Sondra London is an American true crime author who has been dubbed "the Queen of Serial Killer Groupies".[1][2]
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Born in Florida, she dated future serial killer Gerard John Schaefer in high school. She earned a bachelor's degree in literature at New College of Florida. In 1989, she contacted Schaefer in prison and worked with him to produce Killer Fiction, which was originally sold by mail order by Media Queen Enterprises, and then later published by Feral House. Her collection of articles by death row prisoners Knockin' on Joe: Voices from Death Row was published by Nemesis Books in England. Her work with Schaefer enabled Florida authorities to close two cold cases, and ended when Schaefer realized she would not represent him as a "framed ex-cop," one of his alternating self-images, as distinguished from his "greatest serial killer of modern times" posture. Not long after that, serial killer Danny Rolling contacted her to request that she help him tell his story. Her work debriefing Rolling eventually enabled authorities to close a total of eight murders, along with a series of other capital crimes for which he had not been charged.
She collaborated with Rolling in writing The Making of a Serial Killer: The Real Story of the Gainesville Murders, a psychological memoir which included Rolling's confessions to five murders. It was illustrated by 50 pictures hand-drawn by Rolling in prison. The confessions were published in a three-part series appearing in the Globe. London was sued by the State of Florida under the Son of Sam law,[3] which had been declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.[4]
Feral House published her study of vampirism, True Vampires, in 2004.[5] The book is illustrated by Nicolas Claux.
Keith Jesperson, a serial killer known as The Happy Face Killer, sent Sondra London a series of murder confessions, which she posted to her AOL Home page in 1996. A year later, then-Governor of Wyoming Jim Geringer called for a boycott of America Online, protesting that he found the items to be offensive. Although London voluntarily removed the pages in question, AOL banned her from the AOL domain, which in turn prompted an outpouring of support from all over the World Wide Web, including multiple offers of free server space. London thanked Geringer on Larry King Live for catapulting her website into the limelight.
In 2000, an episode of director Errol Morris' First Person television series centered on Sondra London. She has appeared on Dateline, Turning Point, Larry King Live, Geraldo, Leeza, A Current Affair, and Court TV in the United States; Channel 4 and BBC in UK; German and French cable, and Australian ABC. She has been an associate producer for A Current Affair in the United States, and David Monaghan Productions in UK.