When we read the following blurb from our friend, esteemed (now retired) ASU law professor Gary Lowenthal, about the book Jingle Jangle, we knew we had follow-up and read it. So we did and, as advertised, it was a solid, often troubling read about an infamous Phoenix murder case in which Phoenix police and Maricopa County prosecutors accused the wrong guy -- Mr. Ray Krone, the fellow in the photo..
Krone spent years in prison, including time on death row, after twice being convicted of a vicious crime he most assuredly did not commit.
The book's author, Jim Rix, is Krone's cousin, but the pair didn't know each other until after Krone's imprisonment. Rix championed his cousin's cause for years after he learned that all that allegedly tied Krone to victim Kim Ancona (besides the fact that Krone knew her and had frequented the same bar at 15th Avenue and Camelback) was a bite mark (which turned out not to be Krone's after all).
Bob Nelson, one of our favorite former colleagues (who now writes columns for the daily paper in Omaha, Nebraska),wrote a great yarn about the Krone case back in 2003 that covers all of the bases.
But Rix's book has its own special upside, in part because of the personal nature of his quest--first to see what had happened with his then-imprisoned cousin, and then to try to get him freed.
Rix's book was published by Broken Bench Press, out of little Zephyr Cove, Nevada, and we're happy to give it a little plug here.
