From a writer’s perspective, fiction allows a writer to create Lester Beach, the scariest character in Killer in the Holy City from several real criminals enhanced by the writer’s imagination. We’re not bound by the chains of non-fiction. What I mean by that is when we write true crime or historical pieces, we are compelled to stay within the bounds of what is exactly true and accurate. There is no wriggle room in non-fiction; everything that is written must be accurate and all the facts, especially quotes must be correctly cited and attributed. A writer cannot label a suspect a “murderer” unless he or she was convicted in a court of law of that crime. If we say that a trial took place on a certain date and was conducted by “Judge Brown,” then we have to be sure those events actually took place where and when we said they did.