Dean did an interview for a New York newspaper in  in late 1964. The finished piece grossly misquoted him and was written with a negative approach towards the mystery genre. Because of that incident, Dean refused to conduct anymore interviews. It wasn't until the People Magazine retrospective in 1980 that Dean start talking to the press again.

Even though it was a bad experience, it did give him an idea for a King Bennett novel. The title Black and White and Red All Over referred to the old riddle that asked the question: What's black and white and read all over? The answer was a newspaper because the person telling the joke meant read the verb as opposed to red the color.

The premise of the story involved a murder case King was hired to solve. The murder is explained in great detail in the opening chapter. The reader is left with a fair amount of clues. However, the next chapter simulates the front page article in the newspaper about the murder. The facts were for the most part wrong and it was written with a biased viewpoint. It also sensationalized the story too much. The narrative switched back to King's viewpoint and how he was solving the case. Every third chapter after that would show the next day's newspaper update. Each time the story got more overblown and sensational. A quote King Bennett gave previously in the story would be twisted around to fit the glorification of the news story.

Eventually, as a result of the newspaper twisting the story so much, another murder occurred. In the end, both murders are solved and the newspaper still reports incorrect facts. Dean used the word red instead of read in the title to make it seem that the blood of the second murder victim, and to an extent the first victim also, was on the hands of the news media -- who were more concerned with sales than the truth.

This was the first cover that followed a layout template that would stay consistent for all Bennett books over the course of the next three years. This decision was part marketing and part staff shortage at Green Shield.

By now, Dean's name alone prominently on the cover could carry a book to the top of the sales charts. He probably could have printed a grocery list inside, but if it was by Dean Davis, people bought it. Otto Greenfield also wanted a visual consistency established with the King Bennett series. If somebody would spot the book in a store and was too far to read the cover clearly, the layout would instantly tell them it was a Bennett story.

Another factor was that Kevin Greenfield was spending less time at the Green Shield offices designing books and more time on the road pursuing his music career. It was easier for one of the part-time designers to go with a template for the cover. He would just change the color scheme and title. After that was completed, a leftover picture of a lovely female from the Girlie-Q magazine archives would be chosen and cropped right before it became "naughty".