Mr.Chuckles

On March 14, 2006, a truck bomb destroyed the Alden Federal Building in Washington, D.C. Thirty-eight people died. Within weeks, the FBI had its man: Daniel Ray Mercer — beloved children's television host, Vietnam veteran, a man America had loved for seventeen years as "Mr. Chuckles."

The evidence was overwhelming. The van. The fibers. The tape.

But Colonel Nathan Cross, the investigator brought in to close the case, kept finding the things that didn't fit. A confession that felt like a performance. Forensics that pointed at a professional. And a name buried in a 1969 Army file — a sergeant who had been nursing a grudge for thirty-seven years.

MR. CHUCKLES is a true-crime account of the bombing, the manhunt, and the twelve-day siege that ended in fire on the banks of the Tallahatchie River. It is also the story of how a country decides what to believe — and what happens to the truth when nobody can find the body.

He may have died in the fire. He may have drowned in the river. Or he may have walked out.