Hip Deep In Evil

I have been working on my true crime book more recently.  And, in the coming weeks, will be stepping up my work on it.  I have to admit it is fun - and at the same time more than a little creepy. 

The bombing murder of Nola Puyear took place on August 18, 1967 on the main street of Marshall Michigan.  It was exceedingly violent – you don’t kill someone with explosives cleanly.  It was also a crime that held the community in fear. It wasn’t until October of that year that the murderer, Enoch Dalton Chism, was arrested. 

Michigan Avenue, Marshall MI, 1967

I am pleased with the number of people still alive who are coming forth for interviews.  A number of the investigators who worked on the case and knew the killer are still alive – as are the lawyers on both sides of the case.  I am amazed at their memories.  Some facts have been forgotten, but often times what is remembered is a fascinating level of detail I thrive on as a writer.  I was surprised at how much these men have been willing to share. 

I can say from the large amount of court records and police reports that I have culled over, I have formed an opinion of the murderer.  When you’re an author and you get “into the head” of someone that is touched with evil, it is can keep you up at night.  It’s akin to watching a horror movie as a kid and not being able to sleep.  There’s nothing there to be afraid of, but the fear remains.  That’s how it is with this criminal. 

I have a lot of questions that might never get answered – especially about the killer.  At the same time I have uncovered details that are far beyond disturbing.  I have had to look into the face of domestic violence in the era of “Mad Men” and at the same time study a killer that used a bomb in the mail to kill someone.  This was a murder that didn’t have to happen – but the legal system and the community as a whole failed. 

My nights have been disturbed as of late…but I believe it will all be worth it in the end.  I hope as readers, you feel the same.  In the meantime, I need to “borrow” my grandson’s night light…

Writing True Crime - A Change of Pace

I am writing my first true crime book for the University of Michigan Press.  For the last year I have been working on the research of the book - now it has finally come to fruition.  I have always read true crime books  and enjoyed them (some more than others) so for me, this was a neat opportunity.   It allowed me to expand the genre's I write while at the same time gives me a chance to concentrate on some new skills.  I'm still going to write military history and science fiction - this is simply a new vehicle for me to explore my craft.
 
The crime took place in 1967 in my hometown of Marshall MI.  I was raised in Battle Creek, but my family is from Marshall and in my mind and heart Marshall is my hometown.   Marshall is a small town - and that is part of the story - the culture of the town in relation to the violent crime.  It has been a real treat for me to write about a place that I know well.  Stepping back to the Marshall of my childhood was not too hard -- Marshall doesn't change a lot. 
 
The murder itself was a bombing - a particularly savage way to kill someone.  It was a crime that emotionally shook the entire community.  This kind of killing, so horribly vicious, is in stark contrast to the quiet small-town community.  That was some of the appeal of this book in the first place for me as a writer. 
 
Initially I approached this project with my historian frame of mind - I write history books and thought that true crime was just a form of history.  That's not the case though.  In doing the research for this book I have come to grips that this is about regular people - not "historical figures."  That forces a change of perspective.  I have to be a little more gentler in my approach.  The more research I have done over time - the more I realized there was a  "bigger picture" of this crime, the community, and the myriad of people involved.  A level of objectivity has to be applied.  It's not my intention to open old wounds but to tell a compelling and entertaining story. 
 
As such I have also been challenged to revise my view of the events that unfolded in 1967.  I originally thought that there was one victim - the murdered woman.  That isn't necessarily the case.  The reality is there were other victims who are still alive today that suffered as a result of this murder.  The family of the man accused/convicted of the murder were also victims this crime; though in a very different way.  I have had to be respectful of them as well.  That was not an angle that I had originally considered.  As a writer you have to grow. 
 
From a positive perspective, I have met some new people (such as the family of one of the detectives) who were able to share with me a lot about their father and some unique perspectives about the crime and trial.  In some respects, I hope I was able to share some insights about their father that they didn't know.  That certainly was a pleasant surprise that I attended junior high with them - especially when they pulled out a yearbook with my photo in it.   
 
For this book to work, I have to put the reader into the community back in 1967.  I want the reader to feel that Marshall is their own home town.  From the effects of the race riots in Detroit to the results of high school sporting events all help put the reader on Michigan Avenue in the late 60's  I want them to experience the terror and fear that this killing caused.  I want them to care about the people in the book.
 
I love a challenge as a writer and this book definitely is presenting it.  I am also pleased to say, I feel I am up to the task.  I hope those of you that buy the book enjoy it as well. 

The Wacky World of WWI Aviation History

Let me open by saying that I am a proud member of the League of WWI Aviation Historians.  I am proud of the organization because it is a group of individuals that has dedicated itself to the preservation and discovery of history associated to this field.  I like being a part of an organization where I feel I can contribute, either time or expertise and the League does not disappoint. 

WWI aviation fascinates me.  These aircraft were not flimsy, but were incredibly dangerous.  The men that flew these aircraft were incredibly brave…putting their lives on the line every time they climbed into an open cockpit.  Death could come from any number of mechanical failures, from shrapnel, or from a machine gun bullet fired at dangerously point-blank ranges. 

This field of research is intriguing because of the unique niches.  Some of the members are experts on the aircraft – tracking every tail and serial number of every aircraft the can amass data on.  A handful are color experts as to paint schemes, while some track weather patterns on the western front.  Members focus on fighters – some on bombers, and some specialize in a particular nation’s air force.  Some members concentrate the men who flew the planes, their stories and biographies.  Others look at squadron histories, chronicling not the actions of one man but of a band of brothers.  Still other members are stunning artists, who bring battles and men back to life.  All of us combined generate an image of what warfare in the skies in the Great War is all about.

We don’t always agree because we have specialties and areas of expertise.  At times this can be frustrating.  At other times it can be quite rewarding.  I was fortunate enough to work with Al Roesler on an article about Ivan Roberts.  We both had written books about Arizona WWI aviators which gave us some common ground.  Working virtually, we both brought things to the table to make the article work.  In the end, it was something I think we are both proud of.  It didn’t changed anything major about WWI aviation history – but it did profile an aviator that had been overlooked for decades. 

The biggest challenge we face, whether it is said out loud or not, is that our numbers are dwindling.  At 48 years old, I sometimes feel like the “kid” in our regional meetings.  We have wonderful expertise in the group but we’re not growing by leaps and bounds. 

What we have to do is begin to bring new people into the fold.  That’s not easy.  We’re an impressive group and with all of the expertise and knowledge we each have, it can sometimes intimidate new potential members.  As members we need to be willing to do a little recruitment on our own, to try and seduce new members to join and take part.  We have to be inviting – we have to be educators – we have to share what we know.

The virtual (Facebook) community is one way we accomplish this, and the League has done a fantastic job in the last six months in this area.  Another is the regional meetings where you can bring in people we know that are interested in the field.  We each have a responsibility to try and maintain and even grow our membership – or we run the risk of disappearing altogether.  I recently invited a high school student and his father who happened to be a fan of Jon Guttman to our regional meeting.  He got to meet his favorite author and get his books autographed.  I don’t know if he’ll join our numbers, but it was a good place to start. 

I encourage you to join whatever historical group is out there that is in your field of interest.  These groups are rewarding and if you give them time, you can learn and grow yourself.  If you want to learn more about the one I am a part of, check out out at http://www.overthefront.com/

As for me, I’ll see you in the air…

The Book Is Never Really Done...

I think people believe the life of an author is glamorous and somehow exciting.  I'm glad that myth exists but in reality, it is mix of creativity and hard work.  Yes, you get to do some TV and radio interviews, if you're lucky…but those can be more nerve-wracking than fun at times.  The opportunity to screw up on nationwide TV can be a little daunting.  Most of the work of being a writer however is not being on TV or radio, it is spreading out piles of paper in your office, typing long hours, footnoting (yuck!), and doing research and organizing your work.   There are not a of reality shows about historians/authors.  
 
There are some rewards - and I don't mean financial.  When I was in Michigan in December doing the book tour for Lost Eagles I got to meet some members of the Zinn family face-to-face.  I have corresponded with some of the family.  The lecture events brought out people I have never knew existed.  It was an incredible treat as a writer. 
 
One brought a photo album with images I have never seen before.  Others brought stories I had never heard.  It was a real treat.  Fred Zinn's extended family had a lot to be proud of. 
 
Perhaps the neatest part was the fact that I learned what happened to the memorial plaque for Fred.  According to his son, and the folks at Kellogg Regional Airport, it was stolen in the 1970's.  As it turns out the family took it - most likely saving it from obscurity or destruction.  I was delighted that this piece of history had not been melted down in some scrap yard. 
 
In working with the Kalamazoo Air Zoo we came to the realization that Frederick Zinn as not part of the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame.   The Air Zoo staff was very helpful and we are beginning the submission process for Fred Zinn to be included in 2012 (2011 nominations are closed).  Given his local ties and his contribution to aviation history, it seemed only fitting that he be enshrined there.  Since I worked on the book it only seemed fitting that I get the paperwork in.  Not for me - for Fred.  
 
My point?  The work isn't over when the book is written.  In many cases, it has just begun. Even when you are done with the book, new details come in, new facts, new bits of evidence.  You never are really done working on a book...

Michigan in December – What Was I Thinking?

The book tour in Michigan was incredible.  The Kalamazoo Air Zoo crowds were smaller than what I had hoped for – but it was an engaging group.  The gatherings in Galesburg and Battle Creek historical societies more than made up for the Air Zoo turnouts.  I was very pleased that people wanted to get out in the biting cold to hear a local history story of a remarkable man.  Even more exciting, in Battle Creek, members of the Zinn family came to the event.  They brought a wonderful family photo album which was a treat for everyone. 

At the Battle Creek Historical Society - Kimball House Museum

I managed a few television interviews as well.  Channel 3 in Kalamazoo taped an interview which will show sometime later this month.  Doing Be Scene TV was fun too.  As it turns out the host and I went to high school together, though we didn’t know each other. 

The cap of the book tour events was appearing at the Hatcher Library at the University of Michigan.  This was Fred Zinn’s (the subject of my book Lost Eagles) alma mater and for me it felt as if I was bringing his story back home.  Some old friends from my Ford days showed up as well as members of the Zinn family. Being at the U of M and speaking there made me feel like this project had gone full circle.

Even better, I got some face time with my editor at the University of Michigan Press.  I like writing for this publisher because they worked with me on the book, as opposed to against me.  I got a chance to discuss several projects and, hopefully, I’ll have a big announcement to make shortly involving my true crime book project.   

I have a secret source for some of the crime cases I’m researching for books and I got a chance to connect with him as well.  As it turns out, my hunch on one case may have been right.  More importantly it is a story that really may demand putting to paper as a book.  Yes, I’m being vague, but you have to be on such things.  Suffice it to say I have a few new things to research. 

Some things I learned from this trip:

• The cold temperatures I remembered from my youth were not distant memories but crisp bitter realities.  I swear I didn’t feel my feet for three days after getting to Michigan. 
• I rediscovered the importance of independent bookstores.  I had tried for weeks to get the local Barnes and Noble to attend two of my events to sell copies of Lost Eagles.  No dice.  One B&N was more interested in a knitting and crocheting event they were hosting. Big chain bookstores carry a lot of administrative baggage and can be hard to work with.  Most seem to have lost sight that their business is to sell books – not coffee, games, movies or e-readers.  Sure, I could have brought a box of books and sold them myself – but I wanted a local business to make some money off of these events.  Michigan’s economy has been hit hard with this recession and it seemed like the right thing to do.  Gloria from Kazoo Books (a store well-worth visiting and supporting) stepped up.  She hasn’t forgotten that this business is about actually selling books.  I’m pleased to say that she sold out that week!  If you are in Kalamazoo and doing some shopping, I recommend Kazoo Books for your holiday needs. 
• People want to read books with local ties.  Lost Eagles is strongly tied to Galesburg, Battle Creek, and Ann Arbor.  I was pleased with how some of the local historical societies got good turnout and interest in the topic.  Having the Zinn family show up at two events was wonderful because they were able to add to my story with their own family history. 
• There is a lot of interest in WWI aviation.  I brought some application forms with me for the League of WWI Aviation Historians and about 15 people took copies with them.  WWI is often a war that is glossed over so that was highly encouraging. 

The Michigan Book Tour

They say you can’t go home.  I’m not going to try to.  My return to Michigan for book tour lectures and interviews is not an attempt to recapture my past but an opportunity to tell a great story. 

I spend a lot of my time researching and writing about the past.  When it comes to my own past however, I have little desire to go back.  While I write about the past I don't see my own past as my "glory days."  I have always believed that my best is yet to come. 

 

I was an awkward kid (aren't we all?) during my high school years.  Like most youth, my thoughts were not how to make the most out of where I was, but focused on the future and where I wanted to be.  I prematurely outgrew my home town; at least in my own mind.  Like many people I spent many years thinking of my hometown as boring.  That simplification gets you through your youth I suppose.  Now, in later life, I have started to develop a deep appreciation for Michigan and the history of my local area. 

 

I am looking forward to the events I have coming up in Michigan but not for the reasons you might think.  This is not a matter of me seeing people I knew in high school and college…that will be nice.  I planned this trip to give back to the community.  The subject of my book Lost Eagles, Frederick Zinn, was born in Galesburg and raised in Battle Creek.  For me this is a chance to tell the people in those communities about a local hero that they might not have heard of.  I think Fred would have wanted it that way. 

 

This trip is not all promotion for Lost Eagles.  I am currently working on a true crime book set in Marshall Michigan and I'm hoping to do some research while I'm there.  It helps to know the locales, the people, the lay of the proverbial land.  Sometimes my family name opens doors, sometimes it slams them shut.  That's part of the fun.  

 

So, if you're in Michigan between December 3-7, please stop in at one of my events and soak in the discussion. Check my web site Blaine Pardoe News for the latest on where I will be.  I hope you find these lectures entertaining.  Obviously I hope you buy the book - that's a forgone conclusion.  If you get a chance, introduce yourself (or reintroduce yourself).  You never know where my next story may come from or how much you might be able to contribute.  After all, it's not my history, it's your history I'm fascinated with.

All Gave Some, Some Gave All…

My new book is out!  Lost Eagles (University of Michigan Press) has finally released.  It has taken a long time to reach this point and I must admit, its publication lets me sigh with relief.  For me, this book was a departure in many respects.  True, it's a biography.  At the same time it tells a much larger story, of how America deals with its missing in action.
 
This book demanded I write it.  I know that sounds weird, but hear me out.  I was born in Virginia but raised in Battle Creek Michigan.  My parents owned an antique store in the tiny town of Galesburg.  I encountered Zinn while writing Terror of the Autumn Skies and was shocked to learn he was born in Galesburg and raised in Battle Creek.  How was that possible?  I should have heard of him before then.  After all, someone who was a WWI aviator would have drawn my attention much earlier.  Where were the statues or the streets or schools named after him?  
Answer:  There weren't any. 
 
Initially I was excited that he was a member of the famous Lafayette Flying Corps.  He was a member of the French Foreign Legion, the original "Band of Brothers." To me these were incredible and caused me to dig deeper into his life.  When you work on such a book, you have to go where the research takes you.  What I discovered was that Zinn pioneered searching for missing servicemen, specifically aviators.  Up until he came along, the Graves Registration Service didn't look for the missing but if they found them, they tried to identify and inter them.  Zinn changed that.  He said, in essence, "we can look for these boys and bring them home."  No one had ever done or even suggested that before.  Of the 200 missing airmen from the Great War he recovered the remains or personal effects of 194 of them. 
 
Fred Zinn went on to set up the system for tracking missing airmen in WWII and served for a while in the OSS - the foundational origination for the CIA.   While he was a writer, he never wrote an autobiography.  His son told me that with his dad it was never about him, it was about the men.  So when I wrote the book I was compelled to honor that.  Between each chapter of his life story, I included a chapter on some of the missing men Fred Zinn searched for.  For WWI history buffs, this is something that will be a real treat for the readers.   
Picking the aviators to include in the book was not easy.  It meant a lot of research at the National Archives and in Zinn's files at the Air Force museum.  I selected pilots spread out across the country - from all sizes of towns.  Some were recovered by Zinn, some were not.  I tried to pick aviators that were not the "big names" in the WWI community, with one exception (Victor Chapman of the famous Lafayette Escadrille).  I wanted to bring some stories to light that most history readers had never heard before. 
 
The aviators covered two world wars - which expanded my horizons in terms of research, though the focus was clearly on the WWI cases.  I researched a lot of pilots, their final missions, and what happened after they died.  I got some wonderful stories by doing this, though a few never made it to print.
 
This book lured me into the records of the OSS at the National Archives.  I was a little humbled at first, it is a huge records group and navigating it is more of an art than a skill.  Every box I opened (and there were dozens) was filled with stories of intrigue, daring, spy work and espionage.  I am convinced I need to go back and put out more books on the OSS.  There's a lifetime's worth of stories in those records. 
 
My favorite chapter of the book is the last one because it goes back to almost every pilot featured and tells the story of what happened after their death.  There are some real moving stories there.  I don't see myself as a religious person, but some of these stories make you realize there are forces at work in the universe we simply don't and can't understand. 
 
I wish I could have covered more of the aviators but ultimately that was not possible.   As an author you have to draw a line every now and then about what goes into the book. 
 
My only real regret (other than never meeting Mr. Zinn) is that the only commemorative marker to Fred Zinn was stolen in the 1970's.  Battle Creek and Galesburg don’t have a statue, a park or a street named after him.  In these times where the media tries to force us to question our military actions around the world, his story is one we cannot question - how we treat our honored missing. 
 
So order the book and check it out for yourself.  If you are an aviation history buff, I think you'll enjoy it.  If you are a military history aficionado, you'll love it.  If you have a family member who was an aviator that never came home, this book will hopefully give you a new perspective.