Welcome to Nate Hendley, author of several true crime novels!
Nate Hendley was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1966 and raised in Waterloo, Ontario. At present, he is a Toronto-based journalist and author of several non-fiction books, primarily in the true-crime genre.
Nate’s titles include The Boy on the Bicycle (about a 1956 wrongful murder conviction in Toronto), The Big Con (about scams and hoaxes in America, past and present) and American Gangsters: Then and Now (a look at U.S. mobsters from the Civil War to the present day).
Nate’s latest book, The Beatle Bandit, examines a murderous 1964 bank heist near Toronto
that fueled a nationwide debate about gun control, insanity pleas, and the
death penalty. The Beatle Bandit was published in November 2021 by Dundurn Press.
Nate’s website (www.natehendley.com) offers more details about his books and background.
He also hosts a blog at www.crimestory.wordpress.com featuring posts about crime-related topics.
Social Media Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/natehendley
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nate.hendley/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nate-hendley-a18bb4/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nate.hendley/
How many hours a day do you write?
It varies. I work from Monday to Friday
as a freelance journalist, so some days I write for up to eight hours, while other
days, I concentrate on research and/or interviews and write very little.
I typically work on my books on
weekends and evenings. I try to avoid doing “all-nighters” when possible,
because my focus disappears as exhaustion sets in and my output diminishes. I
find it better to rest, eat, and return to writing later, rather than trying to
press ahead and work around-the-clock.
How do you choose which stories you will write?
When I first starting writing
non-fiction books, I choose broad topics that had been well-covered already
such as organized crime.
In recent years, I’ve become more selective
about the stories I write.
My genre is non-fiction/true crime. Given
this, I like stories that are: a) not well-known; b) have a strong “human-interest”
angle; c) have lots of different elements; and d) lend themselves to a
narrative format (a terrible crime occurs – police investigate – speculation
about the perpetrator runs wild – the wrong person is unjustly convicted –
people work to free the unjustly convicted person – the unjustly convicted
person is released from jail or not – in the end, justice or evil prevails).
There are also practical considerations. As I write non-fiction, I need to determine if there is sufficient research material on a topic before I begin any writing.
What is the most difficult part of your
artistic process?
Research. Rewriting,
editing, and fact-checking is the second most difficult part. The actual
writing process is relatively easy.
Obtaining information
from official sources is more challenging than you might think. I ran into
several brick-walls while researching The Boy on the Bicycle, my account
of a largely forgotten wrongful murder conviction in Toronto in 1956.
I made freedom of
information requests with the Toronto Police and various courts to obtain
documents and received nothing.
In the end, I was
given a motherlode of documents for The Boy on the Bicycle from a fellow
true-crime writer. The documents included police memos, interrogation transcripts,
judicial commentary, reports about the investigation, telegrams, letters, etc.
This information didn’t come from archives, but from the files of various
detectives who kept bits of paper from the case.
I like to do interviews, when possible, when means speaking with either the victims or perpetrators of a crime or their family members. This can be tough but is a necessarily step.
Five years from now, where do you see
yourself as a writer?
I currently split my time between
journalism and non-fiction books. Much as I enjoy journalism, I would love to be
able to concentrate fully on book-writing. Hopefully, this will happen within
the next five years.
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
One awful novel I
wrote after university that will never see the light of day. Various
half-baked, half-finished writing projects from university too.
I have scraps of
other writing lying around that may or may not be turned into something
publishable.
I’m always juggling
ideas for book projects in my head.
Was there a person who encouraged you to write?
My parents always encouraged my
creative endeavours, be it writing, drawing, or making Super-8 movies with my
brother and friends.
In eighth grade I handwrote a series of
long, violent epics, usually involving mercenaries or terrorists on some
dangerous mission. My grade eight teacher, Ken Quantz took the time to read my stories
and critique them, as if I were a professional author. I owe him and my parents
a world of gratitude. It must be awful to grow up in a household where your
talents are underappreciated or crushed.
THE BOY ON THE BICYCLE
The Boy on the
Bicycle
is about Ron Moffatt, who was 14 years-old in 1956 when he was falsely accused
of murder in Toronto. This is the first full account of Ron’s ordeal.
Originally
published in 2018, The Boy on the Bicycle was updated and re-published
in e-book format by Dundurn Press in 2021. It can be instantly downloaded
at:
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/3fbnkeny
Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/wy8twrfb
Chapters-Indigo: https://tinyurl.com/2vsr6kbf
Dundurn Press
website: https://tinyurl.com/29yst52m
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/mr3mh865
Audible:
https://tinyurl.com/363m77ve
“Such an important story and a great book. I highly recommend it.” —Laura Nirider, Clinical Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago.
“The Boy on the Bicycle is an exceptional read and
serves as a unique time capsule of the times and mores of post-WWII Toronto when
murders were rare and sexual predators were practically unheard of … It was Mr.
Hendley’s wish to finally tell Ron’s story after these many years, which he has
done in a direct, yet compassionate manner. Five stars!” —The Miramichi Reader
THE BEATLE BANDIT
The Beatle Bandit
is about Matthew Kerry Smith, an intelligent but troubled young veteran of the
Royal Canadian Navy who robbed Toronto-area banks in the early 1960s to fund a
one-man revolution. On July 24, 1964, Smith put on a Halloween mask and a
“Beatles” wig and held up a bank near Toronto. A bank patron intervened. Murder
and mayhem ensued. Smith’s murderous heist fueled a nationwide debate about
guns, insanity pleas, and the death penalty.
Published in November 2021 by Dundurn
Press,
The Beatle Bandit is available in paperback, e-book, and audiobook
format at:
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/r6uhzwy6
Apple Books: https://tinyurl.com/3xkb7w5t
Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/6h2p7epz
Chapters-Indigo: https://tinyurl.com/9c654t4x
Dundurn Press
website: https://tinyurl.com/yse8fydk
“Hendley does a fine job putting [Matthew Kerry] Smith’s crimes in the context of Canadian culture decades ago. Students of true crime won’t want to miss this thoughtful book.” ―Publisher’s Weekly
“Hendley tells the story as though he were writing a crime novel; an apt read-alike might be Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, with which The Beatle Bandit shares a journalistic style and a perceptive analysis of people and events. First-rate true crime.” ―Booklist
“With this absorbing, deeply
researched tale of a troubled, gun-obsessed bank robber-turned-killer in 1960s
Toronto, veteran true-crime writer Nate Hendley has scored another triumph.” ―Dean Jobb, author of The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream and
Empire of Deception
“A fascinating, bizarre, important
story told by one of the country’s top true-crime writers. What’s not to
enjoy? The Beatle Bandit is a hit.” ―Peter Edwards, Toronto Star crime reporter and co-author
of The Wolfpack: the Millennial Mobsters who brought Chaos and
the Cartels to the Canadian Underworld
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