Press Release: A New Kind of Monster by Timothy Appleby
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rachel Rokicki
212-782-8455
RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES, THE HORRIFIC TRUE STORY OF THE
DOUBLE LIFE OF COLONEL RUSSELL WILLIAMS, WHO WAS BOTH A RESPECTED FIGURE IN THE CANADIAN MILITARY AND A SADO-SEXUAL SERIAL
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A NEW KIND OF MONSTER THE SECRET LIFE AND SHOCKING TRUE CRIMES OF AN OFFICER . . . AND A MURDERER
by Timothy Appleby, Globe and Mail crime reporter
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CRIMINAL AND MURDERER
Colonel Russell Williams, the commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton, was a highly regarded officer in the Canadian military. A decorated pilot, Williams had flown VIP aircraft for such dignitaries as Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Governor General Michaëlle Jean. The news of his arrest and conviction in 2010 on multiple charges of murder and sexual assault reverberated across Canada and made international headlines. The disturbing photographs and trophies from Williams’s terror spree that served as evidence of his appalling deeds left the public baffled as to how an exemplary, outstanding citizen could be transformed into a terrifying predator. “In thirty years of writing about crime in Canada and conflict abroad, I thought I’d seen every kind of killer,” writes award-wining journalist Timothy Appleby, “but Russell Williams did not resemble any of them and in one way he seemed the scariest of them all because so many people who’d dealt with him had respected and liked him so much.” Quite simply, Russell Williams defied all of the previous profiles and preconceptions of what constitutes a serial killer.
On April 12, 2011, Broadway Paperbacks will publish A NEW KIND OF MONSTER: The Secret Life and Shocking True Crimes of an Officer . . . and a Murderer ($15.00; 978-0-307-88872-3), Timothy Appleby’s extensive and provocative look at one of the most shocking criminal sprees in Canadian history. “Thoughout his long military career, [Williams had] been almost universally seen as a smart, decent guy, a stickler for organization, and a bit awkward socially, but also very generous and kind. What had changed him?” That is the question that Timothy Appleby has been asking himself since news broke of Russell Williams’s arrest. In A NEW KIND OF MONSTER, Appleby examines Williams’s early life, searching for clues as to what might have triggered his shocking behavior. Although his parents divorced when he was quite young, Williams’s mother soon remarried and created a stable home life for her children. A gifted athlete and musician, Williams would go on to attend an exclusive private school for boys in Toronto and graduate from one of the country’s top universities before enlisting in the Canadian forces. His rise through the ranks would culminate with him commanding 8 Wing/CFB Trenton, Canada’s most important air base. Williams’s back story is hardly the kind that criminal profilers would peg for a future serial killer.
A NEW KIND OF MONSTER chronicles the incredible twists and turns in the Williams case. Amidst numerous dead ends where their investigation came up cold, it was a lucky break that led the police to Russell Williams’s doorstep. Timothy Appleby documents the exhaustive and brilliant interrogation of Williams by police, resulting in his confession to the murders of Corporal Marie-France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd. And, for the first time ever, Appleby also makes public important information regarding Russell Williams’s guilty plea.
Appleby establishes that Russell Williams was not a sociopath. He did not display the traits of being a cold, detached, narcissistic manipulator that are common among serial killers. He had strong feelings and emotions and attachments (especially to his wife and the military). Most important, as his behavior during his interrogation with police and during the trial demonstrated, he does have a conscience. A NEW KIND OF MONSTER explores various theories that have been used to explain Russell Williams’s brutal actions, everything from his obsessive-compulsive tendencies, to the side effects of powerful medication that he was taking for a painful physical ailment, to ongoing grief over the death of his beloved cat, to evidence of his increasingly abnormal sexual behavior. Can any one theory explain why Russell Williams committed these crimes? As one police insider summed it up, “Why did he do it? Because he’s a bright, bright guy. Intelligent guys get bored easily, and he’s got this deviant thing. And while we are on the outside looking at his life and say ‘he’s at the top of the heap,’ that wasn’t enough for him.”
Exhaustively researched and singularly incisive, A NEW KIND OF MONSTER is the definitive account of the most unlikely serial killer of all time, whose savage actions stunned the nation and sent shock waves through the Canadian military.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TIMOTHY APPLEBY is a longtime crime reporter and foreign correspondent for the Globe and Mail.
A NEW KIND OF MONSTER
The Secret Life and Shocking True Crimes of an Officer . . . and a Murderer
By Timothy Appleby
Published by Broadway Paperbacks, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
Paperback; $15.00; 304 pages; Publication Date: April 12, 2011; ISBN 978-0-307-88872-3
For more information about A NEW KIND OF MONSTER or to schedule an interview with
Timothy Appleby, please contact Rachel Rokicki at 212-782-8455 or rrokicki@randomhouse.com.
