Something Shifted This Week
For years, I’ve been researching, reporting, and writing The Jacklighter, a narrative true crime book about the 1976 murder of Montrose attorney Martin Dillon and the decades-long quest for justice that followed. (Set for publication this fall.) For 30 years, I’ve kept boxes of newspaper clippings in my basement. Decades ago, I sat with the victim’s family and interviewed sources. This year, I renewed those connections and added new original reporting. I’ve held this story close, knowing its time would come.
A Story About My Story in My Inbox
On June 2, 2026—the 50th anniversary of Marty Dillon’s death—I opened my morning Scranton Times-Tribune email brief and saw my own story listed among the headlines. It was surreal in the best possible way. The story, written by Wyoming County Press Examiner Assistant Editor Eric Mark, ran on page 3 of the physical Scranton paper that same day, the actual anniversary, and spread across the digital editions of the Times-Tribune, the Citizens’ Voice, and the Wyoming County Press Examiner, appearing in their front page, courts-crime, local, and Susquehanna County sections for several days running. It is still featured on the Wyoming County Press Examiner’s front page as I write this, and will appear in their weekly print edition on Wednesday, June 10.
I’ve already ordered physical copies of the June 2nd paper from the Times-Tribune circulation office. They’ll go into the boxes of newspaper clippings I’ve been saving for decades, right alongside the stories about the case itself.
The Story Reached Montrose Immediately
I heard from one of my book sources that people in Montrose were emailing each other about the story the morning it appeared on page 3 of the Scranton print edition. A local contractor found me through my Shopify store, frustrated that he couldn’t buy a hard copy right now. He had to settle for being added to my newsletter to receive alerts when Amazon pre-orders go live. I appreciated his impatience more than he knows.
The story traveled the way stories do in Montrose —person to person, quietly and quickly, through a community that has never forgotten what happened on June 2, 1976.
What the Coverage Said
The article, by Eric Mark, describes The Jacklighter as a “crimemoir”—my term for narrative true crime told with the intimacy of memoir—and covers the arc of the Scher-Dillon case: from the fatal shooting at a family hunting camp called Gunsmoke, through the exhumation of Marty’s body nearly 20 years later, two trials, a conviction, and Stephen Scher’s eventual death in prison in 2010.
It also references the revelation I’ve promised—the one secret at the center of this book that has never been publicly reported. I declined to share it in the interview because it belongs at the end of the book, where it will land the way it deserves to. As I told Eric, “A source in Montrose told me something explosive.” (And for the record, I was first told this bombshell story in 1997, and then, this year, that same source confirmed it again and gave me new insight.)
You can read the full Wyoming County Press Examiner story here.
What Happened After
The response was immediate and organic. EBook pre-orders spiked on my Shopify store. My Substack newsletter saw its biggest single-week growth. Traffic to this site hit its highest point since I launched it, with readers coming to learn more about the book and the case.
All of that happened alongside the June 2nd anniversary Substack newsletter I sent to more than 6,000 subscribers—Vol. 15 of Crimemoir Confidential, which included a new book excerpt with my 23-minute author narration. If you missed it, you can read and listen to it on my blog here.
What Comes Next
The Jacklighter: Murder, Betrayal, and Justice in Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains is on track for a fall 2026 release from my own imprint, Crimemoir Press. The eBook is available for pre-order now on my Shopify store at the discounted pre-publication price of $5.99—it will go to $9.99 at release. Print pre-orders through Amazon and other major retailers are coming soon. You can sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know. ✨
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.
