Stodghill, Ron

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Stodghill, Ron

PERSONAL:

Married; children: three sons. Education: Attended University of Missouri and Harvard University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY; and Charlotte, NC. Office—New York Times, 229 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10036-3959. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

New York Times, New York, NY, staff writer. Former editor-in-chief, Savoy.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(With Kweisi Mfume) No Free Ride: From the Mean Streets to the Mainstream, One World (New York, NY), 1996.

Redbone: Money, Malice, and Murder in Atlanta, Amistad (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Time, Essence, and Business Week.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ron Stodghill tells a sensational true-crime story in his book Redbone: Money, Malice, and Murder in Atlanta. It concerns the 1996 murder of Lance Herndon, a wealthy young African-American businessman who was brutally slain in his Atlanta home while that city was hosting the Olympic Games. A native of New York, Herndon had headed south to become one Atlanta's most successful young entrepreneurs. A millionaire with a taste for the high life, Herndon was known for his extravagant spending and his highly promiscuous sex life. He was particularly attracted to light-skinned, petite African-American women, whom he called "redbones." Dionne Baugh was one of his sexual partners, and after becoming enraged with Herndon over a legal matter, she bludgeoned him to death as he slept in his bedroom, in one of Atlanta's most exclusive neighborhoods. An Essence reviewer advised that the book, is so filled with sensational details that it seems "as if you're reading a novel." A Kirkus Reviews contributor found that Stodghill does "a creditable job of setting up the crime," but felt that the character of the victim, while intriguing, "never does come into focus." A Publishers Weekly writer stated that in addition to creating "an absorbing yarn," Stodghill presents a "cogent" analysis of society, money, and power in Atlanta.