True Crime Blog
What better way to return from a sabbatical than to bring you the latest news about what’s been going on with me, and throw in a few book reviews for good measure? The Latest News First, my apologies for ghosting you. There have been some struggles in my personal life this past year, and it…
Linda Healy was part of a law enforcement experiment: in 1974 the California Highway Patrol held its first academy class that included women. Her book, THE EXPERIMENT, chronicles her rise from a meter maid to being a commander in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. I am honored to share with you my interview of…
Daryl “Deedub” Knight and I have shared many adventures over the years: hunting and fishing trips, rodeos and roundups, and more than a few mad dashes to Vegas back in the day. But the most memorable trip for me was the one we call the Great Cowboy Road Trip of 2016, and just wait until…
After the Badge by Danny R. Smith was first published in Mystery Readers Journal: The Journal of Mystery Readers International (Volume 37, Number 4 – Winter 2021). Unsolved murders can haunt those who’ve been tasked with solving them. Though I retired from L.A. Sheriff’s Homicide seventeen years ago, many of my unsolved cases trouble…
Imagine a Roadrunner cartoon with the sound of tires squealing, a “meep-meep,” and the fleeting view of the famed chaparral ground cock hauling ass down a dirt road away from you. That was me fleeing California in 2004.
The radicals want to defund or abolish the police, or, as their forked-tongued talking heads in D.C. and the media like to say, “reimagine” policing. At the same time, they want to release convicted felons from prison while taking away your guns and rights to self-defense.
Very few people are killed by strangers while at home with their families or even enjoying an evening out with friends. But when you stay out all night—or into the wee hours—you increase the odds of becoming a victim of violence. The older I get, the more I have come to appreciate that.
As my memoir, Nothing Left to Prove grew beyond 108,000 words, there were parts that had to be cut. For a writer, this is akin to choosing which child to give away at birth. But a general rule to writing is that if it doesn’t move the story forward, slay it.
Bad Dreams go with the territory of being a cop. Over the years, my dreaming of pursuits, foot chases, and shootouts with malfunctioning weapons and bulletproof bad guys have subsided, but it doesn’t take much to reawaken the demons. A good cop movie can do it, and so can a session of telling war stories…
When it was first suggested to me that I should write my own story, I was against the idea of it. Who was I to write a memoir? I’m nothing special—no rock star (though at one time I aspired to be one), super athlete, or war hero. Yes, I have had the opportunity to do…