Howell

Howell was a very interesting book to write. I had an attorney friend that I got to know because we both had children that went to the same private school. He was one of the city’s top defense attorneys. I taught history in the poorest high schools, so there was a good chance that my students would someday become his clients. We were both good story tellers, but he made a bit more money with his skills than I did. I told him about going through the Ph.D. program at Ohio State University, and he told me about his student days in law school. In the Fall of 1982, My wife and I had discussed a particularly gruesome double homicide, mutilation that happened in Logan, Ohio. A young adult couple had been found dismembered in a corn field on the edge of this small town. Their torsos had been carved with strange signs, then thrown into the Hocking River that runs through Logan. We thought the killings were contemptable, but since the authorities had a prime suspect, we dismissed the tragedy. In the early evening several days later, I was surprised to get a call from my attorney friend, and would I come over to talk about something. He wasn’t specific, but he sounded excited enough, that I said sure. What he showed me changed both of our lives. He had become co council for the Logan man the authorities had charged in the murders. What he gave me was the autopsy reports. He knew that my dissertation dealt with fringe groups that influenced their contemporary history. He asked me to look over the very detailed autopsy reports. I read about the upside down cross cut in the torso, the breast removals, the circle of matched body parts. The heads were buried together, the legs, and even the arms buried in separate shallow graves. This was no ordinary homicide, this was a bonified cult killing. I used primary evidence like the actual autopsy reports, the trial transcript, and the appeal transcripts. It was my job to present the cultic aspect for the defense. I changed the venue, all the names, mixed different personalities, so that no real person would be identifiable, but I kept true to the evidence. I’ll let the novel tell you the rest.