ProPublica Investigative Journalist Pamela Colloff, “Catch the Devil"

For more than three decades, Paul Skalnik roamed the Gulf Coast lying about who he was. He passed himself off as a fighter pilot, a high-rolling oilman, a criminal defense attorney, and a terminal cancer patient. When Skalnik got caught, he would run a different con. Locked up with other men awaiting trial, he claimed they confessed their crimes to him. He became a frequent witness for the state, thinking nothing of implicating the innocent. ProPublica investigative journalist Pamela Colloff spins a dark tale of a remorseless liar made lethal by a system more concerned with winning convictions than finding the truth.
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