START Crandell, who earned a Purple Heart in Vietnam, writes about another veteran, Jack Kennedy. Photo provided
WHODUNIT?
JFK?
Milton author puts young Congressman Kennedy in the middle of a late-1940s murder mystery set in Washington
By Bob Yearick
W
illiam F. Crandell was raised in northwestern Ohio, was an infantry officer in Vietnam, suffered a foot wound there, and is a fan of Mark Twain and Raymond Chandler — all traits he shares with private detective Jack Griffin, the protagonist of his novel, Let’s Say Jack Kennedy Killed the Girl. The whodunit is set in Washington D.C. at the dawn of the Cold War and is the first in what will be four Jack Griffin novels with equally intriguing titles: If Only Truman Were Dead (scheduled to be published this summer); But Patton’s Dead. Right?, and Mr. Hoover Will Hate This. Now a resident of Milton, in Sussex County, Crandell has been writing since his high school days in Toledo, when he reported on events at his school for a weekly newspaper. He went on to Ohio State University — his parents’ alma mater — where he majored in political science and became a second lieutenant in the Army through the ROTC program Following graduation, Lt. Crandell was sent to Vietnam, where he served in the III Corps near Saigon. His unit was ambushed, and he was hit by shrapnel. “We were supposed to be ambushing the Viet Cong,” he says, “but our location and intent were betrayed, so they were waiting for us.” He says he joined the Army because he wanted to serve
and to test himself. “I expected to do the job well and make a difference, at a point in my life where I needed that.” Like many veterans, his time in the service changed him.
No More ‘Crip-Crap’
“Serving in Vietnam made me appreciate life, having nearly given mine,” he says. “I questioned authority more after Vietnam, treasured my friends, stopped worrying about crip-crap.” He returned to Ohio State and earned a master’s in American history and political science, then stayed on to get a Ph.D. in American history. ► MARCH 2022 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM
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