Book picks similar to
Pure Murder by Corey Mitchell


true-crime
non-fiction
nonfiction
crime

Buried Secrets: A True Story of Drug Running, Black Magic, and Human Sacrifice


Edward Humes - 1991
    Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Humes draws on exclusive access to the principals in the case and DEA materials to recreate this compelling, national headline-grabbing horror. 16 pages of never-before-seen photographs.

Innocent Victims: The True Story of the Eastburn Family Murders


Scott Whisnant - 1993
    On Mother’s Day, 1985, the bodies of Kathryn Eastburn and her two young daughters were found in their Fayetteville, North Carolina, home. Katie, an air force captain’s wife, had been raped and stabbed to death. Kara and Erin’s throats had been slit. Their toddler sister, Jana, was the only survivor of a bloody killing spree that terrified a community still reeling from the conviction, six years prior, of Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald for the savage slayings of his pregnant wife and two daughters.   The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department soon focused its investigation on US Army soldier Tim Hennis. Detectives and local prosecutors built their case on circumstantial evidence and a jury convicted Hennis and sentenced him to death. But his defense team refused to give up. Piece by piece, they discredited the state’s case, exposing false testimony, concealed evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct. At a second trial, Hennis was found not guilty and released from death row.   But an even more stunning turn of events was yet to come. Twenty-five years after the murders, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation tested a crucial piece of DNA evidence from the crime scene. The shocking results led to an unprecedented third trial to determine Tim Hennis’s guilt or innocence.   From the initial discovery of the horrifying scene at 367 Summer Hill Road to the controversial change of jurisdiction that allowed Hennis to be prosecuted for an astonishing third time, author Scott Whisnant chronicles every development in this intricate, disturbing, and still-evolving case. Has the mystery of who killed Katie, Kara, and Erin Eastburn been solved beyond a reasonable doubt? Read Innocent Victims and decide for yourself.

The Man Who Killed Boys: The John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Story


Clifford L. Linedecker - 1980
    sexually tortured and murdered 33 boys. His friends and neighbors in his unassuming Illinois community never suspected a thing. Gacy was a Jekyll-and-Hyde figure, leading an outwardly normal life, but secretly brutalizing dozens of young men in a hidden lair, and concealing their bodies under the floorboards of his suburban home.Through extensive personal interviews with those who knew Gacy, veteran true-crime scribe Clifford L. Linedecker takes us on a shocking ride through Gacy's life, delving deep into the man's troubled past, recounting his appalling series of murders, and recreating the drama of his trial-- which resulted in his execution by lethal injection in 1994. Gruesome and horrifying, The Man Who Killed Boys reveals stark terror set amid the daily lives of an ordinary community.Documented with an 8-page photo archive

To the Bridge


Nancy Rommelmann - 2018
    Forty minutes later, rescuers found the body of four-year-old Eldon. Miraculously, his seven-year-old sister, Trinity, was saved. As the public cried out for blood, Amanda was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to thirty-five years in prison.Embarking on a seven-year quest for the truth, Rommelmann traced the roots of Amanda’s fury and desperation through thousands of pages of records, withheld documents, meetings with lawyers and convicts, and interviews with friends and family who felt shocked, confused, and emotionally swindled by a woman whose entire life was now defined by an unspeakable crime. At the heart of that crime: a tempestuous marriage, a family on the fast track to self-destruction, and a myriad of secrets and lies as dark and turbulent as the Willamette River. “In To the Bridge, Nancy Rommelmann takes what many consider the most unforgivable of crimes—a mother set on murdering her own children—and delivers something thoughtful and provocative: a deeply reported, sensitively told, all-too-relevant tragedy of addiction and codependency, toxic masculinity, and capricious justice. You won’t be able to look away—nor should any of us.” —Robert Kolker, New York Times bestselling author of Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery “How do you understand the not understandable and forgive the unforgivable? So asks one of the characters in this clear-eyed investigation into something we all turn away from. To the Bridge is a tour de force of both journalism and compassion, in the lineage of such masterpieces as In Cold Blood and The Executioner’s Song. Word by word, sentence by sentence, Rommelmann’s writing is that good. And so is her heart.” —Nick Flynn, PEN/Martha Albrand Award–winning author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder


Jerry Bledsoe - 1988
    Months later, another wealthy widow and her prominent son and daughter-in-law were found savagely slain in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Mystified police first suspected a professional in the bizarre gangland-style killings that shattered the quiet tranquility of two well-to-do southern communities. But soon a suspicion grew that turned their focus to family. The Sharps. The Newsoms. The Lynches. The only link between the three families was a beautiful and aristocratic young mother named Susie Sharp Newsom Lynch. Could this former child "princess" and fraternity sweetheart have committed such barbarous crimes? And what about her gun-loving first cousin and lover, Fritz Klenner, son of a nationally renowned doctor?

Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?


Ethan Brown - 2016
    The women came to be known as the Jeff Davis 8, and local law enforcement officials were quick to pursue a serial killer theory, opening a floodgate of media coverage and stirring a wave of panic across Jennings’ class-divided neighborhoods. The Jeff Davis 8 had been among society’s most vulnerable—impoverished, abused, and mired with mental illness. They engaged in sex work as a means of survival. And their underworld activity frequently occurred at a decrepit no-tell motel called the Boudreaux Inn. As the cases went unsolved, the community began to look inward. Rumors of police corruption and evidence tampering, of collusion between street and shield, cast the serial killer theory into doubt. But what was really going on in the humid rooms of the Boudreaux Inn? Why were crimes going unsolved and police officers being indicted? What had the eight women known? And could anything be done do stop the bloodshed? Mixing muckraking research and immersive journalism over the course of a five-year investigation, Ethan Brown reviewed thousands of pages of previously unseen homicide files to posit what happened during each victim’s final hours.

Cries in the Desert


John Glatt - 2002
    She was chained to a padlocked metal collar. The tale she told authorities--of being beaten, raped, and tortured with electric shock--was unthinkable. Until she led them to 59-year-old David Parker Ray, his 39-year-old fiancee Cindy Hendy--and the lakeside trailer they called their "toy box". What the FBI uncovered was unprecedented in the annals of serial crime: restraining devices, elaborate implements of torture, books on human anatomy, medical equipment, scalpels, and a gynecologist's examination table. But these horrors were only part of the shocking story that would unfold in a stunning trial...

Crazy for You: A Passionate Affair, a Lying Widow, and a Cold-Blooded Murder


Michael Fleeman - 2015
    In the parking lot, a minivan pulls up next to his car. The driver pulls out a gun—and shoots Rusty four times in the chest.A HEARTBROKEN WIFESneiderman’s devoted wife, Andrea, is devastated by the crime. Who could have done this? She is shocked when police trace the shooting to a man named Hemy Neuman—who happens to be Andrea’s adoring boss. A DEADLY OBSESSIONThe prosecution accuses Andrea and Hemy of having a "forbidden relationship," and of conspiring to collect $2 million in her husband’s life insurance. But Andrea swears she never intended to kill Rusty—and that it is Hemy who’s "delusional" and obsessed. With the charges against her dropped, and the insurance money frozen, Andrea remains a mysterious character. Only one other person—the man who pulled the trigger—knows the truth about what really happened… With 8 pages of dramatic photos!

Houses of Death (True Crime)


Gordon Kerr - 2008
    a notorious "murder house" which was once the scene of a brutal and bloody crime. If the walls of number 25 Cromwell Street had ears, what horrifying acts would they have overheard during the occupancy of serial killers Fred and Rose West? Brutal torture sessions and grisly murders were a regular occurrence. Even after the evidence has been removed and the perpetrators imprisoned or executed, an aura of horror, fear and disgust can linger on for decades. Houses of Death provides an incredible insight into ordinary homes and institutional buildings that have played host to extraordinary events. It explores the infamous buildings, the murderers and victims who called them ‘home’, as well as the bizarre and bloody events that took place behind their closed doors.Contents including:Countess Erzsebet Bathory,Castle Csejthe; Eastern State Penitentiary; The Bender family log cabin; Sing Sing;Lizzie Borden, 92 Second Street, Fall River; H H Holmes, The Murder Castle, Chicago; Newgate Prison; Lemp Mansion, St Louis; Bangkwang Prison, Thailand; Collingwood Manor Massacre; Washington State Penitentiary; John Christie, 10 Rillington Place; Ed Gein, Gein’s Farm, Plainfield, Wisconsin; Holloway Prison; Alcatraz; The Manson Family, 10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles; Jonestown; Fred and Rose West, 25 Cromwell Street; Jeffrey Dahmer, 213 Oxford Apartments;Gary Heidnik, 3520 North Marshall Street; Ian Huntley, 5 College Close, Soham.

Christmas Slay Ride: Most Mysterious and Horrific Christmas Day Murders


Jack Smith - 2014
     Christmas is a time for Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men. Holiday bloodshed feels like a sacrilege, but it does happen. Whether by accident or deliberate malice, scores of people have been killed on December 25 or the days surrounding it. This volume contains seven accounts of unnatural deaths that occurred on or around Christmas Day: • The Ashland Tragedy: On December 24, 1881, three burned corpses were pulled from a house in Ashland, Kentucky. They belonged to teenagers Robert Gibbons, Fannie Gibbons, and Emma Carrico, who had all been bludgeoned to death. The girls had also been sexually assaulted. A formerly quiet Kentucky town was plunged into a nightmare fueled by grief and lust for revenge. • Christmas Eve Combustion: On Christmas Day, 1885, Patrick Rooney and his wife were found dead in their home in Seneca, Illinois. Rooney died from smoke inhalation, caused by his wife’s body suddenly bursting into flames. It is an early and sensational case of spontaneous human combustion. • Delia’s Gone: Early on Christmas morning in 1900, fourteen-year-old Moses “Cooney” Houston murdered his lover, Delia Green, who was the same age. Because Georgia had no youth justice system, Cooney Houston was charged as an adult. The senseless crime shocked the citizens of Savannah, Georgia, and inspired songs later recorded by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. • The Holyhead Horror: On Christmas Day, 1909, a horrific murder took place in North Wales. Gwen-Ellen Jones was killed by her ex-soldier lover, William Murphy, in a manner so depraved that even in an era when domestic violence was commonplace, people were shocked. The murder and subsequent execution of William Murphy are still talked about in Holyhead today. • Changing of the Guard: Early on the morning of December 26, 1920, New York underworld legend Edward “Monk” Eastman, was shot down by a crooked Prohibition agent, ending a thirty-plus year career marked by murder and mayhem. Eastman, who had once ruled the roost in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, died in a freezer gutter. • The Adonis Club Massacre: December 25, 1925 was the last Christmas on earth for Irish gangster Richard “Pegleg” Lonergan. He and his White Hand gang had taunted, abused, and killed their Italian rivals for years. Finally, when Lonergan and his boys went to the Italian-owned Adonis Social Club, their resentful enemies got even. • Lawson Family Massacre: On December 25, 1929, North Carolina tobacco farmer Charlie Lawson murdered his wife and six of their seven children. The reason for this brutal act is a subject of debate even today, but may be attributable to a terrible family secret that remained hidden until 1990. All of these events took place in the distant past. People who knew the victims, remembered the circumstances of their demise, or were directly involved in the investigations are dead. That’s why these cases were chosen for this book. The passage of time has transmuted them into tragic mysteries, ensuring that they arouse astonishment, sympathy, and indignation instead of the grief and personal loss that is at odds with the holiday season. Scroll back up and grab your copy now!

Wicked Intentions: The Sheila LaBarre Murders -- A True Story


Kevin Flynn - 2008
    A series of young men had come and gone from the farm over the years, all seeming to vanish into thin air. Now LaBarre was on the run. Eventually she would be caught and would plead insanity. But was she indeed insane — an "avenging angel sent to kill pedophiles," as she claimed — or a vicious, calculating serial killer? Wicked Intentions explores the case in depth, from investigation to trial. As the Emmy award-winning television reporter who first broke the story of the Sheila LaBarre murders, Kevin Flynn is uniquely positioned to unveil the details of the bizarre chain of events that culminated in one of America's most sensational murder stories — a spellbinding true story of obsession and vigilantism carried to a deadly extreme.

Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction That Changed America


Les Standiford - 2011
    In the aftermath of that six-year old's abduction and slaying in 1981, everything about the nation's regard and response to missing children changed.The shock of the crime and the inability of law enforcement to find Adam's killer put an end to innocence, and altered our very perception of childhood itself - gone forever are the days when young children burst out the doors of American homes with a casual promise to be home by dark. And, due in large part to the efforts of Adam's parents, John and Reve Walsh, the entire mechanism of law enforcement has transformed itself in an effort to protect our children.Before Adam went missing, there were no children's faces on milk cartons and billboards, no Amber Alerts, no national Center for Missing and Abused Children, no national databases for crimes against children, no registration of pedophiles - in fact, it was easier to mobilize the FBI to search for a stolen car or missing horse than for a kidnapped child. Such facts may be sad testimony to the weariness of a modern world, but there is also an uplifting aspect to Adam's story - the 27 years of undaunted effort by decorated Miami Beach Homicide Detective, Joe Matthews, to track down Adam's killer and bring justice to bear at long last.Bringing Adam Home tells the story - the good, the bad, and the ugly - of what it took for one cop to accomplish what an entire system of law enforcement could not. Matthews' achievement is a stirring one, reminding us that such concepts as hard work, dedication, and love, survive, and that goodness can prevail.

The Search for the Green River Killer


Carlton Smith - 1991
    The true story of America's most notorious serial killer case ever.

Serial Killer Investigations: The Story of Forensics & Profiling Through the Hunt for the World's Worst Murderers


Colin Wilson - 1993
    Wilson's thorough tome covers the tried-and-true methods from the beginning of the 20th century to the cutting-edge, innovative processes now featured on shows such as CSI. The illustrated book includes 15 black-and-white images of victims, killers, and crime scenes. This is an exceptional book for a society morbidly fascinated by this unsettling topic.

A Perfect Husband


Aphrodite Jones - 2004
    Original.