Practical and invaluable book dont be a victim fighting back against americas crime wave. That is just ahead. This is a lifesaving book that empowers you to stay safe in the face of daily dangers. Its packed with tips and with christmas and hanukkah just around the corner you want to make sure you buy copies for everyone on your list. To purchase the book, please check the local websites. The book is also available from the official bookseller and a cappella books. I know youre going to have a lot of questions so please use the qanda feature at the bottom of the screen and we will try to read as many of them as possible. We respectfully request you dont put your questions in the chapter because i wont be looking there. I dont even know how to look there. Now that we know, lets get tonight rolling with a little bit about our special guest. Nancy grace is and awardwinning victim rights advocate. As well as daily mail tv. The founder and publisher of crime online. Com a platform that investigates breaking crime news highlighting missing people trying to help solve homicide. A lot of information these days on dna and how it is used to solve crimes. Unless you have been living under a rock the past couple of decades you are also aware that she was the force behind hln for many years. Please if you will welcome our special guest and a person im proud to call a colleague and friend, nancy grace. Thank you everyone for inviting me. We are going to have a lot of fun. I want to make certain we leave plenty of time to discuss this amazing book but i feel we need to lay some groundwork and set the scene. One thing i learned about our years working together is you like to tell a story of th the i do, chronologically. That is one of the many philosophies that we share so i would love if you could take us back. It is ironic you landed in the Career Center around crime because that is a word you didnt hear very often if at all growing up. I grew up in the renter rose they would come out to serve the children and parked directly in front of our house. I knew nothing about. They would go out and gets to go bring books that came out maybe two or three weeks later and as far as i could see one of our favorite things to do was to go to a deep fast Running Stream where somebody kind of wrote to a tree lamb and you would go as fast as you could swinging out way over the water if you were any good at all. I guess it was national instinct. So that is how i grew up. We didnt know about the world of hate and crime and to the professor. My fiance was murdered, shot five times in the face, the neck, the head. His world ended, mine exploded. His family is were in grief and it was such a dark time for me. I really dont have the words to describe it but i didnt want to live at all. I was down to about 89 pounds. I couldnt eat. My mother had to stop the clock in our home because i couldnt stand to hear the ticking. When i went back to school they let me back in. My undergrad at mercer. I had to go back to law school to help other crime victims and that is what i did. Up until that point you were headed towards teaching literature, specifically shakespeare. That is all i wanted to do. Im adjusting my screen as we talk. [laughter] you never get over Something Like youve experienced with the loss of keith. However when you did begin to sort of assess what was next in your life, how did you start on the path that eventually brought you to atlanta . As i said i dropped out of school. I had never flown on a plane before. My parents sent me to live with my sister in philadelphia. I stayed with her and that is when it hit me i saw all of the students going back to school and crowding into the bookstore. Once i got through my shakespearean literature degree, i got to law school and i had one recommendation to get into law school. I didnt even know what i was doing. When i got into undergrad i filled out my application with a pencil. At least you could change your mind. It was by recommendation and thats where i first heard the word hypocrisy. Anyway, her letter i think singlehandedly got me into law school. I was going to clerk to a federal judge. I finally made it in, and i applied to philadelphia and atlanta and one of the boroughs in new york i got in atlanta first and that is where i went, somewhere with a very high level of crime. I wasnt interested in the slip and falls and making a lot of money. I didnt care about the syllable hours. All i wanted and want is to put the bad guys behind bars. Having the single oldest trial judge in the county, i was in his courtroom. Why was that such a blessing, because he was so old he wasnt part of the mandatory retirement act. He was already in. This is how it worked to my benefit. He was hellbent on proving he was fit to be on the bench so the latest gel count that means you have the fewest. You wanted to keep the lowest jail count in other words the least number of people waiting for you, the judge, to resolve their state. Yet a high jail count means you are not playing cases. We kept the lowest count which means i was on trial every other week. Very often i would have three trials going at once and i would start off with homicide. Once i struck that jury they would go out, the next panel would come in. Typically a less complicated case like a robbery so i would have multiple juries at the same time. That is how i tried so many cases. They would say lets keep the lights on in the courthouse and we did. Do you remember the first time you came face to face with a really serious crime, one that took your breath away and fought after your experience with keys, but while you were there in atlanta do you remember the first time that you were blown back by a crime . There were so many. It wasnt until i was a witness in a murder trial and i didnt see the murder he had been at our home before he left for work. He was working on a construction crew and he left to get everyone soft drinks. A guy that had been fired unloaded at the Company Truck and that is how he was killed. I remember testifying. Everything was so quiet i could hear my boots on the marble floor. I walked by the states table and for the first time i saw his bloodied denim shirt that he had been wearing that morning. I kept walking and past the defendants table and i met his eyes and he immediately looked down. I looked on either side of the lawyers and i didnt even realize who or what they were and they looked down. They couldnt even look at me. I turned and walked out of the courtroom. That was the first time i had ever even been in a courthouse. The cases, sometimes, they are so distinct in the mind. I remember prosecuting child molestation cases with children as young as three and five where the mother would side with the boyfriend or the husband. It always happened that way. Horrible abuse on children. Murders over fivedollar drug debt. I remember a mother, her son was murdered over a drug debt. She was the finest lady. I remember going to her home, she had a beautiful living room, everything was white, closet, sofa, everything and she had it covered in plastic. I went and sat on the sofa and she became one of my dear friends i remember trying that case and when she wanted to sit in the courtroom i went to put the medical examiner on the stand and he described her son dying and i looked back and normally would send the family out but she just kept knitting and looked at me and nodded and just kept knitting as i was getting the closing statement i looked at her she smiled at me and nodded and we kept going. There were so many cases. One, no one case is more important than the next. When did tv enter into the picture . Thats the funny thing is how did this happen. I remember. So, every once in a while, we get what we call a Silk Stocking lawyer and that means they made money. It was the biggest law firm in the city of atlanta and all across the country. There were 150 new felonies and in comes a [inaudible] you could tell because the suits were nice and tailored with fancy italian shoes. Not a regular, not one of the originals. He came out and said im from king and spalding and im representing so and so. Im like you are representing a killer. I looked down and it was a case we tried a long time ago and a judge pushed it off because they had to deal with it. We handled the case through the appellate system and he invited me to a party. I dont normally fraternize with the defense party, but i went to the Christmas Party and while i was there met with [inaudible] and they said you should have nancy on. She tries cases all the time. Sure enough, i ended up being a guest on an afternoon show and would run back to the courthouse. Thats how it started. Then court tv found out about one of my cases. It was a serial rape case. They said do you mind if we have cameras in the courtroom and i said hell no. I said they dont want to be on tv. One of them was standing ten or 12 feet away from me and said wait a minute, we didnt do anything wrong. We are not ashamed. Hes the one that should be ashamed. Well do it. And i said okay. They covered that and then a murder case. Im totally oblivious of the camera. They called me writing up my pantyhose several times. [laughter] but that is how it happened and then one day i was invited to sit on a panel of socalled experts which means out of town lawyers in new york and i went you know what, im going to go. I went and i sat between the late Johnny Cochran and an excellent lawyer that tried off the debacle. We got in a huge fight and they said you want to do a he said she said show and i said no, i have a rape case i am trying to do. And then the District Attorney who was like a grandfather to me, john, retired. I called them back and said you know that job, i will take it. And i moved to new york with two boxes of clothes, a curling iron. I had a tv in each room [inaudible] [laughter] so yo so you could do your homework. I hand tvs so i would always know what was happening and not be incorrect on the air. Do you remember the day when you finally felt at home and thought this is where im supposed to be when it came to talking about crime on tv . I felt that way the first time i tried a jury case. Felt like a bird out of a cage. Once in a while but when i tried that case this poor little guy had gone through the kmart on piedmont. He cut a cd player display off and stuck it in the crotch of his pants and folded up in a rug and went all the way to the front to take it out and left it. The security guards couldnt wait to drag him back in and arrest him so that was my first case was something where nothing was taken. Attempted shoplifting. Of course he was trying to shoplift so i got my first conviction on attempted shoplifting. But it had to go to trial. That was the day [inaudible] i thought i had to dress like a man back then. I had on a blue suit with a shirt up to here and my hair up. By the time it was over my shirt was off, my hair was up, my shirt was untucked and i had black eyeliner and mascara all over but got a conviction. That was when i knew thats where i was meant to be. One of the things i admire about you is the way you keep the family first. In fact its what led your decision to depart hln and take off in other directions although we will talk about them a little bit im sure in the minutes ahead. I want to make sure we do include your husband and the twins. What is the latest with david and lucy . I dont want them to grow up and go away but i am so proud of them. They are my whole world and i cannot wait to wake them up in the mornings. Lucy declared herself a vegetarian which means i have to make two meals. I know more than you would ever want to know about in possible meet. Shes wonderful. My son is they make all as and certainly do not get that from their mother. They love school. They just played in a church choir. She played the clarinet and piano and he plays the piano and saxophone. They are just my whole world. Theres so much to say about them. And your mom lives with you as well. Well, okay. [laughter] my dad went to heaven and my mom moved in with me. Between her and lucy and the guinea pigs. [laughter] we have a rescue dog, a rescue cat and rescue guinea pigs. When you are kicking back with your latte im shoveling guinea pigs. But i couldnt be happier. My husband is still alive. I havent murdered him yet. People say why isnt he in the pictures. Because hes taking the pictures. [laughter] lets get to the meat of the hour. The title of the book is honestly everything you need to know about whats inside. The subtitle of fighting back against americas crime wave, that isnt a throwaway. It is key because ive heard you say on a number of occasion including just this past week that you didnt realize that you were a victim when keith was murdered and that is what a lot of the crime victims families dont realize they are crime victims as well. I know what you are referring to and that would be the Scott Peterson Death Penalty sentence reversal based on the fact some more not questioned individually. One juror number seven i remember i named her strawberry shortcake because she had beautiful red hair and this character when asked have you been a victim of a crime she said no but in fact she had a restraining order taken out against her boyfriend exgirlfriend who was harassing her and the reality is no one was prosecuted but i wonder if she doesnt consider herself a crime victim. Crime victim families that go a lifetime looking for justice are crime victims. Its forever changed their lives. Talking about john david and lucy it was over 12 years of grief and mourning mac before i could consider remarrying and because i warned that long i would sabotage every relationship because i didnt want that. I just wanted to put bad guys away. I waited so long that by the time i married my dear husband david and gave birth to the twins, lucy almost died because im an older mom. I was two hours late to my own wedding because i was convinced is some horrible thing going to happen to him. I dont want other crime victims to grieve the way that i did for so long because the repercussions go on. The book can read like literature but it can also be a reference guide for wherever you find yourself in life and whatever you might be planning to do. Maybe it is a trip. Maybe its joining a gym and you give these great stories. They are truths. I want to tell you something that you probably already know every one of these chapters is inspired by a case i either personally investigated and took the trial myself or covered. It took me two years to research and write dont be a victim. The stories and here are not to scare anyone but to empower you at a time so many of us feel we cant control anything happening around us. Thats not true. You can fight back. It isnt to scare but to give you the power to fight back. 350 pages and i am so proud because i pledged every penny from this book to the center for missing and exploited children and this past week i got to send a 25,000 check from all the people buying the book and it meant the world to me we are not just sitting back but we are doing something to help. I was inspired in each chapter. For instance i was catching a flight from california to laguardia every victims rights march and i got a text about a mass shooting Fulton County courthouse come home. I got off the plane, got a taxi, caught the next flight to atlanta. The judge i played softball with, the Court Reporter had reported a shooter. A female sheriff was overpowered in an elevator and the perpetrator got out. What choice would you and i have, safety in elevators. I met with the long island jogger and he inspired me to write safe while exercising. What can we do to stop it . Me prosecuting in atlanta inspired me to write safe in your own home. The first half of the book is devoted to keeping your children safe whether they are at daycare, babysitter, nanny, amusement parks, Shopping Mall god help us, safe online is in here as well. Your speaking about kids and school is one of those fears parents have just sending the child off to school no longer having them at home. But heaven forbid well one case that comes to mind is kelsey smith. She was on the phone with her mother and went to target and was buying a gift for her boyfriend and was walking out to the parking garage and suddenly that was the last time anyone saw her. She was eight minutes from home. Her father devoted his life to Law Enforcement and stopping crime. You mentioned about school. Did you know between 30 to 40 of all child abductions or attempts occur as it relates to the school route, getting off the bus. I was, my dad worked the railroad and my mom worked her way up to the cfo of the company. Long story short we walked all the way home from school. That is a time so many children are targeted. There is a million things to do to protect your child. Do i have to say the name jc dugger. Theres so many simple things you can do to protect your child. Another area of course there are dangers there but its sending your child off as a teenager, like Natalie Holloway for vacation. I discuss that i discussed td i go into cruise line safety, which cruises are coming back. It is going to happen. I will never forget ive taken the children on i think three disney cruises. One night david insisted on going to a team to hang out so okay. I let them go and they had met up with a little boy from their school that happened to be on the same cruise. I made sure nobody would walk back unless i agreed. Finally im like okay. We had little walkietalkies. It got to be quarter till ten and there was no john david. Lucy had already come back. She was drawing a picture and he was in the middle of the dance floor. I called and they said his mom signed him out. I said i am his mother. All i could think about is the cases ive covered of attacks on cruise ships and someone getting my son. In my pajamas i grabbed lucy and started running to try to find john david. When i saw him i will never forget it but i was so scared about what could have happened to him. I dropped on my knees and he ran to me and said why are you crying. What had happened is another little boys mom came to get him and they all walked out together and john david just peeled off. That story. I talk about cruise ships in the book, hotels. We are big campers. My kids are both trying to get eagle scouts. [inaudible] that inspired me to write about camping, hotels, cruise ships, you name it. Every story and here is true and its accompanied by advice not only from me but experts in the field. If you think somebody is following you. I cover it in this book. After i finished your book i couldnt help but think of words my own mom always used and im sure im going to butcher this saying but it was along the lines of prepare for the worst and hope that for the best. The thing is, john, i dont want anyone else to be a crime victim because it affects you and everybody around you. I almost missed my chance to have my family because of what i had been through. I dont want that for other people. A lot of times its so simple. Selfishly, i wish i could ask you a million more questions, but i want to open up to some of the folks that are here with us tonight. Lisa has written with a question. She says in your professional opinion do you think they will ever go to trial to fund the luxury Home Development jennifer left her children then he said she was writing a gone girl type of script. Then he said it was possibly revenge suicide that she had committed suicide to get back at him. A horrible theory but amazingly they put together the case against him and was suspicious about a lawyer involved in the case. His five children may never know what happened to their mother. They actually believe she may abandoned them. They believe the girlfriend was throwing out jennifers bloodied tshirt, bloodied sponges and rags, putting them down the sewer drain. They had an alibi script written up to cover what they were doing when she went missing. She and the lawyer are still out on a bond and have not been brought to justice. I fear it will be swept under the rug and they will take a plea and we will not hear about it. That is my fear but i just covered it to keep it off the back burner to keep attention on it im glad you mentioned the Oxygen Program it kicked off season to. We get literally thousands of cases to come up with these 11. One was a case i got involved in involving an iraqi war veteran that came home from iraq, couldnt find a job, was desperate to find a job for his family, his wife and their little girls, took a job and was headed back to that direction and the cops tell the wife and his mother he just left you. They never believed it. I got so many emails or Facebook Messages about it. I personally found the guy that had seen him last, didnt believe him and we helped solve the case. He didnt leave his wife and children. We are going through cases that have a grave injustice. It airs on thursday nights. I worked so hard on it. We are also working on bloodline detectives. Its about cases that have been deemed unsolvable. You get 100 new cases a week and cant stay on the case. You have to move forward with other cases but the cutting edge technology, the seemingly unsolvable cases are getting cracked after family members have spent so much time seeking justice and im really proud of it through these bloodline detectives. Its incredible. Weve also heard from claire and she has great taste because she says you are the queen after all these years since the trial she quickly gets very serious here. What do you think these days about the Casey Anthony case. What sticks out to you the most . Of the debacle that was that trial i could go into all of the errors that i believe were committed on both sides during the trial. But you know what, i think peoples true colors show, and after all this, look at what Casey Anthony has done. She emerges every once in a while throwing back shots of tequila and hitting on guys. Nothing about what really happened that if she didnt tell her what really did happen. Her parents who i know they im sure hated me during the trial but ive met with them and they were portrayed in a bad light during the worst time of their lives. They are really good and decent people. I really believe that. I do not believe anything said about her parents. I saw her mother tried to take the fall on the stand saying those searches that she did for homemade chloroform that cindy had been looking up chlorophyll. She was ready to go to jail on perjury to help her daughter but so now instead of doing anything good with her life, she shows up in bars. You got a second chance, do something with your life. Howard has a question that is very topical at the moment. Of course our country has been for months in turmoil from top to bottom and howard wants to know what is your view on the best way to minimize crime during black lives matter protests and that could be either side of the issue. A lot of people are leaving their homes. People are moving to the southern georgia and florida to get away. Not everyone has the money to just buy a new house or go away for the summer. That isnt an alternative for most people. I would not in any way allow my children to be anywhere near the protests to start with. I do not get involved in gun issues. I may gun violence victim. I had to handle them as a prosecutor and train every six months at the shooting range in order to be a prosecutor. I didnt carry a gun and never did. I do not advocate them in the home. I think far more likely because there would be an accident and you would end up shooting a protester my advice is to stay away. We know the protests are happening. Stay away. You know where they are happening. Stay away. I dont think that is necessarily the best idea. Do i advocate it, no i think the protester is wrong fighting violence with violence. I saw it out with mr. George floyd. They need to be charged with murder. Its like if you and i go rob a bank and you are on the hook for murder. They were there when mr. Floyd was killed. They were part of it, it needs to be tried together in court. Sadly that isnt going to happen. Where does that leave me with the protesters, what happened to mr. Floyd and others is wrong and needs to be prosecuted. Does that justify whats happening with the protest, no it does not. Jean has a question. Do you have suggestions for active and healthy baby boomers how can we stay safe and Grocery Store parking lots. Let me go to my laptop here i can tell you off the top of my head i distinctly covered that out and about in parking lots. Number one, be aware. Number two, make sure you park in a lighted area. If you are in a parking deck i would take a picture. Its g level, its green and i try to park under something that is identifiable. I take a picture of it with my cell phone and then i have it. You do not want to go out in a parking lot or a parking deck with your children all alone. There is a reason. I think they are born over thousands of years of evolution. You dont always know what you are picking up on. It can be a sound, movement, but you get the feeling dont ignore it. Dont dawdle and leave. There are a million. Please read them. I could go on and on about safe shopping. From canada, melanie has written a question. Nancy, can you please provide the women listening and viewing with your top three tips to protect ourselves . That is like picking my alltime Favorite Movie or recipe. I have got 350 plus pages of tips. Lets talk about safe at home. I was inspired to write safe at home by the guy i prosecuted in atlanta in the hot summer months in atlanta when they would crack a window. There was a clear view keep your doors and windows locked especially at home, Burglar Alarm on. If you think you cannot afford an alarm they are 15 a month you can most likely afford that and if you cant really do that, get the stickers that say its protected. Put them on your door, window, mailbox. When a burglar comes into your home it can quickly escalate to a rape or more. If a burglar sees that they are likely to go to the next home. Why mess with a home with a Burglar Alarm. Do not put your key under your mat or a flowerpot even if you are in an apartment, dont do it. Leave it with management if you are expecting someone. In a home leave it somewhere only you and your family members know where it is. If you have a Burglar Alarm make sure you change the default code. Its usually 1234. Think of something you will remember like your parents street address at home. Do not use the factory setting. You can look them up on google. When you are home, have a clear view of the front door either a window to the side, or god for good a painted door. They can see you. Dont open the door even if someone has on a uniform. Remember just recently a judges son answered the door and an angry lawyer dressed like fedex shot her only son. Dont trust somebody in uniform. Keep your home or apartment where people cannot see in and look at you when you leave leave on music or tv going. If you have an answering machine, dont let it play so loud that its answering. Keep the Burglar Alarm on while you are there. Dont break in while im here or there will be hell to pay. Keep it on especially when you are home. I have so many kids i cant even the ring doorbell, i love that. Ive got that on our doors and it pops up when somebody comes to the door you can actually speak to the person if you want to. I talked to our dog all the time. [laughter] does he answer back . He looks confused. [laughter] same thing for safe while you are driving and exercising for instance, dont take the same route all the time. Try to jog and work out during the day. If you must go at night, go with a friend or a group, dont have a group, go with your dog, dont have a dog, take mace, pepper spray or a screamer, one of those devices. If you are running at night, know your route if there is a home you can run to and make sure that it is well lit. Theres a million things you can do to stay safe and these are just some things off the top of my head. Thanks to a question i dont have to worry now an hour or two from now that i completely forgot about your alter ego in crime fiction. Isomeone has written wanting to know when that next book is coming out. I am about 90 through the next mystery called murder times ten. At one point, haley stumbles upon the hand coming at her and i will say no more. It was more urgent to write dont be a victim. Haley is going to be a roller coaster thrill fiction, murder mystery. But i wanted to do some good and that is why i got dont be a victim done first. Final question and this is a literary group. Someone wants to know what is on your bedside table right now when it comes to true crime. Im a strict disciplinarian when it comes to time management. If i have time to read a book, i have time to write a book. What is beside my bed right now is the laptop that i write in. The only thing im reading right now when you are exercising dont put earbuds in your ears, please. I put it on speaker and im listening i think the title is squeeze me. Im listening to that and its a murder mystery and it is hilarious. I cannot begin to thank you enough for your time over the past hour. We look forward to many more stories together, good stories of people that have avoided crime. Thank you for tonight because every dollar of those books i get my hands on is going. I was so proud when i wrote that check to them because of people buying the book. I am just so grateful. Thank you. More Exciting Book festival events are coming up. That in your living room series continues, so check your local for updated listings. Stay safe, stay healthy and stay tuned. Good night. Good afternoon everyone. Let me welcome all of you to todays cf are meeting. On the of studies at the counci council. I dont to flag for everyone we have more than 300 people registered. And we will
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