Russell Means, born an Oglala/Lakota in 1939, was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation near the Black Hills, South Dakota and then in Vallejo, California. Means divided his time between Chinle, Navajo Nation, Arizona, and Porcupine, South Dakota. He was married five times, and was the father of seven children and three adopted children. An activist, actor, writer, painter, and singer, Means passed away in 2012 at the age of 72. His ashes were scattered in his beloved Black Hills.
I began my career in the media as a U.S. Army combat photographer in Vietnam. Assigned to a public information section, I soon saw that writing was an important adjunct to my photo work. In Vietnam I worked for Charles Siler, one of the finest officers ever to serve his country, and had the great good fortune to meet and become friends with some of the world's greatest reporters and photographers, including Nobel laureate author John Steinbeck, Jonathan Fenby, Peter Arnett, Horst Faas, and many others. These men were generous with their time and wisdom and helped put me on the path to becoming a writer.
As I made the transition from magazine writing to longer forms, I was encouraged to specialize but found that I was interested in so many things that I found it impossible to choose only one. Instead I became a frequent collaborator, helping such notables as Native American leader Russell Means and former South Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky with their autobiographies. I also developed an appreciation for suspense and intrigue that inevitably led me to write about crime. About 2001 I took a segue into film, and had a short but interesting career writing for television. That helped me to create a character that I've put into the Rabbi Ben Mysteries. The first of these books, "For Whom The Shofar Blows," debuted on Amazon.com in November 2011. Thanks for visiting this page, and remember that habitual readers are smarter and have more well-rounded personalities.
