Jerry Bledsoe

Jerry Bledsoe (born 1941) is an American author and journalist known for several true crime titles based on murders in his native state of North Carolina. His journalism career, which spanned over 20 years, included newspaper work in the North Carolina cities of

Kannapolis Kannapolis () is a city in Cabarrus and Rowan counties, in the U.S. state of North Carolina, northwest of Concord and northeast of Charlotte and is a suburb in the Charlotte metropolitan area. The city of Kannapolis was incorporated in 1984 ...

, Charlotte, and Greensboro and work at ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' magazine. Bledsoe also contributes investigative reports to the ''

Rhinoceros Times The ''Rhino Times'' is a conservative news and opinion website covering Guilford County, North Carolina. It was originally founded in 1991 as ''The Rhinoceros Times''. Another print edition was founded in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2002 and disc ...

'', including a multi-part series detailing the controversies surrounding the Greensboro Police Department. His first published book was the stock car book ''

The World's Number One, Flat-Out, All-Time Great Stock Car Racing Book ''The World's Number One, Flat-Out, All-Time Great Stock Car Racing Book'' is a non-fiction book on early stock car racing published in 1975 by Doubleday. The book revolves around the 1972 Southern 500 weekend at Darlington Raceway in Darlingt ...

'' published by Doubleday in 1975. His book ''

Bitter Blood ''Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder'' (1988) is a non-fiction crime tragedy written by American author Jerry Bledsoe that reached #1 on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list. ''Bitter Blood'' is ...

'' was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and was adapted as a television movie. Bledsoe established Down Home Press to publish books about North Carolina. He and his wife, Linda, l