By Mel Ayton
In 2014 my book, Hunting the President, was published. The new revelations included previously unknown or little-known assassination attempts against U.S presidents from the time of FDR to President Obama. My latest book covers the presidencies of George Washington to Herbert Hoover. It includes never-before- told stories of incidents when the president’s life was put in danger, including attempted stabbings, shootings and bombings. They have remained largely hidden from the public; some buried in newspaper archives and others in government reports, presidential memoirs, bodyguard memoirs, Secret Service agents’ memoirs, the National Archives, the Library of Congress and presidential libraries.
On the night of November 29, 1988, near the impoverished Marlborough neighborhood in south Kansas City, an explosion at a construction site killed six of the city’s firefighters. It was a clear case of arson, and five people from Marlborough were duly convicted of the crime. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick O’Connor, the facts—or a lack of them—didn’t add up. Justice on Fire is OConnor’s detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters’ deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. Also available from Amazon
