Title: Charmer
First published: 1994
Description: This is the story of George, an African American who grew up in a Caucasian suburb of Seattle, where his unaffectionate mother and racial isolation led him to develop an effervescent personality in order to get along. He became a small-time burglar and an accomplished liar--a wisecracking "smoothy" who pretended to be an undercover detective. George made lots of friends, especially within a subculture of giggly young white women who partied endlessly in upscale Seattle clubs during 1989-90. And he murdered three of them, bizarrely mutilating and "staging" their bodies. The drinks, dancing, and deejays--the group pad where George lived with an adoring coterie of feckless college kids--Olsen gives us the quirky details that make the murderer's well-hidden rage and misogyny all the more shocking. As the New York Times wrote, "Like fine cinema verité, [Charmer] mesmerizes us with the sense of watching real life, unaugmented, move before our eyes."
Subjects: Serial murderers, Serial murders, Biography, Case studies, Fiction, general, Murder, washington (state), Murderers
Places: Mercer Island, Washington (State)
People: George Russell Jr
LC classification: HV6534.M43 O45 1994