Book picks similar to
Letting Go: A true story of murder, loss and survival by Rachel Nickell’s son by Alex Hanscombe
true-crime
non-fiction
memoir
crime
All-American Murder: The Rise and Fall of Aaron Hernandez, the Superstar Whose Life Ended on Murderers' Row
James Patterson - 2018
His every move as a tight end with the New England Patriots played out the headlines, yet he led a secret life--one that ended in a maximum-security prison. What drove him to go so wrong, so fast?Between the summers of 2012 and 2013, not long after Hernandez made his first Pro Bowl, he was linked to a series of violent incidents culminating in the death of Odin Lloyd, a semi-pro football player who dated the sister of Hernandez's fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins.All-American Murder is the first book to investigate Aaron Hernandez's first-degree murder conviction and the mystery of his own shocking and untimely death.
Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession
Rachel Monroe - 2019
In the 1940s, a bored heiress began creating dollhouse crime scenes depicting murders, suicides, and accidental deaths. Known as the “Mother of Forensic Science,” she revolutionized the field of what was then called legal medicine. In the aftermath of the Manson Family murders, a young woman moved into Sharon Tate’s guesthouse and, over the next two decades, entwined herself with the Tate family. In the mid-nineties, a landscape architect in Brooklyn fell in love with a convicted murderer, the supposed ringleader of the West Memphis Three, through an intense series of letters. After they married, she devoted her life to getting him freed from death row. And in 2015, a teenager deeply involved in the online fandom for the Columbine killers planned a mass shooting of her own.Each woman, Monroe argues, represents and identifies with a particular archetype that provides an entryway into true crime. Through these four cases, she traces the history of American crime through the growth of forensic science, the evolving role of victims, the Satanic Panic, the rise of online detectives, and the long shadow of the Columbine shooting. In a combination of personal narrative, reportage, and a sociological examination of violence and media in the twentieth and twenty-first century, Savage Appetites scrupulously explores empathy, justice, and the persistent appeal of violence.
Chase Darkness with Me: How One True-Crime Writer Started Solving Murders
Billy Jensen - 2019
Every story he wrote had one thing in common―they didn't have an ending. The killer was still out there.But after the sudden death of a friend, crime writer and author of I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara, Billy became fed up. Following a dark night, he came up with a plan. A plan to investigate past the point when the cops had given up. A plan to solve the murders himself.You'll ride shotgun as Billy identifies the Halloween Mask Murderer, finds a missing girl in the California Redwoods, and investigates the only other murder in New York City on 9/11. You'll hear intimate details of the hunts for two of the most terrifying serial killers in history: his friend Michelle McNamara's pursuit of the Golden State Killer and his own quest to find the murderer of the Allenstown Four. And Billy gives you the tools―and the rules―to help solve murders yourself.Gripping, complex, unforgettable, Chase Darkness with Me is an examination of the evil forces that walk among us, illustrating a novel way to catch those killers, and a true-crime narrative unlike any you've read before.
The Sleep of Reason: The James Bulger Case
David James Smith - 1994
Two outwardly unremarkable ten-year-old boys began the day by playing truant and ended it running an errand for the local video shop. In between they abducted and killed a two-year-old boy, James Bulger. In search of an explanation, award-winning journalist David James Smith looks behind the misinformation, misunderstanding and sensational reporting to an exact account of the events of that day. A sensitive and definitive account, The Sleep of Reason achieves a unique understanding of the James Bulger case, and comes as close as may ever be possible to explaining how two ten-year-olds could kill.
My Mother, the Psychopath: Growing Up In The Shadow Of A Monster
Olivia Rayne - 2019
What do you do when the person you're meant to trust the most in the world is the one trying to destroy you?When people met her they thought how lovely she was, this attractive woman with a beautiful laugh. But she was one person in public and another behind closed doors. Who would she be today? The loving mother? The trusted teacher? The monster destroying my life?'Olivia has been afraid ever since she can remember. Out of sight, she was subjected to cruelty and humiliation at the hands of her mother, Josephine. Olivia grew up feeling scared, worthless and exploited. Even when she found the courage to cut ties, her mother found new ways to manipulate and deceive, attempting to destroy her life with a vicious campaign of abuse.Now Olivia has come to terms with her past and gives a fascinating, harrowing and deeply unsettling insight into what it's like growing up with a psychopathic parent.
Stone Mothers
Erin Kelly - 2019
You can't keep the secret.You can't tell the truth.You can't escape the past...Marianne was seventeen when she fled her home in Nusstead – leaving behind her family, her boyfriend, Jesse, and the body they buried. Now, thirty years later, forced to return to in order to help care for her sick mother, she can feel the past closing around her. And Jesse, who never forgave her for leaving in the first place, is finally threatening to expose the truth.Marianne will do anything to protect the life she's built, the husband and daughter who must never know what happened all those years ago. Even if it means turning to her worst enemy for help... But Marianne may not know the whole story – and she isn't the only one with secrets they'd kill to keep.
True Crime: Chilling Investigations Of Some Of Our Histories Most Unfamiliar True Crime Stories
Travis S. Kennedy - 2015
When a crime has been committed, it is essential for the perpetrator to be punished. In that way, although the family of the victims won’t always be able to make sense of what happened, they will still understand that nobody is above the law. Publicizing the criminal’s modus operandi is sometimes good - the citizens will be well aware of their tactics and they can take better care of themselves. On the other hand, it can also be bad, because “would be” criminals and serial killers are also watching and they might like the idea. Such was the case of Eddie Seda. Other than him, 4 others wreaked havoc in different places, at various times: There was the man who killed prostitutes in his own home (with his family in it), a man who claimed to have killed 600 hundred women when only 3 victims were verified, a father who brought his son to “hunt” some humans, and a husband who killed his wife when she learned of his lies. How did they do it? And how did the law authorities catch them? Here Is A Preview Of What You'll Learn...
True Crime – What Drives a Killer to the Edge?
True Crime – A Day of Hunting in Leonia
True Crime – Kendall and His House of Horrors
True Crime – Try Harder: 2nd Zodiac
True Crime – The Prankster Killer
True Crime – Lori's Husband
Much, much more!
Bitter Medicine: Two Doctors, Two Deaths, And A Small Town's Search For Justice
Carlton Smith - 2000
Everyone thought it was the perfect place to live....until two local doctors made headlines.Two DoctorsOn a chilly January night, Dr. Eugene Turner hastened the death of a three-day-old baby boy who had been pronounced brain-dead. Six weeks later, ER physician Dr. Bruce Rowan hacked his wife to death with an axe, then tried to kill himself--claiming he snapped after witnessing Dr. Turner's euthanasia.A Small Town Rocked by A Shocking FatalityWhat really happened? What drove Dr. Bruce Rowan--a man who was entrusted to heal the sick--to so savagely take the life of his own wife? Acquitted by reason of insanity, Dr. Rowan was committed to a mental institution. And thought the trial is over, some fascinating ethical and legal questions have been raised by its outcome.Now, bestselling true crime writer Carlton Smith reveals the never-before-told facts and the stunning truth behind two doctors, two deaths, a surprising trial, and the picturesque town standing in the shadow of a ghastly killing.
I: The Creation of a Serial Killer
Jack Olsen - 2002
. .In February 1990, Oregon State Police arrested John Sosnovke and Laverne Pavlinac for the vicious rape and murder of Taunja Bennet, a troubled 23-year-old barfly who had suffered mild retardation since birth. Pavlinac had come forth and confessed, implicating her boyfriend and producing physical evidence that linked them to the crime. Authorities closed the case.There was just one problem. They had the wrong people.And the real killer wasn't about to let anyone take credit for his kill. Keith Hunter Jesperson was a long haul truck driver and the murderer of eight women, including Taunja Bennet. As the case wound through police precincts and courts--ending in life sentences for both Sosnovke and Pavlinac--Jesperson began a twisted one man campaign to win their release. To the editors of newspapers and on the walls of highway rest stops, Jesperson scribbled out a series of taunting confessions:I killed Tanya Bennett . . . I beat her to death, raped her and loved it. Yes I'm sick, but I enjoy myself too. People took the blame and I'm free . . ..Look over your shoulder. I may be closer than you think.At the end of each confession, Jesperson drew a happy face, earning for himself the grisly sobriquet "The Happy Face Killer."Based on access to interviews, diaries, court records, and the criminal himself, I: The Creation of a Serial Killer is Jesperson's chilling story. It chronicles his evolution from angry child to sociopathic murderer, from tormentor of animals to torturer of women. It is also the story of the fate that befell him after two innocent citizens were imprisoned four years for one of his killings.Edgar Award winner Jack Olsen lets the killer to tell his story in his own words, offering unprecedented insight into the twisted thought process of a serial murderer. Olsen takes his readers along on Jesperson's vicious cross-country killing spree, letting him describe how he played his "death game" with eight innocent victims and how he finally came to grips with the fate he deserved.I: The Creation of a Serial Killer is one of the most revealing and insightful pieces of crime reporting ever published.
The Last Gangster: My Final Confession
Charlie Richardson - 2013
Boss of the Richardson Gang and rival of the Krays, to cross him would result in brutal repercussions. Famously arrested on the day England won the World Cup in 1966, his trial heard he allegedly used iron bars, bolt cutters and electric shocks on his enemies.The Last Gangster is Richardson’s frank account of his largely untold life story, finished just before his death in September 2012. He shares the truth behind the rumours and tells of his feuds with the Krays for supremacy, undercover missions involving politicians, many lost years banged up in prison and reveals shocking secrets about royalty, phone hacking, bent coppers and the infamous black box.Straight up, shocking and downright gripping, this is the ultimate exposé on this legendary gangster and his extraordinary life.
Adventures on 'The Way': 1100 miles on the Camino de Santiago
Graeme Harvey - 2018
Nominated for running book of the year in The Running Awards 2019.
Dare I Call It Murder?: A Memoir of Violent Loss
Larry M. Edwards - 2013
I found myself thinking about your story -- wanting to read more. Your writing is so revealing and beneficial to others. The impact of your last few lines -- perfect.Kirkus Review:"A chilling memoir of a family tragedy and its painful aftermath. . . . This book is an act of witness, and the author’s motivation is palpable throughout: 'I have a right to know. Our family has a right to know. Society has a right to know.” . . . A powerful testament to a son’s unyielding determination to tell his parents’ story.'In his book, Larry Edwards unmasks the emotional trauma of violent loss as he ferrets out new facts to get at the truth of how and why his parents were killed.In 1977, Loren and Joanne Edwards left Puget Sound aboard their 53-foot sailboat Spellbound, destined for French Polynesia. Six months later they lay dead aboard their boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.Larry's younger brother became the prime suspect in the FBI's murder investigation. But federal prosecutors never indicted him, leaving the case unresolved and splitting the Edwards family into feuding factions.Three decades later, a dispute over how to respond to a true-crime book by Ann Rule--which contained an inaccurate account of the case -- ripped the tattered family even farther apart. In Dare I Call It Murder?, Larry Edwards sets the record straight, revealing previously undisclosed facts from the FBI investigation as he lays out the case never presented in court.Larry's memoir, however, goes beyond simply telling the untold story of his parents' deaths and refuting the errors in previously published material. His broader goal is to see the book generate greater awareness of and conversations about violent loss, its impact on the survivors and their families, and the troubling effects of post-traumatic stress (PTSD).Website: DareICallItMurder.com
Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History
Peter Houlahan - 2019
Norco ’80 tells the story of how five heavily-armed young men—led by an apocalyptic born-again Christian—attempted a bank robbery that turned into one of the most violent criminal events in U.S. history, forever changing the face of American law enforcement. Part action thriller and part courtroom drama, Norco ’80 transports the reader back to the Southern California of the 1970s, an era of predatory evangelical gurus, doomsday predictions, megachurches, and soaring crime rates, with the threat of nuclear obliteration looming over it all. A group of landscapers transforms into a murderous gang of bank robbers armed to the teeth with military-grade weapons. Their desperate getaway turned the surrounding towns into war zones. When it was over, three were dead and close to twenty wounded; a police helicopter was forced down from the sky, and thirty-two police vehicles were destroyed by thousands of rounds of ammo. The resulting trials shook the community to the core, raising many issues that continue to plague society today: from racism and the epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder within law enforcement to religious extremism and the militarization of local police forces.
Who Killed Epstein? Prince Andrew or Bill Clinton (War On Drugs Book 5)
Shaun Attwood - 2021
The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession
David Grann - 2010
prison system, tracking down a chameleon con artist in Europe, or riding in a cyclone-tossed skiff with a scientist hunting the elusive giant squid, David Grann revels in telling stories that explore the nature of obsession and that piece together true and unforgettable mysteries.Each of the dozen stories in this collection reveals a hidden and often dangerous world and, like Into Thin Air and The Orchid Thief, pivots around the gravitational pull of obsession and the captivating personalities of those caught in its grip. There is the world's foremost expert on Sherlock Holmes who is found dead in mysterious circumstances; an arson sleuth trying to prove that a man about to be executed is innocent, and sandhogs racing to complete the brutally dangerous job of building New York City's water tunnels before the old system collapses. Throughout, Grann's hypnotic accounts display the power-and often the willful perversity-of the human spirit.Compulsively readable, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant mosaic of ambition, madness, passion, and folly.