News release: Chestnut Heights Publishing releases THE LONG SHADOW OF KATY'S KILLER, a book from William D. LaRue
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: William D. LaRue
February 17, 2025
CHESTNUT HEIGHTS PUBLISHING RELEASES THE LONG SHADOW OF KATY’S KILLER: PAROLE HEARINGS AND OTHER UPDATES TO ‘A STRANGER KILLED KATY’
On the eve of the convicted killer’s ninth parole hearing, true-crime author William D. LaRue is again shining a spotlight on the 1986 murder of Clarkson University sophomore Katherine “Katy” Hawelka, of Syracuse, New York. On February 17, 2025, LaRue released his latest book, “The Long Shadow of Katy’s Killer,” through Chestnut Heights Publishing
This follow-up to his 2021 book, “A Stranger Killed Katy,” gives readers a front-row seat to startling new developments, including her murderer’s 2021 and 2023 parole hearings, where Brian Milton McCarthy clashes with commissioners who question the level of his remorse and challenge his claims that he struck Katy just one time during consensual sex.
His 2023 hearing is his longest and most intense, after McCarthy fails in his demand for a postponement so he can find a way to remove copies of “A Stranger Killed Katy” that found their way into his parole file. At one point, he complains that LaRue “wrote the book to try to make my crime look worse than it really is.” McCarthy quickly backtracks: “I don’t think you can. It was the most heinous crime, in my opinion.”
“The Long Shadow of Katy’s Killer” arrives in stores in both paperback ($11.95) and eBook ($4.99) formats.
LaRue’s first book about Katy Hawelka profiled the 19-year-old and recounted the events of August 29, 1986, when she was beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted outside an ice hockey arena on the Clarkson campus in Potsdam, New York. McCarthy, a repeat offender out on parole at the time, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder committed during an attempted rape, and he was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison. His first chance at parole came in 2009; he has been denied eight times since then. McCarthy’s next parole hearing is scheduled for April 2025.
Early chapters of “The Long Shadow of Katy’s Killer” lay the groundwork for understanding McCarthy’s latest parole hearings, examining newly uncovered—and often flawed—psychological evaluations and risk assessments that he has relied upon to argue for his release. The book also devotes chapters to the emotional battle waged by Katy’s family, who present impact statements before every parole hearing to argue he should remain behind bars.
The publication of “A Stranger Killed Katy” in 2021 brought renewed national attention to Katy’s murder, drawing coverage in a two-part episode of the popular “Morbid” true-crime podcast that streamed in 2022. The book and the national podcast has helped to inspire more than 60,000 people to sign the family’s online petition opposing McCarthy’s release.
WILLIAM D. LARUE is an award-winning journalist and former reporter for The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York, and a retired online producer for newspaper websites owned by Advance Local. A native of Potsdam, New York, he received a bachelor’s degree in English from State University College at Potsdam and a master’s degree in communications from Syracuse University. LaRue, a father of two, lives in a suburb of Syracuse with his wife, Kathleen.
THE LONG SHADOW OF KATY’S KILLER: PAROLE HEARINGS AND OTHER UPDATES TO ‘A STRANGER KILLED KATY’
By William D. LaRue. 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.33(d) inches, 150 pages, will be available in paperback (ISBN 978-1-7322416-9-5) and eBook (ISBN 978-1-7322416-7-1) formats at major online booksellers, including Amazon, Apple Books, and Barnes & Noble. Publication date: February 17, 2025
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News release: Chestnut Heights Publishing releases A STRANGER KILLED KATY, a book from William D. LaRue
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 18, 2021
Contact: William D. LaRue
CHESTNUT HEIGHTS PUBLISHING RELEASES A STRANGER KILLED KATY: THE TRUE STORY OF KATHERINE HAWELKA, HER MURDER ON A NEW YORK CAMPUS, AND HOW HER FAMILY FOUGHT BACK
In the early morning hours of August 29, 1986, Clarkson University sophomore Katy Hawelka – bright, pretty and full of life – strolled back to her upstate New York campus after a night out. On the dimly lit path beside the university’s ice hockey arena, a stranger emerged from the darkness. The brutal beating, sexual assault and fatal strangulation that followed rocked the campus and the local community in Potsdam, New York.
Now, on the eve of the convicted killer’s seventh parole hearing in April 2021, award-winning journalist William D. LaRue has authored A Stranger Killed Katy, a 295-page book about this small-town murder and how Katy’s family channeled their grief into action, including a campaign three decades later to keep Brian Milton McCarthy behind bars.
The book arrived in stores on January 18, 2021, as hardcover ($21.95), paperback ($14.95) and eBook ($9.95) editions from Chestnut Heights Publishing.
Based on more than two-dozen interviews, as well as thousands of pages of court records, police files, prison records, and other documents, LaRue details the tragic events that occurred before dawn outside Walker Arena, including why two Clarkson security guards who witnessed the attack failed to intervene. The book also reveals how a bureaucratic glitch allowed McCarthy to avoid court-ordered supervision, despite being on parole at the time of the attack; why the judge gave McCarthy less than the maximum sentence in Katy’s murder; and how public comments by Clarkson officials prompted Katy parents to file a $550 million civil lawsuit against the killer, the university and the two guards.
With painstaking detail and an engaging writing style, LaRue traces Katy Hawelka’s life growing up, her blend of intellect and friendly charm as a high school student in Syracuse, New York, and her fateful decision to enroll at Clarkson. A Stranger Killed Katy draws on in-depth interviews with her mother, Terry Taber; three siblings, Betsy McInerney, Carey Patton and Joseph Hawelka Jr.; and many of Katy’s closest friends in high school and college. LaRue also spoke with several former Potsdam police officers who investigated the murder; the district attorney who prosecuted the case; the chief of the ambulance crew that treated Katy when she “coded” at the scene; the man who was president of Clarkson University in 1986; the family attorney who joined the fight to achieve justice for Katy; and numerous others.
LaRue brings the story up to date by drawing on parole board transcripts, which reveal how McCarthy, during his hearings since 2009, has referred to Katy as “Kathy Walker”; has suggested that he was also a victim; has claimed that Katy asked to have sex with him on the morning of the attack and that she attacked him because he could not perform sexually; and has stated erroneously that Katy died because she fell and pinched her neck after he struck her once. Additionally, he has insisted to parole commissioners that he had stayed out of trouble in prison in recent years, although records show otherwise.
A Stranger Killed Katy raises broader questions, too, about the role and quality of campus security, about the rights of victims in the criminal justice system, and whether victims and their families should be forced to endure the cycle of parole hearings every two years, as is the law now in New York state.
WILLIAM D. LARUE is an award-winning journalist and former reporter for The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York, and recently retired as an online producer for newspaper websites owned by Advance Local. A native of Potsdam, New York, he received a bachelor’s degree in English from State University College at Potsdam and a master’s degree in communications from Syracuse University. His previous books include 2015’s CANDY: True Tales of a 1st Cavalry Soldier in the Korean War and Occupied Japan, co-written with his father, Kenneth J. LaRue; and 2018’s Captain Puckett: Sea Stories of a Former Panama Canal Pilot, co-written with Kenneth P. Puckett. William LaRue, a father of two, lives in a suburb of Syracuse with his wife, Kathleen.
A STRANGER KILLED KATY: THE TRUE STORY OF KATHERINE HAWELKA, HER MURDER ON A NEW YORK CAMPUS, AND HOW HER FAMILY FOUGHT BACK
By William D. LaRue
5.98 x 0.69 x 9.02 inches, 295 pages, with more than two-dozen black and white photographs
$21.95 hardcover, $9.94 eBook. ISBN 978-1-7322416-4-0 (hardcover), ISBN 978-1-7322416-3-3 (eBook)
Publication date: January 18, 2021
THE BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE AT NUMEROUS STORES, INCLUDING AMAZON.COM, IN BOTH PRINT AND EBOOK VERSIONS.
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