Book picks similar to
Murder in Memphis: The True Story of a Family's Quest for Justice by Dorris D. Porch


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Murder In The Family


Jeremy Josephs - 1995
    On the night of 10 October 1987 Nicholas and Elizabeth Newall went out to dinner with their sons to celebrate her 48th birthday. It was the last time that the parents were seen alive. Sometime during that evening, they were bludgeoned to death at their home, their bodies removed, leaving only bloodstains behind. For six years Roderick Newall denied all responsibility for the murder - even after his dramatic arrest on the high seas by a Royal Navy frigate, followed by extradition from Gibraltar to stand trial on Jersey. But he could no longer live a lie, and took detectives to a beauty spot on the island where he had buried his parents with the help of his younger brother, Mark. What drove Roderick to murder his apparently loving parents? And why should Mark Newall have been prepared to put his loyalty to his brother above that to his parents, thus becoming an accomplice to murder? MURDER IN THE FAMILY is the gripping account of Jersey's most notorious and fascinating murder case: the hunt to track down and convict the Newall brothers is a thriller without parallel. Jeremy Josephs has had extensive co-operation from those close to the case and the Newall family in writing this enthralling book.

Blood Frenzy


Robert Scott - 2010
    . . Frankie Cochran knew her boyfriend, David Gerard, was possessive, controlling, and prone to violent rages. When she tried to break up with him, Gerard threatened her with a hammer. One week later, he used it to club her in the head. Again. And again. Then he stabbed her in the throat--and left her for dead. . .And A Sharp Knife. . . Miraculously, Frankie survived--but cops began to suspect Gerard of other vicious crimes. One of his previous girlfriends had died in a house fire, along with her children and her mother. A local prostitute's brutalized body was found in a pool of blood. But it was the unsolved murder of another woman--repeatedly run over on a country road--that finally exposed Gerard as a rage-driven monster out of control. . .To Unleash His Rage Justice finally caught up with Gerard. Hounded by the tireless efforts of detectives and incriminated by DNA evidence as well as up-to-date forensics that matched the tire marks at a crime scene to Gerard's car, one of the Pacific Northwest's most dangerous killers was finally locked behind bars. With 16 pages of shocking photos!

Mind Games: The True Story of a Psychologist, His Wife, and a Brutal Murder


Carlton Smith - 2007
    Dr. Felix Polk was a married psychologist living in Berkeley, California. At forty years old, he had a successful practice and a towering reputation until he began a scandalous affair with one of his patients- Susan Bolling. She was fifteen years old. A troubled teenage girl. After divorcing his first wife, Felix married Susan. Susan would later claim that her marriage was built on lies, manipulation, and psychological abuse. She tried to divorce Felix, but no settlement could be reached. Susan seemed to believe that Felix had stashed up to $40 million in a secret bank account in the Caribbean. She wanted her half or else. A case that stunned the nation. In October 2002, Felix was found stabbed to death in his own home. Susan insisted she acted in self-defense. But what would a jury think when Susan claiming she was the victim of Felix's manipulation became her own defense attorney? This is the true story of marriage, murder, and mind games.

A Family Business: A Chilling Tale of Greed as One Family Commits Unspeakable Crimes Against the Dead


Ken Englade - 1992
    An unsettling look at the Sconce family from the acclaimed true crime author of Deadly Lessons.   For sixty years, families in Southern California trusted the Sconce Family Funeral Home with their loved ones’ remains. That trust was betrayed in an extraordinary, horrifying fashion, as it was discovered that the family, seeing an opportunity, had been stealing gold fillings and harvesting the organs of the newly deceased, hiding the evidence by burning the bodies in their crematorium.   When the shocking acts came to light, a trial brought every gruesome detail to the forefront, and Ken Englade has—with even-handed, clear-eyed reporting—chronicled every chilling detail.

I Am Cain


Gera-Lind Kolarik - 1994
    Chronicles the terrifying murder of newlyweds Nancy and Richard Langert, who were shot to death in their basement in April, 1990, and the investigation that lead to the identity of their killer--a man they both knew well.

Innocence Lost


Carlton Stowers - 1990
    When Raffield's cover became suspect, word spread through a small circle of friends that the young officer would pay with his life. No one stopped it. On a rainy fall evening in 1987, Raffield was lured to an isolated field. Three bullets were fired-one unloaded into his skull. The baby-faced killer, Greg Knighten, stole eighteen dollars from Raffield's wallet, divided it among his two young accomplices, and calmly said, "it's done."With chilling detail, Carlton Stowers illuminates a dark corner of America's heartland and the children who hide there. What he found was an alienated subculture of drug abuse, the occult, and an unfathomable teenage rage that exploded at point blank range on a shocking night of lost innocence...

Fear Came to Town: The Santa Claus, Georgia, Murders


Doug Crandell - 2009
    The Christmas holiday spirit lives all year around. It?s also where Jerry Scott Heidler was raised. And where?in December 1997?he brutally slaughtered his former foster family in an act that devastated the town forever.

You'll Never Find My Body


Don Lasseter - 2009
    Instead, their father showed up with a small bag of cold French fries and said their mother had gone away. Ann's children didn't believe it. Neither did her friends. And neither did the police. But there was zero evidence that anything had happened to Ann.No Body...Los Angeles detectives dug furiously into the case, grilling John Racz and searching for clues. But without a body, the investigation stalled, and three children grew up wondering what had happened to their loving mother-and if their father had killed her.And A Killer In Plain Sight...Fourteen years later, a brilliant female prosecutor defied the legal establishment and delved into the cold case, uncovering shocking information about Ann and her relationship with John. Suddenly, a crusading prosecutor was up against the most difficult kind of murder case of all: to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that John Racz had murdered his wife-despite the fact that her body was never found...With 16 pages of photosDon Lasseter has authored a dozen true crime books, more than fifty magazine articles, and a book about WWII airmen downed in France and rescued by the Resistance. His best seller is Die for Me (Pinnacle, 2000) a chronicle of crimes by California serial killer Charles Ng. Lasseter's television appearances include several talk shows and crime documentaries on A&E's "American Justice and Biography," Court TV, the Discovery Channel, and CSPAN's Book TV. He is a resident of Orange County, California.

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...

Death Cruise


Don Davis - 1996
    And even though all three were desperately afaid of the water, they were so taken with friendly boat owner Oba Chandler that they gladly accepted a ride with him on beautiful Tampa Bay.Little did naive mom and two daughters know that behind Chandler's mask of a gracious host lurked a daring and ruthless ex-con, a thief and a liar, a seductive Don Juan who used and discarded wives and children. As they sun serenely sank below the Gulf of Mexico, Chandler suddenly shut down the engines, dropped anchor...and turned into a sadistic torturer.Hog-tying and brutally raping all three, Chandler tossed them overboard -- alive -- with 40-pound cement blocks tied to their necks. With cruel laughter, he spoke his last words to them: "Swim for it." But the dark green waters of Tampa Bay refused to hold his monstrous secret, and after only three days, the bodies of his victims surfaced.If it hadn't been for a dedicated team of detectives and the clues provided by Chandler's neighbors, a depraved killer might have gotten away with his ghastly crime. Instead, he now paces the floors of a Florida prision awaiting his rendezvous with the electric chair.

The Shepherd's Bush Murders


Nick Russell-Pavier - 2016
    Jack Witney served twenty-five years in prison although he shot no one and was released on appeal, only to be murdered in his Bristol flat a few years later. John Duddy died in Parkhurst after fifteen years. But Harry Roberts, by his own admission the instigator of the crime and the most notorious, was released from prison after forty-eight years in 2015 making national front page news. What could possess an apparently rational and sane man, albeit an habitual criminal, to commit such a callous and ruthless act? What kind of a man is he? How can an ordinary person understand what he did? Should he be forgiven?50 years later, the full story for the first time.

First We'll Kill My Husband


Lyn Riddle - 2008
    . . Gulf War veteran Doug Gissendaner would do anything for a friend, a stranger, or the wife who broke every rule in the marriage book. Now, investigators were scouring the Georgia woods not far from Doug's home. They'd already found the charred wreckage of his car. They knew they were looking for a body. . . A Hitman Who Killed For Love. . . Gregory Owen had been having an on-again, off-again affair with Doug's wife for years. Then Kelly Gissendaner told Greg it was time for her husband to die. With a knife and a plan, Greg forced Doug to drive into the woods. When Greg finished his savage, cold-blooded deed, Kelly showed up to make sure Doug was dead. A Woman On Death Row. . . This is the astounding true story of the only woman on Georgia's Death Row and the chilling, account of how she got there. From the hold Kelly had over a good and decent man to her dramatic, controversial trial, "First We'll Kill My Husband" captures the lies, schemes, and manipulations of a woman totally bent on murder. . . Includes 16 pages of shocking photos! Lyn Riddle is a freelance writer and journalist whose work regularly appears in "The New York Times, " the "Los Angeles Times, " and "The Atlanta Constitution." She is the author of "Family Blood: The Murder that Shattered an All-American Home " and "Ashes to Ashes. "She lives in Simpsonville (near Greenville), SC.

Little Girl Lost: The True Story of The Vandling Murder


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

The Bus Stop Killer


Geoffrey Wansell - 2011
    Six months later her body was discovered many miles away. A massive police investigation, the largest manhunt in Surrey's history, got nowhere. Only when nightclub bouncer and bare-knuckle boxer Levi Bellfield was arrested for the murder of another young woman did it become clear to police that they had a serial killer on their hands.This is the full story of the murders, the victims and the pain-staking nine-year investigation and trial by police and prosecutors. It tells of Bellfield's terrifying, controlling personality - a man who went from charming to monstrous in the blink of an eye - and his depraved stalking of young women.It is a terrifying portrait of the only man in modern British legal history to be given two whole-life sentences.

Beaten and Left for Dead: The Story of Teri Jendusa-Nicolai


Dave Alfvin - 2017
    The Crime of the Decade in Wisconsin. WITH PHOTOS Teri Jendusa never dreamed she would marry a violent, malignant narcissist like David Larsen. But she did. Why? Simple. Larsen cleverly concealed his true nature until the marriage vows were final. David, an eventual church council president and model citizen, rapidly began to morph into a monster and sociopath, telling Teri on their wedding day, “Now, I own you.” Beaten and Left For Dead is a book about extreme marital violence, dominant control and psychological torment through the mind of the out-of-control David Larsen. It's also about survival, faith and a mother’s will to live for her children’s sake...as she faces death, face to face. This is an ideal book for women’s studies and book clubs as it looks inside a large women’s shelter, giving the reader a glimpse of a support network. The author also interviews a counselor who works with violent men with surprising results. Teri Jendusa-Nicolai continues to crusade for women’s issues to this day and currently works with a Wisconsin commission on domestic violence. EDITORIAL PRAISE "Teri Jendusa-Nicolai's story is a powerful example of the horrific lengths of barbarism a man can go to when he considers a woman his personal property. And it is, equally, an inspiring, riveting story of a woman's courage and clear thinking under the absolute worst of conditions, and of her tenacious hold to life...I am so grateful to Teri Jendusa-Nicolai and to Dave Alfvin for getting this story out to us. Don't miss it." --Lundy Bancroft, best-selling author on domestic violence, trainer, and activist on male violence against women "This book is important because it gets our message out as to what we do to help abusers change their value systems." --Maureen Manning-Rosenfeld, Clinical Professional Counselor