Patrick Radden Keefe will speak and sign copies of his new book, "The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream," from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the York County Heritage Trust Historical Society Museum, 250 E. Market St.
Below, Byron Borger, owner of Hearts & Minds bookstore in Dallastown, writes about the book and his own experiences:
I can remember the conversation like it was yesterday. I recall planning the subsequent protest/prayer vigil at York County Prison, the guns aimed at us there on Concord Road, the impromptu press conference. I recall the natural leadership of my dear friend and local United Methodist pastor, Joan Maruskin as she stepped -- pushed by the Spirit, she might say -- into the local and national limelight.
I will never forget the gladness in the moment we met the savvy and passionate -- -ticked off with righteous indignation, he might say --- small town lawyer, Craig Trebilcock. It was obvious that he was willing and able to speak to prison officials and TV reporters and the array of religious human rights advocates gathered at the prison.
It was early August 1993. It was one of the most important days in my life as it started an involvement with the local support group, People of the Golden Vision, gathered to demand fair asylum hearings for dozens of Chinese immigrants detained by the INS, sent oddly to our central Pennsylvania prison.
When "The Snakehead" author Patrick Keefe writes of that day, halfway through his sprawling epic of organized crime in Chinatown, climaxing in the study of human smuggling, including the Golden Venture detainees, my hands shook.
