The WantAd Killer, Ann Rule
The WantAd Killer, Ann Rule
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The Want-Ad Killer

Author: Ann Rule

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Unabridged: 7 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/09/2016


Synopsis

After his first grisly crime, Harvey Louis Carignan beat a death sentence and continued to manipulate, rape, and bludgeon women to death—using want ads to lure his young female victims. And time after time, justice was thwarted by a killer whose twisted legal genius was matched only by his sick savagery. Here, complete with the testimony of women who suffered his unspeakable sexual abuses and barely escaped with their lives, and of the police who at last put him behind bars, is one of the most shattering and thought-provoking true-crime stories of our time.

About Ann Rule

Ann Rae Stackhouse was born in Lowell, MI in 1931. Her mother taught school, specializing in developmentally disabled children, and her father was a coach. Ann was in law enforcement in her young adult years, as was many in her family. She received various degrees from different colleges and universities, including studying creative writing, criminology, and psychology at University of Washington.

Ann's marriage, and eventual divorce changed her last name to Rule, which she keeps as her author name. Her extensive education and experience as a police woman gave her the perfect credentials to become regarded by many as the foremost true crime writer in America, setting the standards for the genre. For example, while she was volunteering at a suicide hotline center in Seattle in 1971, she met a work study student by the name of Ted Bundy, not realizing until a few years later that it was the same Bundy responsible for a series of murders. To her, he was kind, solicitous, and empathetic. She wrote her first book about him, considered one of the definitive biographies of Bundy.......The Stranger Beside Me (written under her own name, rather than the previously used pen name).

Rule has been a full-time crime writer since 1969, and has published 33 books and 1400 articles, mostly on criminal cases.

Today, she teaches seminars to law enforcement groups, a certified instructor in many subjects such as: Serial Murder, Sadistic Sociopaths, Women Who Kill, and High Profile Offenders. She has consulted with the FBI at their headquarters in Quantico, VA tracking a system to help identify and trap serial killers. She testimonies twice before the Senate Judiciary Sub-committee on victim's rights and the danger of serial killers.

Simon and Schuster currently have Rule under contract. Eight of her books have been made into TV movies, and more are in the works. Ann is in active support groups for victims of violent crimes and their families, in programs to help battered and abused women, and support group.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ashley on July 12, 2023

This is not my first Ann Rule read and it most definitely won’t be my last either! In fact, I think it’s amongst my favourites I’ve read by her. Minus maybe The Stranger Beside Me because that one is just beyond iconic and my fave by her. But this one made me feel almost as excited and horrified whi......more

Goodreads review by Horror on May 06, 2025

The book tells the story of Harvey Louis Carignan, a serial killer who escaped the death penalty because of the use of improper procedures. After this, he started his reign of terror murdering young ladies and nothing seemed to be able to stop him. This was the first Ann Rule book and I really enjoye......more

Goodreads review by Katherine on February 06, 2018

[library] This book is about the abominable Harvey Louis Carignan (who is STILL ALIVE, he is ninety). It is a perfectly competent recounting of his crimes & trials, nothing wrong with it at all. I don't recommend the audio book, as OVer emPHAtic READer is [breathless pause] OVer emPHAtic, but this is......more

Goodreads review by Katy on April 10, 2016

Disappointed I've read multiple other books by Ms Rule and usually find them so intriguing that I hate to put a book of hers down. I expected this book to also be enthralling , I read half of it with high hopes, but in the end I decided to move on. I definitely won't let this detail me from trying o......more

Goodreads review by Jackie on February 09, 2008

Typical Ann Rule fare about Harvey Louis Carignan (aka "Harvey the Hammer") who has a penchant for bludgeoning his victims with a [spoiler ahead] hammer.......more