This isn't an exact science, of course. Any given murder can have multiple triggers. Sex and revenge seem to be common partners in crime. Rage, money, and revenge make for a dangerous trifecta of triggers, as well.This book offers my memories of homicide cases that I investigated or oversaw. In each case, I examine the trigger that led to death. I chose this theme for the book because even though the why of a murder case may not be critical in an investigation, it can sometimes lead us to the killer.And even if we solve a case without knowing the trigger, the why still intrigues us, disrupting our dreams and lingering in our minds, perhaps because each of us fears the demons that lie within our own psyche-the triggers waiting to be pulled.

    DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE? is an in-depth exploration of the Gein family and what led to the creation of the necrophile who haunted the dreams of 1950s America and inspired such films as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs. Painstakingly researched and illustrated, Schechter and Powell's true-crime graphic novel takes the Gein story out of the realms of exploitation and gives the reader a fact-based dramatization of these tragic, psychotic and heartbreaking events. Because, in this case, the truth needs no embellishment to be horrifying.

    Riots were erupting across the city as citizens demanded justice for Freddie Gray, a twenty-five-year-old black man who died in police custody. At the same time, drug and violent crime were once again surging.For years, Sgt Wayne Jenkins and his team of plain-clothed officers - the Gun Trace Task Force - were the city's lauded and decorated heroes. But all the while they had been skimming from the drug busts they made, pocketing thousands in cash found in private homes and planting fake evidence to throw Internal Affairs off their scent. Because who would believe the dealers, the smugglers or people who had simply been going about their daily business over the word of the city's elite task force?Now, in light of their spectacular trial of late 2018, and in a work of astounding reportage and painstaking self-discovery, Justin Fenton has pieced together a shocking story of systemic corruption.

    Gwen Adshead provides fresh and surprising insights into violence and the mind. Through a collaboration with coauthor Eileen Horne, Dr. Adshead brings her extraordinary career to life in a series of unflinching portraits. Alongside doctor and patient, we discover what human cruelty, ranging from serial homicide to stalking, arson or sexual offending, means to perpetrators, experiencing first-hand how minds can change when the people some might label as “evil” are able to take responsibility for their life stories and get to know their own minds. With outcomes ranging from hope to despair, from denial to recovery, these men and women are revealed in all their complexity and shared humanity.

    Six weeks later they ordered their first microphones and the rest is history. From the hosts of the hit podcast RedHanded (dubbed by Anna Paquin as her “all- time favorite true crime podcast”), Bala and Maguire have amassed a cult following of “spooky bitches.”What is it about killers, cults, and cannibals that capture our imaginations even as they terrify and disturb us? Do we find these stories endlessly and equally compelling and frightening, because they hold up a mirror to society’s failings and to the horrors that we humans are capable of? RedHanded rejects the outdated narrative of killers as monsters and that a victim “was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Instead, it dissects the stories of killers in a way that challenges perceptions and asks the hard questions about society, gender, poverty, culture, and even our politics.With their trademark humor, research on real-life cases, and unflinching analysis of what makes a criminal, Bala and Maguire take you through what drives the most extreme of human behavior to find out once and for all: what makes a killer tick?

    

    Brown recounts her uncompromising and risky investigation of Jeffrey Epstein's underage sex trafficking operation, and the explosive reporting for the Miami Herald that finally brought him to justice while exposing the powerful people and broken system that protected him.For many years, billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's penchant for teenage girls was an open secret in the high society of Palm Beach, Florida and Upper East Side, Manhattan. Charged in 2008 with soliciting prostitution from minors, Epstein was treated with unheard of leniency, dictating the terms of his non-prosecution. The media virtually ignored the failures of the criminal justice system, and Epstein's friends and business partners brushed the allegations aside. But when in 2017 the U.S Attorney who approved Epstein's plea deal, Alexander Acosta, was chosen by President Trump as Labor Secretary, reporter Julie K. Brown was compelled to ask questions.Despite her editor's skepticism that she could add a new dimension to a known story, Brown determined that her goal would be to track down the victims themselves. Poring over thousands of redacted court documents, traveling across the country and chasing down information in difficulty and sometimes dangerous circumstances, Brown tracked down dozens of  Epstein's victims, now young women struggling to reclaim their lives after the trauma and shame they had endured.Brown's resulting three-part series in the Miami Herald was one of the most explosive news stories of the decade, revealing how Epstein ran a global sex trafficking pyramid scheme with impunity for years, targeting vulnerable teens, often from fractured homes and then turning them into recruiters. The outrage led to Epstein's arrest, the disappearance and eventual arrest of his closest accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and the resignation of Acosta. The financier's mysterious suicide in a New York City  jail cell prompted wild speculation about the secrets he took to the grave-and whether his death was intentional or the result of foul play.Tracking Epstein’s evolution from a college dropout to  one of the most successful financiers in the country—whose associates included Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and Bill Clinton—Perversion of Justice builds on Brown's original award-winning series, showing the power of truth, the value of local reportage and the tenacity of one woman in the face of the  deep-seated corruption of powerful men.

    We’re going to make you a new life.’ From petty shoplifter to gangland empress.From frightened runaway to proud mother.From drug dealer to probation worker.Janice Nix lived a life of crime. Groomed to work as a shoplifter in London’s West End, she entered a glamorous underworld of beautiful possessions – and drugs. As she rose to the top of her criminal empire, Janice achieved the money and status her family had never had. But one day, it had to come tumbling down.Several prison stretches later, Janice was reformed – and inspired to join the probation service. Using everything she learned in her years on the streets, she’s devoted her life to ensure girls like her don’t make the same mistakes.This is her story.

    Armed men bound and drugged them, then abducted Denise. Warned not to call the police or Denise would be killed. Aaron agonized about what to do. Finally he put his trust in law enforcement and dialed 911. But instead of searching for Denise, the police accused Aaron of her murder. His story, they told him, was just unbelievable. When Denise was released alive, the police turned their fire on her, dubbing her the "real-life 'Gone Girl'" who had faked her own kidnapping.In Victim F, Aaron and Denise recount the horrific ordeal that almost cost them everything. Like too many victims of sexual violence, they were dismissed, disbelieved, and dragged through the mud. With no one to rely on except each other, they took on the victim blaming, harassment, misogyny, and abuse of power running rife in the criminal justice system. Their story is, in the end, a love story, but one that sheds necessary light on sexual assault and the abuse by law enforcement that all too frequently compounds crime victims' suffering.

    With reported cases of sexual assault and homicide on the rise, the FBI created a specialized team—the “Mindhunters” better known as the Behavioral Science Unit—to track down the country's most dangerous criminals. And yet narrowing down a seemingly infinite list of potential suspects seemed daunting at best and impossible at worst—until Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess stepped on the scene.In A Killer By Design, Burgess reveals how her pioneering research on sexual assault and trauma caught the attention of the FBI, and steered her right into the middle of a chilling serial murder investigation in Nebraska. Over the course of the next two decades, she helped the budding unit identify, interview, and track down dozens of notoriously violent offenders, including Ed Kemper ("The Co-Ed Killer"), Dennis Rader ("("BTK"), Henry Wallace ("The Taco Bell Strangler"), Jon Barry Simonis ("The Ski-Mask Rapist"), and many others. As one of the first women trailblazers within the FBI’s hallowed halls, Burgess knew many were expecting her to crack under pressure and recoil in horror—but she was determined to protect future victims at any cost. This book pulls us directly into the investigations as she experienced them, interweaving never-before-seen interview transcripts and crime scene drawings alongside her own vivid recollections to provide unprecedented insight into the minds of deranged criminals and the victims they left behind. Along the way, Burgess also paints a revealing portrait of a formidable institution on the brink of a seismic scientific and cultural reckoning—and the men forced to reconsider everything they thought they knew about crime.Haunting, heartfelt, and deeply human, A Killer By Design forces us to confront the age-old question that has long plagued our criminal justice system: “What drives someone to kill, and how can we stop them?”

    On the dimly lit path beside the university's ice hockey arena, a stranger emerged from the darkness. The brutal sexual assault and strangulation that followed rocked the campus and the local community to its core.When Katy was declared brain-dead three days later, her family's nightmare had only just begun.Terry Connelly soon learned details about her daughter's death that would make her blood boil. From the bungling campus guards who could have stopped the murder, to mistakes by others that allowed the killer to wander the streets committing violence, Katy's mother became certain of one thing: The criminal justice system only meant justice for the criminals.A STRANGER KILLED KATY is the true story of a life cut tragically short, and of the fight by a grieving mother and others more than 30 years later to ensure that a killer would spend the rest of his life behind bars.

    Having conquered Wall Street, she was eager to build a family with her much younger husband, promising Ivy League graduate Rod Covlin. But when his hidden vices surfaced, marital harmony gave way to a merciless divorce. Rod had long depended on Shele's income to fund his tastes for high stakes backgammon and infidelity—and she finally vowed to sever him from her will. In late December 2009, Shele made an appointment with her lawyer to block him from her millions. She would never make it to that meeting.Two days later, on New Year’s Eve, Shele was found dead in the bathtub of her Upper West Side apartment. Police ruled it an accident, and Shele’s deeply Orthodox Jewish family quickly buried her without an autopsy on religious grounds. Rod had a clear path to his ex-wife's fortune, but suspicions about her death lingered. As the two families warred over custody of Shele’s children—and their inheritance—Rod concocted a series of increasingly demented schemes, even plotting to kill his own parents, to secure the treasure. And as investigators closed in, Rod committed a final, desperate act to frame his own daughter for her mother’s death.Journalists Rebecca Rosenberg and Selim Algar reconstruct the ten years that passed between the day Shele was found dead and the day her killer faced justice in this riveting account of how one man’s irrepressible greed devolved into obsession, manipulation, and murder.

    However, the Crown Prosecution Service refused to charge him, citing a lack of evidence.High-profile searches were conducted, yet Suzy’s body was never found; the trail that might lead investigators to her, long since lost.Haunted by another missing person case, investigator and former Scotland Yard detective, David Videcette, has spent five years painstakingly reinvestigating Suzy’s cold case disappearance.Through a series of incredible new witness interviews and fresh groundbreaking analysis, he uncovers piece by piece what happened to Suzy and why the case was never solved.People don't just disappear...

    What happens to them is beyond your most terrifying nightmares.You’re History: The discovery of a human skull panics a killer into a confession. Perhaps he should have waited for the coroner’s report.Cold-Blooded: Karen was the former wife of an American icon. But celebrity is no shield against a determined psychopath.The Janitor: When a preteen girl goes missing from a school, suspicion falls on the one person all of the female students are wary of – the creepy janitor.A Bullet for Your Broken Heart: Roy Joe had been dealt many tribulations in his life. None of them, though, was as bad as Carolyn.The Other Ripper: For years, Joan was thought to be a victim of Britain’s most notorious slayer. Her killer turned out to be a different psychopath entirely.Young Blood: Two teenagers meet up for a moonlight tryst in an abandoned building. One of them won’t make it out alive.Neighborhood Monster: It was a simple errand, a quick run to the store in a safe neighborhood. It should not have cost a little girl her life.Plus 10 more horrific true murder cases. Scroll up to grab a copy of Cold Cases: Solved Volume 1.

    But when the cab arrived, she'd already gone.Sarah was never seen again.Four months later, on June 9, 1996, 23-year-old Jane Rimmer disappeared from the same area, her body later found in bushland south of Perth. When the body of a third young woman, 27-year-old Ciara Glennon, was found north of the city, having vanished from Claremont in August 1997, it was clear a serial killer was on the loose, and an entire city lived in fear he would strike again.A massive manhunt focused first on taxi drivers, then the outspoken local mayor and a quiet public servant. However, almost 20 years later, Australia's longest and most expensive investigation had failed to make an arrest, until forensic evidence linked the murders to two previous attacks - and an unlikely suspect.Stalking Claremont, by local newsman Bret Christian, is a riveting story of promising young lives cut short, a city in panic, an investigation fraught by oversights and red herrings, and a surprising twist that absolutely no one saw coming.

    

    Dr Percy Bateman, the incompetent GP whose violent disregard for his patient changed the law on manslaughter. Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in England in the 1950s, played a crucial role in changes to the law around provocation in murder cases. And Archibald Kinloch, the deranged Scottish aristocrat whose fratricidal frenzy paved the way for the defence of diminished responsibility. These, and many more, are the people – victims, killers, lawyers and judges, who unwittingly shaped the history of that most grisly and storied of laws.Join lawyer and writer Kate Morgan on a dark and macabre journey as she explores the strange stories and mysterious cases that have contributed to UK murder law. The big corporate killers; the vengeful spouses; the sloppy doctors; the abused partners; the shoddy employers; each story a crime and each crime a precedent that has contributed to the law’s dark, murky and, at times, shocking standing

    

    The stories in this book represent humanity at its absolute worst. Pure evil. Television crime shows and news articles often skip the messy parts of true crime stories. The details are just too much for the average viewer or reader.In my books, however, I don’t leave out the details. I go through hours of research for each story. I search through old newspaper articles, court documents, first-hand descriptions, and autopsy reports. In my books I include details not to shock, but to give the reader a deeper look into the twisted mind of the killer. In the end, it’s unlikely any of us will understand the motive of the criminals in these books, but the level of depravity will at least keep you turning pages.That being said, if you are overly squeamish with the details of true crime, this book may not be for you. If you’re okay with it… then let’s proceed.Volume 6 features: longer stories, more photos, a bonus chapter, and an online appendix with additional photos, videos, and documents.Volume 6 of True Crime Case Histories features twelve new stories from the past several decades.

    But Marie McCourt has spent 31 years yearning to do just that. On 9th February, her 22-year-old daughter, Helen, left her office in Liverpool city centre and began her usual commute home. But she was never seen again. . .Within days. local pub landlord Ian Simms was identified as her murderer. Despite Helen's body not being found, a mass of incontrovertible DNA and witness evidence at his trial 12 months later resulted in a life sentence.Simms has refused to disclose the whereabouts of Helen's body, meaning Marie and her family have never been able to get closure. They've never had a grave at which they can pay their respects.For the last 30 years, Marie has fought to find her daughter's body and stop other families facing the same horrifying fate. Her tenacity has meant that Helen's Law - 'no body, no parole' - is due to be passed into law.This is the incredible story of the crushing devastation of a mother, callously taunted by her daughter's murderer, who found the strength and determination to change the law.

    He kidnapped, raped and killed six children and teenagers in a single month. While the previous missing children had been treated like runaways, there was now no question that somebody was abducting children in the Lower Mainland area, and the media went berserk.The police immediately came under scrutiny for failing to connect the previous disappearances. The missing person cases were passed to homicide detectives, and a whole new investigation began. The police were now hunting a serial killer and Clifford Olson Junior was one of the main suspects.From the age of seventeen, Clifford Olson Junior spent only 1,501 days outside of prison or jail. If his claims are to be believed, he averaged about one murder every ten days. During his imprisonment, he was assessed on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, a tool designed to evaluate psychopathy. The standard threshold is 25-30. He scored a 38 out of 40, the highest rating ever recorded.The Beast is a chilling account of Clifford Olson Junior and one of the most disturbing true crime stories in Canada’s history. Ryan Green’s riveting narrative draws the reader into the real-live horror experienced by the victims and has all the elements of a classic thriller.CAUTION: This book contains descriptive accounts of torture, abuse and violence. If you are especially sensitive to this material, it might be advisable not to read any further.

    For four intense days, the prisoners held the guards hostage while their leaders negotiated with a citizens' committee of journalists and lawyers, drawing attention to the dehumanizing realities of their incarceration, including overcrowding, harsh punishment and extreme isolation. But when another group of convicts turned their pent-up rage towards some of the weakest prisoners, tensions inside the old stone walls erupted, with tragic consequences. As heavily armed soldiers prepared to regain control of the prison through a full military assault, the inmates were finally forced to surrender.Murder on the Inside tells the harrowing story of a prison in crisis against the backdrop of a pivotal moment in the history of human rights. Occurring just months before the uprising at Attica Prison, the Kingston riot has remained largely undocumented, and few have known the details--yet the tense drama chronicled here is more relevant today than ever. A gripping account of the standoff and the efforts for justice and reform it inspired, Murder on the Inside is essential reading for our times.Includes 24 pages of photographs.

    You will be disgusted and amazed.'Graham Young, confessing his crimes to detectivesThere are few criminal cases more astonishing yet less well-known than that of Graham Young. A quintessentially British crime story, it involves two sensational trials, murders both certain and probable, a clutch of forgiving relatives, and scores of surviving victims.A Passion for Poison tells the absorbing life of master poisoner, Graham Young, who killed many tens of people in a murderous career, which began as a 13 year-old schoolboy in a North-west London suburb, with the murder of his step-mother in 1960 before culminating in four further life sentences in 1971.Best-selling true crime writer, Carol Ann Lee takes the reader on an extraordinary journey through suburban streets with which we are all familiar, but where the commonplace - dull, even - soon becomes oppressively sinister. Set against the backdrop of modern Britain, from post-war austerity to the gloom and glam of the 1970s, it sheds light on a rapidly changing society and a gruesome British true crime story.

    

    Part memoir, part police procedural, and part true crime anthology, Death as a Living reveals the inside world of homicide and death investigation—the triumph, tragedy, humor, and truly bizarre situations one finds when working that beat.For more than thirty years, involving more than one thousand cases, Burke has worked as a death investigator—first with the Dayton, Ohio police department, then with a county coroner’s office. In Death as a Living, he shares his tricks of the trade: how detectives solve cases, what they look for, the importance of forensic science, and the irreplaceable value of instinct.Along the way, Burke offers humorous trial anecdotes, thoughts on race and policing, stories about the fatal toll stress took on fellow officers, and, perhaps most movingly, details about the three fatal shootings of police officers—one of them one of his first friends at the department, another the son of his sergeant—that shaped his career.

    

    

    Contained within these pages, is his story. It is a story that will horrify the non criminal mind and lay bare, how Massey unwittingly became the architect of his own demise. Massey was not the only casualty of a toxic feud that had ignited between two Salford gangs following the most trivial of disputes. John Kinsella, a close friend of Massey's, was gunned down in front of his pregnant partner. A seven-year-old boy and his mother were shot, a hand grenade was hurled through the front window of a family home, an attempt was made to behead a man with a machete and an orgy of beatings, stabbings, kidnappings and shootings were carried out in the name of respect. In today's underworld, the old school criminal code has been confined to the bin. Being known as a hard man, once demanded respect, but no more. Guns, and having the mindset to use one, often for little or no reason, has become the norm. Drugs are the currency and death often the penalty for a discrepancy or misdemeanour. It is an unforgiving world that Paul Massey helped to create and a world, that ultimately resulted in his death.

    A true story about a homicide, an old Cape Cod motel, a rare blood disorder, the wreck of the Titanic, a geodesic dome, and two pandemics over time.

    They held the stench of a cover-up. She recruited an investigative reporter to help unearth the truth and exonerate Gary Thibodeau, the man convicted in the 1994 kidnapping and murder of 18-year-old Heidi Allen.Scrapped: Justice and a Teen Informant exposes the underbelly of a system built more for finality than justice. It's the true story of Peebles' pursuit of new evidence against three new suspects and her discovery that Heidi had lived a double life: convenience store cashier and undercover informant. The sheriff's office hid the truth after her death as the real killers roamed free. Peebles became a de facto prosecutor to prove their guilt and Gary's innocence. As Heidi's family stood by the sheriff, her remains were likely secreted right under their noses - probably inside a scrapped van and shipped to a car shredder in Canada.

    The more secretive those connections are, the more exclusive you feel. Little did you know, you just joined a cult.Sex trafficking. Self-help coaching. Forced labor. Mentorship. Multi-level marketing. Gaslighting. Investigative journalist Sarah Berman explores the shocking practices of NXIVM, a global organization run by Keith Raniere and his high-profile enablers (Seagram heir Clare Bronfman; Smallville actor Allison Mack; Battlestar Galactica actor Nicki Clyne). Through the accounts of central NXIVM figures, Berman unravels how young women seeking creative coaching and networking opportunities found themselves blackmailed, literally branded, near-starved, and enslaved. With the help of the Bronfman fortune, Raniere built a wall of silence around these abuses, leveraging the legal system to go after enemies and whistleblowers.Don't Call It a Cult shows that these abuses looked very different from the inside, where young women initially received mentorship and protection. Don't Call It a Cult is a riveting account of NXIVM's rise to power, its ability to evade prosecution for decades, and the investigation that finally revealed its dark secrets to the world. It explores why so many were drawn to its message of empowerment yet could not recognize its manipulative and harmful leader for what he was—a criminal.

    In the spring of 2016, as immigration debates rocked the United States, three men in a militia group known as the Crusaders grew aggravated over one Kansas town’s growing Somali community. They decided that complaining about their new neighbors and threatening them directly wasn’t enough. The men plotted to bomb a mosque, aiming to kill hundreds and inspire other attacks against Muslims in America. But they would wait until after the presidential election so that their actions wouldn’t hurt Donald Trump’s chances of winning. An FBI informant befriended the three men, acting as law enforcement’s eyes and ears for eight months. His secretly taped conversations with the militia were pivotal in obstructing their plans and were a linchpin in the resulting trial and convictions for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.White Hot Hate tells the riveting true story of an averted case of domestic terrorism in one of the most remote towns in the U.S., not far from the infamous town where Capote’s In Cold Blood was set. In the gripping details of this foiled scheme, the chilling, immediate threat of domestic terrorism—and racist anxiety in America— is writ large.

    Little did he know that he would soon be delving into the dark mind of one of America's most notorious serial killers, the "Milwaukee Cannibal" Jeffrey Dahmer.As the media clamored for details, Kennedy spent the next six weeks, sixteen hours a day, locked in an interrogation room with Dahmer. There the 31-year-old killer described in lurid detail how he lured seventeen young men to his apartment where he strangled, sexually assaulted, dismembered, and in some cases, cannibalized his victims.In GRILLING DAHMER: The Interrogation of "The Milwaukee Cannibal" the reader is taken on a horrifying tour into the mind of evil as Kennedy patiently, meticulously, listened to unspeakable horrors so that a monster would be taken off the streets forever.

    These innovations can help prove someone committed a crime, or didn't. Real-life footage has cleared people initially accused of wrongdoing, and in certain instances even implicated officers. But that same type of footage can also be used to clear police falsely accused of misdeeds. From allegations of harassment or bias to false arrests or even criminal conduct, these videos can prove officers did not cross a line as sometimes they are alleged to have done. Breaking Blue is the first book that shares real stories of cops accused of wrongdoing and subsequently cleared. Charges may have been brought against them, Internal Affairs may have started an investigation, but in many cases, thanks to the officer’s body cam or dashcam videos, the true story came to light, with charges ultimately dismissed or initial convictions overturned. Sergeant Sean “Sticks” Larkin of the Tulsa Police Department Gang Unit and host of A&E show Live PD, presents real stories of officers falsely accused. . .. including his own.  Now, we can finally get both sides of the story for citizens and the police officers hired to serve and protect.

    

    

    The true crime short stories within this three book collection are unimaginably gruesome.I start all of my True Crime books with a quick word of warning. Most news articles and television true crime shows skim over the vile details of truly horrible crimes. In my books I don’t gloss over the facts, regardless of how disgusting they may be. I try to give my readers a clear and accurate description on just how demented the killers really were. I do my best not to leave anything out. The stories included in these books are not for the squeamish.What you are about to read are Volumes 4, 5, and 6 of the True Crimes Case Histories Series. The stories in this collection will make you realize just how fragile the human mind can be.

    For over a decade, gossip swirled around northern Utah that a secretive group of religious zealots were buying up homes to take over a developing neighborhood in an Ogden community. The homes were known far and wide for their immaculately landscaped yards. Rumors spread that a well known landscaper in the city had proclaimed himself to be a prophet of God and was being commanded to start his own secret religion that promoted polygamy. It was also believed these extremists were stockpiling weapons as part of their doomsday beliefs. In reality, the leader was directing some of the most repugnant crimes against women and children ever seen in the state. The hidden atrocities of the cult may never have been discovered if not for the courage of one of its members. Thirty years later, the victims reconnected with each other and with the lead investigator to address the shortcomings of the criminal justice system regarding child victims.

    That lethal assignment brought the undercover operation to an end in March 2015, and the resulting string of high-profile arrests eviscerated the criminal organization.Giovanni’s Ring is not simply a chronicle of Giovanni Rocco’s adventures in the murky and dangerous Mafia world he inhabited, but also a fascinating window into the psychological struggles that such a life inevitably entails.“Rocco conveys the frustrations of his double life poignantly throughout this revelatory read, a captivating true-crime thriller from start to finish and a new gem for Mafia book fans.” —Booklist

    When Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabbed an acquaintance to death with a five-inch folding knife, Johnson presented one of the most shocking legal defenses in history: not guilty by virtue of demonic possession. As the press put it, “the Devil made me do it.”Johnson’s shocking story began months earlier, when his girlfriend’s eleven-year-old brother, David, encountered a spectral figure looming at the foot of the bed and then started showing telltale signs of demonic possession. David suddenly spoke in Latin, levitated, and suffered beatings at the hands of an invisible demon. After a team of Catholic priests failed to drive the demon out, the case was taken up by Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens had fought demons across the globe, but the Connecticut Devil would be one of their greatest challenges, and perhaps their most deadly.Now includes an 8-page photo insert documenting the possession featuring images from the Glatzel family and the Ed and Lorraine Warren collection.

    There was not a single doubt in her mind. Yet for 27 years Houser walked free.But Renee wouldn’t rest until he was convicted for murder.THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE is equal parts the story of a monstrous killer, a harrowing look at domestic violence, and an inspirational story of a family that wouldn’t quit until justice prevailed.

    

    Christmas was coming to Saxonburg, Pennsylvania—a quaint borough of just 1,300—in three short weeks. The winter air was crisp. Colored lights sparkled on houses. He was only a block and a half from the Police Department, and this was just an average traffic stop.Until it wasn’t.The devoted husband and father of two little boys was about to meet any law enforcement officer’s nightmare. Moments later, he would lay dying in a pool of his own blood on that white winter snow, while his killer vanished like an apparition into thin air.Despite his many aliases, the true identity of the murderer was quickly found. The killer himself, was not. As State Police and FBI investigators peeled back the twisted layers of low-level mobster Donald Webb’s life, the path to the killer would wind through decades … toward a shocking conclusion. After all, secrets can only be kept for so long.

    The boy is kept manacled in a pit, chained to a tree, and locked in a closet. The perps—a career bank robber, a petty thief, and his nineteen-year-old never-been-in-trouble Mormon wife—quickly become the targets of the biggest manhunt in Northwest history. The caper plays out like a Hollywood thriller with countless twists and improbable developments. Perhaps the most astonishing thing of all, though, is how it all ends.

    In 1994, an aspiring young cold case investigator in California’s East Bay, Paul Holes, puts aside trying to solve the Golden State Killer case as he waits for science to catch up. Paul returns to an old file cabinet at the back of the forensic lab to look for another cold case he can work - something with DNA. He finds one. The 1978 murder of a married mother who went for a morning jog in a nearby park. The original investigators believed that a serial killer named Phillip Hughes was responsible; they just couldn’t prove it. But Hughes was headed to prison for three other local homicides, all because of an unexpected break in those cases. Without it, Hughes might have gotten away with everything. In the years since though, as Hughes sat in prison, so did his secrets. And now he’s coming up for parole. In a race against time, Paul commits to solving the 1978 cold case before Hughes is let out. The victim’s family needs an answer. And, if Paul can prove that Hughes is the killer, he’ll use it as leverage to force Hughes to confess to everything else he may have done. Little does Paul know, however, that the 1978 cold case he opens will take an unexpected turn, lead to other cases and killers he never knew about and haunt him for his entire career. It turns out that the small towns of Contra Costa County were home to a more sinister history than anyone had imagined. But the clues didn’t disappear. They just needed the right person, at the right time, to see them.

    Inside the house, they were confronted with a scene from a nightmare.The thick black smoke was rising from a series of wood-burning stoves throughout the property that were stocked with human remains. In the basement, they discovered a furnace with larger body parts and a pit filled with quicklime and decay. There were suitcases full of the deceased’s belongings, and in the other rooms, they came upon something like a factory line of bodies. This was not mere murder – it was methodical processing of corpses.The homeowner was Dr. Marcel Petiot, an admired and charismatic physician. When questioned, Dr. Petiot claimed that he was a part of the Resistance and the bodies they discovered belonged to Nazi collaborators that he killed for the cause. The French Police, resentful of Nazi occupation and confused by a rational alternative, allowed him to leave.Was the respected Doctor a clandestine hero fighting for national liberty or a deviant using dire domestic circumstances to his advantage? One thing is for certain, the Police and the Nazis both wanted to get their hands on Dr. Marcel Petiot to find out the truth.Doctor Satan is a chilling account of Dr. Marcel Petiot and one of the most disturbing true crime stories in French history. Ryan Green’s riveting narrative draws the reader into the real-live horror experienced by the victims and has all the elements of a classic thriller.CAUTION: This book contains descriptive accounts of torture, abuse and violence. If you are especially sensitive to this material, it might be advisable not to read any further.

    Sixteen minutes later, firefighters had extinguished the blaze, only to reveal a room burned so severely, everything was virtually unrecognizable. Then, they were told to look for a baby. What they discovered looked more like a monster from a horror film. The small skull had been incinerated, and the legs and arms were nothing more than charred stumps. The only identifiable human feature was the baby's genitals, covered in what remained of his diaper.Two people were home at the time the fire broke out: the newborn's parents.The arson squad declared the fire suspicious and the homeowner's insurance company hired investigators, who determined the fire to indeed be arson. The prosecutor wanted to dismiss the case, but the arson unit had a newly appointed prosecutor who refused to do so.Was it arson? What was the motive? Along with the tenacious and determined Detective Leslie Van Buskirk, Diane Marger Moore persisted for more than two years to find the truth and get justice for Baby Matthew Wise.

    Theysearched for, found, and photographed the lifeless bodiesof their client’s victims and then kept it secret. They didso in the face of unendurable pressure from theauthorities and the victims’ families, who suspected thelawyers knew more than they were saying.When the American public eventually learned of thelawyers’ actions, they were horrified, outraged, andvengeful. People could not fathom how two attorneys—fathers of teenage girls themselves—and supposedofficers of the law, could conduct themselves in amanner seemingly beyond any concept of humanity.Today, this landmark legal case is studied and analyzedin law schools worldwide.These events have been indelibly marked in Tracy’s mindsince he was eight years old; in fact, he was present atthe scene of New York state’s largest manhunt after thekiller broke into Tracy’s father’s hunting camp in theAdirondack Mountains. In Sworn to Silence, Tracyweaves together a true crime narrative that should rankwith some of the most compelling American crime storiesof modern times. He does so while taking you—thereader—on a page-turning journey back to the early1970s, unveiling an American serial killer most peoplehave never heard of.

    

    

    By the time she met John Michael Meehan online, she lived through a near-fatal childhood illness, an attempted rape in her 20s, the traumatic death of her sister at the hands of her brother-in-law, four failed marriages, and a litany of dating disasters. But despite those tragedies, she seemed to have it all: adoring children, a successful business, a fabulous penthouse apartment.But there was something missing: the blinding, all-consuming love she first read about to occupy her time in her childhood sickbed. And she thought she found it with John Meehan.More than a tabloid-ready true-crime expose, Debra’s story is one of trauma, denial, and deception. But it is also a relatable, inspirational, and hopeful story of forgiveness and, most of all, love. The lengths to which a woman will go to find—and keep—love; the boundaries children and parents cross to protect and save the people they love; the love one must find for oneself; and the ways the illusion of love can be used to manipulate and hurt.Told in Debra’s words with the help of New York Times bestselling author M. William Phelps, this book is filled with exclusive stories about Debra and her family, previously unpublished photos, and the unvarnished, unapologetic, and unbelievable reality of Surviving Dirty John.

    A light-skinned Black man, he was a farmer, grocery store owner, and two-time president of the Forrest County chapter of the NAACP. He and Medgar Evers founded a youth NAACP chapter in Hattiesburg, and for years after Evers’s assassination Dahmer was the chief advocate for voting rights in a county where Black registration was shamelessly suppressed. This put Dahmer in the crosshairs of the White Knights, with headquarters in nearby Laurel. Already known as one of the most violent sects of the KKK in the South, the group carried out his murder in a raid that burned down his home and store.A year before, Tom Landrum, a young, unassuming member of a family with deep Mississippi roots, joined the Klan to become an FBI informant. He penetrated the White Knights’ secret circles, recording almost daily journal entries. He risked his life, and the safety of his young family, to chronicle extensively the clandestine activities of the Klan. Veteran journalist Curtis Wilkie draws on his exclusive access to Landrum’s journals to re-create these events—the conversations, the incendiary nighttime meetings, the plans leading up to Dahmer’s murder and its erratic execution—culminating in the conviction and imprisonment of many of those responsible for Dahmer’s death.In riveting detail, When Evil Lived in Laurel plumbs the nature and harrowing consequences of institutional racism, and brings fresh light to this chapter in the history of civil rights in the South—one with urgent implications for today.

    

    

    But how much do you really know about the minds behind the world’s deadliest killers? What drives these murderers to kill and kill again? And what fuels our fascination with the true stories of their horrific crimes?Now forensic psychologist, private investigator, and crime writer Dr. Joni E. Johnston brings you the answers to these questions and more! SERIAL KILLERS: 101 Questions True Crime Fans Ask dives into the case files of the most infamous murderers in history, and answers the questions true crime fans have been dying to ask…

    Who were the Family killers? Why are suppression orders still protecting suspects four decades later? Why do some of these serial killings remain unsolved? Only one suspect, Bevan Spencer Von Einem, has been charged and convicted.With her combination of investigative skills and sensitivity, Marshall treads a harrowing path to find the truth, including confronting Von Einem in prison, pursuing sexual predators in Australia and overseas, taking a deep-dive into the murky world of paedophiles, challenging police and judiciary, and talking to victims and their families. The outcome is shocking and tragic.Following broadcast of the Foxtel television and podcast series Debi Marshall Investigates Frozen Lies, numerous people came forward to courageously share new information with Marshall. Their stories are here. Banquet takes aim at the public service, wealthy professionals and the judiciary and for the first time reveals hitherto unpublished details of the Family. And it demands a Royal Commission to break the silence that keeps the truth hidden.

    Few leave it alive. During the summer of 1984 twenty-year-old Tommy Hamilton, the product of a deprived childhood in rural Alabama, shoots and kills his boss. Convicted of murder, Tommy is sentenced to death. Before facing the electric chair, one final appeal offers the chance to save Tommy’s life, if only his two Chicago-based lawyers and a nun from Alabama can prove he is not legally guilty…even if he is not truly innocent. Tommy fears an incarcerated life more than the electric chair. As limited as his intellect is, he realizes that even a reduced life sentence without the possibility of parole is—like electrocution—a death in prison sentence. If his lawyers are unable to get him out, Tommy professes a willingness to be executed. Despite a material witness allegedly committing suicide and their client escaping from jail during the court proceedings, the lawyers present evidence that perjury tainted both Tommy’s conviction and death sentence. Nevertheless, the judge assigned to determine Tommy’s fate maintains that, “Hamilton may deserve the death penalty and he may yet receive it.” Summary Judgment is the fascinating true crime story told by one of Tommy’s lawyers that reveals how this life-and-death case unfolded in real time.

    

    

    Simpson Trial by legendary Defense Attorney F. Lee Bailey It was called "The Trial of the Century." Beloved football sensation, O.J. Simpson was famous for his prowess on the field, his good looks, his charm, and for running through airports on TV commercials. But all that changed the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were brutally slaughtered in her front yard late at night on June 12, 1994. The media circus that consumed the news cycle for the next eighteen months would forever change the world's opinion of O.J. Simpson, despite the fact that when the jury, after nearly a year of sequestration, came to their decision in just a few hours: Not Guilty. Half the public was convinced he'd gotten away with murder. The other half was equally convinced that the LAPD had, at best, bungled evidence, rushed to judgement, and that the State of California had prosecuted an innocent man while the real killer or killers got away. At worst, they felt the LAPD intentionally, through bias and mishandling and possibly even planting evidence, tried to pin the heinous crime on Simpson. Although at least a dozen books have been written about the O.J. Simpson trial, from every possible perspective from scholarly to sensationalistic, The Truth About the O.J. Simpson Trial is the most revealing of the lot, partly because the writer was the Architect of the Defense, F. Lee Bailey. This account takes readers from the events of the night of the murders all the way to acquittal, including links to the full trial transcript, made available for the first time in one place on his website.  The Simpson case is an extreme example of how evidence and intention can be twisted to influence public opinion against the innocent, branding them for life as guilty of a crime they did not commit. Even now, twenty-five years later, the stigma, financial ruin, and assumed guilt shattered yet another life in the wake of tragedy.    Bailey shows definitively why the jury was correct in finding that the timeline of the evening made Simpson’s presence at the murder scene impossible, which eclipses the question “Did he do it?” and establishes that he simply could not have done it. This book reveals shocking evidence of mishandling of blood samples and other materials that formed the basis of the prosecution's case. Bailey includes convincing evidence that was not presented at the trial--including interviews, forensic results, and revelations about the case that have since been made. It brings many of the other principals – counsel, judge and witnesses – to life with fresh insights.  Scathing, controversial, and, yes, entertaining, The Truth About the OJ Simpson Trial will be read and studied by anyone interested in defending the innocent, the history of law enforcement in America, students of the Law, and all those who are still obsessed with "The Trial of the Century."

    

    Commander Bobby Thompson surfaced in Tampa in 1998, it was as if he had fallen from the sky, providing no hint of his past life. Eleven years later, St. Petersburg Times investigative reporter Jeff Testerman visited the rundown duplex Thompson used as his home and the epicenter of his sixty-thousand-member charity, the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. But something was amiss. Thompson’s charity’s addresses were just maildrops, his members nonexistent, and his past a black hole. Yet, somehow, the Commander had stood for photos with President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain, and other political luminaries. The USNVA, it turned out, was a phony charity where Thompson used pricey telemarketers, savvy lawyers, and political allies to swindle tens of millions from well-meaning donors. After Testerman’s story revealed that the nonprofit was a sham, the Commander went on the run. U.S. Marshals took up the hunt in 2011 and found themselves searching for an unnamed identity thief who they likened to a real-life Jason Bourne. When finally captured in 2012, Thompson was carrying multiple IDs and a key to a locker that held nearly $1 million in cash. But, who was he? Eventually, investigators discovered he was John Donald Cody, a Harvard Law School graduate and former U.S. Army intelligence officer who had been wanted since the 1980s on theft charges and for questioning in an espionage probe. As Cody’s decades as a fugitive came to an end, he claimed his charity was run at the behest of the Central Intelligence Agency. After reporting on the story for CNBC’s American Greed in 2014, Daniel M. Freed dug into Cody’s backstory—uncovering new information about his intelligence background and the evolution of his con.Watch a book trailer at callmecommander.net.

    His bombs killed three and injured and disfigured 23 others. The Unabomber taunted law enforcement and evaded capture by meticulously hand-crafting each device without leaving any forensic evidence behind, making it impossible for the FBI to identify the evil genius through traditional investigative avenues.To track down the terrorist bomber the FBI’s UNABOM Task Force knew it would have to innovate. When the Unabomber mailed a 35,000-word, single-spaced, typewritten "manifesto" to The New York Times and Washington Post, demanding that it be published, the Task Force realized it had just received the evidence it needed. The manifesto was a turning point in the investigation. While the Unabomber’s carefully crafted critique of modern society revealed his hubris and hatred for what he termed the “evils of technology,” it also unwittingly handed FBI investigators the keys to his identity.The Audible Original Series Where the Devil Belongs is the first complete, behind-the-scenes story of the Unabomber's unfathomable crime spree and the groundbreaking forensic methods used to finally catch him. It brings together the survivors and victims’ family members with the FBI Agents who worked the case to tell this incredible story in their own words, many of them for the very first time.

    

    In the 1840s, the Donnelly family immigrates from Ireland to the British province of Canada. Almost immediately problems develop as the patriarch of the family is sent to the Kingston Penitentiary for manslaughter, leaving his wife to raise their eight children on her own. The children are raised in an incredibly violent community and cultivate a devoted loyalty to their mother and siblings, which often leads to problems with the law and those outside of the family. The tensions between the family and their community escalate as the family's enemies begin to multiply. The brothers go into business running a stagecoach line and repay all acts of violence perpetrated against them, which only worsens the situation. Refusing to take a backwards step, the Donnellys stand alone against a growing power base that includes wealthy business interests in the town of Lucan, the local diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, law authorities and a number of their neighbours.

    She was starved, beaten, treated as a slave, and forced to work for her deranged captor. But she never forgot who she was, and she never gave up hope of returning to the world. This is her story.

    How many people were executed in Dundee in the1800's? What's the quickest way to carry out a grave robbery? What's the real story behind the Tay Whale?Find out the answers to these questions and so much more as we delve into Dundee's dark and murky past.In a city full of discoveries, it would be naïve to think Dundee wasn't hiding some skeletons in her closet!Packed with a selection of facts, figures, stats and stories written in an accessible and quirky style, there's bound to be something in this book that you didn't already know.

    Over the course of his celebrated career, Douglas has pursued, studied, and interviewed scores of violent predators, including Charles Manson, James Earl Ray, Dennis Rader, and David Berkowitz.In this provocative and personal book, the most prominent criminal investigator of our time offers his unique perspective on the criminal mind while also exploring the wrenching challenges involved in seeing justice served. Writing with award-winning partner, Mark Olshaker, Douglas opens up about his involvement in historic, headline-making cases--including the West Memphis Three, Amanda Knox, and JonBenet Ramsey.Brimming with gripping narratives, Law & Disorder sheds light on some of our most pressing questions about guilt, innocence, the pursuit of justice, and the heart of human darkness.

    Cruelty, brutality, and violence. The twisted psyches, murder. and yes, even the ability to charm people. Take a deep dive into the terrifyingly real serial murderers, spree killers, and true faces of evil! They prey on the innocent with a malicious desire to inflict damage and harm. They hunt and stalk misfortunate victims in the dark, in broad daylight, in quiet neighborhoods, and in the local woods. Their bloodthirst isn't satisfied after their first kill. Or their second. Or third. Serial Killers: The Minds, Methods, and Mayhem of History's Most Notorious Murderers delves into the global phenomenon of serial and spree murderers.This chilling book looks at the horrifying stories of forty malevolent killers and hundreds of innocent victims, including such notorious homicidal maniacs as John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and Jeffery Dahmer, but it also looks at lesser-known and overlooked murderers like Herbert Baumeister, America's I-70 Strangler; Japan's "Anime Killer," Tsutomu Miyazaki; Russia's "Rostov Ripper," Andrei Chikatilo; the "Giggling Granny," Nannie Doss; and many more. It journeys to 16th-century Scotland to meet a clan of cannibals whose existence is still debated by historians today, and to the fog-shrouded alleys of Whitechapel, London, where Jack the Ripper earned his grisly namesake. Along the way, we'll meet the Dating Game Killer, the Milwaukee Cannibal, the Acid Bath Murderer, and other monsters. Serial Killers also asks the questions ...What makes a seemingly ordinary person stalk, torture, and murder their fellow human beings? Are serial killers born or made? What is the difference between a serial killer and a spree killer? What were the identities of Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer? Was Albert DeSalvo really the Boston Strangler? Is it possible that you could know a serial killer? Caution is advised before entering the alarming world of twisted psychos and sociopaths! With more than 120 photos and graphics, this fright-filled tome is richly illustrated. Its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness.

    During his crime spree, the madman left bizarre letters mocking the police and promising more deaths.After months of terrorizing the city while garnering front-page headlines and international attention, a man named David Berkowitz was arrested. He confessed to the shootings, claiming to be obeying a demon that resided in a dog that belonged to his neighbor “Sam.”Among the alleged victims was Carl Denaro. On the night he was shot, Denaro was hanging out with some friends at a bar when he met up with a woman named Rosemary Keenan. The couple left the bar and went to Keenan’s car to make out. However, a few minutes later, the windows of the car exploded as Denaro was shot in the head by an unseen assailant. Miraculously, Denaro survived the attack.When Berkowitz was arrested, he was charged with trying to kill Denaro. However, there was a twist. Although he confessed to the other shootings, after his conviction Berkowitz denied attacking Denaro.Now, after years of research, Denaro is convinced that Berkowitz was telling the truth, and that someone else tried to kill him.In 'THE SON OF SAM’ AND ME: The Truth About Why I Wasn’t Shot By David Berkowitz, author Carl Denaro with co-author Brian Whitney (THE “SUPREME GENTLEMAN” KILLER, WildBlue Press) reveals his search for the truth and his shocking conclusion regarding the identity of the real shooter. In the book, Denaro also writes about his friendship and investigative partnership with Maury Terry, the author of THE ULTIMATE EVIL, which is considered the definitive case study on the theory that Berkowitz did not act alone.Includes Never Revealed Correspondence Between Denaro and Berkowitz.

    B. Cooper case is the only unsolved act of air piracy in US history. On November 24, 1971, a polite, nondescript, middle-aged man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked Northwest Airlines Flight 305, Boeing 727, between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. At Seattle International Airport, he demanded and received $200,000 and four parachutes, released the passengers, and ordered the crew to take him to Mexico. Somewhere along the way, he jumped. He was never found or identified. Forty-five years later, the FBI gave up the hunt. This book looks at the case from the perspective of a mathematician and pilot. It uses previously unexamined data and original-source documents, combined with the tools of statistics, aeronautics, and meteorology, to show where and how the FBI could resume the search and possibly find out at last who D. B. Cooper really was.

    The 148 passengers were then held at gunpoint for 13 days in what turned into one of the longest hijackings in history. The hijackers claimed to be fighting for democracy and demanded the release of political prisoners. But when Pakistan’s Military dictator General Zia refused, the killing began.Veteran journalist Owen Bennett-Jones investigates what happened inside the plane, who the hijackers were really working for, and digs deep into the political crisis in Pakistan that led to the hijacking.

    The girls suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their mother. Although he worked two, sometimes three, jobs, Ronnie was never able to provide Becky with the money and lifestyle she wanted. After their 1974 divorce, Becky took the children to South Florida where she pursued a life of gambling and partying while her daughters were left to fend for themselves. But she wasn't content just living the high life in the tropical sun. Fueled by popular books and films, she wanted to live in what she believed was the exciting world of organized crime. So eager was she to do so that she changed her name and her daughters's to Machetti, a name she believed to be appropriate for the Mafia. In only a few months, she found not one, but two, men who joined her in her murderous fantasy which culminated in two deaths. The resulting legal proceedings went on for more than a decade and the Akins's three daughters were right in the middle of it, torn between fear of their mother and the desire to tell the truth. This is the story of Rebecca Machetti, a cold-blooded woman whose prosecutor described as "pure evil" and her three daughters who lived through years of abuse before finally finding peace and normal lives.

    In this first definitive history of the Golden Age of American serial murder, when the number and body count of serial killers exploded, Vronsky tells the stories of the most unusual and prominent serial killings from the 1950s to the early twenty-first century. From Ted Bundy to the Golden State Killer, our fascination with these classic serial killers seems to grow by the day. American Serial Killers gives true crime junkies what they crave, with both perennial favorites (Ed Kemper, Jeffrey Dahmer) and lesser-known cases (Melvin Rees, Harvey Glatman).

    In 1880, an organized mob of the Donnellys' enemies murder four family members and burn their house to the ground. Another sibling is shot to death in a house a short distance away. William Donnelly and a teenage boy are the only witnesses to the murders. The surviving family members seek justice through the local courts but quickly learn that their enemies control the jury and the press. Two sensational trials follow that make national and international headlines as the Donnellys continue to pursue justice for their murdered parents, siblings and cousin. Behind the scenes, political factors are at play, as Oliver Mowat, the Premier/Attorney General of the province of Ontario, fearing the backlash a conviction would render, gradually withdraws support from the prosecution of the killers. After the trials, the Donnelly's enemies continue their crusade against the family, paying off potential witnesses to the murders and fabricating one last set of charges that they hope will put the remaining Donnellys away forever.

    In the latest volume in Ig’s acclaimed Bookmarked series, award-wining author Justin St. Germain writes about a trip he took to Holcomb, Kansas, the site of the Clutter murders In Cold Blood claims to be about. Within the story of the trip, St. Germain talks about his obsession with Capote’s classic, and its influence on the book he was writing at the time about his mother’s murder, which became his award-winning memoir, Son of A Gun.

    . . . It is essentially the Gacy story in reverse. Victims first.” —Jeff Coen, author of Murder in Canaryville As investigators brought out the bagged remains of several dozen young men from a small Chicago ranch home and paraded them in front of a crowd of TV reporters and spectators, attention quickly turned to the owner of the house. John Gacy was an upstanding citizen, active in local politics and charities, famous for his themed parties and appearances as Pogo the Clown. But in the winter of 1978–79, he became known as one of many so-called “sex murderers” who had begun gaining notoriety in the random brutality of the 1970s. As public interest grew rapidly, victims became footnotes and statistics, lives lost not just to violence, but to history.Through the testimony of siblings, parents, friends, lovers, and other witnesses close to the case, Boys Enter the House retraces the footsteps of these victims as they make their way to the doorstep of the Gacy house itself.

    

    Others claimed that he was the wealthy son of a prominent Morgantown family. Whispers spread that Mared and Karen were sacrificed by a satanic cult or had been victims of a madman poised to strike again. Then the handwritten letters began to arrive: "You will locate the bodies of the girls covered over with brush--look carefully. The animals are now on the move."Investigators didn't find too few suspects--they had far too many. There was the campus janitor with a fur fetish, the "harmless" deliveryman who beat a woman nearly to death, the nursing home orderly with the bloody broomstick and the bouncer with the "girlish" laugh who threatened to cut off people's heads. Local authors Geoffrey C. Fuller and S. James McLaughlin tell the complete story of the murders for the first time.

    The phrase is never more true for the women covered in this book, all of whom harbour a lust for blood and the willingness to kill.Read about the horrific true tale of Karla Homolka, a dangerous manipulator who helped her husband rape and kill numerous young girls - one of them being her younger sister. There's also the peculiar yet disturbing case of Nannie Doss, the seemingly sweet older woman who had a penchant for snuffing out her husbands as well as her own children. Then there's the chilling case of Stephanie Lazarus, a police officer who not only managed to keep her murderous secret hidden for over two decades, but also managed to become a high-ranking police officer. These, plus five more cases of women who kill are collated in this book, shedding light on a fascinating category of true crime.While female killers may be considered rare, when they do strike, their cunning and callousness make their crimes all the more shocking. Psychopathy and violence are categories often reserved for men, but as this book will show you, women can be just as evil as their male counterparts.

    Criminal investigators have learned how to interpret vital testimony that is written in the language of fingerprints and flakes of skin, gradients of teeth and bone, splashes of blood, flecks of paint, traces of chemicals, a splinter of glass, or a uniquely striated bullet. Bodies of Evidence includes various cases from around the world, including O.J. Simpson, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, “The Mad Bomber”George Metesky, Tommie Lee Andrews, “The Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez, Jack Unterweger, Lee Harvey Oswald, “The Boston Strangler” Albert DeSalvo, Jeffrey MacDonald, the Lockerbie bombing, “The Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski, and many more. The book also chronicles and evaluates the role of those who have made the most significant contributions in the varied fields of toxicology, serology, fingerprinting, facial reconstruction, forensic ballistics, psychological profiling, and DNA fingerprinting. The text is illustrated throughout with 200 photographs, some of which have rarely been seen before.

    Assassins in the context of contemporary pop culture often conjure up images of brooding, silver-tongued individuals in peak physique, equipped with impeccable style, flawless marksmanship, and exemplary hand-to-hand combat skills. Others visualize strapping, muscular men, their mysterious faces almost entirely obscured by the heavy hoods of their capes, toting quivers, an assortment of daggers strapped to their waists, and glinting blades hidden up their sleeves, a portrayal popularized by the chart-topping video game franchise Assassin's Creed. These invisible executioners lurk soundlessly in the shadows, clocking their target's every move before lunging forth, restraining them with acrobatic stunts and cat-like reflexes, and going in for the kill.But again, like the shinobi, the genuine lore and long-lived legends surrounding the assassin, along with fanciful fabrications stemming from creative liberties taken by modern storytellers, have become so homogenized that the differences between historical and mythical assassins are imperceptible to most. This itself is a pity, given the provocative and riveting history of the Hashashin, the original assassins, because in their case, truth is often stranger than fiction. Known as the Order of Assassins, the Hashashin were not run-of-the-mill hitmen who simply followed the money and exterminated whichever mark was assigned to them by their employers, nor were they unfeeling, vicious butchers who merely pounced on the opportunity to quench their thirst for blood. In reality, the group that became the namesake for assassins and the term assassination consisted of a well-oiled, systematized fraternity of extremist death-dealing agents recruited by the Nizari Ismaili state. The Assassins considered themselves martyrs and targeted prominent enemies between the 11th and 13th centuries, all in the name of religion and politics.The Order of Assassins: The History and Legacy of the Secretive Persian Sect during the Middle Ages examines the origins of the group and the Nizari state, their short but important history, and their lasting legacy. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Assassins like never before.

    

    

    Written and compiled by Susan Hall, the four-volume set has more than 1600 entries of male and female serial killers from around the world.Defined by the FBI as a person who murders 3 or more people over a period of time with a hiatus of weeks or months between murders, serial killers have walked among us from the dawn of time as these books will demonstrate. While the entries to these volumes will continue to grow—the FBI estimates that there are at least fifty serial killers operating in the United States at any given time—The World Encyclopedia of Serial Killers is as complete as possible through the end of 2017.The series continues with Volume Four T-Z, plus the Unsolved Serial Killer Cases. The entries include the Terminator Anatoly Yuriyovych Onoprienko, Trailside Killer David Joseph Carpenter, Joseph Vacher, Vampire of Sacramento Richard Trenton Chase and the Voroshilovgrad Maniac Zaven Sarkisovich Almazyan, plus the Unsolved Serial Killer Cases of the Adelaide Child Murders, Axeman of New Orleans, Chillicothe Killer, Dead Women of Juarez, Korea Frog Boy Murders and Volga Maniac. You will find these killers and approximately 175 others plus approximately 225 Unsolved Serial Killer cases in this fourth book in the series of The World Encyclopedia of Serial Killers.

    Whether it’s a heart hurt by unrequited love or a lover so passionate they’ll stop at nothing to get their way, even the most seemingly mild-mannered soul can suddenly flip, becoming consumed by dark intentions.The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge, like the other books in the popular The Best New True Crime Stories series, contains original nonfiction accounts penned by writers from across the literary spectrum. From Paris in the 1910s to India in the 2000s, this collection will take you around the globe to explore twisted true tales of passion and obsession turned violent. Join the award-winning, crime-savvy contributors, and examine why some individuals have fully embraced their dark side, resorting to crime to achieve their own special brand of satisfaction and retribution.

    

    She had been shot through the chest. Buncombe County Sheriff Laurence Brown, up for reelection, desperately searched for the teenager's killer as the public clamored for answers. Though witnesses reported seeing a white man leave the scene, Brown's focus turned instead to the hotel's Black employees and on August 9 he arrested bell hop Martin Moore. After a frenzied four-day trial that captured the nation's attention, Moore was convicted of Helen's murder on August 22. Though Moore confessed to Sherriff Brown, doubt of his guilt lingers and many Southerners feared that justice had not, in fact, been served.Author Anne Chesky Smith weaves together varying accounts of the murder and investigation to expose a complex and disturbing chapter in Asheville's history.

    In similar cases at the time, authorities routinely exonerated Maryland law enforcement officers who killed African Americans, usually without serious inquiries into the underlying facts. But in this case, Baltimore's white community chose a different path. A coroner's jury declined to attribute the killing to accident or self-defense; the state's attorney indicted McDonald and brought him to trial; and a criminal court jury convicted McDonald of manslaughter.What makes this work so powerful is that many of the issues that the antipolice brutality movement faces today were the very issues faced by black people in nineteenth-century Baltimore.Both Brown and McDonald represented factions in conflict during a period of social upheaval, and both men left home to escape dire conditions. Yet trouble followed both to Baltimore. While the conviction of McDonald was unique, it was not a racially enlightened moment in policing. The killing of Brown was viewed not as racial injustice, but police violence spreading to their neighborhood. White elites saw the police as an uncontrolled force threatening their well-being. The clubbing and shooting of an unarmed black man only a block away from the wealthy residences of Park Avenue represented a breakdown in the social order--but Jim Crow in Baltimore was not in danger.Prior to 1867 a Maryland statute barred African Americans from testifying against whites in proceedings before police magistrates or in any of the state's courts. During the trial of McDonald, the press described the Baltimore police as "blue coated ruffians," and there was a general distrust of the police force by both blacks and whites. Brown's wife, Keziah, gave damning testimony of Officer McDonald's actions. The jury could not agree on verdicts of first- or second-degree murder, and after an attempt to reach a compromise verdict of second-degree murder failed, the majority acquiesced to the manslaughter verdict.The Uncommon Case of Daniel Brown adds to the historiography of policing and criminal justice by demonstrating the pivotal role of the coroner's inquest in such cases and by illustrating the importance of social ties and political divisions when a community addresses an episode of police violence.

    Behind the image of sun and surf, young women were the victims of a brutal killer. In the mid-1970s, over a dozen young women were murdered and found in canals. These cases became known as the Flat Tire Murders and the Canal Murders. Only one case was ever solved. More than four decades have passed since these crimes, and no arrests were ever made. This is the first book to explore these murders in depth, as well as a bizarre series of murders occurring in the years earlier, known as the Gold Sock Stranglings. Interviews with the detectives that originally worked to solve these cases provide an intimate view of the attempt to capture the killer that terrorized South Florida. In addition to the cases themselves, the reader is introduced to a number of suspects, including Ted Bundy, the man who is still suspected by detectives to this day of having committed the Flat Tire Murders. Detailed maps of South Florida illustrate the complex canal system that became the victims’ graveyard.

    

    With a gut-churning account of Dahmer’s killings, along with the twisted mind that drove him to commit his sick crimes, Jeffrey Dahmer: The Terrifying Story of the Milwaukee Cannibal offers readers a detailed glimpse into Dahmer’s morbid and sadistic psyche.As a fascinating read for fans of true crime and the morbidly curious, this unsettling book explores the strange life of Jeffrey Dahmer. Including the earliest red flags in his childhood, his multiple murders, his odd obsessions, and his eventual discovery and arrest, you’ll also discover the trial that shook the nation and Dahmer’s eventual fate.As a disturbing yet must-have addition to any collection of serial killer books, this true crime story will remind you of the seemingly ordinary people who walk among us – and the dark secrets they might be hiding.Are you ready to discover the life of Jeffrey Dahmer? Then scroll up and grab your copy now.

    The result of Billy's trial sealed his fate. And yet Billy's trial is the least written about, and until this book, the least known event of Billy's adult life.Prior biographies have provided extensive - and fascinating - details on Billy's life, but they supply only a few paragraphs on Billy's trial. Just the bare facts: time, place, names, result.Billy’s trial the most important event in Billy’s life. You may respond that his death is more important – it is in anyone’s life! That is true, in an existential sense, but the events that lead to one’s death at a particular place and time, the cause of one’s death, override the importance of one’s actual death. Those events are determinative. Without those events, one does not die then and there. If Billy had escaped death on July 14, 1881, and went on to live out more of his life, that escape and not his trial would probably be the most important event of Billy’s life.The information presented here has been unknown until now. This book makes it possible to answer these previously unanswerable questions:Where was Billy captured?Where was Billy tried?What were the governing Territorial laws?What were the charges against Billy?Was there a trial transcript and what happened to it?What kind of defense did Billy present?Did Billy testify in his own defense?Did Billy have witnesses standing for him?Who testified against him for the prosecution?What was the jury like?What action by the trial judge virtually guaranteed his conviction?What legal grounds did he have to appeal his verdict?Was the trial fair?Supplementing the text are 132 photos, including many photos never published before.

    Uncovering homicides from a seminal period of American criminal history, this compendium covers from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of WWII, the era that saw the first murderer convicted using fingerprints and the birth of the FBI laboratory.Every murder case is accompanied by a contemporary map or bespoke floorplan on which the precise movements of both killer and victim are meticulously plotted, revealing the vital components of each crime. The gruesome scene is completed with early mugshots and unnerving crime scene photographs, bringing to life blood-soaked Wild West bars, inner city ganglands, and the deadly plots behind famous assassinations.The killers featured range from the black widow Belle Gunness, who lured numerous victims to her Illinois farm, to Cleveland’s “Mad Butcher,” and from the infamous Texan bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde to the devious Petrillo cousins in Philadelphia and their contract killing service.Crime expert Adam Selzer illuminates the details of each case, recounting the shocking details of the crimes themselves, and the ingenious detective work and breakthrough forensics that solved them. His bloodthirsty tour of America’s criminal underworld uncovers the ruthless scheming of murderers both infamous and little-known, providing a hair-raising anthology that will appeal to anyone with a taste for murder.

    She'd been told to forget her obsession with handsome Guy Berry. She'd been told about the danger of Rough-on-Rats poison. She'd heard about murdering those who stand in the way of love. By the time she was done, her family would be dead and others threatened. Later, the place where these crimes took place became Malabar Farm, the estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning author and conservationist Louis Bromfield. Historian, playwright and storyteller Mark Sebastian Jordan examines the story of the Poisoner of Pleasant Valley, Ceely Rose, and how it has resonated throughout the years.

    Countless crucial details of murder, manipulation and miscarriages of justice have been hidden from the public, and the true extent of the Ripper's crimes still remains hidden to this day. This book exposes the twist in the tale of the most notorious British serial killer of the last hundred years.

    This book focuses on ten of the most chilling crimes in Alabama history.True crime junkies may recognize some of the highly publicized cases, but I’ve made sure to include lesser-known, equally unsettling crimes.The cases included in this book:Audrey Marie Hilley: Black widow who murdered her husband then attempted to poison her own daughter. She was able to evade capture by posing as her fictional twin sister.Daniel Lee Siebert: Spree killer that butchered his girlfriend, her two sons who were both under age six, and his friends.Michael McLendon: To date, McLendon’s massacre in 2019 was the bloodiest in the state of Alabama. He murdered his friends, family, and even his family dogs.Richard Hawes: A family annihilator in 1888 whose crimes sparked a statewide riot.Sixteenth Street Church Bombings: Racially motivated attack by KKK members that left four young Black girls dead and is now viewed as a turning point for the Civil Rights Movement.Amy Bishop: Harvard educated professor who became infamous after she went on a shooting rampage that left three coworkers dead. However, the attack was not her first time killing. When she was a teenager, she shot her brother under suspicious circumstances.Joseph Dewey Akin: Code blue junkie nurse who was convicted of intentionally overdosing a patient in his care and is suspected in the deaths of seventeen of his former patients.Thomas Whisenhant: Murderer with a pattern of desecrating the bodies of his victims.Scottsboro Boys: One of the most notorious court cases of the 20th century where two white women falsely accused nine Black boys of rape.Gerald Patrick Lewis: Serial killer whose heinous crimes include slaying a woman who was eight months pregnant and removing the fetus from her body.If you’re a true crime enthusiast who enjoys reading about some of the most depraved monsters in our country, you will love United States of True Crime.

    

    Skeletons hidden in the forest. Children abducted by aliens. Birds falling from the sky. Death threats in Hell’s Kitchen. UFOs over military bases. Paranormal activity during COVID lockdowns. Serial killers on the loose. Haunted houses. Government experiments. Police cover-ups. Rat utopias. Societal collapse. Fear, hope, paranoia, and a search for truth in strange and desperate times.These are Tales From the Inverted World. True stories of paranormal encounters, unsolved murder, and events that will warp your perception of reality.

    In the fall of 1888, five women were brutally murdered in the slums of London. The attacks were so violent that the killer earned a nickname - Jack the Ripper. But everything you think you know about Jack and those murdered women is wrong. Historian Hallie Rubenhold uncovers new facts about the five victims - revealing the appalling treatment they faced as women in the 1880s, and completely overturning the accepted Ripper story.