Kirkus Reviews: Nobody Walks by Dennis M. Walsh

Pulpy, engrossing account of losing a family member to a senseless murder and retribution delivered through the criminal justice system.

Attorney Walsh was the only one among his four brothers to follow the straight-and-narrow path, perhaps due to the example set by their father, a Cleveland cop turned mobster. But none of them were prepared for the death of Chris, the youngest, at the hands of fellow denizens of the meth-and-gangs subculture on the fringes of Southern California’s pornography business. Walsh lived a sibling’s nightmare, asked to identify Chris’ decaying body. Street gossip quickly pinpointed the killer, David Steinberg, Chris’ former roommate, who was an associate of white supremacist prison gangs. Despite fears that he might pre-emptively sabotage eventual prosecution, Walsh began sniffing around Chris’ friends, a motley group of drug users, porn stars and entertainment-industry hangers-on. Many agreed to cooperate with him, given the implied threat of his more criminally inclined brothers’ thirst for vengeance. The narrative is sensibly straightforward, following the turns as police, prosecutors and Walsh make efforts to gather evidence on, arrest and successfully prosecute Steinberg and his cronies. As the author himself might agree, he is in some ways too close to the material. The narrative is populated by a surfeit of underworld figures who don’t really come alive as fully developed characters, but instead seem caricatures of seamy decrepitude. Still, Walsh captures the arc of his family’s involvement in an act of senseless malice, calling into question the cultural endurance of macho violence within certain subcultures and the difficulty of holding men responsible for horrific acts within the legal system’s overtaxed framework.

Gritty, effective, personalized tale of the outlaw lifestyle and its consequences.

Dennis Walsh looking cheerful at Wrigley Field!

Mother Love Interviews Dennis Walsh about Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother's Killers to Justice

“Every once in a great while, a true crime is written that pulls at the heartstrings, while it also provides a tale of suspense that will be remembered for a good long time. This is that story.”
—Suspense Magazine

“Walsh, a criminal defense attorney for 30 years, tells the blistering true story of the 2003 murder of one of his brothers, Christopher, who was discovered in a trash barrel in a California storage locker. Despite law enforcement’s reluctance to pursue the case since the author’s father and younger brother were in prison on drug charges, Walsh shoulders the burden and delves into the nadir of the criminal underworld, quizzing thieves, skinheads, Nazi bikers, hookers, and porn queens to construct something meaningful from various lies and schemes. Good leads dead-end and seemingly ironclad confessions crumble, but the author’s resourcefulness and determination to catch his brother’s killers keep this sordid tale moving along at a quick clip. Walsh keeps his law practice operating throughout the ordeal, but still finds time to persuade reluctant witnesses to offer their testimony and cooperate with authorities; after four years of sleuthing, the trial finally begins. The hearing is a real corker, chock-full of twists and turns, and written with passion and an eye for drama. Taut and relentless, this chronicle of a former cold case puts one man’s resolve and the American idea of justice to the test.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Pulpy, engrossing account…Walsh captures the arc of his family’s involvement in an act of senseless malice, calling into question the cultural endurance of macho violence within certain subcultures and the difficulty of holding men responsible for horrific acts within the legal system’s overtaxed framework. Gritty, effective, personalized tale of the outlaw lifestyle and its consequences.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Santa Clara Magazine Features Dennis M. Walsh's Nobody Walks

 

Thicker than water

This guy’s a lawyer? That’s what a number of the meth addicts, petty criminals, prostitutes, and porn stars involved with the gruesome 2003 murder of Christopher Walsh wondered about his relentless, tough-talking brother Dennis.

But, indeed, Dennis Walsh J.D. ’82, oldest son of a Cleveland cop-turned-Los Angeles-mobster, is a long-practicing criminal defense attorney. And much of the tension early in Nobody Walks (Thomas Dunne Books, 2013)—a gritty, hard-boiled account of his efforts to keep the case from going cold and bring Christopher’s killers to justice—derives from just how close Walsh came to stepping outside the limits of the law.

“Nobody walks” was the mantra—or threat—that Dennis Walsh repeated endlessly to a dizzying parade of fearful, low-life potential witnesses he hoped to convince to come forward and testify against the self-styled criminal mastermind who murdered Christopher when the two shared an apartment in Studio City, Calif. Walsh’s other brothers, some with criminal pasts like their father’s, wanted to dispense with legal niceties and exact vengeance on their own. Luckily, the police and prosecutors were just about as dedicated as the Walsh brothers themselves.

At the time of Christopher’s murder, Walsh was estranged from his youngest brother—whom the reader surmises was an addict and not a particularly nice guy. Still, Walsh makes it clear that he believes—rightly—that justice is for everyone, not just upright citizens. He also makes it clear that for the Walsh family blood is much thicker than water. 

Alden Mudge - Reposted From Santa Clara Magazine

Wordbasket Reviews Nobody Walks

L.A. Confutational

Dennis M. Walsh, Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother's Killers to Justice

In July 2003, two Los Angeles hoodlums shot tweaker Christopher Walsh in the head, stuffed his body in a plastic garbage barrel, and stowed his remains in a Van Nuys storage unit. His brother, defense attorney Dennis Walsh, swore vengeance on LA’s criminal underground, telling anybody who would listen, “Nobody walks on this case.” Little did he know he’d become the biggest scourge on the underworld since Charles Bronson.

Dennis Walsh tells his own story with the kinetic aggression that drives filmmakers like Scorsese and Tarantino. His brash, violent, gleefully profane narrative never lags, leaving readers feeling like they’ve been pummeled by a true master pummeler. And while his cast of thousands may demand intense attention to keep names straight (keep notes on the endpaper), his story of realistic sublegal crime fighting makes CSI look wimpy by comparison.

Walsh’s father was a Cleveland PD detective who got rich working the other side. A one-time rising star of California’s Irish mob, he led his many sons into “the life.” The only Walsh without a record, Dennis did a hitch in the Navy, completed his law degree, and went into private practice, keeping bottom-feeders out of the hoosegow. This strange dual life made him perfect to nvestigate crimes where police cannot venture.

Christopher Walsh, Dennis’ youngest brother, drifted through life, got hooked on meth, and spent his final days among tweakers who’d surrendered normal humanity. Nobody heard from him for weeks before his remains surfaced. Seems tweakers don’t interact outside their circle, even when somebody has to clean up the blood. Even less when it means talking to the police: everybody knew who killed Christopher, but nobody would sing for the LAPD.

An an attorney with longstanding underground connections, Dennis stood in a unique position to haunt his brother’s killers. In his trademark Cleveland Indians ballcap and jeans, he infiltrated California’s insular meth-head community; with his brother Tim at his side, tweakers began saying “the Walsh Brothers” like you might say “Sinn Fein.” But his sharp suits and avuncular silver curls gave him unique access to California’s byzantine legal system, too.

Walsh tells a gripping story, shifting between Wild West vigilante heroics among an essentially lawless community, and the tense compromises necessary from an officer of the courts. One moment, Walsh and his brothers may serve a beat-down on some Valley scum-sucker to nab new leads. The next, he walks careful lines in the LA criminal court, perennially trying to stay on deputy DA Stephanie Sparagna's good side.

While Walsh remains the hero of his story—dude, meth-heads shot his brother in the face—he doesn’t flinch from his ad hoc morality. As an unwanted guest in a community with no law and little order, he often has no choice but to solve problems with his fists and lie to his allies. When the LAPD proves ill-equipped for Christopher’s case, Dennis helpfully offers to distribute old-fashioned street justice.

Eventually, evidence in Christopher’s murder crisscrosses LA County, transcends economic class, and overlaps California’s many criminal subcultures. Arresting Christopher’s killers requires Faustian bargains, impromptu partnerships, and elaborate knife-edge dances between law enforcement agencies. When his drug-addled chief witness makes a deal with the US Marshals but has an LAPD warrant on his ass, Dennis uncorks diplomacy worthy of Churchill at Yalta.

Even when the cops have Christopher’s killers behind bars, Dennis’s journey isn’t over. On Law & Order, everything looks so neat: 24 minutes for arrest, 24 minutes for trial, and by the credits, they (almost) always have the guilty party in chains. Not so, says Walsh: enterprising defendants can impede the legal process for years, while witnesses age, memories fade, and evidence languishes. Christopher’s killers prove astute heel-draggers.

Nothing proves easy in this story. While working both the courts and the criminal underworld, Dennis must also control his criminal brothers, keep his sources from discovering one another, and remain a viable vigilante after everyone treats him like Batman. He never recovers the murder weapon. It may be in the concrete foundations of actor Ving Rhames’s house, demonstrating how this case binds SoCal glamour with postmodern urban decay.

Not everyone will like this story. Walsh’s intense, meteoric narrative requires acute attention, especially since he compresses events that actually occured some time and distance apart. His raunchy prose may bother some readers, particularly his frequent f-bombs and casual violence. But Walsh’s deeply cinematic story, bolstered by heartfelt investment in events over a decade later, gives him distinct power. This stark, unforgiving story won’t leave you easily.

Second Glace Reviews Story Merchant's Dennis M. Walsh's Nobody Walks!

All It Takes For Evil To Triumph Is For Good People To Stand By And Do Nothing!

My Review:

The title for this article could have been an alternative title for Nobody Walks:  Bringing My Brother’s Killers To Justice by Dennis M. Walsh. This was a heart-wrenching true story of the journey to bring the killers of Christopher John Walsh to justice. Dennis Walsh, a criminal defense and civil litigation attorney, spends four and a half years making sure that the wheels of justice turn on this case. That is a long time and I believe we all know or should know that the wheels of justice may turn at a snail’s pace especially when one is patiently waiting for a killer or killers to be punished.

As I stated this is a true story and there are times when the reader believes that there may never be an end to this story. The end does come; but not before one finds out just what Christopher Walsh went through before finally being put out of his misery. Throughout this story one gets the sense that Christopher may have had his faults and may not have always operated on the right side of the law, but as one reads the story one also realizes that no one deserves to be murdered in this fashion. The reader also comes to a sense that many friends of Christopher may not have actually been his friends. They stand around and do nothing as this murder and events afterward play out.

Nobody Walks is a heart-wrenching story and as I read it there were many times I was hoping for a revenge ending and not necessarily an ending of killers being brought to justice. This was shocking for me because I do believe that when one commits murder or some other type of violent crime there needs to be legal punishment.

 
Synopsis:

In 2003, Christopher Walsh was found stuffed in a trash barrel in a storage locker in Van Nuys, California. After the dilatory murder investigation took seven months to file charges, and more than four years to go to trial, Dennis Walsh knew it was up to him to keep his little brother’s murder from becoming a cold case.

The only son of a large Irish American family to stay on the straight and narrow, Dennis found his family’s dubious background paired with his law degree placed him in the unique position to finish the job the cops couldn’t. Fencing with the police and the DA’s office, Dennis spent years slinking between his life as a stand-up lawyer and hitting the streets to try to convince the dopers, thieves, prostitutes, porn stars, and jail birds that populated Christopher’s world to come forward and cooperate with the police. Yet he walked a fine line with his harsh tactics; prosecutors continuously told him he was jeopardizing not only the case, but his life.

Staying on the right side of the law to hunt down these murderers put every part of Dennis to the test and it wasn’t long before the brother who went clean knew he’d have to get his hands dirty. But 100 arrests later, the murders are in jail for life.

This was a great read, although there were times when it did seem to drag I still enjoyed Nobody Walks:  Bringing My Brother’s Killers To Justice by Dennis M. Walsh. After some thought; I have decided to give this book a rating of 4****.

Second Glance Book Reviews ... looking forward to Dennis Walsh's Nobody Walks

  ... my next book, Nobody Walks by Dennis M. Walsh. Because it is a true crime story I can hardly wait to read it.

In 2003, Christopher Walsh was found stuffed in a trash barrel in a storage locker in Van Nuys, California. After the dilatory murder investigation took seven months to file charges, and ten years to go to trial, Dennis Walsh knew it was up to him to keep his little brother’s murder from becoming a cold case.

The only son of a large Irish American family to stay on the straight and narrow, Dennis found his family’s dubious background paired with his law degree placed him in the unique position to finish the job the cops couldn’t. Fencing with the police and the DA’s office, Dennis spent years slinking between his life as a stand-up lawyer and hitting the streets to try to convince the dopers, thieves, prostitutes, porn stars, and jail birds that populated Christopher’s world to come forward and cooperate with the police. Yet he walked a fine line with his harsh tactics; prosecutors continuously told him he was jeopardizing not only the case, but his life.

Staying on the right side of the law to hunt down these murderers put every part of Dennis to the test and it wasn’t long before the brother who went clean knew he’d have to get his hands dirty. But 100 arrests later, the murders are in jail for life.

Jack Marino, LA Talk Radio Interviews Dennis Walsh about Nobody Walks

Original Show Date: June 14, 2013

Listen to Dennis Walsh Interview

DENNIS WALSH FINDS HIS IDEAL AUDIENCE

Examiner.com Book review: Nobody Walks by Dennis Walsh

Nobody Walks by Dennis Walsh is a true crime book about the author seeking justice for his brother's murder. The book relates his experiences finding witnesses and encouraging them to contact the police through to the trial and sentencing. While the flow is not that great sometimes making it an easy book to abandon and never finish, the completeness of covering it from when he found out to the sentencing and revealing pertinent information as he found it out does help portray the realistic experiences and emotions.

To some extent Nobody Walks almost seems like some Hollywood script (before they cut out the fluff). The murder victim, Christopher Walsh, was a meth addict and criminal leading his brother to feel it was necessary he get witnesses to come forward or the case would become cold. While he mainly seems determined to have justice through the police and court system, he also reveals his and his brother's struggle to let it happen that way including how he does potentially taint the witnesses and provides cause for mistrial.

Overall Nobody Walks is a good read that provides the unique perspective of the victim's family seeking justice. One of the strengths is that it provides a rather complete recounting of the brother's experiences over the four and a half years from the murder to sentencing. However, this also leads to its weakness of sometimes being redundant or hard to follow and stick to reading it.

Guest Post Cosa Nostra News' Q and A with Hit Man Ray Ferritto's Wife Susan

Raymond W. Ferritto (1929 − May 10, 2004), an Italian American mobster from Erie, Pennsylvania, is best known for the 1977 murder of Irish mob boss Danny Greene.

In the 1970s, Danny Greene began competing with the Cleveland crime family for control of union rackets, resulting in a violent mob war. During this period, there were almost 40 car bombings in Cleveland and eight failed attempts to kill Greene. Finally, Cleveland family bosses Jack "Jack White" Licavoli and Angelo "Big Ange" Lonardo contracted Ferritto to assassinate Greene.

Upon hearing of Ferritto’s arrest for the hit, Licavoli put out a hit contract on Ferritto. When Ferritto learned that the Cleveland family wanted him dead, he became a government witness and testified against his co-defendants in the 1978 trial.

Ferritto served less than four years in prison for both murders. Ray Ferritto left the Witness Protection Program after one year and continued to stay in Pennsylvania.

There is much more to the story: What's past is prologue. He met Susan around this time, the two fell in love and married. Susan wrote a book about Ray -- "Ferritto: An Assassin Scorned" -- and answered some questions for us, below:

1.) Ray is known as the man who killed “The Irishman” then turned informant---that is true. But not many people know why. What was his motive?

Ray was well known as a highly respected underworld figure and member of La Cosa Nostra since the forties. His focus was to someday become boss of his own territory. Over the years, he had proven himself as a loyal soldier and was regarded as a mobster who could get things done, no matter what the job was. During 1976, Cleveland mob wars raged on killing several high profile gangsters and over thirty separate bombings had put the city in a tailspin. In eight separate failed attempts, different Cleveland hit men tried to kill Irish mobster Danny Greene who was stepping on their turf. The bosses were getting desperate and turned to Ray for help.
A COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE

So when the Cleveland bosses offered Ray a leadership position and his own territory in return for killing their enemy…the Irishman…he jumped at the opportunity. However, the bosses were secretly plotting Ray’s demise once he got that job done, all for the sake of keeping their territory. They intentionally set him up to take the fall on Danny Greene’s bombing death. But it would take the Feds to convince Ray that he too was on their hit list. He felt he had done the Cleveland bosses the biggest favor of their lives when no one else could, and now they wanted him dead.

Ray was looking at murder charges along with the death penalty. So it was a choice of who was going to kill him…the State of Ohio or the Cleveland mobsters. At that point, he was a man with nothing to lose. In essence, his associates had betrayed him at the highest level and this was his revenge.


2.) He singlehandedly brought down Licavoli and his outfit?
 
Well, he did the unthinkable and initiated one of the most notorious takedowns for the feds in mob history. He waged his own public battle by turning states evidence to destroy those who had ordered his death. Unfortunately, his method of revenge took on a life of its own when the bosses started turning against each other to save their own skins. “If the mob knew what they did when they killed Danny Greene or what they were going to start (when they betrayed Ray) they never would have done it,” said Pete Elliott, retired United States Marshall.


3.) Ray amazingly started his own family when he got out. How did he pull that off?

Well, after the trials, he refused the witness protection program and against the Feds advice, Ray returned home and picked up where he left off with prior business associates. He felt he could better protect himself on his own turf. He knew that he was just as capable of handling himself and the persons they would send in to kill him. Ray was a man of no fear and warned others to stay out of his way. Doing the unthinkable only seemed to earn him more respect from past associates when he hit the streets. Erie was wide open then. The older mobsters that were still hanging on to their territories now moved over for Ray and pretty much gave him some reign. He built it back up from there. Prior business ties and a multimillion dollar sports betting operation was his salvation. One thing you don’t do to the mob is cut the hand that feeds them, and Ray had been their moneymaker for years.


4.) Can you describe the night you met Ray?

We met at Orlando’s funeral Parlor in Erie. Ray had only been home a few months from his three year ordeal with the Danny Greene bombings when he found his business partner Bolo Dovishaw dead in the basement of his home. Bolo had been killed gangland style. Several days later, Ray and longtime friend and associate Cy Ciotti were at the funeral parlor when I walked in to pay my last respects to my old friend “Bolo”. Cy made the introductions and it was love at first site. I knew right then that Ray was going to be a big part of my life. Ray asked me if I would have dinner with him when this mess was over with. Jokingly, I said, “Sure kid, I can wait another two years till the feds clean this one up!” I left him with my phone number written in ink on his wrist. He phoned the following day and said, “I don’t think I can wait till the feds clean this one up…can I come over for coffee?” We were together ever since.


5.) What kind of man was he? How would you describe him to those who only saw the movie, TO KILL THE IRISHMAN?

 Ray was a remarkable man and one of many faces. He was always respected by his associates in the criminal world and was equally respected by the real world. He was a man of his word and knew where his boundaries were. His laid back, quiet, polite reserved mannerisms and demeanor made him a likable charming character. And, oddly enough, when in the company of his business associates he was a hard and temperamental dangerous killer, skilled safecracker, loan shark and knew how to organize business for the mob. I can’t dismiss his human side as well. He was a grandfather, a father, a brother, an uncle, a husband who was a caring compassionate, loyal and loving individual when in our presence.

The actor Robert Davi who portrayed Ray in the movie, definitely captured his demeanor and the business side of Ray as well as. But the well documented story focused on the life and death of Danny Greene and left the audience with …what ever happened to his killer…Ferritto?

All they could say about Ray at the end of the movie was that he just got too big for his own pants. Really??? The audience had no idea that the murder of Greene was only the real start of the downfall of the Cleveland regime. And it angered me that Ray was labeled “A Turncoat” in the eyes of the public. The reality was that when you kill the legend, you become the legand.


6.) What made you write the book? And, what does it mean to you?

I felt the need to defend his memory and to give his side of this story. I cannot condone these actions but I wanted to give him some justification. After all…Ray is the only mob assassin to my knowledge that escaped the death penalty and execution by the mob for turning states evidence. Sure, he wasn’t the first or the last for that matter of those who did turn government witness. He is however, the only mobster who went on to become a boss. That in itself is the remarkable story and unheard of in the criminal world. Others that became informants are either incarcerated, dead or hiding in the witness protection program. The need to defend his memory far outweighed my silence. And in this I found the closure that I was so desperately seeking after his passing.


7.) Do you keep in touch with mafia ties?

Yes, I do. Contrary to the belief that when a mobster dies, all his family relationships are severed as well…or shunned as they say. My case has been different. Several have reached out to me over the years and I will respect their privacy at this time.

I will take the liberty of mentioning one in particular as I can relate to his emotional journey back in time. Attorney Dennis Walsh, son of Robert Walsh (Ex-cop turned gangster and longtime associate of Ray’s) recently wrote his own book, recounting some of his father’s war stories and most importantly the quest for justice in his own brother’s murder. The name of his book is “Nobody Walks.”

The Bruce Collins Show- “The Lost Interviews”- Part 2- Guest: Dennis M. Walsh, “Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother’s Killers to Justice”

“Walsh’s is a storyteller and the story he’s telling is as compelling as any police procedural with its unraveling of family secrets and lies.”
—Criminal Element

“Every once in a great while, a true crime is written that pulls at the heartstrings, while it also provides a tale of suspense that will be remembered for a good long time. This is that story.”
—Suspense Magazine

“Walsh, a criminal defense attorney for 30 years, tells the blistering true story of the 2003 murder of one of his brothers, Christopher, who was discovered in a trash barrel in a California storage locker. Despite law enforcement’s reluctance to pursue the case since the author’s father and younger brother were in prison on drug charges, Walsh shoulders the burden and delves into the nadir of the criminal underworld, quizzing thieves, skinheads, Nazi bikers, hookers, and porn queens to construct something meaningful from various lies and schemes. Good leads dead-end and seemingly ironclad confessions crumble, but the author’s resourcefulness and determination to catch his brother’s killers keep this sordid tale moving along at a quick clip. Walsh keeps his law practice operating throughout the ordeal, but still finds time to persuade reluctant witnesses to offer their testimony and cooperate with authorities; after four years of sleuthing, the trial finally begins. The hearing is a real corker, chock-full of twists and turns, and written with passion and an eye for drama. Taut and relentless, this chronicle of a former cold case puts one man’s resolve and the American idea of justice to the test.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Pulpy, engrossing account…Walsh captures the arc of his family’s involvement in an act of senseless malice, calling into question the cultural endurance of macho violence within certain subcultures and the difficulty of holding men responsible for horrific acts within the legal system’s overtaxed framework. Gritty, effective, personalized tale of the outlaw lifestyle and its consequences.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Nobody Walks is a triumph, a grimly fascinating true tale of one street-wise criminal defense attorney’s quest for justice in the brutal murder of his brother. Dennis Walsh’s tireless four year odyssey plunged him headlong into an underworld populated by dopers, porn stars and gangsters   and culminated in an explosive courtroom drama and the arrests of hundreds. Walsh’s captivating style engages, inspires and unnerves as he lends new meaning to the term ‘brotherly love.’”
—Kerrie Droban, author of Running with the Devil and A Socialite Scorned and co-author of Prodigal Father, Pagan Son

DENNIS WALSH has been a practicing criminal defense attorney for thirty years. Walsh was drafted in 1972 while he attended CSUN and joined the Navy. Upon returning home he received his BA from CSUN and went on to graduate from the University of Santa Clara School of Law. Walsh lives in California.

BRUCE COLLINS is a former pro wrestling promoter, an author of three published books (one of them with Brett Wagner, the host of The Speed Channel’s PASS TIME and voice of Monster Garage and another book with Ric Drasin, the middle Hulk in the 1970’s Incredible Hulk tv show with Bill Bixby and the creator of the Gold’s Gym logo) and the former book reviewer of Monster Radio, which was nationally syndicated in 84 radio markets. Bruce has hosted The Bruce Collins Show (and its’ genesis known as The Big Finale) since January, 2006. The Bruce Collins Show graduated to AM radio in 2009 and spent two years broadcasting at WSMN 1590 AM in Nashua, New Hampshire and WWZN 1510 AM in Boston, MA. Currently, the program resides online at www.fringeradionetwork.com . Based on the AM radio exposure, he was approached by the History Channel’s Decoded TV (with bestselling author Brad Meltzer) to audition for their program. After learning he would have to interview occultists and numerologists without expressing his own opinions, he turned down the invitation. Bruce is the self-proclaimed Baron of Broadcasting.

NOBODY WALKS' Dennis Walsh with prosecutor Stephanie Sparagna

Deputy D.A. Stephanie Sparagna at the Biltmore Hotel where the LA County Bar Association named her and her co-counsel, Natalie Adomian, Prosecutors of the Year for their work in convicting a female CHP officer who had murdered her husband.

Story Merchant Clients Lisa Cerasoli and Dennis Walsh Talk Books on Peter Anthony Holder's Podcast

 Listen to Podcast

Writer and filmmaker, Lisa Cerasoli, is the author of As Nora Jo Fades Away, a non fiction account of caring full time for her grandmother who suffered from Alzheimers.









 Dennis Walsh is a criminal defence attorney and the author of Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother's Killers To Justice, the true story of how he avenged the murder of his youngest brother.

Peter Anthony Holder

Welcome to my website! I'm a Montreal based broadcaster and the host of The Stuph File, an eclectic program that's a mix of interesting interviews and odd news. 

Guests I've had the pleasure to talk to in 20 years of hosting a late night radio show include the likes of Star Trek's George Takei; Steve Allen, the first host of The Tonight Show; Burt Ward, Batman's original Robin; Buddy Ebsen; the legendary Carol Channing; astronaut Alan Bean, who walked on the moon; Lindsay Wagner, The Bionic Woman; Cloris Leachman; Karl Malden; Peter Bogdanovich; Gilligan himself, Bob Denver and more.

Connie Martinson Talks Books with Dennis M. Walsh Author of Nobody Walks

Story Merchant Client Dennis M. Walsh Book Signing at Book Soup February 28th!

Steller Review for Story Merchant Client Dennis M. Walsh's Nobody Walks on Criminal Element.com

Fresh Meat: Nobody Walks by Dennis M. Walsh

Katherine Tomlinson

Nobody Walks by Dennis M. Walsh is the true story of a man who set out to find his brother’s killer (available February 12, 2013).

In the summer of 2003, a meth-addicted criminal named Christopher Walsh went missing. More than a week later, his body was discovered in a storage locker in Van Nuys, California. Walsh had been shot five times in the head and neck and then stuffed head-first into a trash can before being put in the storage locker. It was the kind of crime that happens every day in the seedier parts of Southern California and like most crimes of its nature, it originally went unsolved. It wasn’t that the detectives investigating the murder were uncaring or incompetent, but murder in the Southland is a rising tide as implacable and unstoppable as the ocean rising over the New Orleans levees in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

No one might ever have known who killed Christopher Walsh if it weren’t for his brother Dennis, the only male in his family who didn’t follow in the footsteps of their criminal father. As an attorney, not as a vigilante, Dennis M. Walsh turned his skills and education toward the cause of finding justice for his baby brother and this book chronicles the story every step of the way.

This is a gut-wrenching tale and one of the most potent moments occurs when Dennis is waiting to be let into the storage unit to identify his little brother’s body. He is blindsided by memories, from the day their mother brought him home from the hospital to the way Christopher always carried around a stuffed animal he called “Lambie Pie.” In that moment, before Dennis confirms his death, Christopher Walsh comes alive for the reader and when we discover, without any doubt, that it is his decomposing body sealed into the trash barrel and emitting a foul odor, we feel it like a punch in the gut.

We’re standing right next to Dennis as he responds to the condolences of the storage unit’s owner with a vow that will become his mantra for the next years of his life:

    “There are four brothers left, and we’re coming,” I said. “Anybody who had anything to do with the planning, the murder, moving the body, or the cover-up is going to answer for it. Make no mistake about it—and you can tell each and every one of those assholes out there—nobody walks on this case. Nobody!”

There have been a lot of true crime books written by family members who have spent years hoping for some sort of closure only to be frustrated again and again. (YA novelist Lois Duncan’s Who Killed My Daughter? offers the results of her investigation into the death of her daughter Kait and names the person she believes responsible, but the case remains open.) These books rarely end well, and often the story behind the story they tell is of an author whose life is wrecked beyond salvage. Nobody Walks breaks that mold.

Walsh’s prose isn't particularly graceful but he is a storyteller and the story he’s telling is as compelling as any police procedural with its unraveling of family secrets and lies. For years, the Walsh family mantra had been “Don’t tell Dennis,” and after Christopher’s death he starts hearing stories from his brother Dan that alarm him. Many of those stories mention the name David Steinberg, a high school friend of Christopher’s recently involved in a shootout with an off-duty sheriff and who had once boasted to a confidential informant: “I jack people.”

Theoretically, Walsh isn’t in the investigation alone. But as his other brothers lose themselves in increasingly bloodthirsty fantasies of how they’re going to punish the killer or killers when they’re caught, he’s once again the outsider in the family as he insists they work within the system to do what needs to be done.

The cops don’t want Walsh’s help either, and as months, then years go by, it gets lonely for the author. Walsh is candid about the quality of that loneliness and writes about the companionship of his wolfdog Johnny Rio and Frank the cat, who are often the only living creatures he sees outside his law practice. Life goes on and death waits for no one. (One of the funniest moments in the book—albeit a blackly comic moment—occurs when he is scattering his mother’s ashes.) And through it all, Walsh continues to ask questions and pursue answers.

Where those questions take him and what those answers hold introduce us to a cast of characters with names out of a Damon Runyon story and lives out of an Irish tragedy. And we’re with Walsh all the way, not just on the same page, but there. This is a visceral, intense read. This is a story of justice delayed but not denied; a story of a brother’s love and a family’s sorrow. Poor Christopher.

Story Merchant Client Dennis M. Walsh - Barnes and Noble Book Signing February 16th

Suspense Magazine Reviews Story Merchant Client Dennis M. Walsh's Nobody Walks

“Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother’s Killers to Justice” by Dennis M. Walsh

Every once in a great while, a true crime is written that pulls at the heartstrings, while it also provides a tale of suspense that will be remembered for a good long time. This is that story.

The complete and utter anguish of a family that loses a son and brother is the subject that this author takes on. Being a criminal defense attorney, Mr. Walsh valiantly tells the story in true ‘Technicolor,’ of his youngest brother’s death and how the family came together, stayed within the law and were able to bring the killers to justice.
It was 2003, when Christopher Walsh was found in a storage locker stuffed into a trash can. As most often happens, the murder investigation slowed down and almost came to a standstill. It took seven long months for the authorities to file charges, and many years to get the case to trial.

When the body was first found, Dennis Walsh announced to one and all that he would keep his brother’s murder alive and not let it become a cold case. And truer words had never been spoken. As the story unfolds, readers see that the Walsh family was close, but unfortunately the father—once a policeman—left the force and got involved with the underworld along with the rest of his sons, except for Dennis. It seems that Dennis was the only son who did not turn to an unsavory path that would make him a criminal. Perhaps that was fate working, considering Dennis took the job of solving his brother’s murder upon his shoulders, and went from suspect to suspect asking questions, becoming one with the jail birds and the people who put them there, without breaking the law.

This is a very heart-wrenching story of a family that made sure justice was served, and readers will find themselves rooting for Dennis from the very beginning.

Publishers Weekly Reviews Story Merchant Client Dennis M. Walsh's Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother's Killers to Justice

Nobody Walks: Bringing My Brother’s Killers to Justice

Dennis M. Walsh. St. Martin’s/Dunne, $26.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-2500-0548-9

Walsh, a criminal defense attorney for 30 years, tells the blistering true story of the 2003 murder of one of his brothers, Christopher, who was discovered in a trash barrel in a California storage locker. Despite law enforcement’s reluctance to pursue the case since the author’s father and younger brother were in prison on drug charges, Walsh shoulders the burden and delves into the nadir of the criminal underworld, quizzing thieves, skinheads, Nazi bikers, hookers, and porn queens to construct something meaningful from various lies and schemes. Good leads dead-end and seemingly ironclad confessions crumble, but the author’s resourcefulness and determination to catch his brother’s killers keep this sordid tale moving along at a quick clip. Walsh keeps his law practice operating throughout the ordeal, but still finds time to persuade reluctant witnesses to offer their testimony and cooperate with authorities; after four years of sleuthing, the trial finally begins. The hearing is a real corker, chock-full of twists and turns, and written with passion and an eye for drama. Taut and relentless, this chronicle of a former cold case puts one man’s resolve and the American idea of justice to the test. B&w photos. (Feb.)