Tailspin: The Strange Case of Major Call - Hardcover

Conners, Bernard F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0945167504 ISBN 13: 9780945167501

Publisher: British American Publishing, 2004

Synopsis

In Tailspin: The Strange Case of Major Call, best-selling author Bernard F. Conners presents the story of Major James Arlon Call, a heroic airman whose passion for excitement propelled him into a horrifying life of crime. As a young man, Major James Call had it all - a brilliant mind, devoted wife, dashing good looks, and an illustrious career as a decorated flyer. But Major Call also had a dark side - a penchant for speed, danger, life on the edge and survival at any cost. Haunted by the death of his young wife, Call volunteered for wartime combat "suicide missions," then for further diversions, turned to gambling and crime. What follows is the captivating story of brazen burglaries, a shootout with the police, and a 106-day manhunt. An unlikely criminal, Call was never charged with many of the crimes he committed including one of the most notorious unsolved murders of the 20th Century -the Sam Sheppard murder case.

Conners, a former FBI agent, employs a dramatized, yet factual, narrative to present a gripping account of his charming but deadly protagonist. Tailspin is based on extraordinary research conducted over a period of decades, and contains over 80 pages of stunning evidence, photographs and exhibits to support the narrative.

About this title

About the Author

Bernard F. Conners, former publisher of The Paris Review, has had a distinguished career in government, business, publishing, and film. He is the best-selling author of Dancehall, Tailspin, The Hampton Sisters, Don't Embarrass the Bureau, and, most recently, Cruising with Kate. Mr. Conners lives in Loudonville, New York.

From the Inside Flap

One of the most baffling murders of the past century took place on July 4, 1954 in a small suburb of a large Midwestern city. The murder has been the subject of intense media attention resulting in numerous books and film documentaries, but until now the true circumstances surrounding the crime have remained a mystery. In this extraordinary book, best-selling author and former FBI agent Bernard Conners combines the instincts of a "literary bloodhound" with the gifted talents of a storyteller to present the solution to this and other notorious crimes.

The result is the riveting story of Major James Arlon Call, an individual who appeared to have it all-a brilliant mind, devoted wife, dashing good looks, and an illustrious career as a decorated flyer. But Major Call also had a dark side - a penchant for speed, danger, life on the edge and survival at any cost. Haunted by the death of his young wife, Call volunteered for wartime combat "suicide missions," then turned to gambling and crime. The latter took a deadly twist when Call, after committing an infamous murder during a burglary, fled to Lake Placid where he engaged in a shootout with four police officers, critically wounding three of them, one fatally. In the ensuing 106-day manhunt through the Adirondacks wilderness, Call survived numerous confrontations with law enforcement officials while evading capture. His involvement in other crimes, most notably the notorious Midwestern murder, remained concealed from authorities until disclosed in this book.

Tailspin is truly unique in that rarely has such prodigious investigation been undertaken in connection with a literary work of this nature. A cornerstone of the book is the appendix describing the scope of the research such as forensic examinations, field investigations by private investigators (many of whom were former FBI agents) as well as countless hours of tape recorded interviews, all of which support the stunning revelations disclosed in the narrative.

The author employs a dramatized, yet factual, narrative to present a gripping account of his charming but deadly protagonist. Readers will be fascinated by Tailspin's shifting venues from aerial combat and the Adirondack wilderness, to gambling casinos, dockside sex, and Long Island mansions as they follow The Strange Case of Major Call.

Reviews

James Arlon Call was a distinguished Air Force major whose life veered off course after his wife's unexpected death in 1952: he went from career military man to career criminal. Drunk, drifting from city to city, using the spoils of his crimes to cover his gambling debts, Call committed serial burglary in the suburbs of Cleveland and upstate New York that culminated two years later in a deadly shootout with police. With his temerity and survival training, Call slipped through the East Coast dragnet (a newspaper termed him "the phantom killer of the Adirondacks") and was finally captured several months later in a Reno pawnshop. But this crime spree is not the bombshell here: tracing Call's fugitive days, Conners (Dancehall), a former FBI agent, posits that Call was in fact the notorious "bushy-haired intruder" wanted in connection with the death of Marilyn Sheppard, better known as the wife of Dr. Sam Sheppard. Marilyn's murder (and her husband's avowed innocence) provided the basis for the television show The Fugitive and its spinoff film franchise, and was recently reexamined brilliantly so and toward a different conclusion in The Wrong Man by James Neff. Part of the problem with Conners's account lies in his narration, a liberal dramatization based on the facts garnished with re-created conversations. Moreover, the Sheppard theory's evidence occurs not in the narrative but in an exhausting 150-page addendum compiled of largely circumstantial evidence, and the decision as to whether Call was involved in the murders is left to the reader's discretion. The result is a two-part book whose conclusions are far from satisfactory. 150 b&w photos.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Major Call had it all: he was a war hero with a beautiful wife, a new baby, and a promising aviation career ahead of him. But when his wife died in 1954, Call's life went into a tailspin. Always a gambler and a risk taker, he went AWOL and began a crime spree that would end in the murder of a policeman in Lake Placid, NY. But novelist and former FBI agent Conners thinks that Call was involved in another murder and shows evidence that he was the "bushy-haired stranger" in the notorious Sheppard murder in Bay Village, OH. The book is split rather awkwardly into two parts, the first narrating Call's life from 1949 (when he met his wife) to his death in 1974 and the second offering circumstantial evidence that links him to Marilyn Sheppard's murder. Possibly, this should have been two books. But Call's life is interesting even without the speculation about the Sheppard case, and this should be considered for regional libraries and large true-crime collections. Deirdre Bray Root, Middletown P.L., OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Nearly half a century ago, in a case that still grabs headlines, Dr. Sam Sheppard was convicted of killing his wife, Marilyn. Sheppard steadfastly proclaimed his innocence, but even after his conviction was reversed (in 1966), the mystery lingered on: Who really killed Marilyn Sheppard? Last year, in The Wrong Man, journalist James Neff claimed to have fingered the culprit, the Sheppards' window washer, who, Neff claimed, nearly confessed to the crime while serving time for another homicide. Now comes this detailed, well-presented book by novelist and former FBI agent Conners, who points his finger at an entirely different fellow: Major James Call, the air force up-and-comer who, after his wife's death and a series of gambling losses, went AWOL, embarked on a life of crime, and--or so Conners suggests--murdered Mrs. Sheppard. Conners' case is every bit as well argued as Neff's. He amasses a persuasive array of documentary and anecdotal evidence (key reports and photographs are reproduced at the conclusion of the book), and by the end of the story, he has us thoroughly convinced. Scholarly and exciting, told with dramatic flair, this story of a good man who apparently made a conscious decision to turn bad is downright mesmerizing. Continuing interest in the Sheppard case, and ongoing debate over the Neff book, should guarantee that this latest version of a crime we can't seem to forget will be much discussed and much requested. A must for true-crime fans. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

One was shocked, the other remarkably cool. They stood virtually toe-to-toe, eyes riveted, pistols leveled. It was the briefest of confrontations but in that instant both knew death was near.

It was just past midnight in a small cabin deep in New York's Adirondack Mountains. One of the men, a police officer, had just discovered the other in the cellar hiding in a shower stall. The two were now motionless, eyes locked in a profound exchange during that infinitesimal time when synaptic gaps fuse triggering reactions. A shroud of dampness covered the fetid room. Suspended by a cord from the ceiling, a soft yellow lamp provided a glimmer of light. Then, imperceptibly, a whiff of air caused the lamp to move slightly, sending shimmering forms from the corners. One pair of eyes wavered, the other remained steady, glacial....

The eyes of the two men had viewed vastly different worlds. Dominick Valenze, Nick to his friends, of whom there were many, was an amiable, easy-going police officer; a thirty-nine-year-old family man who lived a respected and sedentary existence in the small hamlet of Lake Placid, New York. Rarely in his police work, until this moment, had Nick been on the wrong end of a firearm. Indeed, seldom had his revolver been unholstered, save for an occasional cleaning. Although minor legal infractions were part of his day, he handled them with equanimity, for Nick was first and foremost a peace officer.

A far different world had been witnessed by the other eyes now gripping Nick from the shower a breath away. They belonged to an Air Force major, recently decorated for flying sorties over Korea. They were eyes that had seen death many times, in many forms.

Now, in that eternal second, Nick Valenze knew he was at the brink. The trim, trenchcoated figure regarding him coolly from the shower stall had his arms folded languidly across his chest. In his right hand, held so that it pointed directly at Nick from the crook of the figure's left elbow, was a 9 mm Luger.

While the confrontation was taking place between the two men inside the cabin, waiting outside in a pouring rain was Officer Dick Pelkey, another family man. A few minutes earlier, he with Nick and two other Lake Placid policemen had come to the cabin in response to reports of suspicious activity. During recent weeks there had been burglaries in the area, including a $100,000 jewel theft at the renowned Lake Placid Club highly unusual for a community which was virtually crime-free. Residents were uneasy. Particularly worrisome were reports that showed the perpetrator was a "hot burglar" one who relied on weapons rather than stealth to accomplish robberies.

In view of the recent crimes, Nick and his fellow officers had reason to be apprehensive when they had rendezvoused at the cabin a short time before. Nick and another policeman, pistols drawn, had entered the premises, while Dick and the fourth officer had remained outside to cover the front and back doors. Dick had taken a post at the back near one of the large spruce trees surrounding the dwelling, from where he had watched as beams from the officers' flashlights flitted about inside.

Now, as his fellow officers moved unknowingly toward the confrontation with the stranger in the cellar, Dick was becoming increasingly uneasy. No longer could he see the flashlights. His eyes narrowed, scrutinizing the dark beyond the windows. Why are there no lights, he wondered. He stood near the towering trees, as motionless as their heavy trunks. More than the activity inside the camp, it was the surrounding blackness that made him uneasy. His position rendered him an easy target if there were something back there in the trees watching....

Suddenly, a light flashed in the cellar window. Then voices, sharp, threatening. Dick straightened, his hand loosening his pistol in its holster. All at once, a gust of wind a sharp fusillade of rain ricocheting off the camp roof. It startled him. Gimlet-eyed he focused on the base of the house where the cellar window glowed dimly. The rain was severe now, rattling on the visor of his cap, stinging his cheeks, lips. Little could he know that in seconds the interior of the cabin would be ablaze in gunfire. Some fourteen bullets would rip through walls, flesh and bones. Bodies would crumple. Dick, himself, would lie mortally wounded.

Behind him, awaiting the survivor of the impending mayhem, was the vast Adirondack Forest, an arboreal kingdom of quiet natural beauty. The violent noise about to erupt in the cabin would be quickly muted in the forest, where the only sounds were the mysterious nocturnal rhythms of the alpine wilderness. Here a heroic airman turned predator would follow the dark beat of the wild.

Edition details

• Publisher: British American Publishing
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0945167504
• ISBN 13: 9780945167501
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 506