{"id":44070,"date":"2024-08-01T17:45:48","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T21:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/?p=44070"},"modified":"2024-08-01T17:45:51","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T21:45:51","slug":"fright-hauling-truckers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/2024\/08\/the-bookworm-sez\/fright-hauling-truckers\/","title":{"rendered":"Fright-Hauling Truckers!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The guy on the road next to you takes up a lot of room.  At least he\u2019s not taking his sweet time \u2013 he has a place to be and a time to be there.  You respect that.  He\u2019s hauling freight, an essential job, that\u2019s also hard work.  He takes time to do it right.  And as in the new book, \u201cLong Haul\u201d by Frank Figliuzzi, sometimes he takes a life.  Let\u2019s say you\u2019re on a driving vacation this summer.  You\u2019ll expect to see grass, billboards, and fast food outlets, but you don\u2019t expect to see a dead body!  However, according to the FBI\u2019s Highway Serial Killings Initiative (HSK), the rate of murder along our nation\u2019s highways has increased, possibly due to a shocking fact: over the years, Figliuzzi says, the FBI believes they\u2019ve linked 850 murders of young women to a suspected 450 over-the-road truck drivers.  This came as a surprise to Figliuzzi, who says he\u2019s the kind of guy who writes what he knows.  For this book, he learned about these crimes by following an FBI agent and learning about ViCAP, a database that helps officials link crimes to find connections.  Many killers have \u201csignature\u201d ways of killing or of leaving a corpse; those commonalities, found in the ViCAP, can help solve crimes.  He also spent a week with a trucker.  Short of driving the truck, Figliuzzi helped secure loads, helped find food and a place to park, and he learned what it\u2019s like to be a driver \u2013 the isolation, trouble, frustration, traffic, and the happy chance to make good money.  And he learned about the women who are addicted, often trafficked, sometimes underage, and who make up the list of murder victims.  Generally, the FBI says that each of them falls into one of three categories of sex-worker, and all of them are vulnerable.  Most truck drivers are good guys, but it\u2019s possible that guy driving next to you could be carrying more than freight.  In the \u201cLong Haul\u201d book, you\u2019ll see that he might be carrying fright!  Truly, this book should come with a \u201cbuckle up\u201d warning.  With the eye of a former lawman, author Frank Figliuzzi pulls together three different categories of examination \u2013 the drivers, the women, and the crimes \u2013 and he shows how the understanding of each is essential, and not just in crime-solving.  You\u2019ll be glad Figliuzzi took a week-long ride with \u201cMike\u201d because what he learned about the trucking industry could really open your eyes if you aren\u2019t a truck driver.  You\u2019ll be glad there are people who make it their jobs to help trafficked women.  And if you\u2019re a true crime fan, well, what are you waiting for?  \u201cLong Haul\u201d doesn\u2019t feature a lot of gruesomeness, but it\u2019ll still make the hair on your arms stand at attention.  It\u2019s funny, too, and cautionary.  Make it your next pick up \u2013 you\u2019ll be glad you did.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The guy on the road next to you takes up a lot of room.  At least he\u2019s not taking his sweet time \u2013 he has a place to be and a time to be there.  You respect that.  He\u2019s hauling freight, an essential job, that\u2019s also hard work.  He takes time to do it right. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":44160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bookworm-sez"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44070"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44161,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44070\/revisions\/44161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}