Edward Eliot Kramer (born March 20, 1961) is an American editor and convicted

child molester Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child (whet ...

. Kramer lives in

Duluth, Georgia Duluth ( ) is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. Located north of Interstate 85, it is approximately northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Duluth had a population of 31,873, and the United Stat ...

, and was a co-founder and part-owner of the

Dragon*Con Dragon Con (previously Dragon*Con and sometimes DragonCon) is a North American multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place annually over the Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. , the convention draws attendance of over 80,000. ...

media convention. Kramer has also edited several works in the genres of

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

, and horror. Before pleading guilty in 2013 to three counts of child molestation, Kramer was the subject of a long-running legal battle that began with his initial arrest in August 2000.

Early life

Kramer was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family. He holds a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Emory College and a Master of Public Health in

health administration Health administration, healthcare administration, healthcare management, health services management or hospital management is the field relating to leadership, management, and administration of public health systems, health care systems, ho ...

and planning from the

Rollins School of Public Health The Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) is the public health school of Emory University. Founded in 1990, Rollins has more than 1,100 students pursuing master's degrees ( MPH/MSPH) and over 150 students pursuing doctorate degrees (PhD). The ...

Emory University School of Medicine The Emory University School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of Emory University and a component of Emory’s Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center. Emory University School of Medicine traces its origins back to 1915 when the Atl ...

. In the 1980s, Kramer was former program director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Council on Alcohol and Drugs.

Career

Editing

Kramer is the editor of the

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

''Dark Love'' and ''Grails'' (

Roc Books Roc Books is a fantasy imprint of Penguin Group, as part of its New American Library. It was launched in April 1990 after Penguin Chairman Peter Mayer asked John Silbersack, the editor in chief of New American Library's science fiction (SF) pro ...

); '' The Sandman: Book of Dreams'' by

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

(

HarperPrism Harper Prism (1993–1999) was launched by John Silbersack, Publishing Director, in 1993 as the first science fiction and fantasy imprint (trade name), imprint of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States. Prism's early authors included Steph ...

); ''

The Crow ''The Crow'' is a supernatural superhero comic book series created by James O'Barr revolving around the titular character of the same name. The series, which was originally created by O'Barr as a means of dealing with the death of his fianc� ...

'', by James O'Barr (

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

); ''Free Space'' (

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...

); ''Forbidden Acts'' (

Avon Books Avon Publications is a leading publisher of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reaching and ma ...

); '' Elric: Tales of the White Wolf'' and ''Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the

Eternal Champion The Eternal Champion is a fictional character created by British author Michael Moorcock and is a recurrent feature in many of his speculative fiction works. General overview Many of Moorcock's novels and short stories take place in a shared ...

'' (based on the works and characters of

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has wo ...

); ''Dante's Disciples'', ''Tombs'', and the ''Dark Destiny'' trilogy (White Wolf); and ''Strange Attraction: Turns of the Midnight Carnival Wheel'' (Bereshith Publishing). He has also worked for over a decade as a

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

and

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (suc ...

Dragon Con and other events

In 1987, he co-founded

, a convention dedicated to science fiction, fantasy,

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

gaming Gaming may refer to: Games and sports The act of playing games, as in: * Legalized gambling, playing games of chance for money, often referred to in law as "gaming" * Playing a role-playing game, in which players assume fictional roles * Playing ...

, and the popular arts. He has not been involved with Dragon Con planning or activities since 2000, but still owned 34% of the business until Kramer's relationship with the convention was ended in July 2013 in a cash-out merger. He has also chaired the 1990 Atlanta

Origins Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...

convention, the 1992

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

World Fantasy Convention The World Fantasy Convention is an annual science fiction convention, convention of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of fantasy. The World Fantasy Awards are presented at the event. Other features include an art sh ...

, and the

Nebula Awards The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of pro ...

Weekend, and both the

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

World Horror Convention, and the

North American Science Fiction Convention NASFiC, an abbreviation for North American Science Fiction Convention, is a science fiction convention scheduled in North America during years when a Worldcon is being held outside North America; NASFiCs are held only during such years. Bids for ...

(NASFiC) in 1995. In 1999, he chaired the

World Horror Convention.

Child sex offense arrests and convictions

2000 arrest

Kramer was arrested on August 25, 2000, following an investigation spurred by an anonymous tip, and charged with molesting three teenage boys. The investigation revealed that he had previously been accused of molestation in 1997 before the alleged victim recanted. Before Kramer was arrested, he had a reputation for inappropriate relationships. According to ''

'' magazine, he "was constantly surrounded by young boys". Kramer's first attempt to serve his pre-trial detention in house arrest lasted only a week due to a reported visit by a teenage boy. After that, he was remanded to jail. Kramer subsequently suffered a spinal injury while in jail. In response to that injury, and Kramer's assertion of declining health, Judge Debra Turner allowed him to go back to pre-trial detention in house arrest in January 2001. In 2007, former congressman

Bob Barr Robert Laurence Barr Jr. (born November 5, 1948) is an American attorney and politician who served as president of the National Rifle Association from 2024 to 2025. He previously served as a federal prosecutor and as a U.S. Representative, repr ...

said, "There is an overwhelming sense of injustice that pervades all of what has happened to Petitioner Appellant Edward Kramer." Protests to "Free Ed" gained the support of science fiction writers

Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave science fiction, New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published wo ...

Anne McCaffrey Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American writer known for the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, ''Weyr Search'', 1968) an ...

, Robert J. Sawyer and J. Neil Schulman. Conversely, Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said in September 2010 that Kramer had "done nothing but delay and blame everyone else but himself", agreeing with an assessment that the Georgia Court of Appeals gave in September 2007: "The record strongly indicates that Kramer either sought or knowingly acquiesced in the great majority of the delay and did not want a speedy trial." Kramer and his lawyers disputed this, stating that he had serious health issues that prevented him from sitting through a long trial. In 2008, after seven years of pre-trial detention in house arrest, and numerous delays in his court proceedings, Kramer's travel ban was lifted.

2011 arrest

In September 2011, Kramer was arrested after Connecticut police found him in a motel room, unsupervised, with a 14-year-old boy despite being banned from contacting anyone under 18. The felony "risk of injury to a child" was added to the list of charges for which he was to stand trial. In September 2012, Kramer was being held at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, a maximum security facility in

Suffield, Connecticut Suffield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region, and located in the Connecticut River Valley. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 censu ...

, before his extradition to Georgia in January 2013. On April 26, 2013, he was denied the chance to post

bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...

, as the presiding judge concluded based on past behavior that he was likely to break the conditions of his bond.

Guilty plea to 2000 charges

On December 2, 2013, more than thirteen years after his 2000 arrest, Kramer entered an

Alford plea In United States law, an Alford plea, also called a Kennedy plea in West Virginia, an Alford guilty plea, and the Alford doctrine, is a guilty plea in criminal court, whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act a ...

to one charge for each of the three victims, just before his trial was scheduled to start. In 2014, he sought to reverse the 2013 plea, with his lawyer claiming Kramer was forced into the plea bargain through prosecutorial misconduct. The Georgia State Attorney's Office ordered the recusal of both the district attorney and the Gwinnett District Attorney's Office from the case, since they were also witnesses in the action. All Gwinnett County Judges voluntarily recused themselves as well.

2019 arrest and indictment

On February 27, 2019, Kramer was arrested by officers from the Lawrenceville Police Department for allegedly taking photos of a young boy at a doctor's office. On September 18, 2019, Kramer, along with Gwinnett County Judge Kathryn Schrader, was indicted after being allowed improper access to the county's secure computer network. Kramer was later charged with possession of child pornography as a result of that investigation. Judge Schrader was subsequently suspended from the bench, pending the outcome of a trial.

Plea and trial

On February 3, 2020, Kramer entered an

of guilty to charges related to trespass into the secure

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

. On February 18, 2020, Schrader's court case resulted in a

mistrial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, ...

Bibliography

*''Tales of

Riverworld The Riverworld series consists of five science fiction novels (1971–1983) by American author Philip José Farmer (1918–2009). The Riverworld is an artificial, or heavily terraformed, planet where all humans (and pre-humans) who ever lived t ...

'' (1992) *''Grails: Quests, Visitations and Other Occurrences'' (1992), a

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

nominee for Best Anthology *''Quest to

'' (1993) *''Confederacy of the Dead'' (1993) *''Phobias'' (1994) *'' Michael Moorcock's Elric: Tales of the White Wolf'' (1994) *''Grails: Visitations of the Night'' (1994) *The ''Dark Destiny'' trilogy is set in White Wolf publishing's ''

World of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with ''Vampire: The Masquerade'', ''Werewolf: The Apocaly ...

'': *#''Dark Destiny'' (1994) *#''Dark Destiny II: Proprietors of Fate'' (1995) *#''Dark Destiny III: Children of

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

'' (1996) *''Dante's Disciples'' (1998) *''Excalibur'' (1995) *''Tombs'' (1995) *''More Phobias'' (1995) *''Forbidden Acts'' (1995) *''Dark Love'' (1996), a

and

International Horror Guild Award The International Horror Guild Award (also known as the IHG Award) was an accolade recognizing excellence in the field of horror/dark fantasy, presented by the International Horror Guild (IHG) from 1995 to 2008. The IHG Awards were determined by ...

nominee for Best Anthology *'' The Sandman: Book of Dreams'' (1996), a

British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of ...

nominee for Best Anthology *'' Michael Moorcock's Pawn of Chaos: Tales of the

'' (1997) *''Free Space'' (1997), recipient of the first

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titans, Titan. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking theft of fire, fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technol ...

Special Award *''

: Shattered Lives and Broken Dreams'' (1998) *''Strange Attraction: Turns of the Midnight Carnival's Wheel'' (2000) *''Grails: Quests of the Dawn'' (2004)

References

External links

Ed Kramer official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kramer, Edward E. 1961 births Living people 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American male writers American book editors American people convicted of child sexual abuse American people convicted of child pornography offenses American fantasy writers American horror writers American science fiction writers Jewish American short story writers American music critics People from Brooklyn Rollins School of Public Health alumni American science fiction editors Writers from Atlanta