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Upcoming Event at Spindletop Hall

I am super excited about this author event with SpindleKindles Book Club at Spindletop Hall on September 4th. Interest has grown so much that the Alumni Club Member Services Director has had to switch to a buffet-style dinner to serve everyone more efficiently. Given that this event is the first one of our fall tour (we took a few weeks off after finishing our summer tour), it’s also extra special to me because of the critical University of Kentucky (UK) connection to my investigative memoir about my father’s still CIA-classified death in Vietnam. Vietnam War scholar George C. Herring (now deceased), UK Alumni Professor of History Emeritus, was the VERY FIRST person I formally interviewed, way back in January 2013. I fondly recall the lunch we had, where he pointed me in the right direction regarding the declassified files I should examine in the National Archives. His book, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975, is a widely recognized history of the Vietnam War.

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By James b. Wells

JAMES B. WELLS is a retired criminology and criminal justice professor in the School of Justice Studies in the College of Justice, Safety, and Military Science at Eastern Kentucky University, and is the recipient of the 2025 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences John Howard Award, an award given intermittently, upon significant demand, to recognize an individual who has made significant and sustained contributions to the practice of corrections. A former carpenter, soldier, and correctional officer in a super-maximum-security prison and later as a researcher/planner assisting architects in prison design, he has multiple degrees, including an M.S. in Criminal Justice, a Ph.D. in Research, and an MFA in Creative Writing. He’s authored or co-authored over sixty-five books, chapters, articles, and essays, as well as over a hundred and fifty research reports for various local, state, and federal agencies. Recent essays from his research and memoir work appear or are forthcoming in Collateral Journal, About Place Journal, Wild Roof Journal, Military Experience and the Arts, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Shift, Proud to be: Writing by American Warriors, Trajectory Journal, and From Pen to Page III: More Writings from the Bluegrass Writers Coalition.

His investigative memoir about his father's still CIA-classified death in Vietnam in 1965, titled Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew, will be launched on Father's Day weekend, 2025. Links to publications, presentations, trailers, social media, blog, and other information can be found at https://jamesbwells.com. James enjoys spending much of his leisure time with his spouse on their Lexington, Kentucky farm located on the palisades of the Kentucky River, where he is an organic gardener and beekeeper.

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