Huckabee's Jonesboro book still rankles

Critics say the Arkansas governor cashed in on the school shooting with the 1998 publication of 'Kids Who Kill.'
By Richard A. Serrano
Los Angeles Times

JONESBORO, ARK. -- After two middle-school boys in full camouflage gear shot and killed four of their classmates and a teacher here, leaving 10 others wounded and a community shattered, it seemed inevitable that someone would see opportunity in the tragedy for a book deal.

Indeed, within days a publisher agreed to pay $25,000 to an Arkansas writer to produce a book on youth violence.

Victims' family members were outraged. They called the payment blood money and said the author was cashing in on their pain. They demanded that the money go to the school, the victims' families or for scholarships for the wounded, not to the writer's personal bank account. He refused.

That the author was Mike Huckabee, Arkansas' governor at the time, made their resentment all the stronger.

"He took advantage of us," said Pam Herring, whose daughter, Paige Ann, had just turned 12 when she was shot to death.

(Continued here.)