LibGuides: True Crime Book Club: Jan. 2024

About the Author: Maureen Callahan

Maureen Callahan's early life details are not extensively available in public records. However, she has established herself as a prominent journalist over the years.

Callahan has contributed to various publications, including the New York Post, where she gained recognition for her in-depth reporting and analysis. She has covered a wide range of topics, but she is particularly known for her coverage of true crime stories.

One of her notable works is the book "American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century," which explores the disturbing case of Israel Keyes. The book delves into the life of Keyes, his crimes, and the efforts of law enforcement to apprehend him.

Maureen Callahan's writing often combines investigative journalism with a narrative style that engages readers in complex and intriguing stories. She has contributed to discussions about crime, justice, and the human psyche through her reporting and books.

Other Writings:

American Predator

Poker Face

Eat, Drink, & by Healthy

Champagne Supernovas

The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook

Maureen Callahan on Writing the Book

TV & Movies

When Israel Keyes is caught for the murder of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, police have no clue what they've stumbled upon. After intense games of cat and mouse, the FBI uncovers one of the most calculated serial killers they've ever encountered.

Israel Keyes may be one of the worst serial killers we've ever seen. He took great care in hiding his victims, which means finding them has become a new nightmare. Can the Dark Minds team unearth some of this case's biggest secrets?

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Synopsis

Israel Keyes was one of the most ambitious and terrifying serial killers in modern history. The FBI considered his behavior unprecedented. Over the course of fourteen years, Keyes would fly to a city, rent a car, and drive thousands of miles in order to kill. He would break into a stranger's house, abduct his victims in broad daylight, and kill and dispose of them in hours. And then he would return home to Alaska, resuming life as a quiet construction worker devoted to his daughter. When journalist Maureen Callahan first heard about Israel Keyes she was captivated by how a killer of this magnitude could go undetected for over a decade. And so began a project that consumed her - uncovering the true story behind how the FBI ultimately caught Israel Keyes, and trying to understand what it means for a killer like Keyes to exist.

Discussion Questions

Motive and Methodology:
- What do you think motivated Israel Keyes to commit such heinous crimes?
- How does Keyes' approach to killing differ from other notorious serial killers?
Law Enforcement Response:
- How effective do you think law enforcement was in handling the Keyes case? Were there missed opportunities or mistakes made during the investigation?
- What challenges do investigators face when dealing with a killer as calculated and methodical as Keyes?
Psychological Profile:
- How would you describe Israel Keyes' psychological profile based on the information provided in the book?
- Were there any early warning signs or red flags that could have indicated Keyes' potential for violence?
Victimology:
- Discuss the various victims in the book. What commonalities or patterns do you notice among them?
- How did Keyes select his victims, and what strategies did he employ to avoid detection?
Media Influence:
- How did the media coverage of the case impact public perception and the investigation itself?
- Do you think the media has a responsibility to report on cases like Keyes' in a particular way?
Ethical Considerations:
- The book touches on the ethical dilemmas faced by law enforcement during the investigation. What ethical challenges do you find most compelling?
- Were there moments where you questioned the ethics of the investigators' decisions?
Impact on the Community:
- How did Keyes' crimes impact the communities where they occurred? How do communities cope with the aftermath of such tragedies?
- Were there any changes in law enforcement practices or policies as a result of the Keyes case?
Lessons Learned:
- What lessons can be drawn from the Keyes case in terms of improving law enforcement procedures and preventing similar crimes in the future?
- How can society better protect itself against individuals like Keyes?
Narrative Style:
- How did Maureen Callahan's narrative style contribute to your understanding of the case? Were there aspects of the storytelling that stood out to you?
Personal Reflections:
- How did reading "American Predator" affect you personally? Did it change your views on crime, law enforcement, or the criminal justice system?

Fact vs Fiction: Israel Keyes

Israel Keyes was an American serial killer who operated in the early 2000s. Born on January 7, 1978, in Cove, Utah, he grew up in a strict and religious household. Little is known about Keyes' early life, and there were no apparent signs of violent tendencies during his upbringing.

Keyes' criminal activities came to light in 2012 when he was arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Samantha Koenig, an 18-year-old barista from Anchorage, Alaska. The investigation into Koenig's disappearance led authorities to Keyes, who quickly became a suspect in a series of unsolved murders.

One chilling aspect of Keyes' crimes was his meticulous planning and the absence of a consistent modus operandi, making it challenging for law enforcement to link his actions. Keyes was known for traveling extensively across the United States, choosing victims seemingly at random, and disposing of their bodies in a way that hindered identification.

Keyes admitted to a series of murders, claiming that he had killed at least 11 people between 2001 and 2012. However, the exact number remains uncertain due to his unwillingness to provide specific details. Keyes' victims were from various states, including Alaska, Vermont, and Washington.

During his incarceration, Keyes committed suicide in his jail cell on December 2, 2012, by slitting his wrists and strangling himself with a bedsheet. His death left many unanswered questions about the full extent of his crimes and the identities of all his victims.

The case of Israel Keyes has since become a subject of intense fascination and study for criminologists, law enforcement professionals, and true crime enthusiasts due to its complexity and the lack of a clear motive for his murders. Maureen Callahan's book, "American Predator," provides a detailed account of Keyes' crimes and the subsequent investigation, offering insight into the mind of a disturbingly methodical and elusive serial killer.

Click here for a full timeline of events.

FBI Interview

I Will Find You by Joe Kenda
Call Number: 363.2092 Kenda
Kenda shares his deepest, darkest, and never-before-revealed case files from two decades as a homicide detective. He provides the gory details of cases that are too gruesome to air on television; cases that still haunt him; and the few cases where the killer got away. Kenda reminds us that crimes like these are very real and can happen even in our own backyards.
While Idaho Slept by J. Reuben Appelman
Call Number: 364.1523 Appelman
Just after 4:00 am on November 13, 2022, four University of Idaho students were viciously stabbed to death in an off-campus house. The killings would shake the small blue-collar college town of Moscow, Idaho, dominate mainstream news coverage, and become a social media obsession, drawing millions of clicks and views. While a reticent Moscow Police Department, the FBI, and the Idaho State Police searched for the killer, unending conjecture and countless theories blazed online, in chatrooms and platforms from Reddit and YouTube to Facebook and TikTok. For more than a month, the clash of armchair investigators and law enforcement professionals raged, until a suspect--a 28-year-old Ph.D. candidate studying criminology--was arrested at his family home 2,500 miles away in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania on the day before New Year's Eve.
Most Evil by Steve Hodel; Ralph Pezzullo
Call Number: 364.1523 Hodel
Twenty years after shocking the world in Los Angeles, could Dr. George Hill Hodel have returned to terrorize California as the killer known as Zodiac? When veteran LAPD homicide detective Steve Hodel discovered that his late father had known the victim of the infamous Black Dahlia murder case in 1947 Los Angeles, the ensuing three-year investigation became the New York Timesbestseller Black Dahlia Avenger. Publication led directly to the discovery of a cache of hidden documents covered up for decades, that confirm George Hodel had long been law enforcement's number one suspect in Elizabeth Short's grisly death. A lurid murder mystery that had endured for more than fifty years was finally resolved. But for Steve Hodel, that revelation was only the beginning. With twenty-five years of experience investigating homicides, Hodel's instincts told him that a man capable of bisecting Elizabeth Short's body, arranging it in gruesome and public tableau, and taunting the police and public with notes and phone calls, did not begin or end his killing career with the Black Dahlia. In Most Evil, Steve Hodel compiles never-before-seen visual, circumstantial, and forensic evidence to make the case that his father was a prolific serial killer whose signature is visible not in any single method of murder, type of victim, or specific killing ground, but rather as a series of complex arrangements, installations, and obscure references to art, culture and film, that, taken together, reveal a chilling and never-before-documented variety of serial murder: murder as a fine art. Among his crimes may be some of the most enduring and infamous murders of the last century, including Chicago's "Lipstick Murders" in 1945 Chicago, the "Jigsaw Murdered" in Manila, as well as the series of killings in California in the 1960's by the man who called himself Zodiac. Steve Hodel's relentless and compelling investigation, detailed in Most Evil, revolutionizes the way we think about some of the most brutal and previously unconnected murders in American history--and may change our understanding of serial killers altogether.
Conviction by Juan Martinez
Call Number: 364.1523 Martinez
Through two trials, America watched with baited breath as Juan Martinez fought relentlessly to convict Jodi Arias of Murder One for viciously stabbing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander to death. What emerged was a story wrought with sex, manipulation, and deceit that stunned the public at every turn. Arias, always playing the wronged and innocent woman, changed her story continually as her bizarre behavior surrounding the crime and its aftermath came to light. Unwavering, Arias and her defense team continued to play off the salacious details of the case, until she was finally found guilty and--controversially--sentenced to life behind bars. Now, speaking openly for the first time, prosecutor Juan Martinez will unearth new details from the investigation that were never revealed at trial, exploring key facts from the case and the pieces of evidence he chose to keep close to the vest. Throughout the trials, his bullish and unfaltering prosecution strategy was both commended and criticized, and in his book, Martinez will illuminate the unique tactics he utilized in this case and how they lead to a successful conviction, and-for the first time-discuss how he felt losing the death penalty sentence he'd pursued for years.
The Phantom Killer by James Presley
Call Number: 364.1523 Presley
Set in the rowdy, often lawless town of Texarkana shortly after WWII, The Phantom Killer is the history of the most puzzling unsolved cases in the United States. The salacious and scandalous murders of a series of couples on Texarkana's "lovers lanes" in seemingly idyllic post-WWII America created a media maelstrom and cast a pall of fear over an entire region. What is even more surprising is that the case has remained cold for decades. Combining archival research and investigative journalism, Pulitzer Prize nominated historian James Presley reveals evidence that provides crucial keys to unlocking this decades-old puzzle.Dubbed "the Phantom murders" by the press, these grisly crimes took place in an America before dial telephones, DNA science, and criminal profiling. Even pre-television, print and radio media stirred emotions to a fever pitch. A Town in Terror, exhaustively researched, is the only definitive nonfiction book on the case, and includes details from an unpublished account by a survivor, and rare, never-before-published photographs. Although the case lives on today on TV, the Internet, a revived fictional movie and even an off-Broadway play, with so much of the investigation shrouded in mystery since 1946, rumors and fractured facts have distorted the reality. Now, for the first time, a careful examination of the archival record, personal interviews, and stubborn fact checking come together to produce new insights and revelations on the old slayings.
How to Catch a Killer by Katherine Ramsland
Call Number: 364.1523 Ramsland
There are two parts to every crime story: how they did it and why they got caught. This book is about the second part, and how it changes the way we catch serial killers. No two stories about the capture of a serial killer are the same. Sometimes, the killers make crucial mistakes; other times, investigators get lucky. And the process of profiling, hunting, and apprehending these predators has changed radically over time, particularly in the field of criminal forensics, which has exploded in the last ten to 15 years. Laser ablation, video spectral analysis, cyber-sleuthing, and even DNA-based genetic genealogy are now crucial tools in solving murders, including the recent capture of the so-called Golden State Killer. This book in the new Profiles in Crime series tells the history of forensics through the "capture stories" of some of the most notorious serial killers, going back almost a century.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara; Gillian Flynn (Introduction by); Patton Oswalt (Afterword by)
Call Number: 364.1532 McNamara
For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then in 1986 he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area. Three decades later, true crime journalist Michelle McNamara was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was. At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic--capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim--he favored suburban couples--he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening. This book--the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death--offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind.