Although there have been individual books published about famous murder cases, collections about serial murders, seventeenth century murders, regional murders, unsolved murders, female murderers, badmen, gunfighters and outlaws, eighteenth century murders, nineteenth century murders, and almost every other kind of murder collection one can think of, DEAD JUDGES: Judges Murdered in 20th Century America is the first collection of its kind.

I began this project because I was concerned with the prevalence of violence in our American courthouses in the 1980s and 1990s. I had always thought of a courthouse as a safe haven, a place where one came to resolve one's differences through peaceful means, a sanctuary, if you will. I imagined that people had respect for the judiciary, for lawyers, for bailiffs, and for other folks who worked in the legal business whether or not at our safe haven. Although I knew of Federal Judge John Wood's assassination, I assumed it was a fluke. It was related to a drug case. Those people knew no bounds.