SOURCE: "Probing the Mind of the True Crime Detective," in The Writer, Vol. 108, No. 4, April, 1995, pp. 7-9.

[In the essay below, Boardman offers advice on how to write an article for a true-crime magazine.]

Nonfiction writers can never truly get inside the mind of a real person, not to the point where we know everything about him. Fiction writers are the only gods on the planet who can wholly create persons and imbue their personalities with all the complexities of real people.

Writers of nonfiction can do only what other keen observers might do: listen and record what the person says about himself and what he did, what other people said he said and did, and what they observe directly.

A true crime writer uses indirect and direct observation to describe his protagonist, but his main subject is the crime itself. The writer should never make the mistake...