Review: CRIMES IN SOUTHERN INDIANA by Frank Bill

Crimes in Southern Indiana: Stories by Frank Bill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You might try to comfort yourself by thinking that Frank Bill's exaggerating for dramatic effect in these short, tightly written tales of country meth addicts, domestic brutality, dog-fighters, unpredictably vicious rednecks, and rural ultra-violence. You might try to tell yourself that things this grim and lurid could never happen in real life. But I can tell you, they do.


This is not a book for the faint of heart; it's pure distilled essence of redneck noir, and there are few happy endings. But the quality of the writing keeps you coming back for just one more page, then another, until it's all gone, like a bottle of cheap whiskey that you can't put down and that's gone all too soon.


I got this book for Christmas, and Frank Bill just made it to the top of the "Buy As Soon As It Comes Out list."


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You Can't Make This Stuff Up, Folks

NYTimes.com

HOUSTON — The highest criminal court in Texas ruled Wednesday that a man facing the death penalty for murder could not have a new trial despite a love affair between the prosecutor and the judge who tried his case.

In a 6-to-3 decision, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said the convicted man, Charles D. Hood, should have raised in earlier appeals the argument that the love affair had tainted his trial.

The affair had been rumored for years in Collin County, just north of Dallas, but was confirmed only a year ago when Mr. Hood’s lawyers compelled the judge, Verla Sue Holland, and the prosecutor, Thomas S. O’Connell Jr., to give depositions under oath. Both officials had since retired.

Let me get this straight. Hood should have raised an unconfirmed rumor that the judge and the prosecutor were having an affair, a rumor that wasn't confirmed till 2008, in an appeal way the hell back in 1990? Do I have this right?

It's like Bill Crider always says: once again, Texas leads the way....

Another One for the Redneck Noir Files

Police chief's stripper wife arrested in drug bust

WENDOVER, Utah - The police chief's wife was arrested during a drug bust at a Nevada nightclub where she works as a stripper named "Ecstasy."

Sylvia Tripp, 39, was booked into the Elko County, Nev., jail on suspicion of drug distribution and possessing medication without a prescription, said Craig Ronzone, commander of the Elko County, Nev., drug task force.

She was later released, the Salt Lake Tribune reported on its Web site Tuesday. Formal charges have not been filed.

Tripp is the wife of Vaughn Tripp, the police chief in Wendover, a city on the Utah-Nevada border. She was one of three people arrested Friday after undercover officers made drug buys.

"She was a drug store," Ronzone said.

Tripp works as a stripper at Southern X-Posure in West Wendover, Nev., he said.

Chief Tripp was away from his office and not immediately available for comment Tuesday. There was no home phone number listed for him or his wife.

Well, As Long As I'm Here....

Or, It's a Nice Day for a White Trash Wedding:

BELLEVILLE, Ill. --With help from a judge, David Kite got five years in prison and a life partner. After sentencing Kite on Wednesday to prison for stealing a lawnmower from a home, St. Clair County Circuit Judge John Baricevic obliged the 23-year-old man's request and married him to girlfriend Victoria Smith in the same courtroom.

The groom sported an orange jumpsuit, shackles and handcuffs during the five-minute civil ceremony; the bride had on a T-shirt and sweat pants.

A day later, Baricevic described the short ceremony as polite, with no visible grudge toward him by the lovestruck man he'd just punished with prison.

Kite had just pleaded guilty to a felony theft count and was ordered imprisoned when Kite asked for a furlough to marry Smith, promising to surrender to begin serving his sentence afterward. A prosecutor objected, and Baricevic denied the request.

"Usually to grant a furlough, it has to be an emergency situation. I didn't think marriage was," the judge said.

Moments later, Kite and Smith said they wanted to get married immediately.

So with Kite in a holdover cell, Smith hustled to the county clerk's office and filled out a marriage license the clerk brought over for Kite to sign.

Now That's What You Call Some REAL Redneck Noir

Yahoo! News:

A Georgia man was charged Monday with plotting a murder-for-hire scheme after he allegedly recruited a hit man to kill a teen who gave birth to his child.

Authorities say they are considering more charges against Roy Holt, 50, who is accused of offering a hit man a mobile home to kill the 16-year-old girl.

Prosecutors claim Holt agreed to transfer ownership "of one or more mobile homes or real property located in Georgia" to a hit man in exchange for carrying out the slaying.

Perry County Sheriff Keith Kellerman said a tip from an unidentified source last week led to Holt's arrest Friday in the Du Quoin, Ill., home of his sister-in-law.

Kellerman said Holt, who celebrated his 50th birthday in jail Saturday, fled from Georgia to Illinois last week to establish an alibi for when the alleged hit was to occur.

"We received the information that he was trying to hire a hit man last Thursday, and we were able to independently corroborate those allegations," said Kellerman, who claims the unidentified girl was 14 when the sexual relationship began.

"We believe she was going to report the relationship to authorities in Georgia, and that is why he attempted to hire the hit man," he said.

I'll See You In Hell

Duane Swierczynski first turned me on to this 50's pulp classic via his blog. Then he solidified his position as one of the Princes of Cool by mailing his copy to me when I expressed an interest. (This is particularly impressive because the paperback's in that dry-leaf, just-about-to fall-apart-at-the-spine condition that made me reluctant to leave it on the kitchen counter, much less abandon it to the tender mercies of the USPS. (Not to worry, Duane; I treated it with the reverence it deserves).

I just finished it, and the verdict is: this book rocks. It's got a tough, honorable hero, beautiful and highly treacherous dames, and a sadistic psycho sheriff who has to be one of the great villains of all time. He's so compelling, in fact, that, like Satan in Paradise Lost, he almost overshadows the hero. There's also a twist ending that rivals The Maltese Falcon in its irony. I'll See You In Hell could serve as the prototype for redneck noir. Thanks, Duane, for the inspiration.