the sighting, the officer did not recognize Williams as the person who was having sex with the prostitute.

Although I actively participated in this investigation, the credit for actually solving the case and gathering the evidence to convict Williams goes to then-Homicide Detective Tony Rodriguez, now a Captain with the Miami Police Department. The investigation spanned a period of many years and was ultimately focused on Williams through DNA testing, bite-mark comparisons, and Williams’s denial—which flew in the face of his known proclivities of ever having been with the victim. DNA testing was in the infancy stage at the time Williams was killing his victims, but DNA nevertheless linked him to the decisive case he was charged and convicted with. This lead to at least seven deaths being reclassified and attributed to Williams, who was ultimately tried, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Although Williams was suspected of having killed over 30 women in the greater Miami area, comprising several different police jurisdictions, in the end he was charged and convicted on just one Miami Police Department case.

In the case of Rory Conde, nicknamed “The Tamiami Strangler,” six prostitutes were found manually strangled and their bodies discarded at various locations near US-41, which in Miami is called Tamiami Trail. Conde’s wife of many years lived in constant fear of beatings and abuse at Conde’s hands. Once when his wife was absent Conde brought a prostitute home and dressed her in his wife’s pajamas, videotaping their sex acts. When his wife eventually discovered the videotape, she moved out. The couple had several children and Conde had trouble visiting them as he tried to reconcile with his estranged wife. In his confession he blamed the prostitutes for his failed marriage and for losing his children.

Of the six people Conde killed, five were women and one was a transvestite. They were all prostitutes, picked up from within a few-blocks-square area known as a hangout for quick sex. Conde had sex with all of his victims and would strangle them during the sex act. The women were not beaten or brutalized; they all were strangled manually, with little other trauma. After killing his victims, he would often talk to the corpses, giving them advice—as though by such taking of extreme control he had made them “his.” He would always re-dress the women after killing them and discard their bodies in locations such as residential neighborhoods, where they were easily discovered. Initially, when we discovered the second victim, we suspected a serial killer, but were not one hundred percent sure. This fact somehow made its way into the media and with his third victim, Conde wrote a message on her back with a permanent magic marker, leaving us no doubt this was his third victim. Apparently Conde wanted the police to know and inform the media that he was responsible for all three killings. In this message he indicated he would call one of the local television anchors, but he never did. And his killings continued.

The woman who was to become Conde’s seventh victim was able to escape and notify the police, and this ultimately led to his apprehension. Conde had captured this woman and left her locked in his apartment while he attended a court appearance on a shoplifting charge. The terrorized woman escaped from the apartment and led us back to his apartment, where he was captured on his return. Once Conde’s potential victim explained some of the details of her terrifying experience, investigators were practically certain he was the “Tamiami Strangler.” Some tire tracks left on the scenes had been positively linked to an older model Toyota Celica. A quick computer check verified that he owned the exact type of car we were looking for. He was convicted of one of the murders and sentenced to death. He subsequently pled guilty to the others and was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences without parole. Conde was not a “typical” serial killer in that he did not apparently achieve any sexual gratification in torturing or beating his victims. Yet, he did achieve a peculiar satisfaction in his perception that—following his own pleasure—he was ridding the world of the type of woman who had caused his family life to disintegrate.

The fourth serial killer investigation in which I participated does not fit the mold of “serial killer,” so far as one exists. Robert Rozier was a former pro football player drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals who later played with the Oakland Raiders. He joined a radical black-supremacist Hebrew sect called the “Temple of Love.” The cult, led by self proclaimed “Son of God” Hulon Mitchell Jr., who called himself Yahweh Ben Yahweh, was suspected of having killed 14 people in various states. Although neither Rozier nor Mitchell killed for sexual gratification or stimulation, their murders were carried out as a power struggle to keep cult defectors from ruining Mitchell’s eight-million-dollar Miami empire. As proof of the killings, Mitchell required that Rozier sever the ears of his victims and bring them to him. Although the purpose of most killings was simply to keep cult members “in line,” several white male victims were randomly murdered as part of the initiation to the secret “brotherhood.” Severing the ears of victims threw investigators off track for a while: they hypothesized that the killer could have been a crazed war veteran, since some had been known to cut off the ear of a dead enemy soldier for some macabre reason.

Rozier was convicted of committing four murders under orders from the cult. He later admitted to seven killings and was sentenced to 22 years in prison, agreeing to cooperate with the authorities. He was released after serving just 10 years and became a federally protected witness. After relocating to his California home he violated his program and, under California’s “three strikes law,” was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The fifth serial-killer case I helped investigate was more notorious. In the mid 1980s, Christopher Wilder, the jet-setting racecar driver and photographer, scoured the country for beautiful women, luring them with the pretext of being a fashion-model photographer. Wilder was a more sadistic killer, systematically torturing his victims with electricity, even gluing their eyes closed with superglue. During the Miami Grand Prix, an aspiring model named Rosario Gonzalez, hired to work at the Grand Prix, met Wilder. Although we may never know the exact details of what transpired, we suspect he enticed her with the prospect of her photographs appearing in a prominent magazine.

Ms. Gonzalez apparently went with Wilder and met her demise. To this day her body has never been found. Just recently, I spoke to Lieutenant Jorge Morin who, when Rosario Gonzalez disappeared, was the lead homicide detective assigned to her case. Nearly 20 years after Rosario vanished, Morin is still baffled at the fact her body was never found. Although there was never any solid evidence that she was in fact dead, the investigation led us to that assumption, and Lieutenant Morin hopes someday to bring closure to this as-yet-unsolved investigation. Wilder was suspected of using this same MO to torture and kill at least eight women, and was the subject of a nationwide manhunt that culminated in a police chase. On the verge of capture, he shot and killed himself.

I also helped investigate another very notorious serial killer who escaped apprehension through suicide. This case too spanned several states and concluded on a houseboat in Miami Beach. Although none of his murders actually took place within the jurisdictional boundaries of the City of Miami, the close proximity of Miami Beach enabled my detectives and me to assist the Miami Beach Police Department. Andrew Cunanan had been tracked across the United States after a multi-state killing spree, his guns linking one case to another. After killing Gianni Versace as the man was entering his home, Cunanan found temporary refuge in an empty houseboat. He lived there for many days after the murder and was discovered by the houseboat’s caretaker, who ran out and notified the police. With the houseboat surrounded and bullhorns beckoning Cunanan to come, he shot himself in the head. Once again a serial killer took his demented reasons for his actions to his grave.

The final serial killer case in which I was involved was that of Fransisco Del Junco, a Cuban Mariel refugee who severely beat and set fire to four African-American prostitutes, killing all of them. By the time the second victim was found, in almost the same location as the first, we knew we were dealing with a serial killer. Linked by more than proximity, the first two victims’ injuries were nearly identical. All four women were found in areas of Miami frequented by homeless people and low-priced prostitutes. Hundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel began interviewing, photographing, and obtaining DNA samples from hundreds of Miami’s homeless community. One woman who claimed she was attacked, months before, by a Hispanic man from whom she was able to escape became one more potential witness among hundreds of other leads we were following. Months later, this same woman notified a uniformed police officer that the man who had attacked her was riding a bicycle in the area. All Miami police officers were aware of the high-profile serial-killer case. Anticipating that the serial killer was overdue for killing again the Task Force was out in full force, and soon after the uniformed officer’s radio transmission the cyclist was located. Within minutes I arrived at the scene.

Weeks earlier, the body of Del Junco’s fourth victim had been discovered in an abandoned gas station. Inside, acoustic ceiling tiles had fallen under the weight of water from a leaky roof and were strewn about the floor. After having stepped in some greasy oil from the work area of this garage, Del Junco then left shoe prints on several of the white ceiling tiles. This left near-perfect impressions of a very distinctive shoe pattern. For months I visited dozens of shoe stores looking in vain for this pattern, which had become deeply ingrained in my memory.

My first request of the detained cyclist was to see the bottom of his shoe. When he lifted his foot, at last I saw the pattern I had so desperately been trying to identify. This, coupled with the fact a small pill container containing gasoline was strapped to the underside of his bicycle seat, left no doubt in my mind he was our killer. It took nearly four days of interviewing before Del Junco admitted his atrocities—four days during which, because he had not been charged, he was allowed to return home and go to work under constant police surveillance. When he finally confessed, Del Junco blamed voices in his mind that ordered him to do these things. He is charged in all four murders and is currently awaiting trial in Miami.

The profile I submit in this article is only that, a profile. People who kill strangers all have their own macabre reasons for their acts. Nevertheless, we can learn from those who are willing to divulge their reasons, and sometimes from the acts of those who don’t. Since retiring from the Miami Police Department in May of 2002, I have continued my quest to learn all that I can about serial killers and the gruesome reasons they contrive for their ghastly deeds. I plan to interview imprisoned serial killers to further educate myself on their behaviors, extracting information that may be of predictive or clinical use, and present my findings in book form. After a few years of retirement from active police work, I returned to Law Enforcement and I am currently a Captain, and second in command, with the West Miami Police Department.

Additionally, I have recently published a fictional novel about a Miami Homicide Detective. It is available from the book’s web site at http://DeadRedNovel.com .

(1) Anon, article postmarked October 1994.

(2) One such profiler from FDLE is Leslie D’Ambrosia. She and I worked almost daily on not just these cases, but several others that showed a potential to become serial in nature.

(3) One of the few female serial killers, Aileen Wuornos, was executed in Florida in October of 2002.

* * *

REQUEST FOR SUBMISSION
YOU DON’T HAVE A CLUE: MYSTERY FOR TEENS

Editor, Sarah Cortez and Arte Público Press, the world’s largest publisher of U.S. Hispanic voices, will bring together today’s most exciting Latino/a fiction writers in an anthology of original mystery fiction for the YA reader. This volume, tentatively entitled “You Don’t Have A Clue,” will feature all types of mystery short stories. There will be stories guaranteed to pull in the reluctant reader and stories to delight the high school student gearing up for admissions tests. A Teacher’s Guide will facilitate classroom use by teachers and library media specialists.

Join us in creating the first anthology of edgy, fast-paced mystery fiction written by Latino/a authors for high school students.

Word Count: up to 6,000
Format: standard (double-spaced, one-inch margins, numbered pages)
Unpublished: This includes both print and online
Simultaneous Submission: no
Compensation:yes
Language: English
Deadline: April 30, 2010
Electronic Submission: no
Bio: one paragraph which includes your publishing history and your ethnic heritage

Please include the following info with your submission: mailing address, email, address, two contact phone numbers.

Note: your submission will not be returned unless an SASE with sufficient postage is provided. Unreturned copies will be shredded and recycled. You will be notified by email if your submission is accepted or rejected.

I hope you’ll join me in creating a unique volume of excellent fiction for our young people!

In the last newsletter I wrote about Mystery on the High Seas: A Cruise To Die For. This is an event Denny Griffin and Jack Miller proposed while we were sailing on the Veteran's cruise in the Caribbean.

The cruise will leave Los Angeles Nov. 14-21, 2010. We sail to the Mexican Riviera: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas.

I was contacted by Ken Sherman, a literary agent based in Beverly Hills. He remembered me from a speaking event I did in Boise and wanted to know more about the trip. He's now sailing with us and will be available for pitch sessions. An agent for more than twenty years, Sherman represents screen, television and book writers, and also sells film and television rights to books, plus life rights.

Sherman has returned to the classroom numerous times to teach "The Business of Writing for Screen, Television and Publishing" at both USC and UCLA for more than six years. This is an exciting opportunity for authors to explore a unique aspect of screenwriting and mystery fans to get a glimpse of behind-the-scenes Hollywood.

We've also got Lee Emory, publisher of Treble Heart Books and mystery line WhoooDoo Mysteries, sailing with us and accepting pitches. Oak Tree Press is also going to be represented.

Who else is aboard? Author Jinx Schwartz is already familiar with the Mexican Riviera--she's set her mysteries in some the the ports-of-call we'll be visiting. Her presentation on the area will get us ready for some shore time. Cynthia Riggs will launch her 9th Martha Vineyard Mystery, TOUCH-ME-NOT from St. Martin's Minotaur. Her 92-year-old detective demonstrates that you can be up for anything at any age. Austin Camacho, the author of the Hannibal Jones series, has published a book on marketing. While sailing on the currents, we will also have discussions on the "current" trends in publishing. Marion Moore Hill, author of the Deadly Past Mysteries; Peggy Ehrhart, author of SWEET MAN IS GONE; Canadian Lou Allin is willing to go South of the Border to give us a bit of Northern Exposure.

Several familiar names will be sailing: Marilyn Meredith and Hap, Monti Sikes and Madeline Gornell. We'll be talking up PSWA and recruiting.

Denny has several Vegas mob presentations and Two-Reel Productions will be filming the panels. We are able to sell books in the rooms where we speak, and as the conference is free to everyone aboard the Splendor, that's 3,000 potential fans.

As you probably know, the economy has put cruiseliners in the hurt. Price for a berth on the Carnival Splendor starts at under $500--and that includes gratuities. Plus, Beverly has all sorts of freebies for us: conference T-shirts, champagne to launch, $50 onboard spending money. There's also an open-bar meet & greet.

Ed Nowicki, PSWA member from Wisconsin, had a guest editorial published in the February, 2010 issue of Police magazine and another guest editorial published in the March, 2010 issue of Law and Order magazine.

SKELETON BAYOU by Melanie Atkins is available in both print and ebook form from The Wild Rose Press and at many other online outlets.
http://www.thewildrosepress.com/skeleton-bayou-paperback-p-3765.html

Savannah Love is emotionally and physically battered, but is determined to survive after escaping the hellish imprisonment imposed on her by her psychotic cop-husband. After seven months in hiding, she resurfaces at Mossy Oak, her ramshackle family home on a Louisiana bayou, and attempts to restart her life. The empty house provides shelter, but isn’t the fortress she needs when her cruel ex comes calling.

Mack O’Malley, former cop turned handyman conflicted over a bad shoot on the job, comes to Savannah’s rescue when the psychopath draws them into a deadly game of cat and mouse. Fearful of Mack at first, she soon discovers that beneath his steely exterior lies a resolute defender with a heart hungry for love. Will their alliance save them, or will they fall victim to the Legend of Skeleton Bayou?

PRIME SUSPECT, the second ebook in my New Orleans Detective series, is
now available from Desert Breeze Publishing.
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-56/%3Ci%3ENew-Orleans-Detectives-Book/Detail.bok

New Orleans Assistant District Attorney Marisa Cooper prosecutes murderers for a living, but the tables are turned on her when her ex-husband is found dead in her garage. To prove her innocence, she must team up with her former fiancée, Slade Montgomery, the detective who risks his career--and his heart--to help her find the real killer.

Melanie Atkins
http://www.melanieatkins.com
http://melanieatkins.wordpress.com/
SKELETON BAYOU--The Wild Rose Press--Available Now!
PRIME SUSPECT--Desert Breeze Publishing--Available Now!

Kathleen Ryan reports her essay, "The Watcher" will be published in March 2010 in The Southampton Review. She’ll be attending the launch party in Manhattan on March 9.
(The issue isn't up for sale yet, but it will be on this site when it becomes available:
http://shopsb.fsa.sunysb.edu/index.php?categoryID=46

Her story, "Playing with Matches" will appear in W.W. Norton's Hint Fiction Anthology: Stories Told in 25 Words or Less, edited by Robert Swartwood, in November 2010. The anthology includes work from authors including Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen Dunn, James Frey, Peter Straub, Ha Jin, Tess Gerritsen, Douglas Clegg, J.A. Konrath, and many more.

Her story, "Fraternization" was recently chosen to be included in "6S:The Love Book" by Robert McEvily, the creator and editor of Six Sentences (http://sixsentences.blogspot.com/) It was published on February 3, 2010 and is available at: https://www.createspace.com/3430617).

* * *
AN AXE TO GRIND, the latest in the Rocky Bluff P.D. crime series is available in trade paperback from all the usual places including autographed copies from my website: http://fictionforyou.com

If you have a Kindle, you can download An Axe to Grind for only $1.99. You can check out my other Rocky Bluff P.D. books by looking under the name F.M. Meredith (a.k.a. Marilyn Meredith.)

An imaginative stalker’s decapitation sends Detectives Doug Milligan and Frank Marshall on an investigation that includes the stalker’s family, his victim and her family—a family with ties to Sergeant Navarro. Vice-Officer Stacey Milligan goes after a soccer coach who may be a pedophile. As usual, because of their jobs with the Rocky Bluff P.D., Stacey’s and Doug’s romance is put on a back-burner. When Doug strikes out on his own to corner the murderer and no one knows where he went, it is up to Stacey to find him before it’s too late.

PUBLIC SAFETY WRITERS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Spring 2010 Newsletter

PUBLIC SAFETY WRITERS ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
Spring 2010 Newsletter