Dennis Latham: Life, Fiction, and the Pursuit of Madness

I became interested in the Baseline Killer a few months ago because my daughter moved to Phoenix to attend school. The police have been trying to catch this monster for a year. He's responsible for eight murders, two dozen robberies, a dozen rapes, and is known to wear different disguises. I had the DC snipers figured out within a few days, but was ignored by the police and FBI. My profile could have saved lives. This time, I used limited available information and created a profile on the Baseline Killer and sent it to the Phoenix police. I felt I could add a new angle that the overworked police may not have considered. Sometimes a fresh outlook can open new direction. I was shocked yesterday when my phone rang and it was Commander Frank Sweeney of the Phoenix Police Department. He told me he liked my profile, believed it was plausible, and he was going to make sure the Homicide detectives working the case got copies. The odds are slim that I'm right (mainly because I don...

I turn 60 in a few months, and I guess I've been lucky healthwise, despite feeling like I was born smoking. I actually started smoking at 14 and have never quit, except for the first five days in Marine Corps boot camp when I didn't have any cigarettes. Everyone else I grew up with started at age five. (Some are dead, but no one I ever knew died from lung cancer.) No one in my family has ever died from cancer. We all get heart attacks and strokes. If you don't get cancer, chances are strokes and heart attacks will take you out eventually. I've been a light smoker and really have never had problems with breathing, no bricks on the chest, cough, etc. That could be bad because I haven't suffered for it. I've lifted weights all my life, and I've been taking blood pressure medicine for the past five years. But that's about it. Every time I go to the doctor my blood pressure is high. I take it at home and it's normal. I go to the doctor in the afternoon an...