Ripple

THE BOY IN THE WOODS MURDER: A journalist recounts his decades-long true crime investigation—aided by a psychic medium—into the unsolved murder of a family friend. “Riveting . . . a personal and highly original work of true-crime storytelling.” —John Douglas, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Mindhunter For 9 years, South Carolina officials struggled to identify “the boy in the woods,” a young man whose body had been discovered just south of Myrtle Beach in a fishing village called Murrells Inlet. Meanwhile, 1,200 miles away in Kansas City, Missouri, Frank McGonigle was missing. His family searched for him at Grateful Dead concerts and in the face of every long-haired hitchhiker they passed. Consumed by guilt for how they’d treated him, Frank’s 8 siblings slowly came to understand that—like Jerry Garcia sang—he's gone and nothin's gonna bring him back. Finally, Frank McGonigle was found—and identified as “the boy in the woods.” Years later, the case still unsolved, Jim Cosgrove—a McGonigle family friend and investigative journalist—picked up the cold case and began uncovering connections to a ruthless local crime boss and blunders by the threadbare sheriff’s department. When his research began to stall, a chance meeting with the soft-hearted, straight-talking “energy reader” Carol Williams provided a metaphysical spark that reignited Jim’s resolve. Although trained to be skeptical, Cosgrove found himself becoming a believer when Carol provided details about Frank’s murder that turned out to be freakishly accurate. In this acclaimed true crime account, follow Cosgrove on his decades-long investigation as he dredges up old leads and tries to settle Frank’s case once and for all.