Michael Joseph Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. Connelly is the bestselling author of 38 novels and one work of non-fiction, with over 74 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 40 languages. His first novel, The Black Echo, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly's 1997 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of Connelly's novel The Lincoln Lawyer starred Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. Connelly was the President of the Mystery Writers of America from 2003 to 2004.
Randy Steven Kraft is an American serial killer and rapist known as the Scorecard Killer, the Southern California Strangler, and the Freeway Killer, who committed the rape, torture, and murder of a minimum of sixteen young men between 1972 and 1983, the majority of whom he killed in California. Kraft is also believed to have committed the rape and murder of up to fifty-one other young men and boys. He was convicted in May 1989 and is currently incarcerated on death row at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California.
William George Bonin, also known as the Freeway Killer or the Freeway Strangler, was an American serial killer and twice-paroled sex offender who committed the rape, torture and murder of a minimum of twenty-one young men and boys between May 1979 to June 1980. On at least twelve occasions, Bonin was assisted by one of his four known accomplices; he is also suspected of committing a further fifteen murders.
Dennis McDougal is an American author and newspaper journalist. He has been called "L.A.'s No. 1 muckraker." His book, Privileged Son, was described as "illuminating reading for anyone interested in 20th-century Los Angeles or modern-day newspapering" by The New York Times. A native of Southern California, he lives near Memphis, Tennessee.
Patrick Wayne Kearney, also known as The Trash Bag Killer and The Freeway Killer, is an American serial killer and necrophile who murdered a minimum of twenty-one young men and boys throughout southern California between 1962 and 1977.
Lee Goldberg is an American author, screenwriter, publisher and producer known for his bestselling novels Lost Hills and True Fiction and his work on a wide variety of TV crime series, including Diagnosis: Murder, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Hunter, Spenser: For Hire, Martial Law, She-Wolf of London, SeaQuest, 1-800-Missing, The Glades and Monk.
They Thirst is a horror novel by American writer Robert R. McCammon, first published in 1981 and republished in 1991 in hardback. The book details the relentless possession of Los Angeles by vampires, who quickly transform the city into a necropolis with the intent to conquer the entire world.
Cathleen "Cathy" Scott is a Los Angeles Times and New York Times bestselling American true crime author and investigative journalist who penned the biographies and true crime books The Killing of Tupac Shakur and The Murder of Biggie Smalls, both bestsellers in the United States and United Kingdom, and was the first to report Shakur's death. She grew up in La Mesa, California and later moved to Mission Beach, California, where she was a single parent to a son, Raymond Somers Jr. Her hip-hop books are based on the drive-by shootings that killed the rappers six months apart in the midst of what has been called the West Coast-East Coast war. Each book is dedicated to the rappers' mothers.
Outside Valentine is the 2004 debut novel of American author Liza Ward, the granddaughter of two of the victims of spree killer Charles Starkweather. The book was first published on August 12, 2004 through Picador and is told from the perspective of Caril Ann Fugate, Starkweather's accomplice, the son of two of his victims, and the son's wife.
Death of a Hollow Man is a detective novel by English writer Caroline Graham published by Century in 1989. The story follows Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby investigating the murder of a stage actor during an ongoing play. It is the second volume in Graham's Chief Inspector Barnaby series, preceded by The Killings at Badger's Drift and followed by Death in Disguise. It has been adapted into an episode in the ITV drama Midsomer Murders.
Harry MacLean is a writer and lawyer living in Denver, Colorado, who writes true crime books and won an Edgar Award for his book In Broad Daylight (1988).
Mathew William Phelps is an American crime writer and investigative journalist, podcaster, and TV presenter.
Mary Murphy is an American television personality, print journalist and author. She was an on-air correspondent for The Insider and a news producer at Entertainment Tonight. Murphy is also a senior lecturer at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She has been a contributor to the Los Angeles Times Magazine, USA Weekend Magazine, the New York Post and The Hollywood Reporter. Murphy has been on the staff of the Los Angeles Times and New York, Esquire, and TV Guide Magazines.
Lost Girls is a 2012 non-fiction book by the American-Canadian author and journalist Caitlin Rother about the rape and murder of teenage girls Amber Dubois in 2009 and Chelsea King in 2010 at the hands of John Albert Gardner. It was published in July 2012 by Kensington Books. It was the author's eighth book.
Necrophilia is a pathological fascination with dead bodies, which often takes the form of a desire to engage with them in sexual activities, such as intercourse. Though prohibited by the laws of many countries, there have been many reported cases of necrophilia throughout history.
Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder is a 1994 American historical true crime book by John Gilmore. The book details the life and death of Elizabeth Short, also known as "The Black Dahlia," an infamous murder victim whose mutilated body was found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles in 1947, and whose murder has remained unsolved for decades.
Michelle Eileen McNamara was an American true crime author. She was the author of the true crime book I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, and helped coin the moniker "Golden State Killer" of the serial killer who was identified after her death as Joseph James DeAngelo. The book was released posthumously in February 2018 and later adapted into the 2020 HBO documentary series I'll Be Gone in the Dark.
Missy's Murder: Passion, Betrayal, and Murder in Southern California is a 1991 non-fiction book by Karen Kingsbury and published by Dell Publishing. It concerns the murder of Missy Avila, in the San Fernando Valley region in Greater Los Angeles.
