Author James King at Gaithersburg Book Festival

If you are in the Maryland/DC area, be sure to meet Ghost Burglar co-author James King at the Gaithersburg Book Festival on Saturday, May 18. Stop by and get the inside scoop on King’s investigation into Bernard Welch and, if you ask nicely, maybe even get an autograph for your copy of Ghost Burglar!

King will be at the Maryland’s Writer’s Association (Montgomery County Chapter) tent, as well as the Novel Places Bookstore tent. The festival runs from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and is located on the Gaithersburg City Hall grounds.

Ghost Burglar Authors Interviewed on WPR Today

Do you have a question for Ghost Burglar authors Jack Burch and James King? Do you want to learn more about Bernard Welch’s criminal activities? Then be sure to tune in to your local Wisconsin Public Radio station! Jack Burch and Jim King will be featured on At Issue today, May 7, between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. CST.
Jack and Jim will discuss Ghost Burglar with host John Munson, as well as take questions from callers.
Not in Wisconsin? No worries! There are several ways to tune in.
1) Stream live WPR broadcasts on your computer.
2) Listen on any mobile device using the free WPR app (iPhone/iPad and Android).
3) Listen at TuneIn Radio online or download the free TuneIn app (iPhone/iPad and Android).

“From the first page…I was gripped.”

Ghost Burglar just received a nice review by Ed Newman at Ennyman’s Territory. In addition to being gripped from the first page, Newman also raves that “the story features characters and plot twists as interesting as nearly anything by the masterful [Elmore] Leonard.”

Head on over to Ennyman’s Territory to read the whole review now, and be sure to check back soon, as Newman will be featuring an interview with Jack Burch and James King this weekend.

Ghost Burglar Authors to be on WGN Radio

Listen up, Ghost Burglar fans! Authors Jack Burch and James King will be interviewed by Paul Lisnek on WGN Radio (720 AM in Chicago) on Monday, December 24, at 9:00 a.m CST.

They will be discussing Ghost Burglar and how the recent escape from the Metropolitan Correctional Center compares with Welch’s escape in 1985.

Not in the Chicago area? No worries! There are several ways to tune in.

Stream live WGN broadcasts on your computer.

Listen using the WGN app (iPhone/iPad and Android).

Listen at iHeartRadio online or download the app (iPhone/iPad and Android).

Listen at TuneIn Radio online or download the app (iPhone/iPad and Android).

Ghost Burglar Makes the News

Thanks to an AP story about the recent prison break at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, Ghost Burglar is finding itself in front of a national audience. The story, with a mention of Ghost Burglar and authors Jack Burch and James King, has been picked up by several national media outlets, including CBS News, ABC News, the Huffington Post, NPR, USA Today, and Yahoo, as well as local media from Boston and Miami to San Diego and Seattle.

It’s great to get the word out and let people know they can finally read the incredible true story of the *original* MCC escapee, Bernard Welch.

Chicago MCC Jail Break: It Happened Again!

The Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago.
The Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago. Image by Joseph Lekas Photography

Ghost Burglar details how Bernard Welch and Hugh Colomb managed to escape from the downtown Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center in 1985. Now 27 years later, two other convicts, Joseph Banks and Kenneth Conley, did the same thing – and the similarities are eerie.

    • In 1985, Welch and Colomb were transferred to the MCC to testify about future prison escapes. Banks and Conley were also at the MCC to testify about future prison escapes.
    • In 1985, Welch and Colomb broke through the wall beside the bottom of a window using a weight lifting bar to make a hole. Banks and Conley did the same thing, although at this time the type of tool used is unknown.
    • In 1985, Welch and Colomb tied dozens of bedsheets together to make a rope, which they draped out the window hole. Banks and Conley did the same thing. It should be noted that Welch and Colomb did not use their bedsheet rope, probably because there was a heavy thunderstorm going on, and they felt the wet cloth knots might not hold in the downpour. Instead, they used a 75-foot-long electrical cord to climb down, leaving the bedsheet rope in place.
    • In 1985, Welch reportedly had a lot of money entrusted to his family in Rochester, New York. He traveled there to recover the buried hoard. Banks is thought to have $500,000 stashed somewhere from his earlier crimes. He and his cohort escaped from MCC and went immediately to Banks’s family home, allegedly to eat breakfast. Question: If you had just escaped from prison and knew every law enforcement officer in Chicago would be looking for you, would you go home for breakfast? You might if you were seeking clothes, weapons, or money.
    • In 1985, many people were paid off to assist in the escape of Welch and Colomb or to look the other way. Some of them were MCC employees. This was not established until weeks later, after an internal investigation that led to several indictments. In this most recent escape, it is not known what assistance Banks and Conley had on the outside or the inside. Of course it is still early on yet.
    • In 1985, Welch and Colomb knew that breaking through a reinforced concrete wall was a noisy activity. Their destructive efforts were covered with the help of several inmates. They also used smuggled hacksaw blades to cut through the steel reinforcement bars inside the wall. And they had managed to accumulate dozens of bedsheets somehow. In this recent escape, how did Banks and Conley hide the noise? Where did they secrete the dozens of bedsheets needed to rappel down the 10, 16, or 20 stories, depending on which report is true? Why was none of this noticed?

Perhaps the officials at MCC should read the chapter in Ghost Burglar that details Detective Sergeant William Rollins’s investigation into the escape of Bernard Welch and Hugh Colomb. They may find it instructive.

― James King & Jack Burch

Judging A Book By Its Cover

When you browse through the bookstore, what grabs your attention? Unless you’re looking for a specific title, author, or genre, it’s probably a great book cover. The cover of Ghost Burglar is the work of Minneapolis art director, and a friend for many decades, Linda Siegel.
Linda Siegel
Cover Designer for
Ghost Burglar

After learning as much as she could about the life and escapades of Bernard Welch, Linda determined that his face just had to be on the cover. With that decided, her next challenge was finding a way to depict the essence of this man and his criminal life in a single piece of art. Linda worked from a mug shot of Welch taken when he was transferred from New York’s Attica Prison (he was there during the infamous riot) to the Adirondack Correctional Treatment and Evaluation Center in Dannemora, New York. (Welch went on to escape from that prison on September 2, 1974.)

Experimenting with several different cover designs, Linda eventually incorporated a posterization effect to make Welch’s face appear ghostly. Then, she added an overlay graphic of blood and blood spatter to allude to Welch’s violent nature and the murder of Dr. Michael Halberstam. With these details nailed down, she experimented with the typography. The main title was enhanced by a drop shadow, bevel, and emboss effect and colored to match the blood. The subtitle type was chosen to recall the stories that old-time newspaper reporters pounded out on their manual typewriters while covering the police beat.

A classically trained artist, Linda has spent the better part of thirty years as one of Minneapolis and St. Paul’s most skilled art directors. Her logo designs and commercial work have been contracted by the area’s leading Fortune 100 companies, nonprofits, and startup firms. For more than twenty years, she owned a mid-sized design firm aptly named SHE Graphics. She has also been a principal in three virtual creative services companies and the founder of several other small companies.

Linda is a true Rennaissance woman. She paints, sculpts, is an accomplished gourmet cook, and creates stunning gardens. Her latest venture has taken her into the realm of interior design.

Describing the Ghost Burglar project, Linda said, “I approach design with a business mind and an artist’s eye. Once I understand the rationale and creative challenge, I just instinctively know what will work. Based on the title and content of this book, I knew that I needed to create something ghostly and gory, almost other-worldly. I wanted to design a cover that would sell from the shelves, so I needed to make it strong enough to compel a consumer to pick up the book out of curiosity without even knowing the content.”

Her instinct was right. The Ghost Burglar cover has captured plenty of attention, including earning a coveted spot in the spring announcement edition of Publisher’s Weekly, right below the latest book on O.J. Simpson. Thanks Linda.

Jack Burch