Book picks similar to
The Empty Nursery by Jaclyn Weldon White


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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.

True Crime Stories: 48 Terrifying True Crime Murder Cases (List of Twelve Collection Book 1)


Ryan Becker - 2019
    Yet they are engaging and fascinating at the same time.We all had evil thoughts throughout our lives. What is it that makes us different from those who actually act upon it? Is it the act alone? These are questions that many ask themselves, and these stories will help dig into the elements and psychology behind some of the most terrifying killers in history.This collection includes four true crime books, volumes 1-4, and each is filled with a variety of murder cases, from spree killers to massacres to even cannibals. You will explore the background, the act, and the aftermath of their violent acts. Some pages will be painful to read, due to the detailed description of the violent acts and the emotions behind them.

Murder in the Mountains: The Muriel Baldridge Story


Michael Crisp - 2011
    After a decades-long investigation that featured an amazing array of twists and turns, including a sensational trial and a controversial verdict, the case remains unsolved. To this day Muriel's murder is considered "the most bizarre and confusing case in the annuals of Eastern Kentucky crime."

Murder By The Books Vol. 2 (Horrific True Stories)


R.J. Parker - 2017
     - Serial Homicide, Notorious Serial Killers (Book 1): Albert Fish, Ted Bundy, Dennis Nilsen, Jeffrey Dahmer, Gary Ridgway and Edmund Kemper - Serial Homicide, Notorious Serial Killers (Book 2): John Wayne Gacy, Dennis Rader, Edward Gein, Aileen Wuornos, Jane Toppan and Nannie Doss - Serial Homicide, Notorious Serial Killers (Book 3): The Backpacker Murders, Arnold Karl Sodeman, The Moorhouse Murders, The Snowtown Murders, Eric Edgar Cooke and Lindsay Robert Rose - The Basement This is a shocking story of kidnapping, rape, torture, mutilation, dismemberment, decapitation, and murder. On March 24, 1987, the Philadelphia Police Department received a phone call from a woman who stated that she had been held captive for the last four months. When police officers arrived at the pay phone from which the call was made, Josefina Rivera told them that she and three other women had been held captive in a basement by a man named Gary Heidnik. He imprisoned women in chains, in the filth and stench of a hole dug under his home. - Serial Killer Groupies This book delves into the twisted psychology of women attracted to some of the most notorious monsters on the planet, giving true crime readers real insight into this phenomena. - Escaped Killer When this killer was on the loose, citizens were vigilant, yet scared. Children were not allowed outside to play without adult supervision. But then he was captured, tried, convicted, and put away for life in prison. The community could finally breathe again. They are out of danger. Until the day the convicted killer escapes prison and rains terror upon anyone and everyone in his way. The manhunt pursues, the killer kills, and earns the title of a serial killer. Approximately 700 Kindle Pages of horrific murder cases for under $5.00

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.

Run at Destruction: A True Fatal Love Triangle


Lynda Drews - 2009
    Drews unfolds the drama brilliantly, right through to the sentencing of the husband to a life in prison and even an afterword from the mistress apologizing years later. Sent to prison, the husband and mistress still can't let go and she becomes a prison bride.Readers are left to decide for themselves if it was murder, suicide, or manslaughter by neglect. Run at Destruction is lust, murder, and obsession delivered with the beat of a runner's heart, as the theme of running is woven throughout. The book grabs at a large cross-section of readers because everyone can relate to the desire and often disaster that comes with affairs.This is true-crime court drama and author Drews exposes the characters to such a depth that readers will feel like they are reading a novel, only, this really happened.

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.

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann: What really happened?


Chelsea Hoffman - 2016
    What really happened to missing child Madeleine McCann? Crime writer Chelsea Hoffman delves into the evidence against the girl's parents, as well as the numerous theories in her case, with never-before-seen exclusive interviews and a look at the media madness surrounding this mysterious disappearance.

I Am Jessica: A Surivor's Powerful Story of Healing and Hope


Jamie Collins - 2019
     As a child, I was known as "Jessica Pelley." When I was nine, I went to a sleepover at a friend's house for the weekend. While I was away, my entire family was murdered. I would spend the next 30 years fighting, crawling, and clawing my way through the darkness. This wasn't just a national news headline, a cold case, or a true crime show. It was my family. And my life. I was the broken little girl left behind to tell this story. I am now "Jessi," in the pages of this unapologetic memoir, set free. *** JESSI - APRIL 29, 2016 April 29, 1989. A date I cannot forget. Numbers forever seared deep into my soul. It was 27 years ago, today. Jesus. Get a grip, Jessi. They’re just numbers. They don’t mean anything. You’re giving them power over you, again. That’s what I tell myself. But the numbers—those damn numbers—they haunt me. They always will. I cannot escape them. Not now. Not ever. For most people, dates are just numbers on a calendar. No big deal. Random markers of time affixed to the top left corner of small, white squares on a page to depict days filled with choices, chances, and opportunities. At least that’s what they are for the normal people. But I’m no longer one of them. For me, they serve as numeric reminders of the girl I used to be. A tragedy that would irrevocably and mercilessly alter the life of a little girl wearing dark blue jeans, canvas lace-up sneakers, and a white tee shirt, accessorized by prominent coke bottle glasses, her hair hanging in a messy bob. Her life would be forever dismantled. Gone. The moment they told me the words. The ones that I will never forget. At that moment, my life froze and shattered into pieces, splintering like bits of broken glass, dropping down onto the ground around me, like the remnants of a cracked windshield, falling fast before the spinning mind and broken heart of a wide-eyed little girl. Life, as I knew it, was over in that moment. What happened on April 29, 1989, has scarred me forever. A day that started out normally, before it became ensnared in marred memories, tucked between folds of tragedy and darkness. The lingering memories cut straight to the core of the hollow girl left behind. The darkness delivers itself to me, every year, on schedule. Steadily. Greedily. On the 29th day of April. Relentless. Haunting. It taunts the pieces of me that remain. Every single year. I try to lift myself out of the darkness. I tell myself the numbers shouldn’t matter. Not after 27 years have passed. Jessi, It’s just another day. You can do anything you want with it. Don’t slip into the darkness. But not even the voice in my head believes those lies I tell myself. Year after year, my happiness recoils, my thoughts run to a dark place filled with foggy memories and a void that swallows me whole. The door of despair opens and I’m trapped: alone, numb to the bone, emotionally deplete, void of all reality, space, and time. I hate the helplessness as I slip further into that dark place. A place that, long ago, was filled with light. A place where three little girls would sing happy songs, pick flowers, hold hands while skipping through tall blades of grass, and sit down at the dining room table, where they would bow their heads to pray before plates filled with food, in a home filled with laughter. Then it hits me—the life-defining, self-inflicted images of horror—of their final moments—dragging me deep into the darkness.

Hell Hath No Fury 10: USA


Les Macdonald - 2019
    Part One holds 12 stories of women who have killed their children. The misbehaving ladies in part one are Amber Pasztor, Lacey Spears, Brenda Wilson, Christina White, Stephanie Adams, Cynthia Palmer, Kimberlynn Bolanos, Isabel Martinez, Teresa Moses, Lillie Stanton and Kelli Murphy. Part Two offers up four stories of women who have murdered their partners. They are Rita Gluzman, Adraiana Vasco, Kelly Forbes and Heather Horst. Part Three holds four Quick Hits. They include Stephany Lafountain, Kayla Giles, Keisha Holmes and Catherine Kieu. For the end of the book bonus chapter, we dusted off an oldie from Scene of the Crime 2 called The Old Orchard Beach Murders.

The Blackpool Rock


Steve Sinclair - 2008
    

The Violent Stepfather 2: A True Story Of Child Abuse


Scott B. Salvatore - 2014
     He witnessed violence, cruelty and neglect on a daily basis. He wanted to fight back, protect his younger brother and defend his mother. All goes horribly wrong when he attempts to confront his violent stepfather and the full horror is unleashed. From the older brother's perspective comes the story of the violent stepfather 2 shedding light on horrific events that went on behind closed doors and a seemingly normal house. How despair, regret and fear become one. A shocking true story. “Unbelievable that this man is actually roaming freely, another amazing read with an interesting twist to be able to see the story unfold from the brother’s perspective. As a writer and mother, I felt every emotion coursing through me as I wiped away my tears reading this harrowing true story” Joan Johns (Author) WARNING: This book is based upon a true story of child abuse, and as such contains passages that some readers may find disturbing.

Still Standing: A Pregnant Woman. A brutal attack. An inspirational fight for survival.


Natalie Queiroz - 2019
    She suffered horrific wounds to her lungs, liver, stomach and uterus, whilst the knife missed her baby by a margin of two millimeters, before the arteries in her wrists were methodically severed by the hooded attacker she finally realised was her partner and the father of her unborn child. After heroic intervention by passers-by and police, the attack was brought to an end, but her ordeal was not over. An air ambulance rescue was launched, and against all medical odds, Natalie and her baby survived - but not without life-changing physical and emotional damage.Still Standing is the story of one life-shattering event - what came before that fateful day, what happened on it, and how one woman and her baby survived to rebuild and heal together after it. At once a shocking story of evil, manipulation and violence, and a truly moving reminder that a life can be pieced back together, no matter how bad the damage, this book will empower and inspire anyone who has ever faced true adversity to rise up and stand tall.

Salford Lads: The Rise and Fall of Paul Massey


Bernard O'Mahoney - 2021
    Contained within these pages, is his story. It is a story that will horrify the non criminal mind and lay bare, how Massey unwittingly became the architect of his own demise. Massey was not the only casualty of a toxic feud that had ignited between two Salford gangs following the most trivial of disputes. John Kinsella, a close friend of Massey's, was gunned down in front of his pregnant partner. A seven-year-old boy and his mother were shot, a hand grenade was hurled through the front window of a family home, an attempt was made to behead a man with a machete and an orgy of beatings, stabbings, kidnappings and shootings were carried out in the name of respect. In today's underworld, the old school criminal code has been confined to the bin. Being known as a hard man, once demanded respect, but no more. Guns, and having the mindset to use one, often for little or no reason, has become the norm. Drugs are the currency and death often the penalty for a discrepancy or misdemeanour. It is an unforgiving world that Paul Massey helped to create and a world, that ultimately resulted in his death.

Steven Avery - Missing Evidence: The Examination of The Making a Murderer Documentary


Tony Castella - 2016
    Over night thousands of armchair detectives went on the offensive demanding Avery receive a new trial in the belief that both he and Dassey had been framed by planted evidence placed by the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department. EDITORS NOTE: JAN 27th - Due to an error on behalf of the company formatting this book, a draft manuscript has originally been used which contained several spelling errors. This has been corrected in the current upload of this file. Those that were involved in the arrest and trial of Steven Avery immediately responded to the accuracy of the documentary Making a Murderer and complained that the film was highly biased and left out important evidence that was used to convict both Dassey and Avery. In this ground breaking new book by Tony Castella, he examines the missing evidence and presents the facts as were presented by the prosecution during both the Avery and Dassey trials. You will go behind the scenes to examine critical evidence you likely were not aware of and was not included in the Netflix documentary. It's a unique opportunity to see what the jurors saw when they handed down a guilty verdict. Includes rare photographs of evidence and links to important court documents.