Pilate's Cross

J. Alexander Greenwood

Former journalist, politician, television executive, radio talk show host and actor, independent author J. Alexander Greenwood has always been drawn to what lies just beneath the surface of places and people.

When his career in public relations took him to a place he affectionately calls "the smallest town in the world," he found the inspiration for "Pilate's Cross" a mystery that had been below the surface for more than fifty years.

"The real core of this book is about the open secrets that can fester in a community until an outsider starts asking questions," Greenwood said.
Murders in a Small Town

"A few years ago I left my home state of Oklahoma and moved to a very small town in the northern part of the American Midwest. I didn't know a soul. I was a total outsider working there as public relations director and instructor at a small college," he said.

"Every day I'd walk past a simple plaque posted in the administration building. The plaque was in memoriam to the college's former president and dean, who both died on the same day in the 1950s. It didn't hint at anything nefarious; it could have been a car wreck for all I knew. Nobody said much about it until I finally asked."

What he learned was that the men were murdered in their offices by a professor who then calmly walked home and killed himself. Greenwood gained access to original police records, crime scene photos, witness affidavits and news coverage of the murders.