Vernon Keel, former Elliott School of Communication professor at Wichita State University and founding director, will give a presentation on his new book, "The Murdered Family," at 2 p.m. Friday, April 16, in 102C Elliott Hall.
Keel also will have a book-signing/reading/hand-shaking event at 7 p.m. that evening at Watermark Books, 4701 E. Douglas Ave. in Wichita.
Recently Keel completed a 350-page novel that uses historical fiction to tell the true story about the Wolf family murders in April 1920. When seven members of a North Dakota farm family and their hired boy are brutally murdered during an intense statewide election campaign, over-eager investigators encouraged by nervous politicians get a signed confession from a neighbor farmer who argues immediately that he was forced to sign it and then begins a long campaign to get the jury trial he deserves.
In November of that year, his lawyers file a motion in district court in Bismarck asking that his plea of guilty be withdrawn and for a trial upon the merits. Their motion is strengthened when some new evidence is discovered on the Wolf family farm only days before the motion is filed.
The book is available at http://www.TheMurderedFamily.com, and through bookstores and online book retailers.