title: Hello Charlie: Letters from a Serial Killer
author:  Charlie Hess 
description: In this chilling account, retired FBI agent Hess details his years of correspondence with serial killer Robert Browne, as he tried to coax out details of Browne's alleged 49 murders. Sentenced to life without parole in 1995 for the first-degree murder of 13-year-old Heather Church in Colorado, Browne began taunting investigators in 2000 with vague hints of other victims. Hessa former FBI and CIA agent with years of experience as a polygraph analysthad volunteered to investigate cold cases in Colorado Springs; assisted by homicide detective Lou Smit and former newspaper publisher Scott Fischer, Hess began writing to Browne in the hopes of uncovering (based on Browne's letters) clues to as many as 48 unsolved murders. The men traded letters for years, each one bringing Hess and his team one step closer to proving the murderer's grisly claim. In clean, vivid prose that avoids melodrama, Hess and Seay (coauthor, <i>With God on Our Side</i>) explore not only Browne's troubled Louisiana childhood and his string of abusive marriages but also the lives of the investigators. With Hess's first-person narrative and excerpts from his and Browne's letters, this is an unsettling account of a man who is possibly the most prolific and twisted of serial killers. <i>(Feb.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  ## CHAPTER XXXV.
  
  
  
  
  
  Home Again.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  SHAN got back to Hambleton. He was sick and broken for a while, but his
  grandmother nursed him back to strength and health again as quickly as any one
  could have done. She did not ask him where he had been.
  
  
  
  
  
              One day the postman brought him two letters.
  
  
  
  
  
              One was from Charley Ling. It bore a Peking post-mark.
  
  
  
  
  
              Charley wrote:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I am here to end my days. I am alone, except for what I have in my heart.
  Farewell.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
              The other letter was from Ivan. It was dated at Urga. It said:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Greeting. I am pardoned and well cared for. Likewise, O friend, I have an old
  man’s dreams. God bless you.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
              On the first day he was strong enough to get about Shan went across town to the machine-shop where he had worked and interviewed the friendly foreman.
  
  
  
  
  
              “Hello,” said the foreman. “Did you get as far as Omaha?”
  
  
  
  
  
              “I 