Malear, Julie 1921-

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Malear, Julie 1921-

PERSONAL:

Born December 12, 1921, in Columbus, OH; daughter of David S. and Lucy E. Benbow; married B.F. Cook; children: Marie, Donna, Bettie Laura, Melody. Education: Attended Coyle-Devore School of the Theatre, Central Academy of Commercial Art, and Famous Writers School; Antioch College, received degree. Religion: Protestant.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Delray Beach, FL. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Studio Girl, Phoenix, AZ, manager and distributor, 1949; owned a commercial art business, beginning 1950; textbook illustrator in Peru, 1958-59; Field Enterprises Education Corp., Palm Beach County, FL, district manager, 1960-62; feature writer, cartoonist, and editor for Delray & Boynton NewsJournals, beginning 1969; freelance commercial artist; has also worked as a film script doctor. Has exhibited artworks nationally.

MEMBER:

National League of American PEN Women (secretary of Delray, FL, branch), Mensa, Delray Art League.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Columbus Art School scholarship; has won several ribbons for her artwork.

WRITINGS:

(With Cindy Band) Shattered Bonds: A True Story of Suspicious Death, Family Betrayal and a Daughter's Courage, New Horizon Press (Far Hills, NJ), 2003.

(Editor, with Monika Conroy) Tales from Below the Frost Line: Stories for Discriminating Readers by South Florida Writers, Anrald Press (Boynton Beach, FL), 2004.

More Precious Than Rubies, Anrald Press (Delray Beach, FL), 2006.

Also author of true crime books and contributor to Best True Crime.

SIDELIGHTS:

In Shattered Bonds: A True Story of Suspicious Death, Family Betrayal and a Daughter's Courage, crime journalist Julie Malear, along with Cindy Band, tells the story of the murder of Cindy's mother, Florence, at their home on Long Island, New York. Although Cindy's father, Howard, tried to present the death as the result of an accidental fall, evidence collected by a local detective suggested that Howard himself was responsible for Florence's murder. "Her father assaulted Cindy, threatened through [his girlfriend] Liz to kidnap her following his eventual indictment," explained a Kirkus Reviews contributor, "and tried to discredit her grand-jury testimony by conniving to have her involuntarily held in a mental hospital for ten days." Despite these efforts, Howard Band was indicted by a grand jury and was eventually convicted of Florence's murder. He died years later, having confessed his guilt to Cindy and her sister Paula. Shattered Bonds, stated a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, explains how Cindy dealt with "her emotional upheaval, her fears of her father and how her ‘privileged childhood’ turned tragic and troubled."

"What made me turn from feature writing to true crime?" Julie Malear wrote on her Web page. "Well, to begin with, I'd always enjoyed reading detective stories. I liked learning that the good guys had outsmarted the bad—that right had overcome evil. I enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the crime solving. I was also intrigued by the psychological aspect, that touch of fate that turned some people into criminals." "Life isn't long enough to do all I have in mind," she concluded.