Catch the Devil - by Pamela Colloff (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The riveting, true story of an audacious con man who helped send another man to death row for a murder he did not commit

"Incendiary, emotionally devastating. [This] is a feat of dogged reporting, bravura storytelling, and clear-eyed moral conscience."
--Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing and London Falling

For more than three decades, Paul Skalnik roamed the Gulf Coast lying about who he was. He passed himself off as a fighter pilot, a high-rolling oilman, a criminal defense attorney, an undercover agent, and a terminal cancer patient. In these guises he married nine women--some at the same time.

When Skalnik got caught, as he invariably did, he would run a different con. Locked up with other men awaiting trial, he claimed they confessed their crimes to him. Then he peddled those stories to prosecutors. In Pinellas County, Florida, he became a frequent witness for the state, thinking nothing of exaggerating men's wrongdoing or implicating the innocent to help prosecutors win convictions. In return, the state rewarded him with his freedom, fueling his growing sense of invincibility. Soon he was not just committing fraud; he was preying on girls in their teens or barely into adolescence.

In 1985, Jim Dailey, a down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran, was implicated in the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl and landed in the Pinellas County Jail with Skalnik. No forensic evidence or motive linked Dailey to the killing, but Skalnik's account of his "confession" helped put Dailey on death row. Skalnik, meanwhile, walked free. More than three decades later, after another man took responsibility for the killing, Pamela Colloff, reporting for the New York Times Magazine and ProPublica, visited Skalnik and asked him if he would recant his testimony. He refused.

By then, Skalnik had caused untold damage: to the women and girls he exploited, to the dozens of men he helped imprison, and to Jim Dailey, who went on to receive an execution date. In this mesmerizing debut, Pamela Colloff spins a dark tale of a remorseless and brilliant liar made lethal by a system more concerned with winning convictions than finding the truth.

Review Quotes

"Pamela Colloff is one of our great chroniclers of crime and criminal justice, and in this incendiary, emotionally devastating book, she depicts a justice system turned completely inside out, in which the innocent are incarcerated and the guilty skip free. The conman at the heart of her story, Paul Skalnik, is as chilling and unrepentant as any movie villain. Catch the Devil is a feat of dogged reporting, bravura storytelling, and clear-eyed moral conscience." --Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing and London Falling

"One of America's finest journalists, Pamela Colloff, has delivered a wallop of a debut book--loaded with moral clarity and astounding detail--about one of the world's most infernal liars, the scores of lives he destroyed, and the criminal-justice system that still, shockingly, benefits from those lies." --Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road

"Pamela Colloff's writing sits at the perfect intersection of journalism and literature. Catch the Devil is a masterwork, deeply researched and thrillingly composed." --Michael Finkel, author of The Art Thief

"Pamela Colloff has ripped the roof off the criminal justice system with this exposé of a jailhouse snitch. You can't read this book without a feeling of horror that one man could do so much damage; but the real shock is that he was only telling prosecutors what they wanted him to say." --Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower and The Human Scale

"A masterful and riveting anatomy of how a series of institutions colluded with one man's pathology. I can't imagine a more damning and poignant account of a criminal justice system that was, fundamentally, willing to be fooled--and the lives destroyed and transformed in that process." --Rachel Aviv, author of Strangers to Ourselves

"You read each page of Pamela Colloff's subtly written and stunningly reported book with a deepening sense of outrage. How could this happen? How could the justice system be so remorseless, so intractably focused on protocol and career wins at the expense of justice itself? Catch the Devil is an infuriating, illuminating, gripping narrative by one of the heroes of American journalism." --Stephen Harrigan, author of Sorrowful Mysteries

"A mesmerizing, often enraging portrait of a man whose skill at manipulating the judicial system led to untold injustices. Told with all the care, nuance, and dazzling reportage we expect from Pamela Colloff--one of the very best in the field right now--Catch the Devil reads like a literary thriller, rich in atmosphere and lively characters, but its larger resonances give it an extraordinary depth and its timeliness during America's current grifter era could hardly be greater." --Megan Abbott, author of El Dorado Drive

"Pamela Colloff lights up the criminal justice system with a precision that leaves nowhere to hide. Catch the Devil is an extraordinary achievement, its narrative moving with the taut urgency of a thriller--anchored by the heart and humanity she brings to the pursuit of truth. An unforgettable masterwork from the leading voice in American crime reporting." --Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove

"Vividly reported and artfully written, Colloff's book is an enraging narrative of how one man can manipulate the criminal justice system. It's also a joy to read thanks to her knack for storytelling and engrossing detail." --Susan Orlean, author of Joyride and The Orchid Thief

"At the heart of Pamela Colloff's impeccable, infuriating narrative sits a serial jailhouse snitch, Paul Skalnik. A monster of casual depravity, predatory instinct, and resolute amorality, Skalnik plays our criminal justice system like a fiddle, exposing an apparatus far more concerned with clearance rates than actual justice. The tragedy here lies not only in the countless miscarriages of justice in the name of it, but the countless lives obliterated in the process." --Dennis Lehane, author of Small Mercies and Mystic River

"Both a chilling profile of an evildoer and a glimpse into a fractured justice system, this enlightens and entertains in equal measure." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

PAMELA COLLOFF is a reporter at ProPublica and a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. She was the recipient of a National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2020 and for Feature Writing in 2013. Her work has been anthologized in The Best American Magazine Writing, The Best American Crime Reporting, and Next Wave: America's New Generation of Great Literary Journalists. Colloff holds a bachelor's degree in English from Brown University. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and their two children.