Catching Up With Corey Mitchell
You may have heard me talk about my amigo Corey Mitchell from time-to-time. He’s best known in Austin–past his former music biz and radio pursuits with your’s truly–for his best-selling book about the yogurt shop murders. His new book is about to drop, so I thought I’d pick his brain…
How does your success as a writer temper your expectation for each new release?
I have no expectations other than hoping that this newest book sells enough copies to warrant my publisher signing me up for one more. That, and getting the truth out on every story I write. I am not delusional enough to believe I will become rich off of true crime. I just want to keep on doing what I do for a living which is telling good, compelling, visceral stories about good versus evil.
How did you decide on the subject matter for the new book?
I am good friends with Andy Kahan, the preeminent crime victims’ advocate in the country, who works for the City of Houston Mayor’s Office. Andy and I were speaking at a political luncheon near Houston for my book, EVIL EYES. Before we ate lunch he informed me that Derrick Sean O’Brien, one of the six killers convicted in PURE MURDER, had received a stay of execution just the day before. Andy was livid as he had an integral part of the case and could not believe that the parents of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Pena, the two girls killed, would have to continue to wait to receive justice after thirteen years of waiting.
I was not familiar with the case despite having grown up just outside Houston, mainly because it took place while I was in law school, which tends to take away all your focus from the outside world. Ironically, I ended up writing a short passage about the case in my fifth book, STRANGLER, because a serial killer strangled several girls in the same area where the Ertman-Pena killings occurred just a few years later.
What advice do you have for other true crime writers? Or how about writers in general?
Get your facts straight! Non-fiction writers are beholden to the truth, or at least as much as you can hopefully extract from the participants involved. The trend of creating dialogue to make better copy blows. If it is not interesting enough as it was first uttered, why bother writing about it? Readers no when they are reading bullshit. Don’t fudge the facts and you will be fine.
On the business side of things, be prepared to become a marketing machine. No one else will do it for you and if you want to sell enough books to continue writing you are going to have to get the word out. I’ve been doing this for awhile, and even though I sell quite a few books (over 500,000 copies in print), I still act as if my publisher is not going to lift a finger. I believe it is the publishers job to get my book out there on the shelves and my job to hump it. So far so good.
From an Austin standpoint, just because of the local nature of the case, probably more people in this town bought your book on the Yogurt Shop Murders than all your other releases combined. Has your perspective on this case changed in the years since you did that book?
MURDERED INNOCENTS, my book on the Yogurt Shop murders, is my favorite book that I have written. I graduated from the University of Texas the May after the murders and knew that one day I would write about that horrible crime. The crime itself was horrible, the ensuing investigation seemed almost laughable in its incompetence, and the unsolved nature of the crime is what drew me in.
At the end of the book, I stated that I was not going to give my opinion as to whether or not the two young men who were convicted of the crimes, Robert Springsteen IV and Michael Scott, were guilty or not. That turned out to be a great move on my part because both of their guilty verdicts have been overturned in the last two years after my book came out. They are both scheduled be re-tried later this year.
I definitely have a strong opinion as to their guilt or innocence, but I am going to stick with my silence until after their trials end. I have a sealed, dated envelope in a safe deposit box that contains my verdict which I do not plan on opening until a final decision is made. You’ll just have to wait and see.
Be sure to follow Corey Mitchell’s Pure Murder Virtual Book Tour tomorrow, June 9, at Crime Rant (www.crimerant.com), hosted by true crime authors Gregg Olsen and M. William Phelps. He also wanted me to tell you that the word of the day is “I.”