The Meaning of Malice

My new book about the Black Widow down the street.

When I started following Dr. McCullough in the fall of 2020, I quickly perceived him to be one of the main good guys in a story about the greatest organized crime in history. I suspected that the official pandemic response—especially the suppression of early treatment—consisted of innumerable acts of fraud and mass negligent homicide. In cases of of hospitalized patients who died after being denied corticosteroids, blood thinners, and ivermectin, I believe that law enforcement should examine the possibility that murders have been committed.

My perception of the official pandemic response was shaped by my experience as an investigative journalist and author of two major works of true crime. My first book was about the Viennese author and serial killer, Jack Unterweger. A few days ago, on the 30th anniversary of Jack’s trial, Austria’s largest circulation newspaper published a long interview with me about my book.

The true crime genre of literature is generally considered to have been founded with the 1966 publication of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, about the murder of the Clutter family in the small farming town of Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. Capote was initially drawn to the story because the crime was so alien and so shocking to the entire community. He then became fascinated by the character of Perry Smith, who was, along with his sidekick, Richard Hickock, accused and ultimately convicted and hanged for shotgunning Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two children.

As far as I know, all major true crime authors since Capote published their books only after the suspected murderers had either died or been convicted of their crimes. In my new book, The Meaning of Malice: On the Trail of the Black Widow of Highland Park, I believe I present sufficient evidence to warrant arresting a mysterious woman named Sandra Bridewell for the murder of three people in the years 1975, 1982, and 1985.

I grew up down the street from Sandra in Dallas in the early eighties, and I occasionally chatted with her in her home while visiting her daughter, who happened to be my classmate and childhood friend. In 2007, when Sandra was arrested for committing multiple acts of fraud against an elderly lady in Southport, North Carolina, I visited her in pre-trial detention.

At the heart of my research is the meticulous examination of shooting deaths that were—as I reveal in my book—erroneously ruled suicides by the Dallas County Medical Examiner. In fact they were murders.

Please check out my new book trailer and consider sharing the link with your friends. I’m confident that anyone who is interested in true crime books will be astonished by this true story.