James E. Overmyer is a former crime beat reporter n Pittsfield, Massachusetts, before becoming an administrator in the District Attorney’s Office there, and eventually a staff member of the New York State Office of Court Administration in nearby Albany, New York. His experiences in those jobs led him to write his current book, “The Electrocution of Baby Lawrence.” He has also written three books and several articles in his other field of interest, sports history. His major work is Queen of the Negro Leagues: Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles, the biography of the woman owner of a major league baseball team in the pre-integration Negro Leagues who is the only female member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.