The Untold Story of Guns
by Robert A. Waters

Some stories can be judged as too gruesome to show on prime-time television—for instance, the horrifying scenes of desperate people jumping from the Twin Towers on September 11.  Or the ISIS beheadings a few years ago.  Most American networks chose not to show those disturbing scenes.

In other cases, the media will choose not to report stories that go against the grain of a certain political narrative.  Self-defense stories are a prime example.  Major media outlets rarely report these cases, choosing instead to sensationalize mass shootings and the supposed malfeasance of gun-owners.  (Mass shootings should be covered, but so should defensive stories.)  Without a balanced approach to the news, citizens may not have the information required to make rational decisions.

If there are any honest reporters still out there, here’s a suggestion.

According to the FBI, there were 1.3 million home invasions in 2018.  Because homeowners are generally inside their residences when these crimes occur, there is a high potential for violence.  So, how about an investigative report on defensive actions that some residents take during home invasions?

In the new book, Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Stories of Survival with Firearms, the authors describe events that took place on a freezing night in Highland, Illinois.  Debi Keeney and Donna Carlyle lived in a housing community for the elderly.  The sisters, both disabled, kept a tiny .22-caliber revolver near the couch where they would watch television late into the night.  When a violent ex-con broke into their home to rob the sisters, he literally threw Debi across the room, severely injuring her.  He began to choke Donna, allowing Debi time to grab her “derringer,” as she liked to call the gun.  After firing a warning shot that the assailant ignored, Debi shot Joshua Jewel.  Without that gun, the sisters would likely have been murdered.  (Both suffered life-threatening injuries during the savage attack.)

Paralyzed for life from the shooting, Jewel was sentenced to a long prison term.  In her impact statement to the court, Debi said, “Just thinking about [that night] makes my hands shake and my eyes fill with tears, and I begin to relive seeing my sister choked to death, and believing if I didn’t shoot, this man would kill her.  Then came the horrible decision of having to use my gun to protect my sister.  He forced me to make that decision, and it forever changed me.”

Like all of the stories in Guns and Self-Defense, there’s much more, including the “story within in the story.”

Wouldn’t that be a great human-interest story?  If you were a reporter, wouldn’t you find that story compelling?  The authors recount more than a half-dozen home invasion stories, each more violent than the next.  The one consistent theme to all these cases is that the intended victims survived only because he or she had “protection,” a firearm.

In addition to home invasions, our intrepid reporter might also research invalids who defended themselves from attack, domestic violence cases in which victims fought back and won, store robberies that went bad for the assailant, and cases in which victims who had concealed carry permits survived.  And there are more, including stories of cops whose lives were saved by armed strangers.

In the mainstream press, self-defense stories have long gone untold.  It’s time for that to change.


Robert A. Waters is the author of six books, including his latest, Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Crime Stories of Survival with Firearms, written with co-author Sim Waters.

A tale of two gun-free zones

by Robert A. Waters

On the night before DeWayne Craddock murdered eleven people, Kate Nixon debated whether to take her pistol to work the following day.  According to The Virginia-Pilot, Nixon feared Craddock.  She was his supervisor at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, and told her husband the disgruntled employee “gave off ‘real bad vibes’ and she’d had to write him up several times for issues with performance and attitude.”  

Nixon decided against taking her firearm because the building had been designated a “gun-free zone.”  She chose to obey her agency’s policy while Craddock chose not to.  Sadly, Nixon became one of the gunman’s victims.

Five years earlier, Dr. Lee Silverman faced a similar decision.

A psychiatrist at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, Pennsylvania, Silverman dealt with dangerous patients. The most dangerous of all was Richard Plotts.  However, Mercy Fitzgerald also had a “no firearms” policy.  Leaving for work on the morning of July 24, 2014, Silverman, who had a concealed carry permit, decided his own safety mattered more than words on the outside of a building.

Later that day, Plotts and his caseworker, Theresa Hunt, arrived for a meeting with Dr. Silverman.  The ex-con had had numerous confrontations with law enforcement, and served five years in prison for robbing a bank.  As a convicted felon, Plotts was prohibited by law from owning a weapon. 

His ex-wife told reporters that he’d been committed to mental institutions three times.  “He was violent, physically and mentally,” she said.  “He has threatened to kill me.  He’s been violent to my family—parents, siblings—and he’s just never been a very good person.”  A neighbor called him “a creep.”

As Plotts and his caseworker met with Dr. Silverman, the troubled man suddenly pulled out a .32-caliber revolver, placed it against Hunt’s head, and squeezed the trigger.  She fell dead on the floor.  Silverman ducked behind his desk and pulled his own gun from his pocket.  Plotts opened fire on the doctor, and Silverman shot back, emptying his weapon.  The district attorney told reporters that “we believe 12 shots were fired that day.”

Silverman suffered a graze wound to his head and was shot in the hand.  Three rounds struck Plotts.  Hearing gunshots, two staff members helped subdue the shooter.  After recovering from his wounds, the gunman was tried, convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison.

It turned out that Plotts had 39 rounds left.  If Silverman had not taken his gun to work that day, the deranged mental patient would likely have murdered additional victims.  

Administrators of many formerly gun-free organizations have now realized that a lack of security can no longer be tolerated.  Be it contracted security guards, off-duty law enforcement officers, or citizens with permits to carry (i.e., church members, school teachers and staff, etc.), some form of armed security in all public buildings is a necessity.

A recent church shooting illustrates the wisdom of having armed resistance.  At the Maypole Avenue Church of Christ in Chicago, a stranger burst into the Wednesday night Bible study.  Senior minister Gerald Walker described what happened: “We are shocked and saddened at the tragic events of March 28, 2018.  Saints were gathered to increase their knowledge and understanding of the word of God when an unknown intruder, a product of society’s ills, disrupted the focus of our Wednesday night bible class with gunfire.  We are unsure of his motives but he was unsuccessful in his attempted mission.”

WGN News reported that Kenneth Baines was “immediately confronted by a 57-year-old security guard, who is a concealed carry cardholder.”  The guard, shot in the shoulder, managed to shoot the gunman several times.  A severely wounded Baines fled the scene but was quickly captured by police.  News reports stated that Baines entered the church to commit a robbery.

Pastor Walker spoke for the feelings of many when he wrote: “What a commentary it is when you have to have armed security to worship the Lord.”

Yet that is exactly the sensible thing to do. 

Robert A. Waters is the author of six books, including his latest, written with co-author Sim Waters, Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Crime Stories of Survival with Firearms.   

GUNS SAVE LIVES - Chapter 1 - POINT BLANK

[Posted below is the complete first chapter of my book, GUNS SAVE LIVES: 22 Inspirational True Crime Stories of Survival and Self-Defense with Firearms. The original title was published in 2002, but the rights were recently reverted to me and I've published a Kindle edition on Amazon.com. The chapter posted below is similar to the stories in all my "self-defense" books. If you like it, you won't be disappointed in purchasing a copy of GUNS SAVE LIVES or the newest book, written with my son, Sim Waters, entitled GUNS AND SELF-DEFENSE: 23 Inspirational True Crimes Stories of Survival with Firearms. Here's hoping you will enjoy this story and will buy my other books.]

GUNS SAVE LIVES

Chapter 1

Point Blank

“Why’d you shoot me, bitch?”
— Last words of home invader Shaarod Profitt, September 18, 1998.

     It was a cool fall evening in Little Rock, Arkansas, when Don Mosely heard the storm door rattling. Thinking his brother was outside, the sixty-year-old disabled homeowner walked to the door and opened it.

     A masked man stood on the porch. He wore dark clothes and a black stocking mask knotted at the top. Holes had been cut out for his eyes and mouth. “Just like you see on television,” Mosely later recalled.

     He had little time to react.

     The man pointed a gun at Mosely and demanded, “Gimme your car keys!”

     When Mosely didn’t respond, the assailant raised the barrel of the gun and stuck it in the homeowner’s face.

     “Gimme your keys!” he ordered again.

     In a recent interview, Mosely recalled, “He had a .22-caliber Marlin semiautomatic rifle. He’d cut the stock off and made it into a pistol-grip. I grabbed the barrel of the gun and his first shot hit the door-facing. We wrestled around and I almost got it away from him. But he ended up shooting me.”

     Doctors later determined that the bullet, which had been fired point-blank into his stomach, had careened down into Mosely’s right thigh. Although he felt little pain, his leg went numb, and he fell to the floor.

     The suddenness of the attack stunned Mosely. He decided to play dead, hoping the intruder wouldn’t shoot him again.

     Lying still, he thought of the gun he’d hidden beside his chair. If he could get to it, he might be able to stop the assailant.

     Just moments before the stranger had appeared at their door, Mosely and his wife, Jane, had returned home after dining at a local restaurant with Don’s brother. While Don settled down in his rocker, Jane grabbed a bowl of cereal from the kitchen and walked back into the bedroom.

     When he heard the door rattling, Don assumed it was his brother coming back to the house to pick up something he’d left.

     Don and Jane Mosely had lived in the comfortable home on Richland Drive for thirty-nine years. The couple had raised their children there, but their memories belied today’s reality. In the last few years, they’d watched helplessly as the neighborhood had changed. Now gang members lurked on street corners selling drugs and looking for trouble. Neighbors who used to wave or stop to chat now quickly disappeared into their own residences.

     Even though times had changed, Jane, who was known by the children in the community as “Mom,” still provided candy and cakes as treats to the neighborhood children. She always had a ready smile for those trapped in the bleak surroundings.

     Now the thug stood over Don Mosely, as if deciding whether to shoot again.

     At that moment, Mosely heard a thud in the bedroom.

     The intruder also heard it and suddenly sprinted away. Don raised his head and saw the man disappear down the hall.

     He was headed straight toward the bedroom!

     Oh my God, he thought. This guy’s gonna kill my wife.

     Mosely pulled himself to his feet. But he fell when he tried to walk. He stood again. After a few moments, he found that if he dragged his leg behind him, he could maneuver enough to get around.

     He was surprised he wasn’t bleeding more. A smear of blood about the size of a silver dollar spotted the floor where he’d lain.

     “I had a little American Arms .22-caliber Magnum revolver,” he said. “It was sitting beside my chair. I picked it up, but my leg wouldn’t work very well. Before I could get all the way back there, I could already hear them shooting.”

     Jane Mosely had been sitting on the edge of the bed eating her cereal. She’d turned on the television and placed the telephone beside her. When she heard Don get up and go to the door, she also thought that her husband’s brother had returned.

     “But when I heard a stranger’s voice at the door, I knew something was wrong,” Jane recalled in a recent interview. “So I picked up the phone and dialed 911. Then I heard the shots and heard my husband moan. I thought he was dead. That’s when I crossed the room to get my gun out of the closet.”

     The couple usually kept their .32-caliber Smith & Wesson snub-nosed revolver beside the bed. But because their grandchildren had been visiting recently, Jane had placed it on a shelf in the closet.

     She figured it would only be a matter of time before the intruder headed for the bedroom.

     After retrieving the gun, Jane sought refuge behind a chest of drawers in the back corner of the room. It seemed to offer at least some protection.

     Jane muttered a quick prayer and waited for the gunman to appear. Crouched behind the chest of drawers, she followed his shadow as it moved across the doorway.

     His appearance startled her. With his black mask, his dark clothes, and lithe figure, he reminded her of a ninja warrior. 

    Then she saw the gun.

     She was still talking to the dispatcher when he entered the room. But as soon as she saw him, Jane threw the phone on the floor. She later learned that the entire gunfight had been recorded on the 911 tape.

     The masked intruder edged cautiously into the room.

     As soon as he saw Jane, he fired.

     The shot slammed into the chest of drawers, causing the housewife to flinch.

     Jane recalled, “He had to come pretty far into the room to be able to shoot me because I was backed up in the corner and had some protection from the chest of drawers. When he saw me, he spun around and aimed his gun at me. Then we both started shooting at each other. Police later said he fired eleven shots. I don’t have any recollection of how many shots I fired. I don’t remember when I was hit in the arm, but I did feel the bullet that hit me in the groin.” 

     She aimed at his head and pressed the trigger. The blast deafened her.

     The small bedroom had become a war zone. The gunman’s volleys thudded into the wall behind her. A television that sat on the chest of drawers took a direct hit—the glass shattered, stinging her face. The intruder continued to move toward Jane, still shooting.

     The first time she was hit, Jane felt panic surge up inside her. But she knew she had to remain calm. She fired again, and continued to pull the trigger until the gun no longer fired.

     Jane remembered, “He kept coming closer and closer, firing all the time. There was a little stool in front of the dresser, and he crouched behind that stool. He was constantly raising up and shooting at me.”

     By now, Jane’s revolver was empty. She continued squeezing the trigger, only to hear it clicking into an empty chamber.

     She was bleeding, and the pain in her abdomen was excruciating.

     Now her assailant was just a few feet away. She could see that she had hit him at least twice—blood pumped from an open wound to his throat, and his mask had turned crimson.

     He held the rifle as if it were a pistol. It was then that, like her husband, she noticed the stock had been cut off and carved into a pistol-grip.

     The man seemed determined to kill her, like some madman in a cheap stalker movie. She was bleeding heavily. If I get shot again, Jane thought, I’m dead.

     By now, the gunman had closed the distance to less than a foot. In desperation, Jane flung her empty gun to the floor, and grabbed the barrel of his rifle.

     The gunman tried to wrench it away, and the two combatants fell to the floor. He landed on top of her and somehow squeezed off another round. The bullet missed Jane and plowed into the floor. The assailant attempted to twist the barrel into her torso so that he could shoot her again, but the fear of dying drove her to push it away.

     The struggle lasted for about two minutes. But it seemed like forever to Jane Mosely.

     She thought of her children.

     I will not die, she thought. I will survive.

     Don Mosely later recalled the horrific scene he saw when he entered the bedroom.

     “When I got back there,” he said, “[the gunman] and my wife were on the floor in the damndest puddle of blood you’ve ever seen. They were struggling for the gun—he kept trying to point the barrel towards my wife, and she kept pushing it back.”

     The stool had been knocked to the floor and a lamp had shattered. Bullet holes dotted the walls, and splinters of wood from the chest of drawers lay on the floor.

     But what struck Mosely was the complete silence as the two fought desperately for the gun.

     He dragged his lame leg toward them, using the bedpost to help steady himself.

     By now the gunman was straddling Jane. She lay on her back, still holding onto the sawed-off rifle.

     When Don Mosely was less than a foot from the assailant, he placed the pistol against the man’s head.

     At point-blank range, the homeowner pulled the trigger. At the crack of the gunshot, the invader dropped to his knees. He loosened his grip on the rifle, allowing Jane to wrench it from him.

     Don cocked the gun and fired again. The man’s body went limp, and he collapsed to the floor.

     Jane Mosely lay in the corner of the room where she’d made her stand. Her dress was stained crimson, and now her body ached all over. But she was jubilant to see that her husband had survived.

     The gunman lay beside her, gasping. Blood still pumped out of the wound to his neck.

     Don Mosley recalled, “I grabbed his gun and threw it up on the bed. Then I picked up the phone, and told the dispatcher we’d both been shot.”

     Blood from Jane and the intruder flowed to form a pool on the floor.

     She thought the masked man was dead. But he slowly raised his head. Twisting toward Jane, he asked, “Why’d you shoot me, bitch?” They were the last words Shaarod Profitt ever said.

     Jane later recalled that she was incredulous that he would ask such a question. Although she didn’t respond, she thought, why do you think I shot you?

     Police had been instructed by dispatchers to treat the call as a domestic disturbance. Don Mosely, standing in the hall, still held his gun when the first officers arrived. He was ordered to put his weapon down, then he was forced to the floor and handcuffed.

     Investigators at the scene quickly determined what had happened. The handcuffs were removed, and Don Mosely was examined by paramedics. Unlike the gunman and his wife, he’d bled very little.

     The wounded homeowners were placed on stretchers and rushed to local hospitals. Both Jane Mosely and the intruder, identified as teenager Shaarod Profitt, were transported to Baptist Hospital, while Don was sent to University Hospital.

     During exploratory surgery, Don developed a staph infection and had to be hospitalized several times before recuperating. Jane Mosely spent five days in the hospital, but eventually recovered completely.

     Shaarod Profitt died the following day.

     After a lengthy investigation, police arrested a second suspect, Tyrone Cooper, and charged him with being an accomplice. Through interviews with Cooper and other witnesses, investigators put together the following sequence of events that led to the foiled home invasion.

     Profitt, Cooper, and an unidentified gang member had seen Don Mosely driving a new Chrysler LHS and decided to steal it.

     Dressed in dark clothing and masks, they walked up to the porch. Just as they were about to kick the door in, Don Mosely opened it. Almost immediately, he began to fight for his life with the gunman. Profitt’s accomplices fled as soon as the first shot was fired.

     A neighbor had seen the strange trio walk up onto the steps to the Mosely home and called police. The witness recognized Profitt and Cooper but not the third robber.

     Witnesses pointed out to police a house that Cooper had entered and he was quickly arrested. A mask, duct tape, and knife were found in a yard nearby.

     He later plea-bargained a sentence of twenty-five years in prison. By law, Cooper must serve all his sentence without the possibility of parole.

     Not surprisingly, Don and Jane Mosely take gun ownership seriously. In a recent interview, Jane said, “I think everybody ought to be able to own guns and I don’t think people should be forced to put trigger locks on them. I know if there had been one on the gun I used, I wouldn’t be here. I’m also against having to register your guns. I just think they’re taking too much of our freedom away. [Our family has] always had guns, and we taught our children how to use guns safely.”

     She paused, and said, “Thank God we knew how to protect ourselves.”

     Don concurred. “My wife and I used to go out every weekend and target practice with handguns,” he said. He states that he believes the Federal and state governments do not have the right to pass gun control legislation.

     Don also has his own theory about why he and Jane were shot.

     “If [Profitt] didn’t intend to kill us,” he said, “why didn’t he leave after shooting me instead of going back to the bedroom after my wife? They planned to kill both of us to get the car. It might have even been a gang initiation. But I know he came in here with murder on his mind.”

     Both Don and Jane Mosely agree that had they not owned firearms they would both be dead. And they wonder how many other victims would have died at the hands of Profitt and Cooper had they been allowed to continue their lives of crime.

     Don and Jane Mosley recently moved to a new neighborhood to be closer to their children and grandchildren. They feel safe there. But they still keep their guns ready. Just in case.

What would you do?

Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Crime Stories of Survival with Firearms

by Robert A. Waters and Sim Waters

What would you do if you were driving down the road and saw a law enforcement officer being beaten to death by a crazed assassin?  Would you keep going, and maybe call 9-1-1 from your cellphone?  Would you stop and use your phone to take photos or videos of the dreadful scene?  In this book, the authors used detailed police case files to piece together not one, but two, stories in which private citizens used guns to save the lives of cops.  In each case, the good Samaritan shot and killed unhinged assailants.

If you were a clerk in a convenience store, would you keep a gun beneath the counter so you could fight back if you needed to?  We've described two cases in Guns and Self-Defense in which clerks, both female, survived because they had guns hidden away.  In one case, the clerk was fired from her job for defending herself.

If you worked in a jewelry store, would you keep a gun on your person as you go through your day-to-day interactions with customers?  What if one of the "customers" was a violent robber who wanted to kill you?  You can read two stories in this book that present that scenario.  Fortunately, the prey had protection and survived.

What if you're relaxing at home and suddenly the door bursts open and masked gunmen rush in? What if you had no means of protection?  The FBI reported 1.3 million home invasions last year.  Thousands of defenseless homeowners were badly injured and hundreds died during these encounters.  The half-dozen harrowing home invasion cases in our book turned out different only because the homeowners had guns.

And there are more.  Many more exciting, terrifying, poignant, and ultimately inspirational true tales that ended with the good guys winning.

Sim and I wrote about 23 cases.  We have an archive of several thousand "righteous" defensive shootings and plan to write a series of books describing many of these cases.

Stay tuned.

NEW BOOK *** Guns and Self-Defense *** NEW BOOK

Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Crime Stories of Survival with Firearms

by Robert A. Waters and Sim Waters

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 – The wrong house

Chapter 2 – “Officer down!”

Chapter 3 – “Go get the cannon”

Chapter 4 – Psycho neighbor

Chapter 5 – Going viral

Chapter 6 – Strangers in the night

            I – “Her life was being choked out of her”

            II – “Justified use of deadly force”

            III – How does thirty years in prison become five?

            IV – Shootout at the Stop & Go

Chapter 7 – Death in the afternoon

Chapter 8 – “He failed crime school”

Chapter 9 – Dial 9-1-1 and pray

            I – “Did you think you could beat me half to death?”

            II – “Graveyard dead”

Chapter 10 – “Please don’t shoot. It’s a fake gun.”

Chapter 11 – “Ducking Bullets and Throwing Lead” and Other Stories

            I – “Ducking Bullets and Throwing Lead”

            II – The man in the wheelchair

            III – Milwaukee County Shootout

            IV – “Stop! I have a gun!”

Chapter 12 – “She had no option but to use deadly force”

Chapter 13 – “Please shoot him!”

Chapter 14 – Demise of the Cutthroat Committee

References

            None of the would-be victims written about in this book lived life on the edge.  All were normal citizens living normal lives when they were viciously attacked by hardened criminals or psychos or dopers.  The stories of how these violent assaults came about and how they ended should be the stuff of legend.  In the end, if those targeted by predators hadn’t had access to a gun, they would be dead or severely injured.

            That’s why concealed carry is so popular.  That’s why many people keep guns in strategic locations around their homes.  That’s why, when gun-owners hear presidential candidates raving about how they will restrict or ban most or all firearms, we look at them with contempt.  That's why we don't care when we're criticized for owning weapons.

            Read Guns and Self-Defense.  It’s an eye-opener.

NEW BOOK***Guns and Self-Defense***NEW BOOK

Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Crime Stories of Survival with Firearms

by Robert A. Waters and Sim Waters

I’ve often wondered why ID Discovery, the self-described true crime television network, rarely, if ever, features a story of “righteous” armed self-defense.

Here’s a case they could use, directly from the new book, Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Crime Stories of Survival with Firearms, co-written by myself and my son, Sim Waters.  (All these stories are dramatic, poignant, and inspirational.  Using police case files, one-on-one interviews with would-be victims, transcripts of 9-1-1 calls, court documents, and local news stories, this book provides the “inside scoop” on what happened in nearly 2 dozen riveting cases.)

In “Demise of the Cutthroat Committee,” we describe the violent invasion of the home of Foster and Pam Coker in Jacksonville, Florida.  The “Cutthroat Committee,” as they called themselves, was a makeshift gang—they’d all been in prison and each member’s life was spent preying on others.  The Cokers, on the other hand, were hard-working Christians whose seven-year-old grandson happened to be spending the night.

Early on the morning of August 15, 2014, Marquise Trevel Yates, armed with a Beretta .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun that held a “30-clip,” kicked down the door of the Coker home and brutally attacked Pam, who was dressing for work.  Foster, still in the bedroom, heard the commotion and ran out to help Pam.  A brutal physical fight ensued, with Pam and Foster both eventually shooting Yates, killing him.  While the homeowners suffered life-altering injuries during the struggle, their grandson was physically unharmed.  Cops chalked it up as just another case of “justifiable homicide.”

Other members of the Committee had been involved in the attempted heist and were quickly rounded up and arrested.  Fortunately for Jacksonville, the Cokers’ defense of their lives resulted in the destruction of the so-called Cutthroat Committee.

This story, based on an interview with Foster as well as police reports and local news sources, will leave you in tears.  The violence inflicted on this law-abiding family will amaze and anger you, but their courage will inspire you.

Oh yeah, one other little detail.  Had the family no had guns in the house, they, and probably their grandson, would be dead.  And yet, this is not the whole story.  In this and other cases in our book, the dramatic “story behind the story” is often as exciting as the climax.

Now here’s a word to the producers of ID Discovery: forget your tired, standard fare and try something new and exciting, like filming the story of the cop whose life was saved because an armed passerby shot his murderous attacker dead.  Or the woman who single-handedly stopped a carjacking ring in Milwaukee.  Or the wheelchair-bound invalid who ended a violent home invasion.

If you produce it, they will come. 

New Book *** GUNS AND SELF-DEFENSE *** New Book

     Today, Robert A. Waters and Sim Waters launched a new book entitled Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Stories of Survival with Firearms.  This much-needed book, the first in a coming series, will help balance the record since the so-called mainstream media rarely documents these types of stories.

     For instance, have you ever heard of Harry and Janet Lodholm?  This Lakewood, Washington couple survived a brutal home invasion by a gang that mistook their house for that of a drug dealer they planned to rob.  Crashing through the front door, the gang pistol-whipped Harry and slashed Janet with a knife.  When the assailants finally realized they had the wrong house, they fled, leaving the bound and tortured victims bloody, permanently disabled, and stunned.  In their haste to leave, however, the robbers forgot they’d left their backpack in the house.  Worse yet, the backpack contained all their cellphones.  The group broke into the house once again, determined to murder the victims who could identify them and retrieve the evidence that would send them to prison.  But this time, their targets were prepared.  The couple had broken free and retreated to their bedroom where Janet called 9-1-1 and Harry grabbed his handgun.  When the gang kicked down the bedroom door, Harry and his 9mm firearm made quick work of the robbers.

     This exciting story is just one of twenty-three described in dramatic detail.  Based on interviews with victims, police reports, court documents, media sources, and other public records, this true crime book recounts the courage and resourcefulness of armed citizens who refused to become victims.  By the way, for those who fancy identity politics, the would-be victims represent a microcosm of America: liberals, conservatives, independents, whites, blacks, minorities, male, female, able-bodied, and disabled.

     You’ll get the “inside scoop” on two cases in which concealed carry permit holders saved the lives of lawmen.

     You can read about two cases that went viral—then, since they’re still online, you can view the events as they occurred in real time. 

     There’s the story of Gary Wroblewski, whom predators considered an “easy mark” because he lived most of his life in a wheelchair after losing both legs.  In a brazen home invasion, one assailant knocked Wroblewski’s wheelchair over, throwing him onto the floor.  The victim, however, was armed and things quickly went bad for the robbers.  When it was over, one criminal lay dead and two others were sentenced to long prison terms.  Without his gun, the “easy mark” would likely have been murdered.

     If you’ve never heard about these (and other such cases), that means the media is not doing its job.   Broadcast and print media have a duty report both sides of the gun issue, mass shootings and self-defense shootings.  If they don’t, they portray a skewed version of the reality of gun ownership and use.

      My son, Sim, and I plan to write a series of similar books, in order to publicize the “other side of the story.”  We’ve developed an archive of several thousand cases from which to choose (with more coming every day). 

      In 1998, I published a well-received book entitled, The Best Defense: True Stories of Americans Who Defended Themselves with a Firearm.  Our new book is similar, with brand-new, formerly untold stories of violent encounters stopped only because the victim had access to a firearm. 

     Guns and Self-Defense is available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon.com.  These dramatic stories will inspire you and touch your soul. 

“Hard, wind-scraped Wyoming”

Review of Ron Franscell’s Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story

by Robert A. Waters

Dreams come to Wyoming to die.  At least, that’s what happened to Claire Martin when her daughter, Virginia, and grandsons, Richard, 11, and Reagan, 10, vanished.  The trio had scheduled a bird hunting trip with Virginia’s former husband, Gerald Uden, but he claimed they never showed up.  A month later, Claire’s car, which Virginia had driven to the meeting, was found hidden in a ravine part-way down a cliff. 

From that day, Claire Martin’s heart died.

For decades, Claire fought with local and state authorities, urging them to search harder for her missing family.  And for decades, she longed to see Gerald arrested.  It didn’t happen during her lifetime.  Before her death at 90, Claire wrote a touching letter to her grandchildren (in case they ever returned home), expressing her love for them and their mother. 

Finally, in 2013, thirty-nine years after the disappearance and years after Claire’s death, Gerald Uden confessed to the murders.  Even though his wife, Alice, was suspected of being an accomplice, he refused to implicate her.  For his heartless, brutal crime, Gerald received a life sentence.

Alice, convicted of murdering one of her former husbands and dumping his body in an abandoned gold mine, was also sentenced to life in prison.

Ron Franscell is among the elite in true crime writing.  In addition to a gripping story with many bizarre twists, Alice & Gerald is a story of place, of lonesome highways and long-gone memories.

Ron told me that “in Alice & Gerald, place plays kind of a conspiratorial role.  It is, in my mind, a distinct character that aids and abets evil by giving these bad guys a place to hide their behavior and their victims.  So I wanted to bring Wyoming to vivid life, as I might for any pivotal human character.

“Wyoming is my heart-earth.  In summers I worked construction and in the oilfields with the kinds of people in the kinds of places I describe.  I know the landscape and the mindscape intimately.  It’s not only a metaphor for challenge and loneliness, but it’s also as mythic as the West’s history and as real as a rattlesnake.

“Out here, the landscape shapes us as much as we shape it.  No Manhattanite who thinks Cleveland is rural understands the endless emptiness that starts at the end of every Wyoming town’s main street…”

Ron Franscell was an Edgar Award finalist last year.  This year, Alice & Gerald should win the grand prize.

The Firemen are Coming

Goodbye Dr. Seuss, Goodbye Sherlock Holmes

by Robert A. Waters

So the great books aren’t great anymore. At least that’s what the shallow-minded book-banners would have you believe.

Little House on the Prairie is out because Laura Ingalls Wilder was allegedly a racist.  A couple of her characters happened to be “stereotypical Indians,” so we’re no longer allowed to read her books. Tom Sawyer, another supposedly racist book, is likely to be replaced by some politically correct author who can’t hold a pen to Mark Twain. Sherlock Holmes should be killed off (again) because Arthur Conan Doyle believed in British colonialism.

Even more surprising is the deep-sixing of the much-beloved Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel). A political progressive, Geisel worked in the war department during World War II and designed “propaganda” cartoons that stereotyped Emperor Hirohito and Japanese officers. Because of this, the author of classics such as “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” can’t escape the razor-sharp stilettos of today’s book-banners. For them, everyone has to believe exactly the same things they do, even if an author wrote 100 years ago when the world was a different place.

American leftists invented political correctness for one reason: to suppress divergent thought.

In Ray Bradbury’s book, Fahrenheit 451, the book-burners were called “firemen.” They roamed everywhere, weeding out “dangerous” books and creating huge bonfires to destroy ideas. This is the mantra of today’s leftists who fear thought that contradicts their own.

I can’t stand these people.

Think I’m gonna go into my personal library and pull out my dog-eared copy of “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” and read it through and through. Then, on Sunday, I plan to attend church and study the Holy Bible, the most hated book and most banned book in America. Later, when the grandkids come over, we’ll turn on the TV and have a Dr. Seuss marathon.

After that, maybe we'll discuss the concept of freedom. And the ignominious philosophy of suppression. And, just maybe, our grandchildren will grow up reading the great books of the past, the books we read and enjoyed when we were growing up. Can't be anything wrong with that.  

Mystery, Millions & Murder in New Jersey Book Reivew

Mystery, Millions & Murder in New Jersey: The Tragic Kidnapping of Exxon’s Sidney Reso

By John E. O’Rourke

The History Press (2019)

I recently read Mystery, Millions & Murder in New Jersey, and loved it.  The story of how Sidney Reso, a New Orleans native, who worked his way up the Exxon ladder to a high-level management position only to be kidnapped and murdered, is told in electrifying fashion by author John O’Rourke.  Reso’s last days in a wooden box with no food or water and boiling in the heat were horrifying.  The fact that the kidnappers didn’t care shows their lack of humanity and all-consuming greed.

I highly recommend this work.  The following online interview with Mr. O'Rourke will help introduce the author to my blog readers.

Describe your experiences in law enforcement.  What made you want to become a cop?

The only thing I can remember is wanting to be a cop.  As a young boy I used to watch the TV show “Adam 12” and that was it for me.  Then, my next-door neighbor Ed Roll was like a big brother to me as he was 6 years older.  Ed wanted to be a New Jersey State Trooper.  From there on my goal was to become a trooper.

I graduated the academy in June of 1985.  I began my patrol up in Sussex County, NJ, where troopers are responsible for most of the towns.  I believe there were 12 towns we patrolled when I was there. When you graduate, new troopers are given a couch to teach while on the job.  My couch happened to be my next-door neighbor Ed Roll, who became a trooper 7 years prior.

In my 26- year career I policed in rural and urban settings and did some highway work as well. Moreover, I did some undercover work but very little.  Most of my time was in uniform.

In my many years in law enforcement I have conducted numerous investigations. I like to say I have investigated anything from motor vehicle accidents to murder. Through those years my investigations led to nearly a thousand of arrests and the incarceration of approximately 300 criminals.

What made you decide to write about the Reso kidnapping and murder?

After I retired from the state police, I began doing security consulting work and training.  The Sidney Reso incident is a good case study in situational awareness and the methodology of kidnappers.  After studying the case I realized this would be a great true crime book.  I did some research and found out a book had never been written about the investigation.  Although having been covered on Discovery ID, and American Justice TV shows, nothing had been written about the crime.

That being said, I set out on my research and interviewed FBI agents, local law enforcement officers and people that knew the kidnappers.

This was truly an “innocence vs. evil” case.  Can you briefly describe the three main characters: Sid Reso, Arthur Seale, and Jackie Seale?

It’s interesting you put it that way. It is a story of innocence vs. evil. Sidney Reso was the International President of Exxon and a power broker in the energy field.  However, through my research, I have come to know the man himself.  He was a nice guy who lived a modest life despite his wealth and position.  He had a wonderful wife and five children.  He and his wife Patricia attended church regularity and helped at food shelters from time to time.  They were warm loving people.

Arthur and Jackie Seale on the other hand were cold-callous people. They were filled with greed and envy.  Whereas Sidney Reso was a man who believed in hard work and perseverance to provide for his family, Art Seale was lazy and unambitious.  His wife Jackie got fired from just about every job she had because of talking too much and lack of a work ethic. Art was an ex-cop from Hillside, NJ who, besides his lack of ambition had anger issues.  He left the force due to an on the job injury.

The case was a logistical nightmare for the FBI and local law enforcement agencies.  To their credit, they kept at it until it was solved.  Do you believe Art and Jackie Seale would have been caught had they not attempted to collect the ransom one last time?

The case was the largest the FBI had at the time of its occurrence. During the 57- day duration of the investigation the FBI had a profile on the suspects. That profile was dead on.  However, if Art and Jackie Seale just walked away from the crime odds are they would have never been caught.  DNA analysis was not what it is today and without that there just wasn’t enough evidence to pin the crime on them through investigative means.

Are you working on a new book?  If so, can you give readers a hint?

It so happens I am finalizing the narrative of my next book. The book is a fiction story about a Private Eye working in the city of Hoboken on a political corruption case.  I am presently seeking a literary agent to represent me with this endeavor.

Also, I have began researching true crime cases in the hopes of identifying a story I feel is worthy of writing about.  It needs to be a case that is interesting and hasn’t been written about before.