17 Deadly Women Through the Ages: True Crime (Bus Stop Reads)


Stephanie Glover - 2015
    The female nests, creates, and nurtures doesn’t she or is it that we just want to believe in the intrinsic non-threatening nature of women? Yet, history is full of instrumentally violent women: women who have fought wars and battles throughout the world, with no less ferociousness than men, women such as Dynamis of Bosphorous, who starved her husband to death and took control of his kingdom, or Artemisia, the queen of Halicarnassus in the 5th century, who conducted a brilliant but brutal military campaign against the Greeks. Mary Tudor, Queen Mary 1 of England, in 1553 became known as “Bloody Mary,” for her extreme cruelty and willingness to execute people. In this short book meet 17 less known but equally murderous cold blooded women. After reading it you may find your perception of the gentler sex changed irrevocably. Enjoy.

My Father's Son


John Davis - 2015
    Ours were just bigger than others. "My earliest memory is of a gun." That gun was in his father's hand - and it was pointed at his mother's head. John Davis grew up in the 1970s and '80s on the rough streets of Brooklyn, a place where no one thought twice when parents smacked around their kids-or each other. At the center of the tumultuous neighborhood, and John's world, was his larger-than-life father, Roberto. The Argentinean butcher and kingpin drug dealer was a sadistic bully whose mercurial temper left a trail of tears and chaos across his family. John, in particular, seemed to bear the brunt of Roberto's wildly swinging moods. Any wrong word could cause an explosion. Every knock on the door might be one of Roberto's enemies, or the police. In his publishing debut, Davis recounts how he spent his childhood in constant terror and his teen years learning to fight back. But it was much later, as an adult, that he learned the most shocking thing of all about his father, his past, and himself. Told with raw honesty and deep emotion, My Father's Son is a memoir of fear, abuse, survival, and identity.

Mobsters, Madams Murder in Steubenville, Ohio: The Story of Little Chicago


Susan M. Guy - 2014
    The white slave trade was rampant, and along with all the vice crimes, murders became a weekly occurrence. Law enforcement seemed to turn a blind eye, and cries of political corruption were heard in the state capital. This scenario replayed itself over and over again during the past century as mobsters and madams ruled and murders plagued the city and county at an alarming rate.

Escape from Venezuela’s Deadliest Prison


Natalie Welsh - 2009
    But Natalie was hiding a terrible secret—in a moment of desperation she had agreed to smuggle a suitcase of cocaine for a one-off payment she hoped would change her life. Hopelessly naïve, and struggling with a drug addiction that left her barely capable of reason, Natalie had no idea of the danger she was facing. Caught by the Venezuelan authorities, Natalie was sentenced to ten years in a hellish prison system. In the blink of an eye, she entered a nightmare world, where guards were either too powerless or corrupt to control the escalating violence. This was a world of almost unimaginable horror, where murders, rapes, and even all-out gang warfare were carried out by the armed and powerful inmates. After six terrible years, and against impossible odds, Natalie became the first western woman to escape from a Venezuelan prison, in a death-defying flight through Colombia to freedom. Sentenced to Hell is the incredible story of how one terrible mistake can almost destroy a life, and how Natalie's love for her daughter saved her.

Marching Bands Are Just Homeless Orchestras


Tim Siedell - 2010
    The bookstore or library is half full of that kind of crap. What you're holding here is a collection of quips and observations with a refreshingly gloomy, sometimes twisted, always funny take on life. Or lack thereof.With illustrations by renowned artist Brian Andreas, this book is a glimpse inside the humorously askew mind of a writer whose witticisms have been featured on NPR, printed onto t-shirts, performed on stage in Germany, and posted online at the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times. He's been named one of the top funniest people on Twitter by the likes of Maxim, MSNBC and Mashable.

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.

Seriously Stupid Criminals


Synova Cantrell - 2017
    All the stories are true and links are provided to the original news source. Yes, people can be very irrational, but it's entertaining. Enjoy.

DOUBT: The Madeleine McCann Mystery (Gone Girl Book 1)


Nick van der Leek - 2017
    We also know the original lead investigator, Goncalo Amaral’s, counter-narrative, now a legally defensible matter of public record. The questions that arise from these opposing narratives are dead simple: Which narrative is more credible? Which narrator is more credible? What was the motive behind all the publicity? Neither Madeleine nor her abductor ultimately benefited from the ongoing media barrage, so who did? True crime maestro, Nick van der Leek, plumbs quagmires of confusion and a thicket of thorny inconsistencies to probe what lies beneath: the psychologies. What is the significance of "doctors" as suspects? Did it matter or mean anything that the McCanns and their cabal of friends in the Algarve were mostly doctors? Peeling away the gossamer threads, over the course of just four days [April 29th – May 2nd], van der Leek intuits that very little was routine: not the weather, not where meals were eaten, not where or when they slept and not what they did as a family. But what were their routines when it came to other, murkier things, like sleeping patterns, cell phones and sedatives? Drawing intangibles out of the darkness, van der Leek sews the vexing loose ends from several conflicting stories into a definite - if not definitive - end-result.

Fatal Prescription: A Doctor without Remorse


John Griffiths - 1995
    a remarkable story—Leeza Gibbons, NBC-TV • Grippingly told ... a wonderful, powerful book—David Berner, Radio CKNW Vancouver • Reads with the pace of a taut thriller—George Henderson, Gloucestershire Citizen • Mesmerizing—Bob Stall, Vancouver Province. Now revised and updated. The amazing, true story of how medical authorities allow a family doctor to continue practising even after he begins living with a 15-year-old patient—and allegedly has sex with another girl in exchange for giving drugs to her father. The notorious doctor still carries on as before and a third patient complains about infamous conduct—until he silences her by putting out a contract for murder.

A Book of Remarkable Criminals


Henry Brodribb Irving - 1918
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Olive Oatman: Explore The Mysterious Story of Captivity and Tragedy from Beginning to End


Brent Schulte - 2019
    She is the girl with the blue tattoo.The story behind the distinctive tattoo is the stuff of legends. Some believed it was placed on her face during her captivity, following the brutal murders of her family members and the kidnapping of her and her sister. Others believe it was placed on her after her return.Rumors swelled. Her tattoo became a symbol of Native barbarianism and the triumph of American goodness, but like many stories of that era, the truth is far more complicated.This short book details the murders, her captivity, the aftermath, and her baffling return to her captors. Unravel the mystery of the woman who would become famous for all the wrong reasons and discover what her life story says about cultural identity, the power of resiliency, and what happens when fact and fiction bend and twist to muddy the waters.Read on to find out the truth!

Tony Accardo is Joe Batters


Neil Gordon - 2018
    Throw in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and the murders of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Marilyn Monroe, Bugsy Siegel, Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano, Tony the Ant Spilotro, Johnny Roselli and Jimmy Hoffa. Toss in Hollywood scandal and the mobbed up career of Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack. Now you can begin to grasp the epic story of Tony Accardo. Why has this story never been told? Accardo killed everyone in his path: family, friends, cops, reporters, movie stars, and politicians. Operating from deep within the shadows Tony influenced national policy, exploited the FBI, owned politicians, and fixed presidential elections. Connected to every gangster from Al Capone to Lucky Luciano to John Gotti, Joe Batters is the must-read that every Godfather fan is craving.

A Dark and Bloody Ground: A True Story of Lust, Greed, and Murder in the Bluegrass State


Darcy O'Brien - 1993
    Acker’s own life hung in the balance, but it was already too late for his college-age daughter, Tammy, savagely stabbed eleven times and pinned by a kitchen knife to her bedroom floor. Three men had breached Dr. Acker’s alarm and security systems and made off with the fortune he had stashed away over his lifetime.The killers—part of a three-man, two-woman gang of the sort not seen since the Barkers—stopped counting the moldy bills when they reached $1.9 million. The cash came in handy soon after when they were caught and needed to lure Kentucky’s most flamboyant lawyer, the celebrated and corrupt Lester Burns, into representing them. Full of colorful characters and desperate deeds, A Dark and Bloody Ground is a “first-rate” true crime chronicle from the author of Murder in Little Egypt (Kirkus Reviews).

One Hit Away: A Memoir of Recovery


Jordan P. Barnes - 2020
    But though Jordan had long accepted his fate, his parents still held out hope, and would do everything in their power to get him the help he so desperately needed.After a harrowing journey that proves the life of an active addict will always get worse, never better, Jordan found himself at the gates of Sand Island, Hawaii’s most notorious two-year inpatient treatment facility. He soon discovers that though his heart was in the right place, the hardest battle of his life was yet to come.One Hit Away is his arduous and unlikely true story of recovery, rehabilitation and redemption.

In The Attic


Garry Rodgers - 2016
    They failed. He’d been in the attic the entire time.At 3 a.m., on Sunday morning and in the black of night, Billy Ray climbed down. He butchered Maria and her defenseless lover, committing unspeakable desecration to their bodies. Billy Ray aimlessly left the crime scene—a senseless scene sickening to the hardest of investigators—and was caught three days later, still caked with his victims’ blood.Billy Ray confessed, allowing a terrifying yet fascinating access to his psychopathic, anti-social mind—a mind diagnosed as one of the most outstanding cases of mental disorder a team of forensic psychiatrists ever saw. Here’s what readers of In The Attic are saying: “Aghast! This is one of the best written and easily the most horrifying suspense story I have read. The writing is so clear and so compelling that you are immediately drawn in. I. Could. Not. Put. This. Down.” “The author’s seamless POV transitions are genius. You’re given a disquieting look into the deeply disturbed, misogynistic psyche of a killer and the concern of a dedicated, seasoned police officer.” “As events unfolded, I found myself praying the victim would somehow survive, which is absurd, as you know going in, the story is about a double murder. Garry Rodgers’ writing is so fluid, he places you in the detective’s shoes without effort—you’re there, you’re experiencing scenes as they unfold. I’m not prone to nightmares by something I’ve read, but Garry Rodgers has succeeded where others left little, or no impact.” “Do not let the horrific and graphic nature of this novel dissuade you. This is a must-read for crime novel enthusiasts. I felt driven to finish this book in record time. True story, great writing, emotional investment. What more could you want from a title?" "In my opinion, Garry Rodgers is slated to become one of the most outstanding crime writers of our time.” ”If you've ever read The Widow by Fiona Barton or The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, m