Impressions of Murder was a piece Elmore was commissioned to write for The Detroit News Sunday Magazine in 1978.  It became the basis for City Primeval. 

Anybody read it?

Great read Gregg, sitting in the courtroom, hangin with the squad, at crime scenes, in the morgue, pieces of novels in the making, very cool, thanks

Amazing how many things in the subsequent stories came from here.  The Jesus photograph, the Freaky Deaky, Lorrie and Donnie from Split Images who smother their “hateful and inconsiderate” roommate, tie themselves up, set the house on fire and get trapped in the fire, prototypes for several of the police characters, a wealth of material.

Gregg,

You are killing me.  Thank you.

I couldn’t stop reading “Impressions of Murder”.  This has to go in his next collection.

Classic.

Freaky Deaky!  “Man, I got to see this dance, makes people kill each other.”

This was written a little before the time you started working for him, right?

Have you ever got a chance to work at 1300?  (MR. PARADISE)

“. . .God help us fools.”

Would somebody tell our readers a little something about “Impressions of Murder”?

Imagine yourself a respected local author, this being the late 70’s,
25 years in print and along for the ride with Squad 7,
in charge of a particular type of homicide in MURDER CITY, DETROIT.
This is the cover feature article published in The Detroit News Sunday Magazine where we get to see,
in Dutch’s hand, an account of what Gregg has been doing for the last, what, 25 years?
For those of you who have read Elmore Leonard novels you will recognize some, if not all,
of the characters encountered along the way, at the scene of various bizarre yet familiar crimes,
alongside police detectives there and in the industrial light green rooms at headquarters,
listen to the sounds of interrogation as they banter and brag,
sit in the courtroom for the testimony of witnesses and accused.
Have you ever wished to be part of the scene? Here’s your chance to be fingered,
pointed at in open court.
For those of us who love to wonder at the process and the product
this is a little slice of heaven, if that is where fulfillment truly occurs

Any chance of getting these pages converted to acrobat, like Comfort?  I tried printing it, but the sizing is off the printable area.  You’d think I could figure out how to resize it…  Ah well.

Any chance of getting these pages converted to acrobat, like Comfort?  I tried printing it, but the sizing is off the printable area.  You’d think I could figure out how to resize it… Ah well.

Are you referring to Acrobat Reader on a PC?  Did you adjust the settings in the print dialog?

A fascinating tidbit about Impressions of Murder.  Three of the detectives, James Harris, Dixie Davies and Dick Newcomb, appear in the British Documentary, “Elmore Leonard’s Criminal Records” in 1991, and talk about Squad 7.

James Harris turned to crime, and was arrested a year after.

Harris was convicted in 1992 of aiding a cocaine trafficking conspiracy, attempted money laundering and other charges for guarding drugs and money shipped through Metro Airport and City Airport for FBI agents posing as drug dealers in a sting operation intended to nab corrupt cops.

My sixth grade book report:

In 1978, Elmore Leonard, having written Detroit-based novels such as Fifty-Two Pickup, Swag and Unknown Man #89, but not yet City Primeval, Split Images, Freaky Deaky and others, made his journalistic debut in The Detroit News Sunday Magazine.  He spent several days observing Squad 7 of the Detroit Police Homicide Section and provides glimpes of the experience.  The writing style is more akin to what you would find in his crime novels than in a straight news story. This was not gonzo journalism, though, with the closest to involvement being a defendant indicating in court that Mr. Leonard had been present when he was questioned by a detective.  The reader is given some very believable impressions of the experience.  The detectives, whose pictures are included in the magazine article, are clearly prototypes for officers in later novels. Sgt. Cynthia Eggars, for example, sounds a lot like Sgt. Maureen Downey in City Primeval.  The description of the squad room is used almost verbatim in City Primeval, including the room number, the sign on the wall (Do Somethin’ Either lead, follow or get the hell out of the way) and the Norelco coffeemaker.  The best parts, though, are the snippets of dialog and the situations.  These are, of course, the very things that make Elmore Leonard’s novels so entertaining, but to see them with their feet planted squarely in real life is an experience that would intrigue anyone familiar with Elmore Leonard’s crime novels.  It is unfortunate that more articles like this do not exist.  A collection of them would make a great book.

Nice job.  Here’s your gold star.

What a pleasure to read such a report knowing as we do the outcome of the story
I happened to see a scene from this evenings episode of The Simpsons
In a pan of the squadroom at Springfield PD we get the same view
OK who is hooked up here spooky

I think I might be missing something again here. Is this piece supposed to be available somewhere on the site?

Alternatively, would someone like to start the week off with a good deed & send it to me as an e-mail attachment?

If no one threw you a bone yet, check your inbox.

Gregg has put this link to “Impressions of Murder” on the front page blog.

It is a must for even the casual Elmore Leonard fan—Elmore Leonard research with the Detroit Homicide Squad.

This article needs to be in a collection.