Ann Cleeves Press. Ann Cleeves Ann Cleeves (born 1954) is an English crime-writer. In 2006 she won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the richest crime-writing prize in the world, for her novel "Raven Black". Cleeves studied English at Sussex University but dropped out. She then took up various jobs including cook, auxiliary coastguard, probation officer, library outreach worker and child care officer. She lives in Whitley Bay, and is widowed with two daughters. The Vera Stanhope novels have been dramatized as the TV detective series "Vera" and the Jimmy Perez novels as the series "Shetland". In 2014 Cleeves was awarded an Honorary
Murders of Gerald and Vera Woodman who also had another murder conviction in Nevada, was sentenced to death in January 1995. He remained on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California for almost twenty years. On November 5, 2014, he died of natural causes in a nearby hospital. The story of the murders and the investigation was featured on "The New Detectives", "LA Forensics", and "Nothing Personal" as well as the two-part made-for-TV movie "Bloodlines: Murder in the Family" starring Elliott Gould and Sam Wanamaker. Murders of Gerald and Vera Woodman The murders of Gerald and Vera Woodman, also referred to by the press