Book excerpt: This true crime biography examines the life and motives of an Arkansas serial killer who preyed on strangers as he hitchhiked across America. In 1945, Faulkner County native James Waybern “Red” Hall confessed to murdering at least twenty-four people. In the closing months of World War II, he beat his wife to death and went on a killing spree across the state. Most of his victims were motorists who picked him up as he hitchhiked around the United States. Perhaps even more unsettling than the crimes themselves was the signature smile Hall used to lured his victims to their doom. Even after his capture, he maintained a friendly manner. One lawman went so far as to describe him as “a pleasant conversationalist.” In this in-depth biography, author Janie Nesbitt Jones chronicles his life and explores reasons why he became Arkansas’s Hitchhike Killer.