The Serial Killer Whisperer

How One Man's Tragedy Helped Unlock the Deadliest Secrets of the World's Most Terrifying Killers

By: Pete Earley

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Fifteen-year-old Tony Ciaglia had everything a teenager could want: good grades, good athletic skills, and good friends - until he suffered a horrific head injury at summer camp. Pronounced clinically dead three times by helicopter paramedics before he reached a hospital, Ciaglia lapsed into a coma. When he emerged, his right side was paralyzed and he had to relearn how to walk, talk, and even how to eat. The areas of his brain that were damaged required him to take countless pills to control his emotions and rages. Abandoned and shunned by his friends, he began writing to serial killers on a whim and discovered that his traumatic brain injury - which made him an outcast to his peers - enabled him to emotionally connect with notorious murderers in a unique way.

Soon many of America's most dangerous psychopaths were revealing heinous details to Tony about their crimes - even those they'd never been convicted of. The killers opened up to him, trusted him, and called him a "best friend". But there was a price. As Tony found himself being drawn deeper and deeper into their violent worlds of murder, rape, and torture, he was pushed to the brink of despair and, at times, forced to question his own sanity - until he found a way to put his unusual gift to use. Asked by investigators for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for help in solving a murder, Tony began launching his own personal searches for forgotten victims, incredibly with clues often provided to him voluntarily by the killers themselves.

The Serial Killer Whisperer takes listeners into the minds of murderers in a way that has never been done before - straight from a killer's thoughts. It is also an inspiring (albeit sometimes terrifying) tale of an American family whose idyllic life is shattered by a terrible accident and how healing and closure came to a tormented man in the most unlikely way: by connecting with monsters.

©2012 Pete Earley (P)2012 Tantor

Extremely Highly Recommended!

Story - 5/5
Narration -5/5

Reread

Very interesting psychologically, and THE MOST CHILLING THING I've EVER read!

It you're a True Crime aficionado, this book is a must!!

The narrator has an interesting voice and style.

Extremely highly recommended!

gruesome but interesting

This book was extremely interesting. It is amazing how God used Anthony in a mighty way.

Ok book - not for the easily offended for sure!

What did you like best about The Serial Killer Whisperer? What did you like least?

The actual story playing out from the accident to the first serial killer contact. You really get to know the main character in this book

Least - the shocking foul language and the disgusting descriptive sexual abuse/murders

Would you be willing to try another book from Pete Earley? Why or why not?

Yes. I don't judge all books from reading just one.

What about Alan Sklar’s performance did you like?

Enjoyed it. He is definitely engaging.

Do you think The Serial Killer Whisperer needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Might be interesting to read the follow up to each story.

Any additional comments?

The foul and disgusting language in this book was shocking. I'm not a prude by any means however it even made me uncomfortable to hear some of it.

just.... wow

Honestly it was so fascinating. As someone who has listened to true crime cases for years, I thought this would be okay at best. Sometimes it was boring, especially the beginning, it just wasn't engaging to me. But if you can get past it, it's incredible. Hearing the killers own words, was an experience and I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in the psychology of killers and not just the crimes they commit

The Banality of Evil

In 1996, FBI profiler John Douglas, (the inspiration for Thomas Harris' Agent Jack Crawford of "The Silence of the Lambs" (1988)) wrote a book with Mark Olshaker called "Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit." Douglas had profiled, and hunted, serial killers including Arthur Shawcross, who killed 13 people and Robert Hansen, an Alaska hunter who made his own real life version of Richard Connell's 1924 short story "The Most Dangerous Game", taking women hostage, raping them, letting them go, and hunting them down in the wilderness.

Douglas is able, with great difficulty, to understand these psychopaths, but that work almost killed him. Tony Ciaglia, "The Serial Killer Whisperer" has Douglas' ability to communicate with the same psychopaths, but without the moral constraints and judgments that Douglas has. Ciaglia survived a traumatic brain injury, and gained the ability - and desire - to explore what creates and sustains these killers. Ciaglia is not, by any measure, a psychopath - but he does not have the filter that causes almost everyone to recoil in horror from these individuals. Ciaglia's family supports his 'hobby', and he has helped victims families. His story is much more fascinating than any of the killers in the book.

I've heard the phrase "the banality of evil" for years, but I didn't quite understand what it meant until I listened to "The Serial Killer Whisperer: How One Man's Tragedy Helped Unlock the Deadliest Secrets of the World's Most Terrifying Killers" (2012). Hannah Arendt wrote a book called "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" (1963). Earley's book gives a picture of individual psychopaths while Arendt deals with the political conditions that created a whole sociopathic society, Nazi Germany. What fascinated me about both books is that, after pushing through the sheer horror of individual killers or an entire society of killers, just how pathetic and repetitive the people who do these things really are. It's almost as if the lack of conscious causes no sense of self, leaving the psychopath to create himself only in relation to how he controls others.

The book is more graphic than Ann Rule's books - it contains numerous excerpts from serial killers' letters recalling the details of their crimes. I liked the narrator's voice, but the audio could have used an edit - I kept hearing distracting intakes of breath.

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Definitely graphic, entertaining

This book was better than average. It is very graphic. I have read a lot about serial killers, but this definitely adds something.

For me, the book was more about Tony and the way his family dealt with a very difficult situation in a humane, kind, and ego-free manner than it was about the serial killers, per se.

I suppose from my prior reading on the subject of serial killers, I was aware of the depravity of which the human mind is capable. What I took away from this book is admiration for the courage shown by Tony's family. It couldn't have been easy for them to let their disabled son write to serial killers, but instead of judging him, they made the best of it. The truth of the matter is, had his parents behaved as almost any parents would, it would likely have pushed Tony over the edge and likely resulted in his own death. Interesting book in that regard.

Not for the squeamish!

What did you love best about The Serial Killer Whisperer?

Found Anthony's journey unique and compelling. His struggle to find meaning was very inspiring!

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Lackluster...I assumed at the end he would have cracked a cold case wide open but nothing like that...Disappointing.

Have you listened to any of Alan Sklar’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

His parents struggle to find a place for Anthony after his injury. Thats what you call parents!

Any additional comments?

Not bad. I did think going to see the serial killers in person was very strange.

True Crime is not my usual genre

I love my novels, however in approximately 600 books, I have just a few true crime. I think that it is because of the mystery that I prefer the fiction over the true crime. This book well written and well narrated. If you like true crime you will like this book. I think that I will stick to my fiction whenever possible.

More about the "Whisperer" than the Killers

The majority of the book deals with the brain injury suffered by Anthony and it's aftermath, (He believes he met god), than about serial killers. Not really a true crime book. Not what I was looking for. I don't understand the title, it doesn't apply.

if you like true crime, this is a good one

Can't say I loved it, but kept my interest until the end. Very graphic, but gave the truth and inside thoughts of serial killers. They are disturbing people so it shouldn't be a surprise that there recounts of their crimes isn't disturbing too. Sklar did a good narrative but he narrated a Trump book and I couldn't get that image out of my head especially when he was talking the part of the psychopaths.