American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
True Crime, Nonfiction
Who is Israel Keys?
“The rarest form of murder is serial. Despite what we see on CSI or Mindhunter or the films and procedures that dominate popular culture, people who kill randomly and for no reason are extremely uncommon. It’s also why many of us think we know of every such American killer. But the subject of this book was unlike anything the FBI had ever encountered. He was a new kind of monster, likely responsible for the greatest string of unsolved disappearances and murders in modern American History. And you have probably never heard of him.”
It all came to light when a young girl was kidnapped from a coffee stand in Anchorage Alaska.
“Alaska remains the “Great Land” as James Michener called it: the closest we have to a time before man, unsullied terrain, nature so titanically overwhelming it’s impossible not to be awed and a little afraid. Adventures and loners, romantics and desperados, eccentrics and slow suicides – the luxuriousness of the place, it’s seduction and savagery, calls to the wildest among us.”
Eighteen year old, Samantha Koenig was closing up for the night when a masked man walked up, pulled a gun, robbed her, he then zip tied her hands and took her. 22 days later, a $30,000 ransom was demanded to be put into Samantha’s checking account. Her father put in $5000 of that and immediately ATM activity began. The FBI followed the ATM withdrawals down to Texas. With the help of surveillance videos and the Texas Rangers, Israel Keyes was apprehended with Samantha’s driver license and debit card. Once in custody, the quid quo pro begins.
“She had just laid the groundwork for a new dynamic, one that recalled the relationship between Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs.”
“For investigators, it was just beginning. As Keyes himself had told them “I’ve got lots more stories to tell.” The statement left Payne and his team with three big questions. What were those stories? How many were there? And just who was Israel Keyes?”
“Kat Nelson was having a hard time finding Israel Keyes in any public filings. No property records. No documentation of parents or siblings. No address history, no gun licenses, no academic transcripts. He wasn’t on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. He had left nearly no digital footprint, no paper trail – and this was a guy with an unusual name. If he hadn’t been in custody, Kat Nelson would have a hard time believing Israel Keyes actually existed.”
“Before beginning Samantha’s recovery, Chacon had his team gather in one of the tents, where they were invisible to cameras and agents on the ice. They observed a moment of silence, and as they exited, they saw an enormous bald eagle circling overhead. Chacon took it as a sign that Samantha was watching over them.”
“The Bureau’s top criminal profilers were at a loss. The only thing they could tell the team was that Keyes was one of the most terrifying subjects they had ever encounter. There was no precedent for a serial killer with this MO: no victim type; no fixed location for hunting, killing, and burying; putting thousands of miles between himself and his victims; cashes buried all over the United States.”
They all make a mistake sometime. Get sloppy, get lazy, get too confident and let down their guard. That’s when it happens, the mistake that will be their downfall. Who is Israel Keyes? I read and watch a lot of true crime and I have never heard a whisper of him. It is crazy that this monster who hunted all across the U.S. and especially in my own backyard of the Pacific Northwest has gone undiscussed for so long. This book completely enthralled me and had me from the very first line. I didn’t want to put it down, I just want soaked it up like a sponge, give me more and more. The ending seemed a bit compressed. What are investigators doing now? Are they still trying to solve these cold cases and bring the missing home to their families or have the investigations died with him? I really hope that’s not the case, that this book is only the beginning.
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