The Babysitter: My Summers With A Serial Killer

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Synopsis

#1 of 10 Best True Crime Books of the Year by Marie Claire
Named Most Anticipated Crime Book of the Year by CrimeReads

​​A chilling true story—part memoir, part crime investigation—reminiscent of Ann Rule’s classic The Stranger Beside Me, about a little girl longing for love and how she found friendship with her charismatic babysitter—who was also a vicious serial killer.

Growing up on Cape Cod in the 1960s, Liza Rodman was a lonely little girl. During the summers, while her mother worked days in a local motel and danced most nights in the Provincetown bars, her babysitter—the kind, handsome handyman at the motel where her mother worked—took her and her sister on adventures in his truck. He bought them popsicles and together, they visited his “secret garden” in the Truro woods. To Liza, he was one of the few kind and understanding adults in her life. Everyone thought he was just a “great guy.”

But there was one thing she didn’t know; their babysitter was a serial killer.

Some of his victims were buried—in pieces—right there, in his garden in the woods. Though Tony Costa’s gruesome case made screaming headlines in 1969 and beyond, Liza never made the connection between her friendly babysitter and the infamous killer of numerous women, including four in Massachusetts, until decades later.

Haunted by nightmares and horrified by what she learned, Liza became obsessed with the case. Now, she and cowriter Jennifer Jordan reveal the chilling and unforgettable true story of a charming but brutal psychopath through the eyes of a young girl who once called him her friend.

Chapters

  • 001 TheBabysitter Open

    Duration: 42s
  • 002 TheBabysitter Dedication

  • 003 TheBabysitter Epigraph

    Duration: 08s
  • 004 TheBabysitter ANoteOnOurProcess

    Duration: 01min
  • 005 TheBabysitter Prologue LizasNightmare

    Duration: 06min
  • 006 TheBabysitter Chapter1 Tony

    Duration: 11min
  • 007 TheBabysitter Chapter2 Liza

    Duration: 06min
  • 008 TheBabysitter Chapter3 Tony

    Duration: 12min
  • 009 TheBabysitter Chapter4 Liza

    Duration: 05min
  • 010 TheBabysitter Chapter5 Tony

    Duration: 07min
  • 011 TheBabysitter Chapter6 Liza

    Duration: 09min
  • 012 TheBabysitter Chapter7 Tony

    Duration: 07min
  • 013 TheBabysitter Chapter8 Liza

    Duration: 07min
  • 014 TheBabysitter Chapter9 Tony

    Duration: 12min
  • 015 TheBabysitter Chapter10 Liza

    Duration: 05min
  • 016 TheBabysitter Chapter11 Tony

    Duration: 04min
  • 017 TheBabysitter Chapter12 Liza

    Duration: 06min
  • 018 TheBabysitter Chapter13 Liza

    Duration: 13min
  • 019 TheBabysitter Chapter14 TheProvincelands

    Duration: 08min
  • 020 TheBabysitter Chapter15 Tony

    Duration: 04min
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