Jack Olsen

A classic from "the dean of true crime" (The Washington Post)--now with a new foreword--this 1983 masterpiece tells the incredible story of a Spokane, Washington serial rapist who was exposed as the handsome, privileged son of one of the city's most elite families. For more than two years, a rapist prowled the night streets of the homey, All-American city of Spokane, Washington, terrorizing women, sparking a run on gun stores, and finally causing one newspaper to offer a reward--the calls taken by the distinguished managing editor himself, Gordon Coe. In March 1981, luck and inspired police work at last produced an arrest, and Spokane shuddered. The suspect was clean cut and conservative...and Gordon Coe's son. For eighteen months, Jack Olsen researched the cases of Fred and Ruth Coe to try to learn not only what happened within that family, but how and why. He interviewed more than 150 people and built up a portrait not only of that extraordinary family, but of the mind of a psychopath. And searching the memories of the women in Fred Coe's life, he unearthed a most horrifying question: What is it like to love and live with a man for years--and then discover he is a psychopathic criminal? In this "gruesomely spellbinding" (Glamour) examination of the mind of a psychopath and of the women--and men--who were his victims, Olsen delivers "a harrowing portrait... It has become fashionable with books about vicious crimes to compare them to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Finally there is a book that deserves the comparison" (Richmond Times-Dispatch).

In February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovske and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of 23-year-old Taunja Bennett. Pavlinac had come forth and confessed, implicating her boyfriend and producing physical evidence that linked them to the crime. Authorities closed the case. There was just one problem. They had the wrong people... Keith Hunter Jesperson was a long haul truck driver and the murderer of eight women, including Taunja Bennett. He began a twisted one-man campaign to win the release of Sosnovske and Pavlinca. To the editors of newspapers and on the walls of highway rest stops, Jesperson scribbled out a series of taunting confessions. At the end of each, he drew a happy face, earning for himself the grisly nickname 'The Happy Face Killer'. Based on access to interviews, diaries, court records, and the criminal himself, this is Jesperson's horrific story. Jack Olsen lets the killer tell his story in his own words, offering unprecedented insight into the twisted thought process of a serial murder. This book is based on scores of interviews with the killer and his family. True crime continues to be one of the bestselling genres on the market and Kieran jack Olsen is a world renowned true crime writer.

In The Killer's Own Words..." I killed Tanya Bennett... I beat her to death, raped her and loved it. Yes I'm sick, but I enjoy myself too. People took the blame and I'm free.... . Look over your shoulder. I may be closer than you think."-Keith Hunter Jesperson, the Happy Face KillerIn February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of 23-year-old Taunja Bennet. Pavlinac had come forth and confessed, implicating her boyfriend and producing physical evidence that linked them to the crime. Authorities closed the case. There was just one problem. They had the wrong people... Keith Hunter Jesperson was a long haul truck driver and the murderer of eight women, including Taunja Bennet. He began a twisted one-man campaign to win the release of Sosnovke and Pavlinac. To the editors of newspapers and on the walls of highway rest stops, Jesperson scribbled out a series of taunting confessions. At the end of each confession, Jesperson drew a happy face, earning for himself the grisly sobriquet "The Happy Face Killer." Based on access to interviews, diaries, court records, and the criminal himself, I: The Creation of a Serial Killer is Jesperson's chilling story. Edgar Award winner Jack Olsen lets the killer tell his story in his own words, offering unprecedented insight into the twisted thought process of a serial murderer.

Jack Olsen's Last Man Standing is the gripping story of Geronimo Pratt, war hero and community leader, who was framed by the FBI in one of the greatest travesties of justice in American history. Geronimo Pratt did not commit the murder for which he served twenty-seven nightmarish years. As a UCLA student, though, he had led the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Panther Party, and became a target of the FBI. Here is the spellbinding saga of Pratt, his heroic lawyers, Johnnie Cochran and Stuart Hanlon, and the Reverend James McCloskey, who overcame all the odds to bring the truth to light and free Geronimo.

The bestselling author of Son and Doc investigates a chilling series of alleged murders that exposes the sinister underworld of Gypsy culture in AmericaIn June of 1994, the Oakland Tribune cracked a story of a string of bizarre deaths in the San Francisco area. The victims were elderly, well-to-do and, in each case, had been befriended by members of an extended Gypsy family -- the Tene Bimbos. Fay Faron, also known as Rat Dog Dick, a dynamic and unconventional private investigator in the Bay Area, was contacted by a lawyer to investigate the strange accusations of an elderly widow who claimed she was being swindled out of her hilltop mansion by a young man named Danny Tene. Within days, the widow was dead and Danny Tene stood to inherit a fortune. Olsen chronicles Faron's hunt for Danny Tene, his mother Mary Steiner, and his beautiful sister Angela -- a family of suspected con artists who may have been responsible for the deaths of as many as five helpless elderly men and women, whose property -- and possibly whose lives -- the family allegedly stole.