Since 1987, the Bathroom Readers’ Institute has led the movement to stand up for those who sit down and read in the bathroom (and everywhere else for that matter). Uncle John’s Triumphant 20th Bathroom Reader is jam-packed with 600 pages of all-new articles (as usual, divided by length for your sitting convenience). In what other single book could you find such a lively mix of surprising trivia, strange lawsuits, dumb crooks, origins of everyday things, forgotten history, quirky quotations, and wacky wordplay? Uncle John rules the world of information and humor, so get ready to be thoroughly entertained as you read about: * The incredible (edible) history of bread* The secret congressional bomb shelter* Farts in the news* The history of the aloha shirt* The real Zorro* The worst city in America* How your taste buds work* It’s the Peanuts story, Charlie Brown And much, much more!

    The Zodiac became the most elusive and frustrating adversary ever encountered by the law enforcement community in the San Francisco Bay Area. A series of letters, allegedly written by the murderer himself and published in local newspapers, only added to the mystery and panic. Over 30 years after he exploded onto the headlines of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Zodiac serial killer remains an enigma that is unparalleled in the history of crime in America, and the case remains unsolved. Violence expert Michael Kelleher and psychologist David Van Nuys attempt to provide a glimpse into the mind of this mysterious murderer.Kelleher and Van Nuys reconstruct the crime scenes, delve into the records, and psychoanalyze the Zodiac's letters to newspapers and the law enforcement agencies. The facts of the case and the fragmentary glimpses of the Zodiac's psychodynamics that came through his letters forced the authors, reluctantly, to draw a conclusion that is sure to be controversial-namely, that the Zodiac suffered from multiple personality disorder. They also debunk many popular legends and myths about the case, laying out the limited facts that we do have on the notorious Zodiac.

    Yates, Jr., a serial killer responsible for the deaths of at least 23 women.Written in the same fast-paced style as Murder in Brentwood and Murder in Greenwich, this is a shocking account of Fuhrman's investigation of the prostitutes' deaths as he worked alongside the Spokane Task Force.The serial killer preyed on prostitutes with drug problems. He intentionally selected street people, who would not be missed right away, often women who were new to town. The police seemingly put these murders on the back burner because the victims did not stir up public sentiment. Only after the serial killer began to play with the police — planting bodies for attention and escalating the murders — did intense effort go into the case.Though the understaffed police force did catch the killer, Fuhrman shows that their reliance on computers and on DNA test results from everyone they interviewed was slower than doing old-fashioned gumshoe detective work. With the clues they had, Fuhrman writes, the police could have made the arrest two years earlier — saving the lives of at least nine women.

    But where A Mix of Murders covers the Twentieth Century, Gaslight Villainy treats the reader, in exquisite detail, to a selection of fourteen crimes committed during the Victorian period. Founded, as with A Mix of Murders, on meticulous research, Farrell presents these cases with an equally clear, readable and articulate style that demonstrates the author’s fine command of his subject. In one case, Gaslight Villainy educates us in the techniques of execution, and the methods of specific executioners – not, it is clear, an always-professional process performed by ever-adept professionals. In another tale, Farrell shows that lingering abhorrence towards dissection of human cadavers held great sway over resolution of the crimes of the time, and yet shows still how a jury used other lines of reason to find the perpetrator in question guilty. In Voyage of Death, as with the other cases, the reader enjoys excellent characterisation: shipboard existence and the very feel of the vessel itself come to life vividly, thus forming a backdrop to a most intriguing case. Most murders occur on dry land, over which the perpetrator may flee a great distance following their ungodly deed, but murder at sea changes this parameter, and the concomitant effects thus frame this particular case tightly, where one pressing-question is ever to the fore: who exactly was the guilty party? Farrell characterises the times superbly in this book, painting a detailed picture of a culture that relished public executions, where the remoteness of rural murders – counter-intuitively – did not lend a greater chance of escape from the law, and where good-old-fashioned policing was the public’s strongest weapon in the face of malice aforethought. As with A Mix of Murders, the intelligent analyses in Gaslight Villainy give more than enough to satisfy the reader, but the rich context this book gives to its descriptions make it a must-have for true-crime aficionados. If you like your true crime served up with style, clarity and a sense of the times, you owe it to yourself to buy this book post haste. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter Listing: The Lothario of Portland Town Secret Poisoning A Species of Madness The Stoic's Tale The Fickle Waters of the Arran Unservantlike Behaviour The Two Bakers of St. Luke's Insured for Murder A Drop too Much Drink, Drugs and Doctors The Home Improvements of Frederick Deeming The Late Mrs Anderson Incident at Ardlamont Voyage of Death

    Dumb crooks, celebrities gone bad, unsolved mysteries, odd laws, and more—Strange Crime has plenty of stories that will make you ask yourself, “What could they possibly have been thinking?” This easily portable paperback book is ideal for readers on the go. Take it to school, to work, to jury duty!

    Set in Edwardian London and on the stormy coasts of Cornwall, Cape Cod, and Nova Scotia, Thunderstruck evokes the dynamism of those years when great shipping companies competed to build the biggest, fastest ocean liners, scientific advances dazzled the public with visions of a world transformed, and the rich outdid one another with ostentatious displays of wealth. Against this background, Marconi races against incredible odds and relentless skepticism to perfect his invention: the wireless, a prime catalyst for the emergence of the world we know today. Meanwhile, Crippen, “the kindest of men,” nearly commits the perfect crime. With his superb narrative skills, Erik Larson guides these parallel narratives toward a relentlessly suspenseful meeting on the waters of the North Atlantic. Along the way, he tells of a sad and tragic love affair that was described on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a chief inspector who found himself strangely sympathetic to the killer and his lover, and a driven and compelling inventor who transformed the way we communicate. Thunderstruck presents a vibrant portrait of an era of séances, science, and fog, inhabited by inventors, magicians, and Scotland Yard detectives, all presided over by the amiable and fun-loving Edward VII as the world slid inevitably toward the first great war of the twentieth century. Gripping from the first page, and rich with fascinating detail about the time, the people, and the new inventions that connect and divide us, Thunderstruck is splendid narrative history from a master of the form.

    Peña In the decades they spent at the DEA, Javier Peña and Steve Murphy risked their lives hunting large and small drug traffickers. But their biggest challenge was the hunt for Pablo Escobar in Colombia. The partners, who began their careers as small-town cops, have been immortalized in Netflix's Narcos, a fictional account of their hunt for Escobar. Now, for the first time ever, they tell the real story of how they brought down the world's first narco-terrorist, the challenges they faced, and the innovative strategies they employed to successfully end the reign of terror of the world's most wanted criminal.Readers will go deep inside the inner workings of the Search Bloc, the joint Colombian-US task force that resulted in an intensive 18-month operation that tracked Escobar. Between July 1992 and December 1993, Steve and Javier lived on the edge, setting up camp in Medellin at the Carlos Holguin Military Academy. There, they lived and worked with the Colombian authorities, hunting down a man who was thought by many to be untouchable. Their firsthand experience coupled with stories from the DEA's recently de-classified files on the search for Escobar forms the beating heart of Manhunters, an epic account of how two American agents risked everything to capture the world's most wanted man.

    A surprising number go on to kill a second or even third wife or girlfriend, often in exactly the same way. In more than fifty chilling case studies, Marilee Strong examines the strange and complex psychology that drives these killers—from the murder a century ago that inspired the novel An American Tragedy to Scott Peterson, Mark Hacking, Jeffrey MacDonald, Ira Einhorn, Charles Stuart, Robert Durst, Michael White, Barton Corbin, and many others. Erased also looks at how these men manipulate the legal system and exploit loopholes in missing persons procedures and death investigation, exposing how easy it can be to get away with murder.