I was born in Philadelphia and raised in Norristown, PA, home of Tommy Lasorda, Maria Bello, former hostage Joseph Cicippio, Jazz legend Jimmy Smith, and the best tomato pie on the planet. Sixteen years of Catholic school gave me an encyclopedic memory (thanks to daily oral catechism quizzes) and an interest in all things Magdalene.
Throughout middle school I tortured the editors of Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine by sending them awful short stories featuring murderous matrons and cross-dressing grandmothers. I worked as a journalist for six years in Philadelphia before trying my hand at book-length narrative nonfiction.
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photo by gilbert king
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For the past three years I've researched Sin in the Second City full time, and I'm currently working on my second book, a portrait of Gypsy Rose Lee and Depression-era New York. I live just a few blocks away from the Everleigh sisters' old brownstone near Central Park.
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