History Press lands 'gripping' account of teenager who took on a war criminal by Piercey

The History Press has landed a “gripping” account of a teenager’s victory over the "Butcher of the Balkans" by Judy Piercey. 

Amy Rigg, commissioning editor, acquired world rights, excluding the US, Canada and Australia, to The Fierce: The Untold Story of the Teenager Who Took on the Worst War Criminal Living in America from Karlov Marketing Services and Myth Merchant Films. Publication is scheduled for February 2023. 

The book tells the story of how for three decades, the "Butcher of the Balkans" lived an idyllic life with his family in a Los Angeles suburb. Wanted for war crimes involving the oversight of death camps and participation in the brutal murders of 700,000 men, women and children during the Second World War, Andrija Artukovic claimed political asylum after entering the US illegally in 1948. In 1975, teenager David Whitelaw, whose own family was deeply scarred by the Holocaust, made it his mission to do something when nobody else would. 

Piercey said: “My three years of research for this book opened my eyes to atrocities that I had never heard about in a lifetime of reading about the Holocaust. As I delved into news coverage and public records about the notorious war criminal hiding in plain sight in the United States, the dogma of the Cold War created a chilling echo of the world today.” 

Michael Jorgenson of Myth Merchant Films, a film company with a focus on untold true stories, said: “One of the first things that really fascinated me when I found this story is the question it poses. How much would you be willing to risk to correct a great injustice? How this central question was answered by a teenager of the 1970s provides the foundation for one of the great untold stories of the 20th century.” 

Rigg added: “Judy Piercey’s gripping book vividly places the reader right in the heart of events, presenting an unflinching account of both the horrendous cruelty of the man hiding in plain sight and the bravery of the teenager who made it his mission to take him on. It is a powerful story with important lessons for future generations to absorb, both in what humans are capable of during times of war and the long-lasting legacy of trauma for those affected.”