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Welcome to the official homepage of author
M. William Phelps Crime expert,
lecturer and investigative journalist M. William Phelps is the
bestselling, award-winning author of twelve nonfiction books.
Winner of 2008 New England Book Festival Award for I’ll Be
Watching You, Phelps has appeared on CBS’s “Early Show",
Court TV/truTV, The Discovery Channel, Fox News Channel, CN8,
ABC’s “Good Morning America,” The Learning Channel, Biography
Channel, History Channel, Montel Williams, Investigation
Discovery, Geraldo At Large, Oxygen's "Snapped" and
"Captured," USA Radio Network, Catholic Radio, ABC News Radio
and Radio America, who calls him “the nation’s leading
authority on the mind of the female murderer.” He’s written for
the Providence Journal, Hartford Courant, and the New
London Day.
Profiled in such noted publications as Writer's Digest, NY
Daily News, Newsday, Albany Times-Union, Hartford Courant,
Advance for Nurses magazine, Forensic Nursing, and
NY Post, Phelps has also consulted for the Showtime cable
television series “Dexter".
Phelps lives in a small Connecticut farming community. Beyond
his ten true-crime books, in 2008 Phelps published a highly
acclaimed narrative nonfiction biography of Revolutionary War
patriot Nathan Hale: NATHAN HALE: The Life and Death of
America’s First Spy (Thomas Dunne Books), optioned for film
by Warner Bros. and Josephson Entertainment (Fox's "Bones," Men
In Black, Wild, Wild West, and others).
Phelps’s titles include: Perfect Poison, Lethal Guardian,
Every Move You Make, Sleep In Heavenly Peace, Murder in the
Heartland, Because You Loved Me, If Looks Could Kill, Deadly
Secrets, Cruel Death, Death Trap (2010), Failures of the
Presidents and Nathan Hale.
He’s completed work on a book about Windsor, Connecticut, serial
killer Amy Archer-Gilligan, the woman whose story Inspired the
Broadway hit Arsenic & Old Lace, slated for publication
in 2010; three more true crime titles; and a series of serial
killer thrillers, introducing Boston PD Detective Jake Sundance
Cooper.
Currently, Phelps is finishing up work on a book about Jessica
Bates McCord and her husband, Jeff, who teamed up to murder
Jessica's ex-husband and new wife. DEATH TRAP will be
published during the winter of 2010. His next planned book is
about Ashley and Timothy "Tracey" Humphrey, who were
found guilty in the murder of Sandee Rozzo in Pinellas Park,
Florida. That untitled book should be published somewhere in
late 2010/early 2011.
If you have a suggestion for a murder story, please email
Phelps. Right now he is looking for anyone connected to the
Howard Hawk Willis case in Tennessee; the Michael
Roseboro case in Pennsylvania; and the Danielle
Black/Alec Eger case in Maryland. If you have any
information about these cases, please contact Phelps
immediately.
"Thank you to all of my readers! I am grateful for every one of
you. I appreciate your continued support. Please send in
suggestions for the cases you want me to cover."
Watch for Phelps this fall (2009) on six new Investigation
Discovery shows, including DEADLY WOMEN and SOLVED!
NATHAN HALE: The Life and Death of
America’s First Spy
The first biography in nearly a century of the
legendary
Revolutionary War patriot and our country’s first spy.
 Few
Americans know much more about Nathan Hale than his famous last
words: “I only regret that I have one life left to give for my
country.” But who was the real Nathan Hale?
M. William Phelps charts the life of this famed patriot and
Connecticut’s state hero, following Hale’s rural childhood, his
education at Yale, and his work as a schoolteacher. Even in his
brief career, he distinguished himself by offering formal
lessons to young women. Like many young Americans, he soon
became drawn into the colonies’ war for independence, becoming a
captain in Washington’s army. When the general was in need of a
spy, Hale willingly rose to the challenge, bravely sacrificing
his life for the sake of American liberty.
Using Hale’s own journals and letters as well as testimonies
from his friends and contemporaries, Phelps depicts the
Revolution as it was seen from the ground. From the
confrontation in Boston to the battle for New York City, readers
experience what life was like for an ordinary soldier in the
struggling Continental army.
In this impressive, well-researched biography, Phelps separates
historical fact from long-standing myth to reveal the life of
Nathan Hale, a young man who deserves to be remembered as an
original American patriot.
Warner Bros. has acquired the movie rights to Phelps'
upcoming Nathan Hale biography. Barry Josephson's Josephson
Entertainment will produce the film version of the book. "We
want to do it as an exciting spy story," Josephson
Entertainment's VP Danica Radovanov says.
Praise for NATHAN HALE …
“… Phelps has written an informative, interesting biography of
Hale that effectively reveals the flesh-and-blood human behind
the iconic image. Clearly an admirer of Hale, he has written
nothing that detracts from Hale's reputation; instead, he has
provided a nuanced portrait … using Hale's own correspondence,
[Phelps] clears up some of the murky details surrounding Hale's
spying, arrest, and execution. This is a well-done, balanced
account of a short but interesting life.
- Booklist
“… M. William Phelps gives a new, fully documented life to this
romantic, long neglected American revolutionary.”
- R.A. Scotti, author of The Sudden Sea and Basilica
~
“Phelps has written a meticulously-researched biography …
[he] has well captured the excitement of Hale's joining the
Patriot cause in the American Revolution, giving us a fresh
narrative of those tumultuous years.”
- Joyce Appleby, author of Inheriting the Revolution
~
"… Phelps has written an absorbing, highly detailed biography
of the patriotic Hale. It is a work that at the same time tells
the story of young Hale, army life and the daily battles between
the American and British forces at the start of the war. He
weaves each story together to create a very colorful, emotional
and enjoyable book. …."
- Bruce Chadwick, author of George Washington’s War
~
“Phelps has brilliantly taken Nathan Hale from the faded
memory of history and reintroduced us … This book speaks to us
today. … Phelps has … given us the insight as to where Hale
found such strength and fortitude. Phelps’ book should be read
by anyone who is responsible for putting lives at risk for our
country. Phelps’ account of Hale’s death is a gut-wrenching
reminder of the consequences of failed leadership.”
- JOSEPH J. TRENTO, author of The Secret History of the CIA
M. William Phelps is managed by Peter Miller,
PMA Literary & Film Management, Inc.
45 West 21st Street, Fourth Floor, New York, NY 10010
Phone: 212-929-1222 - Fax: 212-206-0238
Email:
Reach M. William Phelps at:
PO BOX 3215, Vernon, CT 06066
Phone: 860-870-7247
Email:
Both photos of Phelps at Hale Homestead in Coventry, CT,
courtesy of Claudia Olsen, 2007
mwilliamphelps.com
All Rights Reserved.
All author photos Copyright 2007
Stan Marchut, Brown Dog Studios.
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