Violent Act, A

About this book

Early on the morning of September 22, 1986, Mike Wayne Jackson - age forty, a drifter, in and out of jail for almost twenty years, exhausted, filthy, at the end of his rope - entered the annals of major crime. Stepping out of his house on a quiet residential street in Indianapolis, he shot and killed the man who was approaching: his newly appointed probation officer, a man he barely knew, a much-loved husband and father named Tom Gahl. Before the day was over, Jackson. Would twice again commit murder. By nightfall he would be the most sought-after criminal at large in America. Bringing us close to Jackson, his world, and his victims, Alec Wilkinson carries crime reportage to a new level in a book that combines the pace, range, and intricacy of a novel with scrupulously authentic fact as it tells a riveting story that is profoundly emblematic of American violence, with its great burden of grief. We follow Jackson from the moment of the. First shooting through his frantic rampage in stolen trucks and cars - his victims robbed, killed, kidnapped, or frightened nearly to death - to a small town outside St. Louis. We see him pursued by local police, state troopers, and F.B.I. agents, hiding out in or around the town - no one is ever quite sure where he is - for many long days. We enter the lives of the terrorized local residents and the dogged, tireless, working days and nights of the people, from sheriffs. To Indian-style trackers, whose work is the chase and capture of dangerous criminals. We come to know Jackson through the eyes of his mother and his wife as they struggle …

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