"We're looking at a lot of serious charges here . . ."

The state's attorney ran his fingers across the pages before him while reading the list of offenses Phil Hamman had committed. Hamman was headed down a dark road filled with violence, crime, and death. He was still reeling from a childhood spent with his dysfunctional family in an impoverished neighborhood where he faced bullies, met killers, learned to fist fight, and went home daily to a life of domestic abuse. He turned violent and angry, as well, having found a group of peers who only escalated the turmoil. Clashes with the...

A terrified voice cried out in the night.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

The sound of snapping twigs closed in on the five teenagers enjoying an evening around a glowing campfire at Gitchie Manitou State Park. The night of music and laughter had taken a dark turn. Evil loomed just beyond the tree line, and before the night was over, one of the Midwest's most horrific mass murders had left its bloodstains spewed across the campsite. One managed to survive and would come to be known as the "Gitchie Girl." Harrowing memories of the terrifying crime sent her...