DALLAS -- Richard Condon, 81, the best-selling author whose novel of brainwashing and murder, "The Manchurian Candidate," featured eerie similarities to the future assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died April 9 at a hospital here. He had heart and kidney ailments.
Among his other novels, many with a strong satiric, anti-establishment bent, were "The Oldest Confession," "Some Angry Angel," "Emperor of America," "A Talent for Loving," "Winter Kills" and "An Infinity of Mirrors."
"Prizzi's Honor," written in 1982, was the first of a series on Mafia life that included "Prizzi's Family" (1986), "Prizzi's Glory" (1988) and "Prizzi's Money" (1993). They portrayed the outlaw family's efforts to gain the summit of political respectability.
Novelist Ross Thomas, reviewing "Prizzi's Glory" for The Washington Post, wrote, "Best of all is his ability to tell a story so skillfully that you find yourself almost hoping that the Prizzis will make it to the White House after all."
Mr. Condon also co-wrote the screenplay for the film version of "Prizzi's Honor," directed by John Huston. The 1985 film -- in which a Mafia hit man marries a hit woman and they end up with contracts on each other -- netted a best supporting actress Oscar for Huston's daughter, Anjelica. The screenplay received an Academy Award nomination and won awards from the Writer's Guild of America and the British Motion Picture Academy.
"The Manchurian Candidate" tells the story of a U.S. prisoner of war in Korea who, brainwashed and programmed to kill, returns to the United States and assassinates a powerful politician.
The book came out in 1959, and the film version, starring Laurence Harvey as the brainwashed man and Frank Sinatra as a fellow soldier who tries to thwart the plot, came out in 1962.
The John Frankenheimer-directed movie was seen at the time of its release as a comic sendup of political paranoia. But events during the 1960s changed the perception. After Kennedy was killed by a former Marine who spent time in the Soviet Union, the film was withdrawn for many years. It was later reissued to new acclaim.
Mr. Condon recalled later that only after the film version came out did the book become a big seller.
"Every book I've ever written has been about abuse of power," he once said. "I feel very strongly about that. I'd like people to know how deeply their politicians are wronging them."
Before writing books, Mr. Condon, a New York native, pitched films. Hired as a press agent for Walt Disney Productions in 1937, he worked in the movie business for more than 20 years, putting in time at nearly all the major studios.
He liked to tell the story of how, as a novice publicist, he horrified Disney by suggesting that a pork producers group be enlisted to get publicity about a cartoon sequel to "The Three Little Pigs." Disney didn't want fans to get a mental picture of cute cartoon characters sent to a slaughterhouse.
His friends included Sinatra and Cary Grant, studio heads Harry Cohn and Adolph Zukor and directors Huston and Stanley Kramer.
He said he took up writing -- "all I could do was spell" -- after the movie business gave him an ulcer.
Seeing thousands of films over the years helped, he said. "I learned beginning, middle and ending for scenes, and, come to think of it, beginning, middle and ending for sentences, and characters and exits and entrances. That was unconsciously washing over me for 22 years."
Mr. Condon had lived in Dallas for 16 years.
Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Evelyn, of Dallas; and two daughters.
