{"title":"Jack Olsen","description":"Jack Olsen lived on an island in Puget Sound, WA, where he passed away at the age of seventy-seven on July 16, 2002.","products":[{"product_id":"i-the-creation-of-a-serial-killer-paperback","title":"I: The Creation of a Serial Killer - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJack Olsen\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn The Killer's Own Words...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"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 Killer\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKeith 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.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOutstanding Praise For \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"I: The Creation of a Serial Killer\"\u003cbr\u003e\"This book is like an avalanche: it starts strong and rapidly gains momentum as it cascades downward on its destructive journey of serial murder. Truly insightful.\"-Maury Terry, bestselling author of \"The Ultimate Evil\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"It is probably impossible for any law-abiding citizen like the author and most of his readers to understand a homicidal psychopath-especially one not only driven to kill but also driven to get caught. Given the odds, Olsen explains [Keith Hunter] Jesperson to an amazing degree.\"\u003cbr\u003e-\"Seattle Times\/Post Intelligencer\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Olsen was the most prolific, innovative writer of serious true crime books in recent memory.\"\u003cbr\u003e-S\"an Francisco Chronicle\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"For the genre, this is crackerjack stuff. Olsen obviously had thorough access to Jesperson...his family, and friends...True-crime entertainment at its best.\" -\"Kirkus Review\"s\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Veteran true-crime author Olsen takes the profiling of a psychopath a step farther than usual...the gruesome details are nailed down with morbid precision...Olsen's writing is clear and concise.\"-\"Publishers Weekly\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Hastened to the Grave\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Hastened To The Grave is not only a jaw-dropping true account of how far a certain Gypsy family would go to separate marks from their money, it is also a cautionary tale about the perils of loneliness in a society that has ceased to value old age.\"-\"New York Times Book Review\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Olsen's interesting account reads like a novel.\"-\"Library Journal\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The most satisfying of Olsen's recent books.\"-\"Kirkus Reviews\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"An absorbing tale.\"-\"The Seattle Times\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Salt of the Earth\"\u003cbr\u003e\"A literary achievement of the highest order.\"--David Guterson, author of \"Snow Falling On Cedars\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Salt of the Earth is the powerful, absorbing true story of the terror and tragedy that stalks our violent land, and how an \"ordinary woman\" triumphed over all of it.\"--Joseph Wambaugh\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The cold mind of a criminologist, the relentless spirit of an investigative reporter and the searching heart of a poet all combine to produce Jack Olsen--the acknowledged master of American crime journalism. Salt of the Earth is both horrifying and uplifting--a remarkable achievement.\"--Andrew Vachss\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Jack Olsen writes so well he makes ordinary people fascinating.\"--Elmore Leonard\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Jack Olsen's particular gift is his ability to illuminate the souls of his characters.\"\u003cbr\u003e--Jonathan Kellerman\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Salt of the Earth is not only an engrossing page-turner about an unthinkable social horror--it is also a gifted work of immense, uplifting decency.\"--Bella Stumbo, author of the Edgar Award winning\" Until The Twelfth of Never\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In Salt of the Earth Jack Olsen takes what, in less sensitive hands, could have been just another violent story and makes of it a startling mirror-image of the American Dream...Very few writers can make the rubble of ordinary lives seem worth caring about. Jack Olsen is clearly one of them.\"--Darcy O'Brien, author of \"Murder in Little Egypt\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Jack Olsen builds tension using characters that leap right off the page. Normal life in America is anything but.\"--Ridley Pearson\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Anyone who doubts that women are the stronger sex would be well advised to read this tale...her indomitability gives Olsen the material for one of his most penetrating books.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\"Publishers Weekly\" (starred review)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"While the Geres' tragedy seems much too common in today's society, their sad but also uplifting story could not have had a more skillful, sensitive narrator.\"--\"Library Journal \"(starred review)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Another solid entry from Olsen. A detailed study of the disintegration of a family.\"-\"Kirkus Reviews\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn The Killer's Own Words...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"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 Killer\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKeith 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.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Jack Olsen has hit the target again...a valuable, illuminating look into the phenomenon of the murdering mind.\" -Maury Terry, best-selling author of \"The Ultimate Evil\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The most disturbing and illuminating book ever written. Bar none. I' is not for the faint of heart, but for those willing to go to the darkest depths of human depravity to understand the incomprehensible.\"--Gregg Olsen, bestselling author of\" Abandoned Prayers\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJack Olsen lived on an island in Puget Sound, WA, where he passed away at the age of seventy-seven on July 16, 2002.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 392\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.87 x 7 x 4.25 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 18, 2003\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101575876831,"sku":"9781250093080","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/fI_-35UTv49781250093080.webp?v=1781277529"},{"product_id":"son-a-psychopath-and-his-victims-paperback","title":"Son: A Psychopath and His Victims - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eA 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).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51433866100959,"sku":"9781501119040","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/WX9k3Oloqs9781501119040.webp?v=1790020492"},{"product_id":"predator-rape-and-injustice-in-seattle-paperback","title":"Predator: Rape and Injustice in Seattle - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eWinner of the American Mystery Award for Best True Crime, from two-time Edgar Award winner Jack Olsen, known as \"the dean of true crime.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor more than a decade, a serial rapist moved through the suburbs of Seattle. He was outwardly ordinary: steady job, regular churchgoer, polite and unremarkable to everyone around him. He would eventually confess to more than fifty rapes. Police departments, working in isolation, never connected the pattern. Every attack was treated as a standalone incident. Every victim faced disbelief. The predator kept hunting. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThen Steve Titus was arrested. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTitus was thirty years old, a respectable seafood sales executive with no criminal record. He bore a passing resemblance to the rapist, drove a vaguely similar car, and that was enough. A Port of Seattle detective saw a career opportunity in the case and manipulated evidence to secure a conviction. The real rapist was still out there. Titus was found guilty and faced life in prison. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHe was certain the system would correct itself. It didn't. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt was only when a Seattle Times reporter named Paul Henderson took up Titus's case that the truth began to emerge. Henderson's relentless investigation won him the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting and ultimately freed an innocent man. But the victory came too late. The years of wrongful conviction had destroyed Titus's career, his relationships, and his health. Before his civil lawsuit against the police could reach trial, Steve Titus died of a heart attack. He was thirty-five years old. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJack Olsen reconstructs both stories with his signature precision and compassion: the predator who was enabled by institutional failure and a culture that dismissed women's testimony, and the innocent man ground up by a system that couldn't admit its mistake. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePredator is a searing account of two injustices committed in the same city, at the same time, by the same broken system.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51434193223903,"sku":"9781091599017","price":25.58,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/aRwKymKEXv9781091599017.webp?v=1790024776"},{"product_id":"last-man-standing-the-tragedy-and-triumph-of-geronimo-pratt-paperback","title":"Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eJack Olsen's \u003cb\u003eLast Man Standing\u003c\/b\u003e 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGeronimo 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.\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eJack 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. \u003cbr\u003eGeronimo 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51434508878047,"sku":"9780385493680","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/8bHcDfjkz29780385493680.webp?v=1790027631"},{"product_id":"i-the-creation-of-a-serial-killer-hardcover","title":"I: The Creation of a Serial Killer - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrize-winning journalist Jack Olsen, armed with unprecedented access to one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a murderer in the killer's own words . . . \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of Taunja Bennet, a troubled 23-year-old barfly who had suffered mild retardation since birth. Pavlinac had come forth and confessed, implicating her boyfriend and producing physical evidence that linked them to the crime. Authorities closed the case. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThere was just one problem. They had the wrong people. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAnd the real killer wasn't about to let anyone take credit for his kill. Keith Hunter Jesperson was a long haul truck driver and the murderer of eight women, including Taunja Bennet. As the case wound through police precincts and courts--ending in life sentences for both Sosnovke and Pavlinac--Jesperson began a twisted one man campaign to win their release. To the editors of newspapers and on the walls of highway rest stops, Jesperson scribbled out a series of taunting confessions: \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eI 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.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt the end of each confession, Jesperson drew a happy face, earning for himself the grisly sobriquet \"The Happy Face Killer.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBased on access to interviews, diaries, court records, and the criminal himself, \u003ci\u003eI: The Creation of a Serial Killer\u003c\/i\u003e is Jesperson's chilling story. It chronicles his evolution from angry child to sociopathic murderer, from tormentor of animals to torturer of women. It is also the story of the fate that befell him after two innocent citizens were imprisoned four years for one of his killings. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEdgar Award winner Jack Olsen lets the killer to tell his story in his own words, offering unprecedented insight into the twisted thought process of a serial murderer. Olsen takes his readers along on Jesperson's vicious cross-country killing spree, letting him describe how he played his \"death game\" with eight innocent victims and how he finally came to grips with the fate he deserved. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eI: The Creation of a Serial Killer\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the most revealing and insightful pieces of crime reporting ever published.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67925727314143,"sku":"9780312241988","price":39.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/USuP-_IDTL9780312241988.webp?v=1791226291"},{"product_id":"charmer-a-ladies-man-and-his-victims-paperback","title":"Charmer: A Ladies Man and His Victims - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eCharmer: The True Story of a Ladies' Man and His Victims\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterwork of true crime journalism from acclaimed author Jack Olsen, delivering a chilling portrait of a killer who weaponized charisma.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeorge 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, special, and safe. He was also, beneath every carefully constructed smile, a predator.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the summer of 1990, three women were murdered in the affluent suburbs of Seattle. Their bodies were posed - arranged with grotesque deliberateness - as if the killer wanted to send a message. Law enforcement was baffled. The community was terrified. And George Russell Jr., the charmer everyone knew and liked, kept right on smiling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJack Olsen, the New York Times bestselling author hailed as \"the dean of true crime,\" traces Russell's life from his rootless childhood - a Black child growing up isolated in a white suburb, developing a performer's instinct for becoming whatever each audience needed him to be - through his years as a small-time burglar and accomplished liar, to the murderous rage hiding beneath the polish. He gives full humanity to the victims, refuses to reduce them to footnotes in a killer's story, and turns a careful eye on the culture that enabled Russell for so long - a world where charm was currency and nobody wanted to look too closely.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBecause Russell didn't just fool his victims. He fooled everyone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the New York Times wrote: \"Like fine cinema vérité, Charmer mesmerizes us with the sense of watching real life, unaugmented, move before our eyes.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith compassion for the victims and unflinching clarity about the killer, Charmer reminds us why Jack Olsen was known as the dean of true crime.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67933054140639,"sku":"9781091400757","price":24.23,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/jUlBfVXs9781091400757.webp?v=1791334239"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/jack-olsen.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}