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Pomona College Magazine is published three times a year by Pomona College
550 N. College Ave, Claremont, CA 91711
Online Editor: Laura Tiffany
For editorial matters:
Editor: Mark Wood
Phone: (909) 621-8158
Fax: (909) 621-8203
PCM Editorial Guidelines
Contact Alumni Records for changes of address, class notes, or notice
of births or deaths.
Phone: (909) 621-8635
Fax: (909) 621-8535
Email: alumni@pomona.edu
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Nonfiction / The Brothers Preston
Of Cannibals and Monsters
By Laura Tiffany
Truth can be stranger than fiction, and both Richard Preston ’76 and
his brother Douglas Preston ’78 have documented those truths in recent
nonfiction novels, released this past summer just two weeks apart.
In Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and
Other Journeys to the Edge of Science, Richard collected
and updated seven of his well-known New Yorker
articles on subjects like a terrible genetic disease that
causes self-cannibalizing and the search for the
unknown host of Ebola virus. But perhaps the most
thrilling section is the introduction, where he describes
his experiences in a failed spacesuit in a Level 4
Ebola lab. “I talk about trying to get inside the minds
of the people I write about, including Lieutenant
Colonel Nancy Jaax, who’s the main figure in The
Hot Zone,” says Richard. Jaax had a breach in Level
4; her spacesuit, horrifyingly, was flooded with
Ebola-infected blood. “So in trying to write about her, I wanted
to go into Level 4 and see what it really felt
like to put on a spacesuit and really come face to
face with a hot virus like Ebola,“ says Richard. “But
I got more than I had bargained for.”
For Douglas, it was the Italian police, not a virus,
that turned his writing experience into an unwelcome
adventure. After moving to Italy to write a mystery, he
discovered an unsolved double murder—part of a serial-
killing spree—that had occurred outside his rented
farmhouse. His curiosity piqued, Douglas teamed with
journalist Mario Spezi to study the case and eventually
write The Monster of Florence. The police contended
that the murders, which occurred between 1974 and
1985, were the work of a satanic sect. Douglas and Spezi disagreed.
 At one point, Spezi went on Italy’s version of America’s Most Wanted
and presented evidence about how off-base the official investigation was.
“The chief inspector in charge of the investigation did not take kindly to
being made a fool of on national television. So his reaction was to raid Spezi’s house,” says Douglas, who has also written a dozen thrillers with
co-author Lincoln Chiild, as well as several solo books. Spezi saved their
in-the-works book by hiding a diskette, but he still was held in jail for 23
days, released only after an international uproar.
Douglas was also hauled in and accused of being an accessory.
“Then they pretty much threw me out of Italy. They basically suggested
that I’d be indicted for a series of crimes and that if I returned, I’d be
arrested,” says Douglas, who had already moved back to the U.S.
The Monster of Florence has so far had great success, spending several
weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Douglas says the
brothers, who plan on collaborating someday on a childhood memoir,
don’t have any rivalry when it comes to their books, but jokes about
Richard’s huge success with The Hot Zone, which has sold 2.5 million
copies. “I’ve got a lot of catching up to do here, but that’s OK. I’m
the younger brother. I’ve got a little bit of time to catch up to him.”
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