Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast

By Pamela Colloff

Knopf 320 pp.

By Paul Markowitz

In this riveting true crime story, we have the well-known almost endearing character of the "jail house snitch," who has raised his peculiar set of abilities to an art form. But what happens when the snitch becomes a serial witness for the prosecution in a symbiotic partnership with a questionable group of Florida prosecutors with a win-at-any cost mentality? The consequences become literally a matter of life and death.

Paul Skalnik is a charming con man who marries nearly a dozen times, often failing to divorce first. He also has a gift for charming money out of complete strangers, often tens of thousands of dollars, before getting caught. And he has a knack for overhearing his fellow prisoners confessing to crimes – even though Skalnik often is unable to talk to his fellow prisoners.

All of this eventually includes a case involving the murder of a 14-year-old girl, in which Skalnik testifies to the participation of Jim Dailey in the killing. Although Jim Dailey protests his innocence at trial, he is convicted with Skalnik's testimony. Dailey spends years in prison attempting to have his conviction reversed without success. Years turn into decades as attempts are made to have Skalnik change his testimony. Eventually Skalnik dies in prison without recanting.

It now seems clear that although Dailey was initially at the site of the murder earlier in the evening it occurred, he was at home when the murder actually took place. Despite the testimony of a few people to the contrary, Skalnik’s testimony ultimately sticks.

Dailey still sits on death row in Florida, the state that carries out more executions than every other state combined. While the nation has retreated from the death penalty over the last twenty years, Florida has carried on with the leadership of the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis with a state history of wrongful convictions.

Dailey sits in his cell every day waiting to hear who the governor will call next to be executed. All of this is possible in a state with a history of questionable prosecutions and the ability to put to death those who fail the test. In the process Colhoff has told a horribly fascinating tale with a call for change in a state's lethal actions.

Paul Markowitz is a California-based writer