The Son of His Mother. The Story of an Ideal Family Where a Psychopath-Rapist Grew Up

«The story after which I decided to become a writer of documentary novels». — Gregg Olsen, author of the book «Don’t Tell Anyone»

How a rapist is formed in a prosperous family — and why this remains unnoticed for a long time.  

The quiet American town of Spokane has been living in fear for two years: a stranger is attacking women at night in the South Hill neighborhood. He acts cold-bloodedly and methodically, leaving almost no evidence behind, and the number of victims is in the dozens. The investigation drags on: the police unsuccessfully tries to trace the suspect, residents look for ways to protect themselves, and the local newspaper actively joins the search — its editor-in-chief, Gordon Cow, takes calls, publishes appeals, and helps catch the criminal... not knowing that he is looking for his own son.

Jack Olsen reconstructs step by step the course of the investigation and the family context in which this became possible. More than 150 interviews, archives, and testimonies come together to create an accurate and alarming picture, where behind the outward prosperity of a respected family lie a distorted closeness between mother and son, erased boundaries, and systemic denial of reality. A tough, documentarily accurate, and psychologically calibrated true crime that questions the very idea of a «normal» family.