James Renner

Journalist. Palindrome. Writer.

2025 Book Tour!

January 16, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I’m traveling around the Midwest and signing copies of my new true crime book, Scout Camp soon. Come see me!

Also, you can order or pick up signed copies from Loganberry Books in Shaker Heights, Ohio whenever you’d like!

Friday, February 28: Official Book Launch at Barnes & Noble, Fairlawn, Ohio. 7 p.m.

March 1 & 2: The Loveland Frogman Festival.

Tuesday, March 4: Signing at the Jordan Creek Barnes & Noble in Des Moines, Iowa. 6 – 8 p.m.

Thursday, March 6: Reading & Signing at Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Missouri. 6 p.m.

Friday, March 7: Signing at Magic City Books, Tulsa, Oklahoma. 6 – 8 p.m.

Saturday, March 8: Signing at New Market Square Barnes & Noble in Wichita, Kansas . 2- 4 p.m.

New Audiobook!

December 22, 2024 /

My collection of unsolved true crime stories, The Serial Killer’s Apprentice, is now available as an audiobook for the first time! Get it on Audible here.

Investigative reporter James Renner reopens cold cases that have baffled Clevelanders for years, including:

● Murder—Beverly Jarosz, just sixteen years old, felt a dark foreboding in the months before she was stabbed to death in her quiet Garfield Heights home. It all started with an anonymous gift.

● Stolen Identity—Joseph Newton Chandler was not who he claimed to be. Some think he was the Zodiac killer; others say he was D. B. Cooper, or even Jim Morrison.

● Suicide or murder?—Joseph Kupchik hid gambling problems from friends and family until he was found at the bottom of a nine-story parking deck in downtown Cleveland—with multiple stab wounds.

● Heist—In 1969, Lakewood bank employee Ted Conrad nabbed $215,000 from the vault one day after his twentieth birthday. The FBI still shows up at his high school reunions.

● Controversy—Jeffrey Krotine was thrice tried for the grisly 2003 murder of his wife and ultimately acquitted, to the frustration of prosecutors, detectives, and jurors.

These stories venture into dark alleys and strip clubs, as well as suburbs and small towns, where some of the region’s most horrendous crimes have occurred.

Upcoming Appearances

October 10, 2024 /

October 16: Sandusky Library, presentation about the unsolved murder of Lisa Pruett and my book, Little, Crazy Children. Link here.

October 24: Milan Library, presentation on the 35th anniversary of the Amy Mihaljevic case. Link here.

November 2: Buckeye Book Fair, Wooster. Coming meet local authors and get some signed books! Link here.

Now in paperback: MUSE!

July 11, 2024 /
MUSE
MUSE

My horror novella, Muse, is now available in paperback through Cemetery Dance! Click here to order.

Muse tells the story of a private detective hired by a young writer to steal an old box from the estate of H.P. Lovecraft. Mayhem ensues.

“This is a horror-filled book about creativity and storytelling and compulsion, not metaphorical but literal… Muse is now far and away my favorite Renner work.” – ScifiAndScary.com

“Renner’s spin on the Lovecraft-go-round is a dark-ass supernatural detective thriller speculating about the source of inspiration for two of America’s gloomiest, murkiest writers. It is a bloody, and clever and slick-noir journey through a criminal underbelly of east coast gangsters and cultists and amorous boy scout leaders and ambitious teenage novelists and it is creepy and rewarding and HIGHLY EFFABLE. like, ‘we are all effed-able.’ Finally, a Lovecraft i could love.” – Karen Brissette.

Scout Camp now available for pre-order!

June 29, 2024 /

My next true crime book comes out February 25, 2025 but you can preorder today! This one is quite personal and serves as a kind of autobiography, too.

Preorder it on Amazon here.

Here’s the writeup.

In this timely and deeply personal true crime memoir, acclaimed journalist, author, creator of the True Crime This Week podcast, and former Boy Scout James Renner, explores the dark side of an American institution, its pervasive culture of sexual abuse, and the traumatic—even deadly—repercussions of its long-buried secrets.

In the summer of 1995, at the largest Boy Scout camp in Ohio, a night of sexual violence ended with one counselor dead and another hospitalized. The death was ruled “accidental.” It wouldn’t be the last death associated with Seven Ranges Reservation.
 
James Renner, too, was a counselor at Seven Ranges that year. He was always sure there must be more to the story of Mike Klingler’s death, because Renner also knew firsthand that the 900-acre camp was not the safe getaway it was portrayed to be. On Friday nights the boys were ushered into the woods for a frightening ceremony in which they learned the rules for becoming good young men—and, above all, that keeping secrets was a Scout’s duty. No matter how dark the secrets were.
 
Determined to face his demons, Renner embarks on a journey back to that tumultuous summer and exposes a clandestine society that left indelible scars on the Scouts and the staff who were there. For Renner, it meant opening up about his twisted upbringing, his issues with trust and sexuality, and a lifetime of self-medication. The result is a deeply personal, no-holds-barred, and vitally important true crime memoir.

Shaker Heights Police Are Open to Taking Another Look at Local Murders

February 7, 2024 /

I’m happy to report that this week I met Shaker Heights police detectives to talk about a potential link between the unsolved murder of Lisa Pruett and the 1985 double-homicides of Philip and Dorothy Porter (the subject of my book, Little, Crazy Children.) The meeting went well and they are at least cracking open the old files for another look. Fingers crossed!

David Nethers interviewed me about the progress on Fox 8.

New Season of The Philosophy of Crime!

October 13, 2023 /
Philosophy of Crime
Philosophy of Crime

The Philosophy of Crime podcast is back for Season 6 everywhere you get your podcasts. Here are the release dates:

Episode 1 (October 10): Does Diplomatic Immunity Get You Off?

Episode 2 (October 12): Why Is Bail the Worst Idea Ever?

Episode 3 (October 17): Pyschopaths and the Bicameral Mind

Episode 4 (October 19): Why Do People Confess to Crimes They Didn’t Commit?

Episode 5 (October 24): Why Are Drugs Illegal?

Episode 6 (October 26): The Boogeyman Effect

Worth the Re-read: My final Scene story.

September 19, 2023 /

This was my last story for Scene as a staff reporter. I’m sharing it now, as Coughlin considers a run for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, currently held by a Democrat.

‘I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE’

After 12 years in the legislature, Kevin Coughlin faces a criminal probe and allegations of extra-marital affairs.

By James Renner

Excerpt:

Another accusation, not involving allegations of criminal behavior but potentially more damaging to his reputation, involves an extramarital affair. Sources say that during the summer of 2004, perhaps longer, he carried on a relationship with a younger woman. At the time she was a 24-year-old employee of the University of Akron, an attractive brunette who had worked on Coughlin’s campaign for State Senate. He was the 34-year-old, married, handsome rising star of the Summit County GOP — smart and ambitious, but also prone to blowing off campaign appointments to spend time with his girlfriend.

Read the entire article here.

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