Catch the Devil

A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast

By: Pamela Colloff

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 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

“Unfolding in cinematic detail, Catch the Devil offers a riveting and disturbing account of the potentially fatal consequences of a criminal legal system that is more concerned with securing convictions than determining the truth and delivering justice.” —NPR

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.

Epic. Infuriating. Tragic.

This isn’t just a book about a lying, child -molesting conman (Jack Skalnick) nor is it about the ruthless prosecutors, sketchy cops, and incompetent public defenders who all played a role in Skalnick’s “success” as a prison snitch. This book is about the human beings whose lives were ruined along the way by Skalnick and a system that values stats over people. Highest marks. Give Ms. Colloff all the awards.

Gripping, bewildering, heartbreaking

Incredibly well-researched, technical where needed, poignantly person otherwise. The narrator was excellent for the tragic, infuriating story being told. One of the best books of 2026

Jailhouse Inmate Testimony

A horrifying true story of a psychopathic repeat offender who profited from sending innocent men to their deaths and the complicity of prosecutors who used him for their advantage; testi-lying.

Perverse incentives to lie!

“Thou shalt not bear false witness” should go without saying but it doesn’t—and we make so many Type I ERRORS as a result of convincing testimony that proves to be false…because the contributor to the “evidence” gets a deal!

Just like it’s sometimes very hard to parse when a political donation is…or is not…a bribe.

There is a fuzzified quid pro quo.

Extraordinary journalism

Pamela Colloff is a gifted journalist and writer. This riveting and maddening story is a damning indictment of the criminal justice system. Colloff’s detailed retelling reads like a work of fiction to which I couldn’t stop listening. Highly recommend!