Dary Matera

Dary Matera (born 1955) is an America author and newspaper columnist who specializes in real-life casebooks. He is from Chandler, Arizona.

The son of a Voice of America foreign service officer, Matera grew up in Bangkok, Thailand, and Angeles City, Philippines. Matera attended junior high at the International School of Bangkok, and then transferred to Wagner High School on Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.

After returning to America and graduating from the University of Miami in 1977, Matera worked as a reporter for The Miami News (1977–82). He covered the city beats—education, crime, politics and general assignment.

Matera became an independent author in 1986. His first mass market, non-fiction book, Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Random House/Villard) was an international best seller. It detailed the controversial story of Elvis Presley's lifelong relationship with a troubled Louisiana woman.

Subsequent books include:

• Get Me Ellis Rubin! -- The Life, Times and Cases of a Maverick Lawyer. (St. Martin's Press, 1989). It was published in paperback by St. Martin's Press under the title For the Defense in June 1991.
• Quitting The Mob - How the Yuppie Don Left the Mafia and Lived to Tell His Story. (HarperCollins, 1992)
• What's In It For Me? - How an Ex-Wise Guy Exposed the Greed, Jealously and Lust That Drive Arizona Politics. (HarperCollins, 1992)
• Taming The Beast – Charles Manson’s Life Behind Bars. (St. Martin's Press, 1998)
• Strike Midnight -- a novel (Vine Books, 1994).
• Angels of Emergency—Rescue Stories From America's Paramedics and EMTs. (HarperCollins, July 1996).
• The Pena Files—Dramatic Cases From The World's Top PI. (Regan Books {HarperCollins imprint} August 1996).
• Among Grizzlies, (ghosted) (HarperCollins, Spring 1997).
• Childlight – How Children Reach Out to Their Parents From the Beyond. (New Horizon Press, Spring, 2001).
• A Cry for Character – How a Group of Kids Cleaned Up Their Rowdy School and Provided the Antidote to Columbine. (Prentice Hall/Penguin, Summer, 2001).
• The FBI's Most Wanted, (William Morrow/HarperTorch, Fall, 2003).
• John Dillinger – The Life and Death of America’s First Celebrity Criminal. (Carroll-Graf, Spring, 2004).
• Stolen Masterpiece Tracker – The Dangerous Life of the FBI’s Number 1 Art Sleuth (Barricade Books, 2006)

References

• [1] Listings at Biblio.com