David L. Strauss

David L. Strauss grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, the scene of Nebraska's most famous trial, the Darrel Parker murder trial. When Strauss was in the third grade, Nancy Parker was found strangled in her home just before Christmas. Later, Strauss learned the true nature of the trial through his father-in-law, Judge Thomas McManus, who was one of four defense attorneys in the original trial.

When Strauss attended the University of Nebraska he was told by McManus that Parker had been wrongly convicted of his wife's murder. It was then that McManus made him aware of the infamous John E. Reid, the Chicago interrogator and lie detector operator who coerced Parker's false and incognito confession; Dr. Douglas Kelley, the chief defense witness who had been the head psychiatrist at the Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal judging the Nazis at the end of World War II; Dr. R. B. H. Gradwohl, founder of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences; and last but not least, the real killer of Nancy Parker, Wesley Peery, a life long Lincoln rapist, thief, and murderer.

After Peery's death at the state penitentiary where he was incarcerated for another murder, Strauss was moved to write about Parker's tragic story. For over thirty years he has aided Parker in his frustrating pursuit to prove his innocence and seek redemption. Barbarous Souls is probably Parker's only chance to have his true story told.

David L. Strauss (barbarous.souls@gmail.com)