John Voneiff II
I was born in September 1945 in Women's Hospital in Baltimore City - at the very end of World War II. I have lived in Baltimore all of my life. My wife, Rebecca, is from Millville, New Jersey where her father was Fire Chief and her mother was a nurse. We have one daughter who is an equine veterinarian - and two grandchildren - Emma, who is 15 and Jack who is 16. My wife is an Interior Designer. Rebecca and I met in 1968 when she was a student at Virginia Commonwealth University and I was a student at the University of Richmond. September 9, 2025 is our 56th wedding anniversary.
In 1965, I graduated from McDonogh School in McDonough, Maryland. In 1969, I graduated from the University of Richmond with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. I went to the University of Maryland to study engineering. In 1982, I founded a company that built automated shrink-wrapping and packaging equipment. I designed and my company built the machinery system that wraps currency for the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing. After selling the company and briefly retiring, I joined a Philadelphia based real estate development company. One of that company's projects was the luxury Highrise condominium building known as 10 Rittenhouse Square. I was partner in charge of converting the1904 B&O Railroad Headquarters Building (in downtown Baltimore City) into a 220 room hotel and restaurant that incorporated several floors of office. I was additionally a director for a private REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) working in Capital Markets. My last two employments were a way to remain engaged following my 1st retirement. I can say - I have retired three times.
I began writing stories in the 6th grade at McDonogh. I wrote all of the equipment manuals for my company (which wasn't a lot of fun) and more than 150 short stories (history and fiction) about individuals, places, and events (that was a lot of fun). Many of my short stories have been published. In fact, I am thinking of asking West Philadelphia Press to publish a book made up of about 20-25 of my most popular shorts. Some titles include: The Last Midshipman - The Boarders - Midway - The Last First Olympian - The Legend of Speedy Newberry - Old Friends - The Making of a President - Finding Santa Clause - Soldiers of Fortune - The Little Blue Jar - The Summer of '64 - Welcome to the Big 10 - An American Soldier - The Mighty Eight - and the Bromo-Seltzer King.
Murder on Madison Street is my first novel. It was originally one of my most popular short stories. During the Covid 19 Pandemic, I turned Murder on Madison Street into a 360 page novel. The late Shelby Foote who wrote the 1,200,000 word epic Civil War Series for Random House said writing is a demanding profession that requires focus, skill, hard work, and practice. It took Shelby 20 years to write his three-volume series. It took me 3 years to write 125,000 words worthy of publication. Shelby was right. It wasn't easy; but it was well worth the effort. People who read preliminary drafts offered both advice and praise. I often took the advice and of course, enjoyed the praise.
One of the lead characters (at the time of the crime) was a 25 year old junior Assistant Baltimore City State's Attorney named Herbert R. O'Conor, who became Maryland's 51st governor and a United States Senator. The murder that occurred on August 18, 1922 and the ensuing national manhunt made O'Conor famous. It was the genesis of his political career. During the bleak years of the second world war (while delivering a commencement speech when he was Governor of Maryland) O'Conor said something that is as true today as it was then..."that life on this planet is what men and women make if it."
When O'Conor was a United States Senator (during a convocation at St. Joseph College in Philadelphia where he received an honorary degree) he told the students, faculty, and guest that "The leadership of this day must be devoted to the preservation of civil rights, the dignity of individual men and women, and the rights of minorities, cognizant, at the same time, that the liberty of democracy does not include the liberty to destroy democracy."
Reading this about Herbert O'Conor and my friendship with his late son, James Patrick O'Conor, are reasons I decided to write "Murder on Madison Street."
