Crime Expert BURL BARER. Edgar Award Winner and NYT Bestselling Author

MURDER IN THE FAMILY reviewed by Jeffrey A. Cohen.

Best selling author Jeffrey A. Cohen recently posted this review of my book, Murder in the Family.  I love praise.  MURDER IN THE FAMILY book review by Jeffrey A. Cohen. "One reads MURDER IN THE FAMILY demanding justice from the very first page, and knowing justice will never be enough. Exceedingly well written and humanely rendered, it is the story of an unspeakable crime and heartbreaking tragedy: the brutal, sexually sadistic murders of a mother and her two young daughters in their home. The reconstruction of the crime itself, the investigation leading to a family member, and the trial of the unrepentant psychopathic killer are all masterfully and compellingly handled. And nothing is lost, not the brutality of the crimes or the suffering of the victims; not the anguish of their loved ones left behind; not the cruel and petty narcissism of the killer; and not the emotional impact on the community and all those involved in the investigation and trial. This is a book about human tragedy, loss and evil. No one mentioned in its pages will ever be the same, and those whose lives were stolen will always be loved and remembered--Barer shows us this clearly."   Although Murder in the Family first came out in 2000, I'm thrilled that it continues to sell well, and receives such glowing reviews. I hope folks enjoy my next book, FATAL BEAUTY, as much as they did Murder in the Family.

Tia Barr -- NOT a Contortionist; merely flexible.

Tia Barr looked far more demure when she showed up Saturday with Nathan Wilson of Project Meridian Foundation for our live interview on TRUE CRIMES UNCENSORED.  She's hot, she's talented, she knows how to throw knives, wrestle, and now insists that she is not really a contortionist, merely flexible. I think of her as a Bendable Action Figure with a heart of gold.  To download the interview, simply click this link!  

Sunday was the Greek Festival - place was packed, it was hot as Hades, and I'm still tasting feta and olives.

Monday? Perhaps Santa Barbara for a change of pace.

HOMICIDE IN TACOMA! Bob Yerbury speaks out live Saturday 2pm

Bob Yerbury is one of the most famous homicide detectives in America, and was featured prominently in my book HEAD SHOT.

 

His cases are fascinating and often shocking - We will discuss many of them this Saturday 2pm on True Crimes on Outlaw Radio.  You can listen live by clicking this link,

Among the notable homicide cases Tacoma police detective Bob Yerbury has investigated:

# Jonathan Perkins, 30. The Fort Lewis Army sergeant was fatally shot in his bed Dec. 29, 1987. His wife and her lover were convicted in the murder-for-hire case. The wife had promised to split the proceeds of her husband’s insurance policy with the gunman.

# Kathleen Daneker, 40. She died of cyanide poisoning Feb. 11, 1991, two days after taking a Sudafed capsule to relieve a sinus headache. The investigation later revealed that she was one of two people who died after they took altered capsules.

# Joseph Meling of Tumwater was convicted in federal court of tampering with medicine bottles in stores to mask his scheme to kill his wife. She lived, but Daneker and a Lacey man died.

# Robert Carl Henry, 33. A masked gunman fatally shot the businessman on Sept. 11, 1995, in the parking lot of North Coast Electric Co. For more than five years, Yerbury worked the case and traced a distinctive shotgun through a chain of owners. The last was Larry Shandola, who was convicted in Henry’s slaying.

# Julie Ann Maroni, 27. She was fatally shot July 8, 1998, during an attempted carjacking in a South Tacoma motel parking lot. Three men were convicted in the slaying. Information developed during the investigation led to convictions in a double homicide in Seattle. Duane Seraile, one of the men convicted and sentenced to life in prison in Maroni’s death, also was convicted in the 1997 slayings in Seattle.

Yerbury can’t say exactly how many killings he’s been the lead investigator on, but when he testifies in court he says he’s been to about 500 homicide scenes in his years as a detective. He has only a handful of unsolved cases, most notably the 1998 slaying of Linda Tran and her two children and the fiery explosion that destroyed their Salishan house.

“That one is just kind of haunting,” he said. “It’s a very good family, very good people.”

In the criminal justice community, Yerbury is praised for his thoroughness and determination.

“Bob doesn’t give up,” said Jim Bridston, a retired Tacoma police detective who was Yerbury’s partner for six years in the homicide unit. “He will follow whatever he can follow as far as he can follow it.”

Prosecutors and fellow detectives can cite many murder cases that ended in convictions thanks to Yerbury’s hard work. For example, in 1991 two suspected gang members were gunned down in a car near Lincoln High School. Though not the lead detective, Yerbury carefully examined the window of the victims’ car, knowing the suspects might claim self-defense. He determined the window was rolled up high enough that no one in the car could get a hand out the window to point a gun at someone.

“He took apart the door so he could see where that window had been,” retired Pierce County Prosecutor Gerry Horne recalled. “We were able to rule out self-defense.”

Chief Don Ramsdell said Yerbury quietly goes about his investigations and doesn’t seek the credit for what he does.

“He gives that to all the people he works with,” Ramsdell said. “People respect him for his knowledge and the way he goes about his work.”

SEX SLAVES FOR SALE. Join me in the fight against human trafficking.

 Nathan Wilson of Project Meridian Foundation is coming to town, and I'm proud to be part of the fund raising event coming up in Malibu to fight human trafficking. For complete details, click this!   My friend Georgia Durante, author of The Company She Keeps, will be there as well.  

Burl Barer interview -- classic from BookBrowser, December 2000

BookBrowser Interview: See how much younger I looked back in the good ol' days? Time takes its toll on all of us.  Doris Ann Noris, an admitted fan, conducted this interview with me back in December of 2000.
Burl Barer 
Interviewed by Doris Ann Norris 
 
(December 2000)

---

Burl Barer is a fascinating man and satirically self-proclaimed brilliant writer. He has written both fiction and nonfiction and is the proud recipient of the Edgar Award for best nonfiction. It must be confessed that this interviewer is not really objective about Mr. Barer. When I first saw his posts on DorothyL (the premiere mystery listserv), I fell in love with Burl's way of looking at life. His hilarious BSP (blatant self promotion) is so over-the-top that it becomes self deprecating. Barer, however, has proven his talent with his books including the two very different works that were published this August. MURDER IN THE FAMILY is a blood chilling account of a real crime, while HEADLOCK is a riveting mystery featuring Barer's always laughworthy sense of humor. BookBrowser has a few questions to ask the talented Burl Barer, and we hope that you enjoy his answers. BB: Burl, you have had an extensive career in advertising and multimedia presentations. Do you still work in these areas? BBarer: I am a well known former media maven. Much to my delight, I was inducted into the Rock n Roll Radio Hall of Fame a few years back. That was one of the biggest thrills since I was made an Honorary Soul Brother at the Motown Review in 1966. That was quite an event–Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas–and Burl Barer (no, I didn't sing or do steps). I was a "Soul Jock" on R&B radio station KYAC, and since I was not what was then termed "Afro-American," it was decided that I would become an honorary Soul Brother in an elaborate ceremony in the Seattle Center Arena in front of about 10,000 screaming Motown fans. What a rush! Now, to answer your question, I am occasionally hired to write and/or produce radio spots, compose print or web content, or consult on any manner of media/entertainment projects. However, my 30+ years of experience renders me sadly overqualified for most employment opportunities. BB: You won an Edgar in 1994 for your nonfiction book, THE SAINT. What kind of impact, if any, did that have on your writing career? BBarer: THE SAINT: A Complete History was my first book, so winning the Edgar certainly had an impact. Once you win the Edgar, you can put it on your book covers for the rest of your life. Both the book and the award gave me instant credibility. I admit, happily, to being a bit daring. My goal was to write a critical/biographical work about Leslie Charteris' The Saint that had a feel and flavor reminiscent of Charteris' books. In other words, I wanted it to be as fun as it was comprehensive. Because of THE SAINT, I was approved by Warner Brothers and Mel Gibson's Icon Productions to write MAVERICK: The Making of the Movie/The Complete Guide to the Television Series. Spending three weeks with Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, and James Garner was delightful. As Maverick was the antithesis of the stalwart western hero of early 1960's television, and often ventured into satire, I wrote the book as a satire of The Making of . . . books. I was actually writing two books at once–MAVERICK and the limited edition CAPTURE THE SAINT. I only had 28 days to write the 60,000 word, fully illustrated Maverick, so I stopped CTS long enough to crank out MAVERICK. Oh, and I also wrote MAN OVERBOARD: The Counterfeit Resurrection of Phil Champagne, which is true crime, but unlike any true crime book you've ever read. No serial killers, no rapists–the "bad guy" whom you can't help but love, gets work release :-). I wanted to write in a specific genre, but do what is not usually done within the genre. People keep threatening to make a movie out of it, but it hasn't happened yet. BB: MURDER IN THE FAMILY is a very graphic book about true crime, while your detective novel HEADLOCK is filled with the patented Barer humor. Were you working on both books at the same time? BBarer: Nope. Headlock was written in Walla Walla when I still lived there–I moved back to the west side–Seattle area–about two years ago, long before MURDER IN THE FAMILY. HEADLOCK was originally written at the request of an editor at Simon & Schuster who wanted either a thriller or mystery from me because he enjoyed working with me on the novelization of the screenplay of THE SAINT. Jane Gelfman, who represented HEADLOCK and THE SAINT, told me, "Don't be too funny." So, I decided I would write a book in which every character was in intense psychic pain, including the hero. We sent the first 30,000 words to him and he loved it, couldn't wait for the rest, was starting to get the contract drafted . . . and then . . . he was GONE!!! GONE!!! And then there arose an editor who knew not HEADLOCK. No deal! We sent it out to all sorts of publishers. Even those who loved it didn't buy it! That really made me crazy. It's one thing to get standard rejection letters–I get plenty of them–but getting rejections from people who were crazy about it and went on at length about its virtues was a new experience for me. Deadly Alibi Press, however, loved it and published it. With Burl Barer's standard luck, somehow the uncorrected (typos, spelling errors) manuscript is what got published–the same thing happened with MAN OVERBOARD! We'll fix that as soon as enough people buy the soon to be rare first edition of HEADLOCK. BB: In MURDER IN THE FAMILY, you attempt to get into the mind of a vicious sociopath who, at least at the time of your writing, never really accepts the horrible consequences of his action. Do you think it would be easier to write a fiction book on the same subject since you would be freer to speculate about the young man's mental state for your readers? BBarer: In fiction we have the luxury of sharing internal dialog, thoughts, etc. In nonfiction, I can only do that if the real person tells me what they were thinking at the time. While researching MITF I wrote "Giving Shelter," a first person short story written from the mindset of a psychopath. It is interesting, if more than a bit disturbing. It is up on my web site. BB: HEADLOCK featuring award-winning crime writer/PI, Jeff Reynolds, is a wonderfully textured novel with some serious themes, but the comedy is outstanding–especially Jeff's view of life. How much of Burl is in Jeff? BBarer: 99.9% of Burl is in Jeff. But Jeff is more than Burl. Jeff is younger, stronger, more brave, his audiographic memory is 100% while mine was never that good–and has declined with age. It is hereditary–my daughter has/had it also. She saw Return of the Jedi once and could recite the dialog from the film, word for word, as spoken in the movie. She was born in 1978, so she was rather little at the time. She also memorized a good chunk of "The Raven" (poem by Poe which I read aloud to her), and she could recite it before she was 2 years old. Once you discover that you are not supposed to be able to do that, it starts to fade. My cousin has/had photographic memory–made law school a snap! I don't know if he still has it or not . . . it lasted up through college for him. BB: One of the delights of HEADLOCK for mystery fans is the cameo appearances of real mystery writers such as G.M. Ford and your hilarious description of Tony Fennelly's award catastrophe and her physical endowments. Since they wrote blurbs for the book, it appears that they approve. BBarer: Oh, yes. I promised Tony she would win the Edgar. All dialog by other authors was approved by them. G.M. Ford knows what he said in the book, and it was fine with him–he sounded just like himself, didn't he? Larry Block doesn't have dialog, but I told him what I was going to do with his burglar series–buy Headlock and find out what I'm talking about–and he thought it was cool. I don't know what Earl Emerson thinks about being surrounded by arsonists, but I hope he finds it amusing. BB: In future Jeff Reynolds books, do you intend to continue your have real life peers as comic relief? BBarer: Oh, absolutely! I love mystery writers–they are kind, supportive, funny, wise, clever, warm, wonderful, and I have yet to meet a snotty one. I'm sure there is one snotty one out there, but I have not met that one yet. BB: You have made no secret of the fact that you are affiliated with Baha'i faith and in fact, it is mentioned in both of the books. Could you give a brief synopsis of the tenets of the faith and how it has influenced you as both a person and a writer? BBarer: Brief synopsis of Bahai Faith: Mission Statement: "to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the entire human race, and foster the spirit of love and fellowship." Goal: "the transformation of the individual and society by the application of spiritual principles." The Holy Writings of the Baha'i Faith are by Baha'u'llah (1817-1892). Basic principles: Oneness of God, Oneness of Religion, Oneness of Humanity–This Earth is one country and mankind its citizens, Harmony of Science and Religion, elimination of all forms of prejudice, dedication to the advancement of women and gender equality, importance of education, and so forth, non-involvement in partisan political disputes, support of international cooperation, unity in diversity. Central Figure: Baha'u'llah (Glory of God) 1817-1892. Persian, imprisoned for 40 years because of His claim to be the long-awaited Messenger of God who would be the Promised One of all Faiths. Exiled and eventually sent to the prison city of Akka in Palestine. He was preceded by a forerunner (a "John the Baptist" figure) known as The Bab who was publicly executed in Tabriz, Persia in 1850. His remains are interred on Mt. Carmel in Israel. The resting place of Baha'u'llah is also in Israel. This is why the Baha'i World Centre (administrative/archives/Holy Pilgrimage sites, etc.) is located on Mt. Carmel in the Holy Land. The Baha'i Faith denies any exclusivity or finality for itself, and sees itself as part of an ongoing process of spiritual education and empowerment. It is essentially the same Faith as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.–not in form, ritual, tradition or dogma, but in purpose: To lead people out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of knowledge and establish tranquility within, and between, all people. BB: What do you see as the future for mystery writers as well as other authors who do not get the million plus advances and end up on the best seller lists before their books even hit the stores? BBarer: Do I have a future? May I please have the million plus advances? BB: If it were up to me, Burl, you would get that big advance. Please tell our readers something about the new true crime book on which you are working. BBarer: Just wrapped up HEAD SHOT (not a sequel to HEADLOCK) which is about aREAL WEIRD double homicide in Tacoma Washington back in 1984–it is toooooo bizarre to explain in this interview. In short . . . two guys are murdered for no reason, no one knows they are dead (and one decapitated) until one of the "killers" leads police to the graves. But whoREALLY killed these two fellows? One victim was, the killers all acknowledged, murdered by being shot in the head with a .45. They buried him in the mountains. Then, they dug him back up, chopped off his head, and threw it in the river. It was either throw away the gun or the head with the bullet in it. When the head and body were discovered and examined, it was found that the victim was stabbed to death. BB: We can only hope that there will be another Jeff Reynolds mystery, in fact many more. Are you working on another one now? BBarer: Yeah, I'll write it as soon as I get a chance. It will be published as soon as I write it. BB: Thank you very much for your time, Burl. Hope that you garner many more fans from this interview and the reviews of Headlock and Murder in the Family. We will look forward to your future books. Copyright © BookBrowser, 2000.

Johnny Cosmo: A Players Guide to Playing. Yes, you can pick up chicks!

My pal Johnny Cosmo is a regular on Outlaw Radio, hosted by Magic Matt Alan. Johnny wrote a clever "how to" book entitled  "The Players Guide to Playing." 

Yes, it is about how to pick up chicks. It is well written, and fun to read. It costs ten bucks and is worth it.  

I''m not sure how Johnny is doing with his little book, but it's actually crammed with excellent observations and realistic advice. If I were into picking up chicks, I would buy it. 

Self publishing can be fun and rewarding for niche market books and "how to..." guides.  However, the world is full of self-publishing scams.  Don Woldman and I did an interview with the guy from Predators and Editors. Listen and learn. about those self publishing scams. Literary scams2

It pays to research the topic before you start throwing money at someone.

Rhonda Glover: FATAL BEAUTY is available for advance order.

 Rhonda Glover shot Jimmy Joste, but the jury that found her guilty of murder never heard the whole bizarre story of their drug fueled lifestyle, or her paranoid delusion that Jimmy and George W. Bush were involved in a Satanic plot involving pagan sacrifices in  a cave under Joste's Austin residence.  The full story is told for the first time in my forthcoming book, FATAL BEAUTY.

Order it now from your favorite bookseller!

 

Rhonda Glover, Jimmy Joste: Tonight on SNAPPED

My forthcoming book FATAL BEAUTY is about the strange case of Rhonda Glover who shot and killed her long time boyfriend, Jimmy Joste. Tonight, 10pm on Oxygen Network is the TV show SNAPPED, and Rhonda is the topic. Yes, I'm on the show a well.

 

 

"The Killing of Mindi Quintana" Saturday/ SNAPPED on Sunday! SEWER RATS EVERYDAY!

 Jeffrey A. Cohen is a hot shot Philly lawyer turned high tech entrepreneur. Success upon success has crowned his efforts, and now he's reinvented himself as a best -selling mystery author. His first book, The Killing of Mindi Quintana" is a clever legal thriller, and Cohen kindly offered me an advance copy and the honor of having my endorsement of his literary efforts emblazoned on the book's dust jacket. Heck of a deal!

I enjoyed the book, and gladly provided an appropriate quote:

 "Clever, twisted and ultimately insightful, Jeff Cohen's The Killing of Mindi Quintana upends legality and redefines justice--a dazzling debut novel." 

Jeffrey, bless his heart, is flying out from Philly to join Don Woldman, Matt Alan and me LIVE in Outlaw Radio's Lighten up Lounge for TRUE CRIMES this Saturday 2pm Pacific Time, 4pm Central, 5pm Eastern, 10pm UK time.  You can listen live via Itunes (Outlaw Radio) or just click this link!

And then .....

 Sunday, 10pm, on the Oxygen Network, is SNAPPED!  Yes, SNAPPED is doing an entire episode about Rhonda Glover, the subject of my forthcoming book, FATAL BEAUTY.

 You will notice that I clean up real good, and actually make sense. It's amazing what they can do these days in the editing room. 

PS: I put SEWER RATS in the title of the post because, for some reason, it boosts traffic!

Tom Hodgins -- from Luke Warm to Radio Hot-Shot

 This is Tom Hodgins. He is a radio hot shot in my home town of Walla Walla, Washington.  When I first met Tom, he didn't own numerous radio stations, and have an encyclopedic knowledge of FCC regulations, frequency allocations, and all the things that have earned him a sterling reputation as a dynamic businessman and professional broadcaster. 

Nope. When I met Tom he was doing mid-days at KUJ and he wasn't allowed to talk. I think his "air name" was Luke Warm. Well, Tom can certainly talk. He was just an employee then. Today, he owns the place, and several other places as well.  

Don't ask him to sell KUJ-AM.  He has a strong emotional connection to it because he used to work there.  My first radio show was also on KUJ -AM. It was a half hour talk show. No pay.  hey, I was 15.   I would later return to the same building. far far from 15, and "play the hits" with Tom Hodgins as my employer.  I love how the world turns.    It's been a year since I was in Walla Walla working on a project with Tom, but he buys me lunch at least once  a month, and I crank out commercial copy for him as often as possible.   

The biggest change since the day Tom and I first met is that his cheeks are fatter and my hair in thinner.  Aside from that, we are still the same adventurous young men with a love of radio.  There are worse addictions, although I can't think of any off-hand.