CrimeFictionbook.com

As editor of Fingerprints, I don't receive too many submissions. That's actually a good thing. As a journal of crime flash non-fiction (meaning these are short, short stories about true crime), it's hard to find stories that are both interesting and true. Doubly so because the author has to have some sort of relation to the story.

But when I do, hang on to your %#$%#ing hat. Stories at Fingerprints get wild and weird in a hurry. Nothing's stranger than real life.

The most recent submission is about "The Bathroom Basher." He killed several women in Idaho in the 1960s, but the final one drew the most attention. It seems he was exceptionally brutal that time. So much so that it became the stuff of legend for the family of Natasha Amadaeus.

She recalls the story she's been told in today's new Fingerprints entry, Thank You: The True Story of The Bathroom Basher.

I had to think hard about whether to publish it. The details are gruesome. That they happened to a real person adds considerable weight. But in the interest of crime history, I felt compelled to publish it.

Click here to read Thank You: The True Story of the Bathroom Basher.