Seven Days of Rage: The Deadly Crime Spree of the Craigslist Killer

The imminent murder trial of Philip Markoff will bring to light the many mysteries behind the secret life and unconscionable acts of the brilliant and well-liked Boston University medical student who came to be known as the Craigslist Killer: How did he conceal his dark side to all who knew him, even his sweet and trusting fiancée? If found guilty of a chain of violent crimes over the course of one week in 2009, including the murder of Manhattan model and masseuse Julissa Brisman in a Boston luxury hotel, what was his motivation? Why did he allegedly use Craigslist, the online bulletin board, to pick out his victims? And what were the clues—pieces of an astonishing puzzle—that led Boston police to arrest the clean-cut, all-American young man with no criminal record who was in reality an out-of-control thrill seeker hiding a lethal sexual life?

This “compelling, suspenseful” (Publishers Weekly) day-by-day account from a producer from 48 Hours Mystery and a Boston Globe reporter goes behind the scenes to reveal how Markoff, once described as “a beautiful person inside and out,” hid his deadly obsessions from the world—and how the Internet can make any one of us the next victim of the most unlikely killer.

Paul Larosa is an Emmy Award-winning producer for the CBS newsmagazine 48 Hours. He won a Primetime Emmy for the acclaimed CBS documentary 9/11, and has also won a Peabody Award, a Christopher Award, and an Edward R. Murrow Award. For sixteen years he was reporter for the Daily News (New York), where he was the co-winner with Anna Quindlen of the Meyer Berger Award given by Columbia University’s School of Journalism. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their two children.

Maria Cramer is a reporter for The Boston Globe who covers numerous crime stories, including the case of Clark Rockefeller, who gained international attention in 2008 when he kidnapped his daughter from a Boston Park and was later connected to the 1984 disappearance of a California couple. She lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.