Coming in 2026: The Jacklighter: Murder, Betrayal, and Justice in Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains

Watch the Official Jacklighter Trailer

The Jacklighter is Carla's next true crime book.

Read the 1st two chapters for free by signing up for Carla's free newsletter on Substack!

 

Chained Birds: A Crimemoir, the Award-Winning True Crime Memoir

The re-launch of Carla Conti's award-winning true crime memoir, Chained Birds: A Crimemoir, is an "Author's Cut" edition with 20+ new photos, sketches, and prison artwork.Carla Conti's author-narrated performance of CHAINED BIRDS: A CRIMEMOIR has won AudiobookReviewer.com's BEST CRIMEMOIR of 2025. AudioBookReviewer praised Carla's captivating narration style, saying, "The dialogue was rich and authentic, allowing the listener to become fully immersed ..."

Watch the Official Chained Birds Trailer

Order CHAINED BIRDS: A CRIMEMOIR on Amazon in all formats: eBook, the author narrated audiobook, hardcover, and paperback

Praise for Chained Birds: A Crimemoir

Indie Reader, which chose CHAINED BIRDS as its 2025 True Crime Winner, calls the book "Raw and unflinching ... a gripping exploration of the U.S. prison system's underbelly ... LINGERS LONG AFTER THE FINAL PAGE."Manhattan Book Reviews says CHAINED BIRDS is "Gripping ... from frustration to sadness and even awe at the events that transpired ... DESTINED TO BE A TRUE CRIME CLASSIC."BestThrillers.com calls CHAINED BIRDS "An emotional, eye-popping, personal expose of the American prison system ... ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST THRILLERS."How to order the new Chained Birds edition

The Latest Blog Posts

First look at Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir's Original Artwork that inspired the book title and cover design

First look at original artwork for Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir

Prison artist sketch inspires book title and cover design (cover reveal coming soon!) The November 12, 2024 launch date of Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir is just around the corner! Manuscript editing is complete. My publisher, WildBlue Press, has begun its marketing efforts. And soon, I’ll be revealing the cover design that will incorporate my most cherished piece of

Carla Conti's Debut True Crime Memoir, Chained Birds, to be Published by WildBlue Press in Fall 2024

Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir to be Published by WildBlue Press November 12, 2024

I’m thrilled to announce my debut true crime memoir, Chained Birds, has found a home with WildBlue Press and will be published this November! I signed with WildBlue Press at the end of 2023 following two weeks of dialogue with press co-founder (and author) Steve Jackson. Steve and I dove deep into my book’s details to ensure it would meet

Spellbinding film 'Subject' examines ethics and fallout in documentary storytelling and features The Staircase documentary about Kathleen and Michael Peterson

Spellbinding film ‘Subject’ examines ethics and fallout in true crime and documentary storytelling

For purveyors and consumers of true crime and other documentaries, the film Subject is a gripping, must-see examination of everyone’s role in this burgeoning infotainment landscape. An award-winning 2022 film just released on Amazon this month, Subject features participants from a handful of nonfiction films and their wide variety of personal fallout. The outcomes range from devastating to exonerating and

Book Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir will expose prison abuse, gang violence, criminal justice failures

I never knew what a mood board was until I decided to enter a couple of X (formerly Twitter) book pitch contests this fall. Because I love tinkering with graphics, I dove into creating my first-ever mood board for November’s #MoodPitch contest — a contest that ended up getting canceled. The volunteer contest organizers decided to pull it from X

Kevin Sanders, a main character in Carla Conti's book Chained Birds: A Crimemoir, befriends famed Boston mobster Whitey Bulger in the Florida prison where the two men served for four years before Bulger was murdered behind bars.

Murdered Boston mobster Whitey Bulger is featured in Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir

In 2014, inmate Kevin Sanders stepped off a ConAir flight from Pennsylvania to Orlando and, on the tarmac, met an “old timer” in an orange jumpsuit wearing the same belly chain and shackles. The ornery felon with a sharp tongue and Southie Boston accent turned out to be the notorious Boston mobster Whitey Bulger. Kevin and Whitey were slated for

Chained door

Gruesome prison murders and failed principle of ‘qualified immunity’ spotlighted in George Will op-ed

The Washington Post’s George Will was out with an important op-ed this week that shines a spotlight on the legal loophole of “qualified immunity,” a principle that gives lawsuit protection to government workers acting in an official capacity. Will’s piece centers on a U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that prevented a family from suing anyone in a South

Coming in 2024: Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir, by Carla Conti

Welcome to my digital home! This space is devoted to tidbits about my book in progress, Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir, my publishing safari, anything that catches my fancy in the true crime world, and posts about prison reform and the criminal justice system — a central theme to Chain Birds’ story. More than ten years in the making,

Carla Conti - True Crime Journalist, Storyteller, Prison Reform Advocate

Carla Conti is a journalist and the award-winning author of Chained Birds: A Crimemoir. Her next true crime book, The Jacklighter, is set for release in 2026. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, who supports her true crime habit.

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