The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer

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A chilling true story that blends memoir and crime investigation, this narrative follows Liza Rodman, a lonely girl growing up on Cape Cod in the 1960s. While her mother worked at a local motel and spent her nights dancing in Provincetown bars, Liza found companionship in her charismatic babysitter, a kind handyman who took her and her sister on adventures in his truck, bought them popsicles, and introduced them to his "secret garden" in the Truro woods. To Liza, he was one of the few caring adults in her life, and everyone regarded him as a "great guy." However, unbeknownst to her, he was a serial killer, with some victims buried in pieces in his garden. Although the gruesome details of Tony Costa's case made headlines in 1969, Liza did not connect her friendly babysitter to the infamous killer until decades later. Haunted by nightmares and horrified by her discovery, she became obsessed with the case. Now, alongside cowriter Jennifer Jordan, she reveals the chilling true story of a charming yet brutal psychopath through the eyes of a young girl who once considered him a friend.