Harry MacLean (born 1943) is a writer and lawyer living in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, who writes true crime books and won an Edgar Award for his book '' In Broad Daylight'' (1988).

Early life

Maclean graduated in 1964 from

Lawrence University Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Appleton, Wisconsin. Founded in 1847, its first classes were held on November 12, 1849. Lawrence was the second college in the U.S. to be founded as a coeducation ...

with a B.A. in psychology. He received a law degree from the

University of Denver College of Law The Sturm College of Law ("Denver Law") is the professional graduate law school of the University of Denver. It is one of two law schools in the state of Colorado. Founded in 1892, the Sturm College of Law was one of the first in America's Mounta ...

in 1967. During the next few years he was a trial attorney for the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

in Washington, D.C., an adjunct professor at Denver College of Law, magistrate in the Denver juvenile court, First Assistant Attorney General for the Colorado Department of Law, General Counsel of the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...

. He was also an independent mediator and arbitrator.

Books

His first book was '' In Broad Daylight'' (1988), an account of the "vigilante killing" of town bully

Ken Rex McElroy Ken Rex McElroy (June 1, 1934 – July 10, 1981) was an American criminal and convicted attempted murderer who resided in Skidmore, Missouri, United States. He was known as "the town bully", and his unsolved killing became the focus of internati ...

in downtown

Skidmore, Missouri Skidmore is a city in western Nodaway County, Missouri, United States. The population was 245 at the 2020 Census. The small farming community is known for the unsolved murder of Ken Rex McElroy. Skidmore also has a yearly "Punkin' Show." Histo ...

in 1981. 50 people, many of whom had gathered earlier in the day to figure out a way to handle the situation with McElroy if he got off on assault charges from an earlier incident, were said to have been on the street near where McElroy was shot with a high-powered rifle and by a second assailant with a .22. However, the prosecutor said he could not bring a case because no townspeople would corroborate McElroy's wife's claim identifying the killer. In researching the book, MacLean lived with a family outside the town for three years. ''In Broad Daylight'' won an

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

for best true crime writing, appeared on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list for twelve weeks peaking at number two, and was made into a 1991 movie starring

Brian Dennehy Brian Manion Dennehy (; July 9, 1938 – April 15, 2020) was an American actor of stage, television, and film. He won two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe, and received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Dennehy had roles in ...

. The book was reissued in 2007 with a new epilogue after

Nodaway County Nodaway County is a county located in the northwest part of Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,370. Its county seat is Maryville. The county was organized February 14, 1845 and is named for the Nodaway River. It is the larg ...

prosecutor David Baird, who dealt with the case from the beginning, released the county's investigation file. On July 10, 2012, the 31st anniversary of McElroy's killing, ''In Broad Daylight'' became available as an e-book. MacLean's second book was '' Once Upon A Time, A True Story of Memory, Murder and the Law''. Eileen Franklin-Lipsker, a California housewife, claimed to recover a

repressed memory Repressed memory is an inability to recall autobiographical information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. The concept originated in psychoanalytic theory where repression is defined as a protective mechanism that excludes memory of ...

of her father murdering her playmate twenty years earlier in Foster City, California. Her father, George Thomas Franklin, was tried and convicted solely on the basis of the

. Franklin's conviction was later overturned by a federal court of appeals. MacLean's book '' The Past is Never Dead: the Trial of James Ford Seale and Mississippi's Struggle for Redemption'' chronicles the 2007 trial of

James Ford Seale James Ford Seale (June 25, 1935 – August 2, 2011) was a Ku Klux Klan member charged by the U.S. Justice Department on January 24, 2007, and subsequently convicted on June 14, 2007, for the May 1964 kidnapping and murder of Henry Hezekiah Dee an ...

for the murder of two black youths in southwest

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in 1964. Seale was charged and convicted of torturing and drowning Charles Moore and Henry Dee in a backwater of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. ''The Past is Never Dead'' was nominated for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, awarded by

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Libraries. In 2013, MacLean wrote an account of his experience writing ''In Broad Daylight'' as an e-book titled ''The Story Behind In Broad Daylight''. and as an addendum to his latest addition. ''The Joy of Killing'', published in 2015, was MacLean's first novel. The ''Denver Post'' described it as " dark, compelling literary work... hatmarks the fictional debut of Denver true-crime writer MacLean. He combines an eerie night in a deserted house with the recollection of a teenage sexual encounter on a train, in a story that explores the lure of violence. The mystery repels and haunts."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean, Harry American crime writers Living people Writers from Denver 1943 births Lawrence University alumni Sturm College of Law alumni Edgar Award winners Lawyers from Denver