Garden Grove Police Department: Chief John Robertson, Detective Fred McLean, Detective William Morrissey, Detective Ron Shave, Forensic Specialist Marsha MacWillie.

Orange County deputy coroner Bernice Mazuca.

Orange County District Attorney's Office: District Attorney Michael Capizzi, Deputy District Attorney Jeoffrey Robinson, Senior Attorney's Investigator Jay Newell, Deputy District Attorney Tom Borris (now in private practice), Chief, District Attorney's Bureau of Investigation, Loren "Duke" d.u.c.h.esne, a.s.sistant Chief, District Attorney's Bureau of Investigation, Vince Vasil and his wife, Lou Vasil, Supervising Attorney's Investigator Jim Aumond, Chief Deputy District Attorney Jim Enright, a.s.sistant District Attorney Ed Freeman, Technical Service Adviser Greg Gulen. Support staff: Annabelle Roberts, Anne Leonard, Debbie Jackson, Karen Keyes, LaVonne Campbell, Edna Selleck, and Roxanne McDonald.

Orange County Superior Court, Department 30: Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin, Court Clerk Gail Carpenter, Court Reporter Sandra Wingerd, Bailiff "Mitch" Miller, Deputy Marshal Glenn "Hoop" Hoopingarner.

Defense attorneys: Gary M. Pohlson, Richard Schwartzberg.

Eric Lichtblau and Jerry Hicks, Los Angeles Times; Jeff Collins, Orange County Register; Dave Lopez, CBS-Channel 2, Los Angeles; Barney Morris, ABC, Channel 7, Los Angeles.

With special thanks to: Brenda Sands, Doris Smith, Janell Wheeler, Anita Sands, Gary Miller, Otis and Cecil Fox, Betty Jo Newell, Rita and Mark Robinson, Sr., Derek Johnson, Sandy and Gene Walsh, Katie, Brad, Torrie and Chrissie Walsh, Cheryl Goodman, Teri Blanchard, Rita Nugent, Fred Land, Don La.s.seter, Courtney Mich.e.l.le, Jan E. Elinsky, Larry T. Nakashima, Meghann Shane, Deborah Duke, Virginia Newell, Beatrice Munoz, Ebba "Sunny" Cole, Joey Moscatiello and all the family at Pepino's Restaurant in El Toro, Jimmy Buffett, Stephen M. Lopez, Rick Watkins, Pamela Starns, David Miller, Donna Nichol, Mary Bailey, Rick Bailey, Alan Bailey, Valerie Bailey, Ethel Bailey, Child Help of Orange County.

My reconstruction of the ambiance, detail, and testimony in the long trial in Department 30 was helped immeasurably by the efforts of my trial a.s.sistants, Donna Anders and Leslie Rule. Leslie also served as my photographer and took several hundred photographs, both during the trial and around Orange County.

Northwest support included: Marlene Price, Mike Rule, Jennifer A. Giadwell, Cheri Luxa, Gerry Brittingham, Mike Prezbindowski, Tina Abeel, Laura Harris, Becca Harris, Brian Halquist, David Coughlan, Luke and Nancy Fiorante, Mildred Yoacham, Eilene Schultz, Lars and Debb Larson, Maureen and Bill Woodc.o.c.k, Ruth and Vernon Cornelius, Dr. Peter J. Modde, Austin and Charlotte Seth, Dr. Carl Beraer and staff, Andy Rule, S. Bruce Sherles, Forrest Schultz, Anne and Chris Jaeger, and Ms. Haleigh Jean Jaeger, who was born the day this book was finished.

Thank you to my mother, Sophie Hansen Stackhouse, who always let me explore and "research" and never clipped my wings. And to the rest of the clan of Michigan Danes who helped to shape my life: the late Montcalm County, Michigan, sheriff Chris Hansen; the late Anna Hansen; the late Amelia Hansen Mills; the late Montcalm County, Michigan, sheriff Elton Sampson; Emma Hansen McKenney; Montcalm County coroner Dr. Carl M. Hansen; Freda Hansen Sampson Grunwald; Donna Hansen Basom; Montcalm County prosecuting attorney Bruce Basom; Jan Basom Schubert; Calhoun County, Michigan, judicial clerk Sara Jane Plushnik; Chris L. McKenney; Karen Hudson; Jim Sampson; Christa Hansen; Terry Hansen. The love of the law, and most of all, the search for justice, courses through all our veins.

In New York, I was fortunate indeed to have a brilliant, patient, and incisive editor, Frederic W. Hills; his cheerful and competent a.s.sistant, Daphne Bien; and a no-nonsense ma.n.u.script editor, Burton Beals. This book also marks two decades with the best agents an author ever had: Joan and Joe Foley.

Last of all, my deep grat.i.tude goes to a very practical helpera"Matthew Noel Harrisa"who single-handedly rescued Chapter 24 from my computer's secret vault.

About the Author.

Ann Rule, author of the best-sellers The Stranger Beside Me, Possession, and Small Sacrifices, is one of the foremost true-crime authors in America today. A former Seattle policewoman, she has published 1400 articles and seven books on homicide cases. She is a certified instructor for the National Inst.i.tute of Corrections, and for continuing education cla.s.ses for police, probation, and parole departments in many states. She regularly gives seminars to law enforcement professionals on serial murder, s.a.d.i.s.tic sociopathy, and women who kill. She has testified twice before the United States Senate on these subjects, and lectured to the F.B.I. Academy in Quantico, Virginia. She was one of five civilians chosen to serve on a U.S. Government task force to set up the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VI-CAP), a tracking system now used by law enforcement agencies all over America to trap serial killers. When she is not researching and writing a book, she makes her home in a suburb of Seattle, Washington.

ANN RULE, author of the bestselling The Stranger Beside Me, Possession and Small Sacrifices, is one of the foremost true-crime writers in America today. A former Seattle policewoman, she has published 1,400 articles and seven books on homicide cases. A certified instructor for the National Inst.i.tute of Corrections, she regularly gives seminars to law enforcement professionals on serial murder, s.a.d.i.s.tic sociopathy and women who kill. She was one of five civilians chosen to serve on a U.S. Government task force to set up the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VI-CAP), a tracking system now used by law enforcement agencies all over America to trap serial killers. When she is not researching and writing a book, she makes her home in a suburb of Seattle, Washington.

end.