Book picks similar to
Ladykiller by Donna Fielder


true-crime
non-fiction
book-club
nonfiction

Frozen Tears: The Fort Leonard Wood MP Murders


J.B. King - 2019
    Only one survived. This true crime book is written by Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper J.B. King, the first law enforcement officer on the scene. He recounts the events from the moment of the crime until the conviction of Military Police Game Warden Johnny Lee Thornton.

Murderer with a Badge


Edward Humes - 1992
    Pulitzer Prize-winner Humes, the first to break the story, conducted exclusive jail-cell interviews with convicted LAPD officer Bill Leasure to give an enthralling account of his chilling crimes. 8-page insert.

The Unforgiven: The Untold Story of One Woman's Search for Love and Justice


Edith Brady-Lunny - 2019
    But in "The Unforgiven", three young children are in the back seat of a car driven by Amanda Hamm's boyfriend as it slips into an Illinois lake. Amanda and her boyfriend survive. Her three children do not. The question of whether it was a horrible accident or a murderous plot divided family and friends and traumatized the entire community. The brief but intense police investigation included seven interviews Hamm voluntarily gave police without the benefit of counsel. The outcome remains controversial to this day and comes full circle with state child welfare workers' concern about children born to Hamm since the fateful day at Clinton Lake. "The Unforgiven" co-author and journalist Edith Brady-Lunny covered the case from start-to-finish, beginning the night of the drownings. Her co-author Steve Vogel lives nearby. His "Reasonable Doubt", considered a true crime classic, was a New York Times best-seller. Together they have extensive first-hand knowledge of the case and access to nearly every record related to the court proceedings.

Married To Murder


Robert Scott - 2004
    Going upstairs, he shot his teenage children, Susan and David. David was slow in dying, so his father finished him off by smothering him with a pillow.Cover UpSpangler had cunningly framed the crime scene, making it appear that his wife had shot their children and then herself. Now he was free to marry his new love, Sharon Cooper. A former high school athlete, he hiked the Grand Canyon with Sharon, who chronicled the trip in a book dedicated to her "soul mate," Spangler. But their happiness was short-lived. The marriage ended in a costly, messy divorce.ConfessionIn April, 1993, when Spangler's third marriage to 59-year-old aerobics instructor Donna Sundling went sour, he took her hiking in the Grand Canyon and pushed her off a 140-foot drop to her death. In 1994, when ex-wife Sharon committed suicide, Spangler became the focus of intense police scrutiny. Wracked with brain cancer, he told all to investigators in the fall of 2000, detailing his shocking serial saga--the story of a two-time widower. . .and a four-time killer.

Dixie's Last Stand: Was It Murder or Self-Defense?


John Ferak - 2015
    Then one summer day in 2002, Dixie’s mean and wicked husband was gone. Some of the local residents presumed that Scott packed his bags and left town. But others were skeptical. After all, Scott’s brown Ford pick-up truck was still parked in his driveway. The disappearance mystified Defiance for more than a year. Then in late October, 2003, the truth emerged … or did it?

Practice to Deceive


Ann Rule - 2013
    presented with the clarity, authority, and emotional depth that Rule's readers expect. It's a case with enough drama, greed, sex, and scandal to be called "The Real Housewives of Whidbey Island"; but this was not reality television. This was murder: pure, cruel, ugly, and senseless. And someone had to pay the price. Nestled in Puget Sound, Whidbey Island is a gem of the Pacific Northwest. Accessible only by ferry and the soaring Deception Pass Bridge, it is known for its artistic communities and stunning natural beauty. Life there is low-key, insular, and the island's year-round residents tend to know one another's business. But when the blood-drenched body of Russel Douglas was discovered the day after Christmas in his SUV in a hidden driveway near Whidbey's most exclusive mansions, the whole island was shocked. A single bullet between his eyes was the cause of death, but no one could imagine who among them could plot such a devious, cold-blooded crime. At first, police suspected suicide, tragically common at the height of the holiday season. But when they found no gun in or near the SUV, Russel's manner of death became homicide. Like a cast of characters from a classic mystery novel, a host of Whidbey residents fell under suspicion. Brenna Douglas was Russel's estranged and soon-to-be-ex wife, who allowed him to come home for a Christmas visit with their children. The couple owned the popular Just B's salon. Brenna's good friend Peggy Sue Thomas worked there, and Brenna complained often to her that Russel was physically and emotionally abusive. Peggy Sue's own life has been one of extremes. Married three times, hers is a rags-to-riches-and-back-again tale in which she's played many roles: aircraft mechanic, basketball coach, the "drop-dead gorgeous vamp"; beauty queen as a former Ms. Washington, Las Vegas limousine driver, million-dollar horse breeder, wealthy divorcee. But in 2003, her love affair with married guitarist Jim Huden led the two Whidbey Island natives to pursue their ultimate dreams of wealth and privilege;even at the expense of human life. Unravel the tangled web woven by Russel Douglas's murder in Practice to Deceive, the newest heart pounding true-crime tour de force from Ann Rule.

The Phillip Island Murder


Vikki Petraitis - 2013
    It also created an enduring mystery, for no one was ever brought to trial for her brutal death, and the main suspect disappeared – never to be seen again. Beth Barnard, a popular and attractive 23-year-old, had been having an affair with a local married man. On the night of her brutal murder, a car belonging to Vivienne Cameron – wife of Beth’s lover – was found abandoned near the bridge that connects the famous tourist island to the mainland. No trace of Vivienne was ever found, and her disappearance has never been adequately explained. Nevertheless, a Coroner's Court found that Vivienne had killed her rival then jumped to her death into the waters of Westernport Bay. The case was closed but not forgotten. Ever since their first edition of The Phillip Island Murder, in 1993, Vikki Petraitis and Paul Daley have been regularly contacted by people wanting to know more; people who, like the authors, let the case get under their skin. More than three decades later the mystery, rumours and arm-chair solutions continue.

A Family Business: A Chilling Tale of Greed as One Family Commits Unspeakable Crimes Against the Dead


Ken Englade - 1992
    An unsettling look at the Sconce family from the acclaimed true crime author of Deadly Lessons.   For sixty years, families in Southern California trusted the Sconce Family Funeral Home with their loved ones’ remains. That trust was betrayed in an extraordinary, horrifying fashion, as it was discovered that the family, seeing an opportunity, had been stealing gold fillings and harvesting the organs of the newly deceased, hiding the evidence by burning the bodies in their crematorium.   When the shocking acts came to light, a trial brought every gruesome detail to the forefront, and Ken Englade has—with even-handed, clear-eyed reporting—chronicled every chilling detail.

Presumed Guilty: What the Jury Never Knew about Laci Peterson's Murder and Why Scott Peterson Should Not Be on Death Row


Matt Dalton - 2005
    For six straight months after Peterson's arrest, Dalton was the defense's only full-time investigative attorney on the case. During that time, he lived in Modesto and investigated every element of the case, interviewing scores of witnesses, reviewing more than 35,000 pages of police documents, and meeting almost daily with Scott Peterson in jail.What he has uncovered will astound even the most informed observers of the Laci Peterson murder case and challenge the most deeply held beliefs about what really happened to Laci Peterson on Christmas Eve, 2002.This is the first book to go inside the Peterson defense team, and the only book to detail all the evidence that the jury did not hear -- evidence that might have led to Scott Peterson's acquittal, and that will surely play a crucial part in his pending appeals.Among the revelations in Presumed Guilty: Reports from numerous witnesses who saw Laci Peterson alive and well the morning of December 24, after the police claim Scott Peterson had already killed her; none of them testified at trial The story of another woman, eight months pregnant, who was harassed by two men the morning of December 24 only five blocks from the Peterson home The burglary that reportedly occurred directly across the street from the Peterson home on the morning of December 24, and the confessed burglars' questionable claims that the burglary happened days later Previously unreported details of the autopsy reports on Laci Peterson and her son, which cast strong doubts on key elements of the prosecution's case Thedisappearances of six pregnant women, in addition to Laci, reported missing and presumed dead within eighty miles of Modesto between 1999 and 2002Compelling, provocative, disturbing, Presumed Guilty is the fascinating story of one lawyer's relentless efforts to find the truth behind one of the most complex and notorious murder cases in American history.

Death Row Romeo: The True Story of Serial Killer Oscar Ray Bolin


J.T. Hunter - 2017
    For years, their killer remained a mystery as the cases turned cold. Then a Crime Stoppers call led to his arrest. Charming and handsome, serial killer Oscar Ray Bolin married a member of his legal defense team, and he toyed with the criminal courts for decades while on Death Row. This is the first book written about Oscar Ray Bolin and his victims. Bestselling True Crime Books by JT Hunter - Devil in The Darkness: True Story of Serial Killer ISRAEL KEYES - In Colder Blood: True Story of the Walker Family Murder as depicted in Truman Capote’s, In Cold Blood - The Vampire Next Door: True Story of the Vampire Rapist and Serial Killer - The Country Boy Killer: The True Story of Serial Killer Cody Legebokoff

Lawyer X


Patrick Carlyon - 2020
    It took the police a decade to curtail the violence and bring down criminal kingpins Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel and their accomplices. When the police finally closed the case file, just how they really won the war, with the help of an unlikely police informer, would become a closely guarded secret and its exposure, the biggest legal scandal of our time.Lawyer X is the scandalous, true story of how a promising defence barrister from a privileged background broke all the rules - becoming both police informer and her client's lover - sharing their secrets and shaping the gangland war that led to sensational arrests and convictions. The story of how Nicola Gobbo became Lawyer X, and why, is a compelling study in desperation and determination.Lawyer X is the definitive story of Melbourne's gangland wars and its most glamorous and compelling central character, based on the ground-breaking work of investigative journalists Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, who broke the story for the Herald Sun in 2014, and their five-year struggle to reveal the truth about the identity of Lawyer X.

Taken from Home


Eric Francis - 2006
    But seven months later, investigators found Jennifer’s remains in a Mesa County landfill, and things took a darker turn… Jennifer had been shot in the head, investigators discovered, and Abby was nowhere to be found.  While Michael, a respected prayer-group leader, played the part of grieving survivor, authorities became increasingly suspicious. There was blood evidence in the back of the family’s van. Was Blagg a cold-blooded killer? A religious fanatic? This is the terrifying true story of what happened when Jennifer and Abby Blagg were…

Remembering Anita Cobby: The Case, the Husband, the Aftermath – 30 Years On


Mark Morri - 2016
    Five men were caught and, amid unprecedented scenes, jailed for life. For young reporter Mark Morri, the case was a baptism of fire. Told to 'find the husband', he despaired: Cobby had changed his name and disappeared. But the Daily Mirror found him, and Morri's interviews sent newspaper sales soaring. For nearly thirty years, Morri and Cobby kept in touch. In this book, John finally opens up, recounting how he and Anita fell in love, travelled the world, suffered the pain of her miscarriage, and how he still believes today that they are soulmates. He also explains why they were apart at the time of the murder. Weaving in chilling material from the autopsy police files, and interviews with the detectives who hunted down the killers, Mark Morri explores the ripple effects of the murder that still shocks a nation.

Till Death Do Us Part: The true story of misguided love, marriage, death and deception.


Siobhan Gaffney - 2005
    Little did they know that underneath his cool exterior lay a twisted desire to kill.Behind the facade of normality lay a psychopathic mind struggling to control its homicidal urges. Having seduced and married his sweetheart Mary Gough, Whelan immediately began planning her brutal murder.While his young wife dreamed of a love-filled marriage, Whelan searched the internet for information on serial killers and the methods they used to strangle their victims.Compelling and disturbing, this book reveals how Whelan murdered his wife to claim a hefty life insurance policy, and how he faked his own suicide when he became the prime suspect for the murder.Till Death Do Us Part offers a fascinating insight into the true motivation behind one of Irelands most notorious murders, and is a horrifying story of love, lust, revenge and murder - all the more shocking because every word is true.

Terrible Secrets: Ted Bundy on Serial Murder


Robert D. Keppel - 2011
    No sex criminal, from Jack the Ripper to Zodiac to the Green River Killer, inhabits the popular mind as does Bundy. Now, the two men who know Bundy’s criminal nature best – Dr. Robert Keppel and author Stephen Michaud – have teamed to write the definitive narrative of Bundy’s bloody career, as well as the inside story of how Keppel tracked the elusive killer for 15 years, from his first days as a rookie Seattle homicide investigator to a series of tense encounters within the Florida State Prison where Bundy, in a doomed attempt at forestalling his execution, finally gave up some of his Terrible Secrets. The story of Keppel’s long struggle to identify the handsome, articulate onetime law student, and confront him with his crimes, is abundantly illustrated with photos, drawings and documents from the investigator’s personal file. The book’s dozens of pictures include a map of Bundy’s Issaquah, Washington, hillside body dump that Ted drew for Keppel at the prison. Also shown for the first time are handwritten notes from Bundy’s investigative file. The authors also draw from Keppel’s extensive mail correspondence with Bundy. The result is a riveting, close-up portrait of a “diabolical genius,” as a federal judge described Bundy, stripped of myths and misinformation and revealed - in his own words – for the archly-sly, murder-obsessed predator he became. There’s never been a book quite like Terrible Secrets.