Author | Karen Kingsbury |
---|---|
Genre | Non-fiction |
Publisher | Dell Publishing |
Publication date | 1991 |
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.
Kingsbury previously reported the Avila case for the Los Angeles Daily News . At the time of the publication of this work, which was her first book, she worked as a freelance journalist. [1]
Richard Lee Colvin of the Los Angeles Times criticized the overly-done reconstructions of conversations, the use of an "annoying narrative device of short chapters in which no names are used", and the sections about the history of the San Fernando Valley. [1] Colvin argued that the story "has impact" despite the book's mistakes and that the author was "most sure of herself" while writing the sections of the book dealing with the trial. [1] He stated the book was "clumsy", that it would disappoint "many readers", and concluded that "One comes to the end of the book, however, wishing that it had been written by a more experienced hand." [1]
Publishers Weekly criticized the book, calling it "unreliable", "superficial", "sensationalistic", and "a poor example of true-crime writing". [2]
In particular Publishers Weekly accused the author of blatantly trying to "idealize the Avila family". [2] Colvin stated that the book, like many other true crime books, goes to "make a monster out of the killer and a saint out of the victim". [1]
The San Fernando Mission Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery located in the Mission Hills community of the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. The property adjoins the San Fernando Mission and Bishop Alemany Catholic High School.
True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines a crime and details the actions of people associated with and affected by criminal events. It is a cultural phenomenon that can refer to the promotion of sensationalized and emotionally charged content around the subject of violent crime, for the general public. Many works in this genre recount high-profile, sensational crimes such as the killing of JonBenét Ramsey, the O. J. Simpson murder case, and the Pamela Smart murder, while others are devoted to more obscure slayings.
Arleta is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California. It contains a high percentage of Latino residents and of people born outside the United States.
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Ann Rae Rule was an American author of true crime books and articles. She is best known for The Stranger Beside Me (1980), about the serial killer Ted Bundy, with whom Rule worked and whom she considered a friend, but was later revealed to be a murderer. Rule wrote over 30 true crime books, including Small Sacrifices, about Oregon child murderer Diane Downs. Many of Rule's books center on murder cases that occurred in the Pacific Northwest and her adopted home state of Washington.
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The Los Angeles Times suburban sections or zone sections were printed between 1952 and 2001 as adjuncts to the main newspaper to cover the news of and sell advertising space in various parts of Southern California that the Times considered to be in the prime part of its circulation area. The giant Los Angeles daily had a "more aggressive zoning policy than perhaps any other newspaper" because its local market was so widespread, a writer for The New York Times opined. But as two of these and six other specialized sections were eliminated in 1995 because of a downturn in newspaper revenues, Times editor Shelby Coffey called them simply "a noble experiment."
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CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties is a 2019 nonfiction book written by Tom O'Neill with Dan Piepenbring. The book presents O'Neill's research into the background and motives for the Tate–LaBianca murders committed by the Manson Family in 1969. O'Neill questions the Helter Skelter scenario argued by lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi in the trials and in his book Helter Skelter (1974). The book's title is a reference to the covert CIA program Operation CHAOS.
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