FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 15, 2006
FORTHCOMING BOOK CHRONICLING
HIGH-PROFILE MURDER CASE
OPTIONED FOR FILM
New York, NY; Universal City, CA; March 15, 2006—PMA Literary & Film Management, Inc., is proud to announce the film option sale for acclaimed investigative journalist M. William Phelps's Murder in the Heartland to Mathis Entertainment, a Hollywood-based film and television production company. Murder in the Heartland, which bestselling novelist Gregg Olsen calls “the most disturbing and moving look at murder in rural America since Capote's In Cold Blood,” is being published June 6, 2006 by Kensington Books, an imprint of Kensington Publishing (and has been selected as a Featured Alternate in Doubleday Book Club and the Mystery Guild, starting in July 2006).“
Mathis Entertainment President Ben Mathis said Murder in the Heartland, is “one of the most riveting nonfiction crime books” he's read “since Truman Capote's In Cold Blood”—and sees great potential in the marketplace to support a film version, and plans to develop the book as a major independent motion picture.
“I pitched the book to Ben Mathis in January of this year,” Peter Miller said. “He read it immediately, called, and said, 'I have to make this movie.'”Murder in the Heartland, details the December 16, 2004, murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, a 23-year-old eight-months-pregnant wife and dog breeder from Skidmore, Missouri, and the kidnapping of her unborn child. Thirty-six-year-old Melvern, Kansas, resident Lisa Montgomery was arrested with Bobbie Jo's child in her arms and charged with kidnapping resulting in death. Phelps's book, to be published four months before Lisa Montgomery's October 2006 trial, details the events leading up to the murder, the moment-by-moment dynamics of the investigation, recovery of the baby, and accused killer Lisa Montgomery's life story. Phelps, a veteran non-fiction author Radio America calls “the nation's expert on the mind of the female murderer,” was able to convince several key players (including the local sheriff who solved the crime and issued the nation's first Amber Alert for an unborn child) to talk on the record exclusively. Part of the book deals with Phelps's experiences investigating the story and gaining such rare access to documents, witnesses, photographs, and other sensitive information.
“Researching and writing Murder in the Heartland put my investigative skills to the test,” Phelps said from his CT office. “I was compelled by the notion that such a brutal crime could take place in such a remote, rural region of the Midwest, and the challenge of telling that story in a compassionate way, detailing how and why it happened. Truly, this story is the archetype of the American dream crushed by tragedy.”
With over 300,000 copies of his books in print, Phelps—author of Perfect Poison, Lethal Guardian, Every Move You Make, Sleep In Heavenly Peace—has spent years building his reputation as one of the country's premier investigative reporters. He has appeared on dozens of national radio and television shows as an expert on crime and murder, including Court TV, the Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Biography Channel, History Channel, and Montel Williams.
“The comparisons between Murder in the Heartland and In Cold Blood are understandable,” Phelps concluded. “This is why the idea of a film based on the whole package—researching and writing the book, along with the story itself—lends itself so congenially to the big screen. With CSI and so many other forensic-based films and TV shows popular today, people are equally as interested in the way the story comes together as they are in the crime itself.”
For more information about the film, contact Peter Miller, PMA Literary & Film Management, Inc. at 212.929.1222 or
and/or Ben Mathis (818-753-2326; mathisentinc@aol.com). For more information about the publication of Murder in the Heartland contact Maureen Cuddy, Kensington Publishing, 212/407-1573 or mcuddy@kensingtonbooks.com.
Advanced Praise for Murder in the Heartland:
“When unimaginable horror strikes it is certain to cause monstrous sufferings, regardless of its locale. In Murder in the Heartland, M. Williams Phelps expertly reminds us that when the darkest form of evil invades the quiet and safe outposts of rural America the tragedy is greatly magnified. Get ready for some sleepless nights.”
— Edgar Award-Winning Author and Pulitzer-Nominated Carlton Stowers
(Careless Whispers, Scream at the Sky, To the Last Breath)
—Anne Bremner, Op-Ed Columnist and Legal Analyst on
Court TV, MSNBC, Nancy Grace, FOX News Channel,
The O'Reilly Factor, CNN, Good Morning America, The Early Show