The Alaskan Blonde: Sex, Secrets and the Hollywood Story that Shocked America

Nicknamed “the most beautiful woman in Alaska,” 31-year-old Diane Wells was bruised and bloodied when she screamed for help in the early hours of October 17, 1953. Her husband Cecil, a wealthy Fairbanks businessman, had been shot dead, and she claimed they were the victims of a brutal home invasion.

Blonde, glamorous and 20 years younger than Cecil, police were immediately suspicious of Diane's account, and the investigation soon turned toward her alleged lover, black musician Johnny Warren, who had left town the night of the murder.

The scandal hit the pages of Newsweek, Life, Jet, Ebony and the pulp detective magazines, and journalist James T. Bartlett re-examines the FBI files, uncovers new evidence including an unpublished memoir and unseen photographs, and tracks down and interviews the people close to Cecil, Diane, Johnny, and the mysterious “Third Suspect”, dance instructor William Colombany, to finally reveal what happened on that fateful night nearly 70 years ago.