Pamela Colloff: Catch the Devil with Sarah Weinman

For more than three decades, Paul Skalnik roamed the Gulf Coast lying about who he was — passing himself off as a fighter pilot, a high-rolling oilman, a criminal defense attorney, and a terminal cancer patient, marrying nine women, some at the same time. When he got caught, he ran a new con: locked up with men awaiting trial, he claimed they confessed their crimes to him, then sold those stories to prosecutors. In return, the state gave him his freedom.

In 1985, Jim Dailey — a Vietnam veteran with no forensic evidence or motive linking him to the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl — landed in the Pinellas County Jail with Skalnik. Skalnik's account of his "confession" put Dailey on death row. More than three decades later, after another man took responsibility for the killing, journalist Pamela Colloff asked Skalnik if he would recant. He refused.

Catch the Devil is a mesmerizing debut — a dark account of a remorseless liar made lethal by a system more concerned with winning convictions than finding the truth. Colloff joins Sarah Weinman in conversation, followed by a signing.

Ticket includes a copy of the book or a $10 Books Are Magic gift card. The conversation will also be livestreamed free online.