Walter, Jess

views updated

WALTER, Jess

PERSONAL: Male.

ADDRESSES: Home—Spokane, WA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, 10 East 53rd St., 7th Fl., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Journalist, novelist, and investigative reporter.

AWARDS, HONORS: Finalist, PEN Center West Literary Nonfiction Award, 1995, for Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth and Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family.

WRITINGS:

Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth and Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family, Regan Books (New York, NY), 1995, published as Ruby Ridge, 2001.

(With Christopher Darden) In Contempt, G. K. Hall & Company (Thorndike, ME), 1996.

Over Tumbled Graves, Regan Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Land of the Blind, Regan Books (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Jess Walter is a journalist and novelist who has specialized in such true crime subjects as the FBI siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, the trial of O.J. Simpson and serial killers.

Walter's first book, Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth and Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family, came from his coverage of the Weaver case that helped earn a Pulitzer Prize nomination for the Spokane Spokesman-Review. The book examines everything from Randy and Vicki Weaver's childhoods to the shootout that left dead Vicki, the couple's fourteen-year-old son, the family dog, and a deputy U.S. marshal. Walter interviewed members of the Weaver family, and provides a minute-by-minute account of the tragic siege as well as of the trials of Weaver and his accomplice.

Jeffrey Kaplan commented in Christian Century, "The strength of Walter's presentation is his neutrality. The book resonates with compassion for all who were caught up in the events at Ruby Ridge, yet that compassion never overwhelms critical judgment. … While condemning the bungled operation and the poorly executed cover-up which followed, Walter is able to draw sympathetic portraits of the federal agents involved at the scene … no less than the deaths of Vicky and Samuel Weaver."

In a review of the book for the New York Times, Laura Mansnerus also praised the book, noting that Walter "delivers a stunning job of reporting. He knows the Weavers' pantry and their reading lists, their plumbing triumphs and their feuds with neighbors. … He also misses nothing of the operation on Ruby Ridge and its gross miscalculations, or of the trial in which a jury acquitted Mr. Weaver of murder charges in the death of a Federal marshal, or of the family's repatriation to Iowa. Altogether, Walter's account makes the conspiracy theories on both sides look as fractured and pointless as the evening news."

At the close of the O. J. Simpson trial, Walter was contacted by prosecutor Christopher Darden to cowrite his memoir of the proceedings. Eventually published as In Contempt, the book received critical praise for its focus on the pertinent issues of the trial. Still seething from his year-plus-long ordeal, Darden lashes out in all directions: at defense attorneys Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey, LAPD crime-scene technician Dennis Fung, Detective Mark Fuhrman, Judge Lance Ito, and at himself, for having had Simpson try on the infamous gloves. Darden saves his deepest anger, however, for the celebrity defendant himself—a boyhood hero whom he came to see as a murderous coward. "I could see right through him," Darden writes. "Right through to the evil, and he didn't like it."

Walter, who covered a rash of serial killings for the Washington Post. shifts to fiction in the character-driven novel Over Tumbled Graves. The story, played out in Walter's native Spokane, follows a handful of homicide investigators who watch helplessly as one prostitute after another is found murdered in a downtown park. Sgt. Alan Dupree, an old-style cop who eschews modern police investigative methods like criminal profiling, initially leads the team. As the death toll of the so-called Southbank Killer increases, Dupree is replaced by Chris Spivey, an arrogant upstart with great academic credentials but no street smarts. Spivey brings in two nationally known serial-killer profilers, who waste time belittling each other. Spivey also recruits Detective Caroline Mabry, a hard-working investigator who manages to rise above squad-room politics and disagreements about how the case should be handled.

In an interview for Shots Online, Walter talked about why he created female protagonist Caroline Mabry: "to register the horror of these sex crimes. … In this case, it is Caroline Mabry's book, and I think it is her humor and her humanity that powered it. So when my villain finally made his appearance, I saw through Caroline's eyes why I have nightmares about the serial killers that I wrote about. … These guys aren't frightening because they are criminal masterminds or larger than life or supernatural. They're frightening because they're real: living, breathing human beings. They're frightening because they are closer to me than I ever want to admit."

A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Mabry "a complex character, suffering from a raft of personal problems as well as career doubts. She and Dupree finally uncover evidence that the whole investigation has been built on a faulty premise. Unlike many entries in the serial killer category, Walter's stays fresh by placing character development above shock value. His focus is on the human side of police work, not on the killer and his ghoulish behavior." In a review for Booklist, Wes Lukosky wrote that Over Tumbled Graves "is an accomplished character study of Detective Mabry that will appeal especially to fans of T. Jefferson Parker. Crime exists as a vehicle for the core of the story: Mabry's struggle to find peace in a world filled with death, heartbreak, and greed. A very satisfying debut."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 1995, Bonnie Smothers, review of Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth and Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family, p. 364; January 1, 2001, Wes Lukosky, review of Over Tumbled Graves, p. 927.

Christian Century, June 19, 1996, Jeffrey Kaplan, review of Every Knee Shall Bow, p. 657.

Jet, April 8, 1996, p. 56.

New York Law Review, April 26, 1996, review of In Contempt, p. 2.

New York Review of Books, June 6, 1996, Elizabeth Hardwick, review of In Contempt, p. 7.

New York Times Book Review, February 11, 1996, Laura Mansnerus, review of Every Knee Shall Bow, p. 23; April 28, 1996, Adam Hochschild, review of In Contempt, p. 14; March 4, 2001, Marilyn Stasio, review of Over Tumbled Graves, p. 25.

Publishers Weekly, May 6, 1996, review of audio recording of In Contempt, p. 31.

Stanford Law Review, April, 1997, George Fisher, review of In Contempt, p. 971.

Times Literary Supplement, Decmber 19, 1996, A. W. B. Simpson, review of In Contempt, p. 28.

Western State University Law Review, Fall, 1996, Andrea J. Werlin, review of In Contempt, p. 207.