Product Description

From a New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning journalist comes the gripping true story of a cold-blooded killer.

In 2000, Robert Charles Browne wrote a letter from his prison cell in Colorado, where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of a young girl. "The score is you one, the other team 48," wrote Browne. "Seven sacred virgins entombed side by side, those less worthy are scattered wide."

No one in local law enforcement knew what to make of this message, nor could they guess the bizarre murder saga about to land in their laps. Then in 2002, three retirees formed their own cold case squad-and wound up tracing Browne's tantalizing and enigmatic clues to unsolved murders in six states.

This is the gripping, powerful true story of a cold-blooded killer-and the tireless investigators who defied all odds to uncover his chilling truth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #992212 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In a chilling, if sometimes meandering, account of alleged serial killer Robert Browne, Michaud and Price paint a grisly portrait of a man with no remorse or regard for human life. (The case was also recently written about in the New York Times Magazine.) The all-volunteer cold-case squad in Colorado Springs, Colo.—headed by retired FBI agent Charlie Hess and retired police detective Lou Smit—first encountered Browne after his 1995 conviction for the abduction and murder of 13-year-old Heather Church. Convinced that the enigmatic, well-spoken Louisianan had killed before, Hess began what would become a five-year dialogue (initially through letters) with Browne at the Colorado State Penitentiary. Teasing the investigators with riddles and vague details, Browne led them on a gruesome hunt through almost 20 years of unsolved rapes, murders and dismemberments stretching from Louisiana to California. The killer proudly proclaimed the score to be police one, Browne forty-eight. Veteran true-crime author Michaud (Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer) and former Washington Post staffer Price meticulously catalogue the squad's investigation, at times inundating the reader with names, dates and case details that are difficult to keep straight. But this unsettling account of the man who may be one of the country's most prolific serial killers is a must-read for true-crime fans. (Oct. 2)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Stephen G. Michaud is the New York Times bestselling author and co-author of more than a dozen true crime books.

Debbie M. Price is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in numerous publications.

Customer Reviews

creepy dude!
This true-crime tale has it all -- a scary sexual serial killer, body parts left by the expressway, a sweet little girl kidnapped from her home and heroic detectives who have the patience and dogged stubbornness to burrow into an investigation that is going nowhere. And on top of this, the detectives are senior-citizen volunteers. Maybe because these guys had plenty of time on their hands or maybe because for some of us geezers, patience and wisdom really do come with age, they didn't give up until they got their man. Michaud (of Ted Bundy fame) and Price, a veteran journalist, are pros and the book is a well-written, quick read.

A Very Frustrating Account of A Serial Killer!
Robert Charles Browne was already imprisoned for the heinous crime of kidnapping and murder of a young girl, Heather Church, from her parents home in rural and isolated part of Colorado. Browne's past reveals the possibilities that he was responsible for other crimes. A team including Lou Smit who investigated and believed the Ramseys were innocent of killing their own daughter, JonBenet, is among them as well as other mostly retired cops who decide to play cold case detectives. One of them befriends Browne through letters and meetings but Browne is a frustrating character. We don't know enough about him and I have read the book twice and haven't even finished it. I just wished Browne would fess up about the unsolved murders and disappearances of so many women that their families can finally have closure or knowledge. As one distraught mother, Mrs. Billig wrote "It's better to know than not know." She's right because the uncertainty can kill you if you don't know. Not knowing the truth is worse than not having an answer to the question of a missing person or an unsolved crime which can destroy families and relationships with suspicions but Browne wouldn't care who it would hurt if he got something in return.

frustrating
When will writers of true crime realize that most cops usually are not very interesting people to read about?
I said it. It's the psycho, the crook, the killer, bank robber, who makes for interesting reading. Just the way
it is.
Cops in these books very often come across as incompetent and not very bright, or just plain disinterested in solving anything. Why? Jaded. Bored. Figure it wouldn't make much difference anyway, etc.

To be fair, the cops (most of them retired) do give a damn and simply wish to solve the murders covered here (about half a dozen) in order to bring peace of mind to the loved ones left behind. Understandable. Commendable, even.

Problem here is the killer, Browne, is miserly with his information and keeps the task force stringing along, stretching the thing out (just like the writers of this book) that before long, you just might be willing to give up on this tome in sheer frustration.

The real, entire, and complete story of this killer is not told here (who, by the way, claims to have killed fifty or more). What the reader gets is what the cops got: enough info to solve three or four of the murders Browne
committed--and he gave those up in exchange for a favor or two from said task force.

Did Browne kill as many as he claimed? Who the hell knows? Bottom line: don't expect a serial killer to tell you the truth about anything.

It seems to me, these guys (serial killing losers) have one thing in common (besides murder) a craving for infamy, attention--and then, for some inexplicable reason (some of them, like Browne, once incarcerated)
clam up.

You figure it out. Better yet, why bother?