Behold the Monster: Confronting America's Most Prolific Serial Killer and Uncovering the Women Society Forgot

Synopsis: New York Times bestselling author Jillian Lauren's personal, haunting account of confronting serial killer Samuel Little, and her determination to lift up the voices of his victims for the first time

Jillian Lauren had no idea what she was getting into when she asked LAPD homicide detective Mitzi Roberts about the case she was most proud of. It was when she put Samuel Little, the now seventy-nine-year-old serial killer, behind bars for killing three women in Los Angeles. In fact, Little had murdered approximately ninety women over six decades, but many were cold cases and Mitzi didn't have enough evidence (or jurisdiction) to prove it.
 
After doing more digging, Lauren, the New York Times bestselling author of two memoirs and a novel, was obsessed. Following months of exchanging letters with Little, Lauren finally got a face-to-face meeting. In the hundreds of hours of interviews that followed, Little confessed to dozens of murders for the first time. Lauren knew this harrowing journey was taking its toll, both psychologically and legally—but still, she couldn’t stop.
 
Little gave Lauren a powerful and terrifying window into the psyche of a serial killer, and as she delved deeper, she realized she needed a way to survive these encounters. To balance out his darkness, she would illuminate the lives of the women he killed, making sure they would be remembered as more than mere props in the drama of his life. She excavated their lives—visiting their hometowns, talking to their families, investigating all they left behind.

Harrowing, insightful, and extraordinarily adept at giving Little's victims a chance to have their stories heard for the first time--including those of the four who survived--this is a truly unforgettable read.