About…

Timothy C. Richards is a former detective with the St. Louis, Missouri Metropolitan Police Department. He was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and as soon as he reached the age of seventeen, he joined the United States Marine Corps. After a four year hitch in the Corps, he returned to the Mississippi River town of Alton, Illinois and worked at any job he could get, mostly factory work. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department was looking for future cops. Tim applied and was accepted. He spent 35 years fighting crime in the city.

After spending eight years in a violent and interesting police district, (Superman’s Eyes) going to night school at the University of Missouri, and graduating with a bachelor’s degree, Tim was offered a detective position with the prestigious Intelligence Unit within the police department. The Intelligence Unit investigated organized criminals (Mafia types) who had infiltrated St. Louis labor locals from Chicago in the early 1960s, (Crooks Kill, Cops Lie). A mob war between the Chicago Mafia and the local Syrian organized crime group materialized while Tim and his cohorts were busy spying on the various criminal groups. There were numerous broad daylight car bombings (photos depicted in the book) and Tim was one of the investigators assigned to the cases. He worked daily with the FBI, ATF, Secret Service and the DEA.

After an eight year hitch in Intelligence, Tim was transferred to the Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force, sworn federally, and sent to DEA investigator’s school. Tim spent four years as an agent at DEA, (Anatomy of a Federal Drug Agent) and was then transferred to the Homicide Section.

After leaving the police department in 2005, Tim began a career writing true crime books. Tim’s books have crime scene photos, indexes with true names, and are in the Missouri History Museum Library, and deemed as bonafide cop/crook history. A case he was aware of, but did not work, pertaining to a City of St. Louis Cop who off-duty was a serial rapist, haunted him. One of Milton Brookins victims was a reporter for the St. Louis Post Dispatch Newspaper. She ultimately committed suicide, and Tim was called to the scene while her death was being investigated. He wanted to write about it (The Phantom Rapist).

Tim researches and collects all of his writing material through police reports, and research material at the Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri Campus. The case was old, 1969, but Tim writes about old cops and old crooks, usually 1970s and 1980s. Patrolman Milton Brookins, the Phantom Rapist did his dirty deeds in 1969 (twenty women in the Central Wet End and the West End of the city, including Washington University students). After clamoring for information and scrambling for leads Tim came across an old retired cop who had worked the case and had the entire file. He gave it to Tim. The information was invaluable.

Tim wanted to write more about being a detective in the Intelligence Unit. His latest book (Intel-210) is the sequel to Crooks Kill, Cops Lie, and incorporates an investigation by Tim and his partner into the abductions and murders of young women in the area of Jefferson County, Missouri, and the subsequent arrests of Gene and Robert Lohman.

Tim is widowed (wife died in 2018), has two sons and lives in the south St. Louis suburbs of Oakville. Another true crime book is cooking in Tim’s mind. St. Louis has an abundance of crooks and a plethora of interesting cops.

SIGN UP NOW!

Stay up to date with book deals, news, and new releases.

Contact…

Let Tim know if you have any questions. He is happy to talk to his readers. 

12 + 6 =