Book picks similar to
Tacoma Confidential: A True Story of Murder, Suicide, and a Police Chief's Secret Life by Paul LaRosa
true-crime
non-fiction
police
truecrime
Murder in the Midlands: Larry Gene Bell and the 28 Days of Terror that Shook South Carolina
Rita Y. Shuler - 2007
Shuler leads us through the twenty-eight days of terror and shocking events of one of the most notorious double murders and manhunts in South Carolina history. Shuler shares her own personal interactions with some of the key players in this famous manhunt and investigation. Also included are Bell’s chilling calls from area phone booths to the Smith family, along with his disconcerting interviews and bizarre actions in the courtroom, which show the dark, evil and criminal mind of this horrific killer. This case has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s FBI Files, episode “Cat and Mouse,” and in the CBS movie Nightmare in Columbia County, which can still be seen on Lifetime TV. It currently runs as the episode “Last Will” on Court TV’s Forensic Files.
The Pretty Girl Killer
Andrew Byrne - 2019
Wilder was handsome and charming, and time and time again he managed to convince beautiful young women that he was a fashion photographer looking to help them start a career in modelling. What followed were some of the most brutal, sadistic crimes the world has ever seen – as well as a years-long police operation, dogged by missed opportunities and bad decisions, to track the killer down. Featuring new evidence unearthed from case files and interviews with FBI agents, witnesses and survivors, some of whom have spoken for the first time since the horrendous crimes were committed, The Pretty Girl Killer takes us right into the mind and moment of one of Australia’s most heinous exports.
Body Dump
Fred Rosen - 2002
All were young, pretty, and petite. Most were hustlers and crackheads. By August 1998, as the toll reached eight, a victim's mother said bitterly, “When they find one, they'll find them all.” She didn't know how horrifyingly right she was.HULKING AND HOMICIDALAt the height of the manhunt, prostitute Christine Sala, hysterical, told police she had barely escaped being strangled by Kendall Francois, 27, a 6'4," 300-lb. middle-school hall monitor whose slovenly personal hygiene had earned him the nickname “Stinky.” When caught, Francois said that he'd killed the women because they hadn't given him all the sex he claimed he'd paid for.HOUSE OF HORRORSInvestigators in white bio-hazard suits entered the house where Francois lived and found eight female corpses, almost all decomposed. Some were placed in plastic bags together in the attic. Others lay in shallow graves in the crawl space under the house. It was such a tangle of rotting flesh and bones, even the investigators couldn't tell how many bodies there were. Now, sentenced to life in prison without parole, the man whom others dismissed as a smell oaf had finally been unmasked as one of the most bizarre serial sex-killers of modern times.Includes pages of disturbing photos.
Righteous Carnage: The List Murders in Westfield
Timothy B. Benford - 1991
She was still in her nightgown and slippers. John List came up behind her and put a 9mm German-made Steyr automatic pistol to the side of her head and fired once. She died instantly. The bullet smashed into the opposite wall. John made his way up the stairs to the third floor where his 85-year old mother, Alma, wearing a housedress, was preparing breakfast in her efficiency kitchen. She was standing near the storage room that adjoined her kitchen when a 9mm bullet ripped through the side of her scull. Alma List was dead before her body crumpled in a heap on the floor. The Righteous Carnage had begun.
Blind Love: The True Story Of The Texas Cadet Murder
Peter Meyer - 1998
She had been driven to an isolated spot outside of Mansfield, Texas by star student David Graham while David's girlfriend, Diane Zamora, hid in the trunk. First David tried unsuccessfully to break Adrianne's neck, then Diane came out of the trunk to attack her with a set of weights. To finish off the job, David shot her between the eyes. For months, there were no leads on the killing until Diane confessed to her military school roommates about the secret she and her boyfriend would take to their graves...Tainted LoveThe brutal killing shocked the entire town of Mansfield. Even more shocking were the killers, David and Diane, model teenagers, devoted high school sweethearts, military academy-bound honors students-- and desperate lovers who feared that Adrianne's sexual encounter with David had come between them. Killing Adrianne was "the only thing that could satisfy [Diane's] vengeance," said David in his confession to police-- the only way, she told David, to restore the 'purity' of their love...Pure VengeanceHere is the unbelievable true story of a macabre love triangle-- and the startling lengths one couple went to in the name of... Blind Love
The Last Victim: A True-Life Journey into the Mind of the Serial Killer
Jason M. Moss - 1999
Manson...It started with a college course assignment, then escalated into a dangerous obsession. Eighteen-year-old honor student Jason Moss wrote to men whose body counts had made criminal history: men named Dahmer, Manson, Ramirez, and Gacy.Dear Mr. Dahmer...Posing as their ideal victim, Jason seduced them with his words. One by one they wrote him back, showering him with their madness and violent fantasies. Then the game spun out of control. John Wayne Gacy revealed all to Jason -- and invited his pen pal to visit him in prison...Dear Mr. Gacy...It was an offer Jason couldn't turn down. Even if it made him...The book that has riveted the attention of the national media, this may be the most revealing look at serial killers ever recorded and the most illuminating study of the dark places of the human mind ever attempted.
The Accidents (Kindle Single)
Caleb Hannan - 2017
But the romantic hike he planned ended with her broken body lying at the bottom of a steep cliff. In the aftermath of Toni’s shocking death, grief wasn’t the only thing shared by her friends and family. So was suspicion.Nearly twenty years before, Harold’s first wife had also died under gruesome and mysterious circumstances—she was crushed to death under a car while changing a flat tire. Just as with Toni, the pair had been married for exactly twelve years.Two accidents decades apart. Two tragedies in which Harold was not only the lone witness but the lone beneficiary, too. It was a coincidence too extraordinary to believe. This time, Harold would pay—in a true-crime story of vows broken and a family’s fight for justice. Cover Design by Pepe Nymi.
Blood Games
Jerry Bledsoe - 1991
As they slept in their North Carolina home, wealthy Lieth Von Stein and his wife Bonnie suffered a vicious assault with a knife and a baseball bat. Bonnie barely survived. Lieth did not. The crime seemed totally baffling until police followed a trail that led to the charming stepson, Chris Pritchard, and his brilliant, drug-using, Dungeons and Dragons–playing friends at North Carolina State University. “Haunting . . . Addictive, chilling and a masterpiece of reportage,” Blood Games is the true story of depraved young minds and a son’s gruesome greed turned to horrifyingly tragedy (Patricia Cornwell). Jerry Bledsoe masterfully reconstructs the bloody crime and its aftermath as he takes us into the secret twisted hearts of three young murderers. “Mr. Bledsoe goes straight to the bigger issues.” —The New York Times Book Review “In Mr. Bledsoe’s hands, a mega-load of inert facts becomes a human story of hurricane force.” —The News & Observer “Devastating . . . A brilliant account.” —Publishers Weekly
Silent Rage: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer
Michael Newton - 1994
Raised by an abusive mother and weak father, Cole accomplished his first murder before he was ten years old. He went on to murder at least 14 women. Sexual attacks, necrophilia, and cannibalization peppered his wanderings. Backed by 32 weeks of exclusive interviews with Cole and years of exhaustive research, Michael Newton paints one of the most chilling true portraits of the development of a sociopathic personality ever made available to the public. Newton traces Cole's gruesome career across four decades, until Cole's execution by the state of Nevada. ***** They are law enforcement's most elusive prey. More dangerous than hitmen, gang assassins, and crowd snipers, the "recreational killer" is almost impossible to capture. Choosing their victims at random, drifting from town to town, their brutal crimes leave a smoking trail of bloodshed across the nation-and many of them are never apprehended until they decide to turn themselves in. This year, 3,500 "thrill killings" will go unsolved. Cole's story is a searing lesson in the horror of crimes like this-and the terrifying inability of our society to prevent them.
Double Life: The Shattering Affair between Chief Judge Sol Wachtler and Socialite Joy Silverman
Linda Wolfe - 1994
He was the top justice of New York’s highest court. She was a stunning socialite and his wife’s step-cousin. In 1993 Sol Wachtler was convicted of blackmail and extortion against Joy Silverman, his former mistress. How did a respected jurist and one of the most prominent men in America end up serving time in prison? Linda Wolfe starts at the beginning—from Wachtler’s modest Brooklyn upbringing through his courtship and marriage to Joan Wolosoff, the only child of a wealthy real estate developer. Joy Fererh was three and a half when her father walked out. When she and Sol met, he was fifty-five and nearing the pinnacle of his legal career. She was a thirtysomething stay-at-home mother who, with Sol’s help, made a career for herself as a Republican Party fundraiser. They kept their affair a secret—until an explosive mix of sex, power, betrayal, and prescription-drug abuse set the stage for the tabloid headlines of the decade.
No, Daddy, Don't!: A Father's Murderous Act of Revenge
Irene Pence - 2003
The horrifying true story of an abusive husband who committed the ultimate act of violence and betrayal by murdering his two young daughters, as their mother helplessly listened on the telephone.
Unanswered Cries: A True Story Of Friends, Neighbors, And Murder In A Small Town
Thomas French - 1992
What the beautiful young woman could not know was that she was staring into the eyes of her killer--a savage monster who would rape her, stab her to death, and leave her battered body on the floor outside the bedroom.The desperate searchDetectives frantically sifting through the evidence were tormented by one disturbing question after another: What did the strangely worded note from a friend mean? Why was the house so orderly, when it had been the scene of a frenzied struggle? Why were the bloody footprints on the carpet barefoot? What happened to the white lace teddy missing from Karen's drawer?The shattering discoveryPolice detective Larry Tosi stayed up nights watching the video of the grisly crime scene, looking for the one telltale clue that would lead him to Karen's killer--until slowly, and with growing horror, he realized that the maniac he was hunting was someone he knew...someone he called a friend.
Prison Time
Shaun Attwood - 2014
After being attacked by a 20-stone California biker in for stabbing a girlfriend, Shaun writes about the prisoners who befriend, protect and inspire him. They include T-Bone, a massive African American ex-Marine who risks his life saving vulnerable inmates from rape, and Two Tonys, an old-school Mafia murderer who left the corpses of his rivals from Tucson to Alaska. They teach Shaun how to turn incarceration to his advantage, and to learn from his mistakes.Resigned to living alongside violent, mentally-ill, and drug-addicted inmates, Shaun immerses himself in psychology and philosophy to try to make sense of his past behaviour, and begins applying what he learns as he adapts to prison life. Encouraged by Two Tonys to explore fiction as well, Shaun reads over a thousand books which, with support from brilliant psychotherapist Dr. O, speed along his personal development. As his ability to deflect daily threats improves, Shaun begins to look forward to his release with optimism and a new love waiting for him. Yet the words of Aristotle from one of Shaun’s books will prove prophetic: 'We cannot learn without pain'.
Shattered Justice: A Savage Murder and the Death of Three Families' Innocence
John Philpin - 2006
. .another destroyed.The Crowes’ neighbors in the peaceful middle classcommunity in San Diego’s North County were shockedby the savagery of the crime—a young girl murdered,stabbed repeatedly, in her own bed in the dead of night.The lack of any evidence of forced entry led the Escondidopolice to their inevitable conclusion: someone in the familywas responsible for 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe’s slaying.The investigation quickly zeroed in on the victim’s olderbrother, Michael, and two teenage friends—three lonerswho enjoyed inhabiting dark fantasy worlds of quests andviolence. Through efficient, by-the-book police work, theboys were broken down and ultimately confessed. The onlyproblem was the detectives had gotten everything wrong . . .Shattered Justice is the riveting and disturbing trueaccount of a horrific tragedy and the terrible crimethat followed—a nightmare of four innocent livesshattered, one by a killer’s blade, three byobsession and twisted law.
Let's Kill Mom: Four Texas Teens and a Horrifying Murder Pact
Donna Fielder - 2015
The worst was yet to come… Days before, seventeen-year-old Jennifer Bailey, her thirteen-year-old brother David, and their friends Paul Henson and Merrilee White had made a gruesome pact: they’d kill their parents, steal their cars and credit cards, and flee to Canada. Paul and Merrilee’s parents thwarted their fates, but Jennifer and David’s mother Susan Bailey wasn’t so lucky. When the devoted mother returned home from work, her two children and their friend Paul took turns stabbing her and slicing her throat. When they were done, they fled in Susan’s car. They made it as far as South Dakota before being arrested. What really led them to make such a despicable pact? The answers would cast a disturbing new light on the way we see the all-American family, our neighbors, our children—and the society that nurtured them.Now an Investigation Discovery TV Special