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There is always a downside to writing these books. Either the prosecution doesn’t want to participate, which makes your life as an author looking for even basic information very difficult. Or the victim’s family and friends can’t seem to relive what are, I understand, the most incredibly horrible memories of their lives. Through that, as an author, you have to weigh how much you can add to a particular case that hasn’t been reported already during the trial, or overexposed by the media. My goal—always—is to obtain as much exclusive information about a case as I can. I strive for it, and want to provide readers with a total access pass into the lives of all the people involved. If I feel I cannot do that, I move on and try to find a case where I think I can.

In this case, I had the support of the prosecution and several of the victim’s close friends, former coworkers and neighbors. What I didn’t have—which I can accept on some level—is the support of the murderers’ friends and family, at least some of them. I might also say that victim Jeanne Dominico’s immediate family wanted nothing to do with this book and certain members of her family sent me a few rather strange e-mails, expressing their opinions about the work I do and the nature of my job as a journalist. This was upsetting to me, both as a human being who has lost a family member to a serial murderer and a journalist working to report what is a public case.

In the pages that follow, you will find a story of love and loss, manipulation, sex and lies, deceit, selfishness and, of course, murder and redemption. But more important, you will find the story of one woman’s commitment, even if it meant giving up her own life, to her children, friends and community.

The dialogue in this book was reconstructed with the help of many sources: police reports, witness statements, interviews with some of the parties involved, motions, trial testimony, letters, diary entries, recorded conversations and several other important documents.

Any name that appears in italics when first introduced is a pseudonym.

M. William Phelps

February 2007