July 23, 2021
My Fantastic Place
Go Further Squeeze was the sound I’d been waiting for from the black hole left by John Lennon’s murder and the shallow onslaught of hair-metal...Speedy guitar paired with mordant…
0 Comments20 Minutes
June 16, 2021
The Boom that Blew the Petals off the Rose City
South Pasadena Review Square-jawed and persuasive, developer E.C. Webster, it was said, could’ve sold plots on Mars for a profit. Luckily there was Pasadena of the late-1880s
0 Comments7 Minutes
June 16, 2021
1979 L.A. True-Crime In Song
Medium It was the faces that slayed you that year, when the only reason for a belly-laugh was a Robin Williams standup act. The expressions remain amber in memory ...
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June 14, 2021
The Accidental True Crime Writer
The Los Angeles Review of Books WHEN MY CITY EDITOR yelled out that she needed someone to help cover a shooting at the County General Hospital in East Los Angeles, I sunk low…
0 Comments11 Minutes
June 14, 2021
Killing Machines: How Car Culture in 1970s Los Angeles Fueled a Terrifying String of Murders
CrimeReads During the late-1960s, with Los Angeles’ skies still blotted by poisonous smog, an angry mother fastened a sign in her station wagon ... “This GM" ... “is a killing…
0 Comments8 Minutes
June 14, 2021
“The Accidental True Crime Writer” – my Los Angeles Review of Books essay
It wasn’t until one day in 1998, strolling along Hollywood Boulevard, that I got stopped on the sidewalk by a guy named Jerry Schneiderman who had been both a source for stories…
0 Comments11 Minutes
May 13, 2021
Meet Chip Jacobs: Author, journalist, dog-enthusiast, spiritual optimist
The argument that erupted between us that evening felt like the climax of a John Hughes coming-of-age movie. Suddenly, a 100+ people listening to a speaker up front swiveled their…
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May 11, 2021
Trailer for my true-crime book: “The Darkest Glare: A True Story of Murder, Blackmail and Real Estate Greed in 1979 Los Angeles”
If you're a fan of Quentin Tarantino movies or Elmore Leonard books, you'll love this darkly humorous, true crime thriller set in late-seventies Southern California ...
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March 29, 2021
1979 L.A. True Crime in Song
It was the faces that slayed you that year, when the only reason for a belly-laugh was a Robin Williams standup act.
0 Comments10 Minutes
March 4, 2021
The Man Behind the Gun
Not all monsters are born that way. Sometimes, a freak accident changes their fate, and others down the line.
0 Comments1 Minutes