Book picks similar to
Coventry Murders by Vanessa Morgan


history
true-crime
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Gotti's Boys: The Mafia Crew That Killed for John Gotti


Anthony M. DeStefano - 2019
    He didn’t do it alone. Surrounding himself with a rogues gallery of contract killers, fixers, and enforcers, he built one of the richest, most powerful crime empires in modern history. Who were these men? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano takes you inside Gotti’s inner circle to reveal the dark hearts and violent deeds of the most remorseless and cold-blooded characters in organized crime. Men so vicious even the other Mafia families were terrified of them. Meet Gotti’s Boys …   * Charles Carneglia: the ruthless junkyard dog who allegedly disposed of bodies for the mob—by dissolving them in acid then displaying their jewels.   * Gene Gotti: the younger Gotti brother who ran a multimillion-dollar drug smuggling ring—enraging his bosses in the Gambino family.   * Angelo “Quack-Quack” Ruggiero: the loose-lipped contract killer who was wire-tapped by the FBI—and dared to insult Gotti behind his back.   * Tony “Roach” Rampino: the hardcore stoner who looked like a cockroach—and used his gangly arms and horror-mask face to frighten his enemies.   * Salvatore Gravano: the Gambino underboss who helped John Gotti execute Gambino mob boss Paul Castellano—then sang like a canary to take Gotti down.   Rounding out this nefarious group were the likes of Frank “Franky D” DeCicco, Vincent “Little Vinny” Artuso, and Joe “The German” Watts, a man who wasn’t a Mafiosi but had all of the power and prestige of one in John Gotti’s slaughterhouse crew. Gotti’s Boys is a killer line-up of the crime-hardened mob soldiers who killed at their ruthless leader’s merciless bidding—brought to vivid life by the prize-winning chronicler of the American mob.

The Pottery Cottage Murders: The terrifying true story of an escaped prisoner and the family he held hostage


Carol Ann Lee - 2020
    A family of five held hostage in their home. A frantic police manhunt across the snowbound Derbyshire moors. Just one survivor. The definitive account of the terrifying 1977 Pottery Cottage murders that shocked Britain. For three days, escaped prisoner Billy Hughes played macabre psychological games with Gill Moran and her family, keeping them in separate rooms of their home while secretly murdering them one by one. On several occasions Hughes ordered Gill and her husband, Richard, to leave the house for provisions, confident that they would return without betraying him in order to protect their loved ones. Blizzards hampered the desperate police search, but they learned where the dangerous convict was hiding and closed in on the cottage. A high-speed car chase on icy roads ended with a crash and the killer being shot as he swung a newly sharpened axe at his final victim. This was Britain's first instance of police officers committing 'justifiable homicide' against an escapee. The story of these terrible events is told here by Carol Ann Lee and Peter Howse, the former Chief Inspector who saved Gill Moran's life more than 40 years ago. Peter's professional role has permitted access to witness statements, crime-scene photographs and police reports. Peter Howse and Carol Ann Lee have made use of these, along with fresh interviews with many of those directly involved, to tell a fast-paced and truly shocking story with great insight and empathy.

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.

The Murder of Billie-Jo


Sion Jenkins - 2008
    Her foster father, Sion Jenkins, who had just been appointed headteacher of the local boys' secondary school, was arrested and charged with the murder. In July 1998 he was convicted and sent to prison for life. The case went on to become one of the most controversial in British criminal justice history. After a momentous legal battle, in which there were altogether an unprecedented six court hearings, he was finally acquitted in February 2006. Jenkins was lambasted in newspaper and television reports. So the real facts of the case were buried under an avalanche of innuendo and misinformation. Now, for the first time, this book puts on record his version of what actually happened.

Mad Frank and Sons


David Fraser - 2016
    It includes the story of Frank's beloved sister, Eva, who was a top-class West End shoplifter, and his sons David and Patrick, who reveal in shocking detail the full extent of the family's network and the influences that shaped them.With sawn-off shotguns as toys, the Kray twins as family friends and a mother who urged them as teenagers to 'get out of bed and rob a bleedin' bank', it is little wonder that the Fraser boys were heavily involved in organized crime by the time they were in their twenties. Packed with new information, and featuring some of the most famous names in the London underworld, this is a fascinating slice of gangland history seen through the eyes of Frank Fraser and his two renegade sons.

Bike Path Rapist: A Cop's Firsthand Account of Catching the Killer Who Terrorized a Community


Jeff Schober - 2009
    After working tirelessly on behalf of a convicted man, DNA slides were discovered at a local medical center.  Capozzi was exonerated and released before Easter 2007.  Bike Path Rapist: A Cop's Firsthand Account of Catching the Killer Who Terrorized a Community will examine the complex and compelling story inside the investigation of a thirty-year string of serial rapes and killings.  With detailed information culled from interviews, police reports and insights from Delano and his colleagues on an elite task force that solved the crime, the book will blend the drama of Cold Case and CSI with a behind-the-scenes look at investigative techniques and angles examined by investigators.

Fatal Passions


Adrian Vincent - 2016
     In trunks, under floorboards, in remote ravines — even in their own beds — the bodies of those for whom their lovers’ passion proved fatal have been found, and often through the stench of decay. One ingenious killer boiled down his wife’s remains in a vat at his sausage factory. Another throttled and incinerated a perfect stranger in order to stage his own death and thus escape the charge of bigamy. Then there were the lesbian schoolgirls who bludgeoned to death the mother of one of them with a brick in a stocking. Her crime: she had tried to keep them apart. Whilst one woman kept her lover in a secret attic for years until he shot her husband dead. A dark narrative, Adrian Vincent expertly brings together some of the world’s most notorious killer. In sixteen fascinating case histories, Fatal Passions tells the true stories of those who have literally loved someone to death. Praise for Adrian Vincent ‘A skilfully written account’ – Kirkus Reviews. Adrian Vincent worked in Fleet Street for twenty-seven years, becoming managing editor of IPC’s educational magazines. He is the author of many books on art and antiques, novels and true crime.

Gangster: The biography of international drug trafficker John Gilligan


John Mooney - 2001
    The book is an extraordinarily account of how a young Dubliner became a multi-millionaire criminal. It uses first-hand interviews with Gilligan, his thugs, friends, family, enemies, anti-drugs activists, members of the IRA and the police. It tells of violence, kidnapping, shootings, criminal espionage, drug dealing and how criminal gangs vied for power to control the Irish trade in drugs. Shocking, fascinating and frightening, 'Gangster' also tells the story behind the murder of Veronica Guerin, the crime reporter. Fully updated and revised with new photographs.

Oklahoma's Atticus: An Innocent Man and the Lawyer Who Fought for Him


Hunter Howe Cates - 2019
    When Youngwolfe recants his confession, saying he was forced to confess by the authorities, his city condemns him, except for one man—public defender and Creek Indian Elliott Howe. Recognizing in Youngwolfe the life that could have been his if not for a few lucky breaks, Howe risks his career to defend Youngwolfe against the powerful county attorney’s office. Forgotten today, the sensational story of the murder, investigation, and trial made headlines nationwide.Oklahoma’s Atticus is a tale of two cities—oil-rich downtown Tulsa and the dirt-poor slums of north Tulsa; of two newspapers—each taking different sides in the trial; and of two men both born poor Native Americans, but whose lives took drastically different paths. Hunter Howe Cates explores his grandfather’s story, both a true-crime murder mystery and a legal thriller. Oklahoma’s Atticus is full of colorful characters, from the seventy-two-year-old mystic who correctly predicted where the body was buried, to the Kansas City police sergeant who founded one of America’s most advanced forensics labs and pioneered the use of lie detector evidence, to the ambitious assistant county attorney who would rise to become the future governor of Oklahoma. At the same time, it is a story that explores issues that still divide our nation: police brutality and corruption; the effects of poverty, inequality, and racism in criminal justice; the power of the media to drive and shape public opinion; and the primacy of the presumption of innocence. Oklahoma’s Atticus is an inspiring true underdog story of unity, courage, and justice that invites readers to confront their own preconceived notions of guilt and innocence.

Whisper to the Black Candle: Voodoo, Murder, And the Case of Anjette Lyles


Jaclyn Weldon White - 1999
    Anjette Lyle's restaurant was a popular gathering place. It was the place to go for lunch to hear the latest news. Then, one day, Anjette Lyles was charged with the murders of two husbands, her mother-in-law, and her nine-year-old daughter, all committed over the course of seven years. The case was the most sensational Macon had ever seen. The newspaper accounts spiced up the allegations of murder with references to voodoo ceremonies and black magic. The trial attracted record crowds and received worldwide coverage. Anjette Lyles was a glamorous figure and spectators stood in line for hours, hoping for just a glimpse of the defendant. Both lucidly written and emotionally engaging, this is the story of a woman who was called both "cold-blooded" and the "sweetest woman I ever knew," and despite overwhelming evidence and her conviction, many still believe that she was innocent.

The Doctor, The Murder, The Mystery


Barbara D'Amato - 1992
    John Branion was found guilty of murdering his wife in their posh Chicago home. After exhausting his appeals, he evaded authorities by fleeing to Africa. He was finally captured in 1983—but his case was far from over. It would take another seven years for Dr. Branion to finally win his freedom—and for those who prosecuted him to admit that he could not have committed the murder, and that they knew it all along.Acclaimed mystery writer Barbara D'Amato was drawn to this story two decades after the murder, as Dr. Branion languished in prison, ill and without hope. Her meticulous research repeatedly led her to one startling conclusion: that it was impossible for Donna Branion's murder to have unfolded the way the police alleged. In this award-winning account, D'Amato deftly explores the intriguing facts of this shocking case—from the tragic blunders made by authorities to Branion's arrest, conviction, and years practicing medicine in Africa as a fugitive from justice. The result is a damning indictment of our criminal system—and the vindication of an innocent man.The Doctor, The Murder, The Mystery by Barbara D'Amato won the Anthony and Agatha Awards for Best True Crime. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed Cat Marsala mysteries, including Hard Case and Hard Christmas. She lives in Chicago.The 1992 Anthony Award for Best True Crime and the 1993 Agatha Award for Nonfiction for The Doctor, the Murder, the Mystery

Court in the Middle


Andrew Fraser - 2007
    Then it all went horribly wrong. In 1999 he was charged with being knowingly concerned with the importation of a commercial quantity of cocaine. Fraser pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing, trafficking a small quantity, and using cocaine over a period of time. He was sentenced to seven years in maximum security prison. Court in the Middle describes his early years—growing up in a family of lawyers, running hard to build a criminal law practice; his successful years with a national practice, and defending high profile, sometimes notorious, clients. He also discusses his relationship with cocaine, addiction and deals, crime and punishment, and the shocking details of his time spent in a maximum security prison.

Bringing Down The Krays: Finally the truth about Ronnie and Reggie by the man who took them down


Bobby Teale - 2012
    They had the East End buttoned up too tight and someone had to undo it. Slowly, I realised that someone had to be me...' Bobby Teale and his brothers, David and Alfie, were the three men the Kray twins trusted most. They weren't in the Firm, they were closer than that. They were old family friends, confidants, companions... But then things changed. Witnessing Ronnie and Reggie become increasingly psychotic - taking murder, torture and rape to sickening new levels - Bobby knew he had to take action. Unknown to his brothers, he became a police informer; risking not just his own life but those of the people dearest to him too. Using the codename 'Phillips', he was forced to live on his wits, feeding back information to Scotland Yard. With bent cops on their side the Krays knew they had a grass in their midst, but before they could flush him out, Bobby's evidence saw the London gangsters get locked up for life. Bobby fled the country, but now 40 years on he's back. And he wants to set the record straight. With the help of his brothers, the man brave enough to stand up to the Krays has rewritten history as we know it; dispelling the myths and tearing apart the gangsters' glamorous veneer to reveal the true, sadistic nature of Ronnie and Reggie. Crammed full of explosive, new revelations, Bringing Down The Krays is the last great untold story of Britain's most infamous crime family.

Pottery Cottage: the crime that shook Britain


Alan R. Hurndall - 2019
    England’s Peak District. A violent fugitive attacks his prison escort and escapes over the wintry moors. He stumbles on an isolated cottage and takes a family hostage. What transpires will send a shiver down the spine of Britain. Award-winning investigative journalist and author, Alan Hurndall has spent the best part of a decade piecing together the events surrounding Pottery Cottage and offers this hour by hour account of the trauma and the controversial police operation as they close in on their man. Using the Freedom of Information Act, he gained access to previously confidential police files, witness statements and official reports. He says: “I was a young reporter on The Star, Sheffield when this story broke, and it has always held a fascination for me. It has a place in criminal and social history in the sense that many felt the Permissive Society was to blame.’ Pottery Cottage is a dark, psychological thriller that happens to be true. It will shock and anger in equal measure. It might even make you weep. But it will certainly provoke you into asking searching questions about yourself and how you might act in such a crisis. What would YOU have done?

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.