American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan
When I was picking out my BOTM for November, against better judgement, I selected two books. I know, I know, I have been working so hard on cutting the list down and I go and get two of them after all the progress I have made. But for the first time since starting BOTM, I have read both books in the month I got them, so it doesn't count against me, right? My first from this month was The Family Upstairs, and my second was American Predator.
Trigger Warning: This post and book contain themes of murder and horrible atrocities that should never be committed by another human being.
When you think of serial killers, you think of Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, BTK, The Zodiac. The name you do not think of is Israel Keyes, and yet his crimes are just as disturbing as the names previously listed. When Maureen Callahan first learned of Keyes in 2012, she made it a priority to learn as much about the man who managed to remain undetected for over a decade and murder at least ten people before taking his own life.
The first half of the book focuses on the last crime committed by Israel Keyes, the kidnapping of a teenage girl from her place of business. Samantha Koenig lived in Anchorage, Alaska with her dad and boyfriend. Through surveillance camera footage, we can see that her final hours were terrifying. Callahan does a wonderful job of bringing Samantha back to life for a little bit and does her justice as a victim. To me, when reading true crime, this is what I care about the most. I would rather know Samantha's name over Keyes name. What is frustrating about this section is the lack of response from Anchorage PD and the FBI. Samantha's boyfriend said it the best in that they did not report her missing until the next morning because they knew the police wouldn't do anything until after that point. Even when the search began, they put more effort into placing blame on the father, boyfriend, and Samantha herself, just because her father was known to be in company of unsavory people and Samantha may have sold drugs and her and her boyfriend had been fighting. It was not until Keyes was caught that they watched the entire nights worth of surveillance footage, which shows that Keyes returned twice that night to the coffee kiosk he abducted her from. This is just one of many faults that Callahan discusses in her book, and I praise her for bringing light to it, as well as the people who owned up to their mistakes in the case.
The second half of the book focuses more on Israel Keyes and what little is known about his life. His parents jumped from one religious cult to the next and none of their children were born in hospitals, or reported their births. Because of this, there is no birth certificate and they have no social security numbers. Even if police had caught on to Keyes before Samantha, how do you track a person with no social? He was able to live off the land and hide in plain sight. Because little is known about his other victims, I found this part of the book frustrating. All I could think about was how there are so many people out there that will never know what happened to their loved ones because the FBI and DA couldn't get their shit together and so instead of telling us about these poor people who lost their lives unjustly, I have to hear about this asshat jacking with everyone and then take the cowards way out. It is not Callahan's fault that she could not write more about other victims; you have to know who they are to write about them. But she did include very gruesome details about Samantha's murder, and the murder of an elderly Vermont couple that Keyes also admitted to, but whose bodies were never located. I could have maybe done without those details. It is one thing when I am reading a work of fiction and I hear about rape and brutal murders, but knowing that this atrocities were really committed, hearing it from the killer himself, is sickening.
For true crime lovers, this book is a must read. The meticulous details of Keyes put him in the league of the Unibomber; his body count, while unconfirmed, is high; and his pattern, or lack there of, make him someone to study to try and prevent further murderers like him. Callahan is respectful of victims and their families and gives voices to those who cannot speak. The book is eye opening and I finished it in about 24 hours (it would have been less but I had to eat and sleep).
Rating: 7/10
Author: Maureen Callahan
Genres: True Crime, Non-Fiction
Dates Read: November 18-19, 2019
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| (Source: Kelsey Darling) |
When you think of serial killers, you think of Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, BTK, The Zodiac. The name you do not think of is Israel Keyes, and yet his crimes are just as disturbing as the names previously listed. When Maureen Callahan first learned of Keyes in 2012, she made it a priority to learn as much about the man who managed to remain undetected for over a decade and murder at least ten people before taking his own life.
The first half of the book focuses on the last crime committed by Israel Keyes, the kidnapping of a teenage girl from her place of business. Samantha Koenig lived in Anchorage, Alaska with her dad and boyfriend. Through surveillance camera footage, we can see that her final hours were terrifying. Callahan does a wonderful job of bringing Samantha back to life for a little bit and does her justice as a victim. To me, when reading true crime, this is what I care about the most. I would rather know Samantha's name over Keyes name. What is frustrating about this section is the lack of response from Anchorage PD and the FBI. Samantha's boyfriend said it the best in that they did not report her missing until the next morning because they knew the police wouldn't do anything until after that point. Even when the search began, they put more effort into placing blame on the father, boyfriend, and Samantha herself, just because her father was known to be in company of unsavory people and Samantha may have sold drugs and her and her boyfriend had been fighting. It was not until Keyes was caught that they watched the entire nights worth of surveillance footage, which shows that Keyes returned twice that night to the coffee kiosk he abducted her from. This is just one of many faults that Callahan discusses in her book, and I praise her for bringing light to it, as well as the people who owned up to their mistakes in the case.
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| Pictured above: Samantha Koenig, one of the victims of Israel Keyes. (Source: CBS News) |
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| Pictured above: Bill and Lorraine Currier, two more victims of Israel Keyes. (Source: ABC News) |
Rating: 7/10
Author: Maureen Callahan
Genres: True Crime, Non-Fiction
Dates Read: November 18-19, 2019
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