With American Predator, journalist and author Maureen Callahan lifts the veil on one of the most Machiavellian killers in American history. And sincerely, there is something to shudder with horror.

Israel Keyes, does that mean anything to you? Don't worry, you are far from the only one. When he was arrested in Texas in 2012, the police and the FBI had also never heard from him.

Yet, for nearly 15 years, Israel Keyes kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered scores of people across the United States. He had taken to hiding "murder kits" all over the place - which contained among other things plastic clamps, cartridges, chatterton and Drano - and when the urge to kill took him, he had only to dig one up before choosing a new victim.

The craziest thing is that around him, no one suspected anything. Neither his ex-wife, nor his partner, nor his ten-year-old daughter, nor his eight brothers and sisters, nor the clients who hired him to renovate or build something. On the surface, Israel Keyes led a very normal little life in Anchorage, Alaska, and there was no hint of what he really was: a fearsome serial killer capable of anything, absolutely anything. Even passing the security checkpoint at domestic airports with a firearm without any problem.

true crime lover

Wanting to understand how Israel Keyes had been able to work in the shadows for so long without being suspected of anything by anyone, American journalist and author Maureen Callahan set out to conduct her own investigation. And, after six years of hard work during which she went to Alaska, among other things, and interviewed the FBI agents in charge of the case, we can discover the fruit of her efforts with the excellent American Predator, a work that devours like a polar... but with the eyebrows constantly raised to the hairline!

“As far as I can remember, I have always loved documentaries and true crime books, she confided to us at the beginning of the month from her New York home. When done well, there are no better stories, because they flirt with the incredible. Moreover, if American Predator had been a fiction, nobody would have believed it so much everything that this killer did is amazing. »

In 2012, when Maureen Callahan got wind of the Israel Keyes case, she immediately understood that this was the subject of her next book. "I was sure the story I was going to get out of it would be almost inconceivable, and I really wanted to talk to the FBI agents to find out what was going on in their heads," she says. And then there's Alaska, which is almost a character in the book. For its wild side, and also because a large part of its inhabitants, from the Lower 48 (the contiguous United States), took refuge there to not be found, to commit suicide or to escape the police. There's a real dark side to Alaska, and I was curious to get close to it. »

A killer on the road

The story begins with the disappearance of Samantha Kœnig, an 18-year-old waitress working in a roadside cafe outside Anchorage. A video surveillance camera will indeed allow investigators to see an armed man kidnapping the young girl and during the following weeks, they will do everything possible to try to find her.

"Israel Keyes was able to travel across the United States undetected and he chose his victims at random without regard to their gender, age or appearance," said Maureen Callahan. He would then dispose of the bodies without leaving any traces of DNA or obvious traces of his passage and to date only four murders could be attributed with certainty to Keyes. »

Thanks to American Predator, which explains well the ways in which Keyes proceeded, Maureen Callahan hopes, however, to help change the situation. “In 2012, 58-year-old electrician Jimmy Tidwell disappeared in Texas while Keyes was visiting family in the area. And last summer, I received an email from a woman who said that after reading my book, she finally knew what had happened to her Uncle Jimmy. In the future, many other victims could thus be identified. »

Last little detail, Israel Keyes would have regularly stayed on our side of the border... Terrifying, isn't it?