New Book About Kerrville Killer (Alleged) Preacher Matt Baker

Kathryn Casey's new paperback "Deadly Little Secrets: The Minister, His Mistress, and a Heartless Texas Murder" came out Tuesday. I thought that Hastings would have a whole rack of them up front since the subject, Matt Baker grew up in Kerrville and came back here after his wife's mysterious death and there was a nasty child custody trial here. However, Hastings had only one copy, which I bought. Of course the first thing I did was flip through to see what it had to say about me, since I briefly defended him in the civil wrongful death and murder cases. I liked how she described me - "an affable man with shaggy gray hair," and she accurately described my role in the case. The book is well written. I've read some of Kathyrn's earlier true crime books and while they are good, her writing style is getting better. The jacket blurb quotes Ann Rule saying "Kathryn Casey is one of the best true crime writers today," and I agree. Other Kerrville lawyers are mentioned, including Keith Williams, now a district court judge, who defended Baker in the wrongful death case for a time, Guy James Gray and Harold Danford, who were Baker's lawyers in the murder trial so they get a lot more ink than I did. Any time I was around Kari Baker's mother Linda Dulin I was impressed with her strength, and also her lack of bitterness. I was the lawyer for the man she believed in her heart murdered her daughter, but the first time we made eye contact in the courtroom in Waco she smiled at me. Boss - Shakespearean Tale of Power and Corruption I've been watching the Starz mini-series "Boss," about a corrupt Chicago major who will do anything to hold on to his power. The lead actor is Kelsey Grammer, who plays Tom Kane, who is a combination LBJ/Caesar/Vito Corleone despot who finds out he has a terminal, progressive brain disease. Instead of reflecting on his life and trying to mend fences with his wife and estranged daughter, he treats everyone like puppets and those who won't play his way get crushed. It's a great show, the best I've seen since The Wire.