This is a true-crime story that is not your usual true-crime fare. This book is written by a college student who did a thesis on serial killers and decided to befriend several well-known serial killers: Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, and a few lesser known others.

He meticulously researched the type of person (victim) that would get a response from these killers and once he got a response, he would then establish a penpal type of system. He did exchange multiple letters with most of the killers, but by far and away the person who he corresponded with the most was John Wayne Gacy. With Gacy, not only did he exchange letters, but he also talked on the phone with him and he met him in person at the prison. I will stop there as any more will just be a spoiler.

Again, as this is not your usual true-crime scenario, I thought this was an interesting approach and enlightening peek into the death row lifestyle. I did think that the narrator / author was somewhat precocious and kinda got on my nerves with his bragging about his perfect lifestyle (this seemed to go away once he started corresponding with the killers). There is a moderate amount of references to sex acts throughout the book.

This was definitely one of the best books I’ve read to date!

Borderline two stars. Maybe just one. I found it kind of hard to get a copy of this book and upon completion I think that's because it's quasi "out of print". The copy I received has a big publishing house on the spine but looks like a xeroxed copy made in someone's basement. The explanation that this guy corresponded with all these myriad serial killers is a bit of a stretch in the context of the book. 97% of the narrative and said correspondence is with John Wayne Gacy. Which is fine. But the books alludes to a half dozen different killers. Moreover, there's really only about 2 chapters worth of interesting material (where he visits Gacy in prison) sandwiched between tons of boredom. The writer's life is a complete fabrication in respect to the killer's which leaves the question of how much useful information was to come out of this experience. The writer himself summed it up most succinctly before meeting Gacy when he stated he'd most probably learn nothing from the experience. Bingo. It comes out looking like a publicity stunt and it's all wrapped up in a narrative that sounds like it was written by a fifth grader. I'd skip it.