The Coast-to-Coast Killer

The Life and Crimes of Tommy Lynn Sells

De: Mark Stokes

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Tommy Lynn Sells—known chillingly as the "Coast‑to‑Coast Killer"—was both anonymous drifter and merciless predator, allegedly roaming the United States in the decades before his capture. With a history of childhood trauma, substance abuse, and a life lived on the margins, Sells drifted across state lines, hopping freight trains and committing crimes that spanned from the Midwest to the South and West. Though convicted of just two murders—one that earned him a death sentence and another a life term—he claimed responsibility for over 70 killings, with investigators confirming at least 22. This book unmasks the disturbing duality of a man whose nomadic invisibility let evil remain hidden in plain sight.

Drawing on court records, survivor testimonies, and confessions made during his final months, The Coast‑to‑Coast Killer reconstructs moments of horror and survival that exposed Sells’s brutality. The most notorious case unfolded on December 31, 1999, when he brutally murdered 13‑year‑old Kaylene “Katy” Harris and slashed the throat of 10‑year‑old Krystal Surles—who miraculously survived and later helped identify him. Beyond these crimes, Sells’s trails of violence touch multiple communities—carnival towns, rural homes, and city streets—each crime a fragment in a harrowing narrative of transience and terror.

Yet this isn't merely a chronicle of violence—it’s a study of how societal fractures and systemic failures enabled terror to cross borders without detection. By weaving the voices of survivors, law enforcement, and forensic investigators, The Coast-to-Coast Killer reveals the staggering gaps in criminal justice and community vigilance. It confronts uncomfortable truths about homelessness and mental health, about how easily depravity can be dismissed, and honors the resilience of those—like young Krystal Surles—who refused to be silenced. Harrowing, unflinching, and ultimately necessary, this book demands that we face the hidden faces behind headlines—and remember that every headline once had a name.