Ron Franscell | |
---|---|
Born | January 29, 1957 [ citation needed ] |
Occupation | Author, journalist |
Nationality | American |
Period | 1995–present |
Genre | Mystery fiction, crime |
Spouse | Mary Franscell |
Children | 2 |
Website | |
www |
Ron Franscell (born January 29, 1957) is an American journalist, novelist and true crime writer best known for the true account The Darkest Night about the 1973 crimes against two childhood friends in the small community where Franscell grew up.
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(January 2017) |
Franscell was raised in Casper, Wyoming, where he attended Kelly Walsh High School. He attended the US Naval Academy in Annapolis and later Casper College, where he was editor of the school newspaper (The Chinook). He graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wyoming in 1979.
Franscell and his wife live in Placitas, Sandoval County, New Mexico. His wife, Mary Franscell, is a high school English teacher. He has two children.
He worked as a journalist in Wyoming, New Mexico and California for Gannett newspapers from 1983–1989 and is a past president of the Wyoming Press Association. [1]
When Hurricane Rita made landfall in Texas, Franscell, managing editor at the time for the Beaumont Enterprise , rode out the storm with staff members in the newspaper's building. [2] [3]
In 2001, he was hired as a senior writer and columnist to write about the American West by the Denver Post , where he stayed two years. Following 9/11, he went on assignment for the Post to the Middle East. He worked for the Hearst Corporation from 2004–2008.
He was a judge for Knight Ridder newspaper's Top Books of 2003 [4] and the International Association of Crime Writers Hammett Prize in 2017.
In 2008, the book Fall: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town, Franscell's book about a crime against two young girls who were his next-door neighbors in Wyoming, was republished by St. Martin's Press with the new title The Darkest Night. [5]
His book Delivered From Evil, for which he interviewed survivors of notorious mass killings in America, was released in January 2011. After the assassination attempt near Tucson, Arizona the same month of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords', when 18 other people were shot, six of whom died, Franscell was asked to comment for media outlets about mass murders. [6] [7]
True Crime Zine gave Franscell's ninth book, The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Washington, DC released by Globe Pequot Press in September 2012, a five-star review. [8] The Huffington Post reviewed The Sourtoe Cocktail Club, about a father-and-son road trip before Franscell's son Matt left for college. [9]
Franscell's The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Pennsylvania was released by Globe Pequot in October 2013. [10]
This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(January 2017) |
In 2017, the true-crime book, Morgue: A Life in Death, was nominated for an Edgar award by the Mystery Writers of America. In 1995, Franscell was awarded the national Freedom of Information Award from the Associated Press Managing Editors Association.
He was awarded the 1996 Wyoming Literary Fellowship for his first novel Angel Fire. [11] In 1999, Angel Fire was named in the San Francisco Chronicle's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century West. [12]
In 2003, he was given the Distinguished Alumni Award by Casper College. [13]
"The Darkest Night," a New York Times bestseller, won ForeWord Reviews magazine's gold medal for 2007 Book of the Year in true crime. [14]
John Joseph Sirica was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he became famous for his role in the trials stemming from the Watergate scandal.
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Hopkins Wade "Buddy" Tatum Jr. is a bronze sculptor from Corpus Christi, Texas. His works include El Circo Del Mar, as well as a life-sized statue of late Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla located at Mirador de la Flor. He both sculpts and casts his bronzes.
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Yves Trudeau, also known as "Apache" and "The Mad Bomber", was a Canadian outlaw biker, gangster and contract killer. A former member of the Hells Angels North chapter in Laval, Quebec, Trudeau was the club's leading assassin and a major participant in multiple biker conflicts throughout Canadian history, including the Popeyes–Devils Disciples War, the Satan's Choice–Popeyes War and the First Biker War. Frustrated by cocaine addiction and his suspicion that his fellow gang members wanted him dead, he became a Crown witness after the Lennoxville massacre. In exchange, he received a lenient sentence – life in prison but eligible for parole after seven years – for the killing of 43 people from September 1973 to July 1985.
The Buckhorn Saloon & Museum is a privately run museum located at 318 E. Houston Street in Downtown San Antonio, Texas, U.S. Originally privately owned by Albert Friedrich, the Buckhorn became a tourist attraction for its unique collections. Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were reputed to frequent the establishment. Housed in 1956 in the Old Lone Star Brewery, the collection passed to Friedrich's heirs who had it moved to its current location.
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Gate of Heaven Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Aspen Hill section of Silver Spring, Maryland, in the United States. It is operated and maintained by the Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Washington, Inc. At the time of the cemetery's consecration in 1956, it was the first Roman Catholic archdiocesan cemetery to open in the Washington metropolitan area in 70 years. The grounds of Gate of Heaven Cemetery are centered around a series of internal roads and pathways, which in combination, form the shape of the Latin Cross.
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From 1977 to 1984, the Hells Angels and the Outlaws Motorcycle Club fought what came to be known in Canada as the First Biker War. The Angels emerged victorious. As the Outlaws retreated into their Ontario stronghold, the Angels began consolidating their activities and expanding, moving into port cities Halifax, Nova Scotia and Vancouver, British Columbia. The conflict is known in Canada as the "First Biker War", but the first large conflict between bikers in Canada, was the Satan's Choice-Popeyes War which occurred from 1974 to 1976.
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