Malcolm Bell

A former corporate litigator, Malcolm Bell decided mid-career to seek greater fulfillment by pursuing criminal law. While serving as a New York State prosecutor, he bravely blew the whistle on the police who committed extensive torture and murder during the 1971 Attica prison riot. His insider’s account, The Attica Turkey Shoot: Carnage, Cover-Up and the Pursuit of Justice (Skyhorse, 2017), first published as The Turkey Shoot: Tracking the Attica Cover-up (Grove Press, 1985), details the massive government cover-up that ensued, illuminating the all-too-common contrast between the justice of the privileged and the justice of the rest. Later, as an activist in the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s, Malcolm himself broke the law to stand in solidarity with—and offer safe-haven to—illegal refugees fleeing the brutality of state-led and US-assisted terror in Guatemala and El Salvador. He is currently completing Sisters in the Storm: Life and Death on the Receiving End of U.S. Power, based on the first-hand accounts of three women at the forefront of the campaign to expose and challenge U.S. policy in Central America. Malcolm lives in Weston, Vermont with his wife, Nancy, and divides his efforts between writing and non-violent activism against war, torture, and imperialism.