Book picks similar to
Violence and the Police: A Sociological Study of Law, Custom and Morality by William A. Westley
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Blue on Blue: An Insider's Story of Good Cops Catching Bad Cops
Charles Campisi - 2017
When he retired, only one man on the 36,000-member force had served longer. During Campisi’s IAB tenure, the number of New Yorkers shot, wounded, or killed by cops every year declined by ninety percent, and the number of cops failing integrity tests shrank to an equally startling low. But to achieve those exemplary results, Campisi had to triple IAB’s staff, hire the very best detectives, and put the word out that bad apples wouldn’t be tolerated. While early pages of Campisi’s absorbing account bring us into the real world of cops, showing, for example, the agony that every cop suffers when he fires his gun, later pages spotlight a harrowing series of investigations that tested IAB’s capacities, forcing detectives to go undercover against cops who were themselves undercover, to hunt down criminals posing as cops, and to break through the “blue wall of silence” to verify rare—but sometimes very real—cases of police brutality. Told in an edge-of-the-seat way by a born storyteller, Blue on Blue puts us in the scene, allowing us to listen in on wiretaps and feel the adrenaline rush of drawing in the net. It also reveals new threats to the force, such as the possibility of infiltration by terrorists. Ultimately, the book inspires awe for the man who, for almost two decades, was entrusted with the job of making sure the words “New York’s Finest” never ring hollow. A truly revelatory account, Blue on Blue will forever change the way you view police work.
Blue: A Memoir - Keeping the Peace and Falling to Pieces
John Sutherland - 2017
Rising quickly through the ranks, and compelled by the opportunity to make a real difference to people's lives, he worked across the capital, experiencing first-hand the enormous satisfaction as well as the endless trauma that a life in blue can bring.There were remarkable, career-defining moments: commanding armed sieges, saving lives and helping to take dangerous people off the streets. But for every case with a happy ending, there were others that ended in desperate sadness.In early 2013, John suffered a major breakdown and consequent battle with crippling depression. After a career spent racing to be the first at the scene of crimes and catastrophes, he found himself in pieces, unable to put one foot in front of the other.Blue is a memoir of crime and calamity, of adventure and achievement, of friendship and failure, of laughter and loss, of the best and the worst of humanity, of serious illness and slow recovery. With searing honesty, it offers an immensely moving and personal insight into what it is to be a police officer in Britain today.
Reasonable Doubt: The Fashion Writer, Cape Cod, and the Trial of Chris McCowen
Peter Manso - 2011
A former Vassar girl and scion of a prominent local family, Christa had abandoned a glamorous career as a fashion writer for a simpler life on the Cape, where she had an affair with a married fisherman and had his child. After her murder, evidence pointed toward several local men who had known her. Yet in 2005, investigators arrested Christopher McCowen, a thirty-four-year-old African-American garbage collector with an IQ of 76. The local headlines screamed, “Black Trash Hauler Ruins Beautiful White Family” and “Black Murderer Apprehended in Fashion Writer Slaying,” while the sole evidence against McCowen was a DNA match showing that he’d had sex with Worthington prior to her murder. There were no fingerprints, no witnesses, and although the state medical examiner acknowledged there was no evidence of rape, the defendant was convicted after a five-week trial replete with conflicting testimony, accusations of crime scene contamination, and police misconduct—and was condemned to three lifetime sentences in prison with no parole. Rarely has a homicide trial been refracted so clearly through the prism of those who engineered it, and in Reasonable Doubt, bestselling author and biographer Peter Manso is determined to rectify what has become one of the most grossly unjust verdicts in modern trial history. In his riveting new book he bares the anatomy of a horrific murder—as well as the political corruption and racism that appear to be endemic in one of America’s most privileged playgrounds, Cape Cod. Exhaustively researched and vividly accessible, Reasonable Doubt is a no-holds-barred account of not only Christa Worthington’s murder but also of a botched investigation and a trial that was rife with bias. Manso dug deep into the case, and the results were explosive. The Cape DA indicted the author, threatening him with fifty years in prison. The trial and conviction of Christopher McCowen for rape and murder should worry American citizens, and should prompt us to truly examine the lip service we pay to the presumption of innocence . . . and to reasonable doubt. With this explosive and challenging book Manso does just that.
Mafia Boss Sam Giancana: The Rise and Fall of a Chicago Mobster
Susan McNicoll - 2015
Born in 1908, in The Patch, Chicago, Giancana joined the Forty-Two gang of lawless juvenile punks in 1921 and quickly proved himself as a skilled 'wheel man' (or getaway driver), extortionist and vicious killer. Called up to the ranks of the Outfit, he reputedly held talks with the CIA about assassinating Fidel Castro, shared a girlfriend with John F. Kennedy and had friends in high places, including Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine, Marilyn Monroe and, some say, the Kennedys, although he fell out with them.The story of Sam Giancana will overturn many of your beliefs about America during the Kennedy era. If you want to know Giancana's role in the brother's deaths, and more of the intrigue surrounding that of Marilyn Monroe, this book will fill you in on the murky lives of many shady characters who really ruled the day, both in Chicago and elsewhere.
While She Slept: A Husband, a Wife, a Brutal Murder
Marion Collins - 2005
Six months later, she was dead. Jeff and Jill Cahill seemed to have it all. Two kids, a dog, a nice house of the picket fence variety. But their relationship wasn't as happy as it seemed. Jeff and Jill had been having serious financial problems and were headed towards divorce, legally separated but living in the same house until Jill could afford to move out. But on April 21, 1996 Jeff and Jill had a torrid argument while their kids were upstairs sleeping. In the aftermath, Jeff claimed that his wife had started stabbing him with a kitchen knife - and that was the reason for his taking a Louisville slugger straight to her head. She lay in a coma for nearly six months, and just as she started to show signs of coming out of it.... she received a visitor.On October 27th of that same year, staffers at the University Hospital in Syracuse New York, noticed a strange-looking guy lurking in the hallway wearing a wig and outdoor boots. When Jill's nurse went to check on her patient, she found her gasping for air, with bruises around her mouth, and white powder (later to be determined as cyanide) flecked across her chest.
Death by Cyanide: The Murder of Dr. Autumn Klein
Paula Reed Ward - 2016
Autumn Klein, a neurologist specializing in seizure disorders in pregnant women, had already been named chief of women’s neurology at Pittsburgh’s largest health system. More than just successful in her field, Dr. Klein was beloved—by her patients, colleagues, family, and friends. She collapsed suddenly on April 17, 2013, writhing in agony on her kitchen floor, and died three days later. The police said her husband, Dr. Robert Ferrante, twenty-three years Klein’s senior, killed her through cyanide poisoning. Though Ferrante left a clear trail of circumstantial evidence, Klein’s death from cyanide might have been overlooked if not for the investigators who were able to use Ferrante’s computer, statements from the staff at his lab, and his own seemingly odd actions at the hospital during his wife’s treatment to piece together what appeared to be a long-term plan to end his wife’s life. In Death by Cyanide, Paula Reed Ward, reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, describes the murder investigation and the trial in this sensational case, taking us from the poisoning and the medical staff’s heroic measures to save Klein’s life to the investigation of Ferrante and the emotion and drama inside the courtroom.
Tia Sharp: A Family Betrayal
Nigel Cawthorne - 2013
On 3rd August 2012, Tia Sharp, a 12-year-old school girl, was reported missing from her grandmotherOCOs house in New Addington, south London. A call by her mother alerted the police to TiaOCOs disappearance and a massive search operation began. A nationwide appeal was launched to find Tia and her family, including her step-grandfather, 37-year-old Stuart Hazell, made a public appeal to find her. It was reported that Tia had disappeared after being dropped off at a train station to go shopping, but in the days that followed a very different story emerged. Only seven days after Tia was reported missing the terrible news came that her body had been found; wrapped in bin bags and hidden in her grandmotherOCOs attic. The truth that unfolded over the course of the day horrified the public; not only had the police searched the house on three separate occasions before discovering TiaOCOs body, late the following evening, Stuart HazellOCothe man who Tia trusted, the man who appealed for her returnOCoas change with murder. Nigel Cawthorne examines the appalling case of an evil step-grandfather who betrayed his familyOCOs trust, deceived friends and neighbors, and cut short the life of a young, well-loved girl."
Burn Boston Burn: The Largest Arson Case in the History of the Country
Wayne M. Miller - 2019
A conspiracy of 9 men, including 3 Boston cops and a Boston firefighter, burned Boston and surrounding communities in the early 1980s due to tax-cutting measures that caused layoffs of hundreds of police and firefighters. Over 2 years, these fire buffs turned arsonists, torched 264 buildings, causing millions of dollars in damages and hundreds of injuries. The city was ablaze with nightly fires, sirens wailing through the streets and people too afraid to sleep. This book interweaves the activities of the arsonists with those of the investigators, the firefighters and the citizens of the area. Readers will shake their heads in disbelief at the brazen and wanton actions of these political terrorists.The author, now retired ATF Special Agent Wayne Miller, lived this case for three years. A TV cameraman helped break the case when one of the cops waved his gun in the air at a massive fire as if he were at a rodeo. The case included a stolen police car dumped in Boston Harbor, a threat letter consisting of cut-out letters and plans to murder witnesses.After the Boston Police Officer/arsonist became a witness, we utilized 17 undercover contacts to perfect a Federal case. Agent Miller spent innumerable hours with those perpetrators who became Government witnesses. An arsonist's journal provided the basis for chilling insights into their words, actions, and thoughts. Mr. Miller now has regular contact with that arsonist who has provided additional information in support of the book.Every firefighter who has heard of the story wants to read about it. Also, anyone interested in true crime, investigative procedures, the inner workings of a criminal conspiracy and fires would have strong interests in this book. The case was covered by national media in the early to mid-1980s.
One Handler's Journey
Sharolyn L. Sievert - 2011
Deceased. The first words out of the Operations Officer's mouth, after saying Sam was found, were "You are going to kick yourself."A volunteer search and rescue dog handler, Rebekkah has always put duty and responsibility first. She lives by the rules, believing that success means having a plan and not deviating from it. Dreams are things that happen at night and don't ever seem to come true for her. Things in Rebekkah's life are about to change, and she’s not really sure she’s ready for it. With her K-9 partners Ariel and Gus, Rebekkah faces decisions that could jeopardize their lives every time they deploy. As she responds to missing person searches through treacherous terrain, emotional battles and bitter disappointment, she finds that there is a fine line between success and failure; but that the search for life is definitely worth the risk.Sharolyn Sievert, a seasoned K-9 handler herself, takes the reader with her on fictional missions in K-9 SEARCH—One Handler’s Journey, weaving the laughter, fears, faith and tears of a life that isn’t sensational or sexy, and definitely not glamorous, but a heartwarming and genuine reflection of a SAR dog handler and her dogs.
The Irishman: Frank Sheeran’s True Crime Story
Daniel Brand - 2018
The world knew him as a union official, a long-time member of the Teamsters Union; he was a member of Jimmy Hoffa’s inner circle at the top of the national union. He had run-ins with the law in this position. He was charged with the murder of a rebel union member in a riot that occurred outside the Teamster’s Local Philadelphia Union Hall, but the charges were later dropped. He went to prison in the 80s after being caught on a wire instructing once of his crew to break someone’s legs and was named in Rudy Giuliani’s Mafia Commission Trial as an unindicted co-conspirator and one of only two non-Italian members of the Mafia Commission.
As an old man suffering from cancer that would soon kill him, Frank Sheeran shared his story with his attorney. He told him of the things that were already known, but he shared much, much more. This book explores Frank Sheeran’s confessions as a lifelong criminal with ties to some of the biggest crimes of the 20th century.
Inside this book, you will find:
A detailed account of Frank Sheeran’s time in the army during the second world war, where he was in combat for an astounding four hundred and eleven days, with a focus on the war crimes he has admitted to;
A look into Sheeran’s post-war slides into a life of crime, finding himself working for the Mafia before he even knew what the Mafia was;
Information on his time as a hitman for the Mafia and how that led him to work for Jimmy Hoffa as muscle and hitman for the powerful Teamster Boss;
Frank Sheeran’s accounts of his connections to the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Assassination of JFK; and
His confession to the murders of Crazy Joe Gallo and of his friend, Jimmy Hoffa.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip: Six Decades of Love, Marriage and Monarchy (Royal Couples Book 1)
Jessica Jayne - 2012
Theirs was not an arranged marriage but a love match. This book will show you a love story that transcended the times and remained strong unto this day.What’s InsideThe Queen and her Consort are celebrities in their own right, and their lives have always had that quality that made them interesting for ordinary people. Every little thing about them was a thing of wonder, and you’ll be surprised to know:• How old Elizabeth was when she fell in love with a dashing young man named Philip• How they nurtured their relationship amid the war and in their separation as they go about their duties• Why Philip gave up his naval career• The circumstances that led to Elizabeth being the Queen, and what it meant for her and Philip• The last-minute glitches that occurred on the day of the couple’s highly publicized wedding• Why it was difficult for Philip to find his own role within the royal family• Why the House of Windsor remained as it is and not the House of Mountbatten-Windsor following the couple’s wedding, and what the Queen did as a compromise for her husband• The problems they encountered as a married couple, and how their marriage remained intact when those of their children’s crumbled…Table Of ContentsChapter 1 – The Future QueenChapter 2 – The Future ConsortChapter 3 – The CourtshipChapter 4 – The Wedding of the CenturyChapter 5 – Between Family and DutiesChapter 6 – The Queen’s CoronationChapter 7 – The Queen and the ConsortChapter 8 – The Modern TimesWhy Buy NowThe intertwining lives of Queen Elizabeth II and her faithful consort, Prince Philip, is an interesting read, mainly for what it is, the workings of a love story. Theirs is an inspiration for many people, a testimony of how love, respect, and tolerance (in Philip’s word) carried their marriage through the good and the bad times and emerged to become the longest married couple in the history of British monarchy. Take part in that history and read this book.
The Making of a Detective: A Garda's Story of Investigating Some of Ireland's Most Notorious Crimes
Pat Marry - 2019
He soon realised he would have to learn on the job - put himself forward and show that he had what it took.Taking initiative, following up hunches (even far-fetched ones), obsessing about details, trying new investigative techniques, thinking laterally - these were essential. In addition, you had to be a bit of a psychologist.The Making of a Detective follows Pat Marry's path from rookie to Detective Inspector through the stories of key cases he worked on and investigations he led. It includes high profile cases like Rachel Calally's murder by her husband Joe O'Reilly. But there are also stories that have faded from public memory, such as the 1995 murder of Marilyn Rynn, which involved the first use of DNA evidence to solve a crime in Ireland. Or the 2001 murder of Mary Gough, a case solved mainly by scrutinizing her husband's internet use - then a new investigative tool.The Making of a Detective is a unique and gripping insight into the work of a dedicated garda operating at the very top of his profession.'An absolutely fascinating book ... Really interesting stories and insights' Sean O'Rourke, RTÉ Radio 1'An absolute must-read ... as page turning as a crime novel' Irish Examiner
Nightmare in Jonestown: Cult of Death (Singles Classic)
Time Inc. - 2016
December 4, 1978.In an appalling demonstration of the way in which a charismatic leader can bend the minds of his followers with a devilish blend of professed altruism and psychological tyranny, some 900 members of the California-based Peoples Temple died in a self-imposed ritual of mass suicide and murder.The followers of the Rev. Jim Jones, 47, a once respected Indianaborn humanitarian who degenerated into egomania and paranoia, had first ambushed a party of visiting Americans, killing California Congressman Leo Ryan, 53, three newsmen and one defector from their heavily guarded colony at Jones-town. Then, exhorted by their leader, intimidated by armed guards and lulled with sedatives and painkillers, parents and nurses used syringes to squirt a concoction of potassium cyanide and potassium chloride onto the tongues of babies. The adults and older children picked up paper cups and sipped the same deadly poison sweetened by purple Kool-Aid.This story is part of the TIME Classic Coverage Collection from Time Inc. This is a reproduction of a story that appeared in the December 4, 1978 issue of TIME magazine. Time Inc. is one of the world’s most influential media companies – home to 90 iconic brands like People, Sports Illustrated, Time, InStyle, Real Simple, Food & Wine, and Fortune. The Spotlight Stories in this collection aim to provide you with a quick read on a single subject, highlighting our readers’ most popular stories and featuring great reporting from our Time Inc. journalists.
Sole Survivor: The Inspiring True Story of Coming Face to Face with the Infamous Railroad Killer
Holly K. Dunn - 2017
On August 28, 1997, just as she was starting her junior year at the University of Kentucky, Holly Dunn and her boyfriend, Chris Maier, were walking along railroad tracks on their way home from a party when they were attacked by notorious serial killer Angel Maturino Reséndiz, aka The Railroad Killer. After her boyfriend is beaten to death in front of her, Holly is stabbed, raped, and left for dead. In this memoir of survival and healing from a horrific true crime, Holly recounts how she lived through the vicious assault, helped bring her assailant to justice, and ultimately found meaning and purpose through service to victims of sexual assault and other violent crimes. She has worked as a motivational speaker and activist and founded Holly's House, a safe and nurturing space in her hometown of Evansville, Indiana.
Cold Fury: The Cannock Chase Murders
David J. Cooper - 2020
Why would a man, married to an attractive young woman, want to sexually assault and murder innocent little girls?In the late 1960s, Cannock Chase in Staffordshire became the centre of the biggest murder hunt in Britain.The bodies of five year old Diane Tift, six year old Margaret Reynolds, and seven year old Christine Darby were found dumped there.The killer thought he was cleverer than the police and slipped through the net four times.He would have continued with the killings but he made a big mistake.Find out what happened and how the police eventually caught up with him.