A grieving parent seeking comfort will find it, solace at the touch and feel of another person’s helping hand, in the love of God through the words of Scripture, in the Holy Spirit’s touch upon a receptive heart. As Donna shares how God met her at rock bottom, then lifted her up to a place of peace and finally joy, the reader will find it also…again and again and again.Major Glen Doss, Salvation Army

I sat down, read the first page, and didn’t put it down until I was done. I read some, cried some, and crawled through the rest as I was brought to remembrance of my own grief journey from my own daughter being called home 30 years ago. You cannot read this story without being touched. You will learn that there is a sovereign God who can and will do what he chooses at all times. Through the despair of it all he will show up and make himself more real to you then you can ev-er imagine.

Dr. Larry Maddex, Lazarus House Ministries

With the assistance of Lori Raupe, author’s coach, who is a #1 International best Selling Author, and who’s heartbreaking story of the loss of her young daughter, Jennifer, followed by losing all of her worldly possessions in the California Cedar Fire (2003), has been an inspiration for her to devote her life to helping people create their legacy best selling books.

Promotional images available.

Previous article reference:https://www.pe.com/2015/03/25/hemet-family-running-for-a-good-cause/

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For authors Jim and Vicki Allen-Hitt, writing is a way of life; a way of life that’s spanned 42 years together, 35 married.

“I was always creative but my creativity showed itself in dance and also in art. It wasn’t until I went to one of Jim’s book signings at a library that I sat next to (Hemet-San Jacinto Chronicle Senior writer and author of more than 40 books) Rusty Strait and Rusty heard me telling one of my family stories. He looked at me and said, “You ought to be a writer.” I laughed and said, “I’ll write, Rusty, if you take up painting.”

“Well Rusty never started painting but he sure got me started writing!”

“I called a third cousin who wrote for the McCalls Magazine and who had also written radio scripts and I asked her how to begin writing. She said to me, “You read, read, read…and then you start writing.”

And 5 years later, this past Sunday December 7, Allen-Hitt’s novel, “Family Matters” debuted. Well…it isn’t quite a novel, it’s a memoir.  Well..it’s not quite a memoir, it’s a, well…it’s actually a new type of writing treatment which Allen-Hitt calls a “memoir novel.”

Allen-Hitt calls her work a “memoir novel” because it uses the normal format of a family memoir, but it deviates-interestingly so-by using Allen-Hitt’s knowledge of family members to fill in unknown holes in her narrative. The result is stunning and gripping. These “characters” are people that most anyone can recognize from their own families, and Allen-Hitt worked hard to keep the novelistic elements as true to life as possible. “Whenever I got stuck, I’d call my 104 year-old mother. She’s still very alert and she’d relay the information to me, even down to all she knew about my grandmothers courtship, which is where my work begins.”

The toughest part of the writing? “Writing about my maternal grandmother. We were very close,” Allen-Hitt says, as she looks off into the distance. She then picks up her book and reads the dedication: “This book is dedicated to Jim, my husband, without whose support this book could never have been written, and to my mother, Lorraine Jones, who at 103, provided me with so many wonderful stories that made their way into this book.”

Allen-Hitt’s mother, now 104, has read the book and she heartily approves. “My mom is still full of energy at 104.  It took an amazing amount of energy to finish this book. I honestly never thought I’d finish it, but one thing I learned, was that if I could picture something in my mind, I could make a scene out of it. I realized and said to myself, “If I can see it, I can make it come alive on the page.”

(Award-Winning Hemetonian Jim Hitt)

As someone who must confess to being a very thankful participant in Jim and Vicki’s weekly writing critique group, I must also confess that the direction given by Jim and Vicki Hitt is prized and has given direction to my own writing. “I would say that between our writing group and Jim and I on our own, this book has been edited, re-edited and re-edited…having been seen by probably 40 people, maybe more.”

“This memoir novel is a book of survival. It shows how you can go through all kinds of things, and come out stronger and more aware of yourself.  You look around and realize that you’re not defeated.”  How has she overcome the many trials in her life which are depicted in the memoir-novel?  “A sense of humor, “says Allen-Hitt.

Anyone reading Allen-Hitt’s first offering would say that all the work, years and effort have more than paid off: the novel has been nominated for the Next Generation Indie Book Award.

Allen-Hitt says she tried not to rely on husband Jim, though Jim Hitt is author of 2 works of Non-Fiction (“The American West from Fiction into Film,” and, “Words and Shadows: Literature on the Screen”), and four works of fiction including the highly acclaimed, “The Courage of Others,” and the award-winning, “Carny.”  Still she confesses that Jim Hitt was there for advice whenever asked.  “I think of Jim as  natural-born writer.”

“I try not to write the same book twice,” says author Jim Hitt.  “This current novel is set in 1925 Texas, and as the inside cover reads, “Texas, 1925: two murder victims, one black, one white: two communities, one black, one white.  Deputy Sheriff Stoneman has only 3 days to uncover a murderer and avoid a bloodbath.”  I’ve never written a mystery before…and this mystery has racism, a love story and murder mixed in, but at heart, it’s about family.  I think all my novels essentially revolve around family,” said Hitt.  Hitt says that this novel is “not exactly a sequel” to his highly acclaimed, “The courage of others,” but that some of the characters make appearances in both novels.  “The Shadows” has been nominated for a “Spur Award” by the Western Writers of America (WWA).  It was a reviewer for WWA who said of Hitt’s novel, “Bodie,” that it was, “…the kind of western that every traditionalist novelist seeks to pen.”  One might say that this was high praise, but having the honor of knowing Jim Hitt, one realizes that for Hitt, this is normal.  Jim Hitt is a soft=spoken man who writes with a scalpel.

(Award-Winning Hemetonian Jim Hitt)

“I had to be very specific with some of the passages because there’s a racist angle to the novel: the characters do, at times, use the “N” word because that word was used at that time.  To leave it out would have been a violation of history, though I do use it sparingly.”   

With such a thorny component as is racism, you might think that the novel’s outlook is somewhat bleak; you’d be wrong.  Did Hitt wince at such  a dark subject or at using such language?  “If the book had ended with no hope of improvement, then I’d wince, but I must say that the book does have an upbeat ending.  I’d say I’m an optimistic writer.”

I’ve wondered how such a decent man as Jim is could “write” characters who might have an ugly side to their demeanor, or who are beset by awful setbacks.  “Well, I think it’s the hope of change.  All these negative things pile on: how does the protagonist handle it?  I tend to know who my characters are, and what they need to do to overcome, and grow as people.  I honestly believe that my characters are better than I am, and I believe they’re smarter as well.”

Hitt says, that while some of his characters start out as villains, by the end of the book, they have undergone a change and that we, the readers, see the character’s better angels.  “I believe that our protagonists must change as the novel progresses: I also think it’s much more interesting when secondary characters change as well.”  

“I create characters I wish I were.  I’m constantly going back and refining, because I don’t write an outline.  I know where I’m at in the beginning and I know where I’m going to end.  I’m not a ‘pantser” (a literary term which defines a writer who writes “by the seat of his pants”), or a “plotter” (one who plots every nuance of his novel), but I fall somewhere in between.  I believe the journey for the reader should be as much fun as it is for me, because in the final analysis, I believe all writing is entertainment: if you’re out to send a message or whatever, and you don’t entertain, the reader is going to lose your message anyway.  I want my readers to say, “God I enjoyed that book.”  Anyone who’s been in Jim Hitt’s presence, or has sat and listened as Jim patiently passed on decades of knowledge, knows that he is entertaining and then some.  After having read “The Shadows,” I can guarantee that you will end it by saying, “God, I enjoyed that book.”

Anyone interested in buying either book can contact any bookstore, in-person or online.  It will appear on Amazon.com some time next week.

And yes, both Jim and Vicki helped me edit this article: hey, I take all the wise counsel I can get!

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“They garroted Gary, tied him up, and threw him into a homemade cabinet in his van. Then, for the next five-and-a-half hours, they pistol-whipped him and threatened him with a knife, while bullets whizzed past his face and crashed into his van,” said Peter Houlahan, author or “Norco 80,” the first book which chronicles the botched bank robbery cum kidnapping, cum murder. 

Gary Halaka was the hostage in what has been called, “The most spectacular bank robbery in American history.” There are so many twists and turns in this book that only a skilled writer, writing with a scalpel could pull it off. Author Peter Houlahan pulls it off and then some.

The book gives a detailed description of the background of the men involved, but it could easily have focused on the Hitchcock-like innocence of “everyman” Gary Hakala’s being tossed into his own van and going through an ordeal few could fathom. Hakala fought to remain calm, though he was in terrific pain. The cabinetry used in Hakala’s van was secured by nails which were now tearing into his flesh. “I couldn’t move.  I could feel them cutting into my skin.  They tied me up and forced me into the small cabinet in my van.

My feet and hands were numb, and my shoulder was about to pop out from the way I was twisted.” Manny Delgado, his brother Billy, the Harven Brothers and George Smith didn’t seem to care. “Before they decided to go ahead and rob the bank, I could hear them matter-of-factly discussing if they would kill me then, or if it would be better to wait.  In that situation, you can either choose fear or anger.  I figured, “If I’m gonna die, I’ll be damned if my last moments are going to be spent begging for my life.” I chose to get mad.” Getting mad may have saved Hakala’s life.

After an hour of waiting for a supposed diversionary tactic, which had literally fizzled out…the group decided to attempt the robbery anyway. Hakala could hear as leader George Smith hollered out, “Go go go go!” over a two-way radio. The next thing Hakala could hear, but barely see, was glass shattering. 

The robbers had entered the Security Pacific National Bank. A three-year-old was injured with the flying glass. “I could hear the crying…it made me sick.”
Two and a half minutes later, the robbers came out of the bank looking to make a getaway. What the robbers didn’t see is that across the street, at another bank, an alert teller had spotted the group and had alerted the police.

Officer Glyn Bolasky unknowingly drove into the teeth of what was about to be a 48-hour ordeal. The men immediately began firing at his vehicle. Bolasky wisely backed out, turned his vehicle sideways and valiantly began firing back. The men riddled his unit with buckshot and firepower from pistols, wheel guns, and rifles.

“We estimated at least 1,700 rounds were fired over the two days of the ordeal. We had to catalog pistols, rifles, shotguns, wheel guns, automatic weapons, even homemade bombs, and a homemade rocket launcher” said now-retired Riverside Sheriff Department’s Sergeant John Burden. Bolasky’s unit was savaged.  So was Bolasky, who would require lengthy medical treatment.

Officer Andy Delgado and Officer Charles Hille were minutes away when Bolasky radioed the “1199.” According to Sergeant Burden, “The meaning of 1199 is “Officer needs help.” It is a radio code meant for you to drop everything you’re doing and to immediately respond to the assistance of that officer. It is a code that is used more often than I would like since it shows that an officer is in imminent danger and needs assistance now.”

Officers Hille and Delgado immediately answered the call, and again, their cars were savaged with superior firepower. Both men fired back with all they had, which, at the time, was only handguns and shotguns.  With every bit of ammunition in his handgun, his belt, and his shotgun gun spent, save one shotgun shell, officer Delgado took aim and fired.  All the pellets whizzed dangerously close to Gary Hakala, but one found its mark. One pellet…one single pellet caught Billy Delgado in the neck, paralyzing him, and leading to his death minutes later.

The van, which only a while before had a damaged mirror which owner Gary Hakala had stopped to fix…now came to a slow, easy rest, lazily rocking back and forth…without care in the world. Its driver was dead. “It had an automatic transmission,” Sergeant Burden said, “so it nudged a wire fence, rolled back, then rolled forward…back and forth, as two of the men tried to pull the dead driver from the seat and take off.” 

They couldn’t do it. They decided to flee and find another automobile.  Gary Hakala thought that this was the end. “I figured, “this is it.” They’re gonna have to kill me.  I had seen their faces; they couldn’t let me live.  Things seemed suspended for a second or two, then…they just bailed out and left me there.  They just left me there! They left the money and everything. Just left! I actually think that in their panic they might have forgotten I was there.” 

The four men, Russell Harven, brother Chris, George Smith, and Manny Delgado, Billy’s brother, grabbed the first handy vehicle they could find. “It was perfect for their use,” said Sergeant Burden. “It was a big Ford pickup truck with a cap.  The driver saw them coming and ran for his life.” 

The four assailants tried to do the same. From there, author Peter Houlahan picks up the trail. “Remember that back then, banks had placed their branches close to exits.  Well, the four made as quick a getaway as they could, engaging police with brutal gunfire whenever they were encountered. They finally made it to the highway.” said Houlahan.

The four made it to Lytle Creek, where they had practiced marksmanship some months before.  They were now in San Bernardino County.
“When the LASO (Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office) was called in…they were able to match the firepower of the four who were still alive.  Authorities had the men surrounded and kept them penned in, in a roughly 5-mile area. 

As night fell, so did the temperature, and the snow.  As luck would have it, it snowed that night.  These guys had no coats, and they were trapped…and they knew it.  The next day, when the two Harven Brothers saw the police, they just gave up immediately.  Manny Delgado decided to go out in a different fashion,” said Sergeant Burden.

Delgado decided to take on the combined law enforcement of two counties and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office.  It was no match. With the two Delgado brothers dead, and the two Harven Brothers having given up, mastermind George Wayne Smith decided it was time to end one of America’s ugliest, costliest, most misguided bank robberies.

The aftermath of this large-scale crime had an even larger-scale crime scene. “We had a crime scene that essentially stretched from the bank to the forty-some miles where Delgado died. We had to chop it up in sections. You know how you eat an elephant?” asks Burden. “One bite at a time. Just like we took the crime scene.” And with any large-scale crime, there is also the promise of a circus-like atmosphere.

This one would have put Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey to shame.
There was jailhouse intrigue with randy inmates, a prosecution and public defender who hated each other, a judge constantly haunted by the specter of a mistrial, internecine wars, and rumors of war, lawyers throwing pencils at each other…and as if all that wasn’t enough, there was that other guy. The guy Gary Hakala swears to this day that the investigators missed. “I will go to my grave, insisting that I saw three..three Hispanic men in the car who a few seconds later came up to me with guns drawn. They were as close to me as Peter is to me right now,” says Hakala, motioning to author Houlahan, a few inches away.

“I told them so that night. I said that at the trial. Hell, I was even trying to tell that to them in the hospital that very night.” And later that night, actually early the next morning when Gary Hakala arrived home, he was greeted to a site he’s never mentioned before. “There were muddy footprints in my house. Someone had broken in earlier. Thank God I was in the hospital getting patched up. I carried a gun with me for a year. For a whole year, if I even went to the bathroom…that gun came with me.”

“For all the thousands of man-hours involved, hundreds and hundreds of rounds fired, Riverside County Deputy Sheriff James Bernard Evans dead, officers Hille, Delgado and Bolasky’s lives forever changed…the take was a paltry $21,000,” says Houlahan. And that 21-grand? They left it in the van with Gary Hakala. “If I’d only known,” laughs Hakala.

And in this tale, there is a postscript/plot twist that even the best Hollywood screenwriter could not fashion: although they hadn’t met at the time, Gary Hakala’s wife Cathy, managed the Denny’s in Norco.
“Big deal,” you say?
That Denny’s just so happened to be the Denny’s that was going to be hit before Russell Harven decided to hit a bank.
“Gary jokingly says to people, “Hey, don’t mess with me. God protects me.” 
Who could argue with that?

The author wishes to express his heartfelt thanks and deep admiration to Author Peter Houlahan, Retired Sergeant John Burden, Mr. Gary Hakala, and Mrs. Kathy Hakala. Without you all, this story could not have been told.

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