House of Mystery Radio on NBC

Buried for decades, the Up Stairs Lounge tragedy has only recently emerged as a catalyzing event of the gay liberation movement. In revelatory detail, Robert W. Fieseler chronicles the tragic event that claimed the lives of thirty-one men and one woman on June 24, 1973, at a New Orleans bar, the largest mass murder of gays until 2016. Relying on unprecedented access to survivors and archives, Fieseler creates an indelible portrait of a closeted, blue- collar gay world that flourished before an arsonist ignited an inferno that destroyed an entire community. The aftermath was no less traumatic—families ashamed to claim loved ones, the Catholic Church refusing proper burial rights, the city impervious to the survivors’ needs—revealing a world of toxic prejudice that thrived well past Stonewall. Yet the impassioned activism that followed proved essential to the emergence of a fledgling gay movement. Tinderbox restores honor to a forgotten generation of civil-rights martyrs

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The result of more than ten years of research by one of Canada’s top investigative journalists, Dragons of Crime is the first book-length expose of the Chinese and Vietnamese gangs in North America. For the first time, all the mysterious elements of Asian crime are uncovered, from the history and growth of the triads, tongs and gangs to the present-day structures and activities, including:

• an investigative account of how the Kung Lok triad got started in Canada, and the story of Lau Wing Kui, the founder of the Kung Lok triad and his successor, Danny Mo

• the full story of the corrupt Hong Kong cops, the Five Dragons, who emigrated to Canada to invest their criminal proceeds

• how a Chinese gang leader controlled Vancouver in the 1920s and 1930s

• who the “Big Circle Boys” are, how they got to Canada, and what crimes they specialize in

• how and why Vietnamese gang leader Asau Tran and two others were murdered on the streets of Toronto’s main Chinatown in August 1991

• alien smuggling, the new heroin flow from Asia, and other fascinating details of the Asian underworld and their operations in both the criminal and legitimate worlds in North America

• new criminal elements in the 1990s including the threat and reality of the changes underway as Hong Kong reverts to mainland Chinese control in 1997

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Malibu is known as an earthly paradise of multi-million-dollar mansions, movie stars and unimaginable natural beauty.

But all that changed on November 8, 2018.

Go deep behind the scenes of the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history. Alongside his wife and son, Robert Kerbeck battled the fire that threatened to take their home. He knows first-hand how the Malibu fires affected everyone – from the rich and famous to the firefighters who often risked their lives.

Blending investigative journalism and personal memoir, Malibu Burning brings you on the dramatic, life-threatening journey of real people fighting 2,000 degree flames to save entire neighborhoods. You'll also read:

• How the massive blaze affected Julia Roberts, Bob Dylan, Nick Nolte, and other celebrities.
• Hundreds of interviews with perspectives of locals ranging from the Deputy Fire Chief and Malibu City Council members to residents who fought to defend their homes.
• How people survived this tragedy through courage, kindness and unified cooperation.

This book takes you into the hearts and minds of those who fought for their lives while the world watched Malibu Burning.

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In 1957 little seven-year-old Maria Ridulph was kidnapped from the small town of Sycamore, Illinois, while playing with her eight-year-old friend, Kathy Sigman. The brazen audacity of this heinous crime shocked the country and made national headlines for months. So sensational was the crime that daily updates were required by President Eisenhower and J. Edgar Hoover. Almost five months later, Maria Ridulph's remains were found in a patch of woods nearly 100 miles away.

For three years, a flurry of suspects were paraded past Kathy Sigman, the only eyewitness, with no credible identifications. As the tips and supects faded away, the case went cold in the 1960s.

In 2008 the Illinois State police received a tip from a woman claiming her half-brother, John Tessier, was the man who killed Maria Ridulph because her mother had made a deathbed confession that "John did it!" 

With that, an investigation began into a man who had been cleared by the FBI in 1957. A man whose witnesses to his alibi had died, forgotten, or vanished in the 51 years since the crime, A man who changed his name, had siblings with resentment issues, women troubles, failed marriages, and a conviction involving a teenage girl. This all added up to make him the perfect fall guy for the crime. A convenient man.

This is the true story of a 72-year-old grandfather who spent almost five years wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn't commi

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Ted B. Braden was “the perfect combination of high intelligence and criminality.” - Jo Ann, Ted Braden’s sister-in-law

November 24th, 2021 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the only unsolved skyjacking case in American history. The case, nicknamed “Norjack” by the FBI as it involved the hijacking of a Northwest Orient 727 Airliner, would create a folk hero, if not a legend, of a mysterious man who would be immortalized by the name D.B. Cooper.

This fascinating case has garnered a myriad of colorful and interesting suspects. One of the “dark horse” suspects who emerged over the years was a member of the most elite Special Forces unit created by the United States Government to serve during the war in Vietnam: a secret and covert unit called the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). This rather benign-sounding name served as a thin veil, masking what was known to a few as the “black ops” unit in Vietnam.

Many of the soldiers who served in this elite unit consider one of their own to be the infamous D.B. Cooper who hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305; demanded a ransom of $200,000 in cash; and jumped out of the lowered aft staircase of the plane into the stormy night, never to be seen again. It was even stated by some of the most highly-decorated members of MACV-SOG, legends such as Major John Plaster and Sergeant Billy Waugh, that one man in SOG had the parachuting expertise, the know-how, and, most of all, the “balls of steel” to pull off the D.B. Cooper skyjacking.

This man was Ted B. Braden.

Raised in the Mid-West during the Great Depression, young Ted could not have foreseen that the trajectory of his life would be set by events happening thousands of miles from his boyhood home. At age 16, Braden joined the army to fight in World War II, a decision that led to a twenty-year on-again/off-again military career marked by dangerous covert operations; C.I.A. intrigue; desertion, arrest, and incarceration (only for him to be freed without trial under mysterious circumstances); Cold War mercenarism; and ultimately, distrust in a government for whom he could have surrendered his life.

The story of Ted B. Braden, master parachutist and soldier of fortune, trained by Uncle Sam in the art of war but not in the art of peace, is the quintessential American story, the story of the men of his generation and of a war that defined that generation.

Ted Braden was an enigma as a person, driven by a brilliant, unorthodox mind that struggled to adapt to a society based on law and order and routine. He was a true super soldier who was suspected of having mental illness, most likely from post-traumatic stress disorder. He was a tortured soul with the burning frustration that he could never parlay his soldiering skills into big financial gains. He was fearless in his military endeavors to the point of risking lives but was endowed with natural instincts of survival that kept him and the men under his command alive.

It is tragic that a man like this is no longer alive to share his story. It is tragic that a man like this never will be fully understood. He had an ability to be very kind and very cruel, an ability to be very forthright and very cunning, an ability to be very committed as a soldier and very adrift as a civilian.

Was he the man who fearlessly leapt out of a Boeing 727 with $200,000 strapped around his body on a rainy Thanksgiving Eve in 1971? We may never know, but even if Ted Braden is not D.B. Cooper, he is one of the most fascinating people whose story you never knew - until now.

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We all have stories -- sometimes poignant, sometimes entertaining, and usually quite interesting. As historians of LGBTQ life, St Sukie de la Croix and Owen Keehnen, have been recording and collecting the memories, personal experiences, and anecdotes of queer folks for decades. The Tell Me About It series is an extension of their ongoing work.The Tell Me About It series collects personal anecdotes in response to a series of questions. Like its two predecessors, Tell Me About It 3 is full of moving, horrendous, hilarious, and thought-provoking answers by LGBTQ people from across the country and around the globe, capturing a variety of experience, often revealing more profound similarities. Tell Me About It 3 offers glimpses of what makes us different, who we are, what we share, and where we fit in

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The bonds of family never truly let go.

In fact, its grip only tightens the further you try to run: crushing and crippling.

Ethan Faulkner is a precocious child with a brilliant but troublesome sister, a war vet for a father, and a weary mother trying to manage their family. One night a young woman rings their doorbell, desperate to hide from two men who are pursuing her, when one of the two barges in after her. The struggle leaves both of Ethan's parents dead.

Years later, Ethan has a successful teaching career and a budding relationship with a coworker. But he hasn't quite followed through on his promise to his dying father--to take care of his sister. Susannah is not an easy person to keep tabs on, is a handful even when the tabs are kept, and quite frankly, Ethan wants her to suffer for preventing him from getting to his dad before he died all those years ago.

It was a long time ago and Ethan tries to put all of it behind him. But that's easier said than done. When news of a brutal murder breaks with evidence pointing to Ethan as the prime suspect, all the painful memories of his past come rushing to meet him. Lyrically conveyed with emotion and nuance, Never Turn Back is a powerful story about family, vengeance, and how some actions echo through the years with irreparable consequences.

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When Anderson West takes on the pro-bono case of Jessica Smith, a twenty-something restaurant hostess being stalked, the last thing he expects is for his investigation to spiral into breaking and entering, assault, and legal threats from the suspects and the victim.

But that’s what happens when you run a private investigation firm with your rule-breaking, loose-cannon sister at your side.

While Anderson spends his time deducing and interviewing possible suspects, Carrie handles interrogations in her own unique—and personal—fashion. And it seems like everyone is a suspect. There are Jessica’s ex-boyfriend and current boyfriend, her incredibly creepy boss and the suspicious reverend at her church who definitely seems to be hiding something.

Or someone.

The closer Anderson and Carrie get to an answer, the more danger Jessica finds herself in. Her stalker’s notes become increasingly more threatening, trading the scary phone calls and text messages for terrifying photographs and notes at her gym, work, and home. To make things even more complicated, Jessica’s backstory begins to unravel, and the secrets of her past could potentially solve everything…if only she’d let Anderson and Carrie in.

With time ticking down, will the brother-sister investigative team be able to solve Jessica’s case before she tries something foolhardy, like facing up to the tenacious bastard on her own, armed only with a handgun and a prayer?

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It’s the summer of 1991 and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer has been arrested. His monstrous crimes inspire dread around the globe. But not so much for Emory Hughes, a closeted young man in Chicago who sees in the cannibal killer a kindred spirit, someone who fights against the dark side of his own nature, as Emory does. He reaches out to Dahmer in prison via letters.

The letters become an escape—from Emory’s mother dying from AIDS, from his uncaring sister, from his dead-end job in downtown Chicago, but most of all, from his own self-hatred.

Dahmer isn’t Emory’s only lifeline as he begins a tentative relationship with Tyler Kay. He falls for him and, just like Dahmer, wonders how he can get Tyler to stay. Emory’s desire for love leads him to confront his own grip on reality. For Tyler, the threat of the mild-mannered Emory seems inconsequential, but not taking the threat seriously is at his own peril.

Can Emory discover the roots of his own madness before it’s too late and he finds himself following in the footsteps of the man from Milwaukee?

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Michael Jensen is an author and editor. His books of gay historical fiction include two series, The Drowning World, which is set in 5500 B.C., and The Savage Land, which takes place on the American frontier in the late 1700s. Man & Monster, the second book in The Savage Land series, was a Lambda Award Finalist (under the title Firelands).

Michael is also the co-founder of AfterElton.com, which covered pop culture for gay and bisexual men, and eventually became one of the largest and most influential LGBT websites on the internet. In 2006, AfterElton.com was sold to MTV/Viacom. As editor, Michael interviewed hundreds of writers, directors, and actors, breaking numerous stories and advancing the issue of LGBT visibility in Hollywood. Michael also created the Big Gay Fiction Giveaway, which helped tens of thousands of readers find great new voices in MM fiction.

Michael lives in Seattle, WA with his husband, writer Brent Hartinger.You can contact Michael via email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr

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