Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Language: English
Published by Knopf Publishing Group July 2026, 2026
- Hardcover
- New
Seller: A Cappella Books, Inc., Atlanta, GA, U.S.A.A Cappella Books, Inc.
AbeBooks seller since August 27, 1997
Condition: New
£ 24.47
Quantity: 10 available
Add to basketSeller Inventory # 395857
- Title
- Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
- Author
- Pamela Colloff
- Publisher
- Knopf Publishing Group July 2026
- Publication year
- 2026
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0593230868
- ISBN 13
- 9780593230862
- Seller catalogs
- Social Sciences
For 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.
When 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.
In 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 New York Times Magazine and ProPublica, visited Skalnik and asked him if he would recant his testimony. He refused.
By 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.
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About the Author
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
A Cappella Books, Inc.
Atlanta, GA, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since August 27, 1997
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| Item | 5 to 14 business days | 3 to 6 business days |
|---|---|---|
| First item | £ 0.00 | £ 11.14 |
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A Cappella Books is a full service used, new & out-of-print bookstore located in Atlanta since 1989. We stock a general selection of approximately 10,000 paperbacks & hardcovers, ranging from the common to the quite scarce. We also stock many new books, including some bestsellers and some almost-never-sellers. Our specialties reflect the personality of our neighborhood and, to varying degrees, our staff. But don't be fooled, we really have something for almost everybody who loves books.…
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Signed Books, Beat Generation, Sixties Counterculture, Literature, Art and Photography, Music - Non ClassicalSeller's business information
A Cappella Books, Inc.
208 Haralson Ave NE
Atlanta, GA U.S.A. 30307
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