A direct descendant of Horace Greeley who said "Go West, young man, go West" (whereupon Greeley went East and founded "The New York Tribune" for which Karl Marx became a stringer,)

Stephen Williams began his writing career in his early teens after noting the hypnotic effect the lyrics from Bob Dylan's first album had on women and reading "Les Sous sond fait" by John Paul Satre.

First published at 19, he studied with Marshall McLuhan, Northrop Frye and Irving Layton. Shortly thereafter he got a job picking and packing books in the Toronto warehouse of Oxford University Press.

Among other things Williams has been a trucker, a poet, an advertising executive, a warehouse grunt and a bible salesman.

His reputation as a writer and a journalist was solidified by the international success of two books, "Invisible Darkness: The Horrifying Case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka" and "Karla: A Pact with the Devil."

These two non-fiction books have been described as "stories of unimaginabel deviance set in the apocalyptic landscape in and around Niagara Falls."

"Invisible Darkness" and "Karla" have been favorably compared to Norman Mailer's "The Executioner's Song" and Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" while other critics have called him a "blowhard" and a "wannabe Hemingway."
The Attorney General for Ontario called him "a criminal" and a "serial trafficker in the misery of human victims."

One journalist probably summed him up best when she wrote, "People don't forget Williams. He thinks big. He is outspoken. And he loves the limelight, baby."

Of course, that's only one person's opinion.

In fact, Stephen Williams is something of a recluse and quite shy. All he asks is that you read his work mindfully and then make up your own mind.

Williams has been twice arrested, once in 1998 and again in 2003, and put on trial twice over an eight-year period for allegedly disobeying court orders and publication bans.

Not satisfied that the almost 100 criminal charges police laid against Williams were sufficient the Attorney General, Michael Bryant personally sued Stephen as "an enemy of the State."
The lawsuit sought unspecified damages and possession of all Williams' archives and research.

Stephen was acquitted of the first set of charges on November 30, 2000.
On January 14, 2005, he accepted a plea bargain suggested by Attorney General Bryant. He plead guilty to one count, summary conviction or misdemeanor, disobey pub ban to do with his website only.

In return the AG would withdraw the other 97 criminal charges that had been laid against him to do with both books and abandon the civil lawsuit.

It was the proverbial offer that cannot be refused, a great victory in a relentless confrontation with an unhinged government and a reckless Attorney General.

A few years later, Mr. Bryant found himself in jail accused of murder and has recently published a book about the ordeal called "28 Seconds.'

Bryant recounts the horrific details about how he killed a rancorous, drunken bike courier one evening after celebrating his 12th wedding anniversary in downtown Toronto's toney Yorkville and Bellair district.

A year later, police and prosecutors dropped all charges but by that time his political career was in shambles and his wife had left him. In "28 Seconds" he also admits that he was a raging alcoholic and recklessly chased power and publicity during his years in office.

Stephen Williams lives and continues to work on "Law and Disorder: The Globalization of the Police State" while periodically blogging (it can be accessed through his website). He lives on a rock scramble farm 90 miles northwest of Toronto with the writer Marsha Boulton and their Bull Terrier Thelonius Monk.

"Karla" has just been published in the United States and internationally as Kindle book, iBook, Kobo and a few other e-reader formats.