Dary Matera is an America author and newspaper columnist

Columnist

A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....

 who specializes in real-life casebook

Casebook

A casebook is a type of textbook used primarily by students in law schools. Rather than simply laying out the legal doctrine in a particular area of study, a casebook contains excerpts from legal cases in which the law of that area was applied. It is then up to the student to analyze the language...

s. He is from Chandler, Arizona

Chandler, Arizona

-Demographics:As of the Census of 2010, there were 236,123 people, 86,924 households, and 60,212 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 73.3% White, 4.8% Black or African American, 1.5% Native American, 8.2% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 21.9% Hispanic or Latino, and 8.3%...

.

The son of a Voice of America

Voice of America

Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...

 foreign service officer, Matera grew up in Bangkok, Thailand, and Angeles City

Angeles City

The City of Angeles , located within the province of Pampanga in the Philippines, is locally classified as a first-class, highly-urbanized city. Its name is derived from El Pueblo de los Ángeles in honor of its patron saints, Los Santos Ángeles de los Custodios , and the name of its founder, Don...

, Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. Matera attended junior high at the International School of Bangkok, and then transferred to Wagner High School on Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.

After returning to America and graduating from the University of Miami

University of Miami

The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...

 in 1977, Matera worked as a reporter for The Miami News

The Miami News

The Miami News was the dominant evening newspaper in Miami, Florida for most of the 20th century, its chief concurrent competitor being the morning-edition of The Miami Herald. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called The Miami Metropolis. The Metropolis had become a daily paper...

 (1977–82). He covered the city beats—education, crime, politics and general assignment.

Matera became an independent author in 1986. His first mass market, non-fiction book, Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Random House/Villard) was an international best seller. It detailed the controversial story of Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

's lifelong relationship with a troubled Louisiana woman.

Subsequent books include:

• Get Me Ellis Rubin
  Ellis Rubin
  Ellis S. Rubin was an American attorney in Miami, Florida who gained national fame for handling a variety of highly publicized cases in a legal career that spanned 53 years. He was famous for his innovative defenses and his propensity for handling lost causes. Rubin won the first case in Florida...
  
  ! -- The Life, Times and Cases of a Maverick Lawyer. (St. Martin's Press, 1989). It was published in paperback by St. Martin's Press under the title For the Defense in June 1991.
• Quitting The Mob - How the Yuppie Don Left the Mafia and Lived to Tell His Story. (HarperCollins, 1992)
• What's In It For Me? - How an Ex-Wise Guy Exposed the Greed, Jealously and Lust That Drive Arizona Politics. (HarperCollins, 1992)
• Taming The Beast – Charles Manson’s Life Behind Bars. (St. Martin's Press, 1998)
• Strike Midnight -- a novel (Vine Books, 1994).
• Angels of Emergency—Rescue Stories From America's Paramedics and EMTs. (HarperCollins, July 1996).
• The Pena Files—Dramatic Cases From The World's Top PI. (Regan Books {HarperCollins imprint} August 1996).
• Among Grizzlies, (ghosted) (HarperCollins, Spring 1997).
• Childlight – How Children Reach Out to Their Parents From the Beyond. (New Horizon Press, Spring, 2001).
• A Cry for Character – How a Group of Kids Cleaned Up Their Rowdy School and Provided the Antidote to Columbine
  Columbine High School massacre
  The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
  
  . (Prentice Hall/Penguin, Summer, 2001).
• The FBI's Most Wanted, (William Morrow/HarperTorch, Fall, 2003).
• John Dillinger
  John Dillinger
  John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was an American bank robber in Depression-era United States. He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations...
  
  – The Life and Death of America’s First Celebrity Criminal. (Carroll-Graf, Spring, 2004).
• Stolen Masterpiece Tracker – The Dangerous Life of the FBI’s Number 1 Art Sleuth (Barricade Books, 2006)