The prize-winning, bestselling journalist provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of "The Happy Face Killer" in the serial murderer's own words . . .In February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of Taunja Bennet, a troubled twenty-three-year-old barfly who had a mild intellectual disability since birth. There was just one problem. They had the wrong people.And the real killer wasn't abou...

For fifty-seven years, the grizzly bears of Glacier National Park had never killed a human being.That ended on the night of August 12, 1967.In the dark hours before dawn, in two separate locations miles apart, two grizzly bears attacked two young women sleeping at backcountry campsites. Julie Helgeson, nineteen, a seasonal park employee from Minnesota, was dragged from her sleeping bag near Granite Park Chalet and mauled while her companion survived. Michele Koons, also nin...

"A jaw-dropping true account" of a female PI's hunt for the infamous Tene family, a nomadic Romany-American clan who preyed on the rich and vulnerable ( The New York Times Book Review ).They were a notorious Roma family known as the Tene Bimbos, who seeped into their victims' lives like a deadly cancer. And they couldn't be stopped—until one courageous woman took on the cases no one else would touch . . .THE VICTIM...

Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. With a new introduction by bestselling true-crime author Ron Franscell.For twenty-five years, Dr. John Story was the most trusted man in Lovell, Wyoming. He was the town's family doctor, a pillar of the community, a man who delivered babies, treated children, and cared for generations of the same families. He was also systematically raping his patients.His victims were mostly Mormon women, raised in a faith that emphasized subm...

Across the vast stretches of the American West, wildlife was being systematically exterminated, poisoned, shot, trapped, and bounty-hunted, for the profit of ranchers and stockmen, with the full cooperation of government agencies. Hardest hit were the great predators: wildcats, wolves, eagles, bears, and mountain lions. And above all, the coyote.Shrewd, wily, solitary, and adaptable, the coyote had survived everything the West could throw at it until modern chemistry and federal po...

"Jack Olsen's particular gift is his ability to illuminate the souls of his characters." Jonathan KellermanJoe Gere said he died on the afternoon his twelve-year-old daughter Brenda disappeared.In September 1985, Brenda Gere vanished from her family's home in Clearview, Washington. From the first moments of the investigation, suspicion fell on Michael Kay Green, a steroid-abusing bodybuilder with a history of violence. But there was no proof, no body, and no answers. Tips p...

From Jack Olsen, the New York Times bestselling author known as "the dean of true crime," comes a shattering portrait of a crime rooted not in rage or madness, but in something far more chilling: cold calculation.On the night of June 19, 1982, respected Houston attorney James Campbell and his wife Virginia were shot to death in their River Oaks home while their grandchildren slept nearby. No signs of struggle. No forced entry. Just two bodies and a daughter who sobbed at the funera...

On January 5, 1981, Idaho game wardens Bill Pogue and Conley Elms rode into the remote Owyhee Desert to check a report of poaching at Claude Dallas's trapping camp. They never rode out.Dallas shot both men. When one fell wounded, he retrieved a .22 rifle and finished the job with a bullet to the head. Then he turned to the witness who had seen everything and said: "This is Murder One for me." He buried the bodies and disappeared into the wilderness.Claude Dallas styled hims...

On the night of July 18, 1969, a black Oldsmobile plunged off a narrow one-lane bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. By morning, the car had been found submerged. Inside was the body of Mary Jo Kopechne, twenty-eight years old, a former campaign worker for Robert Kennedy. The next morning, Senator Ted Kennedy walked into the Edgartown police station and identified himself as the driver.What happened in those hours has never been fully explained. Kennedy himself said his ...

In 1968, Jack Olsen wrote what Sports Illustrated would later call the most significant series of stories in the magazine's history.Published across five consecutive issues beginning July 1, 1968, "The Black Athlete: A Shameful Story" shattered the comfortable myth that American sport was a level playing field, a rare arena where race didn't matter and Black athletes had found true equality. Olsen proved it was a lie.Black collegiate athletes were recruited for their speed ...

Every city has a Sweet Street. You know it when you see it: the neon signs, the strip clubs, the honky-tonk bars, the sidewalks that come alive after midnight. Most people hurry past. Jack Olsen went in.In the early 1970s, Olsen embedded himself in the bars and strip clubs of San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, spending months among the hustlers, pimps, strippers, waitresses, bartenders, bouncers, junkies, cops, and club owners who inhabited this shadow economy. He listened t...

Charmer: The True Story of a Ladies' Man and His Victims is a masterwork of true crime journalism from acclaimed author Jack Olsen, delivering a chilling portrait of a killer who weaponized charisma.George Russell Jr. had a gift. He could walk into any room, any bar, any party, any crowd, and within minutes everyone knew his name. Women were drawn to him. Men wanted to be around him. He was handsome, magnetic, and unfailingly entertaining. He knew how to make people feel seen, spec...