[Above, Phoebe Eaton with El Chapo’s 90-year-old mother Doña Consuelo Loera de Guzmán.]

In the Thrall of the Mountain King: The Secret History of El Chapo, the World’s Most Notorious Narco

Amazon Kindle Single, #1 new Biography/Memoir its third day on sale; #1 Organized Crime Kindle Single, Best Narco Books (CLICK PIC TO BUY ON AMAZON)

Part 1 of the “In Search of El Chapo” trilogy, as excerpted in the New York Post.

Winner: Mexico’s International Journalism Award 2021 (Premio Internacional de Periodismo) from the Press Club of Mexico, CDMX)

As featured on The Recount network’s News Items Podcast with John Ellis/June 22, 2021

Phoebe Eaton journeys past cartel checkpoints up to El Chapo’s remote hometown hideout in the Sierra Madre to interview Joaquín Guzmán Loera’s family multiple times and separate man from myth.

The surprising telenovela details of his childhood are laid bare in this exploration of exactly how this third-grade dropout and Mexico’s most controversial narco-trafficker rappelled his way from the rock pile that is La Tuna, Sinaloa, onto Forbes magazine's big-time billionaire list. How the Sinaloa Cartel boss managed to govern a $12.7-billion empire even as he was on the lam, holed up in simple pine shacks with plastic folding chairs where the phone service went down if it was raining.

[“Extraordinario trabajo”] — 2021 PRESS CLUB OF MEXICO INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARD CITATION

Also, surprising revelations about the Pentecostal faith his family (and he) credit with keeping him alive all these years. The unusual practices he believes helped him escape jail and the authorities over and over again. Including the gift his mother and sisters (and even himself, supposedly) have of speaking in tongues.

The book features many hitherto unseen photos of Chapo's haunts in Badiraguato Municipality’s La Tuna, the surprising seat of empire. Also rare material from Chapo’s Brooklyn court trial, where he was convicted on all ten counts of his indictment and is now serving a life sentence in Colorado's Supermax prison. 

How El Chapo lived and how he loved, the deal with his many wives and the very many children, and a multitude of new stories and details of his life straight from the courthouse.

The book features many hitherto unseen photos of Chapo's haunts in La Tuna, the surprising seat of empire. And revelations about the Pentecostal faith his family (and he) credit with keeping him alive and free so many years.

[Left, Chapo’s hometown high in the Sierra Madre: La Tuna, Sinaloa. Below, Doña Consuelo Loera de Guzmán, outside the church son Chapo had built so she could pray away the threat of his imprisonment.]