It was real-life monsters that haunted me as a kid, like the unknown man who murdered my neighbor the summer I was 14. I have an MFA in fiction writing and have worked as a writer in various genres—online animation, TV—but I never lost my fascination with true crime stories. The ever-growing information available on the Internet allowed me to delve deeper into those mysteries. In 2006, I founded my Web site, Truecrimediary.com, after I decided the investigating I was doing to satisfy my own curiosity might be better shared. But it’s this particular case of a mysterious, largely forgotten man who terrorized the state of California for a decade that has gripped me like no other. He has a name, and like many others I know absorbed by this puzzle, I won’t sleep soundly until I know it.