FIRST, a few notes about writing Language of Evil --

Writing the true crime book Language of Evil was a two-and-a-half year project, from June 01, 2006, until January 06, 2009.  I'll provide just a few examples of the work done.

I drove three trips to Kansas City, Missouri, a total of over twelve hundred miles (when fuel was four dollars a gallon), for two in-person interviews with Chinese Medicine practitioner Joslyn Dugas and one visit about Joslyn's photo of the victim.  The interviews resulted in only a few pages in the book.  Other authors and readers could reasonably argue that I could have achieved the same result with a telephone call at much less time, effort, and expense.

I also twice drove the entire 90-mile route the police said murderer Tom Murray drove between his home and the victim's home. During my drive I spoke into a tape recorder the entire trip and narrated everything I saw.  That expense and many hours of driving on narrow two-lane roads with sharp turns, often with no shoulder, and often driving behind slow-moving farm equipment, resulted in less than a page in my book.

I spent many hours several times driving hundreds of miles to and from the Konza Prairie in north Kansas, and walking around in it, in-part because Douglas County Detective Doug Woods told me that he has a suspicion that murderer Tom Murray disposed of some evidence there, maybe even the murder weapon.

A photo of the Konza Prairie is in the book, but I didn't even mention my time there, or that the murder weapon may be there.  If you visit the Konza Prairie and see a Wolfgang Puck boning knife, or a club that might have been used to bludgeon the victim to death, please alert the authorities.

Authors differ in the way they go about their craft.  In my own cost-benefit analysis I concluded the effort I put into this book was worth it.  I felt that this story merited the extra work.