Ovid Demaris (given name Ovide E. Desmarais) was born September 6, 1919 in Biddeford, Maine. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces, he graduated from College of Idaho in 1948 and Boston University in 1950. He then became a United Press correspondent and newspaper reporter, before turning to writing books, both fiction and non-fiction, most of them featuring organized crime. Demaris is best known as the co-author of The Green Felt Jungle, an expose of the Mafia in Las Vegas, and The Last Mafioso, his biography of Jimmy Fratianno. Two of his novels were turned into films, including The Hoods Take Over. Demaris passed away on March 12, 1998, also in Biddeford, Maine.