Best of
True-Crime

2012

Killer Show


John Barylick - 2012
    history took place at a roadhouse called The Station in West Warwick, Rhode Island. That night, in the few minutes it takes to play a hard-rock standard, the fate of many of the unsuspecting nightclub patrons was determined with awful certainty. The blaze was ignited when pyrotechnics set off by Great White, a 1980s heavy-metal band, lit flammable polyurethane "egg crate" foam sound insulation on the club's walls. In less than 10 minutes, 96 people were dead and 200 more were injured, many catastrophically. The final death toll topped out, three months later, at the eerily unlikely round number of 100.The story of the fire, its causes, and its legal and human aftermath is one of lives put at risk by petty economic decisions—by a band, club owners, promoters, building inspectors, and product manufacturers. Any one of those decisions, made differently, might have averted the tragedy. Together, however, they reached a fatal critical mass.Killer Show is the first comprehensive exploration of the chain of events leading up to the fire, the conflagration itself, and the painstaking search for evidence to hold the guilty to account and obtain justice for the victims. Anyone who has entered an entertainment venue and wondered, "Could I get out of here in a hurry?" will identify with concertgoers at The Station. Fans of disaster nonfiction and forensic thrillers will find ample elements of both genres in Killer Show.

Deadly Little Secrets: The Minister, His Mistress, and a Heartless Texas Murder


Kathryn Casey - 2012
    With Deadly Little Secrets, Casey once again explores the dark side of the Lone Star State, offering a riveting true story of a murderous Texas preacher responsible for the cold-blooded slaying of the mother of his children. Meticulously researched and spellbindingly told, Deadly Little Secrets pulls back the curtain on the horrific crimes of a supposed man of God who was more devoted to the Devil, and it demonstrates why such true crime luminaries as Edgar® Award winner Carleton Stowers and Gregg Olsen are confirmed Kathryn Casey fans.And don't miss Kathryn Casey's latest book, Deliver Us, a riveting account of the brutal murders of young women in the I-45/Texas Killing Fields.

Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong


Raymond Bonner - 2012
    Police immediately arrested Edward Lee Elmore, a semiliterate, mentally retarded black man with no previous felony record. His only connection to the victim was having cleaned her gutters and windows, but barely ninety days after the victim’s body was found, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Elmore had been on death row for eleven years when a young attorney named Diana Holt first learned of his case. After attending the University of Texas School of Law, Holt was eager to help the disenfranchised and voiceless; she herself had been a childhood victim of abuse. It required little scrutiny for Holt to discern that Elmore’s case—plagued by incompetent court-appointed defense attorneys, a virulent prosecution, and both misplaced and contaminated evidence—reeked of injustice. It was the cause of a lifetime for the spirited, hardworking lawyer. Holt would spend more than a decade fighting on Elmore’s behalf. With the exemplary moral commitment and tenacious investigation that have distinguished his reporting career, Bonner follows Holt’s battle to save Elmore’s life and shows us how his case is a textbook example of what can go wrong in the American justice system. He reviews police work, evidence gathering, jury selection, work of court-appointed lawyers, latitude of judges, iniquities in the law, prison informants, and the appeals process. Throughout, the actions and motivations of both unlikely heroes and shameful villains in our justice system are vividly revealed.             Moving, suspenseful, and enlightening, Anatomy of Injustice is a vital contribution to our nation’s ongoing, increasingly important debate about inequality and the death penalty.From the Hardcover edition.

Mia


Lizzie Scott - 2012
    I’m a foster carer who doesn’t want this placement. The department of Social Services know just how to apply pressure... Oh yes... they get one very good, very friendly, very experienced social worker that I happen to have so much respect for, to make the call, knowing, just knowing that I will possibly surrender and agree to share our home with a child that, to be honest, was the last child in the world that I felt capable of caring for... Felt capable of feeling anything for... Felt capable of... anything to do with her. Mmmm, sometimes I’m so bloody shallow you see. I don’t want people to look at me as I go about my business. I don’t want strangers giving me pitying looks or hurrying past pretending they haven’t looked in my pram. I don’t want to give up any of the precious time I spend with my birth children and husband. I want my life to stay just as it is. Happy and contented. Oh the lessons I was about to learn.

Foreign Faction - Who Really Kidnapped JonBenet?


A. James Kolar - 2012
    Diametrically opposing theories of her kidnap and murder were publicly espoused by Boulder Detective Steve Thomas and retired Colorado Springs investigator Lou Smit in 2000 after a grand jury failed to announce an indictment, or release an official report regarding their year-long inquiry into the matter. This was the last time that any authoritative law enforcement voice stepped forward to explore the innermost details of this unsolved murder investigation. Foreign Faction blows the cover off the lone-intruder / sexual predator theory, and reveals startling new evidence that heretofore has only been seen by a select few. Kolar's work offers an entirely new perspective for the events leading up to JonBenet's murder on Christmas Day 1996, and it will ultimately redifine the public perception of one of the most unusual murder investigations this country has ever witnessed.

The Crime Factory: The Shocking True Story of a Front-Line CID Detective


Officer 'A' - 2012
    . . The Crime Factory. Where they perform life-saving medical care in the street, comfort people as they die, deal with gruesome suicides and murders as first-on-scene, attend cot-death post-mortems, examine rotting dead junkies for signs of murder, watch guilty rapists and paedophiles walk free, fight drunk soldiers, gypsies and various psychotic individuals, go undercover to catch scumbags who force-feed them crack, find missing children, arrest thieves, muggers, dealers, rapists and murderers . . . The Crime Factory. It's enough to drive anyone insane. The first book of its kind, this is the unforgettable and explosive true story of what life is really like as a police detective in the twenty-first century.

A Fine Day for a Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story


Carol Ann Lee - 2012
    Following a trial that lasted less than two days, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. She became the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and her execution is the most notorious of hangman Albert Pierrepoint's "duties." Despite Ruth's infamy, the story of her life has never been fully told. Often willfully misinterpreted, the reality behind the headlines was buried by an avalanche of hearsay. But now, through new interviews and comprehensive research into previously unpublished sources, Carol Ann Lee examines the facts without agenda or sensation. A portrait of the era and an evocation of 1950s club life in all its seedy glamour, A Fine Day for a Hanging sets Ruth's gripping story firmly in its historical context in order to tell the truth about both her timeless crime and a punishment that was very much of its time.

Justice for Colette: My daughter was murdered - I never gave up hope of her killer being found. He was finally caught after 26 years


Jacqui Kirkby - 2012
    

Life After Death


Damien Echols - 2012
    The ensuing trial was rife with inconsistencies, false testimony and superstition. Echols was accused of, among other things, practising witchcraft and satanic rituals – a result of the “satanic panic” prevalent in the media at the time. Baldwin and Miskelley were sentenced to life in prison. Echols, deemed the ringleader, was sentenced to death. He was eighteen years old.In a shocking reversal of events, all three were suddenly released in August 2011. This is Damien Echols' story in full: from abuses by prison guards and wardens, to descriptions of inmates and deplorable living conditions, to the incredible reserves of patience, spirituality, and perseverance that kept him alive and sane for nearly two decades. Echols also writes about his complicated and painful childhood. Like Dead Man Walking, Life After Death is destined to be a classic.

Empty Cradle


Diana Walsh - 2012
    A lot of suffering happens in this world, but when it involves a child, it touches everyone all the more and it is tolerated all the less. Empty Cradle is the writer’s personal recollection of the time leading up to and surrounding the abduction of her newborn infant, just days before Christmas. This story is based on a true crime - dates, times, and details were researched from media sources, court documents, and police records. A timeline of the mother and the kidnapper are shown separately, from childhood to adulthood, until the two paths crossed, resulting in a cataclysmic event that will leave the reader anxiously awaiting the final outcome.

The Wrong Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution


James S. Liebman - 2012
    His execution passed unnoticed for years until a team of Columbia Law School faculty and students almost accidentally chose to investigate his case and found that DeLuna almost certainly was innocent. They discovered that no one had cared enough about either the defendant or the victim to make sure the real perpetrator was found. Everything that could go wrong in a criminal case did. This book documents DeLuna's conviction, which was based on a single, nighttime, cross-ethnic eyewitness identification with no corroborating forensic evidence. At his trial, DeLuna's defense, that another man named Carlos had committed the crime, was not taken seriously. The lead prosecutor told the jury that the other Carlos, Carlos Hernandez, was a "phantom" of DeLuna's imagination. In upholding the death penalty on appeal, both the state and federal courts concluded the same thing: Carlos Hernandez did not exist.The evidence the Columbia team uncovered reveals that Hernandez not only existed but was well known to the police and prosecutors. He had a long history of violent crimes similar to the one for which DeLuna was executed. Families of both Carloses mistook photos of each for the other, and Hernandez's violence continued after DeLuna was put to death. This book and its website (thewrongcarlos.net) reproduce law-enforcement, crime lab, lawyer, court, social service, media, and witness records, as well as court transcripts, photographs, radio traffic, and audio and videotaped interviews, documenting one of the most comprehensive investigations into a criminal case in U.S. history.The result is eye-opening yet may not be unusual. Faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance continue to put innocent people at risk of execution. The principal investigators conclude with novel suggestions for improving accuracy among the police, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and judges.

Without Honour: The True Story of the Shafia Family and the Kingston Canal Murders


Rob Tripp - 2012
    A father, mother and son convicted of murder. The shocking truth about the “ honourless crime” that stunned a nation.On the morning of June 30, 2009, police in a small eastern Ontario city made a ghastly discovery: four females dead in a car submerged in a shallow canal. Sisters Zainab Shafia, 19, Sahar Shafia, 17, Geeti Shafia, 13, and Rona Mohammad Amir, 50, floated serenely inside the car, seemingly the victims of a terrible accident. That morning, Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba and their son, Hamed, arrived at the Kingston police station to report the four missing. In a sweeping covert investigation that spanned three continents, police uncovered layers of lies in the Shafias’ story and they developed a horrifying theory: Zainab, Sahar, Geeti and Rona had been the victims of a meticulously plotted family murder � Canada’ s first mass honour killing.In Without Honour, award-winning journalist Rob Tripp draws on three years of exhaustive research and exclusive interviews to make sense of a senseless crime in a way no other writer could. His unprecedented access tells a story beyond anything the jury heard: a story about a patriarch who fled war and strife in Afghanistan but who did not leave behind his devotion to repressive tradition. Tripp was the first journalist on the scene as the news broke and the only reporter to attend every day of court sessions, through to the convictions of Shafia, Tooba and Hamed on four counts each of first-degree murder, fuelled by what Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger called a “ twisted notion of honour.” In this gripping and compassionate account, Tripp reveals the heartbreaking and stunning truth about the desperate lives of four women who died in the pursuit of freedom.

Holy Hell: A Catholic Family's Story of Faith, Betrayal, Pain and Courage Bringing a Paedophile Priest to Justice


Patricia Feenan - 2012
    A case of Church interference Fox outlined was that of Patricia Feenan's son, Daniel who was a fourteen-year-old altar boy when he was first raped by a priest in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese. - - - - - - - - - - - - One of the many shocking aspects of the case was how the priest, a close family friend, set about secretly grooming his altar boy victim. The priest was later found guilty of nine charges of sexual abuse of a minor in a public criminal trial in 2004. - - - - - - - - - - - - Patricia writes with raw honesty about her son's terrible ordeal, and it's effects on her family. She bravely reveals the scars that linger from the callous and often cruel ostracism they endured, as well as the denial they encountered from the Catholic community for seeking to bring a paedophile priest to justice. - - - - - - - - - - - - Detective Chief Inspector Fox describes Patricia Feenan as "an extraordinary woman who never gave up the struggle to rescue her family from the terrible abyss of despair created by a paedophile priest."

Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel


Paul Begg - 2012
    Jack the Ripper: Crime Scene Investigation takes readers back to the London of 1888 through unique reconstructions of the Ripper's murders. Detailed crime-scene re-creations, plus thoroughly researched text written by experts, give readers the most complete view to date of the gruesome crimes that shook Victorian society.

The Boy in the River


Richard Hoskins - 2012
    Thus began a journey into the tangled undergrowth of one of the most notorious murder cases of recent years; a journey which would reveal not only the identity of the boy they called Adam but the horrific truth that a succession of innocent children have been ritually sacrificed in our capital city.Insightful and grippingly written, The Boy in the River is an inside account of a series of extraordinary criminal investigations and a compelling personal quest into the dark heart of humanity.

Drawn to Injustice: The Wrongful Conviction of Timothy Masters


Timothy Masters - 2012
    Not believing it could really be a dead body, thinking he was the victim of yet another prank by his abusive classmates, the fifteen-year-old didn’t go to the police—but they came to him. So began a decade-long investigation led by a relentless detective who was sure that Masters was the killer, even without a shred of physical evidence. Against all reason, a conspiracy of silence and circumstantial evidence eventually put Masters behind bars. Only the determination of a lone investigator who believed the young man was innocent would reveal the shocking truth, and free Masters after ten years in prison. This is the compelling true story of one life ended in blood and murder, one life ruined by coincidence and prejudice, and justice long denied but finally found.

Bunny Suits of Death: Tales of a CSI


Laura A. Merz - 2012
    She quickly learns that real life CSI work is nothing like what they show on television or what she studied in graduate school.She dusts for fingerprints, photographs bloody Klingon weapons, and desperately tries not to fall off the chair in her first court appearance. Merz also grows to understand the dangers of empathy and why police officers often have a tough exterior. Along the way, she cobbles together a quirky group of friends to help her cope with the daily dose of human failings she witnesses each time she puts on her uniform.From her first crime scene where she is forced to confront the death of a young gang member to scenes where burglars are reported to leave sex toys behind as parting gifts, Merz discovers hilarity and heartbreak are often intertwined. Bunnysuits provides a much needed bridge between dramatic crime novels and purely scientific texts.Written by a Special Agent from NCIS

The Black Widower: Malcolm Webster, the Sociopathic Killer Whose Crimes Spanned Two Decades and Three Continents


Charles Lavery - 2012
    

A Reason for Living - A Story that Shocked the World!


Billy Casper - 2012
    It's about a child living like and often acting like a wild animal, fighting for survival, on and under the streets of England. This story may be of interest to other survivors of childhood abuse and cruelty and should be of interest to anyone with children or anyone who cares for them. It contains some powerful lessons relating to child protection and should be of an educational value to child care professionals.

The Barefoot Bandit: The True Tale of Colton Harris-Moore, New American Outlaw


Bob Friel - 2012
    Born into a poor family marred by alcohol abuse, Colt had the local sheriff after him before the age of ten. Colt survived by breaking into homes to forage for food, and learned to evade the police by melting into the Pacific Northwest wilds. As a teenager, he escalated to stealing cars, boats, and identities. An extensive manhunt finally caught Colt, but he escaped juvenile prison and fled to nearby Orcas Island, where he assured his place alongside outlaw legends such as D. B. Cooper by stealing an airplane without ever having a formal flight lesson. And that was just the beginning. As a resident of Orcas Island, author Bob Friel witnessed firsthand as local police, FBI agents, SWAT teams, and even Homeland Security helicopters pursued Colt around the island. Colt's crime spree infuriated and terrified many locals, while others sympathized with the barefoot young criminal-the controversy tearing at the formerly quiet community. The story gained international fame, with Time calling Colt "America's Most Wanted Teen" when he stole and crashed his third airplane. After more than two years on the run in the Northwest, Colt fled Orcas and began a spectacular cross-country trek. Friel followed the Barefoot Bandit all the way to the Bahamas, where the chase finally ended in a hail of gunfire at 3 a.m. on a dark sea. Through his personal experiences and hundreds of interviews with witnesses, victims, local authorities, Colt's family, and, indirectly, Colt himself, Friel gives readers an exclusive look at an outlaw legend. Set against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest's evergreen islands, where Internet millionaires coexist with survivalists and ex-hippies, this is a gripping, stranger-than-fiction tale about a neglected and troubled child who outfoxed the authorities, gained a cult following, and made the world take notice.

A Mix of Murders: Fifteen Historic English Cases from the Twentieth Century


Grahame Farrell - 2012
    Researched meticulously, and possessing a clear, eloquent style, this book explores cases such as that of William Bisset, an older, well-to-do gentleman, who was given to exhibiting his wealth somewhat brashly. His murder appeared simply to be a fatal mugging, yet ever-growing factual contradictions threw the prime suspect's guilt into ever greater doubt, to the point of strengthening his defence.In the intricate case of Paul Vickers, we learn of a driven and accomplished medic, with aspirations to high political-status, and a predilection for vulnerable women. Married unhappily to a once-promising but handicapped mathematician, the doctor took numerous lovers, meeting his demise in the form of the attractive and worldly Pamela Collison. She informed the police of complicity with Vickers, and thus we discover a near-perfect murder-weapon along with counsels’ imaginative and polarising arguments during Vickers’s trial. Was Vickers the ‘new Dr. Crippen’, as Collison asserted? Farrell delivers the uneasy sense that facts and outcome were never wholly matched; read it and form your own view.In notable contrast, we find that Michael Queripel’s conviction hinged on a single and rather unusual piece of evidence, and that his murder trial was one of the very shortest in legal history – just how short is surprising – and it is through such accounts that the broad spectrum this book presents becomes apparent. Scrutinising hitherto unexplored cases, Farrell gives accounts of murder driven by poverty, disaffection, social pressures and vaunting ambition. Comparing and contrasting those all-too-human forces that motivate people to kill, this volume forms a fine addition to the library of any fan of true crime. ------------------------------------------------------------------------A review from truecrimereader.com:A Mix of Murders is an e-book released for Kindle [in May 2012] that features British murder cases from the twentieth century, from the early years of the century to the 1980s.Author and librarian Grahame Farrell covers a really interesting mix (as the title suggests) of 15 crimes. The latest crime in the book is a chapter on Kenneth Erskine, known as “The Stockwell Strangler” who murdered elderly people in South London in the 1980s. This is a particularly disturbing chapter as Erskine was simply so brutal and dangerous. His victims so vulnerable.Another intriguing case is the 1955 murder of Elizabeth Currell in the quaint and respectable commuter village of Potter’s Bar, South Hertfordshire. Mrs Currell was on her regular evening stroll on the local golf course when she was brutally attacked and murdered.I enjoyed this book because the murder cases are ones that are lesser known and have a touch of “Midsomer Murder” to them. The book is Farrell’s true crime debut and it’s definitely worth a read. ------------------------------------------------------------------------A review from capitalpunishmentuk.com:...Fascinating studies of human behaviour. Each story is well written and detailed, and progresses logically through the crime, arrest, trial to the final outcome. It was a book I enjoyed reading. ------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter Listing:The Departure of Winifred MitchellA Killing for ChristmasThe Outlaw of Bulford CampThe Clue of the Crumbs in the SuitcaseThe Man who Slept in CupboardsThe Long Arm of the BBC

Full Circle: A True Story of Murder, Lies, and Vindication


Gloria Killian - 2012
    A man dressed as a phone repairman knocked on the door of coin collector Ed Davies. Once inside, the stranger pulled a gun on Ed and his wife, Grace, handcuffed and hogtied the couple and opened the door for his partner. After filling six suitcases with silver and gold coins, they fatally shot Davies in the head twice and his wife once, then fled. Hours later, with a bullet lodged in her head, Grace crawled out to the sidewalk where a neighbor found her.Eventually the killers were found, tried and convicted of murder. Trying to get a reduced sentence, one told the prosecutor that a third year law student named Gloria Killian was the mastermind of the crime. The prosecutor went after her with zeal, and she was tried, convicted and sent to jail, all the while proclaiming she knew nothing of the crime. While in jail, she began advocating for the humane treatment and release of women in prison.Ten years later, one of the defense attorneys discovered massive exculpatory evidence, hidden documents, prosecutorial misconduct and perjury. Then Gloria Killian's own fight for freedom began.Full Circle, tells for the first time, the riveting story of a shocking murder that involves Hells Angels, misguided cops, backroom deals, profound lies and life and death sentences. Relentless, exciting and gripping, this true story shows how a life can be ruined in a split second. Finally, Full Circle makes the terrifying point that what happened to Killian can happen to anyone.

Nuestra Familia - A Broken Paradigm: John "Boxer" Mendoza's Personal Journey into a World of Deception, Betrayal and Redemption


John Mendoza - 2012
    It's an undiluted story about my own personal journey, told by me, and how I muddled away almost 20 years of my life, wallowing in this criminal cesspool. I walk you through an arcane underworld, using my own experiences, offering a comprehensive inside look into how the Nuestra Familia transforms young undeveloped minds into polished pre-disposed killing machines. It's also an open-ended description about how I rose to the top of this criminal organization and how I fell in the face of flawed politics, personal agendas, and self-serving unethical motivations. This expose exhibits how a self-delusional, naked greed and a cannibalistic organization lost sight of its purest fundamentals and entrenched itself in a heightened state of paranoia. This book is not about self-glorification or self-embellishments. The stark brutality of what took place here should serve as a de-glamorization of the gang philosophy and the perilous lifestyle I lived.

Town Without Pity


Don Hale - 2012
    Stephen Downing who was a naive seventeen year old with a reading age of eleven, worked as a gardener in the cemetery. He was taken to the police station, interrogated for nine hours without access to a solicitor and signed a confession he could not read. Forever afterwards and during his 27 years in jail he maintained his innocence, even though he was offered his freedom if only he would 'admit' his guilt. He chose to continue to suffer rather than sacrifice his principles. Many years later, Don Hale the editor of the local newspaper and a former professional footballer, was approached by Downing's parents and asked to investigate their son's claims of innocence. He began to discover fresh evidence, including new witness statements, and uncovered many other important and hidden facts, which controversially suggested a totally different version of events on the day of the murder. This new information completely contradicted the original prosecution evidence, and implied others may have been responsible. Who was the man a witness claims to have seen running away from the murder scene? Which men might have had affairs with Wendy Sewell? Everyone in the town seemed to have a theory as to who the real culprits might be. As Don Hale continued his private investigation he was threatened and attempts were made on his life. This is the story of how one man, operating on his own, fought tirelessly and courageously in order to piece together the evidence - and how his heroism eventually secured the release of Stephen Downing. The reader can follow the trail of clues and discover what the authorities want to hide.

Justice Denied: The Unsolved Murder of Peggy Reber


Michelle Gooden - 2012
    When he was done with his sadistic frenzy he threw her body on the floor of her bedroom and he simply walked away.A 5-year-old child remembered a teenage girl's smiling face on the evening news. Over thirty years later she returned to her hometown to find out what really happened to the young girl from so many years ago. The details of the crime revealed a madman walked the streets of Lebanon, Pennsylvania in 1968.Fourteen-year-old Margaret "Peggy" Lynn Reber was brutally killed on May 25,1968 in her own bedroom in an apartment she shared with her divorced and scandalous mother.The author struggles through a journey to learn how Peggy fell victim to such evil in a town where she, herself, felt so safe.There was an arrest, a trial, but no conviction and it was almost alarming to learn prosecutors didn't even bother to have the trial transcribed. They put the child's unsolved murder on a shelf to collect dust until the end of time. No transcript of a trial?That was the first in a series of oddities almost confirming Peggy Reber's justice was DENIED.Nine men provided dental impressions to be compared to a bite Peggy suffered on her breast. Peggy's boyfriend, Ray Boyer, had a key to her apartment and he was subjected to dental comparisons even though he was sitting in the city jail at the time of the crime. The defendant also had a key and he submitted a comparison that did not match the bite Peggy endured, yet he was arrested and put on trial. The remainder of those tested were never known to have keys to Peggy's home and their comparisons did not match the injury. Meanwhile, two men known to have keys to the apartment were never included in the testing during the extensive investigation following Peggy's brutal murder. Why? How could detectives overlook two men that obviously had keys to the apartment where Peggy was savagely murdered?Could it be that one was a local attorney? Were investigators so overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crime that they failed to complete the basics in an investigation, or was it something more? The author's determination to understand the life, death and unsolved murder of Peggy Reber takes on strange twists as she makes a public appeal on behalf of justice for a murdered child she never knew. After forty years the residents of the small town united in an effort to deliver the young girl respect and justice overdue. Thousands of people signed a petition requesting District Attorney David Arnold to give the young murder victim the benefit of an investigative grand jury. In 2008 and after tremendous public pressure Peggy Reber finally got another day in court. However, the undercurrent of the investigation as well as in the courtroom is far from the truth and justice owed to Peggy, and the community. The proceeding did not render an indictment, yet it silently screamed "Justice DENIED!"

One Last Kiss: The Chilling True Story of a Cheating Husband Who Murdered His Wife and Children


Michael W. Cuneo - 2012
    Unfortunately, the ministry he worked for had a no-divorce policy. So he made other plans.On May 5, 2009, Illinois police received a call from Coleman, who claimed he was unable to contact his family. When police investigated, they found Coleman’s wife and two sons strangled in bed. Across the walls, spraypainted in red, were various obscenities—the word punished among them.  Did this respected church man murder his family to be with his lover? Or was something—or someone—else more sinister afoot? Police would eventually uncover two threatening letters sent to the Coleman home, and key testimony from Chris’s mistress only complicated the criminal evidence. Coleman’s trial raged on—along with a statewide debate over the death penalty—and questions about his role in the murders remained unanswered. His fate still hangs in the balance…

Ladykiller


Donna Fielder - 2012
    But the answer wasn't really so simple...

Thirteen Girls


Mikita Brottman - 2012
    Each fictionalized narrative is based on a real victim of a serial killer, and each is told from a different perspective – a mother, a shrink, a cop, a sister – to reveal the stark afterlife of human carnage. Leveraging the emotional power of personal testimony, Mikita Brottman presents an unblinking psychological portrait of murder, a dark descent that illuminates our cultural obsession with violence and the need for “closure” that persists in the hearts and minds of those who live in its wake.Mikita Brottman takes terrifying risks but never puts a foot wrong. These stories begin with delicate precision and build stunning pace and power. This is fiction that is truer and more penetrating than the savage facts at its core.—Katherine Dunn, Author of Geek LoveA baker’s dozen of harrowing, often heartbreaking, stories—each based on a notorious real-life murder case and told in a different, utterly compelling voice—Thirteen Girls manages the improbable feat of conjuring up the full horror and emotional devastation of serial homicide by focusing exclusively on the aftermath of the crimes and those left to deal with the consequences: family members, police officers, witnesses, survivors. Known for her brilliant, provocative cultural criticism, Mikita Brottman has produced a stunning work of crime fiction–a genuine tour de force.”—Harold Schechter, Author of The Serial Killer Files

Criminal & Behavioral Profiling


Curt R. Bartol - 2012
    Designed for use in a variety of criminal justice and psychology courses, the book delves into the process of identifying distinctive behavioral tendencies, geographical locations, demographic and biographical descriptors of an offender (or offenders), and sometimes personality traits, based on characteristics of the crime. Timely literature and case studies from the rapidly growing international research in criminal profiling help students understand the best practices, major pitfalls, and psychological concepts that are key to this process.

Justice or Injustice? What Really Happens In A Jury Room


J.L. Hardee - 2012
    It involves the case of: The State of SC vs. Kimberly Renee Poole. This book isn't about the murder, or the guilt or innocence of the accused. Its about the experiences of a juror and his fight to standup for his beliefs. This book will put you right in a jury seat during this trial so that you can experience his plight.

Hands Through Stone: How Clarence Ray Allen Masterminded Murder from Behind Folsom's Prison Walls


James A. Ardaiz - 2012
    Even hardened detectives were shaken by the scene at Fran’s Market in rural Fresno County that night in 1980: four young people lay on the market’s concrete floor, bloodily murdered by a killer without mercy or remorse. Then a grim investigation became even grimmer when the evidence led to the prime suspect—a convicted murderer already behind the stone walls of Folsom. A true crime story that reads like an intricately woven mystery, the book depicts the chilling scenes of murder, a dogged investigation, and the true story behind the Fran’s Market murders and their psychopathic mastermind. Written by former prosecutor James Ardaiz, who was one of the first investigators on the scene at Fran’s Market, Hands Through Stone provides an insider’s view of the tortuous, multiyear investigation that brought a killer to justice.

Paul B. Kidd's 50 Australian Crimes of the 20th Century


Paul B. Kidd - 2012
    Now crime historian Paul B. Kidd, who has spent a lifetime researching and writing about Australia’s most terrible crimes, has taken on the unenviable task of chronicling the 50 stories he believes are the worst of the worst of the major cases in Australia’s murderous history of the 20th century. BUYER BEWAREThe true stories you will read here are beyond horror or fiction and their perpetrators, while all sane, evil beyond belief. This book will leave you wondering how human beings can do such things to each other.

Jimmy: A legacy of peace


Justin Butcher - 2012
    A few minutes later, he was dead: fatally wounded in an unprovoked attack in the local bakery, he bled to death in his brother’s arms. A popular lad, a gentle giant at 6’4, Jimmy was the thirteenth teenager to die in a fatal assault that year in London, and as calls for retribution began, his parents appealed for calm. Barry and Margaret Mizen chose to respond to Jimmy’s death by being positive. Interviewed by the media, they rejected violence and revenge. Instead, they have dedicated their lives to helping young people find a better way. This is their story – and Jimmy’s story, the story of an ordinary lad, who was much loved.

A Crossing of Paths: The True Untold Story of the Hillside Strangler Case


Ron Crisp - 2012
    I invite the reader to follow me through my investigation of the Leslie Barry murder; the trial of Art Anzures for the murder; the evidence that led me to my 3 suspects; how my investigation of the Barry murder led me to the defense of Angelo Buono in the Hillside Strangler case; and what happened in my personal life as a result of my attempts to expose the systematic cover-up in California V. Angelo Buono. The single most important clue in the case came from the statement of a 14 year old boy on the night of the Barry murder. I wasn't at the crime scene that night, but would read the statement in police reports a week and a half later. When I read it, I was astonished that the police seemed to be showing no interest in this remarkable 16 word statement from a friend of the victim. The cops ignoring evidence that could help crack a case that had baffled them for 18 months, caused me to wonder if they were so stupid they couldn't connect these two simple dots or if something more sinister was going on. A dozen books or more have been written about the Hillside Strangler case, and taking a cue from the books, screenwriters have used the case in movies and TV cop shows to lend an air of credibility to their fictitious story lines. The Irony hasn't escaped me that these writers are using a fiction to give credibility to a fiction. However, these movies and cop shows have kept the myth that Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono were the Hillside Stranglers alive. I've heard rumors that in recent years the LAPD destroyed all the evidence from their Hillside Strangler investigation. If these rumors are true, you can bet the farm that it wasn't done to save space, but to protect the guilty. I've reduce that statement by the 14 year old boy to 4 words and made it the title of this book. A Crossing of Paths is the true story of the Hillside Strangler case.

The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Washington, DC


Ron Franscell - 2012
    is the ultimate guide to the criminal history of our nation's capitol.  It reveals the darker side of the city through riveting tales from history, photos, maps, directions, and GPS coordinates for sites to visit.

The Mount Stewart Murder: A Re-Examination of the UK's Oldest Unsolved Murder Case


Chris Paton - 2012
    Three days later she was found dead in the farm kitchen, killed by multiple blows from an axe. Ploughman James Crichton was suspected of the atrocity, and after a lengthy investigation was arrested and tried in Perth, with the case duly found non-proven. Was Crichton the guilty party? If not, why did William Henderson try to frame him? Why was the previous servant on the farm sacked, and why did she wait eight months to accuse Crichton of being responsible? And what led to Henderson being driven insane, ultimately to end his days in a Perthshire lunatic asylum? The murder investigation remains the UK's oldest unsolved murder case. Just who was the killer at Mount Stewart Farm?

Standing In Death's Shadow: More True Stories from a Homicide Detective


Ken Lang - 2012
    In one innocent moment, a simple cordial act leads one on a path of jealous rage and another fighting for their life. Tempers flare, threats are exchanged, blood is shed, and the services of the homicide detectives are soon requested.In his second release, former homicide detective and award-winning author, Ken Lang, unveils the inner workings of a chaotic homicide unit. Standing In Death’s Shadows: More True Stories from a Homicide Detective is a fascinating and revealing read that throws you right into the conflict between the victims, their killers, and the detectives who are tasked to solve their murders.Ride along as the detectives are dispatched to the electric company retiree’s house for a suspicious death. Found draped over the edge of his bathtub, you’ll experience how the investigators struggled to determine the cause of death and put the pieces of the puzzle together. As you follow along with some astonishing revelations discovered during the autopsy, you’re sent on an excursion for evidence that will reveal untold truths and cost another their life.Become a detective’s shadow as they are summonsed to the scene of a bewildering apartment fire where firefighters make a grizzly discovery. With the charred remains found in a peculiar way, the family of the lone tenant prays that the authorities can make sense of their unexplainable loss. But when the detectives scour the ruined apartment and yield little for evidence, they finds themselves left with one slim chance to solve the case—and that chance requires them to race across country to beat the odds.A rare insider account of the exhilarating pace of a homicide detective’s life, Standing In Death’s Shadows: More True Stories from a Homicide Detective is a true crime adventure that thrusts you into the middle of the action and will leave you with wanting more.

Real-Life Monsters: A Psychological Examination of the Serial Murderer


Stephen J. Giannangelo - 2012
    The work addresses current issues, presents detailed commentary and personal observation, and contains photographs that will fascinate general readers interested in the subjects of true crime, serial killers, and psychopathology.The first part of the book carefully examines the research past and present regarding clinical, psychological, societal, and biological bases for violent behavior, specific to the serial murderer. Part two establishes a novel theory of the pattern of violence and then explores this hypothesis through eight case studies, interviews with serial killers, and elemental analysis. The work also contains a chapter based on conversations between the author and a convicted serial murderer.

Chopper Unchopped


Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read - 2012
    unchoppedMark Brandon "Chopper" Read is Australia's most famous standover man and one of its most prolific authors.Now, for the very first time, all eleven volumes of Chopper's memoirs are together in this special collector's edition. From his criminal youth to his time in prison to his life as a reformed man, the entire journey is here.This omnibus edition contains the following complete and unabridged books:From the Inside: Chopper 1Hits and Memories: Chopper 2How to Shoot Friends and Influence People: Chopper 3For the Term of His Unnatural Life: Chopper 4Pulp Faction: Chopper 5No Tears for a Tough Guy: Chopper 6The Singing Defective: Chopper 7The Sicilian Defence: Chopper 8The Final Cut: Chopper 9The Popcorn Gangster: Chopper 10.5Last Man Standing: Chopper 11Chopper is an icon in popular Australian culture and in the criminal underworld. Find out why in Chopper's own words.

Buckinghamshire Murders


Jonathan Oates - 2012
    Covering the length and breadth of Buckinghamshire, the featured cases include the brutal slaying of a family of seven in Denham in 1870, the killing of a butcher's wife in Victorian Sloughfor which no one was ever found guilty, an apparent suicide in Chesham which turned out to be murder, and the doctor who disappeared in 1933 and whose decomposed corpse was found in Buckinghamshire woods the following year. This well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to everyone interested in true-crime history and the shadier side of Buckinghamshire's past.

BOBBY CONVICT, School of Hard Knocks


Bobby Wilhelm - 2012
    Buy one here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A... _________________Drop the book and no one gets hurt! Ahh, so you’re a rule breaker yourself. Ok, fasten your neck brace for the roller-coaster ride of disbelief or neck-breaking laughter at the antics of a misguided youth. Grandpa Louie passed down his legacy of bootlegging, gambling and pool sharking to me, and I one-upped him by becoming the Drug Kingpin of the Northwest. I was chased by the cops as a six year old kid, a wild teenager, and a major drug trafficker. These nefarious adventures will take you through the underbelly of the drug world where you will meet notorious criminals, including 3 made Mafia members, the Spokane Serial Killer, the accused Tylenol Killer, an Aryan Brotherhood shot caller and the Oklahoma City Bomber. My domestic terrorism of drug trafficking cost me 16 years in the School of Hard Knocks (prison) and eventually saved me from myself through redemption. 97 people were interviewed for this book. Don’t believe them. They’re jealous and out to get me. I sure hope the Statute of Limitations is up or I’m screwed. According to Idaho State Police Drug Agents, Bobby was considered one of the highest level drug traffickers Idaho law enforcement ever pursued. “He was a real challenge and we enjoyed the hunt.”

Drug War The Smell of Duty


Elias Rodriguez - 2012
    It addresses the violence related to drugs and weapons trafficking. A situation that has practically created a war in Mexico. Executions, shootings, kidnapping, and extortion have become daily events. The menace gets closer to the US every day and most people don’t know or think it’s somebody else’s problem. The objective is to create awareness and deal with drug trafficking and violence in a way that can be read and discussed in a family environment.The characters represent agents and dogs of law enforcement corporations on both sides of the border. Tragedy, deception, greed, and corruption collide against friendship, hard work, family values, and lots of courage. Situations range from confronting vacuum cleaners, to confronting armed bank robbers; from tracking alley cats, to tracking cold blooded killers. Places range from the mountains of central Mexico to the San Diego Bay marinas. Add slices of humor, a pinch of love, a few drops of mythology, and an angelical touch to the recipe of the story.In the war against drugs, you are the last line of defensewww.drugwar101.com

Impossible: The Case Against Lee Harvey Oswald; Volume Two


Barry Krusch - 2012
    The author is so sure of his conclusion that he is offering $25,000 to any person who can disprove the conclusions of his book. As of this date, out of thousands who have read the book, not one has accepted the offer, including the two foremost experts on the Kennedy assassination, Professor John McAdams of Marquette University, and independent researcher David Von Pein.IMPOSSIBLE: THE CASE AGAINST LEE HARVEY OSWALD is a book in three volumes; this is the second volume.

The Humanity of Justice


Burke E. Strunky - 2012
    criminal justice system and what this means for our future.The Humanity of Justice is a procedural true-crime book told through the eyes and heart of a veteran criminal prosecutor who cares about the people he meets and their life-altering circumstances. Burke E. Strunsky, a senior deputy district attorney in southern California, takes the reader inside the courtroom for some of the most haunting criminal cases in the state as well as the nation, including: a highly respected church leader who brutally murders his wife for the insurance money while their baby sleeps peacefully in another room; a twisted father who sexually molests his daughter’s own friends at her slumber parties; a former police chief who drowns his wife of thirty years in their backyard spa; and a young man who sadistically tortures and kills a helpless three-year-old boy, yet manages to dodge the death penalty.Strunsky’s own impassioned social and moral commentary is woven throughout this thought-provoking book on issues significant to the world of criminal justice. Even in the midst of the darkest stories, the voices and courage of the victims and those who love them will leave the reader touched and inspired.100% of the proceeds from this book will be donated to The Humanity of Justice Foundation, a non-profit organization, to help prevent child abuse and neglect.

Death on the Beat: Police Officers Killed in the Line of Duty


Dick Kirby - 2012
    Even the vast majority of hardened crooks baulk at what is seen as the ultimate crime the mandatory death sentence in days of capital punishment reflected public disgust at such a crime, particularly when the police were largely unarmed.This book spans fifty years of crime enforcement and describes in detail the ever present danger to the police who patrolled London s streets and who lost their lives in the line of duty.Many of the police officers died carrying out run-of-the-mill police duties; from PC Nat Edgar, shot in 1948 by a burglar to PC Patrick Dunne, the home beat officer murdered while investigating a domestic incident in 1993; it took 13 years for his killer to be brought to justice.WPC Yvonne Fletcher was mercilessly gunned-down policing a demonstration in Central London in 1984, as was Detective Sergeant Ray Purdy, whilst arresting a cheap blackmailer. PC Ray Summers, an officer with less than two years service, stabbed to death as he broke up a gang fight, and the three-man crew of the Q car wiped out by gunmen in 1966, all feature in these pages. There are the thrilling stories of the investigations into the IRA after the murder of PC Stephen Tibble and the horrific bombing of Harrods store which cost three brave police officers their lives.Retired detective Dick Kirby has drawn deep on his knowledge and contacts within and outside the Metropolitan Police to track down those people who were there, who were involved in the investigations and those who were left behind; and how the trauma of losing a colleague or a loved one affected them.Written in his trademark gripping authoritative style, Death on the Beat, Dick Kirby s ninth book, promises to be the best yet."

Rot in Hell: Peter Dupas - the mutilating monster


Jim Main - 2012
    But none come even close to illustrating the true horror of his gruesome crimes. Dupas did not just murder Nicole Patterson and Margaret Maher but also mutilated them, while Mersina Halvagis was stabbed repeatedly while attending her grandmother’s grave.Dupas, as a young rapist, was released time and time again, only for Nicole Patterson, Margaret Maher and Mersina Halvagis later to die at his hands in stabbing and slicing frenzies. After one of his three life convictions under the order of “never to be released”, one of his victim’s mother screamed at him outside court: “Rot in hell.”This is the Dupas story, of how a quiet, pudgy schoolboy later became infamous as one of the most evil predators in Australian criminal history.

The Eastbound Strangler


M. William Phelps - 2012
    William Phelps, author of 20 books, a noted serial killer expert, explores what goes on behind-the-scenes in this unique serial killer series as he investigates and films an episode. Here, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Phelps takes readers and fans of the series deep into his personal life and a dark connection to the Eastbound Strangler case, how he feels about several suspects named by law enforcement, and shares an exclusive interview he conducted with a woman who claims she was with the Eastbound Strangler and his final victim, Kim Raffo, on the night before Kim’s body was found.What kind of serial killer removes his victims’ shoes and socks…and lays them out in a row, facing east?This is the mystery confronting M. William Phelps in the bizarre cold case of the Eastbound Strangler. In November 2006, the bodies of four women were discovered in a drainage ditch behind a row of hotels, on the fringes of Atlantic City, New Jersey. After years of intense investigation, law enforcement remains baffled by the fact the victims’ shoes were missing, and their heads were all pointing east. Three of the women were known prostitutes who worked “The Track,” a wasteland of broken dreams behind the casinos, on the dark side of Atlantic City’s famous boardwalk.Does the Eastbound Strangler have a cross to bear against women he considers “fallen?” Is there a religious basis for the eastward positioning of the bodies? And are the later murders of four prostitutes in Long Island connected?To get inside the Dark Mind of this murderer, Phelps must rely on criminal profiler John Kelly —and personal insight from Kelly’s secret source, a convicted serial killer code-named “13.” Author BioInvestigative journalist M. William Phelps, a serial killer expert, is the national bestselling, award-winning author of twenty nonfiction books, including five about serial murderers. Winner of 2008 New England Book Festival Award for I'll Be Watching You, Phelps has appeared on over 100 television shows as a crime expert, the USA Radio Network, Catholic Radio, Ava Maria Radio, ABC News Radio and Radio America, who calls him "the nation's leading authority on the mind of the female murderer." He frequently appears on the hit Investigation Discovery show "Deadly Women." He's written for the Providence Journal, Hartford Courant, the New London Day, and has been profiled in such noted publications as Writer's Digest, NY Daily News, Newsday, Albany Times-Union, Hartford Courant, Connecticut Magazine, Suspense magazine, Forensic Nursing, and the NY Post. He also consulted on the first season of the Showtime cable television series "Dexter."Beyond his non-fiction crime work, in 2008 Phelps published a highly acclaimed narrative nonfiction biography of Revolutionary War patriot Nathan Hale: NATHAN HALE: The Life and Death of America's First Spy, which was optioned for film by Warner Bros.In 1996, Phelps's pregnant sister-in-law, Diana Ferris, was savagely murdered in Hartford, Connecticut. Through his writing and work with crime victims, M. William Phelps is on an obsessive quest to not only find his sister-in-law's killer, but the reasons why people kill and what stirs inside the dark minds of serial murderers.Phelps lives in a small Connecticut farming community near the Massachusetts border.

Last Kiss: The Life and Death of Ka'tara Gallagher


Carrie-Anne O'Driscoll - 2012
    Her family knew nothing of the details of her death until 2012 when Carrie-Anne O'Driscoll, now a peace officer in Texas, obtained the case file from the Spokane Police Department. In this chilling account, O'Driscoll, relates the facts of the case through case reports, photos and statements in an effort to enlighten parents, care givers, teachers and law enforcement of the signs to watch for in the prevention of child abuse. Written with the full support of Ka'Tara's father, Dan Gallagher Jr., O'Driscoll relives all of the pain and tumult of the past in the hopes of preventing one more parent from enduring the loss that the Gallagher family experienced in 1999. A portion of proceeds will be donated through Amy and Ka'Tara's Legacy to various charities that assist with education and prevention of child abuse.

Observer: The Prison People; The Prison Experience (The Prison Trilogy, #3)


Glen Aaron - 2012
    The interesting, gripping story details prison life and unique people---real people, individuals who should not be stereotyped, but met, instead, as humans. The story is both humorous and sad, giving rise to rethinking the American criminal justice industrial complex. It is a tale that needed to be told.

Dance With the Devil


M. William Phelps - 2012
    William Phelps, author of 20 books, a noted serial killer expert, explores what goes on behind-the-scenes in this unique serial killer series as he investigates and films an episode.In August 1982, a 30-year-old woman, Jane Goodwin, was found murdered in her Newark, New Jersey apartment. Her killer had strangled Jane until she passed out. Then, reportedly, he ripped open her blouse, posed her with her breasts exposed, and repeatedly stabbed Jane in the chest. He left no fingerprints or DNA—just a shattered, grieving family.Over the next 19 years, three other women were attacked in a similar fashion. Two of them, Karen Osman (at Rutgers University in Newark) and Carmen Rodriquez (in Hartford, Connecticut) died at this monster’s hand.Police eventually caught their assailant, Edwin “Ned” Snelgrove, a promising college grad with an uncontrollable desire to hurt women. Ned was jailed. Yet while serving a 20-year sentence, he developed a twisted obsession with one very sick hero—infamous serial murderer Ted Bundy, a man he wrote about extensively in his prison letters to a friend. Ned studied the notorious killer, looked up to him. And as Ned festered in prison, waiting for the day he was to be cut loose, he decided he would be better than Bundy when he got out and started killing once again.After getting out of prison in 1999, Ned committed another murder and was sentenced to 60 years—which was when M. William Phelps stepped in and decided to stage the ultimate coup: get Ned to admit to Jane Goodwin’s murder nearly 30 years before. But as Phelps plays cat and mouse with this cunning psychopath, sometimes it’s hard to tell who is the puppet and who is the master. As he gets in deeper, Phelps turns to criminal profiler John Kelly, who has managed to keep a killer on the line for ten years— Dark Minds consultant extraordinaire, the incarcerated serial murderer code-named 13.In this e-book, Phelps takes readers into the twisted world of his crazy relationship with serial murderer Ned Snelgrove, the subject of Phelps’s award-winning book, “I’ll Be Watching You.” Will Phelps learn how to use a killer to catch a killer—or has he been controlled and manipulated by a truly Dark Mind?Read the e-book and decide!Author BioInvestigative journalist M. William Phelps, a serial killer expert, is the national bestselling, award-winning author of twenty nonfiction books, including five about serial murderers. Winner of 2008 New England Book Festival Award for I'll Be Watching You, Phelps has appeared on "The View," "The Today Show, "GMA," and over 100 additional television shows as a crime expert, the USA Radio Network, Catholic Radio, Ava Maria Radio, ABC News Radio and Radio America, who calls him "the nation's leading authority on the mind of the female murderer." He frequently appears on the hit Investigation Discovery show "Deadly Women." He's written for the Providence Journal, Hartford Courant, the New London Day, and has been profiled in such noted publications as Writer's Digest, NY Daily News, Newsday, Albany Times-Union, Hartford Courant, Connecticut Magazine, Suspense magazine, Forensic Nursing, and the NY Post.

In Another Life (Roger Mackay)


W.D. James - 2012
    In Mackay’s own words, his quest for an epic sandwich leads to an adventure with this woman that leaves him questioning coincidence, time and ultimately, whether he can change what was and will be.Mackay’s story blends police work, a relationship and murdered friends with a chance for a new beginning or a dead end in the story of his life. Can Mackay change what should happen or is it even possible to change the path a person takes in life?Roger Mackay invites the reader along as he is forced to make choices that could mean life or death in a world he knows too well and not at all, In Another Life.

Ferritto: An Assassin Scorned


Susan Ferritto - 2012
    Legendary mobster, Ray Ferritto's widow takes you back in time to tell you about the infamous Cleveland Gang Wars and the bombing death of Danny 'The Irishman' Greene.

Murdering The Mom


Duff Brenna - 2012
    In his memoir, Murdering the Mom, award-winning novelist Duff Brenna elevates the obscene to the sublime. He takes all the materials of hardship and abuse during an unhappy childhood and sculpts it into art, into something transcendent. This is a heart-rending memoir that exceeds the expectations one normally has of a memoir, that is, it reads like a captivating novel.

Case #1: The Mary Ellen Wilson Files


Eric A. Shelman - 2012
    In New York of the same year, it was the widely publicized case of Mary Ellen Wilson—a nine-year-old girl who had been a prisoner in her tenement home, enduring unimaginable cruelty—that was the first to draw national and worldwide attention to both the social issue of child abuse and to the notion that children are entitled to humane treatment. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) founder Henry Bergh and his attorney, Elbridge T. Gerry, intervened on behalf of the abused little girl. Following this case, the first child protection agency was founded: the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.This examination of the child abuse case begins with a look at Mary Ellen Wilson’s life and provides background on the events surrounding the case. It draws upon—and reproduces within the text—numerous primary sources. Mary Ellen’s famous court testimony, queries urging Henry Bergh’s ASPCA to continue work on behalf of children, articles describing the courtroom scene, pleas from Mary Ellen’s family appealing for her custody and published documentation of the trial itself are all offered here for the first time. The extensive amounts of newspaper coverage, family letters, judicial orders and court transcripts presented in this work chronicle the historical case and its effects which have since provided hope for millions of abused and neglected children.

South Carolina Killers: Crimes of Passion (True Crime)


Rita Y. Shuler - 2012
    In 1903, the lieutenant governor of South Carolina shot dead a local newspaper editor, in full view of witnesses. In 1944, George Stinney was marched to the electric chair at age fourteen. In 1994, a mother made national news pleading for the return of her kidnapped sons, when in truth she had driven them to a watery grave herself. Jones spares no chilling detail in describing each of these crimes; all make for fascinating and terrifying reading.

Inside Out: Based on a True Crime


Doc Holloway - 2012
    When his partner in Homicide Division pulls the plug and retires, Detective Overture decides to ease up himself and transfers to White Collar Crime. Or so he thinks. When two police officers are murdered during an Election Year and the Mayor wants his best detective on the job, Overture's transfer is rescinded. Back on Homicide, the killings are not just front page news. They are his responsibility to solve-and fast. Paired with a new partner, Leo Lapaka, Detective Overture dives head-first into the case, only to discover nothing is what it seems. The further they go, the more Overture realizes the murders are not an isolated incident, and the trail gets deadlier with every step they take. Pursuing their invisible killer leads the two detectives on a riveting, non-stop race against time, from the urban jungle to rural forests, local taverns to mega truck stops, a military base to local junk yards-and from a foster home to the Mayor's own office. What began with two murders grows into a case of theft, greed, and corruption at the highest levels.

Fisher's Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation, First International Edition


William J. Tilstone - 2012
    Now for the first time, commissioned authors working out of the United Kingdom and Denmark present Fisher s Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation First International Edition the latest edition of a classic volume, now oriented specifically to an international audience.Maintaining the same format as the U.S. editions, the book focuses on international procedures, laws, and cases. The book s three-part structure highlights the importance of approaching the topic from three consecutive perspectives. The first is that crime scene investigation is a sub-discipline of forensic science, and thus the first section, entirely new to this edition, explores the forensic process and the basic principles and practices of crime scene investigation.The second perspective is that crime scene investigation is about identifying and recovering different forms of evidence, each with its own methods for identification, recovery, and analysis. To that end, the book discusses trace and impression evidence, establishing personal identity, forensic biology, and evidence associated with firearms, arson, and explosions.Lastly, crime scene investigation is ultimately about describing the location, modus operandi, time frame and sequence of events, identity of persons involved, and motive for different types of crime. Highlighting this focus, the final section presents chapters on the investigation of various crime scenarios, including those involving illicit drugs, sexual assault, burglary, motor vehicles, and homicide. The book closes with new appendices exploring the cutting-edge world of digital evidence.Enhanced with hundreds of diagrams and color photos of actual crime scenes, this volume combines time-tested procedures with an international scope to provide an essential resource for investigators in Europe, Australasia, and Canada charged with solving crimes and bringing offenders to justice. William Tilstone talks about the book on the CRC Press YouTube Channel."

The Homicidal Handyman of Oak Park: Morris Solomon Jr.: The Sexual Crimes & Serial Murders of Morris Solomon Jr.


Tony Ray Harvey - 2012
    Nevertheless, the obscured story of handyman Morris Solomon Jr. has to be one of the most interesting tales untold as it is one of the most horrific yarns in the annals of American crime. The handyman's misdeeds, when briefly brought to the public's attention, virtually reminded society that killers continuously come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Solomon was convicted of killing six young women, ages 16 to 29, in the Sacramento, California, neighborhood of Oak Park between 1986 and 1987. The handyman's grisly method of murder left detectives and medical examiners mystified. The identification process of his victims' remains was distinctly a laborious assignment, too. The victims -drug addicts, prostitutes, and devout mothers - were stuffed in closets, hidden under debris, and arguably, one court judge strongly considers, buried alive. In retrospect, the handyman was first accused of murder in the mid-1970s; and authorities suspect him to be linked to four more homicides in Sacramento. Solomon - once declared as a "Mentally Disordered Sex Offender"- is now on death row in Northern California's San Quentin State Prison awaiting execution. The unassuming handyman's 18-year reign of terror includes a record of sexual assaults, attempted kidnappings, and separate despicable sex acts performed strictly for humiliation. In The Homicidal Handyman of Oak Park: Morris Solomon Jr., author and journalist Tony Ray Harvey recounts the black serial killer's dysfunctional upbringing, atrocious crimes, and hardly noticeable court trial. Harvey's book also provides explicit crime scene photos, the history of the death penalty system in the state of California, the city of Sacramento's drug culture in the mid-1980s, and exclusive prison interviews of the mild-mannered handyman.

Nothing This Evil Ever Dies: The Letters Son of Sam Never Wanted You to See


M. William Phelps - 2012
    William Phelps asks: Did Son of Sam have an intimate, homosexual relationship with a fellow (serial killer) inmate while in prison? Was Sam’s real name Richard Falco? Has Son of Sam—who claimed in 2011 that he does not want to seek parole because he has been “freed” by Jesus Christ—been perpetrating a fraud with his supposed “salvation”? In quoted excerpts from these exclusive letters written by Son of Sam to serial killer Gary Evans, a deeper, more interesting and eccentric psychopath emerges. For the first time, serial killer expert and star of the hit Investigation Discovery series DARK MINDS, M. William Phelps explores how Son and Sam and serial killer Gary Evans (from Phelps’s bestseller Every Move You Make) became best friends while doing time together in a New York state prison.If you thought you knew Son of Sam, think again. These letters—written during a period when Sam claims he was undergoing a born-again experience—prove that for the serial killer manipulation, fantasy and pathological lying drive their emotions. Son of Sam is described as “a likeable guy, really. . . . [he] never talked about the killings. I used to kid him that he should’ve shot … rapists instead and he’d laugh. I had a brief look at that new book about him, The Ultimate Evil, by Maury Terry, and the author was claiming [Sam] was with a satanic cult and he had proof. I asked Dave about it and he laughed it off.” Finally, the real Son of Sam is exposed!Author BiographySERIAL KILLER EXPERT, star of the hit Investigation Discovery series DARK MINDS and acclaimed investigative journalist M. William Phelps is the national bestselling, award-winning author of 21 nonfiction books. Winner of 2008 New England Book Festival Award for "I'll Be Watching You," Phelps has made over 100 television appearances, including CBS's "Early Show," "The Today Show," "The View," "Fox & Friends," truTV, Discovery Channel, Fox News Channel, ABC's "Good Morning America," Learning Channel, Biography Channel, History Channel, Oxygen, OWN, and others. He's been on USA Radio Network, Catholic Radio, Mancow, Wall Street Journal Radio, Zac Daniel, Ava Maria Radio, ABC News Radio, and Radio America, who calls him "the nation's leading authority on the mind of the female murderer." He's written for numerous publications and consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series "Dexter."Created by Phelps, the concept for the TV series DARK MINDS is unique. Phelps engages the services of preeminent serial killer profiler John Kelly (Fellow of the American Board of Forensic Examiners and president of S.T.A.L.K., Inc.), and one very special guest each week: a bona fide serial killer behind bars code-named "13". Together, they hope to shed new light on unsolved, cold serial killer cases.Cover design by Claudia OlsenExcerpt:Chapter OneSerial killers are my life. That obsession, if you’ll allow me the term, began with my first book, Perfect Poison. It went into overdrive while I was working on and finishing a second serial killer book, and I was introduced to an aspect of Son of Sam’s life and character I thought I’d never, for the life of me, find inside a cardboard box left collecting dust in an upstate New York basement.It started on one of those cold New England winter mornings.

Fetal Abduction: The True Story of Multiple Personalities and Murder


Anne Speckhard - 2012
    It is also the story of Lara, a psychopathic killer who abducted another woman s fetus, killing both mother and baby.Unbeknownst to Annette, Lara is a part of her: a dissociative identity, or split personality, formed to help Annette deal with the sexual abuse she endured as a child. Highly protective and driven to act solely in Annette's interests with no regard for the consequences to others, Lara lacks the moral judgment and remorse of a fully-developed personality. It is she who saw Annette's desire for and inability to have another baby and plotted to cut one from another woman's belly to give to her.Lara confessed in gruesome detail. Annette, entirely amnesic throughout the course of events, has no recollection of the behavior Lara carried out. Dr. Anne Speckhard's jail interviews with Annette and Lara offer a fascinating glimpse inside a woman torn in two. Dr. Speckhard's analysis of Annette's behavior and her treatment once in police custody beg the questions: How do you separate the guilty from the innocent when they share the same body? and when is it acceptable to violate one's rights in the interest of public safety? Annette's story brings Dissociative Identity Disorder and the shortcomings of the American justice system to shocking light.

From the Inside: Chopper 1


Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read - 2012
    This is it. Chopper: From The Inside became a best-seller on its release in 1991, spawning a series of books that have today sold over 500,000 copies around the world. Chopper also inspired an acclaimed feature film, countless art and stage shows and, in 2018, the major Channel Nine TV series Underbelly: Chopper. From The Inside is the first shot in the Chopper canon - written from his gaol cell and laced with the brutal humour that made this Australian crime commando a true legend of the underworld.

Secret Witness: The Untold Story of the 1967 Bombing in Marshall, Michigan


Blaine Lee Pardoe - 2012
    For citizens of Marshall, Michigan, that moment came August 18, 1967. Nola Puyear was working downtown at the Tasty Cafe that morning when she received a package. She opened it and was instantly killed in a fiery explosion.In the months that followed, law enforcement and prosecutors wrestled with a crime that to all appearances was senseless. Evidence recovered from the blown-up restaurant, including a bottle of pills that had been tainted with lye, suggested a concerted plot to murder Mrs. Puyear. But why had someone wanted to kill the well-liked woman, by all accounts a pillar of her close-knit community? For that matter, was Marshall really the quaint paradise it seemed to be?Secret Witness brings to light startling new evidence and freshly uncovered facts to address these and other questions that, to this day, surround one of Michigan's most brutal murders. Based on extensive interviews with surviving prosecutors, police, and witnesses, Blaine Pardoe re-creates the investigation that pried into Marshall's dark underbelly and uncovered the seamy private lives led by some of the town's citizenry but led to only tenuous theories about the bombing. The book also examines the pivotal role played by the Secret Witness program, an initiative by the Detroit News that offered rewards for anonymous tips related to violent crimes. What's ultimately revealed is the true depth of evil that occurred in Marshall that day. Every small town has dirty little secrets. This time, they were deadly.

Murder and Mayhem: 52 Crimes That Shocked Early California 1849-1949


Michael Thomas Barry - 2012
    Told through shocking newspaper headlines of the time, these 52 stories include the exploits and dastardly deeds of infamous bandits, Joaquin Murrieta, Juan Flores, and Tiburcio Vasquez. Experience the poetic adventures of the most famous stagecoach robber, Black Bart, the murderous rampages of fiends, such as John Anschlag, Mose Gibson, Leon Soeder, Theodore Durrant, and the infamous Black Widow, Louise Peete. Also discussed are a treasure trove of unsolved murders including the notorious Black Dahlia slaying, the killing of mobster Bugsy Siegel, and the San Diego Slayer case. These true tales come to life with dozens of rare photographs. Sit back and relax as the darker side of the Golden State is explored.

Caversham Lock


Michael Stewart Conway - 2012
    They investigate at breakneck speed- it is 1896, after all, and they have all the advantages of the modern world to help them. Using microscopes, the rail network and the telegraph, they identify the culprits- a Mrs Dyer and her daughter, Polly. Even as they close in, Mrs Dyer has been back to Caversham Lock with another victim. By the time the two women are arrested there are seven little bodies in the mortuary at Reading. Each has Mrs Dyer’s trademark white dressmaker’s tape around its neck. The case doesn't work out as planned, however, and they're forced to travel to the west country. Despite being under strict orders to return to Reading, they set an ambush on the Clifton Suspension Bridge. But a storm is rolling in, and there is another man in Bristol – a man from the Home Office sent to clean up his superiors’ mistakes.

Wild Colonial Boys: Tall Tales and True Australian Bushrangers


Geoff Hocking - 2012
    It takes the reader on a chronological journey from the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 to the tormented years of Port Arthur and Norfolk Island, and on to the saga of the last of the fighting and defiant Irishmen, Ned Kelly. Includes more than 200 photographs, engravings and items of ephemera. A revised and totally redesigned classic which includes the full version of Ned Kelly's Jerilderie Letter and features a brand new chapter on the bushranger myth in the 21st century. This is pictorial history at its finest.

The Little Book of Vintage Combat


Tim Pilcher - 2012
    Stuffed with kitsch art from classic Fifties comics, they will amaze the reader whether they are searching for supernatural thrills, nostalgic romance or thrilling battles, and the appealing mini format makes them an irresistible impulse buy.   Each book has a fascinating introduction to the featured genre, and every one contains complete strips, text stories, unusual adverts and mind-blowing covers. As an added bonus, each book has a free fridge magnet, making them the perfect quirky gift, either individually or as a whole set!

Daughter in the Dungeon: The Horrific True Story of Joseph Fritzl


Nigel Cawthorne - 2012
    On the 29th of August, 1984, Josef Fritzl beckoned his 18-year old daughter to the cellar, telling her he needed help installing a door. The door, as it turned out, was the last piece to an intricate, escape-proof cell, Fritzl had spent years planning and building. And Elizabeth was the intended victim. What played out over the next 24 years was a haunting and tragic story that ended with Elizabeth and seven children, sired by Josef himself, eking out an existence in the dark confines of a dungeon.

Mafia: The Final Secrets: The Last Confessions of a Mob Godfather


Bill Bonanno - 2012
    Bill is widely recognised as the historical basis for Michael Corleone's character in the Godfather trilogy, and in this revelatory final testament he ushers readers in to that cloistered world, from its origins in Sicilian and Italian history to its rise, tumultuous peak and precipitous fall in America.Mafia: The Final Secrets is the ultimate insider's last word on one of the most secretive and misunderstood phenomena of our time.

Weirdo Mosher Freak


Catherine Smyth - 2012
    In a brutal assault in a Bacup Park in Lancashire in 2007 her boyfriend, Rob Maltby, was also kicked and punched senseless. This is an exclusive insight into the crime by the first journalist on the scene Catherine Smyth. A mother too, her book provides is a documentary of what happened from a media and a parent perspective. It details the attack, facts about the town where it happened, the court case and mass media interest and the launch of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. It also uncovers some anomalies. The police admitted initially attending the wrong park; the ambulance service has yet to explain why it took 14 minutes for first paramedics to reach the scene just a mile away.A third of profits benefit the work of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

It Happened to Audrey: A Terrifying Journey From Loving Mom to Accused Baby Killer


Jill Wellington - 2012
    An infant died in her care at the same time the unknown science of Shaken Baby Syndrome hit the media. Swept up in a media frenzy, Edmunds was accused of killing the child through SBS. She was stripped from her children and husband and sent to prison where she would fight for freedom 13 years before she was finally exonerated after updated science showed her innocence. Audrey was and is an all-American mother from the Heartland who shares her story of hope and redemption in the face of unrelenting odds. Built as the ideal reader's club book, It Happened to Audrey includes questions that challenge all readers to think of the possibilities in today's ever-changing world. Edmunds is ultimately released from prison in the middle of a blizzard and reunited with her now grown children.

Drowning In My Tears


Alexa Keating - 2012
    They would be returned to their master and their chosen home. Hell had broken loose, quietly and without fanfare. The distant sound of the unleashed deadly hounds in pursuit began to pound, a steady, deadly beat that portended their coming arrival. Like a ticker tape on Broadway, the number of participants began to fill the pages of the black book of hell. Unbeknown to them, in very short order they would all be rejoined as the deadly hounds completed their mission of reclaiming this evil. These hounds never failed. And in hell, the master awaited their return.

Forensics by the Stars: Astrology Investigates


B.D. Salerno - 2012
    With the use of planetary positions, houses, fixed stars and Arabic parts, forensic astrology gives investigators a head-start in discovering valuable information that can hasten crime solving.In Forensics by the Stars, author B. D. Salerno, an astrologer for more than twenty years, provides insight into the fascinating world of solving crimes and understanding both natural and manmade disasters by applying astrological science to interpreting event charts and revealing the clues they contain.Providing interesting insights, Forensics by the Stars analyzes the murder of Marilyn Monroe, the Lindbergh kidnapping, several missing persons cases, and a number of natural and manmade disasters. Salerno explains how to interpret the event horoscopes and astrologic charts to help understand the outcome of certain events. Like threads of carpeting, blood spatter, or fingerprints, forensic astrology can reveal an astonishing amount of detail about an event.

"Rich Georgian Strangely Shot": Eugene Grace, "Daisy of the Leopard Spots" and the Great Atlanta Shooting of 1912


Tom Hughes - 2012
    Daisy Grace, his flashily dressed Yankee wife from Philadelphia, was soon arrested on a charge of assault with intent to murder. Gene Grace was left paralyzed but, more importantly, he was powerless legally. Under Georgia law, he could not testify against his wife. Prosecutors were forced to rely instead upon the circumstantial evidence of an alleged diabolical plot. The Atlanta newspapers--led by the Georgian, under the very new control of Mr. Hearst, that giant of yellow journalism--covered the case relentlessly. Papers across the country followed the drama for months, which concluded with a five-day trial held in the searing heat of a Georgia summer. This is the never-before-told story of the tragic romance between the Adonis of a country town and the woman known to all as Daisy of the Leopard Spots.

Terrorist Attacks on American Soil: From the Civil War Era to the Present


J. Michael Martinez - 2012
    Because the topic is large and complex, Terrorists Attacks on American Soil: From the Civil War to the Present does not claim to be an exhaustive history of terrorism or the definitive account of how and why terrorists do what they do. Instead, this book takes a representative sampling of the most horrific terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in an effort to understand the context in which they occurred and the lessons that can be learned from these events.

Under the Isles of Shoals: Archaeology Discovery on Smuttynose Island


J. Dennis Robinson - 2012
    

Little Girl Lost: The True Story of The Vandling Murder


Tammy Mal - 2012
    But when Mae’s beaten and mutilated corpse was found the next day in an abandoned house, her throat slashed and her face battered beyond recognition, the small town of Vandling was thrust into one of the most intensive police investigations in the history of Pennsylvania.The murder sent shock waves through the small town and surrounding area, holding residents hostage in the grips of a paralyzing fear. Who could have committed such a brutal crime against a child who was walking home from church? What kind of animal would discard a little girl like nothing more than trash?As police doggedly investigated the horrific murder, long before the use of DNA, computers, or modern forensic science, one key piece of evidence would lead them to 13-year-old Myron Semunchick. Brilliant, good looking, and extremely popular, Myron projected the image of the all American boy. He was also a cunning killer who murdered sadistically and almost got away with it.Little Girl Lost is the true story of one of the most notorious crimes in history. A case that made headlines across the United States and into Canada, it is also the story of the youngest person ever charged with 1st degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in the state of Pennsylvania.

Ultimate Prey: The True Story of the Yosemite Sightseer Murders


Stephen M. Sanzeri - 2012
    Law enforcement had the right guys from the beginning, so what in the hell happened?The stories of the murdered women - Carole and Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso, and Joie Armstrong – did not end with their horrifying murders in 1999. For five years, Stephen Sanzeri, former police officer, private investigator, and bounty hunter, has investigated their tragic deaths. What he found includes: drug trafficking, child porn, white supremacy, sexual molestation, rape, and extreme violence originating in Central Valley California and stretching into the Foothills. Connections to the “Modesto Cranksters” and documented law enforcement corruption (Read “The Last Circle by Cheri Seymour”) have led Sanzeri to some startling conclusions. Even the recent 2012 arrest of Phinas “Orb” Hatton - a retired Narcotics Officer and an important character in the story – complicates the picture.The Yosemite Sightseer Murders contain unfortunate and disturbing parallels to Calaveras County Murderers Charles Ng and Leonard Lake, as well as to the grisly Speed Freak Killers Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog. These psychotic killers did not act alone. After reading Ultimate Prey, you will be convinced that Cary Stayner did not act alone either.Now, for the first time, the real story is finally being told.

Murder and Mayhem in the Napa Valley


Todd L. Shulman - 2012
    Some crimes were committed over debts, some for retribution and others in the name of love. Famed photographer Eadweard Muybridge killed a man for seducing his wife but was acquitted. Other criminals were not so lucky and met the gallows, like murderer William Roe, the state's final public execution. From the Pomo massacre--the first criminal case heard by the California Supreme Court--to the cold cases that continue to haunt the region, Napa Police Detective Todd Shulman decants the crimes of the Napa Valley, memorializing the victims and honoring the efforts of local law enforcement.

The Dead Soul


M. William Phelps - 2012
    Turning the pages—and they move quickly—you can hear Phelps’s serial killer in this book breathing in your ear.”—Gregg Olsen, New York Times bestselling author of “Fear Collector” and “Victim Six”In this first novel, serial killer expert, star of Investigation Discovery’s hit series DARK MINDS, author of twenty-three books, M. William Phelps takes readers into the twisted world of “the Optimist,” a sadistic serial killer—based on Phelps’s ten years of research and writing about serial killers—bent on not only terrorizing his young female victims, leaving their naked bodies along Boston’s Freedom Trail, but also driving Detective Jake “Sundance” Cooper to the edge of insanity as the cop fights to redeem his imploding career. Through an investigation revealing the true madness and evil of this killer, Jake’s mentor, Detective Mo Blackhall, is on the verge of being indicted for his role in a Big Dig corruption scandal, putting Jake at the center of choosing blue blood loyalty over the truth. Strap yourself in and prepare for a thrill ride of suspense, mystery and police procedural drama, with a captivating and honest look at the underbelly of Boston’s mean streets, driven by a cast of characters reminiscent of Dennis Lehane’s greatest fiction.“Read the first page of “THE DEAD SOUL” and you won't stop. … Phelps’s narrative grabs you by the lapels and doesn’t let go.”—John Lutz, New York Times bestselling author

Starmaker


Jay Bernstein - 2012
    For nearly 50 years, Jay Bernstein was a Hollywood fixture, owning one of the most powerful PR firms in Hollywood, making stars of Farrah Fawcett and Suzanne Somers, and producing dozens of television films and series.Future Hollywood insider Jay Bernstein was born outside – way outside – Tinseltown, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on June 7, 1937. But Bernstein, helped by his pals the Rat Pack, eventually found his way from the mailrooms of Hollywood to owning a top agency that represented over 600 A-List stars in the ’60s and ’70s. Bernstein’s creative PR stunts made him as famous as his clients, such as paying women to throw hotel keys at Tom Jones and having Entertainment Tonight host Mary Hart’s legs insured by Lloyd’s of London for one million dollars.Bernstein died, with Farrah Fawcett by his side, in 2006 after suffering a stroke. Starmaker is Bernstein’s own behind-the-scenes look at his life – the life of an outrageous Hollywood personality, and the stars who surrounded him. It is a true Hollywood memoir, written in Bernstein’s voice by his closest confidante Larry Cortez Hamm.

Lies Told Under Oath: The Puzzling Story of the Pfanschmidt Murders and of the Surviving Son-Victim or Villain?


Beth Lane - 2012
    He was convicted by the press long before trial. In Lies Told Under Oath, author Beth Lane retells the story of the murders, the trial, the verdict, and the aftermath.Using information culled from actual trial transcripts and newspaper accounts, Lane presents the day-to-day testimony as Ray's battle for his life surged through three courtrooms-the drama complicated by brilliant attorneys, allegations of perjury, charges of rigged evidence, jailhouse informants, legal loopholes, conflict over the large estate being inherited by the alleged murderer, and appeals to the state supreme court. The remaining family became divided over Ray's guilt while his fianc e staunchly stood by him."Lies Told Under Oath" provides a fascinating, historical account of the times and the people-when science was in its infancy, telephones meant shared party lines, bloody evidence was contested (or contrived), and automobiles competed with bloodhounds and buggies. It captures the essence of an emotional crime that rocked this small Illinois community.

The Devil's Cinema: The Untold Story Behind Mark Twitchell's Kill Room


Steve Lillebuen - 2012
    He was never seen again. Two weeks before Altinger's disappearance, independent filmmaker Mark Twitchell began shooting a low-budget horror film about a serial killer who impersonates a woman on an online dating website to lure his victims to their gruesome deaths. But these are just the starting points of the stranger-than-fiction case of Mark Twitchell, a man with a startling plan to turn his life-long love of fantasy and desire for fame into reality:- Did Twitchell, in a horrific example of life imitating art, act out the grisly premise of his own script?- Obsessed with Dexter, the popular TV show and book series about a fictional vigilante serial killer, Twitchell assumed Dexter Morgan's profile on Facebook. But how far did he intend to take his fascination with Dexter?- Is the shocking document "S.K. Confessions" a graphic work of fiction that, as Twitchell claims, he wrote to promote his film? Or is it a diary he kept of his transformation into a killer, and proof that the police stopped a prolific serial killer at the very beginning?Veteran journalist Steve Lillebuen provides a gripping investigative account of the nesting doll intricacies of the case, plunging us into the world of pop culture fanaticism and into the mind of a self-professed psychopath. Drawing on extensive interviews, Lillebuen illuminates what can happen when some of our culture's darkest obsessions are pushed to extremes.

Legacy of Evil


Troy Taylor - 2012
    a look at the dark side of women from the lingering ghosts of women who kill -- or have been killed. Veering between the worlds of the supernatural and true crime, each book will take readers on a horrifying journey in the minds and hearts of darkness. HELL HATH NO FURY 1: LEGACY OF EVILTHE MYSTERY AND MADNESS OF DELPHINE LALAURIE In 1800s New Orleans, there existed a house in the French Quarter that was known simply as "The Haunted House." No further description was needed for local residents. They knew exactly what house was being talked about -- the Lalaurie Mansion. The dark tales of the house dated back to April 1834, when a fire broke out and revealed the madness of the home's owner, Delphine Lalaurie, the daughter of one of the city's most prominent Creole families. The horror uncovered in the house's attic, shocked the city and created a legend that has endured for more than two centuries. The cruelty and sadistic nature of Madame Lalaurie left an indelible impression on her fomer home and the city of New Orleans, where her name is still whispered today. Author Troy Taylor, who has a number of books about New Orleans among his many works, uncovers the true story of Delphine Lalaurie, her connections to New Orleans and the story behind the terrible events that occurred in 1834. With new research, newspapers and accounts at his disposal, he reveals more about the Lalauries in this new book than he has ever written before. Read this one with the lights on!

Scavengers: A True Story of Money, Madness and murder


Dick Cady - 2012
    Did the Jackson family grocery-chain fortune carry a curse? The money contributed to the mental illness of the heir and his wife, lured 24 people into crime, brought about two murders, and led two men to the electric chair.

British Executions - Volume Four 1916 to 1920


John J. Eddleston - 2012
    Covers 63 executions including Roger David Casement, Thomas McGuiness, Louis Voisin, Henry Perry and Henry Thomas Gaskin who committed, arguably, one of the most brutal murders of the twentieth century.Over 77,000 words and 13 illustrations.

Vial 023: A Father's Pursuit of Justice


Gary Cross - 2012
    Medicine would make it all manageable. But the Crosses did not know the shots they were giving Brad for his condition carried a deadly virus. As AIDS began to dominate the headlines, Gary started to doubt the doctors' assurances that everything was OK with Brad's treatment. And his demand for answers brought to light disturbing revelations: Thousands of hemophiliacs like Brad had been infected with HIV because the blood used for their clotting factor injections came from high-risk donor groups. While caring for his ailing son, Gary embarked on a campaign for justice for Brad and the thousands like him. His efforts took him from the courtrooms to the steps of the Capitol in Washington D.C. The Crosses' heartbreaking personal story was broadcast nationally on CBS' "60 Minutes." After more than a decade, Gary's crusade ended not in court or in government chambers but in a Los Angeles hotel, where with other leaders in the hemophilia community he brokered a remarkable peace settlement with the pharmaceutical companies whose products had killed. This is his story.

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths around Worcester


Anne Bradford - 2012
    This cathedral city has been the setting for a series of horrific, bloody, sometimes bizarre incidents over the centuries. From crimes of brutal premeditation to crimes born of passion or despair, the whole range of human weakness and wickedness is represented here. There are tales of forgery and betrayal, highway robbery and murder, riots and repression, public executions and instances of extraordinary domestic cruelty and malice that ended in death. The human dramas the author describe are often played out in the most commonplace of circumstances, but others are so odd as to be stranger than fiction. This grisly chronicle of the hidden history of Worcester will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the dark side of human nature.

Victimology: The Essentials


Leah E. Daigle - 2012
    Renowned author and researcher Leah E. Daigle expertly relays the history and development of the field of Victimology, the extent to which and why people are victimized, how the Criminal Justice system and other social services interact with victims and each other, and information about specific types of victimization, including contemporary issues such as stalking, hate crimes, human trafficking, terrorism, and more.

Murders of London: In the steps of the capital’s killers


David Long - 2012
    What drove Joe Meek, pop's space-age pioneer, to attack his landlady? When did Ruth Ellis conceive of her plan to shoot her lover dead? How did Dennis Nilsen escape detection for so long? What emerges is an intriguing and enigmatic picture of London's underworld: a dark, frightening, yet strangely thrilling place.

The Mafia: First-Hand Accounts From Inside The Mob


Nigel Cawthorne - 2012
    

The Unholy Ghost Murder


J.B. Smith - 2012
    

Who Killed Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler


Peter Butt - 2012
    Adding to the mystery was the strange manner in which their bodies were covered. Thus began the enormous surge of conspiracy theories and public mistrust.Growing up several minutes from the crime scene and obsessed with the case, author Peter Butt gives the most up-to-date, detailed investigation so far. His groundbreaking revelations into the mystery are exclusive to this book and include details such as: why both the original investigation and the Coronial Inquest failed the victims; the suppression of evidence concerning the private worlds of Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler; new revelations regarding the identity of the person who covered the bodies; the mysterious contents of an FBI file on the case and why one of the key players in the story was an ASIO agent.

Missing Pieces: The Swedish Tourists' Murders


Ian Wishart - 2012
    Missing Pieces retraces their steps as investigative journalist and bestselling author Ian Wishart unravels the story in the first-ever book published about this enduring murder mystery. Was convicted killer and sex offender David Tamihere really responsible for their deaths, or was he a quick and easy solution to a difficult and politically-charged case that captured headlines across Australia, New Zealand and Sweden? Discover the new evidence for yourself in this gripping page-turner.

Crucial errors in murder investigations


Ted Duhs - 2012
    Just what that is, is investigated in this book.To minimise the prospect of future errors, we need both to scrutinise past cases where errors have been revealed, and to investigate police training procedures with a view to uncovering any errors of omission or commission, to see what scope there is for improvements.Each of us has good reason to take an interest in such matters, since any one of us could be a victim if we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact all of us are victims to the extent that some guilty parties continue to walk free on our streets, and as taxpayers all of us fund the additional costs of dealing with crime, including the sizeable compensation payments that are made to those whose wrongful convictions are quashed.This book deals with instructive cases which continue to agitate the public mind, and makes practical suggestions for improved procedures.

Legal Executions in Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma Including the Indian Territory: A Comprehensive Registry


R. Michael Wilson - 2012
    

Murder as a Fine Art; The English Mail-Coach


Thomas De Quincey - 2012
    Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1887. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... reaching home noticed anything decisively alarming. In very many cities bells are the main instruments for communicating between the street and the interior of houses, but in London knockers prevail. At Marr's there was both a knocker and a bell. Mary rang, and at the same time very gently knobked. She had no fear of disturbing her master or mistress; them she made sure of finding still up. Her anxiety was for the baby, who being disturbed might again rob her mistress of a night's rest. And she well knew that with three people all anxiously awaiting her return, and by this time perhaps seriously uneasy at her delay, the least audible whisper from herself would in a moment bring one of them to the door. Yet how is this? To her astonishment, but with the astonishment came creeping over her an icy horror, no stir nor murmur was heard ascending from the kitchen. At this moment came back upon her with shuddering anguish the indistinct image of the stranger in the loose dark coat, whom she had seen stealing along under the shadowy lamp-light, and too certainly watching her master's motions. Keenly she now reproached herself that, under whatever siress of hurry, she had not acquainted Mr. Marr with the suspicious appearances. Poor girl she did not then know that if this communication could have availed to put Marr upon his guard it had reached him from another quarter; so that her own omission, which had in reality arisen under her hurry to execute her master's commission, could not be charged with any bad consequences. But all such reflections this way or that were swallowed up at this point in overmastering panic. That her double summons could have been unnoticed--this solitary fact in one moment made a revelation of horror. One person might have fallen asl...

The Hollywood Scandal Almanac: 12 Months of Sinister, Salacious and Senseless History!


Jerry Roberts - 2012
    This book provides 365 daily doses of high and low crimes, fraud and deceit, culled from Tinseltown's checkered past.Whether it's the exploits of silent-era star Fatty Arbuckle, the midcentury misdeeds of Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, or the modern excesses of Lindsay Lohan, this calendar of Hollywood transgressions has a sensational true tale for every day of the year. It's an entertaining and sometimes shocking trip down memory lane filled with sneaky affairs, box-office bombs, and careers cut short--sometimes by murder. It shows that the drama doesn't end when the credits roll.

Mistress of the Con


John McCabe - 2012
    The reader is taken along a journey as she creates a fantasy life that includes being the sister of real-life supermodel Kathy Ireland. She also claimed to be the niece of billionaire Donald Trump, as well as others. Courts have since granted cease-and-desist orders to Trump, Ireland, actor Michael J. Fox, football legend Roman Gabriel and movie director John Ireland against her.Early in the story, we learn how Shannon hired professional bodyguard and powerlifter Jay Soulia to protect her from her hordes of adoring fans and jealous competitors. This would prove to be her biggest mistake. As Shannon, along with help from her cousin Frank Kohlrus and her British agent, Janet Bandy assembles her self-named “Dream Team” of photographers, make-up artists and lighting specialists, Jay Soulia and limo driver Jason Angle wonder why they have yet to be paid.After Jay leaves Shannon’s “employment,” he goes to Denver to begin Private Eye training. After successfully completing his training and returning to Colorado Springs, he learns that the situation between Shannon and his workout buddies at the gym (to whom he introduced Shannon) had turned violent in his absence. In order to stop the escalating violence between the two camps, Jay offers to investigate Shannon and find out who she really is… and what games she was playing. He discovers a truth so shocking and surreal that many of Shannon’s victims refuse to believe it to this very day.So, who are Shannon’s victims? There were literally thousands of victims; here are some of those who made it into the story.Dr. Joseph Merrick: A neurosurgeon who was never happy with his marriage. Dr. Merrick became one of Shannon’s “sugar daddies.”Tom Powers: Tom unwittingly becomes Shannon’s other “sugar daddy” who, like Dr. Merrick, finds out the hard way what has happened to him once he gets his credit card statements. Also like Dr. Merrick, Shannon was well-prepared for Powers to discover that she’s a crook. By threatening Tom with rape allegations, he stays quiet.The “Dream Team:” Most members of Shannon’s crew were also her victims. Some came home from exotic shoot locations to find out that they were suddenly penniless. Other victims include a calendar company that sponsored a couple of Shannon’s bikini shoots on tropical islands and two credit unions, even a prom date whose life she destroyed just for fun.So who was this con artist? Take a look at our free preview to get a glimpse!

Chastity's Desire (Chastity #2)


Daiza Daniels - 2012
    William fulfills her each and every desire, whether it be in his bedroom, his office, or a public restroom. She's even decided to go to college locally to be near him. An invitation to play basketball for a private college and a scholarship to go along with it disrupts their plans. It's a dream come true, but is it worth the risk of losing her lover?(This is the second installment in the Chastity series.)

Prison Secrets: The Untold Truths about One of Americas Notorious Murderers


Eugene L. Weems - 2012
    Once recognized as a ruthless killer and remorseless criminal, Lyle Menendez remains housed in a maximum security correctional facility with other notorious murderers and gang members. In this level 4 maximum security prison, even one of America's most notorious murderers could be victimized. This novel will unlock the doors to all the prison secrets; weapons manufacturing, drug smuggling, prison rapes, gang politics, officer corruption and much, much more. This book is used by state and federal officials for training purposes.