Ron Franscell

{{Infobox writer

| name = Ron Franscell

| image =

| imagesize =

| caption =

| pseudonym =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = January 29, 1957 {{citation needed|date=January 2017}}

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| occupation = Author, journalist

| nationality = American

| period = 1995–present

| genre = Mystery fiction, crime

| spouse = Mary Franscell

| children = 2

| website = {{URL|http://www.ronfranscell.com/}}

}}

Ron Franscell (born January 29, 1957) is an American journalist, novelist and true crime writer best known for the true account The Darkest Night about the 1973 crimes against two childhood friends in the small community where Franscell grew up.

Personal life

Franscell was raised in Casper, Wyoming, where he attended Kelly Walsh High School. He attended the US Naval Academy in Annapolis and later Casper College, where he was editor of the school newspaper (The Chinook). He graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wyoming in 1979.

Franscell and his wife live in Placitas, Sandoval County, New Mexico. His wife, Mary Franscell, is a high school English teacher. He has two children.

Career

He worked as a journalist in Wyoming, New Mexico and California for Gannett newspapers from 1983–1989 and is a past president of the Wyoming Press Association.{{cite web|url=http://www-wsl.state.wy.us/slpub/outrider/1998/9802or.html#novel |title=Franscell publishes first novel |publisher=The Outrider |date=February 1998 |accessdate=2012-09-18}}

When Hurricane Rita made landfall in Texas, Franscell, managing editor at the time for the Beaumont Enterprise, rode out the storm with staff members in the newspaper's building.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4862882 |title=Beaumont Newspaper Determined to Keep Printing |publisher=NPR |date=2005-09-24 |accessdate=2012-09-18}}{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4970228 |title=Lessons of a Baseball Upbringing |publisher=NPR |date=2005-10-22 |accessdate=2012-09-18}}

In 2001, he was hired as a senior writer and columnist to write about the American West by the Denver Post, where he stayed two years. Following 9/11, he went on assignment for the Post to the Middle East. He worked for the Hearst Corporation from 2004–2008.

He was a judge for Knight Ridder newspaper's Top Books of 2003{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1696&dat=20031214&id=bAsbAAAAIBAJ&pg=6823,1560627 |title=Columnists offer up top 20 books of 2003 |publisher=Knight Ridder Tribune |date=2003-12-14 |accessdate=2012-09-18}} and the International Association of Crime Writers Hammett Prize in 2017.

In 2008, the book Fall: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town, Franscell's book about a crime against two young girls who were his next-door neighbors in Wyoming, was republished by St. Martin's Press with the new title The Darkest Night.{{cite news|url=http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/krcb/.artsmain/article/5/1083/1024888/Books/Grisly.Wyoming.Crime.And.Aftermath.Recalled/ |newspaper=San Antonio Express-News |title=Grisly Wyoming Crime And Aftermath Recalled |year=2006 |accessdate=2012-09-18}}

His book Delivered From Evil, for which he interviewed survivors of notorious mass killings in America, was released in January 2011. After the assassination attempt near Tucson, Arizona the same month of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords', when 18 other people were shot, six of whom died, Franscell was asked to comment for media outlets about mass murders.{{cite web|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-26/us/us_mass-murder-survivors_1_survivors-mass-killer-grant-pardons|publisher=CNN|title=Making peace with a monster|date=2012-07-26|accessdate=2012-09-18|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120819204824/http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-26/us/us_mass-murder-survivors_1_survivors-mass-killer-grant-pardons|archivedate=2012-08-19}}{{cite news|url=http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/life/article/Former-Beaumont-editor-is-a-new-specialist-on-950163.php |title=Former Beaumont editor is a new specialist on mass murders |newspaper=Beaumont Enterprise|date=2011-01-11|accessdate=2012-09-18}}

True Crime Zine gave Franscell's ninth book, The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Washington, DC released by Globe Pequot Press in September 2012, a five-star review.{{cite magazine|url=http://truecrimezine.com/crime-washington-dc-guide/ |title=The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Washington D.C. by Ron Franscell |magazine=True Crime Zine|date=2012-09-10|accessdate=2012-09-18}} The Huffington Post reviewed The Sourtoe Cocktail Club, about a father-and-son road trip before Franscell's son Matt left for college.{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/sour-toe-cocktail_n_1074726.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=2084322,b=facebook |title=Sourtoe Cocktail: Father And Son Bond Over Drinking Dead Man's Toe |work=The Huffington Post|accessdate=2012-09-19}}

Franscell's The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Pennsylvania was released by Globe Pequot in October 2013.[http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/907284_True-crime-writers-recount-many-local-cases-in-new-book--signing-is-set-for-Oct--29-.html True-crime writers recount many local cases in new book; signing is set for Oct. 29. – Book Reviews], LancasterOnline.com; accessed January 28, 2017.

Awards

In 2017, the true-crime book, Morgue: A Life in Death, was nominated for an Edgar award by the Mystery Writers of America. In 1995, Franscell was awarded the national Freedom of Information Award from the Associated Press Managing Editors Association.

He was awarded the 1996 Wyoming Literary Fellowship for his first novel Angel Fire.{{cite web|url=http://extras.denverpost.com/books/book294.htm|title=Book Review: Angel Fire|publisher=DenverPost.com|accessdate=2012-09-18}} In 1999, Angel Fire was named in the San Francisco Chronicle's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century West.{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/West-Side-Stories-Readers-rank-the-20th-2928676.php|title=Readers rank the 20th century's best nonfiction this side of the Rockies|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|date=1999-05-27|accessdate=2012-09-18}}

In 2003, he was given the Distinguished Alumni Award by Casper College.{{cite web |url=http://www.caspercollege.edu/alumni/popup_award_distinguished_01.html |title=Distinguished Alumni Award |publisher=Casper College |accessdate=2012-09-18 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140414044554/http://www.caspercollege.edu/alumni/popup_award_distinguished_01.html |archivedate=2014-04-14 }}

"The Darkest Night," a New York Times bestseller, won ForeWord Reviews magazine's gold medal for 2007 Book of the Year in true crime.{{cite web|url=https://botya.forewordreviews.com/winners/2007/true-crime|title=BOTYA 2007 Finalists in True Crime |work=ForeWord Reviews|year=2007|accessdate=2012-09-18}}

Books

=Fiction=

Deaf Row (2023) ({{ISBN|978-1-957288-55-0}})
The Obituary: A Winchester Bullet Mystery (2003) WildBlue Press ({{ISBN|1942266030}})
The Deadline: A Winchester Bullet Mystery (1999) Write Way Publishing. ({{ISBN|1885173733}})
Angel Fire: A novel (1998), Laughing Owl Publishing (Reissue: Berkley/Penguin Putnam 2000). ({{ISBN|0965970124}})

=Non-fiction=

ShadowMan: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling (2022) Berkley/Penguin-Random House ({{ISBN|0593199278}})
Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story (2019) Prometheus Books ({{ISBN|978-1633885127}})
Morgue: A Life in Death (2016) St. Martin's Press ({{ISBN|978-1250067142}})
Southern Fried Crime (2015), Notorious USA
Evil at the Front Door (Notorious Louisiana) (2014), Notorious USA
Nightmare at Noon (Notorious Texas) (2015), Notorious USA
Delivered From Evil: True Stories of People Who Faced Monsters and Survived (2011), Fair Winds Press ({{ISBN|1592334407}}){{cite magazine|url=http://failuremag.com/book_review/article/delivered_from_evil/ |title=Book review: Delivered From Evil |magazine=Failure Magazine |accessdate=2012-09-18}}
The Sourtoe Cocktail Club: The Yukon Odyssey of a Father and a Son in Search of a Mummified Human Toe ... and Everything Else (2011), Globe Pequot Press ({{ISBN|978-0762771561}}){{cite news |url=http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2011/10/08/entertainment/01ent%20100811.txt |title=Book review: The Sourtoe Cocktail Club |newspaper=Wyoming Tribune-Eagle |date=2011-08-19 |accessdate=2012-09-18 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130209224857/http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2011/10/08/entertainment/01ent%20100811.txt |archivedate=2013-02-09 }}
The Darkest Night: Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town (2008), St. Martin's Press. ({{ISBN|0312948468}}). Originally titled in hardback, "Fall: The Rape and Murder of Innocence in a Small Town" (2007), New Horizon Press ({{ISBN|0882822799}})
The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Texas (2010), Globe Pequot Press ({{ISBN|978-0762759651}})
The Crime Buff's Guide to the Outlaw Rockies (2011), Globe Pequot Press ({{ISBN|978-0762771639}})
The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Washington, DC (2012), Globe Pequot Press ({{ISBN|978-0762773855}})
The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Pennsylvania (2013), Globe Pequot Press ({{ISBN|978-0762788330}})
The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Arizona (2014), Angel Fire Press ({{ISBN|978-0692026823}})
The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw New Mexico (2014), Angel Fire Press ({{ISBN|978-0692026816}})
The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Southwest (2014), Angel Fire Press ({{ISBN|978-0692218471}})
The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Los Angeles (2017), WildBlue Press