Today, Hartford Books Examiner presents the conclusion to his interview with M. William Phelps. (Part 1 can be read here.)
One of Connecticut’s resident experts on true crime, Phelps has written ten books in that vein. He also co-authored Failures of the Presidents with Thomas J. Craughwell, which details more than twenty blunders made by American presidents and their aftermath. More recently, Phelps released Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America’s First Spy—an acclaimed narrative non-fiction biography of the state hero, which has been optioned for film by Warner Bros. and Josephson Entertainment.
No stranger to television, Phelps will be making appearances on several shows throughout the fall and winter.
The following is part two of our discussion…
6) You have had the opportunity to interview killers. How do you prepare for such a thing? And do you ever find that they view your relationship as buddy-buddy? How does that impact you personally?
I prepare by doing my homework and finding out the answers to many of my questions before approaching a killer for an interview. Ninety-nine-point-nine per cent of murderers are pathological, expert liars. Many are sociopaths. Their conscience enables them to lie to your face without blinking. You have to walk into an interview like that locked and loaded with the facts, but never willing to show your cards (like I am doing now in this interview). You simply allow killers to talk themselves into a corner and they generally will. Those interviews have no impact on me personally. I think people who murder other people are scum. Period. These are the worst human beings--save for maybe those who hurt children, pedophiles and child molesters at the top of that sublist--on the planet. I have no respect for killers, especially serial killers who prey on women, and do not feel bad about what happened to them as a child, or how much they have been hurt and/or abused and so on. Murderers are worthless and selfish. They think only of themselves. Many killers express this attribute, mind you, without showing any narcissistic tendencies or characteristics. Think about that for a moment. There’s only a certain breed of the human populace we can say this about! These people kill, simply, for the pleasure of doing it. There is no pathos. No shame. Just an immense sense of triumph and power.
‘Buddy-buddy relationship’? Never. I am not their friend. I am interviewing killers because it is my job, and I want to portray their voice in my book, or at least give them the opportunity to speak for themselves. Remember, killers hardly ever add anything other than their version of the truth to a story and perhaps additional fabrications. What good can come out of adding more lies to a case? I have met only one murderer who admitted to me she had committed a homicide and that she was remorseful for doing so—Dawn Silvernail, who gave me exclusive interviews for my book DEADLY SECRETS.
7) In 2008, you published NATHAN HALE: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF AMERICA'S FIRST SPY to much critical acclaim. How did you find the process of writing a narrative biography to compare to that of writing true crime? What was it that drew you to Hale's story?
I found this process to be only slightly different. I mean, besides the obvious variations in time and place and where the research is physically located, once I have the material in hand, I go about the study and writing process in the same way—whether true crime, historical true crime, Revolutionary War, presidential history, or even religious history, which I am working on currently. I rely on documents when writing true crime, along with, of course, interviews, and various other news sources I consider carefully, etc. But my primary research material is still letters, emails, diary entries, court transcripts, police reports, so on and so forth. Documentation, in other words. For me, there’s no difference in dealing with a 275-year-old journal, or an email from a killer to his mistress. You read it the same way. You evaluate it the same. The writing process may take a lot longer, but the research process is identical. I always try to understand, respect and appreciate my audience, whoever it may be. You tell stories different ways to different readers. If you understand that dynamic, you should be able to deliver.
What drew me to Hale’s story was that after moving from East Hartford to Vernon, CT, as a teenager, I found myself living near Hale’s Coventry, CT, homestead. So the Hale name was always there in my face. I became fascinated later in life with Hale and the Revolutionary War. As I contemplated writing a history book, I thought of Hale instantly. Then I began studying the marketplace, and quickly realized that there was no 100% nonfiction, contemporary narrative biography about Hale available. All of the Hale books published before mine contain various pieces of fiction. I wanted to set the record straight, maybe correct it where I could. I hope I was able to at least do that with the book.
8) You have also appeared on numerous local and national TV programs. How does being in front of the camera compare to the solitary lifestyle of a writer? Also, what do you feel is the media's role in portraying, and/or defining, crime to the public?
The commercial media many rely on today for news has lost touch with how to report murder and crime in general. (Local news coverage is still the most accurate and uncontaminated.) Many murder stories today are sensationalized and presented to a TV audience as a cultural drama unfolding before their eyes. Most of the news stories about murder these days are nothing more than ratings-grabbers, as opposed to hard news. Where is the major media outlet reporting just the hard facts of a story? I cannot find it. I have become disenchanted by the likes of those cable shows during prime news hours that project an image of ‘investigating’ unsolved murders and ‘discussing’ ongoing cases, as opposed to just reporting the facts. Take any high profile case. For example, Casey Anthony, the ubiquitous ‘Tot Mom.’ Some of these shows have tried to turn Anthony into the next Diane Downs, or some other infamous true-crime killer mom. In my opinion, all these shows do is give ammunition to the defense and dumb down true crime as a legitimate nonfiction genre. Once you take callers, who phone in questions and comments, you cannot bill yourself as a news show. You cannot continually point a finger at the accused and have all your guests call her a killer, before she has had her day in court. I guess I am guilty of this in some respects for writing Murder in the Heartland, yet I never viewed the book as an expose of a murderer and/or an analysis of forthcoming evidence—I wasn’t solving a crime, so to speak. I wrote the book (before the trial) as a portrait of a family in crisis—a family who had been deceived and cajoled by a sociopath and pathological liar who ultimately killed a woman and ripped her unborn child from her womb. In the case of Casey Anthony, I support true-crime author Diane Fanning’s new book. The public has a right to know the facts, without polished TV pundits adding their two cents of conjecture and theory. I’m confident Diane can deliver those facts in an impartial way, using her journalism skills to educate as well as entertain. But a television commentator does not have the right to accuse and paint a portrait of someone as a killer, thus adding speculation to the evidence already in the public domain. Can Casey Anthony ever get a fair trial, anywhere in or around the state of Florida? Based on what I have seen, I don’t think it is possible.
I appear on television to increase my readership and build on my brand as true crime author and serial killer/crime expert. It helps draw viewers to my books.
9) You also served as a consultant to Showtime's DEXTER. What can you tell us about that?
Pretty simple: I am considered a serial killer expert by some, having written four books about serial killers, in addition to studying scores of other serial cases. Before the first season started, Dexter’s people called my people (I have always wanted to say that! :-) and we worked out a deal for me to stage a couple of crimes scenes based on how serial killers think, the types of crime scenes they might leave behind, and how they react to the pressure put on them by law enforcement. I ended up staging a few crimes scenes for the team behind the first season. It was a blast. What I enjoyed, perhaps most, was discovering what a tremendously talented writer Jeff Lindsay is—Jeff is the guy who writes the Dexter series. I read a few of the books as research for the project.
10) What project(s) are you currently working on? And when can readers expect to see a new book in stores?
It’s been bad luck for me in the past to give details about future ideas … but I can say I have three major projects in the works right now, and probably one of the most spectacular true-crime stories of the past twenty years I am looking into for a possible book down the road. This one is intriguing, twisting and turning, mysterious, creepy, and hits every note true-crime readers demand. I have one book left to finish under my current contract, which I am about a third of the way into writing. The book is titled LOVE HER TO DEATH. It focuses on the Michael Roseboro case in Denver, PA. Roseboro, an undertaker, was convicted in August 2009 of strangling, beating and drowning his beautiful wife of nineteen years, Jan. The story has connections to the Amish/Mennonite community, which is something I find utterly fascinating and unusual. I am just coming off writing an unplanned series of three books about couples killers. I have never written a book about a husband who murdered his wife.
I just finished writing/revising a commercial thriller, introducing Detective Jake Sundance Cooper, a Boston cop who is chasing the secrets of his past as well as a brutal, horrifically violent serial killer, ‘the Optimist,’ who is leaving the naked, legless bodies of his young female victims along Boston’s Freedom Trail. My literary manager, Peter Miller, gave me an incredibly gracious compliment after reading the manuscript: ‘You can hear the Optimist breathing in your ear as you turn pages.’ I was humbled by that. I felt I had truly captured the essence of all the serial killer research I had done throughout the years.
I’m also busy with a project about saints, religious history is something I love.
Next year I have three books coming out. Two contemporary true crimes: DEATH TRAP (March 2010) and KILL FOR ME (September 2010); and a historical true crime, THE DEVIL’S ROOMING HOUSE, the true story of the hit movie and Broadway play Arsenic and Old Lace, which takes place in Hartford and Windsor, CT. Amy Archer-Gilligan, the serial killer in DEVIL’S, is the most prolific and deadly female serial killer of the past 100 years.
This fall, and into the winter of 2010, I will be appearing on a wide variety of television shows, from Paula Zahn’s ON THE CASE … to SOLVED and DEADLY WOMEN, all on Investigation Discovery; two episodes of FORENSIC FILES on truTV; and several episodes of the popular Oxygen Network series SNAPPED. We’re also setting up filming schedules for several additional shows next year.
One thing I would like to take this opportunity to say … I am truly grateful for each and every reader. I understand the economy is bad and jobs are hard to come by. It humbles me in the deepest, most heartfelt way to think I have such loyal readers who keep coming back book after book. I wish I could thank each and every one of you personally. I feel the best way I can do that is to keep choosing those stories you love and to give each book one-hundred per cent of myself, putting all of my passion and love for telling great stories on every page.
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With gratitude to Mr. Phelps for sharing his time and insights...
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