Jaye Slade Fletcher

Jaye Slade Fletcher is the author of two true crime books: Deadly Thrills: True Story of Chicago's Most Shocking Killers (1995), and A Perfect Gentleman (1996). A retired Chicago police officer, Ms. Fletcher moved to Pocahontas County in the mid-1990's. She was among the first people I met when I moved here, as she sold me the house where I live now. I can't say I know her well, but she is a very interesting conversationalist.

Deadly Thrills has been well-reviewed, and an interesting summary is available at Court TV's Partners in Crime site. Lynard Barnes provides one of many positive reviews in 1996 at TG Book Reviews: Deadly Thrills by Jaye Slade Fletcher.

Jaye Slade Fletcher has managed to do a bit more than recount events leading up to the arrests of Robin Grecht and his three "helpers" for the murders of at least five young women....After Fletcher gives a brief history of the seemingly mundane life of Robin Grecht, she asks the rather straightforward question, "Does all this inevitably add up to a sadistic serial killer?" She....points out that we know very little about how a conscience is created in a person. Robin Grecht obviously did not have one. He was incapable of feeling empathy or compassion....

Tracking the police work surrounding the Grecht murders is where Deadly Thrills is at its best. Fletcher, a career police officer as well as an author, provides a peek at the proverbial thin line a cop must walk in the pursuit of an investigation. On one side of that line is the world of the criminal, on the other, the world of ordinary law abiding citizens, the news media and of course the law enforcement community itself. Fletcher artfully weaves across the line, revealing strengths and weaknesses of police work. The strengths of course are the men and women who, year in and year out, stick to the job despite the hazards and the everyday good deeds that go unnoticed....

A Perfect Gentleman was not as widely reviewed, although one Amazon customer said: "In my opinion...Jaye's books have been every bit as well-written and engrossing as Ann Rule's. Jaye writes with an insight to be envied and her thorough research shows in every line." I have to admit that I don't have the stomach to read deeply about the mental processes of serial killers. When I moved in to Jaye's former house, I found she had left me more motion-sensor lights than Fort Knox. Every possum and deer was brightly illuminated, every night. Perhaps this type of research was disquieting, even for a former police officer.