But the savage saga of Robert Browne did not end there. In 2000, Smit, now retired, joined forces with Charlie Hess, an ex-FBI agent and former CIA operative, to reexamine the cold-case murder files of the local Sheriff's Department. With the addition of amateur forensics buff Scott Fischer, the Apple Dumpling Gang was born.

As their volunteer work continued, Smit, Hess, and Fischer came upon a taunting letter written by Browne, hinting that the death of Heather Church was only the tip of the iceberg. What other law enforcement officials had simply ignored, the Apple Dumpling Gang took on with single-minded determination. Charlie Hess began a correspondence with Browne in which, over the course of dozens of letters, the killer teasingly spun out the details of a horrific killing spree spread over thirty years and nine states. The tally, according to Browne: forty-nine deaths, making him one of the most prolific serial murderers in the annals of American crime.

Hess's unique insight into criminal psychology, honed over his years developing informants and working as a polygraph operator, made him uniquely suited to match wits with the cagey and canny killer. But Browne was every bit the retired cop's equal: quickwitted, mercurial, and charismatic, with a penchant for riddles and a lifetime full of grisly secrets.

A riveting account of the complex and chilling cat-and-mouse game Hess and Browne played over five years, Hello Charlie details Browne's bloody swath of murder — by strangulation, poisoning, and dismemberment — even as it explores the special bond forged between the cop and the killer, allowing Hess unprecedented access into the mind of a remorseless psychopath.

As compulsively readable as any crime novel, Hello Charlie picks up where The Silence of the Lambs left off, with the incredible true story of one man's search for justice with a murderer as his guide.

Contents

Author's Note

Part One

1 Black Forest

2 Dead Man's Shoes

3 The Culvert

4 One Too Many

5 Coffee and Cigarettes

Part Two

6 The Lie Detector

7 The Traces

8 The Intruder Theory

9 The Apple Dumpling Gang

Part Three

10 "He Did It"

11 Miank

12 "Call Me When You Pull the Switch"

13 Closure

Part Four

14 86504

15 "What's Important to You Isn't Important to Me"

16 The White Grand Am

17 Derkesthai

Part Five

18 Flatonia

19 The Trip

20 "I Don't Do Names" 21 Rocio

Part Six

22 Snakes and Snails

23 Sugar Land

24 The Cowboy Lady

25 The Plea

26 The Way He Done Her

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Index