B.R. Bates is a longtime author and journalist who has concentrated her career in the pop culture genre, with 12 books in print, numerous e-books, and years of other publications such as many, many clips from her career in newspapers. With "The 'Baby Doll' Serial Killer" (formerly the academic edition "Missing from Michigan Ave") she made her first foray into true crime, returning more solidly to her journalism roots. After researching the case of John Eric Armstrong, she turned her attention to another Detroit serial killer who operated a few years earlier, Benjamin ("Tony") Atkins, for the second book in the Murders in the Motor City series, "The Crack City Strangler."

She graduated from Michigan State University's accredited School of Journalism with a bachelor's degree, and a second major of English, and spent 10 years in the daily newspaper industry before moving into the corporate world. Besides time at the Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald and The Saginaw (Mich.) News, she spent five years at The Detroit News, where she worked at the time of this case. More recently, she has managed websites for a federal government agency while continuing her freelance writing projects. A Michigan native, Bates has also lived in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

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B.R.'s collaborator for THE 'BABY DOLL' SERIAL KILLER is Gerald Cliff, Ph.D., the commanding officer of the Violent Crime Section that investigated the Armstrong case in Detroit. He has degrees in criminal justice from Michigan State University and the University of Detroit, and advanced degrees in public administration and urban politics from Wayne State University. He began his law enforcement career as an officer on the Detroit Police force in the 1970s, became a sergeant, then a lieutenant, then was appointed commanding officer of the Headquarters Surveillance Unit of the Violent Crimes Section.

As his career continued to advance, he commanded the Special Services Section and the Compliance and Training Section of the Civil Rights Integrity Bureau, among other roles. Retiring from the Detroit force, he then served as the chief of police in Saginaw, Michigan, then joined the National White-Collar Crime Center as research director. He has taught administrative and labor law at Saginaw Valley State University, and has been an adjunct instructor at Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community and Technical College in West Virginia. Cliff and his wife recently returned to Michigan after several years away.