Month: October 2018

On this day in 1925, Dominick Dunne, a best-selling author, journalist and TV personality who often covered high-profile murder cases, is born in Hartford, Connecticut. Dunne, whose father was a heart surgeon, was the second of six children. He served in the Army during World War II, and received a Bronze Star for rescuing an injured solider at the Battle of the Bulge. After his military service, Dunne attended Williams College, graduating in 1949. He went on to become a TV and film producer, and made famous friends in Hollywood (as well as some enemies—Frank Sinatra once paid a waiter to punch Dunne in the face). However, in the late 1970s, plagued by problems with drinking and drugs, as well as a stalled career, he left Los Angeles and spent six months in a cabin in rural Oregon. There he got sober and took up writing. His 1982 debut novel, “The Winners,” about Hollywood, was poorly reviewed, but in 1985, Dunne, who had relocated to New York City, had a best-seller with “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles,” about a showgirl who marries into a wealthy family and later kills her husband. Other successful novels about crime and high society (often based on real-life stories) followed, including 1990’s “An Inconvenient Woman” and 1993’s “A Season in Purgatory.” Dunne’s fame increased when he reported on the 1995 O.J. Simpson double-homicide trial for...