Ron Franscell – författare

A fascinating journey through the Lone Star State’s unruly past—with maps, photos, and moreTexas rightfully claims a celebrated place in the “wildest” West of both myth and reality—which makes it truly stranger than fiction that The Crime Buff’s Guide to Outlaw Texas is the first-ever travel guide to the many sites related to the Lone Star State’s renowned rambunctious past, complete with GPS coordinates that put you at the scene of the action. From outlaws like Sam Bass and John Wesley Hardin to Bonnie & Clyde and Houston’s notorious Candy Man killer, Texas has dozens of places where true-crime buffs can actually stand close to history. For many readers, the attraction to these sites—some well-known, some obscured by time—is irresistible.Written with the same fast-paced, gripping style that marked the author’s widely praised earlier work, The Crime Buff’s Guide to Outlaw Texas is an indispensable resource for both criminal-history enthusiasts and travelers. Each site description includes a concise summary of the location’s significance, historical context, maps, directions, and photos. Praise for a previous book by the same author, The Darkest Night “Heartbreaking . . . Not unlike Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.” —Chicago Sun-Times “This uncommon story has every chilling component of human terror, drama, and suspense that readers of true crime look for.” —Vincent Bugliosi, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Helter Skelter “A very, very, good book . . . written by a very, very, good writer.” —Ann Rule, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Stranger Beside Me

A father-and-son love story set against epic backdrops and overlooked places After Ron Franscell's divorce, he feared he was the continuing link in a long chain of estranged fathers. But when the author and his teenage son embark on a road trip to the Yukon to seek out a macabre cocktail containing an amputated human toe, they unwittingly begin a journey into their own past, present and future. The Sourtoe Cocktail Club is a true-life love story about fathers and sons, set against epic backdrops and overlooked places. It is also a road book that attempts to answer, for one father and son, a pivotal life question: Where does the road go?

A fascinating journey through the Rockies' unruly past-with maps, photos, and more.

Washington D.C. isn't known as the "District of Crime" or "Murder Capital of America" for nothing. Though the capital city's motto is "justice for all," D.C. has a darker side, including an extensive history of crimes and misdemeanors, some political and some not. The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Washington D.C. is the ultimate guidebook to the criminal and seedy history of the nation's capital -- plus Maryland, Northern Virginia and (ironically) Arlington National Cemetery. It also contains an entire chapter pinpointing key and little-known sites in the Lincoln Assassination. With photographs, maps, directions, and precise GPS coordinates, this collection of outlaw tales serves as both a travel guide and an entertaining and enlightening read. It is a one-of-a-kind exploration into well-known and more obscure sites in D.C. that retain memories of bandits, corpse-snatchers, murderers, snipers, bootleggers, assassins, rogue scientists, spies, mobsters and corrupt politicians -- even a legendary serial killer dressed in a bunny suit -- and their scandalous deeds.

Would you kill for love? True-crime master Ron Franscell tells the grisly story of Alice and Gerald Uden, a loving couple who murdered at least four people, and live happily ever after--while cops try for decades to piece together a petrifying tale of murder and secrets. The appalling details are made even more vivid by the author's familiarity with the Wyoming times and places that formed the backdrop of his national bestseller The Darkest Night.In 1974, Alice, a desperate young mother in a gritty Wyoming boomtown, kills her husband and dumps his body where it will never be found, then slips away and starts a new life. But when her new man's ex-wife and two kids start demanding more of him, Alice delivers an ultimatum: Fix the problem or lose her forever. With Alice's help, Gerald "fixes" the problem in an extraordinarily ghastly way . . . and they live happily ever after. That is, until 2013,almost forty years later, when somebody finds a dead man's skeleton in a place where Alice thought he'd never be found. This page-turner by bestselling true-crime author Ron Franscell revisits a shocking cold case that was finally solved just when the murderers thought they'd never be caught.