True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray


James Renner - 2016
    That obsession led Renner to a successful career as an investigative journalist. It also gave him post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2011, Renner began researching the strange disappearance of Maura Murray, a University of Massachusetts student who went missing after wrecking her car in rural New Hampshire in 2004. Over the course of his investigation, he uncovered numerous important and shocking new clues about what may have happened to Murray but also found himself in increasingly dangerous situations with little regard for his own well-being. As his quest to find Murray deepened, the case started taking a toll on his personal life, which began to spiral out of control. The result is an absorbing dual investigation of the complicated story of the All-American girl who went missing and Renner's own equally complicated true-crime addiction.True Crime Addict is the story of Renner's spellbinding investigation, which has taken on a life of its own for armchair sleuths across the web. In the spirit of David Fincher's Zodiac, it's a fascinating look at a case that has eluded authorities and one man's obsessive quest for the answers.

Coast to Coast Ghosts: True Stories of Hauntings Across America


Leslie Rule - 2001
    An employee of the St. James Hotel in New Mexico watches in shock as a fair-haired toddler with a terribly disfigured face disappears into the floor. This is just one of the paranormal mysteries Leslie Rule shares with us--a result of extensive interviews and research uncovering the reasons behind ghost sightings across the country.Coast to Coast Ghosts features dozens of spine-tingling, real-life ghost stories and approximately fifty black-and-white photographs taken by Rule, including some believed to have captured actual apparitions.Only the reader can decide. . . .

The Jeffrey Dahmer Story: An American Nightmare


Don Davis - 1991
    They heard the power saw buzzing in the dead of night but neighbors never imagined the horrors happening right next door.The hot sultry night of July 22, 1991 was one the tenants of the Oxford Apartments would never forget. A panic stcricken young man--a pair of handcuffs still dangling from his wrists--ran out of Apartment 213 and told police an incredible tale of terror.Shaking with fear, he led officers back to his captor's lair, where they made the gruesome discovery. Inside were the body parts of at least fifteen men--including torsos stuffed into a barrel, severed heads in a refrigerator, and skulls boiled clean and stashed in a filing cabinet. Tacked to the freezer were Poloroid photographs of mutilated corpses.When investigators arrested 31-year-old Jeffrey Dahmer, they realized they had stumbled onto a "real-life Hannibal Lecter"--a sadistic murderer who told them he had saved a human heart "to eat later". What could turn a handsome, former tennis player, the son of middle-class parents, into a perverse serial killer whose unthinkable acts shocked the nation?The Jeffrey Dahmer Story takes you into Jeffrey Dahmer's twisted world of bizarre sexual encounters, mutilation and cannibalism--in one of history's most appalling true crime cases.With 8 pages of chilling photographs.

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things


Lafcadio Hearn - 1904
    Faceless creatures haunt an unwary traveler. A beautiful woman — the personification of winter at its cruelest — ruthlessly kills unsuspecting mortals. These and 17 other chilling supernatural tales — based on legends, myths, and beliefs of ancient Japan — represent the very best of Lafcadio Hearn's literary style. They are also a culmination of his lifelong interest in the endlessly fascinating customs and tales of the country where he spent the last fourteen years of his life, translating into English the atmospheric stories he so avidly collected.Teeming with undead samurais, man-eating goblins, and other terrifying demons, these 20 classic ghost stories inspired the Oscar®-nominated 1964 film of the same name.

Weird Massachusetts: Your Travel Guide to Massachusetts' Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets


Jeff Belanger - 2008
    But we dug a little deeper and found all kinds of local legends, bizarre beasts, surprising cemeteries, and uncovered the best kept secrets from all over the Bay State. Our state certainly celebrates more than just tea parties, the Red Sox and Patriots; folks from Massachusetts cherish their weird history too. Our brave and valiant author, Jeff Belanger, toured the state with camera and notepad in hand as he waded through cranberry bogs and trudged up the Berkshires to uncover the state's odd and offbeat. If it's unusual or unexplainable or fantastic, and in the Bay State, you'll find it all here in Weird Massachusetts. See how the world's biggest elephant now fits into a peanut butter jar and why it brings good luck to students, listen for those unexplained booms in Nashoba, discover the hidden secrets at Wizard's Glen and Altar Rock, escape from the Sea Witch and the Cape Cod Mermaid, check out the Museum of Burnt Food, or eat an apple from one of Isaac Newton's famous apple trees';but whatever you do, don't pick up a red-headed hitchhiker on Route 44. With so many places named after the devil, it's a wonder we're not called the Devil State or the Witch State, but see for yourself at the Witch Museum, dedicated to educating the public on what witchcraft was, and is today; for the really daring, unlock some of the spooky secrets at the Houghton Mansion or stay a night at the Concord's Colonial Inn. Look out for the Pukwudgees, circle around haunted trees in cemeteries, and enjoy one of the longest-named lakes in the world, or try climbing Dighton Rock and unravel the messages in its centuries-old carvings. It's all here. It's all weird and it's all in Massachusetts. A brand-new entry in the best-selling Weird U.S. series, Weird Massachusetts is packed with all that great stuff your history teacher wouldn't teach you. So get ready to join our author on his great adventure. It's a journey you'll never forget!

UFOs for the 21st Century Mind: A Fresh Guide to an Ancient Mystery


Richard M. Dolan - 2014
    For beginners and experienced researchers alike, historian Richard Dolan covers the full range of this incredibly complex topic in his uniquely engaging style. He offers fresh insights on everything connected to UFOs, whether it's ancient aliens, modern encounters, abductions, channelers, the politics, the cover-up, the bizarre science, the social dimensions (read YouTube and Facebook), the future, and much more. This is a fresh perspective of an ancient mystery from one of the world's leading UFO historians. Contents:Introduction1. What Are UFOs?2. Theories of Ancient Visitation3. Into Modernity: Airships, Foo Fighters, and Flying Saucers, 1896 to 19694. UFO Secrecy and Those Who Fought It5. Digging Deeper—The Breakaway Civilization6. High Strangeness—UFOs from 1970 to 19907. UFOs, 1991 to the Present8. Contact and Abduction9. The Growth of Ufology10. Who Are They? What Do They Want? 11. Weird Science: Propulsion, Energy, Spacetime, and Consciousness12. Into the Future, Into OurselvesConclusionEndorsements: In a field that can be so confusing, so complex, Richard Dolan has taken his many years of thinking about UFOs and written a completely fresh overview of the entire subject. . . . This is an ambitious work that truly ties the many different aspects of the subject together. It's rare to find something like this, especially considering the care and thoroughness that went into it.-- From the Foreword by George Noory, host of Coast to Coast AM.'As a follow-up to his previous books exploring the relationship between UFOs and the National Security State, historian Richard Dolan widens his perspective to explore all aspects of this provocative phenomenon. In this role, he takes us on a journey that brings to life the subtlety and depth of this rich subject, a truly captivating read.'--H. E. Puthoff, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Advanced Studies at AustinUFOs For the 21st Century Mind represents a new kind of book – one that clearly and intelligently addresses literally every aspect and implication of the most maligned, misunderstood and compelling subject in human history. Richard Dolan’s newest work is perfect reading for serious students of ufology as well as the absolute beginner. Inspired, particularly well written, and the product of a first class mind for this or any other century.--Peter Robbins, coauthor of the British bestseller, Left At East Gate: A First-Hand Account of the Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident, Its Cover-up and InvestigationThis is an invaluable treatment of the known facets and seemingly endless implications regarding UFOs, with a much-appreciated focus on the human experience. A job well done, Richard.-- Sam Maranto, Investigative Researcher

Keepers of the Garden


Dolores Cannon - 1993
    All his other existences were on alien worlds and in other dimensions. He finds out that his association with extraterrestrials did not cease with these other lives. This strange case reveals the motives behind present-day involvement between UFOs and humans, and the hopes and expectations of our creators for their garden. We are the Garden.The Gardeners are Extraterrestrials from other worlds!

The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer


Liza Rodman - 2021
    During the summers, while her mother worked days in a local motel and danced most nights in the Provincetown bars, her babysitter—the kind, handsome handyman at the motel where her mother worked—took her and her sister on adventures in his truck. But there was one thing she didn’t know; their babysitter was a serial killer. Some of his victims were buried—in pieces—right there, in his garden in the woods. Though Tony Costa’s gruesome case made screaming headlines in 1969 and beyond, Liza never made the connection between her friendly babysitter and the infamous killer of numerous women, including four in Massachusetts, until decades later. Haunted by nightmares and horrified by what she learned, Liza became obsessed with the case. Now, she and cowriter Jennifer Jordan reveal the chilling and unforgettable true story of a charming but brutal psychopath through the eyes of a young girl who once called him her friend.

Illusion of Justice: Inside Making a Murderer and America's Broken System


Jerome F. Buting - 2017
    Buting explains the flaws in America’s criminal justice system and lays out a provocative, persuasive blue-print for reform.Over his career, Jerome F. Buting has spent hundreds of hours in courtrooms representing defendants in criminal trials. When he agreed to join Dean Strang as co-counsel for the defense in Steven A. Avery vs. State of Wisconsin, he knew a tough fight lay ahead. But, as he reveals in Illusion of Justice, no-one could have predicted just how tough and twisted that fight would be—or that it would become the center of the documentary Making a Murderer, which made Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey household names and thrust Buting into the spotlight.Buting’s powerful, riveting boots-on-the-ground narrative of Avery’s and Dassey’s cases becomes a springboard to examine the shaky integrity of law enforcement and justice in the United States, which Buting has witnessed firsthand for more than 35 years. From his early career as a public defender to his success overturning wrongful convictions working with the Innocence Project, his story provides a compelling expert view into the high-stakes arena of criminal defense law; the difficulties of forensic science; and a horrifying reality of biased interrogations, coerced or false confessions, faulty eyewitness testimony, official misconduct, and more.Combining narrative reportage with critical commentary and personal reflection, Buting explores his professional and personal motivations, career-defining cases—including his shocking fifteen-year-long fight to clear the name of another man wrongly accused and convicted of murder—and what must happen if our broken system is to be saved. Taking a place beside Just Mercy and The New Jim Crow, Illusion of Justice is a tour-de-force from a relentless and eloquent advocate for justice who is determined to fulfill his professional responsibility and, in the face of overwhelming odds, make America’s judicial system work as it is designed to do.

Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from The Atlantic Paranormal Society


Jason Hawes - 2007
    Their hair-raising investigations, fueled by their unique abilities and a healthy dose of scientific method, have made them the subject of a hit TV show: the SCI FI Channel's Ghost Hunters. Now their experiences are in print for the first time, as Jason and Grant recount for us, with the help of veteran author Michael Jan Friedman, the stories of some of their most memorable investigations. The men and women of T.A.P.S. pursue ghosts and other supernatural phenomena with the most sophisticated scientific equipment available -- from thermal-imaging cameras to electromagnetic-field recorders to digital thermometers -- and the results may surprise you. Featuring both cases depicted on Ghost Hunters and earlier T.A.P.S. adventures never told before now, this funny, fascinating, frightening collection will challenge everything you thought you knew about the spirit world.

Trial by Fire: A Devastating Tragedy, 100 Lives Lost, and A 15-Year Search for Truth


Scott James - 2020
    It would take nearly 20 years to find out why—and who was really at fault. All it took for a hundred people to die during a show by the hair metal band Great White was a sudden burst from two giant sparklers that ignited the acoustical foam lining the Station nightclub. But who was at fault? And who would pay? This being Rhode Island, the two questions wouldn't necessarily have the same answer.Within 24 hours the governor of Rhode Island and the local police commissioner were calling for criminal charges, although the investigation had barely begun, no real evidence had been gathered, and many of the victims hadn't been identified. Though many parties could be held responsible, fingers pointed quickly at the two brothers who owned the club. But were they really to blame? Bestselling author and three-time Emmy Award-winning reporter Scott James investigates all the central figures, including the band's manager and lead singer, the fire inspector, the maker of the acoustical foam, as well as the brothers. Drawing on firsthand accounts, interviews with many involved, and court documents, James explores the rush to judgment about what happened that left the victims and their families, whose stories he also tells, desperate for justice.Trial By Fire is the heart-wrenching story of the fire's aftermath because while the fire, one of America's deadliest, lasted fewer than two minutes, the search for the truth would take twenty years.

Bluestockings: The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education


Jane Robinson - 2009
    Using the words of the women themselves, 'Bluestockings' charts the fight for and expansion of higher education for women from 1869 through to the 1930s.

The Ultimate Evil: The Truth about the Cult Murders: Son of Sam and Beyond


Maury Terry - 1987
    Berkowitz confessed to being a lone murderer—one who had carried out eight senseless shooting with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver. The case was officially closed.Journalist Maury Terry was suspicious of Berkowitz's confession, convinced as he gathered corroborating evidence throughout the years, that Berkowitz did not act alone. In this investigative story, first published in 1987, Terry details the chilling events, proving that Berkowitz was an affiliate of—and triggerman for—a Satanic cult known as the Process Church of the Final Judgment, a far-reaching organization that is connected to other ritual slayings across the country. Updated with Berkowitz's recent confirmations from his prison cell, Terry untangles the web of information and shocking extent of the Process Church's activities. Includes black-and-white photographs.

The Silent Twins


Marjorie Wallace - 1986
    As they grew up, love, hate, and genius united to push them to the extreme margins of society and, following a five-week spree of vandalism and arson, the silent twins were sentenced to a grueling twelve-year detention in Broadmoor.Award-winning investigative journalist Marjorie Wallace delves into the twins' silent world, revealing their genius, alienation, and the mystic bond by which the extremes of good and evil ended in possession and death.

A Magician Among the Spirits


Harry Houdini - 2002
    He careened through the country, offering money for spirit contacts he couldn't duplicate by admitted magical chicanery. It was a heyday not only for Houdini but for the spirit-callers and there was an equally famous protagonist who thought the spirits could indeed be contacted, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A photo at the front records a meeting between Houdini and Doyle and Houdini gives Doyle his own chapter. There's an earlier chapter on Daniel Dunglas Home, the English engineer of spectacular paranormal effects. Houdini raises hell with spiritualists who were giving their (usually paying) clients a vision of heavens to come, and shares the methods used to practice "fake" and sensational spiritualism. Houdini was nothing if not unrelenting. As a taste of things to come, he ends his introduction with the words: "Up to the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains."