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...
Carla Conti
Carla Conti is an award-winning true crime journalist, storyteller, and prison reform advocate. Her debut book, Chained Birds: A Crimemoir, won multiple 2025 national book awards, including 1st Place in True Crime from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Winner in True Crime from the Indie Reader Discovery Awards, Silver in True Crime from the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), and a 1st Place Nellie Bly Journalism award from the Chanticleer International Book Awards. Carla lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, who tolerates her true crime habit.
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...
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...