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Incident at Ricki’s Bar in Scottsbluff, Nebraska
On November 7, 1996, a shootout occurred at a rural bar on the outskirts of Scottsbluff called Ricki’s. Eyewitness accounts support the theory that the incident involved Andrew Z. Thomas and an unidentified man with long, black hair, both of whom fled the scene.
First Extended Disappearance of Thomas: 1996–2003
The shooting at Ricki’s Bar was the last public sighting of Thomas for almost seven years. In the wake of his disappearance, four bodies were exhumed from Thomas’s lakefront property in North Carolina, and warrants for his arrest were issued in co
Reemergence and North Carolina Killing Spree #1: October 27–28, 2003
On October 27, 2003, Zach and Theresa Worthington, and their two children, were murdered in their home on Lake Norman, North Carolina. Their next door neighbor, Beth Lancing (widow of Walter Lancing), was abducted from her home by a man later described by Je
Disappearance of Detective Violet King
Violet King, a homicide detective with the Davidson Police Department, traveled to Ocracoke Island on November 4, 2003, to investigate a lead in the murder of the Worthington family and abduction of Beth Lancing. A partial fingerprint belonging to Luther Kite had been lifted off a laser pointer found in the hand of the Worthington’s youngest child. Kite’s family lived on Ocracoke. King last contacted Davidson PD on November 6, and was not heard from or seen again, with the brief exception of her appearance in North Carolina Department of Transportation video footage of the November 12 Ki
Ki
On the morning of November 12, 2003, six vehicles boarded the 5:00 A.M. Ki
Controversy and Second Extended Disappearance of Thomas: 2003–present
Up until his reemergence in 2003, the prevailing theory (also held by prominent state and federal law enforcement officials involved in the Thomas investigation) was that the writing of The Scorcher, Thomas’s most violent book to date, had pushed him over the edge, beyond the realm of fiction, into an attempt to experience and embrace violence in the flesh. However, in light of the 2003 murders in North Carolina, culminating with the footage of the Ki
Writing Style
Thomas employed a sparse, clipped writing style, punctuated by scenes of hyper-violence, which, despite many complaints that it was gratuitous, in reality left much to the reader’s imagination.
Influences
Thomas has been frequently compared to King, Koontz, Richard Laymon, Edward Lee, Jack Ketchum, Clive Barker, and other horror and pulp fiction masters.
Critical Response
Thomas was never a critics’ darling. Over the nine-year span of his career, none of his books received a starred review from either Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, or Booklist. His prose has been described by the New York Times as “ranging from careless to wretched” and Kirkus Reviews famously bemoaned the pla
Bibliography
The Killer and His Weapon (1988)
Sunset Is the Color of a Broken Heart (1990)
The Way the World Ends (1991)
Blue Murder (1992)
Plan of Attack (1993)
Midnight: Collected Stories (1994)
The Passenger (1995)
The Scorcher (1996)
The Dark Heart (unfinished) (1998)
Personal Life
Even prior to the events of late 1996, Thomas was known as a reclusive writer and rarely seen in public outside of bookstore events and the occasional mystery convention (Bouchercon 1995 in Indianapolis being his last). For several years, he was romantically involved with Karen Prescott, an editor at Ice Blink Books, but their relationship ended prior to Thomas’s 1996 troubles. His literary agent, Cynthia Mathis, was also a close friend, and although she denies having had any physical contact with Thomas since 1996, she maintains her belief in her client’s i
March 31, 12:50 P.M.
When I’d finished perusing Thomas’s Wikipedia page, this prompted me to check out the unofficial AZT website, which was run by fans. Though fans might have been a misnomer. On his message board, Thomas had dozens of haters who were convinced he was a monster. There was also an entire section devoted to theories speculating on whether or not Thomas was still alive and still writing.
I searched the site for “Luther Kite” and got more than a hundred hits on the message board. I spent an hour reading through them. The vast majority referenced Thomas’s Wikipedia page, the disappearance of Detective Violet King, and the murder of Luther Kite’s parents. There were theories that Andrew and Luther were partners, that Andrew killed Luther, that Luther killed Andrew, and that aliens had abducted Andrew and put an implant in his brain, turning him into Luther. None of them had even the barest shred of authenticity, until I came upon five entries by a poster named “ALONEAGAIN.”