Tuesday 27 March 2012

Errata for Cold North Killers

Writing a book on 60 different cases of Canadian serial homicide was an enormous challenge, and I anticipated there would be some errors on my behalf along the way.  Recently, some of these have been brought to my attention by the public, so I would like to start an Errata section here to address any mistakes in my research that may have occurred.  If there is a second edition of the book, I will ensure that each of the following changes are made:

William Dean Christensen

1) I misspelled the victim Michele Angier's name "Michelle Angiers." All of the newspapers I had read also had used the spelling "Angiers" so I assumed it was correct. I would like to apologize to the victim's family for this mistake.

2) The misspelling of Dickson City, PA as "Dixon City" in multiple newspapers led me to believe that the Angier homicide had taken place in "Dixon, PA" instead. The correct location was "Dickson City."

Angelo Colalillo

1) I failed to note that Colalillo was released from prison sometime before his 1993 murders of Speich and Cefali.  The way the book currently reads, it seems that he was incarcerated from 1987-1998, but in fact this was two separate prison stints.  Colalillo was convicted and went back inside for a second time in 1993.  This error was one I replicated from newspaper sources.

David Threinen

1) I misspelled the victim Kathy Scott's name "Cathy."  Most of the newspapers I had read also had used the spelling "Cathy" so I assumed it was correct.  My apologies to the Scott family.

Melissa Ann Friedrich

1) I claimed that Friedrich was incarcerated at Kingston Penitentiary when the actual location was the women's prison across the street.  My error was in believing that both institutions were under the same administration.

2) For some reason I stated that Friedrich was sentenced to eight years in prison, when in reality it was six.  I checked my sources, and none of them said eight, so I'm not sure what the explanation for this error was, beyond being a simple oversight.

Donald Eric Armstrong

1) In  in a brief Toronto Star article on the case, a sentence read "Anxiously waiting is Kathy Caughlin, whose sister Karen Lee, 14, was killed..." I assumed that Kathy Caughlin simply had a different last name than her sister through marriage, or different fathers etc. Now I see that Karen's name was actually Karen Lee Caughlin. I'm not sure why the author of the article chose to write it in such a confusing way, but unfortunately this led me to write the victim's name down as Karen Lee.  My apologies to the Caughlin family.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

The book is out, and I'm making news!

Hi everyone,
Cold North Killers: Canadian Serial Murder is officially available in bookstores across Canada, and I've been doing a ton of interviews, both in print and radio.  Here's some links for you to check out:

http://www.orangeville.com/news/local/article/1312160--varaschin-murder-loder-attack-human-remains-discovered - Speaking to the Orangeville Banner about the murder of Sonia Varaschin, the attack on Shelley Loder, and local serial killer David Snow.

http://www.thestuphfile.com/podcast-0133.htm - Radio inteview with Global's Peter Anthony Holder on his Stuph File podcast.  I discuss the process of writing the book, why prostitutes are at particular risk for serial murder, and the role of fantasy in the development of a sexual predator.

http://serialkillers.briancombs.net/3093/interview-lee-mellor-author-of-cold-north-killers-canadian-serial-murder/ - Brian Combs runs a podcast on serial killers out of Austin, Texas.  He interviewed me about the book and serial murder in Canada.  Lots of topics covered here!