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Laura Greenberg, a seasoned journalist, has spent much of her career delving deep into the chilling saga of serial killer Douglas Gretzler. Her exploration, featured in Oxygen’s documentary Charmed by the Devil, began as a typical true-crime investigation but gradually transformed into a unique and complex connection that blurred the conventional lines between journalist and subject.
In a candid moment within the documentary, which premiered on December 13, Greenberg reflects on her unconventional relationship with Gretzler, saying, “I blur lines in every relationship I’ve ever had. He was my secret life, and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed having something to myself.”
Gretzler, alongside his partner in crime Willie Steelman, embarked on a horrific killing spree in 1973, claiming the lives of 17 people, which eventually landed them on Arizona’s death row. Steelman succumbed to cirrhosis of the liver in 1986, coincidentally the same year Greenberg received a tip about Gretzler, sparking her interest in the gripping story.
Initially, Greenberg’s pursuit of the case was driven by a professional curiosity. In the documentary, she explains, “I wanted to understand the monster. What pushed him over the edge?” Her investigative journey into Gretzler’s mind not only showcases her dedication to exploring the darker aspects of human nature but also highlights the intricate dynamics that can develop between a journalist and their subject.
Gretzler, along with accomplice Willie Steelman, ended up on Arizona’s death row after a depraved 1973 three-week killing spree that left 17 victims. Steelman died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1986, the same year Greenberg got a tip about Gretzler.
Greenberg was initially simply keen on chasing a professional challenge. “I wanted to understand the monster,” she said in the special. “What pushed him over the edge?”
At first, the two exchanged letters and audio cassettes. She has hundreds of recordings, and portions of them are heard publicly for the first time in the documentary.
“There was something very freeing about talking on a tape recorder,” Greenberg said. “I drew him out, I made him feel safe.”
At the time, she was living with a boyfriend, so she found a way to be alone with Gretzler. “I would go into the bathroom,” she said, “lock the door, fill up the bathtub, and I would listen to him talk to me about murder.”
Gretzler’s recorded voice is heard saying, “There’s nothing more intimate than murder.”
Laura Greenberg comes face to face with Douglas Gretzler
After a year and a half sending tapes and letters and sharing visits and phone calls, Greenberg and Gretzler were granted contact visits in a small room with a table, two chairs and no glass wall between them.
“It’s never enough for me to just get halfway. I wanted to get every little morsel,” said Greenberg. “I’m sitting there, and he can smell me up close. This is a man who’s been deprived for about 15 years of any kind of human contact.”
Greenberg acknowledged that her mother, a social worker, expressed concern, while friends asked what was wrong with her.
“I’d say, there’s nothing wrong with me,” Greenberg shared. “It is possible for people to have very deep friendships without them being traditional.”
To her surprise, she found rich common ground with the killer. “Doug and I had a lot of similarities in terms of how we were rejected over and over again by our parents,” she said. “Whenever we talked about both of our past, we kind of had this unconditional connection.”
When he talked about his violent murders, she acknowledged she was “disgusted” but “had to remove this judgmental feeling state in order to keep finding out more.”
Laura Greenberg calls Douglas Gretzler “a romantic serial killer”
In Charmed by the Devil, Greenberg’s nephew, Ben Giroux, described his aunt’s relationship with Gretzler as “deeply complicated and inappropriately intertwined.”
She doesn’t disagree. “About two, three, four years in,” said Greenberg, “Doug frequently would ask me for things that would remind him of me.” She obliged by sending him a lock of hair and a picture of her in a bathing suit.
“I called him the romantic serial killer, jokingly,” she said. “He had a romantic streak.”
In one tape, he’s heard musing about her feet and crawling in bed with her. Greenberg said he expressed jealousy a new man in her life.
During a visit, Gretzler surprised her with a stealth kiss. “He stuck his tongue down my throat,” she recalled. “I said, ‘F–k you!’”
The incident didn’t scare Greenberg away. “We went through a lot of different experiences emotionally in those 10 years,” she said. “Whatever my deep and abiding friendship with Douglas Gretzler was, the best part of it was it didn’t have a label.”
There was another plus, too. Greenberg believes that Gretzler’s feelings for her helped unlock his capacity for remorse.
Laura Greenberg attends Douglas Gretzler’s execution
Greenberg was at the Florence, Arizona prison for execution on June 3, 1998, seated near his sister Dee and a family member of victims she’d come to know. The finality hit her hard.
“I just felt really, really sad,” Greenberg said. “I laid in my bed, and I watched about a hundred Law & Orders, and I ate as much junk food as I could for about a month.”
A few weeks later, Gretzler’s ashes, and personal effects–shampoo and a soap dish–arrived at her house. She displayed them in the documentary.
“I’m really glad that I didn’t listen to people who told me you’re not you’re crazy,” she said, “and that I took a chance on Doug.”
Twenty-seven years after Gretzler’s death, he’s still present in Greenberg’s thoughts. She’s in the final stretch of writing a book about her experience.
“My aunt is completely codependent with this story,” said Giroux. “It has consumed her mental energy, her physical house, her love life. I think there’s, in many ways, a fear of this story ending.”
Asked in the documentary if she loved Gretzel, Greenberg paused, then said: “Was I in love with him? No. Did I love him? Yes. There were 17 dead people that stood between us, that’s a lot of people, but I still miss him.”
Watch Charmed by the Devil on the Oxygen app.
