In 1997, the bodies of young African American men began turning up in the cane fields of New Orleans suburbs. The victims-many of them transient street hustlers-had been brutally raped and strangled, leaving Louisiana's gay community rattled. When no leads were found and the murders continued, detectives Dennis Thornton and Dawn Bergeron came together as task-force partners and were indefatigable in their decade-long effort to track down the killer. In 2006, DNA evidence finally linked the murders to a suspect: the unassuming Ronald Joseph Dominique, who had lived under the radar for years, working as a pizza deliveryman and a meter reader. But who was he, and what led him to commit such heinous crimes? With direct access to the investigation, Dominique's confession, and all the sites where bodies were dumped, author Fred Rosen enters the warped mind of the murderer, providing a horrifying and fascinating account of his troubled, disturbing, broken life and his brutal crimes.
Raised as Jehovah's Witnesses and frustrated with their parents' repressive rules, Bryan and David Freeman rebelled as teenagers. Encouraged by an acquaintance he met while institutionalized at a reform school, Bryan became a neo-Nazi. Bryan then indoctrinated David, and their flare for defiance took a dark turn. After callously murdering their father, mother, and younger brother, the skinhead brothers took flight across America, with police from 3 states in hot pursuit. They were eventually captured in Michigan and returned to Pennsylvania for trial. During the trial, author Fred Rosen uncovered evidence that 1 of the brothers might not have been as culpable as authorities claimed, and divulged the history of a family torn apart by stringent religious beliefs.
In his account of the sensational life and murder of Grady Stiles Jr., also known as the legendary carnival freak Lobster Boy, author Fred Rosen explains how Stiles's death was engineered by his wife, Mary Teresa, the carny known as the Electrified Girl. Rosen describes how Mary Teresa arranged for her husband's murder after years of physical and emotional abuse. During Mary Teresa's dramatic trial, Rosen becomes a character in his own book. When both he and the prosecution are threatened by Mary Teresa's daughter, who Rosen believes was a co-conspirator although she was never indicted; the writer risks his life in pursuit of the truth and the evidence that leads to Mary Teresa's conviction.
