The Match.com Killer (Confessions of a Serial Killer Book 2)
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Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention serial killer jack olsen true crime happy face serial killers creation of a serial keith hunter well written face killer hunter jesperson keith jesperson point of view faint of heart pal club crime books ann rule pen pal book i read killer keith mind of a serial. Showing of 89 reviews.
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Please try again later. As much as I hate to admit it, this is a very engaging book. Fans of true crime, like myself, will enjoy the first person aspect of one of the two parallel stories that run through the book. Jesperson absolutely lets us inside his head as he recounts his killing spree in the mid to late 80's.
He tells us what he was thinking at the time prior to, during and after the murders. He recounts his killings as though they are an addiction that no other substance or experience can match. There are periods where he seems to be able to control things but, the slightest bump in his life and he'd be back enticing and murdering young women.
Seems Keith Jesperson felt he never truly fit anywhere and the solitary life of a trucker suited his personality. The other story is Olsen's account of Jesperson's early life, mainly his interaction with a controlling, alcoholic father who never truly accepted Jesperson the child. Jesperson in his own way sought his father's approval but never seemed to get it. In his mind his siblings weren't subject to the same rigors and trials as he was.
Never quite living up to his father's expectations Jesperson keeps himself in close proximity of his father working hard, entering business deals with his father, which usually backfired, and never truly breaking the ties. Once in prison, the book moves more to the relationship with his father via letters written between the two.
This portion highlights the dysfunction as Jesperson tries to relay to his father how he felt growing up in his father's overbearing shadow. It's very sad but, we have to ask ourselves, is this causality for his actions? Very well written account of Jesperson's killing spree. Yet again, Jack Olsen distances himself from the crowd of true crime writers through another engaging work. Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase. Jack Olsen once said that a true crime book that doesn't seek to answer the question of "what created this monster?
There isn't a Jack Olsen book that isn't worth the time of any serious true crime fan. He was a true great and if anyone else had written this book I doubt I'd have read it. You see, I'm basically a wimp and the gore that is inherent in any serial killer story is more than I can take. While the gore factor on this book is low for a serial killer story, this is still one of the most profoundly disturbing books I've ever read. It is the first book that I have deleted from my Kindle - I literally didn't want it around.
Olsen gets into the mind of serial killer Keith Jesperson, literally channeling his voice. Who knew that the mind of a serial killer was so boring? Vile, horrific, loathsome thoughts and fantasies - these I expected and got. The boring factor was a revelation. Step inside the mind of a serial killer and you're in for the endless self-justifications of a whiny loser.
Everybody done him wrong.
Whether Jesperson is more self-aware than the average serial killer or, in other words, is less of a whiny loser than most serial killers is a bit like asking if the concentration camp guard was nice. It's all relative, yes, but consider the scale. There are moments of twisted Is-this-guy-for-real black humor, like when Jesperson refers to "special moments shared with my victims" that elicit a combination gasp-laugh-choke.
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The Serial Killers Pen Pal Club that Jesperson starts, on the other hand, may just be proof that sometimes illiteracy isn't such a bad thing. Then again, it's hard not to walk away from this book passionately pro death penalty even if you start it passionately on the other side of the debate. This crew is pretty much the filled with poster children for euthanasia with their mercenary insistence on being paid for every word and getting jealous when one of them gets more press.
This is a tough book to critique. Olsen so effectively channels Jesperson for half the book that I missed Olsen's familiar, sane voice. Judged on its own terms, probably the only fair ones, it succeeds in what it sets out to achieve.
But would I recommend it? Well, if you think serial killers are fascinating or interesting, then step right up and get yourself disabused of those notions. Ditto if you think they can be rehabilitated - these guys just like killing.
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If you're wondering if press coverage encourages serial killers to up the ante, Jesperson is an example of someone who wants "credit" for his "kills. This isn't an enjoyable book. I didn't enjoy Plato's Republic though I'm glad I read it. The best I can offer is that if you're deeply interested in serial killers, this book is essential reading. But be prepared for loss of appetite and nightmares. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase.
I liked the POV used through the book. Be warned, it is fairly graphic in detail, so this is not a book for the squeamish or faint of heart. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys gory and detailed true crime tolls from the first person perspective. Martin's Press is a page chronicle by seasoned writer 10 prior titles about the rise and fall of serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, AKA "The Happy Face Killer" during the period and employed as a big-wheeler trucker aged years.
We are furnished 10 chapters: Olsen graphically describes these events as they were happening. Olsen's alternation of chapters between the killer and the killer-to-be has some reminisces of 'flash-backs' but is a bit clumsy, although the use of many quotations and a sense of being written in the first person provides a chilling recital of the angry child who is transformed into a depraved narcissistic serial killer totally lacking remorse, but mocks authority and moral principles.
I found the table of contents disturbing by its absence, but there is a 5-page index and 11 worthy illustrations. The last 2 chapters were of especial interest to me and provided a unique slant about maniacal antisocial personality disorders.
Because of its novel features the book should be on the list of must read. See all 89 reviews. What other items do customers buy after viewing this item? A Psychopath and His Victims Paperback. Serial Murderers and Their Victims Paperback. The Man with The Candy Paperback. Lucas claimed to have killed his mother in self-defense, but his claim was rejected, and he was sentenced to between 20 and 40 years' imprisonment in Michigan for second-degree murder.
After serving 10 years in prison, he was released in June due to prison overcrowding. In , Lucas was convicted of attempting to kidnap three schoolgirls. While serving a five-year sentence, he established a relationship with a family friend and single mother who had written to him. They married on his release in , but he left two years later after his stepdaughter accused him of sexually abusing her. Lucas began moving between various relatives and one got him a job in West Virginia, where he established a relationship that ended when his girlfriend's family confronted him about abuse.
Lucas befriended Ottis Toole , and settled in Jacksonville, Florida where he lived with Toole's parents and became close to his adolescent niece Frieda 'Becky' Powell, who had a mild intellectual impairment. A period of stability followed, with Lucas working as a roofer , fixing neighbors' cars and scavenging scrap.
Powell was put in a state shelter by the authorities after her mother and grandmother died in Lucas convinced her to abscond and they lived on the road, eventually traveling to California, where an employer's wife asked them to work for her infirm mother, year-old Kate Rich, of Ringgold, Texas.
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Rich's family turned Lucas and Powell out, accusing them of failing to do their jobs and writing checks on her account. While hitchhiking they were picked up by the minister of a Stoneburg, Texas religious commune called "The House of Prayer". Believing Lucas and the year-old Powell were a married couple, he found Lucas a job as a roofer while allowing the couple to stay in a small apartment on the commune.
Powell had become argumentative and homesick for Florida, and Lucas said she left at a Bowie, Texas truck stop. According to some of his later accounts Lucas murdered Powell and then Rich. As with most of his alleged crimes, Lucas later denied involvement, but the consensus is he did murder Powell and Rich. Lucas was a prime suspect in the killing of Rich.
A few months later, in June , he was arrested on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm by Texas Ranger Phil Ryan. Lucas reported that he was roughly treated by bullying inmates in prison and attempted suicide. Lucas claimed that police stripped him naked, denied him cigarettes and bedding, held him in a cold cell, and did not allow him to contact an attorney. After four days, Lucas confessed to the murder of Rich, which confession investigators had good reason to believe was genuine; in addition, he confessed to killing Powell.
When he started confessing to numerous unsolved cases, he was initially credible; police knew that he had truthfully admitted committing two killings. Some investigators, including Ryan, thought many of Lucas's confessions were made up to get out of his cell and improve his living conditions. In interviews with Texas Rangers and other law enforcement personnel, Lucas continued to confess to numerous additional unsolved killings. It was thought that there was positive corroboration with Lucas's confessions in 28 unsolved murders, and so the Lucas Task Force was established.
Some of his alleged treatment was odd for someone whom the police supposedly believed to be a cunning mass murderer: Later attempts at discovering whether Lucas had actually killed anyone apart from Powell and Rich were complicated by Lucas's ability to make an accurate deduction that seemed to substantiate a confession.
In one instance, he explained how he had correctly identified a victim in a group photograph through her wearing spectacles; a pair of glasses were on a table in a crime scene photo shown to him earlier. There were also suggestions that the interview tapes showed that, despite Lucas' supposedly low IQ, he had adroitly read the reactions of those interviewing him and altered what he was saying, thereby making his confessions more consistent with facts known to law enforcement.
Henry Lee Lucas
The most serious allegation against investigators, that they had let Lucas read case files on unsolved crimes and thus enabled him to come up with convincingly detailed confessions, made it virtually impossible to determine if, as some continue to suspect, he had been telling the truth to the Lucas Task Force about a relatively large number of the murders.
In , Lucas claimed to have killed an unidentified young woman, later identified as Michelle Busha , along Interstate 90 in Minnesota. When questioned by police, he gave inconsistent details on the way he murdered the victim and was eliminated as a suspect. In , Lucas confessed to the murder of an unidentified girl who was discovered shot to death in a field at Caledonia, New York on November 10, The unidentified girl was referred to at the time as "Caledonia Jane Doe".
Investigators, however, found insufficient evidence to support the confession. Lucas also is believed to have falsely confessed to the slaying of Carol Cole in Louisiana.
Cole was unidentified until Journalist Hugh Aynesworth and others investigated the veracity of Lucas's claims for articles that appeared in The Dallas Times Herald. They calculated that Lucas would have had to use his year-old Ford station wagon to cover 11, miles 17, kilometres in one month to have committed the crimes police attributed to him. The report compared Lucas's claims to reliable, verifiable sources for his whereabouts; the results often contradicted his confessions, and thus cast doubt on most of the crimes in which he was implicated. Attorney General Jim Mattox wrote that "when Lucas was confessing to hundreds of murders, those with custody of Lucas did nothing to bring an end to this hoax" and "We have found information that would lead us to believe that some officials 'cleared cases' just to get them off the books".
Lucas remained convicted of 11 homicides. He had been sentenced to death for one, an unidentified woman dubbed as " Orange Socks ," whose body was found in Williamson County, Texas , on Halloween , even though the court heard that on that date a timesheet had recorded his presence at work in Jacksonville, Florida. The sentence was commuted to life in prison in by Governor George W. On March 12, , at As of [update] , Lucas' grave is unmarked due to vandalism and theft.
Lucas' credibility was damaged by his lack of precision: He remained, however, publicised as America's most prolific murderer, despite denials such as flatly stating "I am not a serial killer" in a letter to author Shellady. Hickey cites an unnamed "investigator" who interviewed Lucas several times and who concluded that Lucas had probably killed about 40 people.
One highly experienced Texas Ranger who Ryan's team allowed access to Lucas, said that although it was obvious to him that Lucas often lied, there was an instance where he demonstrated guilty knowledge. Ain't no way he could've guessed that, and I damn sure didn't tell him. I think he did that one" [34] Other Rangers had similar experiences with Lucas. There have been several books on the case. Four narrative films have been made based on Lucas' confessions: Two documentary films have been released: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.