because they were exposed to agent orange. although the government at that point is not acknowledging it. exactly. and refusing to pay for any treatments for these vietnam veterans. what s the genesis of this? it s interesting you ask. i wrote a book about afghanistan, a real nonfiction book about afghanistan, about combat outposts, and the lieutenant governor of delaware was moved by the stories not by me, but the true-life stories. he invited me and a bunch of the guys who served at outpost keeping to an event in delaware keating to an event in delaware. i heard from delaware public officials about afghanistan and iraq veterans living in the woods. they had gone off the grid. they couldn t deal with contemporary society. i tried to report on it. i could never find them. but their legacy lives on in this fictitious band of camping vietnam veterans. okay. well, this has everything. it s got evel knievel, it s got elvis elvis. lots of elvis. son of sam. all
all the demons are here. it s set in the 1970s that allows you to explore the colorful era. i imagine it is fertile ground for fiction. how fun was it to research and write this book? i was 8 years old in 1977 when this took takes place. i don t remember most of the stuff i was talking about. what a wild time. i remember star wars and disco and elvis dying. but the stuff going on just in this one year, from evel knievel literally jumping sharks. this is eight months before fonz did it. to jimmy carter being inaugurated. the nixon frost interviews. son of sam murders and the rise of tabloid journalism. to the death of elvis presley. to cult membership rising.
book takes place. i don t remember most of it. i remember gas lines and disco and elvis dying and that s about it, but in this one year, 1977, so many strange things happened. stuntman superstar evel knievel literally jumps shark, and this is eight months before fonz does it on happy days. studio 54 opens and the new york city blackout and ufo sightings all over the country and cults are rising all over the country, the son of sam serial killer is terrorizing new york and with that comes the rise of tabloid journalism. it s just this really exciting, bizarre this is so much like our time, just like now. you just listed out and changed the details slightly. it s like the 70s is happening again. totally. totally. 100%. there s a lot of resonance. the country was also going through this period of real disillusionment post-watergate
in the united states prompted by the son of sam serial killings in new york. so a lot of rise in tabloid journalism took place in 1977 and obviously, we see the results of that today. the tabloidization of the media in general. obviously, rupert murdoch s tv channel and more. plus, in 1977 after vietnam, after watergate it was a time of a lot of disillusionment in government by the american people, and i sense a lot of that today, as well. this is a real thriller. and you ve got a powerful family that you create in the 70s similar to the murdochs, right? yes. in this book they re the lyon family and one of the main characters, lucy is 22, and she wants to be the next woodward or bernstein, but she ends up joining this tabloid called the washington sentinel and she takes up with this family that is based on the murdochs in some ways and learns about why they
as hard as it used to be. the digital footprint of rex heuermann has been a virtual road map for authorities as very much like alleged serial killers we ve seen in the past. the son of sam who went on a rampage killing people in the 1970s in new york city was a quiet postal worker by day who used to walk people to their cars because they were afraid of the killer which was him. ted bundy had a series of respectable jobs. here you have a man who owns and runs a manhattan architectural firm that deals with regulators and government officials, wears a suit and tie to work, gets on the train and has been operating for more than a decade as a cold, cruel, calculating serial killer. it s interesting that you mention the note about david berkowitz walking people to