Bates produces a spy thriller

For The Madera Tribune

Former Madera County Sheriff Ed Bates.

Former Madera County Sheriff Ed Bates has opened a new chapter in his life.

After serving 10 years in Naval Intelligence, and a dynamic career in law enforcement, this quintessential example of a “wild-west lawman” has turned his experiences into a springboard into the literary world. The retired High Sheriff has authored an action-packed spy novel dealing with the Evil Empire.

Bates’ magnum opus has been entitled “The Kendrick File,” and deals with two Naval officers who discover that a foreign spy has infiltrated the National Security Agency with the conspiring cooperation of at least three prominent government officials.

The foreign agent, a Russian, has assumed the identity of a deceased American citizen by the name of Kendrick.

With the assistance of Russian agents and several corrupt high-level federal authorities, the impostor has been placed within the ultra-secret National Security Agency where he is headed into a top security spot.

The two loyal naval officers connected with the OP20g intelligence are assigned to investigate the background of Kendrick in his alleged home town. They discover major discrepancies which appeared to justify a much more precise investigation.

In the process, Russian agents attempt to assassinate the two officers. One is a recent female graduate of the naval academy at Annapolis. The other, a male and former chief petty officer, is now a Commander in the U.S. Navy. During the subsequent investigation, the Russians resort to murder and blackmail in an attempt to put an end to the investigation of the two officers. The pair retaliate by utilizing extra judicial tactics.

The Kendrick File is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Plans are now under way for book signings by Bates at several locations in the Valley.

Bates served 10 years with the U.S. Navy. During that time, he was used against the Imperial Japanese Navy in WWII. Later, he served against the “Evil Empire,” which was and is an enemy of the United States. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, Quantico, VA, and its Command School of Advanced Criminology.

Bates gained national and international fame as the sheriff in charge of the infamous Chowchilla Kidnapping Case. It was this crime that put his picture on the front pages of newspapers all over the world and made his name a household word in California. Fox News has published a podcast about the kidnappings and can be listened to on its website.

In Madera County, however, the kidnapping case was just the tip of the iceberg. By the time Bates came to Madera, he had been involved in a murder at sea, a witness at a gas chamber execution in San Quentin, the sleuth who caught a nervous cop trying to hide his crime, and a dozen other episodes that gave Bates his reputation of being the most unorthodox lawman of his time — and maybe of all time.