Mike Cox comes from a family where storytelling is a way of life, a tradition passed down through generations. As he puts it, “The title of my memoir is going to be blood and ink because that summarizes my whole family.” Indeed, Cox’s parents met while covering the murder trial of a contract killer in […]
Mike Cox On Covering Notorious Serial Killer Henry Lee Lucas
The Start of a Gruesome Career Mike Cox’s reporting on the gritty world of the police beat became a lifelong career steeped in blood, ink, and the relentless pursuit of the truth. Today, Cox is one of Texas’ most respected chroniclers of both real and historic crime. “I’ve never really counted how many murders I’ve […]
The Malibu Murders: A Journalist’s Journey from Trust to Truth
On Christmas Eve, 1977, Malibu’s sunny beaches set the stage for what appeared to be a fairy tale wedding. Fred Roehler and Verna Johnson, both widowed and seeking solace, united their families in a ceremony that seemed to promise a happy ending to their past tragedies. Ivor Davis, a London-born former foreign correspondent, recalls the […]
J. David Bethel Turns Real-Life Horrors into Page-Turning Thrillers
Meeting a Dictator David Bethel’s fascination with the psychological depths of the human mind began at an early age. As the son of a U.S. State Department Foreign Service Officer stationed in Cuba, an 11-year-old Bethel had a memorable encounter with Fidel Castro just after the Cuban Revolution. “Castro was a tall guy. I mean, […]