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Letters from a Serial Killer
Atria
February 2008
On Sale: February 5, 2008
336 pages ISBN: 1416544852 EAN: 9781416544852 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The 1991 abduction and murder of thirteen-year-old Heather
Dawn Church baffled police for three agonizing years, and
became one of the most infamous murders the quiet and scenic
city of Colorado Springs had ever seen. It was legendary
homicide detective Lou Smit who finally broke the case,
sending Robert Charles Browne, a forty-three-year-old
Louisiana drifter and career criminal, to prison for life. But the savage saga of Robert Browne did not end there. In
2000, Smit, now retired, joined forces with Charlie Hess, an
ex-FBI agent and former CIA operative, to reexamine the
cold-case murder files of the local Sheriff's Department.
With the addition of amateur forensics buff Scott Fischer,
the Apple Dumpling Gang was born. As their volunteer work continued, Smit, Hess, and Fischer
came upon a taunting letter written by Browne, hinting that
the death of Heather Church was only the tip of the iceberg.
What other law enforcement officials had simply ignored, the
Apple Dumpling Gang took on with single-minded
determination. Charlie Hess began a correspondence with
Browne in which, over the course of dozens of letters, the
killer teasingly spun out the details of a horrific killing
spree spread over thirty years and nine states. The tally,
according to Browne: forty-nine deaths, making him one of
the most prolific serial murderers in the annals of American
crime. Hess's unique insight into criminal psychology, honed over
his years developing informants and working as a polygraph
operator, made him uniquely suited to match wits with the
cagey and canny killer. But Browne was every bit the retired
cop's equal: quickwitted, mercurial, and charismatic, with a
penchant for riddles and a lifetime full of grisly secrets. A riveting account of the complex and chilling cat-and-mouse
game Hess and Browne played over five years, Hello Charlie
details Browne's bloody swath of murder -- by strangulation,
poisoning, and dismemberment -- even as it explores the
special bond forged between the cop and the killer, allowing
Hess unprecedented access into the mind of a remorseless
psychopath. As compulsively readable as any crime novel, Hello Charlie
picks up where The Silence of the Lambs left off, with the
incredible true story of one man's search for justice with a
murderer as his guide.
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