Charmer
The True Story of a Ladies' Man and His Victims
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- R$ 34,90
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- R$ 34,90
Descrição da editora
Charmer: The True Story of a Ladies' Man and His Victims is a masterwork of true crime journalism from acclaimed author Jack Olsen, delivering a chilling portrait of a killer who weaponized charisma.
George Russell Jr. had a gift. He could walk into any room, any bar, any party, any crowd, and within minutes everyone knew his name. Women were drawn to him. Men wanted to be around him. He was handsome, magnetic, and unfailingly entertaining. He knew how to make people feel seen, special, and safe. He was also, beneath every carefully constructed smile, a predator.
In the summer of 1990, three women were murdered in the affluent suburbs of Seattle. Their bodies were posed, arranged with grotesque deliberateness, as if the killer wanted to send a message. Law enforcement was baffled. The community was terrified. And George Russell Jr., the charmer everyone knew and liked, kept right on smiling.
Jack Olsen, the New York Times bestselling author hailed as "the dean of true crime," traces Russell's life from his rootless childhood. A Black child growing up isolated in a white suburb, developing a performer's instinct for becoming whatever each audience needed him to be, through his years as a small-time burglar and accomplished liar, to the murderous rage hiding beneath the polish. He gives full humanity to the victims, refuses to reduce them to footnotes in a killer's story, and turns a careful eye on the culture that enabled Russell for so long. A world where charm was currency and nobody wanted to look too closely.
Because Russell didn't just fool his victims. He fooled everyone.
As the New York Times wrote: "Like fine cinema vérité, Charmer mesmerizes us with the sense of watching real life, unaugmented, move before our eyes."
With compassion for the victims and unflinching clarity about the killer, Charmer reminds us why Jack Olsen was known as the dean of true crime.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Olsen (Son) has established himself so firmly near the pinnacle of true-crime writers that anything from him not a masterwork is somewhat of a disappointment. That is the case with this story of a young African American from a posh Seattle suburb. George Russell Jr., highly intelligent, supremely articulate and supposedly the son of professionals, became a serial killer who mutilated his victims. His story is told largely through transcripts of interviews with police officers, bar personnel and the far younger women he hung around with (at 28, he enjoyed the company of girls of 13 and 14). Beneath his charm, however, lay a pathological hatred of women, so it is not surprising that his career in crime, which began with petty theft and advanced to cat burglary, climaxed with the murders of three females. The book's strength is its lesson that diligent police work can indeed produce results. Russell is now serving a life term. Author tour.
