Jay Robert Nash

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jay Robert Nash (November 26, 1937 – April 22, 2024) was an American author of more than 70 books on myriad aspects of

true crime
.

Among Nash's crime anthologies are Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen and Outlaws, Look For the Woman, Bloodletters and Badmen, and The Great Pictorial History of World Crime. He has also compiled his exhaustive research of criminal behaviour into a CD-ROM entitled Jay Robert Nash's True Crime Database.

Biography

Born in Indianapolis, Nash grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin and attended Marquette University.[1] He served in the U.S. Army and then started his career working for publications in Milwaukee before coming to Chicago about 1962.[2]

Nash won Best Reference citations from the

copyright traps may include incorrect information in otherwise factual entries, or wholly fictitious entries. Sally G. Waters, writing for the Library Journal, called Nash's work "fascinating yet flawed" and recommended that it be used only for background research, verifying the information based on the sources in Nash's bibliography.[3]
In the
The Library of America selected Nash's story "The Turner-Stompanato
Affair" for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime.

CBS lawsuit

Nash once filed a lawsuit against

FBI in 1934 (Nash focused two separate books on his theory). His claim of copyright infringement was dismissed on summary judgment, a ruling upheld by an appeals court. The court compared Nash's writing to "speculative works representing themselves as fact" and concluded that he could not claim a copyright on his analysis of historical facts, only his expression of them. The court added that Nash should not be surprised at the result, pointing out, "His own books are largely fresh expositions of facts looked up in other people's books."[5]

Personal life and death

Nash lived in Wilmette, Illinois, and described himself as an "entrepreneurial businessman".[citation needed]

Nash died of lung cancer on April 22, 2024, at the age of 86.[6]

Selected bibliography

References

  1. ^ https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/05/01/remembering-jay-robert-nash-a-prolific-writer-with-a-huge-personality/
  2. ^ https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/05/01/remembering-jay-robert-nash-a-prolific-writer-with-a-huge-personality/
  3. ^ Library Journal review by Sally G. Waters of Encyclopedia of World Crime: Criminal Justice, Criminology, & Law Enforcement. Review reprinted at Amazon.com. Accessed May 5, 2006.
  4. ^ "Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen & Outlaws by Jay Robert Nash reviewed by Richard Maxwell Brown, Journal of American History, Vol. 81, No. 4 (Mar., 1995), pp. 1885-1887.
  5. ^ "NASH v. CBS, INC". www.law.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  6. ^ Dudek, Mitch (2 May 2024). "Jay Robert Nash, prolific Chicago crime author, dies at 86". Chicago Sun Times. Retrieved 3 May 2024.