James R. Melton covered the wide range of events common to Houston, for decades one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States. First at The Houston Post and later at its rival, the Houston Chronicle, he regularly reported on crime, courts and education. In the 1990s, he produced freelance articles for a major corporation.
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
