Devil's Right Hand Man, The 
 by:MicHaud, Stephen G. and Debbie M. Price 
 Publisher: Penguin Group, Berkley Publishing Group, 375 Hudson St
Location: NY, NY 10014 
Copyright:2007
Cover:   
Type:Paperback
  
   
 
reviewed by: Lynard Barnes 
 2/2/2009
 
Comment: Raising the conscience of "America's most prolific" serial killer, Robert Charles Browne. Traces cold case detectives seeking justice for relatives of the killer's victims. 
 
 
 Lou Smith, Scott Fischer and Charlie Hess were volunteer members of the El Paso [Colorado] County sheriff's department. They comprised the cold case squad whose efforts lead to the indictment, trial and July 2006 conviction of Robert Charles Browne for the murder of Rocio Sperry. Fifteen year old Rocio Sperry had disappeared from her Colorado Springs, Colorado home in November 1987. Brown, who had been convicted eleven years earlier for the 1991 murder of Heather Dawn Church, was serving life in prison at the time of the second conviction.

THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND MAN is not so much about the path of destruction Browne left in the wake of his self-centered life as much as it is about the law enforcement and legal system designed to protect the social, political and economic fabric of society. The book is not overly ambitious here. In fact, the exposition is understated. The authors devote chapters to exposing the crimes Browne is suspected of committing; chapters to explaining the investigative efforts devoted to unravelling the crimes, including the mind games Browne attempts to play to get what he wants in exchange for a confession; and finally, the authors explain just enough of the administrative and legal machinations behind the scenes to show how the story of Robert Charles Browne becomes an almost forty-year saga.

Left out of this book is an explanation of why Robert Charles Browne murdered. Given everything else provided, the explanation is of little consequence. There are hints however and the explanation points to greed propelled by, as the authors say, "multiple paraphilias, or perversions". Among the list are "placing obscene phone calls, flashing, picquerism (sexual gratification through rapid, repeated stabbing), necrophilia, and voyeurism". Whether Browne did suffer from one or more of the abnormalities is not specifically answered. Bu a man who murders must, by default, suffers from some deficit of mind or soul or both.

Browne was a little different than most serial killers. He was in the military for instance, from October 1969 to July 1976. The relevancy of this? The majority of serial killers can not make it pass the socialization pressures exerted in a "team work" atmosphere. They
 
   
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 can't cope. Browne apparently did though the authors point out that he may have committed his first murder in 1970 or 1971-a fellow GI in South Korea. Though he marries and divorces four times by the time of the Heather Dawn Church murder, Browne had the appearance of a normal "Joe" with a few wrinkles such as a year spent in a California prison.

The real story of THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND MAN is how the retired Colorado Spring Police Department detective Lou Smit, form CIA employee Charlie Hess, and former corporate manager Scott Fischer went about solving the murder of Rico Sperry. A July 28, 2006 article in the Denver Post [] by staff writer Erin Emery details the events.

The authors of THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND MAN quote investigator Lou Smit as saying that "cold case investigations are 95 percent paperwork". Among the papers in the Browne case was a letter he wrote to the "'Office of the District Attorney'" in Colorado Springs.

Two years before the trio zeroed in on Browne uncovering his involvement in the Sperry murder, Browne himself wrote a letter to the Colorado Springs district attorney's office. The district attorney's office passed the letter on to Mark A. Finley, the lead detective for the case in the sheriff's office. In the letter, Browne hinted at his commission of as many as forty-eight murders in nine states. On June 11, 2002, Charlie Hess began a correspondence with Browne that eventually lead to the July 2006 conviction of Browne for the Rocio Sperry murder.

In both the Denver Post article about Browne and in this book, mention is made of the fact that men (invariably, men) accused of serial murders have a tendency to confess to a greater number of murders than the actual number which they are accused of committing. The rational for this is rather simple on the face of it. They are vying for title of the most infamous serial killer. The more victims they have, the more likely they will receive the crown Most Infamous. You have to think about that for a moment to realize that there is something fundamentally flawed with a societal engine that rewards anti-social and social accomplishments with the same brush of recognition. For want of murdering two innocent young girls, Browne would have remained the nobody that he was. But having murdered, he got himself a platform. THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND MAN is one result of Browne's ascendancy above the crowd. But to what end?

The direction and insights provided by authors MicHaud and Price makes THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND MAN worth reading.
 
   
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