Worth More Dead By Ann Rule

It's disconcerting that we seem to have such an appetite for true crime stories

. But we do. And I'm included in that category.

This is Volume 10 in her crime files. It consists of five different crimes. I suppose the ones that aren't enough material to make up their own book, she collects them into a volume such as this one.

But well over half of it is devoted to one criminal. However, it's a lengthy story spanning over twenty years.

Roland Pitre is a complex person, and although it takes many pages to tell what's known of his story, I got the feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Pitre seems to be a manipulative, conniving sociopath. In a standard crime thriller, he'd use his black belt karate skills to kill woman after woman.

But this is perhaps one good reason for true crime volumes such as this. Pitre's story could never be told in a novel, because it's too complicated and down to earth.

He's coldblooded and a killer, and probably a sociopath, but does not seem to have the personal desire to kill. He's been involved in a string of crimes, but is not a serial killer.

Real life is just more complicated than novels.

Most importantly, Pitre is smart enough to get other people to do his killing for him, at least later in life. It's still unclear whether or not he was the one who pulled the trigger to kill the husband of his lover in 1980.

And it's instructive how he always manages to construct a storyline to explain what he was trying to do. Other people are always involving him in fantastic plots to do evil things he knows are wrong and doesn't intend to carry out, but he's always involved.

And it's amazing how much he managed to get away with it. Although convicted of involvement in a murder, he got out in only six years, thanks to manipulating the wife who knew he cheated on her.

The other tales in this volume are also well-done. The one on a serial sex killer highlights that's better to fight back, because you can win sometimes.

The final story helps highlight how murder victims aren't just bodies to litter the pages of crime novels, but real people who have coworkers, neighbors, family and friends who are involved with them.

by: Richard Stooker

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