Black Tunnel, White Magic
On sale
4th March 2025
Price: £16.99
Genre
A TRUE STORY OF MURDER AND BETRAYAL IN LOS ANGELES FROM LAPD DETECTIVE RICK JACKSON, THE INSIPERATION FOR MICHAEL CONNELLY’S HARRY BOSCH
****
A shocking and immersive look into the 1990 killing of a straight-A UCLA student, a case that coincided with one of the most calamitous and racially charged periods in the city’s history, told firsthand by the lead investigator, Rick Jackson
In June 1990, Ronald Baker, a straight-A UCLA student, was found repeatedly stabbed to death in a tunnel near Spahn Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers once lived. Shortly thereafter, Detective Rick Jackson and his partner, Frank Garcia, were assigned the case. Yet the facts made no sense. Who would have a motive to kill Ron Baker in such a grisly manner? Was the proximity to the Manson ranch related to the murder? And what about the pentagram pendant Ron wore around his neck?
Jackson and Garcia soon focused their investigation on Baker’s two male roommates, one Black, and one white. What emerges is at once a story of confounding betrayal and cold-hearted intentions, as well as a larger portrait of an embattled Los Angeles, a city in the grip of the Satanic Panic and grappling with questions of racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of Rodney King.
In straightforward, matter-of-fact prose, Rick Jackson, the now-retired police detective who helped inspire Michael Connelly’s beloved Harry Bosch, along with co-writer, Matthew McGough, take us through the events as he and his partner experienced them, piecing together the truth with each emerging clue.
BLACK TUNNEL, WHITE MAGIC is the true story of a murder in cold blood, deception and betrayal, and a city at the brink, set forth by the only man who could tell it.
****
A shocking and immersive look into the 1990 killing of a straight-A UCLA student, a case that coincided with one of the most calamitous and racially charged periods in the city’s history, told firsthand by the lead investigator, Rick Jackson
In June 1990, Ronald Baker, a straight-A UCLA student, was found repeatedly stabbed to death in a tunnel near Spahn Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers once lived. Shortly thereafter, Detective Rick Jackson and his partner, Frank Garcia, were assigned the case. Yet the facts made no sense. Who would have a motive to kill Ron Baker in such a grisly manner? Was the proximity to the Manson ranch related to the murder? And what about the pentagram pendant Ron wore around his neck?
Jackson and Garcia soon focused their investigation on Baker’s two male roommates, one Black, and one white. What emerges is at once a story of confounding betrayal and cold-hearted intentions, as well as a larger portrait of an embattled Los Angeles, a city in the grip of the Satanic Panic and grappling with questions of racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of Rodney King.
In straightforward, matter-of-fact prose, Rick Jackson, the now-retired police detective who helped inspire Michael Connelly’s beloved Harry Bosch, along with co-writer, Matthew McGough, take us through the events as he and his partner experienced them, piecing together the truth with each emerging clue.
BLACK TUNNEL, WHITE MAGIC is the true story of a murder in cold blood, deception and betrayal, and a city at the brink, set forth by the only man who could tell it.
Newsletter Signup
By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use