May 23, 1934, Bonnie Parker, age 23 Shot 41 times in ambush by six lawmen   May 23, 1934 Clyde Barrow, age 24, Shot 26 times in same sneak ambush     Bonnie Parker, as she was in life.

Foreword by Marshall Terrill, author of a dozen successful books, most notably Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel. The bogeyman really does exist and his name is John Gilmore. How many writers today can you say are bad-asses? John Gilmore doesn’t know this, but he’s my favorite writer. He has been ever since I cracked open his book, Laid Bare, which is the best Hollywood memoir I’ve ever read. It’s not one of those “warts and all” type books. John splayed open his soul and put it out there for all to see. He writes about the carnality of Tinseltown, the Boulevard of Broken dreams; those trampled underfoot. Gilmore specializes in imploding Hollywood myths, and that, in my estimation, makes him dangerous. How many writers can you think of who are dangerous? So when John’s publisher asked me to write a foreword, naturally, I was thrilled. John is, in my humble opinion, the most talented noir/true crime writer on the scene today. His writing stuns. No one even comes close. Did I say bad-ass? The man is scary and I’ll tell you why: he has witnessed evil up close. He knows where the bodies are buried; has seen the skeletons in the closet; understands everyone’s strange peccadilloes. Gilmore is a literary surgeon whose pen is like a scalpel. He peers into souls, reads minds and isn’t afraid to crack open the cadaver to find out what’s inside. He divulges the secrets of the rich and famous and cold-blooded killers alike.What separates Gilmore from the rest of the great noir/true crime writers is that he was there. He befriended them all—the stars, starlets, has-beens, gangsters, pimps, hustlers, murderers—and strips away the glitz and glamour with the stroke of his cynical and merciless pen. He is comfortable in the darkness and writes from a very shadowy place. He is the sum total of his incredible life experiences: the son of an LA cop and a star-struck mom. He’s been an actor, writer, director, teacher, painter, observer, confidant of legends, myth maker as well as myth buster. He has an angel on his shoulder and a devil in his prose. He has looked evil in the eye many times and never flinched. He’s from the Mad Men era where adults lived, loved and played hard; his literary voice comes from a life of gut-wrenching hardship, which he’ll admit, sometimes bordered on madness. He has lived an unrepentant life, which included plenty of beautiful women, booze, and dope. Most writers, including yours truly, secretly want to be loved by the public. Gilmore tells them, “Go fuck yourself.” I kind of like that. He gives a whole new meaning to the word “embeddedness.” Off and on, he spent four decades gum-shoeing the story of the Black Dahlia, facing off with the likes of Charles Manson and his Family, and was the one scribe to whom murderer Charles Schmid chose to confess his hideous crimes. Gilmore spent several years in the deep south, and the “heart of Texas” researching the now-mythic outlaws, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Don’t expect to read a tale of folk heroes who robbed banks to get back at the establishment during the crushing economic times of the Great Depression. Gilmore’s version of the co-dependent, fast-running duo is raw, gritty and authentically American. He gives the readers perhaps the truest and best account of their lives on the run. But that is no surprise. No one does Babylon, noir, and true crime better than John Gilmore. Marshall Terrill

Photo: Gilmore in Big Spring, Texas, December 29, 1984; during interviews with former bank robber and ex-convict, Henry Edwards. The 76 year-old Edwards was living his days free of the law, under his new name. The past had been different. He'd met Pretty Boy Floyd, was acquainted with Buck Barrow, Clyde's older brother, and talked "jobs" with Clyde. "For a kid, he had eyes like a cobra snake," Edwards told Gilmore. The older man affectionately referred to Bonnie as "Clyde's white-skinned squaw."

Spotlight focuses on his first-hand experiences with celebrities including Lenny Bruce, Jayne Mansfield, Janis Joplin, Jean Seberg, James Dean, Ed Wood, Jr, Jack Kerouac, Brigitte Bardot, Hank Williams Sr., Jane Fonda, William Burroughs, Dennis  Hopper, Carlos Castaneda, Jim Morrison, Sal Mineo, Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Payton, Mamie Van Doren, Lisa Boyle, Sharon Tate, and Neva Shaw, high-profile slayers such as Charles Manson, the Los Angeles "Ice Blonde" Barbara Graham, hitchhike murderer Billy Cook ("the kid with one bad eye and HARD LUCK knuckles"), Eddie Nash and John Holmes are explored in depth in Gilmore's books (see Crime Scenes (Black Dahlia murder), (Wonderland) and interviews.

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