An author and former investigative journalist will be in Jacksonville to talk about his new book that delves into the real-life criminals who murdered and dismembered a woman in 2017.
Chet Hardin’s book is called “The Vampire’s Cult,” and his talk about it will be at 6 p.m. Sept. 3 in the Jacksonville Public Library.
Sydney Loofe was a 24-year-old woman whose dismembered body was found in different parts of a small Nebraska town named Wilber. The book dives into the con man named Aubrey Trail and his partner Bailey Boswell who orchestrated the murder and “lured vulnerable young women into a spiral of sex, theft, and psychological manipulation,” according to the book’s description.
Hardin had extensive interviews with both Trail and Boswell from prison for the book. It’s also not the first time Hardin has reported on stomach-churning sex crimes.
Hardin was the former news editor for an alt-weekly newspaper in Albany called Metroland. While there, he exposed the sex cult named Nxivm (nex-ee-um) which eventually led to its leader, a man named Keith Raniere, being convicted as a sex offender and racketeer.
Copies of “The Vampire’s Cult,” which released Aug. 4, can be purchased from Our Town Books, which has partnered with the library for this event. People are asked to RSVP through Our Town Books’ website.