'Pamela Colloff demonstrates again why she is one of the best reporters and writers. This story is astonishing and deeply important.' David Grann, Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author
'Amazing journalism by Pamela Colloff. Read it and weep.' Jeffrey Tobin
Paul Skalnik was a prolific and ruthless conman and abuser. For more than three decades, he passed himself off as a Vietnam veteran, a college football star, a high-rolling oilman, a criminal defence attorney, an undercover FBI agent and a terminally ill cancer patient. From 1977 to 2015 he was incarcerated many times over and repeatedly used as a jailhouse informant. His bogus witness testimonies of cell confessions have sent at least four men to Death Row.
During a year-long investigation for the New York Times Magazine, Pamela Colloff determined that Skalnik was one of the most prolific, and most effective, jailhouse informants in American history. For decades he was considered the state prosecution's 'closer' witness who could smooth over a case's inconsistencies, nudging jurors past reasonable doubt.
Whenever he was released from prison he would continue his crime spree in which women were usually the collateral damage. Over four decades he was charged with 32 felonies including larceny, fraud, grand theft, the unauthorised practice of law, bail jumping, bigamy and lewd conduct. He married at least nine different women, some at the same time, and was a serial abuser of young girls.
The narrative is framed by the botched investigation of James Dailey - tried with the murder of 14 year-old Shelley Boggio. Skalnik's witness testimony helped put Dailey on Death Row.
By recounting Skalnik's lurid life, Pamela Colloff tells a larger story of injustice and the trail of broken lives he has left behind.
The gripping true story of a serial con man whose lies condemned a man to death row by award-winning New York Times Magazine writer Pamela Colloff.
'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 southern states of America 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 - and scammed them out of their money.
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 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 14-year-old girl and landed in jail with Skalnik. Despite a total lack of forensic evidence, Skalnik's account of Dailey's "confession" was enough to put Dailey on death row where he still waits, four decades later.
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.
'A fiery indictment... portrays the banality of evil in our time.' -STARRED Kirkus review
