Book picks similar to
Killer Twins by Michael Benson
true-crime
nonfiction
crime
library-books-3
Dirty Darlings
Catherine Chagra - 2015
But after their father was arrested and his hundred-million dollars had disappeared, they were left penniless, at the mercy of a Texas society that vilified them. With the help of their principled mother before her tragic death, and haunted by the shadow of their father, Dirty Darlings is a portrait of courage as three women attempt to reassemble the shattered pieces of their lives.
Tony Accardo is Joe Batters
Neil Gordon - 2018
Throw in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and the murders of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Marilyn Monroe, Bugsy Siegel, Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano, Tony the Ant Spilotro, Johnny Roselli and Jimmy Hoffa. Toss in Hollywood scandal and the mobbed up career of Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack. Now you can begin to grasp the epic story of Tony Accardo. Why has this story never been told? Accardo killed everyone in his path: family, friends, cops, reporters, movie stars, and politicians. Operating from deep within the shadows Tony influenced national policy, exploited the FBI, owned politicians, and fixed presidential elections. Connected to every gangster from Al Capone to Lucky Luciano to John Gotti, Joe Batters is the must-read that every Godfather fan is craving.
Death on the Devil's Teeth: The Strange Murder That Shocked Suburban New Jersey (True Crime)
Jesse P. Pollack - 2015
That mood was shattered when the body of sixteen-year-old Jeannette DePalma was discovered in the local woods, allegedly surrounded by strange objects. Some feared witchcraft was to blame, while others believed a serial killer was on the loose. Rumors of a police coverup ran rampant, and the case went unsolved--along with the murders of several other young women. Now, four decades after Jeannette DePalma's tragic death, authors Jesse P. Pollack and Mark Moran present the definitive account of this shocking cold case.
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.
The Best American Crime Reporting 2008
Jonathan Kellerman - 2008
An eclectic collection of the year's best reportage, The Best American Crime Reporting 2008 brings together the murderers and the masterminds, the mysteries and missteps that make for brilliant stories, told by the aces of the true-crime genre. This latest addition to the highly acclaimed series features guest editor Jonathan Kellerman, bestselling author of more than twenty crime novels, most recently Compulsion and the forthcoming Bones.Story of a snitch / Jeremy Kahn --A season in hell / Dean La Tourette --I'm with the Steelers / Justin Heckert --House across the way / Calvin Trillin --Caged life / Alan Prendergast --Badges of dishonor / Pamela Collof --Dangerous minds / Malcolm Gladwell --Dean of Death Row / Tad Friend --Tainted kidney / Charles Graeber --Ploy / Mark Bowden --Day of the dead / D. T. Max --Just a random female / Nick Schou --Serial killer's disciple / James Renner --Mercenary / Tom Junod --Murder at 19,000 feet / Jonathan Green
Stay With Me, Rhys: The heartbreaking story of Rhys Jones, by his mother. As seen on ITV’s new documentary Police Tapes
Mel Jones - 2018
‘Please stay with me. I love you.’
There was still no expression in his eyes. I was talking and talking to him, desperate to let him know I was there, but there was no flicker in his face. In hindsight, it was like he’d already gone.
It's a Wednesday evening in Liverpool in the summer holidays, and Melanie is expecting her Everton-mad eleven-year-old son back from football practice very soon. She turns on Coronation Street and sets about stripping the wallpaper off the walls in the lounge, which is long-overdue a makeover. Suddenly she receives a frantic knock at the door. Rhys has been shot on his way home.From that fateful day when Melanie cradled her child as he lay dying, repeating to him ‘Stay with Me, Rhys’, to the day in court when his killers were finally sent down, this is a story of a family in trauma, of a community united behind them and of how a notorious local gang who terrorised the neighbourhood was brought to justice.In 2017, more than 7 million people watched the drama unfold in the highly-acclaimed ITV series Little Boy Blue. And now Melanie Jones tells the family's unbelievable story for the first time.Melanie, her husband Steve and Rhys’s brother Owen have been through unimaginable pain. The grief doesn’t go away, but the strength they’ve found within it is an inspiration.
When The Bough Breaks: The True Story Of Child Killer Kathleen Folbigg
Matthew Benns - 2003
She killed her four children over 10 years. Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura Folbigg died one by one over a 10-year period in similar circumstances - suddenly, unexpectedly and while sleeping. Each was discovered by Kathleen, their mother, who raised the alarm to her husband, Craig, that they were not breathing. When the Folbiggs' marriage fell apart six weeks after the death of their fourth child, Laura, Craig was devastated. It only got worse when he discovered Kathleen's diary in her bedside drawer. Horrified at his wife's ramblings about losing control with the children, her 'terrible thoughts' and her fears she was her 'father's daughter', he took the diary to the police. The diary was the crucial evidence Detective Bernie Ryan had been searching for to confirm his suspicions that the babies had been murdered. With his career and credibility on the line, he made the decision to charge Kathleen Folbigg with the murder of her four innocent babies. No one who knew Kathleen could believe she had murdered her own children. Yet few knew of her tragic past - the fact that her own father had stabbed her mother to death four decades earlier. When The Bough Breaks exposes the secret life of Australia's worst convicted female serial killer, a woman jailed for the unthinkable crime of killing her own children. It raises important issues about parents who do not feel emotionally attached to their children and about the diagnosis of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome as a cause of death.
A Murder in Wellesley: The Inside Story of an Ivy-League Doctor's Double Life, His Slain Wife, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation
Tom Farmer - 2012
As the shock following the brutal killing slowly subsided, the community was further shaken when the focus of the investigation turned to her husband, Dirk Greineder, a prominent physician and family man who was soon revealed to be leading a secret double life involving prostitutes, pornography, and trysts solicited through the Internet.A Murder in Wellesley takes the reader far beyond the headlines and national news coverage spawned by "May" Greineder's killing and tells the untold story of the meticulous investigation led by Marty Foley, the lead State Police detective on the case, from the morning of the murder through Dirk Greineder's ultimate conviction. Exhaustive interviews with key figures in the case, including many who have not talked publicly until now, contribute to an unprecedented behind-the-scenes account of how investigators methodically built their case against Greineder and how the sides taken by Dirk and May's relatives aided the investigation but bitterly divided their families. A fascinating true-crime procedural that is also a deeply unsettling tale of the psychopath you thought you knew, of deceptions and double lives, and of families torn apart by an unthinkable crime. Culminating in one of the most dramatic courtroom spectacles in recent memory (aired nationally on Court TV), A Murder in Wellesley reveals the truth behind the murder that gripped a nation.
Maybe You Die: The True Story of a Couple Living the All-American Nightmare
Nancy Lee - 2020
Smiling, the palm reader tells Nina that she has a long lifeline, as she traces it on her hand. As soon as the words are uttered, the palm reader's facial expression turns to one of fear. In broken English, she whispers, "Break - very bad break in middle of life. Maybe you die."Nina does come close to death at age thirty-four when she and her family are involved in a serious auto accident. She assumes she has successfully cheated the death that the palm reader prophesied. Unfortunately, the sinister and tragic break in the lifeline and its deliverer are yet to be revealed.
Murder myself, Murder I am.
Jon Keehner - 2014
He was supposed to be home by four o’clock that afternoon. Two days later, police discovered his abandoned car in the small town of Darrington, Washington. As my mother desperately struggled to get law enforcement to help find her husband, his killer set out to cover up his crime and evade detection. Once he was eventually captured, the shocking truth about the killer’s violent past and early release from prison deepened my mother’s resolve on her relentless quest to ensure, that despite a favorable plea deal that would have released him on January 27, 2014, that he would never walk free again.
Signs of Murder: A small town in Scotland, a miscarriage of justice and the search for the truth
David Wilson - 2020
will leave true crime readers with more to ponder than they bargained for' - The HeraldBefore David Wilson became the UK's pre-eminent criminologist, he was just a young boy growing up in the Scottish town of Carluke. When he was a child, the brutal murder of a young woman rocked this small community, but very quickly a man was arrested for the crime, convicted and put behind bars. For most, life slowly carried on - case closed. But there were whispers in the town that the wrong man was imprisoned. Over the years, these whispers grew louder, to the point that any time David would visit, he'd be asked in hushed tones, 'What are you going to do about the Carluke Case?'Carluke believed the real killer had evaded justice. A murderer was still on the loose.Forty years later, it's time for David to return home, and find out the truth.
Deadly Mistress: A True Story of Marriage, Betrayal and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library)
Michael Fleeman - 2005
MURDER GONE West Coast doctor Kenneth Stahl would do anything to free himself from his wife Carolyn. Then Adriana Vasco-Kenneth's former receptionist and mistress of nine years-obliged by introducing him to ex-con Dennis Earl Godley. The deal was set. Godley would murder Carolyn for thirty-thousand dollars. On the day after her 44th birthday, the trusting victim was lured to a lonely stretch of road. The deadly rendezvous took a shocking turn. Not only was Carolyn gunned down with a .357 Magnum, but Kenneth would also be killed.The hit man's getaway driver was the other woman, Adriana Vasco. In a sensational trial, a tangled web of lies, sex, and betrayal unfolded as Adriana and Dennis turned against each other...
Gone Forever
Diane Fanning - 2006
On November 25, 2002, she disappeared. Three days later, her car was found, keys in the ignition. Later that day, her husband reported her missing--and a desperate search began.Her friends and family hoped against hope that Susan was not gone forever. But investigators became increasingly suspicious of Richard McFarland. When the charred, decomposed body of Susan McFarland was finally discovered at an overgrown farmstead outside of San Antonio, a new hunt began--for justice.McFarland maintained his innocence, and investigators only had circumstantial evidence against him. While headlines screamed out new details in the case, and police tried to gather more evidence, a blockbuster trial was about to begin. Then, Richard McFarland finally spoke...and a terrifying, chilling truth came out...
DOUBT: The Madeleine McCann Mystery (Gone Girl Book 1)
Nick van der Leek - 2017
We also know the original lead investigator, Goncalo Amaral’s, counter-narrative, now a legally defensible matter of public record. The questions that arise from these opposing narratives are dead simple: Which narrative is more credible? Which narrator is more credible? What was the motive behind all the publicity? Neither Madeleine nor her abductor ultimately benefited from the ongoing media barrage, so who did? True crime maestro, Nick van der Leek, plumbs quagmires of confusion and a thicket of thorny inconsistencies to probe what lies beneath: the psychologies. What is the significance of "doctors" as suspects? Did it matter or mean anything that the McCanns and their cabal of friends in the Algarve were mostly doctors? Peeling away the gossamer threads, over the course of just four days [April 29th – May 2nd], van der Leek intuits that very little was routine: not the weather, not where meals were eaten, not where or when they slept and not what they did as a family. But what were their routines when it came to other, murkier things, like sleeping patterns, cell phones and sedatives? Drawing intangibles out of the darkness, van der Leek sews the vexing loose ends from several conflicting stories into a definite - if not definitive - end-result.
Tunnel Vision
N.P. Simpson - 2017
Simpson and edited by New York Times bestseller and True Crime legend, Jerry Bledsoe, Tunnel Vision is a chilling tale of triple murder like no other. A horrific crime that shook the largest Marine base in America quickly becomes much more than meets the eye in this meticulously researched account from N.P. Simpson. A family’s life is in shambles when a mother and two children are found brutally murdered in their home. To make matters worse, the prime suspect is their own relative. Fifteen-year-old Butch Smith was a troubled teen. Despite being kicked out of school for his aggressive behavior, his family was fiercely loyal to him. During visits home while attending a camp for troubled boys, Butch lived a fairly normal life with his mother and two siblings in their duplex at Camp Lejeune. After returning home from a rare trip to New York with his aunt and cousins in tow, tragedy struck this unsuspecting family. In the dark of the night, his aunt, cousin and one of Butch's siblings were found savagely slain. When clashing confessions point to Butch as a suspect, his life is changed forever. From its portrayal of one young man’s harrowing past, to the shocking murder that shook the North Carolina Supreme Court, Tunnel Vision is true crime reporting at its most gripping.