James Hatfield

James Hatfield
James Howard Hatfield (January 7, 1958 – July 18, 2001) was an American author.
Fortunate Son and controversy
Hatfield was the author of Fortunate Son, a book published in 1999 during the George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2000 that made serious allegations about George W. Bush. Published by the highly regarded St. Martin's Press, the book was revealed as allegedly fraudulent and recalled by the publisher within days of publication.
Soon after the book's release, The Dallas Morning News reported that Hatfield was a paroled felon who had been convicted in 1988 of paying a hit man $5,000 to murder his former boss with a car bomb. It was also revealed that Hatfield pleaded guilty to embezzlement in 1992. Hatfield at first denied the allegations when his publisher confronted him, but he eventually owned up to his criminal history.
This was the second time that a book of Hatfield's had been challenged. In 1985 he had written an unofficial James Bond novel, The Killing Zone, which – although purporting to be officially sanctioned by Glidrose, Bond's literary copyright holder – was in fact a vanity novel.
Due to the revelations of Hatfield's criminal past and the damage to his credibility, in October 1999, Hatfield's publisher, St. Martin's Press, recalled 70,000 copies of Fortunate Son and left an additional 20,000 books in storage. Even so, the book had already reached the New York Times bestseller list. Hatfield responded that, before the Bush campaign brought pressure to bear, St. Martin's had publicly stated that the book had been "carefully fact-checked and scrutinized by lawyers."
The book was later republished by Soft Skull Press. The relationship between Hicks, founder of Soft Skull Press, and Hatfield was explored in the movie Horns and Halos, an award-winning documentary film directed by Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky. In one scene from the DVD extra disc, Hatfield says to the camera, "If anything happens to me, get it out to the press."
Death
According to Detective John Hubbard of the Bentonville, Arkansas Police Department, on July 17, 2001, the Police went to Hatfield's house to arrest him on charges of credit card fraud but they were unable to locate him.
On July 18, 2001, Hatfield's body was found by a hotel housekeeper in room 312 at a Days Inn in Springdale, Arkansas, an apparent suicide by prescription drug overdose. According to the police, notes were left listing alcohol, financial problems and Fortunate Son as reasons for killing himself.
Bibliography
Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President. (1999). Soft Skull Press. (third edition, 2002)
References
External links
Why would Osama bin Laden want to kill Dubya, his former business partner? by James Hatfield
The Death of Jim Hatfield by David Cogswell
Interview with James Hatfield, Democracy Now!
Horns and Halos
Official site
Village Voice article about Horns and Halos
1958 births
2001 suicides
20th-century American novelists
American male biographers
American male novelists
American political writers
Drug-related suicides in Arkansas
Place of birth missing
20th-century American biographers
20th-century American male writers
2001 deaths