Description
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Biographical Note: "A mesmerizing, often enraging portrait of a man whose skill at manipulating the judicial system led to untold injustices. Told with all the care, nuance, and dazzling reportage we expect from Pamela Colloff--one of the very best in the field right now-- Catch the Devil reads like a literary thriller, rich in atmosphere and lively characters, but its larger resonances give it an extraordinary depth and its timeliness during America's current grifter era could hardly be greater." --Megan Abbott, author of El Dorado Drive "Pamela Colloff lights up the criminal justice system with a precision that leaves nowhere to hide. Catch the Devil is an extraordinary achievement, its narrative moving with the taut urgency of a thriller--anchored by the heart and humanity she brings to the pursuit of truth. An unforgettable masterwork from the leading voice in American crime reporting." --Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove "Vividly reported and artfully written, Colloff's book is an enraging narrative of how one man can manipulate the criminal justice system. It's also a joy to read thanks to her knack for storytelling and engrossing detail." --Susan Orlean, author of Joyride and The Orchid Thief "At the heart of Pamela Colloff's impeccable, infuriating narrative sits a serial jailhouse snitch, Paul Skalnik. A monster of casual depravity, predatory instinct, and resolute amorality, Skalnik plays our criminal justice system like a fiddle, exposing an apparatus far more concerned with clearance rates than actual justice. The tragedy here lies not only in the countless miscarriages of justice in the name of it, but the countless lives obliterated in the process." --Dennis Lehane, author of Small Mercies and Mystic River "Both a chilling profile of an evildoer and a glimpse into a fractured justice system, this enlightens and entertains in equal measure." --Publishers Weekly Publisher Marketing: The riveting, true story of an audacious con man who helped send another man to death row for a murder he did not commit "Incendiary, emotionally devastating. [This] is a feat of dogged reporting, bravura storytelling, and clear-eyed moral conscience." --Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing and London Falling For more than three decades, Paul Skalnik roamed the Gulf Coast lying about who he was. He passed himself off as a fighter pilot, a high-rolling oilman, a criminal defense attorney, an undercover agent, and a terminal cancer patient. In these guises he married nine women--some at the same time. When Skalnik got caught, as he invariably did, he would run a different con. Locked up with other men awaiting trial, he claimed they confessed their crimes to him. Then he peddled those stories to prosecutors. In Pinellas County, Florida, he became a frequent witness for the state, thinking nothing of exaggerating men's wrongdoing or implicating the innocent to help prosecutors win convictions. In return, the state rewarded him with his freedom, fueling his growing sense of invincibility. Soon he was not just committing fraud; he was preying on girls in their teens or barely into adolescence. In 1985, Jim Dailey, a down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran, was implicated in the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl and landed in the Pinellas County Jail with Skalnik. No forensic evidence or motive linked Dailey to the killing, but Skalnik's account of his "confession" helped put Dailey on death row. Skalnik, meanwhile, walked free. More than three decades later, after another man took responsibility for the killing, Pamela Colloff, reporting for the New York Times Magazine and ProPublica, visited Skalnik and asked him if he would recant his testimony. He refused. By then, Skalnik had caused untold damage: to the women and girls he exploited, to the dozens of men he helped imprison, and to Jim Dailey, who went on to receive an execution date. In this mesmerizing debut, Pamela Colloff spins a dark tale of a remorseless and brilliant liar made lethal by a system more concerned with winning convictions than finding the truth. Review Citations:
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Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
$38.40