Considered one of the most prolific serial killers in Michigan's history, John Eric Armstrong is believed to have attacked at least 10 people in Detroit between summer 1999 and spring 2000, killing five and forever changing the lives of five others. But his numbers beyond Detroit may be even more deadly: With his April 2000 arrest on Michigan Avenue, one of Detroit's thriving areas of prostitution, Armstrong confessed to numerous other killings around the country and world from serving in the Navy aboard the USS Nimitz in the 1990s. Wherever the ship docked, Armstrong seemed to have killed someone, according to what he said. It was a horrifying thought – Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, as well as more familiar locales like Hawaii and Washington state. Could this killer, in custody at last, be responsible for ending the lives of 15 or more people around the world? Or was he just inflating his numbers? And when, really, did his killing begin? He alluded to a first murder occurring in his home state of North Carolina, but who was that, and when? Also, why did he target prostitutes? Why did he kill in the first place?

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THE 'BABY DOLL' SERIAL KILLER explores those questions and much more. Longtime author and journalist B.R. Bates delves into the crimes and the investigation that followed, collaborating with the commanding officer of the Violent Crime Section that investigated the Armstrong case in Detroit, Dr. Gerald Cliff. Among the book’s wealth of sources:

• Interviews with many folks who knew the victims or the perp – family members, friends, coworkers, schoolmates, and for Armstrong, coworkers and Navy shipmates

• Interviews with many law enforcement personnel who worked the case

• Firsthand accounts of assault survivors of Armstrong – one of which never told her story publicly before this book

• Police files

• Autopsy and toxicology reports

• Court transcripts

• Many other records obtained through FOIA

THE 'BABY DOLL' SERIAL KILLER, approached from a journalistic perspective, is rich with photos, including crime scene images, modern-day shots of the sites where Armstrong hunted and killed in Detroit, photos of the victims and the perp from long before the case, and many more. You'll find some of these photos in the book and others on the gallery at the WildBlue Press website.

This is a chronicle of a killer with a reach that remains largely unknown, examining his humble beginnings in North Carolina through the years until his arrest in Michigan at age 26, but it’s also a story of his victims. This book gives a voice and a life to women who until now were just names in a newspaper story – and names with an ugly label. Just as much as it explores the crimes themselves, the book asks the question of why these females were out on the street in the first place, opening it up to larger sociological questions, and the exploration of that could surprise a lot of readers.

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