Book picks similar to
The Professional Thief by Edwin H. Sutherland
sociology
nonfiction
non-fiction
cyber
Fatal Prescription: A Doctor without Remorse
John Griffiths - 1995
a remarkable story—Leeza Gibbons, NBC-TV • Grippingly told ... a wonderful, powerful book—David Berner, Radio CKNW Vancouver • Reads with the pace of a taut thriller—George Henderson, Gloucestershire Citizen • Mesmerizing—Bob Stall, Vancouver Province. Now revised and updated. The amazing, true story of how medical authorities allow a family doctor to continue practising even after he begins living with a 15-year-old patient—and allegedly has sex with another girl in exchange for giving drugs to her father. The notorious doctor still carries on as before and a third patient complains about infamous conduct—until he silences her by putting out a contract for murder.
Zodiac
Robert Graysmith - 1986
A sexual sadist who taunted police with anonymous notes. A madman who was never apprehended. This is the first, complete account of Zodiac's reign of terror. Is he still out there?
The Cult Files: True Stories from the Extreme Edges of Religious Belief
Chris Mikul - 2008
Riveting, sometimes amusing, often horrifying stories show the inside workings of these groups, and trace their history - and often their demise. The book includes the Aum Shinrikyo followers, who killed twelve people in a poison gas attack on the Tokyo subway; and the Peoples Temple, in which Jim Jones convinced hundreds of followers to commit suicide en masse. Discover the unbelievable power and wealth held by cult leaders, and the physical and mental authority they wield over their followers. The full story of some of these cults is told for the first time in this book.
The Beast of Birkenshaw: Life of Serial Killer Peter Manuel
Jack Smith - 2016
The Beast of Birkenshaw, a.k.a. Peter Manuel, was such an individual man. Download FREE with Kindle Unlimited!
Peter Manuel was Scotland’s first serial killer and certainly the country’s most notorious mass murderer. But he was so much more than that. As well as the horrific nature of his murders, which killed men, women, and children, he possessed a constant arrogance and a swift intelligence that often allowed him to operate right underneath the noses of the local law enforcement. Always happy to embarrass the police in Glasgow and the surrounding area, he waged a lifelong battle of wits which ended with him being hanged. But the legend of Peter Manuel lives on. He had a penchant not only for violent killings, but for having the audacity to represent himself in court. Sometimes, this was successful and sometimes it was not. But each time, he was noted for his deft ability to out manoeuvre the best police officers Glasgow had to offer. When he eventually faced his last court hearing, it was described in the tabloids as the Trial of the Century. In this book, we will attempt to look into the history of the killer and the reasons he might have had for carrying out his horrific series of crimes. Throughout the various chapters of this book, we will meet the friends, the family members, and the enemies of Peter Thomas Anthony Manuel, the man described as having the names of the saints, but the heart of Satan himself. We will examine Manuel’s worst crimes, while exploring the background that made him into the man he was. We will even look at his obsession with outsmarting the authorities. If you would like to learn more about the life of Peter Manuel, this is the book for you. Scroll back and click the buy button for immediate download
The Night the Defeos Died: Reinvestigating the Amityville Murders
Ric Osuna - 2002
Once there, the police discovered six members of the DeFeo family -- father, mother and four of their five children -- shot and killed execution style. The surviving son, Ronald "Butch" DeFeo Jr., was eventually charged and tried for the murder of his family and now is serving six concurrent life sentences. Some said a strong supernatural force in the DeFeo home drove Butch DeFeo to kill his family, while others claimed Butch DeFeo killed to receive an inheritance. The Night the DeFeos Died offers the true story behind this tragedy and exposes Butch DeFeo did not act alone in the commission of this crime. It also shows that the supernatural stories created about the famed Amityville house were nothing, but a ruse concocted for Butch DeFeo's defense that later grew into a cottage industry. The whole truth regarding the story has never been revealed, until the publication of Ric Osuna's book. From mob involvement to a corrupt judicial system, The Night the DeFeos Died reveals the full details of the DeFeo murders, including how they were a culmination of substance abuse and domestic violence.
The Story of Cole Younger, by Himself
Cole Younger - 1903
Following the war, Younger continued his celebrated career as a desperado, robbing banks and trains with Jesse James and other members of the James-Younger gang. A fateful attempt in 1876 on the Northfield, Minnesota, bank sent Cole to the state prison in Stillwater, Minnesota for decades. There he became a model resident, helping both to protect women convicts during a fire and found the Prison Mirror, a newspaper intended to shed "a ray of light upon the lives of those behind the bars." Paroled in 1901, Younger successfully sought a pardon, operated a Wild West show with his old comrade Frank James, and lectured on "What My Life Has Taught Me." Always known for intelligence and coolness under pressure, he published this autobiography in 1903, reflecting on the colorful and sometimes violent experiences of "the gentleman, the soldier, the outlaw, and the convict."
Rock Paper Sex: The Oldest Profession in Canada's Oldest City
Kerri Cull - 2017
John s is known as a flourishing port city, a cultural gem, and popular tourist destination: a picturesque city of pubs and restaurants, music and colourful houses. But a thriving sex trade quietly exists beneath that polished conception, a trade few are aware of or even understand. In an engaging journalistic style, Kerri Cull respectfully reveals the people who make up the city s surprisingly diverse sex industry and, in the process, makes a compelling humanistic argument for understanding before judgment."
Who Killed My Daughter?: The True Story of a Mother's Search for Her Daughter's Murderer
Lois Duncan - 1992
School Library Journal "Best Book of the Year"--1992The Literary Guild, alternate selection--1992Time-Life Digest selection--1992ALA Best Book for Young Adults--1993Library of Congress Selection as a Talking Book for the Blind--1993N.Y. Public Library-- "Books for the Teenage" selection--1993Scholastic Book Club selection -- March, 1994, Feb., 1999 Pacific Northwest Young Readers Award--1994-95Nominated for Nevada Young Readers Award--1993-94Nominated for Tennessee Volunteer State Young Readers Award--94-95Nominated for Iowa Teen Award--1994-95Foreign editions: Germany, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Sweden,
Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave
Deanne Stillman - 2001
One girl was about to turn sixteen, the other twenty-one.Exquisitely and inexorably, Deanne Stillman uses this tragedy as a prism through which she explores not only the murders and the families involved but a rootless culture of fatherless families, shattered dreams, and relentless violence. In haunting, vivid prose, she creates a farreaching story of America itself, carrying us into the empty white heart of the Mojave, as we meet and come to know the modern nomads who turn to the West for salvation only to be devoured by its false promise.
Benoit: Wrestling with the Horror that Destroyed a Family and Crippled a Sport
Steven Johnson - 2007
In June 2007 Benoit committed suicide after killing his wife and son, and the media coverage surrounding this event—as well as the facts of the case and its effects on professional wrestling—are all extensively addressed. Benoit’s life prior to and during his pro wrestling career is examined, as is his significant impact on the wrestling world and widespread popularity. This close-up look at one of pro wrestling’s greatest and most lamented figures also presents the place of his tragedy in the darker side of wrestling’s history.
True State Trooper Stories
Charles A. Black - 2016
Sgt. Charles Black is a 35 year veteran of the Iowa State Patrol during those years he has had many experiences and he shares his favorites in this book. In 35 years I have seen a lot of changes from the name of the organization to the primary function. From hearses to ambulances to rescue units with EMT's. From paper list of stolen cars to computers.From no recorders to body cameras. From fist fights to gun fights.But human nature and the effects of drugs and alcohol remain the same.
In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agent's Relentless Pursuit of the Nation's Worst Predators
Jeffrey L. Rinek - 2018
Agent's Relentless Pursuit of the Nation's Worst Predators, which Rinek wrote with the journalist Marilee Strong, sounds warm and humane, qualities missing from much crime writing. Their book is a professional job, filled with illuminating details about the day-to-day operations of the bureau.--New York Times Book Review FBI Special Agent Jeff Rinek had a gift for getting child predators to confess. All he had to do was share a piece of his soul . . .In the Name of the Children gives an unflinching look at what it's like to fight a never-ending battle against an enemy far more insidious than terrorists: the predators, lurking amongst us, who seek to harm our children.During his 30-year career with the FBI, Jeff Rinek worked hundreds of investigations involving crimes against children: from stranger abduction to serial homicide to ritualized sexual abuse. Those who do this kind of work are required to plumb the depths of human depravity, to see things no one should ever have to see--and once seen can never forget. There is no more important--or more brutal--job in law enforcement, and few have been more successful than Rinek at solving these sort of cases.Most famously, Rinek got Cary Stayner to confess to all four of the killings known as the Yosemite Park Murders, an accomplishment made more extraordinary by the fact that the FBI nearly pinned the crimes on the wrong suspects. Rinek's recounting of the confession and what he learned about Stayner provides perhaps the most revelatory look ever inside the psyche of a serial killer and a privileged glimpse into the art of interrogation.In the Name of the Children takes readers into the trenches of real-time investigations where every second counts and any wrong decision or overlooked fact can have tragic repercussions. Rinek offers an insider's perspective of the actual case agents and street detectives who are the boots on the ground in this war at home. By placing us inside the heart and mind of a rigorously honest and remarkably self-reflective investigator, we will see with our own eyes what it takes--and what it costs--to try to keep our children safe and to bring to justice those who prey on society's most vulnerable victims.With each chapter dedicated to a real case he worked, In the Name of the Children also explores the evolution of Rinek as a Special Agent--whose unorthodox, empathy-based approach to interviewing suspects made him extraordinarily successful in obtaining confessions--and the toll it took to have such intimate contact with child molesters and murderers. Beyond exploring the devastating impact of these unthinkable crimes on the victims and their families, this book offers an unprecedented look at how investigators and their loved ones cope while living in the specter of so much suffering.
John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster
Sam L. Amirante - 2011
It is a gory, grotesque tale befitting a Stephen King novel. It is also a David and Goliath saga—the story of a young lawyer fresh from the Public Defender’s Office whose first client in private practice turns out to be the worst serial killer in our nation’s history. Sam Amirante had just opened his first law practice when he got a phone call from his friend John Wayne Gacy, a well-known and well-liked community figure. Gacy was upset about what he called “police harassment” and asked Amirante for help. With the police following his every move in connection with the disappearance of a local teenager, Gacy eventually gives a drunken, dramatic, early morning confession—to his new lawyer. Gacy is eventually charged with murder and Amirante suddenly becomes the defense attorney for one of American’s most disturbing serial killers. It is his first case. This is a gripping narrative that reenacts the gruesome killings and the famous trial that shocked a nation.
Tears of the Silenced
Misty Griffin - 2014
Misty and her sister were kept as slaves on a mountain ranch and subjected to almost complete isolation, sexual abuse, and extreme physical violence. Their step-father kept a loaded rifle by the door to make sure the young girls were too terrified to try to escape. No rescue would ever come since the few people who knew they existed did not care.When Misty reached her teens, her parents feared she and her sister would escape and took them to an Amish community. Devastated to again find herself in a world of fear, cruelty, and abuse, Misty was sexually assaulted by the bishop. As Misty recalls, "Amish sexual abusers are only shunned by the church for six weeks, a punishment that never seems to work... I knew I had to get help, and one freezing morning in early March, I made a dash for a tiny police station in rural Minnesota. After reporting the bishop, I left the Amish and found myself plummeted into a strange modern world with only a second-grade education and no ID or social security card."
The Privilege of Youth: A Teenager's Story
Dave Pelzer - 2004
From A Child Called “It” to The Lost Boy, from A Man Named Dave to Help Yourself, Dave Pelzer’s inspirational books have helped countless others triumph over hardship and misfortune. In The Privilege of Youth, he shares the missing chapter of his life: as a boy on the threshold of adulthood. With sensitivity and insight, he recounts the relentless taunting he endured from bullies; but he also describes the thrill of making his first real friends—some of whom he still shares close relationships with today. He writes about the simple pleasures of exploring his neighborhood, while trying to forget the hell waiting for him at home.From high school to a world beyond the four walls that were his prison for so many years, The Privilege of Youth bravely and compassionately charts this crucial turning point in Dave Pelzer’s life and will inspire a whole new generation of readers.