Best of
True-Crime

1987

Small Sacrifices


Ann Rule - 1987
    Ann Rule's shocking and powerful account of the destructive forces that drove Diane Downs, a beautiful young mother, to shoot her three young children in cold blood.

Doctor Dealer: The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multimillion-Dollar Cocaine Empire


Mark Bowden - 1987
    But behind the facade of his success was a dark secret -- at every step of the way he was building the foundation for a cocaine empire that would grow to generate over $60 million in annual sales. Award-winning journalist Mark Bowden tells the saga of Lavin's rise and fall with the gripping, novelistic narrative style that won him international acclaim as the author of the New York Times best-seller Black Hawk Down. Immensely readable . . . eye-popping . . . a smoothly crafted, exciting, can't-put-it-down book. -- Louisville New Voice

The Corpse Had a Familiar Face: Covering Miami, America's Hottest Beat


Edna Buchanan - 1987
    Reissue.

The Lindbergh Case


Jim Fisher - 1987
    . . choose Fisher's. It is balanced, impartial, and contains much material not to be found elsewhere."--Francis Russell, The New York Review of Books "Fisher . . . goes against the revisionist tide and argues strongly--and persuasively--for Hauptmann's guilt . . . a compelling book."--Patrick Reardon, Chicago Tribune "A good real-life crime yarn."--Kirkus Reviews "A riveting book."--Harry Sayen, The Times, Trenton "A real detective story."--Sylvia Sachs, The Pittsburgh Press "One cannot help getting caught up in the search for the child, then in the search for justice. These events resonate more than 50 years after they occurred."--John Katzenback, The New York Times Book Review "Fisher thoroughly covers the case, from the night the baby was taken from his home in Hopewell, NJ, on March 1, 1932, to Hauptmann's execution on April 3, 1936 . . . a convincing case."--Publishers Weekly "A grimly fascinating account of the kidnapping and murder of Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr., son of the world-famous aviator."--The Columbus Dispatch "A richly detailed, engrossing, and well-written history of the kidnapping saga. . . . may well become the definitive work on the subject."

The Ultimate Evil: The Truth about the Cult Murders: Son of Sam and Beyond


Maury Terry - 1987
    Berkowitz confessed to being a lone murderer—one who had carried out eight senseless shooting with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver. The case was officially closed.Journalist Maury Terry was suspicious of Berkowitz's confession, convinced as he gathered corroborating evidence throughout the years, that Berkowitz did not act alone. In this investigative story, first published in 1987, Terry details the chilling events, proving that Berkowitz was an affiliate of—and triggerman for—a Satanic cult known as the Process Church of the Final Judgment, a far-reaching organization that is connected to other ritual slayings across the country. Updated with Berkowitz's recent confirmations from his prison cell, Terry untangles the web of information and shocking extent of the Process Church's activities. Includes black-and-white photographs.

Age of Sex Crime


Jane Caputi - 1987
    Jane Caputi argues that the sensationalized murders by men such as Jack the Ripper, Son of Sam, Hillside Strangler, and the Yorkshire Ripper represent a contemporary genre of sexually political crimes. The awful deeds function as a form of patriarchal terrorism, "disappearing" women at a rate of some four thousand annually in the United States alone. Caputi asks us not only to name the phenomenon of sexually political murder, but to recognize sex crime in all of its various interconnecting manifestations.

The Dreams of Ada


Robert Mayer - 1987
    Tales spread of rape, mutilation, and murder, and the police set out on a relentless mission to bring someone to justice. Six months later, two local men—Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot—were arrested and brought to trial, even though they repudiated their “confessions,” no body had been found, no weapon had been produced, and no eyewitnesses had come forward. The Dreams of Ada is a story of politics and morality, of fear and obsession. It is also a moving, compelling portrait of one small town living through a nightmare.

The Priest And The Policeman: The Courageous Life And Cruel Murder Of Father Jerzy Popieluszko


John Moody - 1987
    

Best Intentions: The Education and Killing of Edmund Perry


Robert Sam Anson - 1987
    An exploration of how Edmund Perry, a 17 year old black honors student from Harlem, was killed soon after graduation by a young white plain clothes policeman in an alleged mugging attempt.

Three Bullets Sealed His Lips


Bruce A. Rubenstein - 1987
    Hooper on January 11, 1945, three days before he was to testify before a grand jury investigating alleged corruption in the Michigan legislature, forced coverage of Allied war triumphs from the state's newspaper headlines. National media representatives flocked to Michigan to join local reporters in following the efforts of grand jury special prosecutor Kim Sigler and the State Police to apprehend the killers. Because no arrests ever were made, a 1951 journalistic prediction has proven true: "The Hooper case will continue to come back to remind the people and politicians of Michigan of the black days of 1945 when almost every official of the state had his price." For this reason, the Hooper murder has endured as one of the most intriguing unsolved mysteries in the annals of Michigan crime.      Utilizing interviews, trial transcripts, State police files, and a collection of grand jury testimony long thought to have been destroyed, Professors Bruce A. Rubenstein and Lawrence E. Ziewacz set forth the reason for Hooper's assassination. Written in a lively style, using dialogue taken from court records and correspondence, Three Bullets Sealed His Lips demonstrates that historical writing need not be dull.

Cold Kill: The True Story of a Murderous Love


Jack Olsen - 1987
    Or so he thought. The troubled young man clung to his new love and dreamed of their future together. So begins the chain of events that was to evolve into a horror of terrifying proportions. Jack Olsen, bestselling author of "Son," now reveals the details of a true-life romance gone hideously awry. After weeks of planning, the young misfits from two fine old Texas families donned grotesque battle gear and crept into the luxurious home where Cindy Ray's parents lay asleep with her two small sons. In the hot muggy room, the "cold kill" was over in seconds. Everyone who knew the unpredictable Cindy suspected that she was involved, but the ghastly crime had been so carefully orchestrated that Houston's top homicide detectives could get nowhere. Cindy wore black and sobbed at the funeral, then began a frenzied attempt to collect her inheritance and as many of her wealthy parents possessions as she could haul away. No one except David West was surprised when she walked out on him. Then the story took another bizarre turn. In a final bid to solve the case, a seductive young private investigator was assigned to cozy up to West. Soon the gullible killer was in love, once again with fateful consequences. Traditionally, true-crime drama illuminates the sinister motivations in the human psyche. Yet Cold Kill reveals something still more frightful -- unspeakable murders are committed, not out of greed, revenge, or blind demented rage, but out of a troubled young man's tragically misconceived code of honor and a desperate need to please and protect the woman of his dreams. Jack Olsen's Cold Kill is a stunning testament to the profoundly discerning eye of a grand master of true crime. To read Cold Kill is not to forgive David West. It is, however, to undergo the uncanny experience of feeling oneself slowly but surely moving into the shoes of a pathological killer.

Kirk's Fire Investigation


John D. DeHaan - 1987
    Topics are presented in logical order from simple chemistry and physics to scene analysis and complex case analysis. Special topics such as arson

The Serpent's Tooth


Christopher P. Andersen - 1987
    Expertly researched, The Serpent's Tooth is a gripping chronicle of failed ambition, dark secrets, drugs and family tragedy of shattering proportions--the car bombing of his mother and younger brother by Steven Benson--played out against the glittering backdrop of Florida's Gold Coast estates and the mansions of Pennsylvania's wealthiest families.

The Mystery of Hermann Goering's Suicide


Ben E. Swearingen - 1987
    

Bread Men: How The Westons Built An International Empire


Charles Davies - 1987
    

Murder Most Foul and other great crime stories from the world press


Rob Warden - 1987