Predator

by Jack Olsen

An account of the life and crimes of psychopath Mac Smith describes how Seattle police, eager to make an arrest in the murders of the city's women, arrested the wrong man for Smith's crimes. Reprint. LJ.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, Audiobook

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Valerity (Val) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book back in the mid 1990's when it was first published. I had forgotten much of it, so I got it again recently to get the updated version, and found it to be one of my favorite Jack Olson true crime books.

The book tells about McDonald Smith and his life and crimes. It also talks about Steve Titus, a carefree young businessman who incredibly gets wrongly convicted of Smith's crimes, and is sent to prison. Titus is becoming hopeless about his situation, at the end of his rope while waiting to be sentenced, he contacts a newspaper reporter and asks for his help in proving his innocence.

Overall, an excellent read in true crime.

[Jill Hutchinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent (well, almost excellent) true crime book about a serial rapist whose main hunting ground was Seattle during the 1970s/early 80s. The multiple award winning author has done some very thorough research on the case and his writing style, as well as the story, holds the reader's interest throughout. An innocent man is arrested and convicted for the crimes based on very shaky evidence......evidence manipulated by the police to fit the situation while the real culprit continues to assault and rape. The gradual deterioration of the life of the wrongly accused man and his family is tragic and the incompetence/corruption of the police is maddening. A local newspaper crime reporter who has serious doubts about the conviction becomes deeply involved in an attempt to free the wrongly accused and find the real rapist. And the hunt is on!

I only have two problems with the book and they are minimal......a) the author does not use the perpetrator's real name but reveals the names of all others concerned which doesn't make sense to me and seems rather unfeeling, and b) spends a little too much time on the rapist's background. Regardless of those little nits, I would recommend this book to those who enjoy well written true crime.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny how I had never heard of this guy. Or the poor guy who was charged and found guilty in his place. What a cock up the police made of those initial investigations. I hope that Mac dies in jail - he’s a sociopath who will never change his ways and if he’s let out of jail, he’ll commit rape again or even move on to murder.

[Jlsimon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellently researched, very well written, and entirely heart breaking. Olsen does a lovely job telling the whole story of not just Edward Lee King (the convicted rapist), but of his family, the victims and their families, and Steve Titus who lost so much due to King's actions.

I would not recommend this book for the average reader. It is not complicated, or hard to read, but it is not a topic that the weak stomach can handle. I would recommend this book if you have enjoyed other works by Jack Olsen. He is a fantastic crime writer.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have teenaged girls, I think this is a must read. It really reinforces the possible dangers of social websites. I have always felt this could be an invitation to perverts unless you are very careful with the information given out on these sites. No, I don't think the sites are bad and yes, I do think they can be a lot of fun. I'm just saying a little caution goes a long way in preventing possible dangers.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gripping account of a rapist, his life and "career"--plus the parallel story of an innocent man unjustly convicted of one of the rapist's crimes. The book is excellent, but for some reason the author decided to shield the identity of the perpetrator with the pseudonym "MacDonald Smith" (his real name is Edward Lee King).

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, oddly written. It felt heavily fictionalized, with many injections on what characters were thinking or feeling, and took a sort of folksy tone, de-escalating the horrors that Mac experienced growing up, as well as those that he then visited upon others. It felt like this material was in the wrong hands.

[Koren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting from beginning to end. Even though this book is over 400 pages the short chapters and writing style make it move along quickly. There are many layers to this story: the rapist and his life story and does his childhood influence how he came a criminal (nature versus nurture). The man who was falsely accused of the crime and how it effected the rest of his life, the policeman who set up the falsely accused man for his own personal gain, the newspaperman who helped acquit him, the family dynamics, the court system and psychiatric treatment system for sexual predators. I know I'm forgetting some things. With all this the author didnt need use fillers with boring things like courtroom testimony. The only thing I was missing is pictures. I tried to do an internet search but didnt have any luck.

[Bill reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is back again to my comfort zone of true crime. Something in the air in the state of Washington must inspire great storytelling. Timothy Egan, Ann Rule, and Jack Olsen penned great books there. Egan’s “Breaking Blue,” Rule’s “The Stranger Beside Me,” and Olsen’s “Predator” were all written and set in that state. McDonald Smith’s childhood reads like something out of a Dickens’s novel. A backwoods shack in Ohio with an outhouse was Mac’s home for his first nine years. Like the Joad’s, the Smith family would pack up and seek their fortune in California The dad, Calvin, was an abusive drunk and the mom, Dove, was an Evangelical Christian. Mac was thirteen when his father took off to live with a barfly named Ruby. He returned home three months later, claiming that Ruby was a witch who had him under her spell. Dove cured her husband by beating him with a tire iron. The white (good) witch lured Calvin back a short time later. My Wiccan spell on Halle Berry has not worked yet. Mac bounced back and forth between the two lunatics. Mom had her pastor perform exorcisms to drive Satan out of her son. Ruby had put him in and the reverend would pray him out. Meanwhile, Dove dated up a storm and eventually remarried. Mac knocked up a cousin and super Christian mom sent her to New York for an abortion. I love my free to choose state. Mac moved back to Ohio to live with Calvin and Ruby. His step mom drank bourbon in a seedy trailer and they began an incestuous relationship. Oh God, get me off of this planet. At 21, Zac married a 35 year-old woman with two kids. At 22, he was convicted of sexual assault and served 4 months in jail. The family moved to Washington State and Mac worked in real estate. Open houses afforded him the opportunity to assault female agents. After a close call he moved on to hitchhikers. In 1980, Steve Titus had the misfortune of driving a small blue car with temporary tags on the night of a brutal rape. The victim had given the description of it and a bearded driver. Titus was about to enter Dante’s Inferno. The keystone cops of airport security thought that they had instantly solved the crime of the century. The victim identified Titus and his blue Chevy Chevette. Mac drove a blue Ford Fiesta. Titus’ solid alibis were ignored. The trial was dramatic but justice was not served. A tenacious reporter from the Seattle Times, Paul Henderson, was convinced by a meeting with Titus, to investigate the case. The twists and turns are hard to believe, and this book is the reason that I read true crime. Predator is real life tragedy at its worst and there is no happy ending for anyone involved. The story makes for one hell of a good read.

[Xanthi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this on audiobook.
As you would expect, the author goes into detail about the serial rapists's background - his life and upbringing before he started sexually assaulting women, his family, his habits, interests, etc... What I wasn't expecting was the amount of detail. I felt that too much of the book focused on him and his past and not enough on the rest of the story, involving the police, the victims, the wrongly accused man, the law, the journalist that got to the bottom of it all, etc.
And can someone please give me a good reason as to why the true life serial rapist was given an alias in this book??? That was downright peculiar.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much else to say except for another fantastic Olsen book!

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was the first "True Crime" book I ever read... and it is still one of the best. When justice goes wrong, it goes really wrong indeed.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fact that author used a pseudonym for the perp makes me wonder what percentage of this book was fictionalized.

[Hundy · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing insight into the mind of a seriously disturbed man. jack olsen is a brilliant true crime writer

[SouthWestZippy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book.

[Jeanine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite good but deeply disturbing story.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this one as much as the other Olsen books I've read. The way that the story was told just didn't do it for me.

[Ryan Hannay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing that might approach the horribleness of being raped is being falsely convicted of committing one. Thank God for good journalists.

[gremlinkitten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 3.5 stars. I may or may not write a short review. Time will tell.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

About 300 pages too long.

All you really need is the summary on the back cover.

A basic story of a criminal who gets away with it and an innocent man who is charged with the crime.

Thats it.

The first 100 pages go over the upbringing of the criminal. Crappy family life. The few "triggers" are repeated multiple times. They move around a lot. The mother is a piece of work. The father not much better. Other family and friends are bad influences. Basic poor experiences with girlfriends. Rinse and repeat. This section could have been done on one page.

Then his life of crime. Even though he commits dozens of these, they are mostly glossed over.

The innocent man is arrested, charged, convicted. His life is ruined. His persona destroyed. This part is dragged on for well over 100 pages.

The cops can't identify or catch the bad guy, until they eventually do. There is another 100 pages.

Boring.

[Tabitha Rohm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book. What was there not to love about it. Jack Olsen was (yes, he has passed on), an awesome story teller. I literally sat on the edge of my seat with this book. He wrote it in very short chapter form which somehow makes it feel like you are progressing rather rapidly through the book. Every time you thought you had just about reached the point of a summary of the characters and events, there was another twist in the next chapter. The only scary part about there being another twist is that this was non-fiction ... these were real people ... with real lives ... that had their hearts ripped out. It will definitely be a hard one to get over.

[Adrienne Antonsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes a long time to get going, but is ultimately worth the read. If anything, skip Part 1, the backstory of the rapist. Nearly 100 pages spent on his backstory, far more than necessary. I wish, instead, that the backstory of Steve Titus (the wrongly accused) had been as prominently featured. The chapters that chronicle the police misconduct in this case and the investigative reporting that brought it to light are wonderfully done, and made it worth trudging through the beginning of the book.

[Kristyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the account of a West Coast serial rapist who committed rapist and the man falsely convicted of some of the rapes. Olsen uses a pseudonym for the rapist in the book and called him McDonald Smith. I liked the way the book went through Smith's life from the beginning and through to his conviction. Smith was a deplorable man who started raping at a very young age. The case is told in a streamlined way without a lot of filler. This was an interesting, but very sad case.

[Vermillion · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a page-turner. As for what I consider to be the “madness”, it is the fact that our criminal justice system even contemplates putting this evil back on the streets.Rape is a capital crime regardless of whether or not the law books say so. Rapists, kidnappers, and murderers should be put to death. If the rapist wants to live then let him surrender his scrotum. We ought not attempt to make pets out of them — or “rehabilitate” them as some would put it.

[Steven Blackmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another terrifying true crime tale from the best in the business.

An autobiography in how the book is structured, a sprawling tale of a serial rapist, his childhood, and later, his victims.

An excellent deep-dive into the mind of a lunatic and the forming of a serial offender.

5 stars - amazing!
Highly recommended.

[The Book Was Better · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how this author didn't just write about the crimes. The author also wrote about how the crimes affected the criminals family and the victims famlies (including Steve Titus.) Short chapters made it a quick read for me.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usually I can't put down true crime books but this one was the exception. Something about it seemed inauthentic. Maybe the lack of pictures? Maybe using a fake name for the predator?
Not Olsen's best.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good one to read

A complete expose of the problems faced in law enforcement & the justice system. Painful to read, but so necessary.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - Tough to listen and had to switch back to kindle version. Love the author but this was a bit much for me.

[Peter Jochinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like reading about a slow motion train wreck.