“American Predator” by Maureen Callahan – The Calculated Serial Killer

While many serial killers have earned infamy forever in the books of history, Maureen Callahan reminds us there are many more who slipped between the cracks of our collective attention.

Namely, in her true crime book titled American Predator, she presents us with a serial killer who struck all over the United States and whose methods were considered unprecedented by the FBI: Israel Keyes.

Maureen Callahan Enters the Mind of a Killer

Though they have likely existed as long as humanity, it wasn't until the end of the 19th century when we began to actually recognize serial killers as being real rather than a morbid fantasy. Ever since the days of Jack the Ripper the concept has captivated society like few others could, and the last century has been rife with terrifying cases to study.

It has even come to the point where some of those killers have essentially reached celebrity status, even if solely through their infamy. Most of us might be familiar with the more notorious ones, but as Maureen Callahan reminds us in American Predator, some of the more devious ones somehow escaped our enduring collective memory, as seems to be the case with Israel Keyes.

The book is essentially about how the FBI hunted for and ended up capturing Keyes, from what they believe to be his first crimes to his ultimate suicide in jail while on trial for the murder of Samantha Koenig. We become as well-acquainted as humanly possible with such a person, learning about where Keyes was from, how his earlier years went, how he lived in society, and so on and so forth.

We explore his murders in fascinating detail, learning how he managed to remain undetected likely for over a decade while maintaining a normal life at home in Alaska. The chilling portrait of a sick yet calculated mind, one we can only hope will never come to life again.

In addition to examining Keyes as a person, Callahan also takes us on an adventure alongside the FBI as they try and put the dots together and crack the story behind multiple unsolved murders. We get an enlightening look at how the organization operates as well as their various capabilities and limitations when investigating crimes. Perhaps more importantly, the author tries to answer the question as to why it took them so long to identify this serial killer, and what it means for society in general if such a person was able to exist as he did.

The Buried Case

Considering just how much of a ruthless and methodical killer Keyes was and how he likely had over eleven victims (three confirmed), I found it a bit surprising I had not only never heard of him, but there wasn't much information to be found about him, at least with a cursory Google search. The deeper I got into this book, the more I understood why this is the case, and while the truth might be fairly uncomfortable to hear, it seems the authorities tried to take the attention off this case as much as possible to hide their own shortcomings and poor handling of the situation.

Callahan traces a very clear and interesting path in regards to how the case was investigated, and she does make solid arguments about ego and bravado having been the downfall of various highly-placed members within the FBI when handling Keyes.

She discusses how they made various simple mistakes which caused them to lose out on valuable information, as well as bigger ones relating to the legal world. For instance, she brings to attention the US Attorney's office prosecutor also played the role of interrogator, which was bound to have rather complex ramifications for the impending trial.

With this being said, Callahan isn't out here to try and denounce the FBI or anything of the sort. She pays her respects to the good and talented agents who did everything they could to bring the killer the justice in the face of their bosses' incompetence, and there are certainly quite a few interesting sections about how they managed to link the various murders together.

I was personally very curious to see how they managed to solve the puzzle considering Keyes was active all over the United States and was extremely specific in his actions, going as far as burying “kill caches” around the country, and Callahan answered all of my questions in this regard in as much detail as I could ask for.

Portrait of a Family Man

While I highly doubt it will ever be possible to truly understand or justify the actions of Keyes, in my opinion his psyche certainly deserves to be studied in great detail, if only for the value it might bring in stopping further serial killings in the future. Though we often see serial killers in the media portrayed calm, cool and intelligent, in reality, more often than not, it doesn't turn out to be case. However, when it comes to Keyes, he seemed to be the alarming exception to this rule.

We become privy to various interviews which were taken with him before his death, and they paint the portrait of a seemingly normal man, a single and loving father to his only daughter, a worker appreciated by his community, who essentially seemed to have a double living inside of him.

I think most curiously, we learn how acutely Keyes was able to predict the reaction law enforcement agencies had to his various crimes. He maintained he knew the majority of his kills would be simply chalked up as missing persons cases, eventually forgotten along with the rest of the people who continuously vanish. As we learn from our time spent examining the work of the FBI, he was unfortunately correct. There are plenty more tidbits such as this which help us get ever-so-slightly deeper into a deranged mind.

At this point, I think it would be fair to talk a little bit about the author's writing and her style in general, which for the most part, remains fairly dry and fact-oriented. However, there are certain moments where she interjects her own deliberations where information or opinions might be missing, both when it comes to the FBI and the portrait of Keyes himself.

However, I will admit they were far and few in-between and always remained within the realms of logic. Additionally, the author mentions at the start of the book this is the result of not only document-based research, but also of numerous interviews taken with people involved in the case, so if anyone would be in a good position to fill in the blanks, Callahan would definitely fit the bill.

The Final Verdict

American Predator by Maureen Callahan is one of the more fascinating true crime books I have read recently, being largely a case study of an unprecedented serial killer and the many mistakes the FBI made in their hunt for him, as well as the cover-up which followed after.

I highly recommend this anyone who is interested in serial killers, the inner workings of law enforcement in such cases, or simply wants to know a lot more about Israel Keyes than the public does.

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Maureen Callahan Maureen Callahan is a writer and editor for the New York Post, with her main subjects of focus being pop culture fashion, the music industry, and various subcultures of New York City. She has co-authored Don't Drink the Brown Water, for which she received an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. In 2019 Callahan published her true crime book, American Predator, chronicling the hunt for Israel Keyes.