Hale, Leland E.: - "Leland E. Hale "backed into" the true crime genre when he joined Maj. Walter Gilmour to write Butcher, Baker, a bestselling true crime work about Alaska serial killer Robert C. Hansen. Always the "writer guy," Hale did his first poetry reading at age eleven; he placed third in a regional poetry contest at the tender age of eighteen. After securing his undergraduate degree, he became a ghostwriter - which he now characterizes as his "devil's apprenticeship." Soon thereafter, he took a job at a Washington State agency that once employed serial killer Ted Bundy. It was just a coincidence. Taking his next job at a trade association, he was called upon to testify before a U.S. Congressional committee chaired by the legendary Rep. John Dingell (MI). Later, Mr. Hale edited a U.S. Atomic Energy Agency volume on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. Upon earning a master's degree at the University of Washington School of Engineering, he took a job at The Boeing Company, followed by a decade at Microsoft. That said, true crime is his true passion. He is presently in his happiest place."