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.
Memorial Days have always been difficult for me. Just as my father’s death in Vietnam was an early one, so were the government’s lies to our family and the media about how he died. My mother was notified of her husband’s death by a phone call. I was first notified of the lies when I […]
“They say a person dies twice — once when they have their physical death and the second time when we stop saying their name.” https://jamesbwells.com/2023/09/25/giving-life/ This Memorial Day weekend, I wish to honor and mention the names of Wells family members who volunteered to defend our country during wartime. My great-great-grandfather Richard Wells cut down […]
I am excited to report that one of the venues for our book tour will be where it all began, at St. John’s Episcopal Church in College Park, Georgia, a location that holds deep personal significance for me. As I wrote in Because…”in the same nave my father’s funeral service was held in. The same nave […]
I was thrilled to receive an email yesterday from the Buckeye Book Fair, informing me that I am an invited author whose investigative memoir, Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew, will be showcased at the event on November 1st. I will also have the opportunity to participate […]
“What are the odds?” is a question I have asked myself many times over the past few decades while researching and writing my investigative memoir, Because: A CIA Cover-up and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew. Whenever I speak at American Legion or VFW posts about my book, I like to arrive […]
In the Acknowledgments section of my investigative memoir, Because, I express my deep gratitude to my mother, Betty J. Wells. I write, “I am especially indebted to my mother for taking the time and energy to share her memories of my father with me and for safeguarding his letters for as long as forty-five years before I […]
Last night at the Poetry at the Table event, I shared a poem I recently wrote about my feelings regarding a FOIA denial appeal I filed eight years ago with the CIA. I received word last month that they will continue to withhold information due to national security, foreign policy, and privacy concerns. Here are […]
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Find out why I believe the CIA refuses to declassify information on my father’s death in an Air America plane crash in Vietnam a half-century after the end of the Vietnam War this April 30th in my investigative memoir Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew. Pre-order Now!
James B. Wells