Some mysteries are buried deep, but they never truly disappear.
For the past year, I’ve been immersed in the cold, hard details of a case that’s haunted me since I first started researching it three decades ago. Bringing The Jacklighter to life has been an exercise in reconstruction—sifting through old boxes of evidence, documents, and now thousands of pages of court transcripts.
For me, visuals are key to understanding a story, and this new Jacklighter video sets the tone and atmosphere of what happened to attorney Martin Dillon in Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains in 1976. Below the video, you’ll find a few select panels from the trailer that further define this tale of obsession and the thin line between justice and vengeance.
June 2, 2026, marks 50 years since Martin Dillon went into the Pennsylvania woods and never came home. The Jacklighter is the book this case has always deserved.
🎥 Watch the official JACKLIGHTER trailer
A stolen life. A buried secret.
The Jacklighter launches this fall—Amazon pre-orders are coming soon
The Jacklighter releases this fall. Stay tuned to this space for ongoing research updates as I count down to the launch. You can also subscribe to my free CRIMEMOIR CONFIDENTIAL newsletter for publication-day news and more true crime behind-the-scenes reporting.
📖 Subscribers can read the first two chapters for free 🎁
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.
