Book picks similar to
Written in Blood by Mike Silverman
non-fiction
true-crime
forensics
crime
Hidden Evidence: 40 True Crimes and How Forensic Science Helped Solve Them
David L. Owen - 1999
These are the true crime shockers that have grabbed headlines and aroused public passions. David Owen explains the scientific procedures that helped crack every one of these cases -- from the gathering of elusive physical clues to the examination of weapons and bodies, to the use of sophisticated scientific analysis. Threaded throughout the book is the history of forensic science and the technologies that support it, including: fingerprinting, autopsies, handwriting analysis, ballistics, hair sampling, blood typing, DNA testing, dental records, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, compound and electron microscopes, and toxicology. The high-profile cases David Owen used to illustrate forensic developments are from as early as 1775, when Paul Revere used dentures to identify a slain soldier, to the latest developments in the Oklahoma bombing. Most will be familiar to readers, such as: The Lindbergh Kidnapping, Pan Am Flight 103, The Kennedy Investigation, The Hitler Diaries, Wayne Williams, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey MacDonald, Dr. Josef Mengele, Robert Maxwell's suicide, Tsar Nicholas II, and The World Trade Center bombing. David Owen presents the facts, steering clear of speculation. Comprehensive in scope, thoroughly researched and expertly compiled, Hidden Evidence is, in the words of former Los Angeles County Coroner Thomas T. Noguchi, "a fascinating book ... [and] an excellent mini-encyclopedia of widely discussed, high-profile cases."
Blood Beneath My Feet: The Journey of a Southern Death Investigator
Joseph Scott Morgan - 2012
Have you ever lit a Marlboro from the ignited gas of a bloated dead man's belly? Joseph Scott Morgan has. Have you ever wept over a dead dog while not giving a shit about the dead owner laying next him? Morgan did. Were you named after a murder victim? Joseph Scott Morgan was.This isn't Hollywood fantasy—it's the true story of a boy born into the deprivations of a white trash trailer park who as an adult gets further involved in the desperate backdoor sagas of the "new South." No hot blondes here, just maggots, grief, and the truth about forensics and death investigation.Joseph Scott Morgan became a death investigator with the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office in suburban New Orleans in 1987, the youngest medicolegal death investigator in the country. During the day, Morgan worked in the morgue, and at night investigated for the coroner. In 1992 Morgan became senior investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office in Atlanta. Morgan is now a college professor at North Georgia College and State University, where he teaches a death investigation course based on the national standards which he helped develop. He and his family reside in the Blue Ridge Mountains of north Georgia.
Strange Crime
Portable Press - 2018
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!
The Dollhouse Murders: A Forensic Expert Investigates 6 Little Crimes
Thomas Mauriello - 2003
Did Ken do it? Six stories of miniature crimes illustrated in colour reveal real CSI techniques. Each of the six miniature crime scene dioramas contains clues to preliminarily determine the cause of death. A large photo of the dollhouse scene including murder weapons, victims, and more introduces each crime.
Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters
Peter Vronsky - 2004
Exhaustively researched with transcripts of interviews with killers, and featuring up-to-date information on the apprehension and conviction of the Green River killer and the Beltway Snipers, Vronsky's one-of-a-kind book covers every conceivable aspect of an endlessly riveting true crime phenomenon.INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS
I Dare! Kiran Bedi ; A Biography
Parmesh Dangwal - 1995
She became internationally recognized after recieving the Ramon Magsaysay Award in Government Service, also considered the Asian Nobel Prize. Her work as the first woman in the Indian Police Service, and as the Inspector General of Tihar Prisons Delhi, got international attention. Her work in the field of crime prevention, forging partnerships in policing and prison transformation was absolutely innovative in the field of restorative justice. (revised)
I'm Not Really Here
Paul Lake - 2011
His soccer talent was spotted at a young age and, in 1985, he signed with City. Just three years later he was handed the team captaincy, becoming the youngest ever City captain. An international career soon beckoned and, after trying out for the England under–21 team, he was called up to the England training camp for Italia ’90. Despite missing out on a place in the final squad he suitably impressed the management, with Bobby Robson marking him as an England captain in the making. As a rising star Paul became a target for top clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Spurs, and Liverpool, but he always stayed loyal to his beloved club, deeming Maine Road the spiritual home at which his destiny lay. But then, in September 1990, disaster struck. Paul ruptured his crucial ligament and so began his nightmare. Neglected, ignored, and misunderstood by his club after a career–saving operation was irreversibly botched, Paul’s career began to fall apart. Watching from the sidelines as similarly injured players regained their fitness, he spiraled into a prolonged bout of severe depression. With a forced retirement from the game he adored, the death of his father, and the collapse of his marriage, Paul was left a broken man. Set against the backdrop of one of the world’s wealthiest football clubs at the end of their era at Maine Road, I'm Not Really Here is the powerful story of love, loss, and the cruel, irreparable damage of injury. It is a story of determination, spirit, resilience, and broken dreams.
Armed and Dangerous: The Hunt for One of America's Most Wanted Criminals
William Queen - 2007
In the winter of 1985, he faces his toughest mission to date: he must apprehend Mark Stephens, a notorious narcotics trafficker who has been terrorizing the communities around Los Angeles with frequent rampages involving machine guns and hand grenades. A recluse living in the treacherous backwoods outside the city, Stephens is a cunning survivalist. Nobody has been able to catch him, but Queen is determined to take him down. Queen’s unique expertise is not taught in any police academy or ATF training seminar–he honed his outdoorsman abilities as a kid. Stephens may have finally met his match in the unwavering Queen, who is adept at hunting and trapping and living for weeks in the wild. Queen will use these skills–along with surveillance, confidential informants, and intelligence gathering–as he doggedly tracks his dangerous quarry, a chase that culminates in a gripping showdown high in the San Bernardino Mountains.A fascinating look into the daily life of an ATF agent and a taut portrayal of a monthlong manhunt, Armed and Dangerous depicts a classic race against time–lawman versus outlaw–in a harrowing true story of life-or-death suspense.From the Hardcover edition.
Undercover: Operation Julie - The Inside Story
Stephen Bentley - 2019
His blood ran cold.Jackson wasn't his real name. He was an undercover cop.Ever wondered about the life of an undercover cop?What it takes to infiltrate a worldwide drugs gang?What it feels like to live a double life? – To ‘live a lie.’Read this gripping true story of Britain's biggest drug bust.In March 1978, at the culmination of Operation Julie, fifteen defendants, including doctors, research chemists, a writer, and "professional" drug dealers were sentenced to a combined total of one hundred and twenty four years imprisonment.Operation Julie is still today the point of reference for all British undercover operations and training. In 2011, the BBC claimed this massive and unique police operation was the start of the war on drugs.The author, Stephen Bentley, was one of four undercover detectives engaged on Operation Julie, one of the world's largest drug busts. Together with his undercover partner, he infiltrated the gang producing around 90 percent of the world's LSD and uncovered a plot to import huge quantities of Bolivian cocaine into the UK.Bentley operated in the era of no undercover training. He improvised as he went along. He was a pioneer infiltrator left to his own devices.The underworld knew the author as Steve Jackson. How did he successfully infiltrate the two gangs? Did he have to take drugs, and how did 'living a lie' affect him?The author and his book have featured on BBC Newsnight, BBC Wales News, BBC Radio 4 World at One and BBC Five Live; and also in London's Guardian and Sunday Express newspapers. The book is also now adapted for a feature film.Get it now.
A Tale of Two Lives - The Susan Lefevre Fugitive Story
Marie S. Walsh - 2011
As a falsely accused drug lord, escaped convict, and hunted felon from the Michigan Department of Correction, incarceration was never far from her consciousness. Sent to prison at age 19 on a minor drug offense�a 10-to-20-year sentence after she�d been promised probation�Susan Marie LeFevre chose to escape the life she�d been dealt and begin a new one. She married, raised three children, volunteered for charity events and played tennis and bridge with her many friends and neighbors�all the while carrying the secret of her past. Not even her husband knew who she really was. The explosive story of her capture played out in the news, usually with the headline starting "Fugitive Mom..." as she became a voiceless pawn shuttling across country on a prison-bound bus back to the confines of Michigan�s notoriously cruel penitentiary system. In this riveting new autobiography, Marie Walsh aka Susan LeFevre�s story begins in the fractious, idealistic 70s, delves into the world of drugs and touches on church scandal, race relations and a corrupt judicial system. Readers will experience the headiness of that all-consuming first love, the humiliation of squatting naked in a jail cell, the friendships�and enmities�forged by necessity among prison women. And finally, readers will understand the price one pays in trying to escape the past and the lessons to be learned by confronting it. Her parallel worlds were forever intertwined as the country witnessed it played out in courtrooms, news media and before public officials who ultimately decided her fate. Two lives � one story.
Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool
Ronald M. Holmes - 1989
New chapters cover criminal behavior theories and psychological profiling; autoerotic deaths, and occult crimes, plus two new chapters detailing infamous unsolved crimes/criminals: Jack the Ripper and the Jon Benet Ramsey case. The authors′ continuing research and activities in the field result in a multitude of new case studies for this book, often included as boxed inserts.
Don't Ever Tell: Kathy's Story
Kathy O'Beirne - 2005
So much evil was done there was a voice inside me shouting, "Justice".'With no one to confide in, Kathy suffered in silence as she was battered by her father and molested by local boys.At the age of eight, she was torn from her family and incarcerated in a series of Catholic homes. When she was sent to a psychiatric unit, she suffered terrifying electric- shock therapy and further cruelty at the hands of her supposed carers.After ending up in a Magdalen laundry, she fell victim to sexual abuse and gave birth to baby Annie just weeks before her fourteenth birthday. Don't Ever Tell is Kathy's harrowing account of her ruined childhood and of her subsequent fight for justice.
Silent Witnesses
Nigel McCrery - 2013
A murder. A mystery.The most important person on the scene? The forensic scientist. And yet the intricate details of their work remains a mystery to most of us. Silent Witnesses looks at the history of forensic science over the last two centuries, during which time a combination of remarkable intuition, painstaking observation and leaps in scientific knowledge have developed this fascinating branch of detection. Throwing open the casebook, it introduces us to such luminaries as 'The Wizard of Berkeley' Edward Heinrich, who is credited with having solved over 2000 crimes, and Alphonse Bertillon, the French scientist whose guiding principle 'no two individuals share the same characteristics' became the core of identification. Along the way, it takes us to India and Australia, Columbia and China, Russia, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. And it proves that, in order to solve ever more complicated cases, science must always stay one step ahead of the killer.
Dead Man Running
Ross Coulthart - 2008
For 10 years, Steve Utah was a Bandidos insider, a trusted confidante of senior bike gang members along the east coast of Australia. He arranged their security, cooked their drugs, and witnessed meetings in which overseas weapons smuggling was planned. Utah loved the wildness of the Bandido life and their contempt for the law, but as he plummeted deeper into the heart of the group, his life started to spiral out of control. He witnessed vicious beatings, helped dump corpses, and saw men executed in front of his eyes. In a desperate attempt to regain control of his life, he resorted to the unthinkable—he rolled over to the federal police and told them all he knew about the Bandidos. This shocking, unflinching, tragic story is his confession, and possibly his dying gasp, for he knows that inevitably the Bandido code will be honored and he will be silenced.