Finding Karla : How I Tracked Down an Elusive Serial Child Killer and Discovered a Mother of Three

"In my 1998 book No Claim to Mercy, about the controversial murder conviction of Robert Baltovich, I devoted quite a few pages to the infamous crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka because there was a compelling case to be made that Bernardo was the man responsible for the disappearance of Elizabeth Bain, not Baltovich. At that time, a handful of books had been written about the Bernardo-Homolka case, but the best single piece of writing about the practically unfathomable dynamic that permitted the so-called “Ken and Barbie Killers” to commit such horrific crimes together was Patricia Pearson’s “Behind Every Successful Psychopath,” which was published in the October 1995 issue of the now defunct Saturday Night magazine. It deservedly won a National Magazine Award and other honours. In 2012, with Karla Homolka still in the news as a “free” woman, “Behind Every Successful Psychopath” remains an important work and is an excellent companion piece to Paula Todd’s just-released Finding Karla.”

For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse.

For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation.

On August 26, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I don’t think of myself as a victim. I survived.

A Stolen Life is my story—in my own words, in my own way, exactly as I remember it.

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The pine cone is a symbol that represents the seed of a new beginning for me. To help facilitate new beginnings, with the support of animal-assisted therapy, the J A Y C Foundation provides support and services for the timely treatment of families recovering from abduction and the aftermath of traumatic experiences—families like my own who need to learn how to heal. In addition, the J A Y C Foundation hopes to facilitate awareness in schools about the important need to care for one another.

Our motto is “Just Ask Yourself to . . . Care!”

A portion of my proceeds from this memoir will be donated to The J A Y C Foundation Inc.

The first ever account of crimes that continue to haunt Canada's conscience.

Nearly 30 years after Clifford Olson's horrific crimes and the controversial deal he made with authorities ($100,000 for showing the RCMP where the bodies of his 11 victims were buried) this is the first ever account of Olson's heinous crimes and an extensive account of his childhood life in and outside prison.

Based on Peter Worthington's extensive interviews with Olson when he was alive, as well as sealed documents which Worthington was granted permission to from Olson's lawyer, Robert D. Shantz, this book includes shocking and horrific descriptions that illustrate crimes Olson never showed remorse for and which gave rise to the victims of violence movement, led to an amendment of the Criminal Code barring multiple murders from applying for early parole under the faint-hope clause and the passage of Bill C-31 denying such payments to prisoners while they are incarcerated.

With a thriller’s pacing Karla: A Pact with the Devil charts the intimate cosmology of the world’s most notorious female sex slayer. Part memoir, part woman-in-prison story, part prognostication, part political expose, in Karla, Williams lets Karla and the key players speak for themselves. What they have to say is surprising, horrifying and enlightening. Karla: A Pact with the Devil also asks and answers two essential questions: Who is Karla Homolka and how did she come to have a future? Given the fact she is out among us enjoying that future right now makes those answers essential information today. Karla: A Pact with the Devil is, as, one reviewer put it “almost unique in our literature. It is an extraordinary act of the imagination brought to bear on the facts.” (Includes pictures from the original Canadian print edition) Karla: A Pact with the Devil has not been previously available in the United States.

"People want me in max so my life with be hard but it really isn't. There are absolutely no responsibilities here. Everything is provided. We can spend the day sleeping, sun-tanning or doing whatever we want all day every day."

- Karla Homolka in a letter to author Stephen Williams

"Well, they say 'never say never' and they're right," Karla wrote in her startling first letter to Stephen Williams. "Never in a million years did I think I would ever write a letter to someone from the media, let alone you who has condemned me so harshly."

Thus began one of the most controversial correspondences in criminal history.

Karla picks up where Williams' first book on the case, Invisible Darkness, left her, painting her nails in her cell in solitary confinement in the gothic tower of Kingston's Prison for Women. After testifying against her ex-husband in 1995, Karla's life ini prison was soon going to take a very different, dramatic turn.
 

On the night of June 30, 2009, a father, mother and brother drowned half their family in a black Nissan just outside of Kingston, Ontario. On January 29, 2012, Mohammad Shafia, Tooba Mohammad Yahya and Hamed Mohammad Shafia were each convicted of four counts of first-degree murder. The apparent motive behind the killings was what the judge ultimately described as "a notion of honour that is founded in the domination and control of women, a sick notion of honour that has absolutely no place in any civilized society." Christie Blatchford and the reporters and columnists of the National Post covered the so-called honour killings from the first reports of a submerged car to the final verdict. With her clear analysis and astute emotional observation, Blatchford provides the definitive account of a crime that appalled a nation.

Since TLC first launched its popular reality program Sister Wives, the Browns have become one of the most famous families in the country. Now Kody, Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn reveal in their own words exactly how their special relationship works—the love and faith that drew them together, the plusses and pitfalls of having sister wives, and the practical and emotional complications of a lifestyle viewed by many with distrust, prejudice, even fear. With the candor and frankness that have drawn millions to their show, they talk about what makes their fascinating family work, addressing the topics that intrigue outsiders: How do the four relationships differ? What effect does a polygamous upbringing have on their children? What are the challenges—emotional, social, or financial—involved in living this lifestyle? Is it possible for all four sister wives to feel special when sharing a husband—and what happens when jealousy arises? How has being on camera changed their lives? And what’s it like to add a new wife to the family—or to be that new wife?

Filled with humor, warmth, surprising insights, and remarkable honesty, this is a singular story of plural marriage and all the struggles and joys that go with it. At heart, it’s a love story—unconventional but immediately recognizable in the daily moments of trust, acceptance, forgiveness, passion, and commitment that go into making one big, happy, extraordinary family.