#manayunk

Ride Time

Manayunk

Artist: Thomas Gaughan (English-born American, 1925-2007)

Date: 1954

Medium: Oil on canvas

“Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to be possible and truth doesn't.”

JORDAN WALLACE

Age: 34 Gender and pronouns: Male, He/Him Occupation: Former crime reporter & novelist Neighborhood: Manayunk

BIOGRAPHY

tw: heart disease, death

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Jordan Wallace is the oldest of four children created by a construction worker turned developer and a dental assistant. They were a large family yet a generally happy and well-balanced family. His biggest obsession as a child was basketball. Anywhere and anytime he could play, Jordan had a ball in his hands and dreamed of one day being in the NBA. If at all possible he wouldn’t miss a game on television, and often got in trouble for dribbling and tossing that ball around the house. He played for the YMCA, youth leagues, and his schools. Which eventually earned him a scholarship to the University of Washington.

Aside from basketball, the biggest dream he had was to be a writer. It was something he shared with his grandfather, his love for books and reading. They’d talk about all the books they read, sometimes even read the same so they could compare notes, and his grandfather had once told Jordan that he wished he had gotten into the publishing business. It inspired Jordan once in university, he studied english and creative writing, played basketball and picked up beach volleyball, and somewhere along the way he ended up taking a bit of a detour. In needing to fulfill credits and requirements, Jordan took a journalism class and his writing got him noticed. He ended up really loving the writing style and found that he had natural instincts as an investigator.

Once he graduated Jordan had a few daily newspapers seeking him out but he chose the The Philadelphia Inquirer to return home and began working the crime desk. It turned into a bit of an obsession for Jordan. The job, he worked non-stop, covering the biggest crime stories in the city, and while he built up a reputation and eventually won himself a Pulitzer Prize it all came at the sacrifice of his family and friendships. Every single relationship he tried had failed due to him not being present enough. Jordan always put the work and writing first, he believed he was doing important work and was going to make a difference, and had always been very proud, but it eventually took too big of a toll.

When his mother was diagnosed with a heart condition, Jordan wrongly assumed he had more time than he did and not only missed out on most of her suffering and being there to be a support for her, he hadn’t been there when she passed away. Instead, Jordan had been off investigating a story. The story turned out to be one of the biggest of his career, and maybe also the most dangerous. One that challenged him as a human being; his values, what he stood for, who has the right of justice.

A woman had reached out to him, telling him about something that had been happening on cruise ships. It was something she had done her own little investigation into because her friend went missing at sea. Digging into it he found that there was a history to this, something that has never really been made hugely public and garnered enough press attention. So Jordan went on the investigative hunt trying to find out what happened with this missing woman and found out there was one before her and almost a year to the date. In the end, he uncovered the truth and found the person responsible, but committed his own crime in the process. Something Jordan now has to live with himself over.

After that and the passing of his mother, he kept the promise he had made to himself and quit investigative journalism. He’d always intended and had meant to be a novelist. Since then he’s written five New York Time’s Best Sellers. Using some of his experiences as a crime reporter for inspiration.