Description
Product Description
The thrilling career of ATF agent Cynthia Beebe is told through the lens of six-high profile cases involving bombings, arson, and the Hell’s Angels.
Boots in the Ashes is the memoir of Cynthia Beebe’s groundbreaking career as one of the first women special agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, (ATF). A smart and independent girl growing up in suburban Chicago, she unexpectedly became one of the first women to hunt down violent criminals for the federal government.
As a special agent for 27 years, Beebe gives the reader first-hand knowledge of the human capacity for evil. She tells the story of how, as a young woman, she overcame many obstacles on her journey through the treacherous world of illegal guns, gangs, and bombs. She battled conflicts both on the streets and within ATF. But Beebe learned how to thrive in the ultra-masculine world of violent crime and those whose job it is to stop it.
Beebe tells her story through the lens of six major cases that read like crime fiction: four bombings, one arson fire and a massive roundup of the Hell’s Angels on the West Coast. She also shares riveting never before revealed trial testimonies, including killers, bombers, arsonists, victims, witnesses and judges.
Review
Cynthia Beebe captures her remarkable career as the country’s first female Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) agent in her memoir, Boots in the Ashes. She was hired in 1987, and her story is astonishing –even now when women account for only 16 percent of Criminal Investigators in the Department of Justice’s Law Enforcement component.
In one case after another, Beebe reveals how her fearlessness and valor commanded the respect of her extremely masculine peers and even the vicious criminals she investigated…Well worth reading!―
Fern Schumer Chapman, author of Motherland and It Is Night or Day
From the Back Cover
ATF federal agents investigate the darkest, most violent, of crimes. Special agents hunt down bombers, murderers, gun traffickers, arsonists and other violent outlaws.
Boots in the Ashes is a riveting memoir of one of the first women ATF agents. Cynthia Beebe writes of her fascinating journey as she grows up from a polite suburban girl into an expert criminal investigator. She provides first-hand knowledge of life inside the agency and shows us how she made several of her most important cases, including those of an angry husband who hired outlaw bikers to murder his wife, a jealous boyfriend who mistakenly bombed and murdered an innocent neighbor instead of his girlfriend, and a deeply troubled man who sought vengeance against the entire justice system. She includes verbatim, gripping trial testimony from bombers, arsonists, victims, witnesses and judges. Set primarily in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago, Beebe shows how she overcame adversity both inside ATF and on the streets, and learned to thrive in the ultra-masculine world of guns and violent crime.
About the Author
Cynthia Beebe is a retired Senior Special Agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). She spent 27 years investigating bombings, arson, murder, illegal firearms, gangs and other crimes. Her cases were chronicled in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Ladies Home Journal, and were covered on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and 48 Hours. She was the first woman to earn the coveted “Top Gun” award at the ATF Academy, where she later worked as an instructor. Beebe is a member of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, the International Association of Arson Investigators and Women in Federal Law Enforcement. She has a B.A. in English Literature and a Master’s Degree in Journalism, both from Northwestern University, which she attended on an athletic scholarship. Since her retirement she has appeared as an expert commentator on law enforcement issues for WGN radio and television. She lives with her son in a su
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