Blood in the Streets - Racism, Riots and Murders in the Heartland of America (PB) (2014)

Based on actual events, the book describes in detail what it was like during urban America's most violent decade; 1965-1975 when policing was low-tech and gritty. Dayton, Ohio experienced three riots; one of which was sparked by the shooting of an unarmed black man by police. The City suffered more violence when a white racist serial killer, who hated the desegregation of Dayton Public Schools, randomly shot over 30 black men over four summers. The city of 260,000 recorded over 100 homicides for a few years during which two police officers and a popular civil rights leader were murdered. The story follows a rookie cop during the riots and later as a Homicide Detective who came face-to-face with the serial killer at the scene of his last murder. The story, rich with historical background, describes how blacks and whites worked together to end violence and showed it is never to late to heal racial conflict.