The Cleveland John Doe

Thibault Raisse

Ohio. A suicide, no fingerprints, no identity.

In July 2002, the Eastlake police discovered a decomposed body in a modest studio apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. It appears to be a suicide by firearm. The victim, Joseph Newton Chandler III, was retired. His neighbors and colleagues describe him as a mute, secretive and strange person. His life seems as inconsistent as enigmatic, and soon, the investigation questions his identity. In 2018, thanks to scientific advances in DNA, his name is finally discovered: Robert Ivan Nichols. Who was this man and why did he change his name? What history, what past was he trying to hide?
Thibault Raisse went on the tracks of this evanescent man, who had said to his wife when he left her: «One day you will know why». Many theories, from the craziest to the most credible, have emerged. Among them, a solid lead leads us in the footsteps of the Zodiac killer, whose murders date back to 1968 and 1969 in California.

In partnership with the French magazine Society, this collection aims at painting a picture of the United States through their biggest criminal cases, with - approximately - one book per state. Society met a massive success with a special editions in two volumes about the Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès case, which sold 400,000 copies.
The stories are written by French journalists from Society, who were sent to the USA to investigate. Our goal is to offer highly documented and short true crime books that could be read as thrillers, and the result is stunning. The tone is incisive, and straight-to-the-point - as journalists know how to do - and the stories are at the same time as gripping as a thriller, with cliff-hangers at the end of chapters.