Lowell Cauffiel

In 2002, Cauffiel began writing and producing crime documentaries. In 2003, he relocated from Michigan to Los Angeles to write for film and create series television. He's developed film and television projects with, among others, Billy Crystal, David Schwimmer, Michael Medavoy, Kiefer Sutherland, Kathryn Morris and Michael Douglas.

In the mid-1990s, Cauffiel wrote three fiction titles. He performed as a blues guitarist with the Progressive Blues Band in Motor City nightclubs.

The New York Times 1988 review called Cauffiel's book Masquerade an "excellent account of one man's flirtation with a twilight zone of his own making."

Cauffiel was born in Michigan, the son of Ursula Irene (née Zulka), a Polish-American community leader, and Lowell Cauffiel, an aeronautical engineer and entrepreneur. A 1974 journalism graduate of Wayne State University, Cauffiel began his writing career as a contributor to music magazines, including Rolling Stone, Creem and Guitar Player. He went on to become an award-winning reporter with the Detroit News and Detroit Monthly Magazine during the 1970s and 1980s. Cauffiel began his bookwriting career in 1988 with Masquerade: A True Story of Seduction, Compulsion and Murder. That title and the 1997 New York Times bestseller House of Secrets have appeared on critics' lists of the best works in American true crime. Thematically, Cauffiel's books often explore how people embrace popular trends and exalt American values to hide their own dark intentions and destructive acts.

Lowell Joseph Cauffiel (born 1951) is an American true crime author, novelist, screenwriter and film and television producer.