{"product_id":"catch-the-devil-hardcover-by-pamela-colloff","title":"Catch the Devil (Hardcover) by Pamela Colloff","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eThe riveting, true story of an audacious con man who helped send another man to death row for a murder he did not commit\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Incendiary, emotionally devastating. [This] is a feat of dogged reporting, bravura storytelling, and clear-eyed moral conscience.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Patrick Radden Keefe, author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eSay Nothing\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eLondon Falling\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than three decades, Paul Skalnik roamed the Gulf Coast 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen 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 Pinellas County, 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1985, Jim Dailey, a down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran, was implicated in the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl and landed in the Pinellas County Jail with Skalnik. No forensic evidence or motive linked Dailey to the killing, but Skalnik’s account of his \"confession\" helped put Dailey on death row. Skalnik, meanwhile, walked free. More than three decades later, after another man took responsibility for the killing, Pamela Colloff, reporting for the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eNew York Times Magazine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and ProPublica, visited Skalnik and asked him if he would recant his testimony. He refused.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy then, Skalnik had caused untold damage: to the women and girls he exploited, to the dozens of men he helped imprison, and to Jim Dailey, who went on to receive an execution date. 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ingram","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48395172675825,"sku":null,"price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0305\/9757\/8890\/files\/catchthedevil.jpg?v=1783727425","url":"https:\/\/shopsouthandpine.com\/products\/catch-the-devil-hardcover-by-pamela-colloff","provider":"South \u0026 Pine and Blue Apple Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}