Lying Close story comes live to Roundhouse and Beaver Island breweries!

Saturday, October 3, 2020: Roundhouse Brewery  is hosting the big Brainerd/Baxter/Nisswa opening of Lying Close from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.  Frank will speak from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. about forensic psychology and writing True Crime mysteries.  Learn about new forensic techniques and find out what they get wrong on crime shows and movies.  Frank will be hooking up a polygraph machine (lie detector test) and give a quick demonstration on how it works.  The cover model of Lying Close, Elise Yates, will be available for pictures with patrons.  Frank will sign and sell books both before and after speaking.  The Roundhouse Brewery is located at 23836 Smiley Road, Nisswa, Minnesota.  Lying Close includes a chapter where Investigator Jon Frederick is sitting in Roundhouse Brewery, on October 3, 2020 (the exact date of this opening), reflecting on a case.  So be there for part of the book!  You could even have that chapter signed by others who were present.  This is going to be a blast and there is no cost.  Stop in and enjoy a cold beverage.
 
No tickets are required for this event as the space allows for social distancing. Monday, October 5, 2020: Beaver Island Brewing Company  is hosting the big St. Cloud book opening of Lying Close.  Frank will speak from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. about forensic psychology and writing True Crime mysteries.  Get your questions answered about forensic psychology.  Frank will be hooking up a polygraph machine (lie detector test) and give a quick demonstration on how it works.  The cover model of Lying Close, Elise Yates, will be available for pictures with patrons.  Beaver Island Brewing Company is located at 216, 6th Avenue South, St. Cloud, Minnesota.  It is right off of division close to the exits to St. Cloud State.  Lying Close starts with Investigator Jon Frederick sitting in Beaver Island, on October 5, 2020, reflecting on a case he worked in 2019.  Be there for the beginning of the book!  You could even have the chapter signed by others who were present.  This is going to be a blast and there is no cost.  Stop in and enjoy a cold beverage.
 
There is no cost for this event, but registration is required and limited tickets are available so we can exercise social distancing.  Register Here Buy Tickets on Eventbrite Ellie Nesler: From Folk Hero to Tragedy

A gut reaction spurring vigilante justice ultimately resulted in loss of the very son she intended to defend.
 
Daniel Mark Driver was a camp counselor who was accused of abusing 5 boys, including William Nesler. Driver had previous convictions for child molestation. Ellie Starr Nesler was William’s mother. William was only 6 years old.
 
Ellie Starr Nesler made headlines when she walked into the Jamestown Justice Court in California on April 2, 1993, and fired 5 shots into the head of Daniel Mark Driver.  Her case sparked a national debate about vigilantism. At the time, Ellie said she pulled the trigger because she was afraid the system would fail and Driver would be set free. At the time, Ellie was touted as a folk hero. 
Back then, Ellie had mixed feelings about shooting Daniel. "I am sorry that I killed someone and that I'm not with my children," she said. "But on the other hand, I wish the judicial system would have taken care of it. I wish I wouldn't have had to."
 
According to Jon Thurber of the Los Angeles Times, the finding that Ellie Nesler had a significant amount of methamphetamine in her system when she killed Driver, caused the "sympathetic portrait" of Ellie portrayed by her defense team to "erode."

Ellie Nesler spent three years behind bars for killing Driver but was released on appeal because of alleged jury misconduct.  Rather than opting for a retrial, she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was paroled with time served.
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However, Ellie was convicted in 2002 of buying 10,000 pseudoephedrine tablets, which are used to make methamphetamine, and sentenced to six years in prison. She was released from a woman's facility near Chowchilla, California in 2006. During her first term in prison, she developed breast cancer, which ultimately caused her death in 2008 at the age of 56.

Elena Starr Nesler (August 2, 1952 – December 26, 2008)

What happened to her kids? Rebecca Nesler on Oprah Ellie from prison in back, with Rebecca and William talking to Oprah. William (son), Ellie and Rebecca (daughter)While Ellie was serving her time, Willy was having his own troubles with the law. Willy repeatedly landed in juvenile hall and in teenage work camps as a youth and in jail as an adult. In a five-year stretch, deputies booked him into the county jail 18 times on robbery charges, drug allegations and complaints about a pet Rottweiler.
 
On July 17, 2005, William Nesler stood in a cramped courtroom, a dozen years after his mother gunned down a man accused of molesting him, and admitted no remorse for taking the law into his own hands by murdering a man in a dispute over tools. Nesler admitted he didn’t really know the 45-year-old father of two he had murdered.
 
Nesler was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for stomping David Davis to death. He told Judge Eric L. Du Temple that “I’ve done bad things” but that he had been “railroaded” by the criminal justice system. In a short, rambling monologue, Nesler said he came from a good family, even if his mother, Ellie Nesler, had “killed people in a courtroom for things they done wrong.”
 
William Nesler had allowed David Davis to live on his family’s property in exchange for cleaning up debris. But the agreement quickly soured. In mid-June 2004, Davis called the sheriff and accused Nesler of trying to steal some of his tools. In front of three deputies, Nesler lunged at Davis, hitting and punching him. According to an arrest report, the deputies restrained Nesler -- 6 feet 2 and 230 pounds -- and handcuffed his bulging, tattooed arms.
 
Once released from brief lock-up, William Nesler broke into a trailer where Davis slept and pulled the smaller man out. Davis, who had a spine injury that limited his mobility, tried to flee but tripped or was tackled. As Davis lay on the ground pleading for mercy, witnesses said, Nesler stomped on his head.
 
The victim’s mother said it was a sad mismatch. Her son “was disabled, frail, he couldn’t run for help,” she said in court.
 
“It was a violent act. It was a heinous act,” said Eric Hovatter, the Tuolumne County deputy district attorney who prosecuted the first-degree murder case. “There’s been no visible sign of remorse.”  Willy Nessler will be in prison until 2031, the year he's eligible for parole.Ellie’s daughter, Rebecca, was just 23 when she buried her mother. “I know she feels a lot of anger -- and guilty,” Rebecca Nesler said. She said that during one visit, she told her mother that by killing a molester who was likely to strike again, “you saved a lot of boys.”
 
Yes, replied Ellie Nesler, “but I didn’t save my own.” Ellie was unable to visit Willy in prison because she was in the final stages of a long battle with breast cancer. She was 56 years old when she died on December 26, 2008.

Rebecca says she doesn't think Willy would be in prison today if it weren't for her mother shooting his molester. "He even stated he was over the molestation," Rebecca says. "What hurt all of us was mom being torn away from us."  She added, "He talked about the fact that he really hated it when people would point him out and say, 'Hey, that's the kid who was molested,'" Dan says. "Once his mother became this national figure and his life was on display for the world, I think that was the hardest part for him."
  
My thoughts:  When you’re a parent, you need to make it all about your kids.  While we can all understand her rage, Ellie Nesler’s response made it all about her anger and she left her kids behind to suffer the consequences.  We always need to consider the larger picture.  It’s never just about me, or you. It’s about what’s best for humanity. This may be your belief as a decent person, or part of your religious faith.  Regardless, know people are hurting today and be kind, even if you don’t agree with them. No excuses.
 

Thanks for listening,
  
Frank
 
 
Rest in Peace Dolores O’Riordan.  Irish Lead Singer for the Cranberries