My Life [7]

In healthy retirement

By Jim Rix

I now reside in South Lake Tahoe, where I manage my 5-unit apartment building (formally SoftRix’s offices) and my house in Tahoe Keys as a seasonal vacation rental.
    My older son, Leland, and daughter, Vanita, live just 30 minutes away, over the hill in Carson Valley, south of Carson City, Nevada. Both are teachers. My youngest child, son Marlon, is an accomplished woodworker/cabinet-maker in Clovis, California. From them I have one grandson and five granddaughters.

My Life [1]

Early lessons

By Jim Rix

Today is my 77th birthday, a week after Moristotle’s, and only five days after that of our Tulare, California, high school classmate Donald Richert. I mention Don because Moristotle – I’m going to call him Morris from here on because he hadn’t yet become Moristotle….I mention Don because Morris has told him and me (and more than once) that he can remember first meeting us, although neither Don nor I can remember meeting Morris. Don and I, Morris says, were playing Roshambeau (or Rock Paper Scissors) on a school activity bus the summer before we three entered high school. Maybe we were playing it with too much gusto to remember, but just enough gusto to make a memorable impression on Morris? Anyway, we have remained in touch for some of the ensuing 64 years. We remember each others’ birthdays.

Interview: D. Michael Pain, novelist

And private investigator aka Mike Pain

Interviewed by Moristotle

I first learned of Mike Pain about 15 years ago when I was editing Jim Rix’s book Jingle Jangle, about his cousin Ray Krone, who was convicted and sentenced to death for a murder he didn’t commit. Jim had hired private investigator Mike Pain to look into what had really happened in Phoenix, Arizona the night of December 28, 1991, when Kim Ancona had been raped and brutally murdered.

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

Sugar and Hot Lips (Chapter 5 of Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor’s Note: As the date of publication approached, billboards around Phoenix, Arizona started announcing the arrival of the book that would blow the cover off the Ray Krone case.]

Fish for Friday

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

There's something about awe. I experienced it this morning watching the finches. "An Upbeat Emotion That’s Surprisingly Good for You." [Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times] Excerpt:

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle (oops: Fifth Sunday)

The Snaggletooth Murder (Chapter 2 of Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor’s Note: First, our apologies for failing to notice that last Sunday was the fourth Sunday of the month!
    Blurb from the dust jacket: “Jim Rix takes us on a remarkable journey inside an American tragedy. He helped win his cousin’s freedom from Death Row and now he documents the chain of errors that put him there. The story will chill your belief in the American justice system. With gripping details that can only come from one who has lived the horror, Rix makes us realize that one wrongful conviction is a tragedy for us all.”
        –Bill Kurtis, producer of the A&E programs
        Investigative Reports and Cold Case Files]

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

Ouija Science (excerpt from Chapter 16 of 
Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor’s Note: Blurb from the dust jacket: “Jingle Jangle: The Perfect Crime Turned Inside Out is a remarkable book, a page-turner that asks all the right questions, shocking us out of our complacency by exposing the deep flaws in our criminal justice system. It should be required reading for every college student in America.”
        –Gary T. Lowenthal, Arizona State University law
        professor & author of Down and Dirty Justice
    Today’s excerpt can be considered an elaboration on a comment made this week on a recent Thor’s Day column: “There is an upcoming trial for an American hero Chris Kyle, in which each side will introduce their experts on PTSD. How can experts have two different opinions and call it science?”]

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

Cousin Ray (excerpt from Chapter 1 of 
Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor’s Note: Today we inaugurate a new monthly column featuring selections from the author's 2007 true crime book, Jingle Jangle: The Perfect Crime Turned Inside Out. We lead off with a blurb from the dust jacket: “A must for readers of true crime and anyone wondering why so many innocent people are convicted in America. The book satisfies from start to finish, from the opening of Ray Krone’s horror story, through the compelling analysis of what went wrong, and on to the startling conclusion....”
                –Sister Helen Prejean, author of
                  Dead Man Walking and The Death of Innocents]

I first learned of his predicament during a phone conversation with my mother. In her eighties, my mother was still one of the brightest people I knew and we often talked about current events. In this particular conversation I asked her if she had watched the TV program the night before about an innocent man released from Death Row. I don’t remember now which network magazine show it was or who was profiled. My mother replied that she hadn’t seen the show, then added casually, “You have a cousin on Death Row, and he’s innocent.”

Inscriptions of Rix's limerix

At the Costco book signings, the author of Jingle Jangle plans to inscribe a limerix appropriate to the apparent interest of each purchaser:

The foibles of the jury?

Cop says he killed her
Bitemark experts concur
    Defense creates doubt
    Jury can't figure it out
Sends Ray Krone to stir

Rix's own role as a contemporary Sherlock Holmes?

Cops catch a snaggletooth
I become a sleuth
    Cops claim he bit
    Evidence doesn't fit
I'm amazed at the truth

The immediate efficacy of DNA in winning his cousin's release?

Evidence a bite mark
Experts to jury bark
    DNA
    Saves the Day
Bite mark analysis a lark

Jingle Jangle as a whodunit?

Cousin Ray did the time
Who did the crime?
    Read ‘tween the lines
    Discover the signs
Solve this riddled rhyme

Other suspects?

The story of the Snaggletooth Killer
Is a real whodunit thriller
    But was it Ray
    Or two women gay
Or the man doing time in the chiller?

Rix's limerix

Jingle Jangle's author has penned a couple of limerix¹ himself:

The Snaggletooth Killer did the crime
But my cousin Ray Krone did the time.
    The cops did the frame
    So friends did the same.
Now Ray's sipping tequila and lime.

The author's cousin did the time.
But who did the horrible crime?
    If you read 'tween the lines
    You'll discover the signs
To solve this mysterious rhyme.

_______________

1. The author chooses the plural form limerix (like "one deer"/"many deer") over limerixes [or limerices!—see comment from Brendan, for which thanks]. Plural limerix enjoys the advantage of sounding like plural limericks (while suffering the misfortune of not looking plural).

Jingle Jangle going into Costco

Jim Rix's 2007 book, Jingle Jangle: The Perfect Crime Turned Inside Out, will be going into three Nevada Costco stores on July 5, followed by book-signing engagements by the author.
    Anticipation has inspired me to write a limerix:

The author's cousin did not do the crime,
But the police saw his teeth & made him their prime,
    An expert agreed that Snaggletooth bit her
    And must have been the one that slit her,
So the jury said that he had to do the time.

_______________
Earlier draft:

1. The author's cousin didn't do the crime,
   But Police lined him up as the prime,
       Expert said Snaggletooth killed her
       (Though someone else had chilled her)
   And Jury made Jim's cousin do the time.

The top 10 reasons to read this book

10 It’s the story of Ray Krone, who was convicted for a 1991 murder he didn’t commit. Ten years later he became the 100th Death Row exoneree when DNA implicated a convicted sex offender.

“A must for readers of true crime and anyone wondering why so many innocent people are convicted in America. The book satisfies from start to finish, from the opening of Ray Krone’s horror story, through the compelling analysis of what went wrong and on to the startling conclusion...” –Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking and The Death of Innocents