A loving father and his new wife set out to pick up his kids for a scheduled weekend visit - but never suspected they were walking into a death trap. A handwritten note instructed Alan and Terra Bates to enter the back door of his exwife's Alabama home. A day later their charred bodies were found hundreds of miles away, wrapped in blankets, in a burned-out car's trunk on a desolate Georgia road. At Jessica McCord's house, law enforcement found windows covered in blankets, a cache of weapons and ammunition, carpets torn up, new tile on the floors - a couch gone. Then they learned about the nasty divorce and bitter custody battle that had landed Jessica in jail. Upon release, Jessica swore, 'Somebody is going to pay'. With her new police-officer husband, Jessica became the prime suspect in this brutal double murder.
Crime expert, lecturer, TV personality and acclaimed investigative journalist M. William Phelps is the national bestselling, award-winning author of nineteen nonfiction books. Winner of 2008 New England Book Festival Award for I'll Be Watching You, Phelps has made close to 100 television appearances, including CBS's "Early Show," Court TV/truTV, Discovery Channel, Fox News Channel, ABC's "Good Morning America," Learning Channel, Biography Channel, History Channel, Montel Williams, Investigation Discovery, Oxygen's "Snapped" and "Captured;" he's been on USA Radio Network, Catholic Radio, Ava Maria Radio, ABC News Radio and Radio America, who calls him "the nation's leading authority on the mind of the female murderer." He's written for the Providence Journal, Hartford Courant, New London Day, and consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series "Dexter."
Profiled in such noted publications as Connecticut Magazine, Writer's Digest, NY Daily News, Newsday, Albany Times-Union, Hartford Courant, Advance for Nurses Magazine, Forensic Nursing, and NY Post, Phelps lives in a small Connecticut farming community. Beyond his true-crime books, in 2008, Phelps published a highly acclaimed narrative nonfiction biography of Revolutionary War patriot Nathan Hale, NATHAN HALE: The Life and Death of America's First Spy (Thomas Dunne Books).
I have been busy! This December, THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND will publish. It is a book about Sam and John Colt, and how one brother invented the revolving firearm and the other murdered someone with a hatchet, culminating in the tragedies that took place afterward and how they juxtapose against the epic story of the Colt family legacy.
I have five more "Deadly Women" episodes in the can for Beyond Productions to air soon on Investigation Discovery channel. Don't miss the latest season--the best yet! Thank you everyone who has written in to say how much you like the shows.
My first TV series, DARK MINDS, is in post-production and will air in early 2012 on Investigation Discovery (ID). The concept of the show is unique and fresh. I have one of the preeminent serial killer profilers working today, John Kelly, ECD (a National Board Certified Addiction Specialist, Board Certified Social Worker, Certified Forensic Examiner and Fellow of the American Board of Forensic Examiners, president of S.T.A.L.K., Inc.), starring with me in the show--and one VERY special guest star each week--a bona fide serial killer in prison we are calling "13".
My thriller series, introducing Boston PD Detective Jake Sundance Cooper, is in the pipeline, and closer to publication.
When time permits, I continue to work on a Christmas story/literary murder-mystery, featuring an old curmudgeon and WW II survivor who, through a little girl, learns a great lesson in redemption and accountability.
Photo Credit: "Dark Minds"/Investigation Discovery
