13 Years Ago Today: A gutsy book about a milestone criminal case

By Moristotle

[Originally published on August 15, 2007.]

Jim Rix, the author of Jingle Jangle: The Perfect Crime Turned Inside Out, lives in South Lake Tahoe, California, and Neighbors Bookstore there is the first bookstore to display his gutsy book about the Ray Krone case, a milestone in the annals of criminal justice.
    The second store to carry the book is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Bull’s Head Bookshop, which displays it alongside Sister Helen Prejean’s bestselling The Death of Innocents, this year’s Summer Reading Program selection for incoming Tar Heel freshmen, who will discuss the book in many concurrent seminars on Monday afternoon, August 20. The jacket of Jingle Jangle proudly displays a blurb from Sister Helen:

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 [6]

Getting Cousin Ray out of prison

By Jim Rix

Early in the 1990s, while SoftRix was taking off, we learned that a distant cousin of mine, Ray Krone, was on death row. My mother assured me he was innocent, and since she was an objective thinker, not subject to the whims of bias, I decided to look into it. I visited Ray and examined court records, soon becoming convinced that my mother was right. Ray was innocent and we provided significant assistance to secure his release. But, hey, I offered in Chapter 1 to practically give you a copy of my book about that. Go read it.

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.

In Memoriam David Michael Pain

David Michael Pain
August 10, 1941 – May 20, 2018

By Moristotle

I never met Mike Pain in person. I first heard of him in the early 2000’s in reading Jim Rix’s account of Ray Krone’s wrongful conviction for a December 1991 murder in Phoenix, Arizona, and Jim’s involvement in winning a new trial for Ray, for which Mike did extensive private investigation on Ray’s behalf. This week Jim remembers Mike as “a unique individual, very good at his profession, private investigation” [which he chose in 1975].

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.

Frank O’Hara - The Last PI

Now available in paperback

By Morris Dean

D. Michael Pain’s novel, Frank O’Hara - The Last PI, has just been published in paperback and is available from Amazon. It is based imaginatively on Mike’s own professional experiences as a private investigator.

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

Doing Time (Chapter 12 of Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor’s Note: From the September 2015 review by Joe Kilgore in The US Review of Books:

The heinous deed that forms the axis of Rix’s tale takes place in Phoenix, Arizona,1991. A pretty barmaid is found virtually nude; beaten, bitten, and stabbed to death in the men’s room of her place of work. While the crime scene is littered with numerous examples of potential evidence, it is the actual bite marks on the victim’s body that become the central interest of the state. Prosecutors become convinced, based on forensic odontology, that the bite marks could only have come from a particular dart-throwing bar patron who was seen nuzzling with the deceased at a Christmas party prior to the killing. Ray Krone, the hapless young man whose teeth impressions seem to be a perfect match for the victim’s wounds, is arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to die for the shocking crime.

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

Relative Truth (Chapter 11 of Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor's Note: From the September 2015 review by Joe Kilgore in The US Review of Books:

Jingle Jangle is a recounting of the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Kim Ancona, plus the trial, conviction, appeal, retrial, upheld conviction, additional appeal, and subsequent overturned sentence and release of Ray Krone. The tale is told by Krone’s cousin, Jim Rix, a computer programmer and software developer turned chronicler of this fascinating foray into forensic sleuthing, questionable policing, dubious prosecution, alarming conviction, and incarceration of an innocent man.]

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

The Perfect Witness (Chapter 10 of Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor's Note: Opening paragraphs from the current review by Joe Kilgore in The US Review of Books:

“When confused by contradictory technical testimony, all that conscientious but bewildered jurors seem to be able to do is to give the Academy Award to the song and dance man they think gave the best performance.”
    It is often said that truth is stranger than fiction. That is frequently the case when it comes to recounting real crimes that have been committed, judgments that have been handed down, and sentences that have been carried out. For quite some time writers have sought literary gold by mining this nonfiction vein of abhorrent behavior and its consequences. A few have actually found it in such excellent tomes as Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song, and Joseph Wambaugh’s The Onion Field. The search for justice never seems to lose its particular allure. An allure that is alive and well in Jim Rix’s Jingle Jangle.]

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

Chapters 7-9 of Jingle Jangle

By Jim Rix

[Editor's Note: Concluding paragraph of the review by Daniel L. Kaplan, Assistant Federal Public Defender in the District of Arizona, published in The Federal Lawyer, February 2009:

Other than being Ray Krone's cousin, Jim Rix has no personal investment in the justice system. He is not a lawyer but the co-owner of an Internet-based billing service for dentists. His book leaves us with powerful critiques but no recommendations. Fortunately, these issues are beginning to be addressed with some rigor, as the revolution in DNA technology has revealed the importance of understanding the phenomenon of wrongful convictions. Unfortunately, understanding our mental black holes does not make them go away. Our only remedy is to study these black holes closely enough to avoid them-a delicate process that requires constant self-examination and course correction. But it is a process that we must master, because we can always be certain of two things: law degrees and black robes will never free us from our natures, and there will never be enough Jim Rixes to go around.]

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

Brady Material (Chapter 6 of Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor's Note: Opening paragraphs of the review by Daniel L. Kaplan, Assistant Federal Public Defender in the District of Arizona, published in The Federal Lawyer, February 2009:

We all should have a cousin like Jim Rix. Better yet, we should have a justice system that is too reliable to convict an innocent man of murder twice. Failing that, a cousin like Jim Rix can be quite handy.
    Rix didn't think much of it when his mother casually said, to him, “You have a cousin on death row, and he's innocent.” But Rix was curious and wrote to his cousin, Ray Krone. In response Rix received Krone's facially compelling account of having been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death. Krone's case quickly turned into a sort of hobby for Jim Rix – although using the word “hobby” here is a bit like using it to describe Lance Armstrong’s cycling.]

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.]

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

A Shady Person (Chapter 4 of Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor’s Note: Blurb from the dust jacket: “Jim Rix has written an astonishing memoir about his cousin Ray Krone’s wrongful conviction for a 1991 Arizona murder. Rix meticulously details every aspect of police corruption, prosecutorial misconduct, defense incompetence, expert witness tampering and jury shenanigans that led to Ray’s decade-long nightmare. But Rix doesn’t stop there. He dissects each problem, then with careful research explains how it is not an isolated incident but part of a larger pattern of problems in the criminal justice system. Rix’s wry humor and occasional sarcasm reveal the depths of his despair at realizing that the justice system, which he once trusted, is so deeply flawed. Scariest about this true story is that if Ray Krone, an honest, law-abiding person, could end up on Death Row, it could happen to anyone.”
        –Rachel King, author of Don’t Kill in Our Names and
        Capital Consequences, teaches legal writing
        at Howard University School of Law ]

Fourth Sunday from Jingle Jangle

The Videotape (Chapter 3 of Jingle Jangle)

By Jim Rix

[Editor’s Note: Blurb from the dust jacket: “An amazing story of the uphill battle required in the fight for truth. For those readers with no experience in the criminal justice system, the measures taken in the name of ‘justice’ will be shocking. The story of Ray Krone offers all readers important lessons – never give up hope, never stop believing in yourself and never stop fighting for what is right. Jim Rix paints a powerful picture of hope, frustration and perseverence. Jingle Jangle shows why we must never stop fighting for those whom the legal system has failed.”
                – Caroline M. Elliot, law school student and 2006-07
                President of the UNC Law Innocence Project
                and the UNC Law Death Penalty Project]

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.”

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

André Duvall, in accompaniment & solo

Last week, I performed with four other musicians in the second annual Peanut Butter & Jelly Concert for the Mid-South Food Bank, which services over thirty counties in West Tennessee and Northern Mississippi. We raised several pounds of non-perishable items, as well as a good supplement of cash donations, for the Food Bank. For the majority of the concert, I accompanied three of the performers, including soprano Kallen Esperian. Kallen is dearly loved in Memphis and is sort of our “home town” opera star, having performed in almost all the major opera houses in Europe and toured with Pavarotti many years ago, and we were very fortunate to have her come and support our efforts. I also played some solo works for piano and organ for this concert.

Ask Wednesday: How easily, reader, can you read our...

...white text on dark background?

By Morris Dean

Two people have told me of their difficulty reading our white text on the website's dark background. Both of these readers prefer black on white, and one of them routinely prints out longer pieces rather than peruse them on the screen.
    Horrors! Are you in that predicament? We want to know!