Hello Charlie: Letters from a Serial Killer (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Author)
Key Phrases: kwik stop, when you pull the switch, intruder theory, Robert Browne, Colorado Springs, Lou Smit (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this chilling account, retired FBI agent Hess details his years of correspondence with serial killer Robert Browne, as he tried to coax out details of Browne's alleged 49 murders. Sentenced to life without parole in 1995 for the first-degree murder of 13-year-old Heather Church in Colorado, Browne began taunting investigators in 2000 with vague hints of other victims. Hess—a former FBI and CIA agent with years of experience as a polygraph analyst—had volunteered to investigate cold cases in Colorado Springs; assisted by homicide detective Lou Smit and former newspaper publisher Scott Fischer, Hess began writing to Browne in the hopes of uncovering (based on Browne's letters) clues to as many as 48 unsolved murders. The men traded letters for years, each one bringing Hess and his team one step closer to proving the murderer's grisly claim. In clean, vivid prose that avoids melodrama, Hess and Seay (coauthor, With God on Our Side) explore not only Browne's troubled Louisiana childhood and his string of abusive marriages but also the lives of the investigators. With Hess's first-person narrative and excerpts from his and Browne's letters, this is an unsettling account of a man who is possibly the most prolific and twisted of serial killers. (Feb.)
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Product Description

The 1991 abduction and murder of thirteen-year-old Heather Dawn Church baffled police for three agonizing years, and became one of the most infamous murders the quiet and scenic city of Colorado Springs had ever seen. It was legendary homicide detective Lou Smit who finally broke the case, sending Robert Charles Browne, a forty-three-year-old Louisiana drifter and career criminal, to prison for life.

But the savage saga of Robert Browne did not end there. In 2000, Smit, now retired, joined forces with Charlie Hess, an ex-FBI agent and former CIA operative, to reexamine the cold-case murder files of the local Sheriff's Department. With the addition of amateur forensics buff Scott Fischer, the Apple Dumpling Gang was born.

As their volunteer work continued, Smit, Hess, and Fischer came upon a taunting letter written by Browne, hinting that the death of Heather Church was only the tip of the iceberg. What other law enforcement officials had simply ignored, the Apple Dumpling Gang took on with single-minded determination. Charlie Hess began a correspondence with Browne in which, over the course of dozens of letters, the killer teasingly spun out the details of a horrific killing spree spread over thirty years and nine states. The tally, according to Browne: forty-nine deaths, making him one of the most prolific serial murderers in the annals of American crime.

Hess's unique insight into criminal psychology, honed over his years developing informants and working as a polygraph operator, made him uniquely suited to match wits with the cagey and canny killer. But Browne was every bit the retired cop's equal: quickwitted, mercurial, and charismatic, with a penchant for riddles and a lifetime full of grisly secrets.

A riveting account of the complex and chilling cat-and-mouse game Hess and Browne played over five years, Hello Charlie details Browne's bloody swath of murder -- by strangulation, poisoning, and dismemberment -- even as it explores the special bond forged between the cop and the killer, allowing Hess unprecedented access into the mind of a remorseless psychopath.

As compulsively readable as any crime novel, Hello Charlie picks up where The Silence of the Lambs left off, with the incredible true story of one man's search for justice with a murderer as his guide.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Atria; 1 edition (February 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416544852
• ISBN-13: 978-1416544852
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #561,185 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointment, February 15, 2008

By	Elvisettey "elvisette" (USA) - See all my reviews

As far as true crime goes, this book was quite a disappointment. It wasn't particularly gripping, it doesn't draw particularly strong portraits of the victims, and even the three self-appointed cold case detectives seem a bit dull.

Among other problems in the text, there is entirely too much background information given for each person working the case. I started skipping many pages of this material because it simply wasn't interesting. The writing style of the book just wasn't gripping, and a great deal of material could have been cut out. The narrative gets quite sidetracked more than once.

And some words on the "serial killer" label on the title page: it's there to sell books. The detectives were unable to locate or identify many of the victims pointed out by Browne (the killer). In fact, the impression I got from this is that Browne, like some other killers before him, was playing with detectives, upping the number of so-called kills in order to get attention and privileges. Browne is an unreliable speaker, and you begin to feel that the narrator is unreliable just for telling you all of this without ever taking a long, long hard look at Browne's credibility.

While it seems likely that Browne killed multiple times, the book makes little effort to apply psychology to why Browne claims all of these kills now. Most true crime readers are probably used to a bit of psychology in their reading, and they should be warned that it is quite absent here. This is much more of the old-fashioned-detective-work, gumshoe, knock-on-doors (no CSI) approach to crime-solving. Such a book could have made for a very intersting departure from the norm, but, again, for the reasons listed above, it does not. A little psychology would help shore up the book's crumbling foundations.

Another warning to true crime fans: you're probably used to seeing pictures of the detectives, snapshots of the victims while alive, perhaps crime scenes. This book has no photos. I'm not trying to be ghoulish; I'm just pointing out a departure from the norm.

All in all, this was not a satisfactory experience. A week after reading the book, I can recall only a few details about the central victim and can say very little about the killer. What I do remember is frustration with the text and annoyance with the detectives' seemingly endless credulity.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Total Immersion in Human Character Studies Without Rival, June 14, 2009

By	Ezekiel E. Cortez "bibliophile" (Sunny San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

So far, this fascinating criminal investigator's journal/report, presented to the general public as a true-crime book, has two Amazon.com reviews - one awarding it 4 stars and a misguided 2. I believe that the book deserves a 5 for its absorbing detailed character studies and how the lay reader is taken into the internal process of a veteran criminal investigator's riddle-solving gift. The very elaborate details regarding the lives and personal characteristics of the detectives involved are one of the many points that make this book unique. And, the organization and titles of the chapters of the book provide subtext as extra food-for-thought for the careful reader.

As you read this review, please consider that one of the authors - Charlie Hess - has more insight into the human condition and psychological complexities of the criminal mind than most of us ever will accomplish. The man has been a CIA operative and FBI agent, has amassed decades of experience with the polygraph process and methods of interpreting human responses and behavior and is a nationally-respected criminal investigator without peer. But he is far more than that. Mr. Hess is also a very wise empirical philosopher of the rarest form. He is the very antithesis of naïve and gullible, alluded to by one of the other raters here.

Hunt the long passages in this book for Easter eggs and wise insights into what we as people are and how we brutalize as we simultaneously cherish each other. And follow the predator/prey theme here wherein roles continuously change as the serial killer becomes the predator and back again as he is hunted down psychologically by these gifted hunters. The serial-killer subject and surface theme of this book - transparently highly-manipulative Robert Brown - is but a hook for a very expansive hat.

If you were to randomly select any one of the Best Sellers in the True Crime genre, you would be hard-pressed to tell them apart - originality has gone missing. With Hello Charlie, what you get is the absence of the obligatory banal forensic pictures of the corpses and crime scenes and the usually shallow life portraits of the cast of characters. And that makes for real True Crime drama - it is an internal journey. As the reader you have to actively engage your mind's eye to make the visuals come to life; and that makes for a great read. This book definitely is better than "the movie" would be.

Though I have seen a legion of fascinating real-life cases as a professional in the criminal justice field for over three decades now, this rare book totally captivated my attention. But I had to read it twice. It was in the second reading when the real gems here became apparent.

This rare book is priceless. It should be studied by all who appreciate true crime with a very creative philosophical twist and the under appreciated gifted trackers who chase down the psychologically pre-determined to brutalize and hunt down their own species.

Five big stars for Hello Charlie.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Look Into the Mind of a Serial Killer and the Men Who Chased Him, February 22, 2008

By	Frederick S. Goethel "wildcatcreekbooks" (Central Valley, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Books on serial killers are hardly rare, and most of them are written in a novelistic way that causes them to sensationalize the crime. This book is not your average true crime story, and rather than titillate the reader, it provides insights not usually found in most books of the genre.

The book begins by detailing the disappearance of Heather Dawn Church from her home in the suburbs of Colorado Springs. It details the efforts to attempt to find her and the person responsible for her abduction. From that point, it shifts to the lives of the three men who would ultimately come together to work as volunteers on cold cases.

After a relatively brief view into the apprehension and conviction of her killer, as well as his appeals, the book shifts focus again and begins to look at the aftermath of the crime. Robert Browne, who pled guilty to her murder, sent an interesting letter to the DA after he had lost all courtroom battles. The letter suggested that there were more bodies to be found, and that Browne was the responsible party.

The book is a wonderful look at the way a crime is solved; not with bells and whistles, but with long, hard work. It is also a look, in depth, into the game of cat and mouse that is played by the hunted and the hunters. It offers an interesting look into the mind and psyche of a serial killer.

There are no pictures, and this is not a "sensational" true crime story. Rather it is a methodical look at how police work is done in the real world. An excellent read, if you are not looking for the titillation factor.