Book picks similar to
The Victims: the Wylie-Hoffert Murder Case and Its Strange Aftermath by Bernard Lefkowitz
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Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain, and Injustice
Maureen Faulkner - 2007
Mumia Abu-Jamal was unanimously convicted of the crime by a racially mixed jury based on: the testimony of several eyewitnesses, his ownership of the murder weapon, matching ballistics, and Abu-Jamal’s own confession.After his conviction, however, a national anti-death penalty movement was started to “Free Mumia;” Mike Farrell, Ed Asner, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jesse Jackson rallied on his behalf, and led the charge. For his part, while on death row, Abu-Jamal published several books, delivered radio commentaries, was a college commencement speaker, found himself named an Honorary Citizen of France, and had his defense coffers enhanced by ticket sales from a sold out (16,000-person) concert featuring Rage Against the Machine.Here, from Maureen Faulkner and acclaimed talk show host / journalist Michael Smerconish, is the first book to carefully and definitively lay out the case against Abu-Jamal, and those who’ve elevated him to the status of political prisoner. Smerconish, a lawyer, has provided pro bono legal counsel to Faulkner for over a decade and knows both the legal intricacies and personal subtleties of the case like no other person. He’s personally acquainted himself with the more than five thousand pages of trial transcript. “My reading starkly revealed that Abu-Jamal murdered Danny Faulkner in cold blood and that the case tried in Philadelphia in 1982 bore no resemblance to the one being home-cooked by the Abu-Jamal defense team.”As Abu-Jamal’s lawyers contemplate their final appeal, Faulkner and Smerconish weave a compelling, never-before-told account of one fateful night and the 25-year-long rewriting of history.
Narco Wars: The Gripping Story of How British Agents Infiltrated the Colombian Drug Cartels
Tom Chandler - 2018
Pablo Escobar lay dead, the Cali Cartel had taken over much of the global supply, and an avalanche of coke was poised to hit Europe. Now the British government wanted Chandler and his team to do the impossible: infiltrate the most powerful crime syndicates on earth and stop their drug shipments. It was a perilous assignment. The cartel bosses operated like a lethal multi-national, with armies of hitmen and myriad spies in ports, airports, police stations and government offices. Their intelligence systems flushed out turncoats and traitors, and they ruthlessly exterminated their enemies. Yet Chandler, an HM Customs investigator fluent in Spanish, knew he could only succeed by recruiting local informants, and went out into the field to find them. Within four years he had a network of fifty agents buried deep inside the trafficking organisations. The result was unprecedented. Their intel led to the arrest of hundreds of narcos and to the seizure of 300 tonnes of drugs, worth a staggering $3 billion. Chandler's web disrupted the Bogotá mafia, who controlled the main airport and boasted they could put anything on a plane, from drugs to bombs; penetrated the go-fast crews who raced coke-laden speedboats to the transit station of Jamaica; dismantled the 'rip-on' teams who smuggled through the coastal ports; and identified the so-called motherships, the largest method of bulk transit ever discovered. He faced appalling risks. Treacherous stool pigeons worked for both sides, and some of his Colombian law-enforcement colleagues were abducted, tortured and killed. Chandler too faced a grave threat when the crime lords learned he was responsible for a string of interdictions. Yet he persisted, driven to continue with the greatest series of sustained seizures ever made, until he finally burned out and his tour of duty came to an end. Two of his best sources were subsequently murdered, and his bosses dropped the entire overseas informant programme, with dire consequences. Narco Wars is an unflinching story of danger fear and stress, and of the tradecraft and unsung heroism of the agents and their handlers.
Pretty Boy
Roy Shaw - 1999
He has cult status and commands a respect that few, even in the violent world he moves in, can equal. To him, violence is simply an accepted part of his profession. He doesn't exaggerate it, he can't excuse it and he refuses to apologize for it. His name may mean nothing to you—he's no actor, no showman, no wannabe celebrity. He does, however, live by a merciless code, and though he may not have cloven hooves and a tail, if he goes after someone, all hell comes with him.
Mobsters in Our Midst: The Kansas City Crime Family
William Ouseley - 2011
The book includes never-before-published detail of the
The Airman and the Carpenter The Lindbergh Kidnapping and the Framing of Richard Hauptman
Ludovic Kennedy - 1985
The Law Killers
Alexander McGregor - 2009
But only when their rage explodes and unspeakable crimes are committed do we realise we hold them in our midst. Some are unpredictable psychopaths, others achieve notoriety after a moment of madness when a single out-of-character act changes their lives forever. One thing is for certain, homicide comes in many guises - the only thing most have in common is a corpse. In The Law Killers, journalist Alexander McGregor examines some of the people and deeds, which have terrorised Dundonian communities. Having reported on many of them first-hand, he has unique insight into the cases and they are as chilling as they are compelling. The father who wanted to go one better than his double-killer son...and did. The groom who promised to love, honour and cherish both his brides...before he strangled them. The thirteen-year-old who was almost as much a victim as the child she killed. The trail of slaughter that started with a break-in and ended hundreds of miles away after an escaped convict killed again...and again and again.The unsolved murder of the wealthy spinster who led a secret life. The trail of dead women in the life of a social worker who thought he could outwit the police...and nearly did
Footsteps in the Attic: A true account of the slayings at the Hinterkaifeck Farmstead
Edward Chilvers - 2016
He believed that rogues were in his house. I offered to help him to search the property, to which Gruber replied that he was not afraid.” Sometime during the evening of the 31st March 1922, at an isolated farmstead deep in rural Germany, five members of the same family, alongside their maid, were brutally slain in their own home, hacked to death with a short handled pickaxe. The killings stunned a Bavaria already racked by the aftermath of war and hyper-inflation. Almost a century on the murders remain unsolved. In this, the first in depth English language investigation into the slayings, Edward Chilvers attempts to separate myth from fact, relying on contemporary police sources and witness statements to paint a picture of an insular, incestuous family who, for reasons as yet unknown, took it upon themselves to ignore the numerous warnings of what was to come in the days leading up to their demise.
True Stories of Crime and Detection (Usborne True Stories)
Gill Harvey - 2003
Find out what real criminals and detectives are like, how crimes are committed and solved, and the thought processes of brilliant detectives in these stories.The man of many disguises --No body, no murder --The embittered artist --The American Sherlock Holmes --The man who was someone else --Information, information, information --The doctor's secret --Held to ransom --On the run
The Professor and the Prostitute: And Other True Tales of Murder and Madness
Linda Wolfe - 1986
Flesh Collectors: Their Ghoulish Appetites Drove Them to Crimes that Only Began With Murder
Fred Rosen - 2003
A friendship grew from their shared lust for sadistic brutality, and once released, they teamed up to hunt human prey. In March, 1998, in Pensacola, Florida, while quietly watching TV, Leighton Smitherman was shot in the back by assailants hiding outside his home. Amazingly, he survived, not knowing that he'd been chosen at random by would-be-thrill-killers. Their next target wasn't so lucky. Justin Livingston, 20, died from multiple stab wounds - some more than six inches deep. The horror peaked on 7 May 1999, when Rodgers went on a date with pretty Jennifer Robinson, 18, with Lawrence tagging along. The young woman was drugged and assaulted first by Rodgers, then Lawrence, before Rodgers shot her execution-style. But the worse was yet to come, an unspeakable act of mutilation that followed in the bloody footsteps of one of the most infamous serial killers of our time...
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 Devil I Know: My Haunting Journey with Ronnie DeFeo and the True Story of the Amityville Murders
Jackie Barrett - 2012
Decades later, he was haunted by a terrifying demon from his past. But no one wanted to listen. Except one woman.For years, as the legend of the Amityville Horror murders were retold in print and film, DeFeo withdrew, growing more bitter as his twisted celebrity status increased. Then he received a note from Brooklyn psychic, Jackie Barrett, saying she had been made aware of his presence by an unknown force. She didn't know if he was guilty, innocent, or insane - but she sensed that he was besieged by a fearsome evil.As Jackie began to talk to Ronnie DeFeo, and discover the truth, she realized something startling: She hadn't been guided toward him merely to help him find salvation. There was someone else whose soul needed saving. Someone much closer.Here, in her own words, Jackie Barrett reveals the details of her astonishing relationship with Ronnie DeFeo and, for the first time, his revelation of what really happened in that terrible night.Includes photos.
The Acid Alchemist
Robert Brown - 2020
As a young child his life was shaped by his parent’s extreme beliefs. Little did he know that the recurring nightmares of his early life would lead to one of the most horrific cases in British criminal history. Other than his obsession with cleanliness, John George Haigh was described by his acquaintances as someone who was as normal as any young man during the 1940s in England. In fact, most people said he was a true gentleman with exceptional manners and a profound love for classical music. However, in the back of John’s crisp mind was a much darker side; a craving for wealth combined with a lust for blood… After spending many years in prison for fraud and theft, John Haigh concluded that the only reason he always got caught was because people talked. What if I can make them disappear? he thought one evening. What if I can stop them from talking to the police? Using his scientific knowledge (and a tiny bit of the legal system he had read about while in prison) he derived a new sinister plan to get rich. That was the disturbing turning point in his life. That was the point when John The Gentleman became John The Serial Killer. This is the true story of the notorious Acid Bath Murderer, a cold-blooded murderer who imagined he was above the law. A man who believed he could literally get away with murder… Caution: The material in this publication has a strong adult theme and is intended for an adult audience. Reader discretion is advised.
Dancing with Demons
Tim Watson-Munro - 2017
As Australia's most distinguished criminal psychologist, 'Doc' Tim Watson-Munro has assessed over 30,000 'persons of interest' in some of the nation's most notorious court cases, including Hoddle Street gunman Julian Knight, corporate fraudster Alan Bond, Melbourne gangster Alphonse Gangitano and, in recent years, Australia's first terrorist convicts.But the frontline of psychology is no place for the faint-hearted. Tim's pioneering methods and proximity to evil made him front page news but also led him to a devastating personal crossroads - first wife gravely ill, second wife pregnant, best mate betraying him to the cops, $2,000-a-week drug habit spiralling out of control, brilliant career and hard-won reputation in crisis.Tim's descent into the maelstrom is a candid, funny, frightening odyssey, offering unique insight into not only the nature of addiction, but also the lives and minds of the psychopaths we share our world with.After all, when you're dancing with demons, it takes one to know one.
Silent Rage: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer
Michael Newton - 1994
Raised by an abusive mother and weak father, Cole accomplished his first murder before he was ten years old. He went on to murder at least 14 women. Sexual attacks, necrophilia, and cannibalization peppered his wanderings. Backed by 32 weeks of exclusive interviews with Cole and years of exhaustive research, Michael Newton paints one of the most chilling true portraits of the development of a sociopathic personality ever made available to the public. Newton traces Cole's gruesome career across four decades, until Cole's execution by the state of Nevada. ***** They are law enforcement's most elusive prey. More dangerous than hitmen, gang assassins, and crowd snipers, the "recreational killer" is almost impossible to capture. Choosing their victims at random, drifting from town to town, their brutal crimes leave a smoking trail of bloodshed across the nation-and many of them are never apprehended until they decide to turn themselves in. This year, 3,500 "thrill killings" will go unsolved. Cole's story is a searing lesson in the horror of crimes like this-and the terrifying inability of our society to prevent them.