The Road Out of Hell: Sanford Clark and the True Story of the Wineville Murders

Anthony Flacco · Jerry Clark

Nov 2013 · Diversion Books

About this ebook

The New York Times–bestselling author’s “haunting, compassionate, and terrifyingly true” story of a man breaking free from his notorious past (Gregg Olson, New York Times–bestselling author of Starvation Heights).
 
From 1926 to 1928, Gordon Stewart Northcott committed at least twenty murders on a chicken ranch outside of Los Angeles. He held his nephew, Sanford Clark, captive there from the age of thirteen to fifteen. Sanford would be Northcott’s sole surviving victim. Forced by Northcott to take part in the murders, he carried tremendous guilt all his life. Yet despite his youth and the trauma he endured, Sanford helped gain justice for the dead and their families by testifying at the trial that led to Northcott’s execution.
 
These shocking events inspired Clint Eastwood’s film The Changeling. But in The Road Out of Hell, acclaimed crime writer Anthony Flacco uses revelatory new accounts from Sanford’s son to tell the complete, true story. Going beyond the film’s narrative, Flacco recounts not only Sanford’s nightmarish captivity, but also the inspiring life he led afterward.
 
In dramatizing one of the darkest cases in American crime, Flacco constructs a riveting psychological drama about how Sanford was able to detoxify himself from the evil he’d encountered, offering the ultimately redemptive story of one man’s remarkable ability to survive hell on earth and emerge intact.

Ratings and reviews

This is the story of 14 year old Sanford who spent two years hostage to his sadistic serial killer uncle. This case was described in Clint Eastwood's film "Changeling" . This book follows the point of view of Sanford who is forced to endure torture at his uncle's hands and to help him kill and bury small boys. It is a well written story of survival and the fight for redemption and forgiveness. There were moments my heart was in my throat as I kept hoping for relief for poor Sanford.

Absolutely heart wrenching! The strength of Sanford Clark is mind boggling. I cried for him multiple times. So glad to learn he lived the life he wanted.

This horrifying story is a non stop page turning nightmare that haunted an altruistic hero of a boy. I read it following a viewing of The Changeling. The ties between the two make this book a must read.

About the author

Anthony Flacco was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, one of four brothers. Their father was an Air Force pilot and mother was a talented artist and painter.

His background as a trained stage actor with over 2,000 performances under his Actors Equity membership provides the primary basis for his critically acclaimed ability to empathize with a wide cross-section of personalities. He moved into screenwriting when he was selected for the prestigious American Film Institute fellowship in Screenwriting. He received his MFA in screenwriting after winning AFI's Paramount Studios Fellowship Award and was then selected out of 2,000 entrants for the Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, where he spent a year writing for the Touchstone Pictures division. His screenwriting experience drives narrative stories that are visually compelling, whether for a movie theater or the screen of a reader's imagination.

He previous works include A Checklist for Murder, which was adapted into an NBC movie of the week, The Last Nightengale, The Hidden Man, and The Road Out Of Hell: The True Story of Sanford Clark and the Wineville Murders. Tiny Dancer, originally published in 2005, received international acclaim, being names "one of the 100 Most Noteworthy Books of 2005."  It is being released for the first time in eBook format in January 2013.

He is an experienced public speaker and frequently gives seminars on crime writing, and is a featured speaker on writing for writers’ conferences and clubs and serves as Editorial Consultant to Martin Literary Management in Seattle, WA.

For more information, see www.AnthonyFlacco.com.