Doctor relates story of his kidnapping in Amarillo

Dr. Steven L. Berk, dean of the Texas Tech School of Medicine in Amarillo, was taken hostage from his home on Sunday morning, March 6, 2005, by a desperate criminal armed with a shotgun and needing money.

Berk relates his hair-raising story in a gripping memoir, "Anatomy of a Kidnapping: A Doctor's Story".

"Four hours," he writes. "That was the amount of time between looking down the barrel of a gun and finding myself free along a silent highway lined by cotton fields. In the time period that seemed eternal, my unique experiences as a doctor created an indescribable bond between myself and my captor.

"I looked upon the situation just as I looked upon a medical emergency: I took a deep breath, hid my panic, and tried to solve the situation."

Berk weaves his medical training and experiences into the story of that four-hour period when the armed stranger entered his home, took him hostage, drove around trying to get cash (Berk didn't know his PIN number and couldn't withdraw money from his ATM), and finally turned him loose outside of Bushland, west of Amarillo.

During the ordeal, Berk memorized the 14-digit vehicle registration number of the kidnapper's SUV, which led to the capture and conviction of Jack Lindsey Jordan, who remains in prison today.

This is one of those stories that you just can't put down once you start reading.

From the experience, Berk said he has learned "to live each day to its fullest; to celebrate the joys of family, work, and good health; and to appreciate our every moment as precious."

Legends and Folktales: Bradley T. Turner has put together a collection of 70 local legends in and around Waco — "Cotton Bales, Goatmen & Witches: Legends from the Heart of Texas".

Each piece — such as "The Kaiser's Killer," "The Misty Man," "The Farmer's Daughter," and "The West Witch" — includes a paragraph or two of text and a photograph by Mark Burdine. TSTC Publishing is affiliated with Texas State Technical College Waco.

Silver Boomer Books: Two new anthologies have been published by Abilene-based Silver Boomer Books, which now has produced 17 books. The new ones are "Flashlight Memories" and "The Harsh and the Heart: Celebrating the Military."

"Flashlight Memories" is a collection of about 100 short essays and poems from dozens of contributors about their earliest memories of the joy of reading.

"The Harsh and the Heart" was inspired by the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but was expanded to include pieces about military life and service. The book is dedicated "to those who serve overseas, at the homefront, in the home waiting without end."

Also from Silver Boomer Books is "A Cloud of Witnesses: Two Big Books and Us" by Barbara Rollins with O.A. Stepper. The short inspirational poems and prayers are based on text from the biblical book of Hebrews and from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.