"Hello Charlie" by Charles Hess and Davin Seay

The book was written by one of the self-proclaimed "Apple Dumpling Gang" of cold case file detectives. The book has an awkward format. Granted, unlike many other true crime novels, it details quite a bit of the backgrounds of the investigators. The bulk of the book is rather rambling. The useful part of this book is simple, people are stupid.

While difficult to follow, the suspect at the beginning of the book is arrested on murder charges. The investigators are doing background checks on him, which ties him to other murders. They interviewed people who knew the convict (and suspect). They didn't notice anything peculiar though he liked to destroy things. There weren't any signs, but he liked fire. He never set off any red flags, but he did robbery and killed pets nailing them to the wall to scare the occupants. He wasn't violent but punched walls and choked his wives. He showed no strange sexual fantasies, but favored little girls and tried to have sex with his male partner in crime who wasn't gay. He didn't do much serious crime, but stole vehicles, did armed robbery and was a drug dealer (trafficker by definition). He also murdered, but I detailing the other crimes and signs that clearly red flagged him as evil and bad.

Not guilty?

So, had anyone had a little mind. much of his violence and crime could have been prevented before it happened. I walk away from this book knowing that police work is made even harder when the officers have to talk with completely stupid people.

+ also, term "mass murderer" is inaccurate, as he was a serial murderer, not mass murderer by definition