The guy on the road next to you takes up a lot of room. At least he's not taking his good old sweet time. He has a place to be and a time to be there.
You respect that. The uptake is that he's hauling freight, an essential job that's hard work. He takes time to do it right.
And as in the new book, “Long Haul” by Frank Figliuzzi, sometimes he takes a life. So let's say you're on a driving-vacation this summer. You'll expect to see grass, billboards and fast food outlets.
You don't expect to see a dead body, but according to the FBI's Highway Serial Killings Initiative (HSK), the rate of murder along our nation's highways has increased, possibly due to a shocking fact. Over the years, Figliuzzi says, the FBI believes that they've linked 850 murders of young women to a suspected 450 over-the-road truck drivers. This came as a surprise to Figliuzzi, who says he's the kind of guy who writes what he knows.
For this book, he learned about these crimes by following an FBI agent and learning about the ViCAP, a database that helps officials link crimes to find connections. Many killers have “signature” ways of killing or of leaving a corpse. Those commonalities, found in the ViCAP, can help solve crimes.
He also spent a week with a driver he calls “Mike,” who works for a company out of Chicago. Short of driving the truck, Figliuzzi helped secure loads, helped find food and a place to park, and he learned what it's like to be a driver – the isolation, trouble and frustrati.
