Languishing in a Panamanian prison cell, William Holbert - known as 'Wild Bill' - is waiting to be tried for the murder of five fellow American expats. His first victims were the mysterious Brown family, who lived a deliberately quiet life in Panama's remote province of Bocas del Toro. After killing the Browns, he turned their house into the Jolly Roger Social Club with the motto 'Over 90% of our members survive'. He appointed himself Minister of the First Church of the Inebriation, and used drink- and drug-fuelled parties to get close to others who, like him, had fled to Panama's Caribbean coast in desperation to leave their past behind, assumed new identities and disappeared into a blissful loophole... The Jolly Roger Social Club is Nick Foster's astonishing and vivid account of a man who may be the world's first 'capitalist' serial killer. In the process of piecing together what happened he sheds light on the bigger questions raised by Wild Bill's actions: what was it that made Bocas del Toro such a fertile hunting ground for the murderer, and why did it take the expats so long to raise the alarm? It quickly becomes clear that the answer lies in the paradox of Panama itself: a seeming paradise, but with a sinister underbelly.

About the Author
Nick Foster was born in Liverpool, UK in 1966, and educated at University College London. He worked for several years as a European Union diplomat, and as a stringer working out of Caracas, Venezuela, filing news stories and research to the UK s broadsheets. He now writes features for the "Financial Times" and the "International New York Times," among other outlets. He is also producing a documentary film on France's highest-profile cold case. Foster is married with two young sons and lives in Belgium

Reviews
Nick Foster follows a twisted path into a tropical paradise or is it a tropical Hades? where no one goes by his real name, pasts are forgotten, and identities are as shifty as the tides. "The Jolly Roger Social Club" is noir reporting at its best, a true crime tale for our age, a deftly guided tour into a shadowy netherworld where the phrase 'last call' can be taken quite literally. -- Susan Casey, author of "Voices in the Ocean, The Wave, " and "The Devil s Teeth"
The world has never seen a killer quite like William Dathan Holbert. Nick Foster's shrewdly told, rum-soaked, all-too-true tale of serial murder in the tropics is simply stunning. -- Robert Kolker, author of "Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery"
The Jolly Roger Social Club is a gripping, enervating read sharply written, excellently observed and assiduously researched. In William 'Wild Bill' Cortez, Foster has found not only a larger-than-life character, but a back door into an expat island community. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of an under-reported corner of the world that balances the best of crime writing and pavement-pounding reportage. Keeping so many plates spinning is no easy task, yet Foster carries it off with enviable expertise. A Panamanian "Cocaine Nights," only grounded in fact. -- Oliver Balch, author of "Viva South America"
If you've ever yearned to flee civilization for a tropical Caribbean hideaway, pick up Nick Foster s frightening "The Jolly Roger Social Club "before you do. It s like a nightmare version of 'House Hunters International'--a lovely Panamanian resort town, happy American expats, and one crazed murderer who seemingly wants to kill them all. -- Bryan Burrough, author of "Days of Rage" and "Public Enemies"
William 'Wild Bill' Holbert could be a character drawn straight out of fiction: a diabolical killer who comes to the beaches of Panama, one of the most beautiful settings in the world, to wreak his special brand of havoc. What s especially amazing is that he was able to go for so long before other expats realized just what kind of man he was. "The Jolly Roger Social Club" is a fascinating tale of terror and madness. -- Skip Hollandsworth, author of "The MidnightAssassin"



Book Information
ISBN 9780715651353
Author Nick Foster
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Overlook Press
Publisher Overlook Press
Weight(grams) 540g