About Ronald J. Watkins
Before becoming a full time writer the author worked as an Adult Probation Officer, Chief Administrative Law Judge and Assistant Director of a state regulatory agency where he served as his state’s chief insurance fraud investigator managing a team of 30 investigators.
Since becoming a writer he has written more than 30 books. These include Birthright, an account of the family that owns U-Haul and of the murder of Eva Shoen, plus Evil Intentions and Against Her Will, true accounts of murder. He has appeared on Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege and Justice, PrimeTime! with Tom Brokow and Katie Couric, Under Scrutiny with Jane Wallace and Geraldo with Geraldo Rivera.
Between 1993 and 1995 he resisted a subpoena served on him to compel he name his sources in researching Birthright. A Federal judge twice held him in contempt and ordering him jailed for refusing. Both times the orders were appealed and resulted in case law which upheld his right, and those of other writers, to withhold such names.
He has been reviewed in all major publications which include The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, to name just a few. His book, Unknown Seas, a history of the Portuguese discoveries and the first European voyage to India by Vasco da Gama, received enthusiastic reviews. The Scotsman called it “a gripping adventure narrative”. The Naval Review referred to it as “stirring stuff” and “a fine read” while The Guardian called it “fascinating”. He authored a chapter on Vasco da Gama for The Great Explorers, published by Thames & Hudson in the United Kingdom in 2010.
Now mostly retired, he lives in the Andes in South America.