Mark Gado's first book, titled Killer Priest, will be published in March 2006. Using keen investigative insight, combined with the pace and drama of a best-selling novel, Killer Priest is the terrifying true story of the only Catholic priest in American history to be executed for murder. This heart-stopping psychological thriller describes the life of a tormented man who lost the ultimate battle between good and evil. Using official records and Father Hans Schmidt's own words, Killer Priest takes the reader on an unforgettable journey into the twisted mind of an unrepentant killer who once roamed the darkened corridors of the Catholic Church. Gruesome, chilling, yet utterly fascinating, Killer Priest reads like fiction, but it is all too real.

Mark Gado is a detective with the City of New Rochelle Police Department in New York for the past twenty-nine years. He was also a federal agent assigned to a D.E.A. Task Force from 1997 to 1999. During that assignment, he received the International Award of Honor in New Orleans, LA. Mark was also named Investigator of the Year 2000 and received dozens of other awards and commendations during his long police career.

As a writer for over twenty years, his work has appeared on numerous websites and in many publications, including Law Enforcement Journal, Cobblestone, A History Magazine for Young People, Vietnam Express, Strange Days magazine (two cover stories), Correction History, Rochester Magazine (cover story 2004) and Famous American Crimes and Trials Encyclopedia (2004) His story about serial killer Carl Panzram, Monster of Minnesota (2004) won a Page One award for one of the top three magazine articles of the year. He also appeared in a Swedish public television documentary on the 1964 Kitty Genovese murder case. Mark has a B.A. in Criminal Justice 1998 and an M. S. in Criminal Justice from Iona College 2001. He is currently working on his next book, Roadhouse Tramp: Death Row Women and the New York Press.

Like many of his law enforcement colleagues, Mark joined the rescue effort at Ground Zero immediately after September 11th. He is also a U.S. Army combat veteran of Viet Nam 1967-1968.