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Red Zone:
The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the
San Francisco
Dog Mauling
 

“In this riveting book, noted true-crime writer Jones goes behind the headlines and tells the whole story with simple, straightforward prose and plenty of close observation. It’s a story that begins before the fatal attack and continues beyond its aftermath to embrace such hot-button issues as animal rights, the responsibilities of animal owners, and the legal rights of same-sex partners. This is no “quickie” book released to capitalize on the headlines; rather, it’s thoughtful, compassionate, unsettling, and enlightening.”
      - Booklist

In January 2001, Diane Whipple was mauled to death by a neighbor's two dogs in the hallway of her San Francisco apartment building. The incident shocked the dog-loving city, and then the nation at large. As the investigation and trial played out under the watchful eyes of the media, the appalling truth and bizarre details behind this innocent woman’s senseless killing came to light―revealing a shocking story featuring white supremacists, incarcerated criminals, flagrant animal abuse, erotic fantasies, and even allegations of bestiality.

It first seemed like a horrible accident. Diane Whipple was returning to her apartment with groceries when the neighbors' huge dogs attacked her inexplicably. One went for her throat. Her clothes were ripped from her body. Despite extensive emergency surgery, Whipple died a few hours after the attack. Almost immediately, there were questions about why attorneys Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller had the two Presa Canarios, a rare and dangerous breed of attack dog, in their small city apartment. Also Knoller, who had been unable to control the dogs during the attack, showed little remorse over Whipple's death, and rushed to defend herself and her dogs against the allegations being flung at them. Noel, an abrasive, publicity-seeking attorney, immediately took the offensive when dealing with investigators and the media.

As Jones documents in Red Zone, Noel and Knoller’s strange connections with a convicted felon held the key to the case. From his maximum-security cell at Pelican Bay Prison, Paul "Cornfed" Schneider commanded an army of Aryan Brotherhood operatives both in and out of custody. Just a few days after the mauling, the two attorneys legally adopted the 39-year-old convict, and it was revealed that the two killer dogs, Bane and Hera, actually belonged to him. The attack dogs were just two of a small pack of Presa Canarios that Schneider was raising as part of a moneymaking operation. The dogs had been improperly raised by another of Schneider's minions.

Even more incredibly, Noel and Knoller seemed to have been involved in a bizarre love triangle with Schneider, an ongoing erotic fantasy game involving Celtic runes and pornographic correspondence. Drawing on letters and photos that passed between the couple and their "son," Jones pieces together an elaborate web of sexual fantasy that hints at bestiality among other aberrations. Using information taken from taped interviews, sealed hearings, grand jury testimony, and signed affidavits, Jones tracks the case to its controversial conclusion, with Noel and Knoller convicted of involuntary manslaughter—a reduced verdict that many considered inadequate.

Jones points to two important laws passed in California in the wake of Diane Whipple's killing, one of which holds any caretaker of an animal criminally responsible for it actions. Jones hopes that the case she so vividly recreates in Red Zone awakens the nation to the responsibility that humans have to protect animals, both in our neighborhoods and in our wildlife.

Red Zone is a Featured Alternate Selection of The Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, Book-of-the-Month Club, Quality Paperback Book Club (in hardcover), and InSightOut Book Club. Red Zone was later published in a paper back edition in May 2004.

“Jones displays a remarkable ability to present an enormous amount of detailed information in a thrilling narrative that is neither sensationalistic nor maudlin." 
      - Publishers Weekly

“Jones keeps the sinister beat thrumming along with prose that has a dark vitality.”
      - Kirkus Reviews 

See the July 7, 2003 article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

New!  For updated information about the real people written about in this book, please read our updated page entitled, "Where Are They Now?"
 

Aphrodite Jones

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