Includes bibliographical references.

"Between 2005 and 2009, the bodies of eight women were discovered around the murky canals and crawfish ponds of Jennings, Louisiana, a bayou town of 10,000 in the heart of the Jefferson Davis parish. Local law enforcement officials were quick to pursue a serial killer theory, opening a floodgate of media coverage-from CNN to The New York Times. Collectively the victims became known as the 'Jeff Davis 8,' and their lives, their deaths, and the ongoing investigation reveals a small southern communitys most closely guarded secrets. As Ethan Brown suggests, these homicides were not the work of a single serial killer, but the violent fallout of Jennings brutal sex and drug trade, a backwoods underworld hidden in plain sight." --from publisher's description.