When Darkness Falls and The Disappeared - Do not read if you haven't finished the book!

[James-Grippando]

I live near Miami, and south Florida has a large Argentine population. Over the years, I’d listened to stories about the atrocities that took place in Argentina from 1975 to 1983. Finally, I decided to write about them. It was during my research for When Darkness Falls when I uncovered the story of Dagmar Hagelin.
On January 27, 1977 a seventeen-year-old Swedish girl who was living in Buenos Aires disappeared. Dagmar Hagelin was never heard from again. What the Hagelin family, the people of Argentina, and the rest of the world did not know was that the search for her killer would help to unravel one of the worst human rights violations since the Nazi regime—the disappearance of an estimated 30,000 people during the Argentine “Dirty War.”
Witnesses stated that Dagmar Hagelin was shot by her kidnappers, but she was alive when they took her away to an unknown location. Strangely, the Argentine police claimed to have no information about Dagmar, her kidnapping, or the investigation into her disappearance. To her family and friends, it was truly as if she’d vanished. Rumors emerged that Dagmar had been seen alive and on the mend at a place called ESMA, a navy mechanics school. The family’s inquiries about ESMA, however, went nowhere.
By the spring of 1977, it became apparent that the Hagelin family’s experience was by no means unique. One Thursday afternoon in April, fourteen mothers—in defiance of a military dictatorship that had taken power one year earlier—gathered in a plaza in Buenos Aires to demand an answer to a chilling question: “What has the government done with our disappeared children?” They continued to march every Thursday, wearing symbolic white nappies on their heads, carrying poster-sized photographs of their missing children, their numbers growing as the number of “disappeared” also continued to grow.
The Hagelin family eventually began to realize that, perhaps, their daughter was caught up in something far bigger than they could have imagined. During the 1970s, Argentina was a country torn by terrorism. In response to left-wing terrorist attacks, a military junta seized power on March 27, 1976. From that day forward, dissidents began to disappear. Among them were some terrorists. But they also included innocents—teachers, students, journalists, lawyers, intellectuals, laborers, priests, nuns, mothers, sons, fathers and daughters—whose only crime was opposition or suspected opposition to the military government. They were abducted from their homes, the street, or their place of work. They were blindfolded and taken away in government vehicles. Families were given no information as to their whereabouts.
The kidnappings continued for years, as did the government’s denial of any involvement. As neighbors and co-workers vanished in the night, ordinary citizens gave in to their fears and refused to ask questions. Many continued to give their government the benefit of the doubt, telling themselves that the military wouldn’t haul people away without good reason. And some just looked the other way—literally. One of the most disturbing photographs I uncovered doing research for When Darkness Falls shows a young man on the sidewalk being beaten and hauled away by soldiers in broad daylight. If you look closely, you can also see a woman seated by the window inside a restaurant, just a few feet away from the military abduction. She is shielding her eyes.
This kind of national fear hampered every effort by the Hagelin family to uncover Dagmar’s whereabouts. Not until 1983, when Argentina battled Great Britain in the Falkland Islands War, did the military junta topple and the truth emerge. A special international commission found that over 300 secret military detention facilities were set up around the country. There, dissidents were stripped of their identity, beaten, and tortured by some of the sadistic state-sponsored “interrogators” the world has ever known. Many were tortured to death by electric shock or submersion in water. Others were shot and buried in mass graves. Some were even pushed out of airplanes alive, disappearing into the ocean.
The tragic news for the Hagelin family was that ESMA—where Dagmar was last seen alive—was one of the worst detention centers of all.
ESMA was run by Argentine Navy Captain Jorge Acosta, alias "El Tigre" (the tiger). As one report states, “Acosta was clearly a psychopath. One minute he could be kissing a wanted prisoner through the man's hood, overjoyed at seeing him on the torture table of the ESMA, the next minute twisting the dial on the electric shock machine higher and higher, his face contorted with concentration.” Testimony by survivors of ESMA showed that Acosta was responsible 5,000 kidnap and murder cases, many of them thrown out alive into the Atlantic ocean from Navy planes.
Specifics about Dagmar did not emerge until the investigation focused on one of Acosta’s subordinates, Alfredo Artiz. It is believed that Acosta ordered Artiz to execute Dagmar Hagelin not because she was opposed to the government. Indeed, she had been abducted entirely by mistake. However, her release—and her disclosure of the atrocities she had witnessed at ESMA at the hands of the Argentine government—would have caused an international outcry. She was murdered in cold blood to protect the darkest of ESMA, and to stop the world from learning about Argentina’s “disappeared.”
Astiz, then a navy lieutenant, is believed to have shot Dagmar Hagelin in the back of the head. He has never been held accountable for his crime. Amnesty laws enacted in 1985 granted immunity to all those who were “just following orders.”
Interestingly, those amnesty laws were recently overturned by the Argentine Supreme Court. In September 2006, the first trial since the repeal of the amnesty laws resulted in the conviction of a military torturer. After the trial, the government’s chief witness vanished. That witness, Julio Lopez, is now among “the disappeared,” leading to nationwide protests by thousands, and prompting the BBC to report that Argentina’s Dirty War is “not yet over.”
It remains to be seen if Acosta or Artiz will be brought to trial for the murder of Dagmar Hagelin—or for any of the thousands of others murdered at ESMA.
One of the most powerful things about fiction is the way it so often enables you to see the truth in ways that nonfiction can’t. And although the story of Dagmar Hagelin is not in When Darkness Falls, you’ll feel the painful truth about her with each turn of the page.

[Librarian]

James-----Thank you for the background information. The book was very absorbing. I could hardly put it down and read it in three days.I have found that events in history have become more meaningful to me after "living with the characters" so to speak during the course of reading the novel.
Librarian

[James-Grippando]

You're welcome. One of the things you have to balance when writing a thriller of this sort is historical background and pacing. It is a thriller, so the pages have to turn, but the historical background is also a key component. If you read it in three days, sounds like I got the right balance. That's gratifying to know.

[tramonte]

Hi James,

I've already told you how much I LOVE your books.....especially the Jack Swyteck series. This book inspired me to read more about The Disappeared. I love it when a book guides me to learn about history. What a grim, frightening period in Argentina's history. I knew NOTHING about this horror until I read your book.

On a happier note.....Legal thrillers have become my favorite genre and I've read 100's of books. I also have enjoyed Kellerman's Dismas Hardy series and most of the Grisham novels.

I do hope you find another Sam in your life. My Golden Beau is my best friend!!

Carolyn

[James-Grippando]

Hi Carolyn,
Good to hear from you again, and I hope you'll enjoy this discussion with other readers. For the rest of the club: The "Sam in my life" was my Golden Retriever, Sam, also known as Sammy Coo-koo. Sam and I did 11 novels together in his nine too-short years. When Darkness Falls was our last together. I do plan to share more thoughts about Sam over the course of the month, especially if I sense that there are readers out there who have been lucky enough to have a special pet in their life.

[AliciaU]

Hola James!
I have enjoyed your book so very much-and so has my husband, whom never reads!!!(I think we have converted him to a "reader" with your book!)I chose your book for my book club because we wanted a mystery. I have to admit it is my first one of your books I have read, and will now, with my husband, be reading all your others. I guess it's safe to say we are fans!

I was wondering if you had a "link" or could refer me to specific questions for this book that I may be able to use for the club's meeting? and, secondly, How much weight did you place in the symbolism of your characters' names? Oh yeah, I also loved the fact that I share the same name as one of your main characters. Thanks so much! AliciaU.