“The concern here is the Mojave Desert, the dry, baptismal font of national consciousness, mythological birthplace of America. It takes a big, white-hearted desert to fuel the pursuit of happiness, vast stretches of emptiness to suggest that the world can be possessed like an oyster, extreme tableaux of beauty to obliterate all memory of bad news. “Have a nice day!” the Mojave Desert tells the crossing parade — the Donner Party, the seekers of buried treasure, the cowboys, the ranchers, the people who rush for Hollywood gold—“Good luck! Think positive!”
So begin the opening pages of acclaimed desert/western writer Deanne Stillman’s “29 Palms: A True Story of Murder, the Marines, and the Mojave.” First published in 2001, it shook the small desert town of Twentynine Palms to its core. It’s the story of two girls who were killed in 1991 by a Marine after the Gulf War, their diverse circle of friends, the promise of California and the giant earthquake amid live fire exercises following the incident. It’s also the story of a difficult search for justice in a rural county that historically has overlooked the rights of women and those living in poverty and along the margins of society. A book that took Stillman down a 10-year road of deep research conducted with locals, law enforcement and the legal system, a persistent journey that sometimes put her own safety in jeopardy.
Over the past two decades, “29 Palms: A True Story of Murder, the Marines, and the Mojave,” has grown into cult classic status that legendary writer Hunter S. Thompson called “A strange and brilliant story by an important American writer.” The Los Angeles Times named it Best Book of the Year 2001. In 2020, it was optioned as a film by Anthony Mastromauro, who produced “The Old Man & the Gun” with Robert Redford, and recently, singer songwriter Tony Gilkyson (formerly of X and Dave Alvin) has written some beautiful new songs based on the story’s events. This year, the book, which has been reprinted several times, remains a popular and enduring read, and is now being discovered by a whole new generation of both desert readers and true-crime enthusiasts.
Years ahead of the #MeToo movement, a growing spotlight on rape culture, and an increasing push for social, gender and racial equality, in the U.S., his book has been prescient and years ahead of its time in how it has helped give voice to murdered and missing women and the oppressed and marginalized in our society. Just in the last few years, several high-profile missing and murdered women cases situated in the Twentynine Palms/Morongo Basin region have demonstrated that this expanseless region not infrequently presents unique dangers to women and people of color.
In sharp juxtaposition to the troubling events and difficult fight for justice that Stillman chronicles, “29 Palms: Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, the Marines, and the Mojave” powerfully depicts the magnificent beauty and lure of the Mojave Desert itself, which now lures millions of visitors each year who pass through towns like Twentynine Palms — the northeastern gateway to fabled Joshua Tree National Park and also the site of the largest U.S. Marine Corps base in the world — with little connection to or understanding of the challenges of life for many of those who call this places home, whether as a Marine or part of a military family or someone on society’s fringes eking out a tough living in this historically hardscrabble town.
It’s an important book that stands, 20 years after its first publication date in 2001, as an enduring and legendary true crime book that’s earned its place in both the broader literary vernacular and Mojave Desert lore. More than that, as untold numbers of people continue to flee Los Angeles and other major cities to seek solitude and renewal in Twentynine Palms and neighboring desert communities, fueled by the ongoing pandemic and escalating costs of housing, Stillman’s book serves as a haunting template that no matter what the desert’s lure, not all is always gold in the desert, as one might imagine it.
Ruth Nolan grew up in the Mojave Desert and now teaches creative writing at College of the Desert. She’s a desert conservationist and author and editor of “No Place for a Puritan: the Literature of California’s Deserts.”
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October 31, 2021 at 01:00AM
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Book on Mojave Desert murder haunts, resonates 20 years later - Press-Enterprise
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