In 1971, there began in Rochester, N.Y., a series of hideous murders, cases that offered the starkest of contrast between good and evil: perfectly innocent victims, perfectly evil predators. The three victims were little girls, each named with the same first and last initial. Each, the legend said, had been dumped in a town that also began with that letter. The victims had all been last seen in an urban setting and their lifeless bodies were found raped and carelessly dumped along a rural roadside, strangled by ligature. Local girls with alliterative names were on high alert and told to be vigilant. The little ones didn’t quite get it, but they sensed it, something in their mother’s tighter grip on their little hand, or the way mom never relaxed when they were out of doors. The older ones looked at maps and guessed where their own lifeless bodies would be discovered in a ditch. No one wondered why the initials were important, what it all meant. They understood one thing: it was terrifying. Michael Benson was raised in Chili, living from 1962-78 at 30 Stallman Drive off Ballantyne Road. Today, he is one of today's most popular true-crime writers. His books--including  Carmine the Snake, Escape From Dannemora, The Devil At Genesee Junction ,  Betrayal In Blood, Murder In Connecticut, Killer Twins, The Burn Farm, Mommy Deadliest, A Killer's Touch , and  A Knife In The Heart --tell vividly of today's most heinous criminals, and the clever and stalwart lawmen who bring them to justice. On TV, he has appeared on ABC's 20/20, People Magazine Investigates, Murder in the Family, Evil Twins, Evil Kin, Evil Stepmothers, Southern Fried Homicide, Snapped, and Deadly Sins. Benson's book,  The Devil at Genesee Junction  (Rowman & Littlefield, paperback edition published December 2017 ) , tells the story of his return to the scene of a childhood trauma. Two of his friends, George-Ann Formicola and Kathy Bernhard, were murdered near his Chili home south of Rochester, N.Y. when he was nine. Those murders were never solved. As an adult and veteran true-crime writer, Benson teamed up with the mother of one of the victims and a private investigator Donald A. Tubman to heat up that cold case.  During his three decades as a professional writer, Benson has worked closely with: a former gangster for a biography of Mafia don Carmine Persico, a retired Army Intelligence agent during the tense days after 9/11 for a book about the CIA, and a retired FBI agent for a book about National Security. He has co-written two books with a former New York Police Department "Cop of the Year"; explored the Grassy Knoll in Dallas with a former KGB agent while researching his much-acclaimed  Who's Who in the JFK Assassination ; collaborated efficiently with an astronaut; covered the Stephen Hayes triple-murder trial in New Haven, Ct., for the  New York Post , and partied with the Hells Angels on both coasts. Benson has a B.A. with honors in Communication Arts from Hofstra University.