Blood Lust: Portrait of a Serial Sex Killer - Softcover

True crime author Gary C. King has been writing bizarre, compelling and authentic true stories of murder and mayhem for the past 33 years. In the pages of his books you will find stories about serial murderers and cannibal killers, celebrity murders, torture murders, crimes of passion, among many others—chilling crimes that could only be perpetrated by the twisted minds and gruesome obsessions of coldblooded killers, the stuff of which horror movies and novels are made. Much of his freelancing has been for True Detective magazine between day jobs that included technical writer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and specialized work for the Department of Defense. In 1980 he took over crime writer Ann Rule’s job as Pacific Northwest stringer for the detective magazines based out of New York, and wrote for those so-called “dick” books until they ceased publication in 1995 and hasn’t looked back since. In addition to writing 17 traditionally-published books for Penguin USA, St. Martin’s Press, Pinnacle Books, and John Blake Publishing in the U.K. and 500 or so stories for the aforementioned detective magazines, King has also written extensively for Investigation Discovery’s website and continues to provide occasional online content for Turner Broadcasting’s Crime Library. King’s television appearances have included Entertainment Tonight, Larry King Live, Inside Edition, Court TV, MSNBC’s Headliners and Legends, E!, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Extra TV, and several other national and local programs. He also frequently provides radio interviews. King was recently featured in an episode of Biography about serial killer Robert “Willie” Pickton, the subject of his book, Butcher, and in an episode of Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege, and Justice called “Strange Bedfellows,” about the murder of Nevada State Controller Kathy Augustine and the subject of King’s An Almost Perfect Murder. King is an active member of the Association of Independent Authors, and is also president of that organization’s Las Vegas chapter. He also holds active memberships in the Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, The Crime Writers' Association (U.K.), International Thriller Writers, and the International Association of Crime Writers. King is also active in social media online. You can connect with him on Twitter and Facebook, and can also reach him via his website.

Though sometimes burdened with cliches, this is an effective, workmanlike account of the worst serial killer in Oregon's history. Owner of a small business in Portland and apparently happily married, Dayton Leroy Rogers was known among local streetwalkers as a violent john who liked kinky sex and bondage. Through interviews with investigators and witnesses, King reconstructs Rogers's brutal murder of a prostitute in 1987. Not until a hunter in the Mollalla Forest found the graves of other victims did the true horror of the case become apparent: there were seven other murders and many rampages. Rogers claimed self-defense in his first trial but was convicted; he was also found guilty of killing the victims found in the forest. Probing Rogers's past, King finds the killer had a repressive, violent father, fetishized his sisters' shoes as a child, had his first brush with the law at 18 and was soon labeled a sociopath. The author sometimes stretches the narrative, offering interior monologue from Rogers even though the killer, who is now on death row, hasn't spoken to him or investigators. Photos not seen by PW.
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