An Organ Of Murder

Finalist for the 2022 Cheiron Book Prize​ An Organ of Murder explores the origins of both popular and elite theories of criminality in the nineteenth-century United States, focusing in particular on the influence of phrenology. In the United States, phrenology shaped the production of medico-legal knowledge around crime, the treatment of the criminal within prisons and in public discourse, and sociocultural expectations about the causes of crime. The criminal was phrenology’s ideal research and demonstration subject, and the courtroom and the prison were essential spaces for the staging of scientific expertise. In particular, phrenology constructed ways of looking as well as a language for identifying, understanding, and analyzing criminals and their actions. This work traces the long-lasting influence of phrenological visual culture and language in American culture, law, and medicine, as well as the practical uses of phrenology in courts, prisons, and daily life.

Book Excerpt, "The Organ Donor" !Move over Hannibal Lecter, the Organ Donor is here! The Organ Donor introduces readers to a remarkable first time author, who creates a one-of-a-kind serial killer and weaves a story so filled with unexpected twists and turns that readers are left a constant state of suspense. There are no clues, initially no bodies, and a frustrated police department with no experience dealing with a case like this one. The story begins in Scotland, as the police search for an elusive serial killer who begins sending human organs, with cryptic notes attached, to the Glasgow Metropolitan Police Department. It opens when an unidentified package lands on the desk of Detective Patrick Campbell. At first, he fears that the package might contain an IRA bomb and he calls in the bomb squad. However, he is shocked to find something even more horrific. Tucked inside a Ziploc bag, with a note hanging from it, is a set of human eyes, floating in a sea of formaldehyde. More organs begin arriving, and we feel their frustration as the detective and his task force continue to fail in their efforts to identify the victims or find the killer (now named the Organ Donor) who continues to escalate his reign of death by committing a series of murders with the bagged organs now being found near the victim's bodies. Even though the officers now know the identities of the most recent victims, they are stymied by an ingenious killer, who seems able to anticipate their every move, leaves no clues, and mocks and frustrates them. As each set of murders grows more grisly, and time goes on, they are unable to apprehend him. The suspect grows tired of searching the streets for victims and playing with the police, and decides it's time for him to go international. Next stop New York City. And he begins to wonder if he can find more excitement in New York City. At this point, the killer reveals his identity and readers join him as he commits another series of murders, following the exact same MO and producing the exact same results. As the Organ Donor reminisces about his early life we gain insight into how, over time, he began to evolve into a sadistic serial killer. With a genius IQ, he is able to play what he calls "games" with his victims, and later, with the investigators hunting him so diligently, no one is safe, even when the police, themselves, are targets. Only we know his identity, are witness to his crimes, and are aware of the machinations of his brilliant but evil mindset. The New York police are stymied, until, simply by accident and a nudge from the suspect; they discover that the Organ Donor is the same man that terrorized Scotland months before. When that connection is made, they invite the Scottish police to join them, and a task force is set up between the remaining detectives from Glasgow and the detectives in New York. Perhaps, by working together, they will be able to stop this madness. But, no, the killer continues to goad them, murder their citizens and outwit them at every turn (his twisted sense of humor intact throughout). As we move on in the story, readers find that even a sadistic genius killer can find lovethe last thing he expected to happen. In another of many plot twists, a woman, whom he had planned to torture and murder, is lured to the killer's house. She works as a high priced escort and believes that he is just another client. However, when a strange connection to one another brings them closer together, he begins to wonder if it is possible, even for him, to lead a more normal life. However, as the murders continue, a series of clues are left behind, with a nudge from the suspect, for the detectives to try and figure out. Might the information finally tell the investigators the one responsible for these horrendous acts of mayhem? However, even when the joint task is finally able to discover his ident

Travel back in time to the early days of vaudeville, nickelodeons, movies, theatre organs and stars. Theatre Row on Dallas Elm Street is bustling and alive with beautiful theatres, crowds of enthusiastic patrons and movies, movies and more movies. But there is something murderously mysterious going on at the fabulous Rivertree Theatre. A cast of villains and other characters fill the pages of this intriguing saga, along with more startling stories of the many theatres that were along the fabulous Elm Street Theatre Row and the theatre organs that were in them. Shocking events and incredible performances await the reader on this journey through seven decades of Dallas entertainment history. Brilliant imagery fills each chapter. Extra features include a history of the theatre organ, an updated list of the theatre organs that were in Dallas, and a detailed list of all of the theatres that were along Elm Streets Theatre Row during 70 years of Dallas entertainment history. Special treats are the complete specifications and history of the famous Palace Publix Theatre Organ, its final resting place and many other exciting details of those unforgettable times and places.

The year is 1879. The prestigious post of Organist and Master of the Choristers at Hartley Parish Church, West Yorkshire, has become vacant because of the sudden death in suspicious circumstances of Dr Thomas Burchill. Burchill was renowned the length and breadth of Britain and the Empire for the choir; so much so that Queen Victoria summoned the singers to Windsor Castle on more than one occasion. Burchill’s position is now up for grabs, and there is a long list of contenders for the role: this will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for the successful applicant, for they will dominate music-making of every kind throughout Hartleydale. More to the point, Hartley Parish Church is on the verge of becoming a Cathedral, subject to passing stringent tests, including the standard of the music-making. Seven applicants are shortlisted by the ambitious Vicar, Dr Percy G. Banks, assisted by his long-time friend and mentor, Charleton Mann, of Yorbridge Cathedral. The day of the auditions arrives. Candidates fail to appear or deliberately play badly apart from Dr Algernon Burford, who is about to steal the show when he is brutally killed at the organ console. Thus begins a story of murder, betrayal, passion, poisoned relationships and much more. Victorian Hartleydale is rocked to its foundations as the truth behind its prim and proper establishment emerges. Detective Chief Inspector Wright Watson, Head of the newly formed Hartley CID, together with Detective Sergeant Harry Makepeace, will have to disentangle a complex web of lies, deceit, double-dealing, and downright hypocrisy in order to cleanse the town, its parish church, its political class and its governing society once and for all. He will nearly die himself in the process; all because of one person’s ruthless and murderous ambition to wreak revenge on the world of the church organ loft.

While the federal government is launching a national investigation on the “equity” of organ distribution a female tech CEO flies across country to get a liver transplant. Soon, well-respected transplant nurse Sarah Golden and her best friend, Jackie, find themselves tangled up in an intense plot to uncover the answer to the question on everyone’s mind: Can you buy your way up to the top of the waiting list? Their pursuit of justice brings them to Miami, San Francisco, and Chicago—a sometimes fun, sometimes dangerous roller coaster ride from which they barely escape with their lives.

What do politics, living donor kidney transplants, and the current opioid crisis all have in common? Sarah Golden and Jackie Larsen, best friends since nursing school, could never have imagined that they’d end up as amateur sleuths searching to find a killer—for the second time! Jackie, a stay-at-home mom with marriage troubles, is racing the clock to get her young son, Wyatt, a living kidney donor to avoid the ravages of dialysis. Sarah, who has been living her career in the fast-paced world of organ transplantation, is helping expedite Wyatt’s kidney transplant. Then a much-despised hospital colleague turns up dead of an opiate overdose—despite the fact that she’d never used drugs—and Sarah smells foul play. Her curiosity and tenacity pull Jackie, once again, into a life-and-death adventure that neither woman could have expected. Armed with smarts, tenacity, big hearts, and their raucous senses of humor, the pair gets the help of a few colorful friends to pursue the killer and take on the mission in the only style they both know how: straight on and arm-in-arm as the friends they’ve always been.

It's the Roaring Twenties. London's bright young things are partying, Soho's nightlife is buzzing and Augusta Peel is hiding in her basement. She has a reason to hide there: it's home to her Bloomsbury workshop where she repairs old, neglected books. After a busy time during the war, all Augusta wants is peace and quiet - even if it is routinely disturbed by the tube trains beneath her feet. But events take a turn when Augusta agrees to chaperone 19-year-old Harriet Jones on a date. Failing to get her home on time, she ends up in a riotous nightclub. She can't imagine the evening getting much worse when the police raid it. But then the murder happens. Who shot Jean Taylor? An old acquaintance at Scotland Yard learns Augusta was near the murder scene and persuades her to help with his investigation. But how can a humble book repairer navigate Soho's world of actresses, gangsters and theatre impresarios to discover the truth?

"The Nicholas Effect" is the story of the shooting of seven-year-old Nicholas Green. It tells how the Greens' decision to donate their son's organs saved the lives of five Italians and restored the sight of two others. It covers the murder trial, the making of "Nicholas' Gift," the Jamie Lee Curtis made-for-tv movie, the bell sent by Pope John Paul II to the Greens for their memorial tower and their unceasing campaign to bring attention to the tens of thousands of deaths caused every year by the worldwide shortage of donated organs. Running through it, like a thread, is the hearbreaking journey of Nicholas' parents and little sister to make something good come out of a senseless act of violence.