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Wearing Two Hats in Vero Beach, One Comfortable, One Not

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With tears in his eyes and his voice showing emotion, Carl Elliott Jr., told me last week that he hoped my book, The Serial Killer Whisperer, would finally be enough to get Florida’s governor to schedule the execution of serial killer David Gore. 

Gore abducted, raped, and murdered Elliott’s daughter, Lynn, age 17, in Vero Beach. He has been on death row for nearly thirty years. 

I certainly did not write my book to prompt the death of anyone, including Gore. But my book has re-ignited interest in his case and is stirring strong emotions in Vero Beach.

The book describes the plight of Tony Ciaglia, who was hit in the skull by a speeding jet ski when he was 15 years old. He died three times en route to the hospital but was revived. After several weeks in a coma, Ciaglia awoke much different from the carefree, happy, and popular teen he had been. Filled with rage, often uncontrollable, and suffering from damage to the front lobe of his brain, Ciaglia spent much of the next several years under a self-imposed house arrest.  At times, he was suicidal. Bored and aimless, he needed a hobby and by chance he began writing serial killers. His psychiatric problems mimicked those of the killers and he was able to befriend many of them and get them to share their inner-most thoughts with him. Today, he tries to help the police with his ability to communicate with killers.

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Getting Ready for “Killer” Publicity

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The Serial Killer Whisperer Book CoverI’ve been busy getting ready for the release of The Serial Killer Whisperer in January.

Unless there is a pressing reason, most publishers take an entire year to prepare a book for publication after the manuscript is accepted. This can be frustrating for an author. Writers want their work in print ASAP!

Publishers use the time to design a book jacket, put together photo inserts, do final editing, and print advance copies which are then sent to book reviewers and television producers in the hope of creating a favorable pre-release “buzz.”

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Hollywood Buys WITSEC for TV Drama

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My good friend, Gerald Shur, and I have received lots of inquires from Hollywood about  our nonfiction book, WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program since it was published ten years ago. For those of you who have not read it, Gerald is the Justice Department lawyer who came up with the idea of creating a government program that would protect mobsters and give them new identities in return for their testimony against their Mafia Godfathers.

 By the time Gerald retired in 1995, he had overseen the handling of such famous gangsters as Joseph Valachi, “Jimmy the Weasel” Fratianno and “Sammy the Bull” Gravano.  The witness protection program that he created helped shatter the mob’s code of silence.

Interested screenwriters and producers would call us and ask about WITSEC. But for a variety of reasons, we never sold the dramatic rights — until now.  The trade magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, announced the sale.

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NBC Buys Rights to My New Book “Serial Killer Whisperer”

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Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter:

‘Law & Order: SVU’ Producer Developing ‘Serial Killer Whisperer’ at NBC

The network has given a script order to the drama project based on the upcoming book about traumatic brain injury survivor Tony Ciaglia.

The Serial Killer Whisperer by Pete EarleyNBC is expanding its Law & Order universe with consulting producer Judith K. McCreary.

The network has given a script order to Serial Killer Whisperer, an hourlong drama project loosely based on the life of traumatic brain injury survivor Tony Ciaglia.

The character-driven project with procedural elements will revolve around a fictional version of Ciaglia, who after suffering a traumatic brain injury that renders him incapable of judging or feeling repulsion winds up becoming a confidant to convicted serial killer.

Ciaglia’s story is the subject of Pete Earley’s The Serial Killer Whisperer: How One Man’s Tragedy Helped Unlock the Deadliest Secrets of the World’s Most Terrifying Killers, which Simon & Schuster unit Touchstone will publish in January.

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Positive Review for My New Book “The Serial Killer Whisperer”

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The Serial Killer Whisperer by Pete EarleyBefore a book is released, publishers send advance copies of it to reviewers to read. The reviewers need time to read a book and comment on it before it actually appears in bookstores for sale. Some of the most important reviews are printed in trade publications such as Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, or The Library Journal.

These reviews are important because book sellers often use them to gauge when a “hot” title might be coming their way. Hollywood agents also watch those publications for reviews of promising books that might be made into movies.

Which is why I was thrilled when Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews both gave my new book, The Serial Killer Whisperer, positive reviews this past week.  My book will not be available until January 10, 2012.

Here is what Kirkus had to say about it.

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Brian J. Kelley: My Friend the Spy Expert

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Brian Kelley telephoned me shortly after my book,  Confessions of a Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames, was published in 1997 and invited me to lunch. At the time, he was working at the CIA and was especially interested in my trip to Moscow where I had met with the KGB (now called the SVR) and also with the relatives of Soviet General Dmitri Polyakov, one of the CIA’s most important assets until he was exposed and executed.  

Soft spoken, intelligent and personable, Kelley impressed me with his knowledge of the Ames case and his questions about Polyakov. I liked him instantly, but didn’t think much about our lunch until August 1999 when I got a telephone call from a friend who worked at the CIA.

“Brian Kelley has been accused of being a Russian spy?” he declared.

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