Amy Herdy's new book tells story of serial rapist Brent J. Brents, conflicts with Denver Post
Diary of a Predator, a new book by Amy Herdy, isn't simply a true-crime tale based on the disturbing actions of serial rapist Brent J. Brents. It's also a memoir that pulls back the curtains on Herdy's reporting of the Brents story for the Denver Post, revealing conflicts with editors involving everything from their suggestion to use Brents' off-the-record comments because he was "a piece of shit" who would never sue to their opening of her mail.
Amy Herdy.
After leaving the Post in 2006, Herdy took a position as an investigative producer for 9News before becoming the adviser for the Campus Press, the University of Colorado at Boulder's student newspaper, during a tumultuous period that included a scandal over a satirical article by student Max Karson and the publication's transition to independent status.
Last year, just prior to CU's announcement that it would be dumping its journalism school in favor of a still-undefined new entity, Herdy's contract was not renewed. Today, she stresses that "I have such a soft spot in my heart for all the students. The rest of CU, not so much." But this action gave her the time to finally write the Brents tome -- something that she'd been putting off for years.
Brent J. Brents.
"I began thinking it would be a book a long time ago," she notes. "But I knew it was going to be a huge gorilla to deal with, so I procrastinated."
Not that laziness was the major reason.
"I was loathe to go back there again, because his case was the most horrific one I'd ever covered," she admits. "I had reams of information about it -- thousands of pages of court documents and police reports and hundreds and hundreds of letters from him, and dozens of notebooks filled with interviews with detectives and attorneys and victims. It was an overwhelming amount of material -- and the nature of the material made it something I didn't want to deal with lightly."
Indeed, Brents' crimes were shocking in the extreme. Herdy notes in Diary that "he stalked, raped, and tortured multiple victims" before being captured in February 2005. He subsequently "pleaded guilty to eighty criminal charges, including sexual assault, kidnapping, and attempted murder, and in July 2005 received the largest sentence in Colorado history: 1,509 years."
Through this period and beyond, Brents corresponded with Herdy, sharing details about a childhood filled with abuse even as he attempted to deepen his relationship with her -- efforts that ultimately led to him dubbing her "Rockstar" and issuing declarations of love that made her notably uncomfortable. The result is a highly unusual, totally uncategorizable dynamic that evolves through a series of letters Herdy shares in their entirety. In addition, Brents writes a brief introduction to the book, encouraging readers to consider its revelations with an open mind.
The back and forth between Brents and Herdy is key -- but the Post omitted her side of the conversation when publishing excerpts from his notes. The resulting piece hung Herdy out to dry, as I wrote in "Yours Truly," a July 21, 2005 column. According to Herdy, the column, which is excerpted in the book, prompted one editor to concede this fact -- an acknowledgment that she calls "the closest thing to an apology I would get."
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