James B. WellsJAMES 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.
I picked a great night to read for the first time at Poetry at the /’tābəl/. I read a draft of a free-verse poem of protest, inspired in part by my investigative memoir, Because, to be published June 2025. Elizabeth Peck and Jay McCoy were great hosts for a memorable evening with feature poets Katerina […]
I was fortunate to be able to read at EKU’s BGWS Zoom Open-mic yesterday. I read an excerpt from my investigative memoir Because. It was a little tribute to the former Air America pilots I interviewed in 2017 and that are leaving us at what I regard to be an alarming rate. I read at […]
Whistleblowers often leave clues of the actual causes of their deaths with loved ones before they die. https://abcnews4.com/news/local/if-anything-happens-its-not-suicide-boeing-whistleblowers-prediction-before-death-south-carolina-abc-news-4-2024#
Sad to say, we have to add another person to the growing list of whistleblowers who have died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/boeing-whistleblower-found-dead-apparent-suicide-2024-03-12/
Now that I’ve submitted a final draft for my investigative memoir ‘Because,’ I’m working on an index for it. Although I’ve never had to create an index for a book, I figured I was more qualified than anyone else to make one. After spending a few hours investigating the best ways to do it in […]
After over 33 years of research and writing, I just submitted the final draft of Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew to Milspeak Books, my publisher. The timing is good since I have some spring projects, including some new writing, that I need to start. And yet, […]
At last night’s BGWS open mic at the Dreaming Creek Brewery, I read an excerpt from my investigative memoir where I interviewed some former Air America personnel about what they recalled of the systematic coverup of my father’s plane crash in 1965.
Now that I have a book deal, I thought I’d create a trailer announcing that. I anticipate developing future trailers as part of my investigative memoir’s promotional campaign. If you wish to stay informed and receive automatic updates about my true-crime memoir, subscribe at my website https://jamesbwells.com
Looking forward to the day the cover of my investigative memoir, Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew (see https://jamesbwells.com) will be added to these great reads published by Milspeak Books.
In my investigative memoir about my whistleblower father’s still classified death in Vietnam, I write about how, from my quest, I learned that peace requires forgiveness and forgiveness requires truth. After 33 years of research and writing, my confession, that is my satisfaction with the truth I exposed about my father’s life and death, will debut […]
James B. Wells