On Memorial Day weekend in 1982, five thugs went on a rampage in Long Island; breaking into homes, raping partygoers, urinating on them and even storming a restaurant and forcing diners to have sex with the person next to them. J. F. Nolan was the Detective Sergeant,. and one of the numerous supervisors, in charge of the crime scene, and he compassionately allowed B.D. Renard to cross the Police line in order to retrieve his daughter, the restaurant’s hostess. Thirty years later, the two men are collaborating on a compelling new novel – ‘Rampage 1982: A Terrifying Tale of Intimidation, Plunder, and Vengeance’ - that fictionalizes that night’s deplorable events, ‘topping up’ the thugs’ lackluster sentences by luring them to a warehouse and showing how justice is really done…
Oakdale, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/05/2014 -- Oakdale, NY – Googling ‘The Rape Diner’ is a shocking experience, with the thousands of news articles and analyses depicting what first appears to be the plot of an insensitive and twisted movie. But it’s all true – on Memorial Day evening in 1982, five worthless thugs really did create carnage that will make anyone sick to their stomach. Two pivotal figures from the night’s aftermath are now collaborating on a most unique new novel that straddles fact and fiction with gripping aplomb.
‘Rampage 1982: A Terrifying Tale of Intimidation, Plunder, and Vengeance’ tells the story of a night that goes down in history for spawning one of modern policing’s most successful investigations that changed sentencing laws in NY State. But what makes the novel unique is that it wasn’t written by ‘just’ authors; J.F. Nolan and D.F. Renard were really there.
Synopsis:
Rampage 1982 is rooted in the true story of Long Island's most infamous crime spree. On Friday night, Memorial Day weekend 1982, five Brooklyn thugs, called the Belmont Avenue Boys, went to "get paid" on Long Island or as they called it, Babylonia, the biblical land of milk and honey. Their credo - if you want something, just take it - was demonstrated by the night's work of random shootings, rapes, sodomies, pistol whippings, robberies, and terrorism by forcing diner patrons to "undress and have sex with the person next to you." In an ultimate act of vulgarity, the Boys then urinated on several of the victims. Following their arrests and sentences of 3,000 years in prison, the outraged public learned of a defect in NY State law trimming the sentences to thirty years.
True crime merges with fiction......As news of the Boys release circulates thirty years later, in 2012, a product of one of the rapes discovers the truth of his conception, and vows to avenge his mother's degradation. Concocting a plan to snuff out the lives of the Boys, including his rapacious father, he recruits several victims of that night of horror, and he lures the Boys to a secluded warehouse, where appropriate justice is finally served.
“That night changed my life; one minute I was enjoying a Memorial Day evening at home, and the next I was collecting my daughter (it was her first night on the job) from a crime scene. That’s when I met Detective Nolan, and little did I know that three-decades later we’d be writing together,” explains Renard, an Army Veteran. “While we have of course significantly fictionalized the events of that night, our intricate knowledge of the true facts allows us to properly assemble the pieces of the puzzle and give readers a glimpse into the driving needs of six victims. Turning the tables, they now want to get even and wreak vengeance on those who wrecked their own lives and those of their loved ones.”
Continuing, “It hasn’t been an easy novel to write; not only have we had to relive the horrors of our own memories, but our stomachs have turned as we have trawled through evidence and witness accounts of the night’s other crimes. However, we wanted to champion the best of the human condition – that side of humanity that brings people together after life-changing events to do things ‘their way’, even if it’s not kosher with the law. At the same time, we remain wholly respectful to the real-world victims and tell their story with dignity and grace.”
‘Rampage 1982: A Terrifying Tale of Intimidation, Plunder, and Vengeance’, from Dog Ear Publishing, is available now: http://amzn.to/1tz6IwP
For more information and excerpts, visit the book’s official website: http://www.rampage1982.com
Members of the media are also urged to Google “The Rape Diner” for thousands of real-world news articles of the nights’ events and their subsequent investigation.
About J. F. Nolan
J. F. Nolan is a native New Yorker, Following enlistment in the US Marine Corps, he served in the Nassau County, NY, Police Department for twenty-four years, with fourteen years as a supervisor in the Detective Division. Nolan completed his last nine years in the Homicide Squad. Promoted to Lieutenant of Detectives, Nolan became the Homicide Commander where he oversaw management of several hundred murder investigations. He resides on Long Island with his wife, Gundie. Rampage 1982 is his third novel.
About B. D. Renard
B.D.. Renard, also a native New Yorker, Army veteran, and retired businessman, has a personal and emotional interest in the story, as his daughter, home from college, began her first night as the hostess in the Seacrest Diner on that fateful evening back in May of 1982. Fortunately, she was not one of the physically abused, but like all of the other victims of that evening, had the trauma indelibly branded into her psyche. A recent widower, Renard, too, currently resides on Long Island.
Together, the co-authors have produced a novel, based on the true story, but significantly fictionalized, to allow the reader to experience the driving needs of six victims of that night to wreak vengeance on the perpetrators.