Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - What Will It Take? "Don't Be A Victim!"

Episode Date: September 18, 2020

Nancy Grace wasn't always the iconic legal commentator we know today. One moment changed her entire future forever: her fiancé Keith was murdered just before their wedding. Driven to deliver justice for other crime victims, Nancy became a felony prosecutor and for a decade, put the "bad guys" behind bars in inner-city Atlanta.Now, with a new and potentially life-saving book, Nancy puts her crime-fighting expertise to work to empower you stay safe in the face of daily dangers. Don't Be a Victim. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. I grew up in a world where there was nothing but tall pine trees and soybean fields as far as the eye could see, where violence was something unknown and very, very far away. We could ride our bikes anywhere we wanted after school. We could build forts between pine trees and only come home when we'd hear chimes in the church steeple telling us it was 6 o'clock, time for supper. I could explore rushing streams and pastures full of cows munching grass edged with trees. I could swing from a rope out in a circle over a gully full of water, crash running once I hit the soil when the circle ended. Keith's murder changed all that.

I found out about an alternate universe, a world of violence and hate. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stand to hear the music or the TV. My mother had to stop the clocks because I couldn't bear the tick, tick, ticking. I dropped out of school. Weeks and months passed. I'd sit for days on our front porch in the sun. I was fading away mentally and physically. Nothing mattered. Heaven threw me a rope, and even though I didn't realize it at the time, I grabbed it.

Yes, I went back to school, but teaching literature was no longer an option. My one goal was to somehow get into law school and then fight crime with all my might. I only had one reference to present to law school admissions department from my Sunday school teacher. But they let me in, and after a period of years, I made it to the district attorney's office. I'm Nancy Grace. I just read you one of the first passages from our new book, Don't Be a Victim, Fighting Back Against America's Crime Wave. You know, in all the years I prosecuted violent felonies in inner city Atlanta, I knew I was doing something right. Every time a jury would return a guilty verdict, I knew for that moment, just that moment, I did a good thing.

One more bad guy was off the streets. And all the time I've been covering cases at Court TV, on Cochran and Grace with Johnny Cochran, on HLN, and now on Crime Stories. I don't want to just stand back and cover cases. I want to do something about it. That is the reason I wrote, Don't Be a Victim, Fighting Back Against America's Crime Wave. At this time in our country and in our world,

where so much is swirling all around us, I don't want you or me or my children to feel powerless. Fight back. In Don't Be a Victim, I take every case I ever investigated, personally prosecuted, or covered. And from them, I get tips, ideas, for you to stay safe in a way to protect yourself and your children, your family. I started writing the book about staying safe while you're exercising, but somehow it morphed to How Do I Protect My Child, Part 1. Your child's safe at school, at parks, playgrounds, amusement parks, malls, safe while shopping, bathroom attacks, nannies and babysitters from hell, daycare dangers, cyber threats on your child, so-called accidental deaths.

And what about you? Safe while exercising. Do I have to say Molly Tibbetts and Karina Vetrano? Safe out shopping, elevator assaults, safe in your own home. How many burglaries, rapes, and home invasions do we have to cover until we finally learn what we can do to protect ourselves and fight back? Driving danger, swinging your car with or without your children, crimes at concerts and live events, parties gone wild, staying safe in bars and restaurants, traveling south of the border, abroad, domestic, camping, RVing, cruise ships, and of course, cyber crimes, threats, internet dating, and online ad dangers, burglar alarm backfires. You know, my 89-year-old mother moved in with us after my dad passed away, and she got scammed for a lot of money. I don't want that to happen to your mom or

dad. I also cover our seniors in danger. This book covers it all. This is not for profit for me. My money, all of it, is going straight to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Please, won't you help me and help yourself? Read this. Give it to a friend. Please, all the victims that I talk about and talk to during the research and writing of this book want you to know, want you to learn from what happened in their world.

Here are facts and evidence to keep yourself safe. You can find it at nancygracebook.com and if you order before September 21 midnight, we are having, the book publisher is throwing, a pre-order event in live time for you to come to with all the other crime fighters and sleuths. Give me your questions.

Give me your theories on cases. I'd love to talk to you in real time. Go to nancygracebook.com. It took me over two years to research and write this, and it is all for you, for you and your family. Thanks, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.