The Crime Novelist Who Wrote His Own Death Scene
Eugene Izzi’s unpublished manuscript described a death almost exactly as his own. Did the writer predict his own demise, or was this all an elaborate, attention-getting ruse?
By Philip Caputo Esquire
This article originally appeared in the May 1997 issue of Esquire. Get access to every Esquire story ever published at
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He was a powerfully built man, six feet tall and two hundred pounds, with thick, dark hair, a prominent nose, piercing eyes, and an intensity that electrified some people and intimidated others. On December 7, 1996, he committed suicide in a spectacular fashion, after leaving a trail of clues designed to lead the police and the public to conclude that he’d been murdered by an Indiana militia group. For a while, his colleagues in the midwestern chapter of the Mystery Writers of America novelists whose minds run in winding channels of plots and conspiracies bought into his fiction. Within hours after
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Warwick’s calls itself the oldest bookstore in America continuously owned and operated by the same family. This is its 125th year in business, the last 70 of them in a building on Girard Avenue in La Jolla.
A couple of months ago, fourth-generation owner Nancy Warwick got unexpected news that made her wonder how much longer the store would be in existence.
Her longtime landlord had received an unsolicited, $8.3 million bid all cash to buy the building. The landlord had accepted. Warwick, who had been negotiating a new lease, was given 15 days to beat the offer or face an uncertain future with a new landlord.
As the pandemic closed stores, readers went online. And that meant they searched for what they already knew, or they followed an algorithm's suggestions . which meant they lost out on the serendipity involved in wandering a physical store and finding, say, new authors. Promotional campaigns went for known entities like Snoop Dogg and Delia Owens.
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Warwick’s calls itself the oldest bookstore in America continuously owned and operated by the same family. This is its 125th year in business, roughly the past 70 of them in a building on Girard Avenue in La Jolla.
A couple of months ago, fourth-generation owner Nancy Warwick got unexpected news that made her wonder how much longer the store would exist.
Her longtime landlord had received an unsolicited $8.3 million bid all cash to buy the building. The landlord had accepted. Warwick, who had been negotiating a new lease, was given 15 days to beat the offer or face an uncertain future with a new landlord.
On Saturday, April 24, 749 bookstores in all 50 states participated in bookselling s biggest yearly celebration. Here are some highlights of the day, in pictures.