Contributing Writer Bob Moro
I first met Craig Handel a little over six years ago. The former News-Press reporter was assigned to write a story about my Fort Myers Power Squadron, and we became friends. Shortly after, he wrote a great piece for The News-Press about Jim Griffiths, a local entrepreneur, author, and publisher of this great magazine for more than 23 years. You may have heard of him.
Craig has written for various publications for 50 years. He began his career in middle school. After earning his journalism degree, he worked for newspapers in Wisconsin, California, Massachusetts, and then Florida.
Recently, he has expanded his career by authoring books. In just the past few years he has written and published biographies that include A Self-Made Man, The Sodfather, Loveable Fighter, and Resilient Spirit; featuring Cape Coral entrepreneur and philanthropist Sandy Stilwell. He also edited Fort Myers attorney Kevin Jurisinski’s fascinating Interview With a Spy. His latest book, just published, is his first “fiction” effort called Trucker’s Deadly Haul, and it’s a doozy.
It’s the true life story of veteran detective and former Estero resident Don Corbett, AKA Cal Raven, and his years-long effort to find a serial killer of prostitutes who frequented our nation’s truck stops. Corbett’s character also fought his own demons in the process. It’s described as loosely based on Corbett’s life in law enforcement, but the core of the story is close to the real version. Sometimes you have to fictionalize a true story to keep the lawyers away.
The number of rampant killings by long haul truckers is anything but fiction. In the book’s Epilogue, Frank Figliuzzi, author, TV commentator and former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, said 25 long-haul truckers are in prison for multiple homicides, but there are still 200 unsolved killings with 450 trucker suspects being looked at in those cases.
Craig and I have helped each other with writing and editing tips. I always admired writers, especially newspaper reporters. John Fraser, a former editor at the Worcester Telegram, was also is a friend who made me a better writer.
Besides editing Truckers Deadly Haul for Craig I wrote this review to help promote the book:
“This story of the hunt for a serial killer is best-seller material. The narrative of the emotional struggle of the hero investigator Cal Raven is what really touched my soul. I was a social worker for 40 years. I saw what he saw. I connected with Cal. Beautifully done.”
Why did I connect with Cal Raven? I too saw a lot of dark things in my 40-year career as a child sexual and physical abuse and neglect social worker. Not everybody has the stomach for the human misery Cal and I witnessed; and fewer still can live in that world for four decades. Cal Raven/Don Corbett struggled with that darkness. I struggled with that darkness.
Cal Raven also struggled with incompetent and corrupt colleagues and bosses who resented his detective skills; and tried their best to make life miserable for him and even take him down even as he overcame his PTSD and closed in on the serial killer.
I faced similar problems as president of the 2,100-member Massachusetts child protective services social workers’ union. As we fought for manageable caseloads to keep kids safe from abuse, my bosses launched a profoundly stupid policy to mandate that we investigate ANY family where the use of alcohol or drugs was merely mentioned - without evidence of abuse or neglect.
Our caseloads immediately jumped by thousands while we conducted wild goose chases on innocent families; and agency leaders tried to get me fired for calling out their ill-advised policy and their blatant lies about the number of cases they were piling on us all.
Like Cal, I resisted the pressure and threats. I was quoted on the NBC evening News with Tom Brokaw calling agency leaders “liars” about our caseload numbers. I told reporters that it was a good thing then Governor Dukakis’ children were over 18, or we would have had to open up a case on his family due to his wife’s brave battle against diet pills and alcoholism. My car got keyed, I was publicly criticized, and privately attacked. My career was threatened.
But all that helped get the policy rescinded, and with the help of my union, we got the legislature to launch an investigation of how they counted cases that resulted in an emergency $1.4 million appropriation to hire more than 100 additional workers.
Like Cal, my long social work career was filled with drama and trauma. I wrestled a gun away from a drunken mother who pointed it at me while her kids were on their way home from school. I was hit in the head with a metal rod by a mentally-ill teen who resisted my attempt to place her in a residential facility. I was asked to identify a heroin addicted parent by Worcester, Mass. police when they found him dead of a drug overdose.
I lost several clients to suicide, including a sweet child I had to place in foster care because his parents were a mess. His foster parents asked me to interview him to find out why he was so depressed. In the foster family’s barn he assured me he was fine, and I should spend my time on more troubled youth than he. Less than a week later he was dead. He had hanged himself in the barn right where we talked.
That’s why Cal’s story resonated with me.
The opening chapter begins with this: I Know Death. I saw bodies contorted in ways I didn’t think possible. I saw missing heads as well as only heads or missing body parts. I saw people with no faces.”
You experience as much drama around how Cal struggles with his personal demons as you do following his trail to find the vicious serial killer of at least a dozen prostitutes. Or was it more than one serial killer? The pace of the story kept me turning the pages. I couldn’t put it down. It was a great read.
Mr. Corbett, a retired police detective from Austintown, Ohio, has appeared on CNN and has been honored with many commendations and awards. After retiring, he used his expertise to review cold case homicides and missing persons cases with suspected foul play. He did that pro bono for victims' families. They were concerned that law enforcement did not complete a thorough investigation.
When I retired as a social worker, I too planned to write a book about my experiences. I wanted to tell the story of what 40 years of investigating the physical and emotional abuse and neglect of children did to my soul.
As I write this, there are four boxes of files, news clippings, notes and photos in my shed, waiting for me to give it a go. But that ship has sailed, so I will live vicariously through my friend Craig’s tale of Don Corbett’s story.
I asked Craig how he made the transition from reporter to author.
“I didn’t think I was capable of writing a book at first,” Craig explained. “So when I started, I tried not to think of it as a 250 page project, but as 20 or 25 stories-each one a chapter. It’s like the old adage: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
Craig and his Big Kat Kreative Publisher/Editor David Kratzke know they have something special with this book. They are exploring other venues to tell Cal/Don’s story.
“Even though we have a book, we need to turn that into a screenplay for the best chance of having a film, movie or streamed series,” he said. “Since those mediums rely more on visuals, our 65,000-word book must be edited into a 10,000 to 15,000-word screenplay.”
Another of my talented friends, Steve Minichiello, has written screenplays, and he’s picked up a couple of Emmy’s in the process. Steve has agreed to help Craig with his screenplay effort. Stay tuned.
Note: If you’re interested in writing a book or receiving an autographed copy of this book, please e-mail Craig at handelcraig@yahoo.com or text or call him at 239-201-0559. The cost, including shipping, is $20 for paperback or $32 for a hardcover.
Amazon book link: https://tinyurl.com/mpfadww2
Past Commander Bob Moro AP
Fort Myers Power Squadron-America’s Boating Club
