Black Tunnel White Magic: The True Story of a Los Angeles Murder

Detective Rick Jackson, a decorated LAPD detective and a key inspiration in the development of Harry Bosch, delivers a shocking and immersive look into the one case he could never let go.

In June 1990, Ronald Baker, a straight-A UCLA student, was found repeatedly stabbed to death in a tunnel near Spahn Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers once lived. Shortly thereafter, Detective Rick Jackson and his partner, Frank Garcia, were assigned the case. Yet the facts made no sense. Who would have a motive to kill Ron Baker in such a grisly manner? Was the proximity to the Manson ranch related to the murder? And what about the pentagram pendant Ron wore around his neck?

Jackson and Garcia soon focused their investigation on Baker’s two male roommates, one Black, and one white. What emerges is at once a story of confounding betrayal and cold-hearted intentions, as well as a larger portrait of an embattled Los Angeles, a city in the grip of the Satanic Panic and grappling with questions of racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of Rodney King.

In straightforward, matter-of-fact prose, Rick Jackson, the now-retired police detective who helped inspire Michael Connelly’s beloved Harry Bosch, along with co-writer, Matthew McGough, take us through the events as he and his partner experienced them, piecing together the truth with each emerging clue. Black Tunnel White Magic is the true story of a murder in cold blood, deception and betrayal, and a city at the brink, set forth by the only man who could tell it.

Rick Jackson had a 34-year career with the Los Angeles Police Department, before retiring in 2013. He is a known homicide expert, as well as a highly-regarded detective with extensive expertise and success in the field of ＂cold case＂ homicides. Rick has been a consultant and technical advisor for New York Times #1 bestselling crime fiction author Michael Connelly. This ongoing 16-year relationship has included all of Connelly’s novels, the ＂Bosch＂ television series, and numerous other film and TV scripts.

Matthew McGough is an investigative journalist, former lawyer, and the author of two books-- The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation (Henry Holt, 2019), which Anonymous Content optioned for development as a limited TV series, and Bat Boy: Coming of Age with the New York Yankees (Doubleday, 2005), which served as the basis for the CBS series ＂Clubhouse.＂ He has also written for television and was a writer and legal consultant for NBC’s ＂Law & Order. ＂