Saturday, January 2, 2021

American Predator by Maureen Callahan

 I didn't hear about Israel Keyes until I became obsessed with the Maura Murray case. I then began listening to a True Crime podcast about him - True Crime Bull*** - and was hooked. So when I got some giftcards from Amazon, I knew that I was going to get this book.

I absolutely devoured it. Israel murdered all over the country - he had kill kits buried in various "hotspots" and we likely don't know exactly how many murders he's ultimately responsible for. We know there's a minimum of 11, but there could be more.  This book is about Keyes and his murders - a little bit about his growing up.  Initially, it seemed that the investigators were cooperative with Callahan and gave her access to an unprecedented amount of their files.  It also seemed like they stopped that cooperation ended at some point. 

This book provides some insight into the mind of a serial killer.  Keyes had no rhyme or reason to who he went after, except that he wouldn't target children.  He was a contractor so he was able to keep an astonishingly low profile for years. He killed solely for the thirll of it and the power of it, which is what truly makes him scary, even among the company he keeps. I'm not sure why he allowed himself to be caught, unless he really wanted to be caught and wanted to play cat and mouse with the FBI.  It's not a secret that he ultimately committed suicide while in custody, which was the ultimate act of control. 

At the end of the day, this book is phenomenal and I flew through it.  It was well researched and well written.  It also provides a decent bibliography at the end, if you're interested in continuing to read about Keyes, serial killers and true crime.  Definitely a good read and definitely a good way to start the reading year. 

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