He looked like a movie star. But what lived behind the eyes was something else entirely.
Every true crime story has two threads:
- What happened…
- And who did it — and why?
In MADMAN, the events are horrific. But the man behind them?
He’s even harder to look away from.
Rastus Russell wasn’t just a killer. He was a time bomb.
And the worst part is — he didn’t explode out of nowhere.
There were signs. So many signs.
The Warning Signs They Ignored
From the time he was a boy, Rastus Russell was different.
- He tortured small animals.
- Got sent to a mental institution as a child.
- Was released from a state asylum — then re-committed after a car theft.
- Diagnosed with “hallucinations tending to cruelty.”
- Escaped custody — multiple times.
- Told judges whatever they wanted to hear — and they believed him.
His criminal history was a rap sheet soaked in red flags.
And yet… somehow, he was always let go.
“He asked the judge to see his mother in Illinois. The judge agreed. He didn’t come back.”
A Charmer. A Liar. A Slow Burn.
Locals described him as “not very bright.”
But others said he was cunning.
He used aliases like Jim Sullivan and James Russell.
He looked like a Greek movie star — tan skin, thick dark hair, broad shoulders.
But behind those looks was something twisted.
He told several people he had “killed three cops in Chicago.”
He regularly stood outside his apartment just to stare people down.
He didn’t just want money.
He wanted control.
To hurt. To scare. To dominate.
By 1949, he had slipped through the fingers of law enforcement more times than anyone could count.
And when he returned to Crystal Beach that summer — something inside him finally snapped.
So… What Made Him This Way?
Mental illness?
Neglect?
Sociopathy?
The truth is — we don’t know. And that’s what makes him so chilling.
He was born to a single mother who may have fabricated a fake marriage to avoid scandal.
He was teased for his weight. Bullied. Possibly abused.
He loved his mother deeply — and when she died, something in him may have died too.
“I don’t know what I’ll do without her,” he wept to a friend. “I always had her to fall back on.”
Was Rastus Russell born bad… or made that way?
That’s the question readers keep asking me.
What You’ll Find in the Book
In MADMAN, I lay out everything:
His childhood. His run-ins with police. The psychological diagnoses.
The bizarre conversations.
The failed warnings.
The red flags… ignored.
I wrote the book to tell the full story of the crime.
But I also wrote it to understand something deeper:
What makes a man become a monster?
And why does no one stop him until it’s too late?
👉 [Click here to read the full story in MADMAN]
He wasn’t just a local menace.
For a brief moment, he was one of the most hunted men in America.
And then — just like that — he vanished from history.
