M. William Phelps - Bookshelf

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.

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
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“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
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"… 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
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“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

On December 16, 2004, a Nodaway County, Missouri, 911 operator received a frantic call from the mother of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett. The eight-months-pregnant mom-to-be, Bobbie Jo, had been found lying on her family room floor bleeding profusely and barely breathing. Most disturbing of all, her baby was gone.

Only 187 miles away in Melvern, Kansas, Bobbie Jo's killer, Lisa Montgomery, dressed the baby she'd brutally kidnapped in a Winnie-the-Pooh outfit and called her husband to say that she'd given birth to a baby girl she called Abigail. While televisions blared the nation's first Amber Alert for an unborn child, Lisa proudly showed off "her" new baby at church and a local diner, duping many while arousing the suspicions of others. And that was only the beginning of one of the most unthinkable events in American history, one that shocked the nation and left two Midwestern communities reeling in the crime's aftermath.

Now, investigative journalist and acclaimed author M. William Phelps delivers a definitive literary investigation of this compelling story, one that is as suspenseful as it is heartbreaking. Working with the exclusive cooperation of Lisa Montgomery's ex-husband, Carl Boman, Lisa's children and mother, law enforcement officials, friends, relatives, and neighbors, Phelps reveals what really happened that fateful day in December and traces the tortured history of sexual abuse, abandonment, and desperation that planted the seeds of a potential sociopath destined for "moral insanity." Here is the true story of the frantic search for a baby born under the most horrific conditions imaginable, of the lucky break that led to the killer, of Lisa's family's fears about her mental health, and of the shock waves that still linger in two small American towns that will never be the same again.

Like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Murder in the Heartland takes an unflinching look at an American tragedy, exploring its terrible trajectory with unparalleled courage, insight, and compassion.

"An exceptional book ... exposing long-hidden secrets, disquieting truths, probing the disturbed mind of a mother guilty of the ultimate betrayal." - Kathryn Casey, author of She Wanted It All and A Warrant to Kill

"M. William Phelps is the best true-crime writer to come along in years . . . and the future of the genre." - New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen

"You've got to read [Every Move You Make] ... truth is stranger than fiction. Amazing story by M. William Phelps!" - Catherine Crier, author of NY Times bestseller A Deadly Game

"An intense roller-coaster of a crime story," says New York Times bestselling author Steve Jackson. "Phelps's book Lethal Guardian is at once complex, with a plethora of twists and turns worthy of any great detective mystery, and yet so well-laid out, so crisply written with such detail to character and place that it reads more like a novel than your standard non-fiction crime book."

"A first-rate investigative examination." - Dr. Michael Baden, forensic pathologist, host of HBO's Autopsy series, and author of Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers and Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner

"A stunner from beginning to end, Phelps renders the story expertly, with flawless research and an explosive narrative." - Gregg Olsen, author of several best-selling true crime books, including Bitter Almonds, Abandoned Prayers, Mockingbird, and If Loving You Is Wrong: The Shocking True Story of Mark Kay Letourneau

"In perfect harmony with the best true crime writers, Phelps unmasks the psychopath with facts, insight and journalistic leg work." - Lowell Cauffiel, author of Masquerade, Eye of the Beholder, Forever and Five Days and House of Secrets

"Captivating, exciting, a jolt-a-minute. With his encyclopedic knowledge of police procedures, Phelps earns a deserved place among the best." - Harvey Rachlin, author of 13 books, including The Making of a Detective and The Making of a Cop