Discover the Best Books Written by Stephen Williams

Stephen Williams is a writer and investigative journalist. His reputation was solidified by the continuing success of two books, "Invisible Darkness: The Horrifying Case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka" and its sequel "Karla: A Pact with the Devil" which were critically acclaimed as “apocalyptic stories set in landscapes of suburban deviance.” His nonfiction work has been compared to that of Norman Mailer and Truman Capote. George Elliott Clark wrote:

“This work is masterfully written, forensically researched, minutely detailed work of true crime. As time goes by, it should be viewed as a classic of the genre. True crime is, in the hands of artists like Truman Capote and Stephen Williams, a kind of poetry, a kind of austere grand Guignol exuding gaudy horror.”

Stephen has been twice arrested to do with his writing, once in 1998 and again in 2003, criminally charged with over one hundred counts of disobeying court orders and publication bans, twice put on trial over the eight-year period between 1998 and 2005, and twice exonerated.

The Attorney General, Michael Bryant, also sued Williams in 2003 as an "Enemy of the State," alleging he was in "wrongful possession" of “sensitive” court documents. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages and the seizure of Williams’ research and archives. Although the courts and police seized his computer and files, the lawsuit did not succeed.

As Stephen told journalist Sandra Martin in 2004, “I did not initiate the battle in which I found myself, any more than the hundreds of thousands of grunts who were sent to Vietnam or Iraq initiated those wars. Other people who live on other planes with multiple agendas did… What can the grunt say when he is ‘in the country’ except ‘I’m in the shit now’? To ascribe any responsibility to me for the battle in which I found myself is like ascribing the cause of the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars to the soldiers who died in them.”

The Human Rights Watch gave Stephen the Hellman-Hammett Award. The Award is presented annually to journalists who have been prosecuted by totalitarian regimes such as China and Iran.