Part detective story, part noir psychological thriller, Sniper tells the disturbing and compelling story of how anti-abortion radical James Kopp hunted down physicians in Canada and the US who were performing abortion services. Wells visits Kopp's home town in California and follows his trail across Canada and Europe, taking readers inside the mind of Kopp, the son of a US marine, who believed he was on a righteous mission to save fetuses. The book also details how American and Canadian police and the FBI collaborated to bring the elusive Kopp down in France, following the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian, an obstetrician, in Buffalo, New York.
JON WELLS reports on crime and a variety of other subjects for The Hamilton Spectator, and he has written seven books. He has won four National Newspaper Awards and twenty-three Ontario Newspaper Awards, including Journalist of the Year for his true-crime series "Sniper" on James Kopp. Post-Mortem was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for best crime non-fiction. Born in Montreal, Wells has a master's degree in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa. His true-crime research has taken him into forensic laboratories and shooting ranges, and to India, Ireland, France, San Francisco, New York City and western Canada. He has interviewed a half dozen convicted killers in prison. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.