Randy Turner's Blog - Posts Tagged "missouri"
Silver Lining in a Funnel Cloud
In the months after the May 22, 2011, the city of Joplin, Missouri, earned a reputation for the admirable way in which it handled the death and destruction from the worst tornado to hit the United States in six decades.
Those who watched television or read internet or newspaper accounts in the days after the tornado became familiar with names like City Manager Mark Rohr, Mayor Mike Woolston, and School Superintendent C. J. Huff. Often they were referred to as heroes of the Joplin Tornado.
Those heroes had feet of clay, as those who read my new book, Silver Lining in a Funnel Cloud: Greed, Corruption, and the Joplin Tornado, will discover when the book is published next month.
The book begins with each of these people and what they were doing when the tornado hit and follows their activities over the next four years.
During that time, the city manager was fired, the superintendent became the object of a public movement to have him suffer the same fate, and the mayor, now serving as a city councilman, is accused of using his position and insider knowledge to benefit his business partner.
The book also follows a Texas businessman who conned Joplin leaders into thinking he would be their savior as the master developer of the tornado-stricken area and ended up taking the city for a ride.
What started with considerable hype about how Joplin had the right leaders in place at the right time has ended up as a cautionary tale of how not to rebuild a city and a school district.
The book is based on interviews, court documents, recordings, videos, and in some sections in the book, on personal knowledge, since I have played a role in a portion of the events that have taken place in the last two years.
I will reveal more information about the book during the next few weeks and I will be happy to answer any questions anyone may have about it at Goodreads' Ask the Author area.
Those who watched television or read internet or newspaper accounts in the days after the tornado became familiar with names like City Manager Mark Rohr, Mayor Mike Woolston, and School Superintendent C. J. Huff. Often they were referred to as heroes of the Joplin Tornado.
Those heroes had feet of clay, as those who read my new book, Silver Lining in a Funnel Cloud: Greed, Corruption, and the Joplin Tornado, will discover when the book is published next month.
The book begins with each of these people and what they were doing when the tornado hit and follows their activities over the next four years.
During that time, the city manager was fired, the superintendent became the object of a public movement to have him suffer the same fate, and the mayor, now serving as a city councilman, is accused of using his position and insider knowledge to benefit his business partner.
The book also follows a Texas businessman who conned Joplin leaders into thinking he would be their savior as the master developer of the tornado-stricken area and ended up taking the city for a ride.
What started with considerable hype about how Joplin had the right leaders in place at the right time has ended up as a cautionary tale of how not to rebuild a city and a school district.
The book is based on interviews, court documents, recordings, videos, and in some sections in the book, on personal knowledge, since I have played a role in a portion of the events that have taken place in the last two years.
I will reveal more information about the book during the next few weeks and I will be happy to answer any questions anyone may have about it at Goodreads' Ask the Author area.
Lost Angels: The Murders of Rowan Ford and Doug Ringler
Two children, two Missouri communities gripped with fear as the children vanished only to be found brutally murdered.
My new book Lost Angels: The Murders of Rowan Ford and Doug Ringler tells the stories of the murders of two children and how the people of Stella and Carthage feared the strangers who would commit such crimes, only to find out that the strangers were people who had been living among them all along.
Lost Angels, which is available on Amazon, examines both cases offering descriptions of the communities of Carthage on December 28, 1993 when Doug Ringler, 8, a third grader at Hawthorne Elementary in Carthage was reported missing and Stella on November 2, 2007, when Colleen Spears returned to her home after working the overnight shift at the Wal-Mart store in Jane to find her daughter Rowan Ford, 9, a fourth grader at Triway Elementary, had disappeared.
The book takes readers through the searches for the children, the discoveries of what happened to them, the investigations that led to the arrests of the killers and provides an examination of how the judicial system dealt with those killers.Lost Angels: The murders of Rowan Ford and Doug Ringler
My new book Lost Angels: The Murders of Rowan Ford and Doug Ringler tells the stories of the murders of two children and how the people of Stella and Carthage feared the strangers who would commit such crimes, only to find out that the strangers were people who had been living among them all along.
Lost Angels, which is available on Amazon, examines both cases offering descriptions of the communities of Carthage on December 28, 1993 when Doug Ringler, 8, a third grader at Hawthorne Elementary in Carthage was reported missing and Stella on November 2, 2007, when Colleen Spears returned to her home after working the overnight shift at the Wal-Mart store in Jane to find her daughter Rowan Ford, 9, a fourth grader at Triway Elementary, had disappeared.
The book takes readers through the searches for the children, the discoveries of what happened to them, the investigations that led to the arrests of the killers and provides an examination of how the judicial system dealt with those killers.Lost Angels: The murders of Rowan Ford and Doug Ringler
