Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks

The essay begins in 1988, with the breaking news of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, a deadly terrorist attack over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed all the passengers and flight crew on board. Keefe’s subject, Ken Dornstein, learned after reading the headlines that his brother David was on the plane. Dornstein was gutted by his brother’s loss, mourning his thwarted aspirations for a writing career.

Dornstein became quietly obsessed with the “murder mystery” (55) of the Pan Am tragedy—though it was later determined the bomb was in the luggage hold, the identity of those who built the bomb or placed it on board remains unknown. He found it a relief when he unexpectedly fell in love with and married Kathryn Geismar, an ex-girlfriend of David’s, as she understood the event that now defined him.

Early official investigations of the bombing and the Department of Justice’s initial findings implicated Libyan intelligence. In the 1980s, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, however, denied responsibility for Lockerbie, and the accused did not stand international trial until 1998. After one intelligence agent was convicted, Qaddafi set up a victims’ compensation fund and tacitly admitted potential Libyan culpability. For his part, Dornstein believed there had to be more to the case, wondering “how could such a big act of mass murder have no author?” (56).