True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers

On December 9, 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her Durham, NC home. Her scalp was laced with deep incisions, and her blood was strewn from outside to inside the house.The sinister truth of that night turned her murder into North Carolina's most enigmatic criminal case, capturing media attention across the globe.Police zeroed in on Kathleen’s husband, Michael Peterson, and charged him with murder.But Was It The Truth?A neighbor, Larry Pollard, came up with an alternative “killer;” he claimed an owl had attacked Kathleen outside her house. He said it sliced her scalp with its fierce talons and caused her to run inside, collapsing at the stairwell, and bleeding to death.When the media heard about his theory, Larry was mocked. And Michael was convicted.Now, twenty years later, author Tiddy Smith explores Pollard’s theory and questions whether law enforcement ignored, or even hid, evidence to convict Michael Peterson. And was an owl, in fact, the real killer? DEATH BY TALONS: Did An Owl 'Murder' Kathleen Peterson?-Tiddy Smith

M'Linda Kula is very familiar with this SECRET SANTA and the many links that tie him to JonBenet Ramsey. Each link is carefully explained within this book, to lead from one connection to the next between JonBenet and the SECRET SANTA. Follow the pieces of the puzzle to find out who this SECRET SANTA is and how this chameleon was able to evade the authorities. Included within is a pair of government generated documents for the same man under different aliases/assumed names. This alone should raise a red flag for authorities. This same individual also used a term of endearment common to the Ramsey family for JonBenet, in front of his peers and classmates at a karate school. When asked if he was "related to that girl found in a basement" he responded with "I don't know no Johnny B!" No one knew this term of endearment until it was used in the book The Death of Innocence by John Ramsey. Planned murder indicates that the killer knew the victim's schedule. Overkill is usually a message intended for someone else, other than the victim. Who was the overkill message intended for and why? DNA Phenotyping can be used to help generate an image of the killer's face, which may match up with some of the images found within this book, raising some serious questions.The true name of this SECRET SANTA is listed on Detective Lou Smit's suspect list. M'Linda has compiled the list of links to send out to the public, so that you may decide for yourselves if the information found within warrants interest and possibly an arrest. Perhaps together we can finally bring an end to this case, and justice for JonBenet Ramsey. JonBenet's SECRET SANTA, MY MURDERER?: The "True" JonBenet Ramsey Completed Puzzle-M'Linda Kula

The Angel Makers is a true-crime story like no other—a 1920s midwife who may have been the century’s most prolific killer leading a murder ring of women responsible for the deaths of at least 160 men.The horror occurred in a rustic farming enclave in modern-day Hungary. To look at the unlikely lineup of murderesses—village wives, mothers, and daughters—was to come to the shocking realization that this could have happened anywhere, and to anyone. At the center of it all was a sharp-minded village midwife, a “smiling Buddha” known as Auntie Suzy, who distilled arsenic from flypaper and distributed it to the women of Nagyrév. “Why are you bothering with him?” Auntie Suzy would ask, as she produced an arsenic-filled vial from her apron pocket. In the beginning, a great many used the deadly solution to finally be free of cruel and abusive spouses.But as the number of dead bodies grew without consequence, the killers grew bolder. With each vial of poison emptied, a new reason surfaced to drain yet another. Some women disposed of sickly relatives. Some used arsenic as “inheritance powder” to secure land and houses. For more than fifteen years, the unlikely murderers aided death unfettered and tended to it as if it were simply another chore—spooning doses of arsenic into soup and wine, stirring it into coffee and brandy. By the time their crimes were discovered, hundreds were feared dead. Anonymous notes brought the crimes to light in 1929. As a skillful prosecutor hungry for justice ran the investigation, newsmen from around the world—including the New York Times—poured in to cover the dramatic events as they unfolded.The Angel Makers captures in expertly researched detail the entirety of this harrowing story, from the early murders to the final hanging—the story of one of the most sensational and astonishing murder rings in all of modern history. THE ANGEL MAKERS: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History's Most Astonishing Murder Ring-Patti McCracken

From his cell on Death Row in Florida, confessed serial killer Danny Rolling started writing and illustrating this novel about the Daggerman Sicarius in 1999, seven years before his 2006 execution for the five murders he committed in 1990.Drawing on years of research, Rolling follows zoologist Sir Winser Ashmole to the African island of Mauritius, to assist Dr. Borgum Konoff in saving endangered species.But the doctor is dabbling in sinister forces, torturing the island girls in a mad quest for immortality, as an alien relic gives him the superhuman powers of a Sicarius.Caught in the act, Konoff escapes to Boston, where he goes on a murder rampage. Ashmole helps police track him, but the power of the relic is still protecting the elusive Sicarius.As the Powers That Be close in on the crazed killer, a deal with the Forces of Darkness is brokered by a witch whose name is Cath... a nod to the woman who served as Rolling's muse in real life, at the time he dreamed up the tale.The novel was published in 2002 by Plotdigger Publications, a corporation owned by Canadian filmmaker Ryan Nicholson, who died in 2019 without renewing the copyright, so the book was orphaned until 2022, when Sondra London gave new life to this tale that Rolling had originally asked her to publish. SICARIUS: Sondra London Presents Death Row Fiction By a Serial Killer (Serial Killers Talk to Sondra London-Sondra LondonReplyForward

On Christmas Night 1996, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was murdered in her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado. A ransom note was found in the home, but it was hours before her father, John, found her body in the basement. She had been strangled with a garrote and her skull was fractured. The media sensationalized the tragic death of the “child beauty queen” and public speculation and rumors ran rampant. What followed was one of the most notorious unsolved murder investigations in American history. Boulder police fixated on JonBenet’s parents as suspects. Needing investigative help, the Boulder DA brought in legendary homicide detective Lou Smit. However, he was soon disenchanted with law enforcement’s obsession with the Ramsey family as the primary suspects, excluding other possibilities. Smit resigned but continued to work on his own time, and at his own expense, determined to find justice for JonBenet. He determined the Ramsey family was not involved in her death but died in 2010 before he could identify the killer. Thousands of people attended his funeral service, including John Ramsey, and the detective’s lifelong friend and colleague, John Anderson. Along with a handful of retired detectives, Anderson and Smit’s family continue to pursue justice based on Smit’s work. Now, for the first time in LOU AND JONBENET, Anderson tells the story of Smit’s investigation and why the Smit family team now believes that the killer can be identified. LOU AND JONBENET: A Legendary Lawman's Quest To Solve A Beauty Queen's Murder-John Wesley Anderson

On a cold morning in December 1960, 60-year-old Laura Mutch was found strangled behind a house in downtown Erie....At a time when the Gem City was at its peak, including a triumphant run for the coveted 'All-American City' award, the murder created a pandemonium. As the investigation progressed, attacks on women in and around the city of Erie continued, sending citizens - and seasoned investigators - to the brink of total chaos. Infamous attacks such as the brutal stabbing of 72-year-old Clara Carrig, the attempted strangling and knifing of Helen Knost and the strangling murders of Mary Lynn Crotty and Eleanor Free caused women to lock their doors and avoid the streets at night. The arrest of truck driver John Howard Willman in September 1963 was not the end of the story as soon the case attracted nationwide attention - including a lawsuit by the ACLU. Just who was Erie's infamous 'Backyard Strangler?' Would a technicality by police cause the suspected murderer to roam free again to kill more victims? Author Justin Dombrowski charts the harrowing attacks, investigations and mystery surrounding Erie's 1960s reign of terror. ERIE'S BACKYARD STRANGLER: Terror in the 60's-Justin Dombrowski

Actors, musicians, TV personalities, and other public figures in the spotlight aren’t always who they appear to be. You might be surprised by just how many have led nefarious, double lives, and have become infamous criminals!Power, status, and a rich lifestyle aren’t barriers to criminal behavior. Yes, people from all walks of life commit crimes. But the people featured here are not your typical neighbors or subway passengers—they are household names and Hollywood stars. Get the stories behind these public figures, both contemporary and historical, who have traveled down the murky pathway toward criminal activity. After committing their crimes, the world may have kept on turning, but their legacies as infamous criminals remain strong worldwide. This book offers a fascinating assortment of true crime cases from around the world and from various time frames. Like the previous anthologies in The Best New True Crime Stories series, this volume contains all new and original nonfiction accounts penned by international writers from across the literary spectrum, including true crime, crime fiction, and journalism.Inside, you’ll find:The stories of Hollywood stars and famous criminals who went down the wrong pathEncounters that feature the cases of infamous criminals like Robert Blake, Jimmy Savile, Fatty Arbuckle and more. The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Famous & Infamous Criminals-Mitzi Szereto.

What happens when ordinary people, in real-life murder clubs, set out to investigate crimes, both recent and cold cases?The Netflix hit Don’t F**k with Cats was based on the 2012 Montreal murder of thirty-three-year-old Lin Jun by his porn-star boyfriend, Luka Magnotta. Previously Magnotta had anonymously posted videos of himself killing kittens. This spurred horrified Facebook sleuths into working tirelessly to uncover his identity and location.Other investigations include:A self-taught forensic artist, who uses computer software and coroners’ photographs to help identify victims by showing how they looked when alive.The mother who swore at her murdered daughter’s graveside that she would get the gang who had sprayed her car with bullets. It took fourteen years in the case of one gang member, but she finally entrapped him via the fake profile she had created on MySpace.The retail clerk turned citizen sleuth who helped to match a photo of a missing man to a skull found in a bucket, which resulted in the conviction of the victim’s best friend.Websleuths matched the IP address of a suspicious contributor to a lottery-winning victim’s financial advisor, which led to his body being found beneath a newly poured concrete slab in his advisor’s boyfriend’s garden.Sometimes citizen sleuthing goes wrong, though, with innocent people being targeted, or accused of crimes they haven’t committed, with tragic results.The real-life version of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club is grittier, with intrepid amateur investigators delving into truly gruesome unsolved crimes in pursuit of justice. THE REAL-LIFE MURDER CLUBS: Citizens Solving True Crimes-Nicola StowGet $100 off your first month at Talkspace.com/ TRUEMURDER

John Edward Swindler never learned to read or write and instead became a bona fide criminal at the age of fifteen. His crimes quickly advanced from car theft to arson. At three hundred pounds, with long, fuzzy red hair and pimply skin, his appearance was so frightening that he intimidated fellow inmates into performing crimes from their jail cells. He sodomized other convicts, who dared not refuse him. He was moved in and out of solitary confinement in an attempt to break him of his violent ways. It failed. Released from prison because he was uncontrollable, he began a multi-state crime spree that culminated in the rape and murder of three young people and the shocking assault on a Fort Smith, Arkansas, policeman named Randy Basnett. In a matter of days, Swindler’s lust for death grew into an unforgettable KILLING SPREE.On September 24, 1976, two men—John Edward Swindler, a force for evil, and Officer Randy Basnett, laying his life on the line for good—came together. The result altered their lives, and the lives of many others. This is their story. THE KILLING SPREE: A True Story of a String of Brutal Murders, Rapes, and the Cop Who Tried to Stop It-Anita Paddock

A Civil War veteran who perpetrated one of the most ghastly mass slaughters in the annals of U.S. crime. A nineteenth-century female serial killer whose victims included three husbands and six of her own children. A Gilded Age “Bluebeard” who did away with as many as fifty wives throughout the country. A decorated World War I hero who orchestrated a murder that stunned Jazz Age America. While other infamous homicides from the same eras—the Lizzie Borden slayings, for example, or the “thrill killing” committed by Leopold and Loeb—have entered into our cultural mythology, these four equally sensational crimes have largely faded from public memory. A quartet of gripping historical true-crime narratives, Butcher’s Work restores these once-notorious cases to vivid, dramatic life. BUTCHER'S WORK-True Crime Tales of American Murder and Madness-Harold Schechter

Internationally known legal ethics professor Richard Zitrin's work as a trial lawyer placed him on the front lines of fighting systemic racism, pervasive elitism, and injustice against individuals in the legal system. In Trial Lawyer, he shares details of the most compelling cases he's encountered and exposes the dilemmas he faced throughout his one-of-a-kind career. The profound, the consequential, the shocking, the bizarre, and even the humorous, Trial Lawyer brings to life what it means to represent people against power.From his first case as a young law student on the famous and highly politicized San Quentin Six case and throughout his forty-year career, Zitrin has worked on dozens of cases that underscore the inherent biases of the legal system - towards people of color, the poor, the less educated, and those who just don't appear to fit the mold of whatever society considers "normal." His personal stories about him bring the reader inside the courtroom to experience a unique cast of characters, strange-but-true facts, brilliant trial tricks and tactics-and not-so-brilliant ones that failed miserably. Each had its own lessons: about social justice, fairness, strategy, ethics, morality, and more. TRIAL LAWYER: A Life Representing People Against Power-Richard Zitrin

Hosted by Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart from the hit show Morbid.When 90-year-old Laurence Pilgeram drops dead on the sidewalk outside his condo, you might think that’s the end of his story. But, really, it’s just the beginning. Because Laurence and others like him have signed up to be frozen and brought back to life in the future. And that belief will pull multiple generations of the Pilgeram family into a cryonics soap opera filled with dead pets, gold coins, grenades, fist fights, mysterious packages, family feuds, Hall of Fame baseball legends, and frozen heads — lots of frozen heads. From Wondery, comes a story about life, death, and what comes next.Follow Frozen Head on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge early and ad-free by subscribing to Wondery+ in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery App. Listen to Frozen Head: Wondery.fm/FH_TM

No body means no crime, which makes this the perfect murder.Doug Stewart even has an ironclad alibi. He's been seen hundreds of miles away when his lovely wife, Venus, vanishes. What better plan could any murderer hope for?But Doug's forgotten one thing: the power of a mother's love.Venus' mother believes her daughter's husband lured her outside. They fought. He won. Venus' mom wants her daughter back, dead or alive.Never Forgive, Never Forget: A Shocking True Crime Story by Rod Kackley tells the true story of a woman whose fear of her husband seems to turn out to be justified. It's also the story of a mother’s quest to win the return of her child — her best friend — even if it’s only to bury her.The disappearance of Venus Stewart is a shocking true crime story that rocked southwest Michigan and eventually the nation. Hundreds of volunteers spent thousands of days searching for the mother of two young girls.The police and her mother were sure Venus’ husband killed her. But he was in Newport News, Virginia when the crime was committed in Michigan. The neighbors saw him. He used his credit cards and even paid on his account at his lawyer’s office.And it wasn’t just the day that Venus disappeared that her husband was seen in Newport News. He was spotted the next day too. How can anyone be in two places at one time?Here’s something else: no corpse. That’s right, the police don’t have a body. How can investigators even be sure Venus is dead?Her mother had to wait more than eight long years before finding out what had happened to her child.A community rose up to stand by Therese McComb and her mission to learn the truth, and after searching for Venus hundreds of times, they stood by Therese at the very end.Never Forgive, Never Forget: A Shocking True Crime Story is a hard-hitting tale of a mother’s undying devotion and love for her child; and two police officers’ refusal to give up. It's a story that you will never forget. This gripping book will also leave you with a question. If you were Venus' mother; could you ever forgive?NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET: A Shocking True Crime Story-Rod Kackley.

On January 7, 1994, residents of the Berkshire Hills woke up to a typical snowy winter day in the majestic woods of Western Massachusetts. The quaint New England towns, the idyllic scenery and the people who lived there could have stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting.Rocked as imaginable evil converged on them, a pall would be cast over the region and its inhabitants for years to follow.That day, a trial was beginning for a college student who celebrated his 18th birthday by purchasing an assault rifle, then opening fire on campus killing two and wounding four others. Elsewhere, two young girls were accosted in the changing room at the local pool. Another young girl narrowly escaped being abducted at gunpoint on her way to school. Her quick thinking resulting later in profound repercussions regarding the case of a young boy who vanished from a strip mall, baffling law enforcement, his body discovered three years earlier by deer hunters in a remote wooded area 200 miles away.All these events appeared unrelated, but it seemed to police agencies and local residents that the world had suddenly gone mad. After all, they told each other, “These things don’t happen here!”In chilling, dramatic narrative HIDDEN DEMONS: Evil Visits a Small New England Town, by Margery Metzger, details these events and reveals a savage serial killer who lurked in the shadows. But the bravery of a father and daughter, and the remarkable work of law enforcement officers, would turn the table. HIDDEN DEMONS: Evil Visits A Small New England Town-Margery B. MetzgerReplyForward

The incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the last woman to ever be executed in California—a murder so twisted it seems ripped from a Greek tragedy.Deborah Larkin was only ten years old when the quiet calm of her California suburb was shattered. Thirty miles north, on a quiet November night in Santa Barbara, a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her apartment. The mystery deepens when it is discovered that Olga’s mother in-law—a deeply manipulative and deceptive woman—had been doing everything in her power to separate Olga and her son, Frank, prior to Olga’s disappearance.From a forged annulment to multiple attempts to hire people to “get rid” of Olga, to a faked excoriation case, Elizabeth seemed psychopathically attached to her son. Yet she denied having anything to do with Olga’s disappearance with a smile.But when Olga’s brutally beaten body is found in a shallow grave, apparently buried alive, a young DA makes it his mission to see that Elizabeth Duncan is brought to justice. Adding a wrinkle to his efforts is the fact that Frank—himself a defense attorney—maintained his mother’s innocence to the end.How does a young girl process such a crime along with the fear and disbelief that rocked an entire community? Decades later, Larkin is determined to revisit the case and bring the story of Olga herself to light. Long overshadowed by the sensationalism and scandal of Elizabeth and Frank, A Lovely Girl seeks to reveal Olga as a woman in full. Someone who was more than the twisted family that would ultimately ensnare her.As we follow the heart-pounding drama of the case through Larkin's young eyes—her father was the court reporter—A Lovely Girl is by turns page-turning yet poignant, and makes the reader reexamine how we handle fear, how we regard mental illness, and how we understand family as we carve our own path in a dangerous world. A LOVELY GIRL: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California's Most Notorious Killers-Deborah LarkinReplyForward

Murder is the most vile crime known to man. It can be triggered by love or money or sex. Those are the three big ticket items for homicide. But people are strange. They will kill for the most obscure and ridiculous of reasons. In 30 years covering murder, Brad Hunter has discovered each one has its own flavour. Cops and friends can be stunned by the evil lurking within a seemingly ordinary man or woman. In this collection of some of the most memorable cases Brad has reported on, there are serial killers, rich kid monsters, football stars and wives in pursuit of hormone-charged hijinks… The very rich and the very poor. Successful lawyers and hotel executives. Southern belles who could melt butter with a come hither wink and a sexy drawl. Daddy’s girls with gleaming smiles, good marks and possessed by the devil.These are stories of American crimes and they stretch from coast to coast.You will find cheating husbands and wives so desperate for love that they’ll kill for it. COLD BLOODED MURDER: Shocking True Stories of Killers and Psychopaths-Brad Hunter

The western suburbs of Chicago were being terrorized by a serial rapist and murderer in the 1970s and 1980s. Bruce Lindahl was a psychotic rapist and killer who preyed on girls and young women for almost a decade. He managed to escape detection because he did not leave his rape victims alive. But in 1980, he kidnapped and raped Debra Colliander in Aurora, Illinois. She escaped before he could murder her, and Lindahl finally was arrested. Two months later, just before he was to go on trial on charges of kidnapping, rape and deviate sexual assault, Lindahl kidnapped and murdered Miss Colliander. Lindahl disposed of her body and no one could find her. The following year, because the victim did not show up in court, the kidnapping and rape charges had to be dropped – and he could not be charged with murder without a body. Reporter Jim Ridings wrote a number of stories for The Beacon-News over several months, determined to shine a light to try to stop Lindahl from getting away with another murder. Suddenly, the public knew the truth about this monster who had been able to evade justice and public attention. Aurora police said Lindahl planned to kill Ridings once the judge finally dismissed the case. But fortunately, a few days after the charges were dropped, Lindahl accidentally killed himself while murdering another person. The story took another turn nearly 40 years after Lindahl’s death when DNA tests linked Lindahl to an unsolved cold case murder from 1976. Murder in the Fox Valley tells the story of Bruce Lindahl’s terrible crime spree and how he finally was stopped. MURDER IN THE FOX VALLEY: The True Story of Serial Killer Bruce Lindahl-Jim Ridings

From the award-winning author of Two Crows Sorrow comes another historical true crime story about secret identities, deception, and murder.At the turn of the century, an ex-convict from Ireland arrives in the back country of rural Nova Scotia, whereupon he is accused of murdering a man and burying him in the victim’s own cellar under a pile of potatoes. Rooted in Deception follows the life of John Kavanagh and how this petty criminal deceives everyone in his path until he is eventually accused of a heinous and violent murder for which he is ultimately hanged. But how much of the tragedy was of his own doing and how much had been woven by his enemies? Told from a variety of perspectives, including that of the accused, the book creates a sympathetic case for a man who may deserve none. Using primary sources including newspaper articles, trial transcripts and actual letters from the accused, the true story of the murder of Freeman Harvey is told using creative nonfiction devices to fill in the gaps of the narrative. Rooted in Deception follows Two Crows Sorrow, which was awarded the 2020 Bronze Award for best creative nonfiction by the Miramichi Reader. ROOTED IN DECEPTION-Laura Churchill Duke

For more than three and a half decades, the disappearance of 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews was a mystery – a riddle neither authorities nor her family members could solve. The residents of her cloistered Colorado hometown had scoured every inch of prairie. Jonelle’s face had been on milk cartons nationwide. Even the President of the United States had appealed to the public for help. Still, every lead had fizzled. Every person of interest had turned out to be a dead end. Then, in 2019, Jonelle’s remains were unearthed near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. With the discovery came a troubling new question: Had the truth been hiding in plain sight the entire time? Was the man who couldn’t stop obsessing over Jonelle’s disappearance also the person who took her? From Campside Media and Wondery comes season two of SUSPECT. Former CNN reporter Ashley Fantz and executive producers Matthew Shaer and Eric Benson (Suspect, Over My Dead Body) dig into one of the most mind-bending cold cases in modern history, in an attempt to separate fact and fiction, compulsion from guilt, and true-crime fandom from a motive for murder. Listen to SUSPECT: Vanished in the Snow early and ad- free by subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.https://wondery.app.link/suspect-tm

On a cold, windy December night in 1926, hell was unleashed on a tenant farm near Farwell, the last Texas town before the New Mexico border. Prone to the bottle and fits of rage, the burly man with the smiling blue eyes was in no mood to quarrel with his third wife over his bootleg whisky and sexual abuse of his stepdaughter. He went from room to room in the house, killing his wife and each child with primitive cutting tools and his bare hands. By the time he concluded his bloody work, he had taken the lives of nine family members ranging in age from 2 to 41, committing what one local reporter called “the blackest crime” in the history of the West Texas Panhandle. Husband, father, uncle, embezzler, serial mass murderer, philanderer, child molester, convict, and military deserter, George Jefferson Hassell was many things to many people, most of them bad. His pattern of familicide crime had begun in 1917, when he slaughtered his common-law wife and her three kids in Whittier, California. Later, in Texas, he married his brother’s wife and became stepfather to her eight children. Using Hassell’s confessions and his many interviews with reporters as well as the trial transcripts and reminiscences of those who crossed paths with him in Texas, Oklahoma, and California, Mitchel P. Roth presents the first comprehensive account of the life and crimes of one of the least known multiple murderers in Texas, let alone American, history. Roth situates Hassell’s saga within the 1920s Texas criminal justice system, including the death penalty, which Hassell ultimately received from Old Sparky, the electric chair at Huntsville. THE MAN WITH THE KILLER SMILE: The Life and Crimes of a Serial Mass Murderer-Mitchel P. Roth

In 1979, Brenda Spencer, a seemingly average teenage girl living in a nice suburban neighborhood, made and executed plans that would place her in infamy and set a violent and terrifying national precedent. She received a rifle for Christmas and a month later set her sights and opened fire on the elementary school across the street.The event is forever glorified by the song ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ by The Boomtown Rats and marks the bloody beginning of the American phenomenon of school shootings. Long before Columbine and Sandy Hook, there was Brenda Spencer…I DON’T LIKE MONDAYS: The True Story of America’s First Modern School Shooting sifts through the mythology that has sprung up around this fateful day, presenting the raw and riveting facts for the first time. This book lays bare this seemingly average teenage girl’s brutal motives and subsequent arrest. N. Leigh Hunt spent years researching and uncovering shocking details from officers, investigators, and lost police dispatches. He has interviewed people who were on the scene and local reporters who spoke with the perpetrator directly after her shooting spree. Hunt has even cultivated an unlikely rapport with the killer and through personal interviews, has shed light on previously unknown details about her upbringing and influences. I DON'T LIKE MONDAYS: The True Story Behind America's First Modern School Shooting-N. Leigh Hunt

Mike Rothmiller and Douglas Thompson draw on previously secret LAPD intelligence files, a cache of FBI documents released to the authors in 2021, and extensive interviews with prime sources, including many who worked with Frank Sinatra and many more who tracked his long and fatal association with the American Mafia, notably his ongoing connection, after his original godfather was assassinated: Sam 'Momo' Giancana, who shared a lover with President John F. Kennedy.Sixteen days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on 30 November 1963, while the singer was 'consoling' the president's widow, nineteen-year-old Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped at gunpoint from his hotel room in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. A $240,000 ransom was demanded from his father. While the FBI and Nevada and California law-enforcement agencies sprang into action, Frank secretly contacted his Mafia friends for help. The Mafia believed they could free young Frank much more quickly through their underworld connections. In the end, nine people died, having been beaten for information.Revealed here as never before is the extent to which Sinatra was adopted by the Mafia. They promoted his career and 'watched his back' and, in return, Sinatra danced to their tune. New information disclosed here shows that Sinatra also offered to spy for the CIA. Inside sources say Sinatra wanted the CIA to intercede to stop an investigation into his gaming license in Las Vegas. But the CIA declined because they were already working with the Mob and were concerned Sinatra would learn of the Mafia's connection to the CIA and leak it. FRANK SINATRA and the MAFIA MURDERS-Mike Rothmiller

A relentless detective and an amateur genealogist solve a haunting cold case—and launch a crime-fighting revolution that tests the fragile line between justice and privacy. In November 1987, a young couple on an overnight trip to Seattle vanished without a trace. A week later, the bodies of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her boyfriend Jay Cook were found in rural Washington. It was a brutal crime, and it was the perfect crime: With few clues and no witnesses, an international manhunt turned up empty, and the sensational case that shocked the Pacific Northwest gradually slipped from the headlines. In deep-freeze, long-term storage, biological evidence from the crime sat waiting, as Detective Jim Scharf poured over old case files looking for clues his predecessors missed. Meanwhile, 1,200 miles away in California, CeCe Moore began her lifelong fascination with genetic genealogy, a powerful forensic tool that emerged not from the crime lab, but through the wildly popular home DNA ancestry tests purchased by more than 40 million Americans. When Scharf decided to send the cold case’s decades-old DNA to Parabon NanoLabs, he hoped he would finally bring closure to the Van Cuylenborg and Cook families. He didn’t know that he and Moore would make history. Genetic genealogy, long the province of family tree hobbyists and adoptees seeking their birth families, has made headlines as a cold case solution machine, capable of exposing the darkest secrets of seemingly upstanding citizens. In the hands of a tenacious detective like Scharf, genetic genealogy has solved one baffling killing after another. But as this crime-fighting technique spreads, its sheer power has sparked a national debate: Can we use DNA to catch the murderers among us, yet still protect our last shred of privacy in the digital age—the right to the very blueprint of who we are? THE FOREVER WITNESS: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder-Edward Humes

Much is known about American and European serial killers, but did you know that more than 150 homicidal maniacs have plagued the former Soviet Union during the last 100 years? Nicknamed “The Night Creature”, “The Urals Strangler” or “The Balashikha Ripper” in their native motherland, these sex fiends have committed some of the most heinous series of murders in the history of modern criminology.This book follows the stories of 25 maniacs: unable to control their dark fantasies, they savagely tortured, strangled, stabbed and defiled their victims in unspeakable ways.Illustrated with more than 200 photographs unearthed from the secret archives of retired police colonels and forensic psychiatrists, Russian Serial Killers – Volume 1: Maniacs takes you on a true crime journey from the suburbs of Moscow to the frozen wastelands of Siberia. RUSSIAN SERIAL KILLERS-Volume 1: Maniacs-Nico ClauxGet $15 off a Skylight Frame with promo code SHOCKING at SkylightFrame.com

Brad Hunter has spent over thirty years writing about some of America's most horrific crimes. In this new book he enters the mind of John Wayne Gacy, the real-life 'Killer Clown', often said to be the inspiration for Stephen King's evil Pennywise in It. Gacy lured victims to his home with the promise of work or a warm bed and then duped them into putting on handcuffs, claiming he wanted to show them a magic trick. He would then rape and torture his victims before killing them by suffocating or strangling them.Twenty-six were buried in the crawl space beneath his home; others were buried elsewhere on his property, while a handful were dumped in the Des Plaines River. Gacy was executed for his crimes in 1994, but many questions remain unanswered. How many victims were there? Did Gacy act alone? And what drove John Wayne Gacy to murder? What caused the seemingly normal Gacy to sexually assault, torture and murder at least thirty-three young men and boys?Drawing on his many years' experience investigating and interviewing perpetrators of terrible crimes, Hunter seeks to understand what drove Gacy to unleash a reign of terror in suburban Chicago. INSIDE THE MIND OF JOHN WAYNE GACY: The Real-Life Killer Clown-Brad Hunter

Although featured nationally on 48 Hours, Dateline, and the Oxygen Network, the detailed, complete, and totally unbelievable story of the case of DAVID CAMM has never been fully revealed as police, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and judges either sought or facilitated the convictions of an innocent man while ignoring a mountain of exculpatory evidence.While David was being pursued, persecuted, and incarcerated, Kim, Brad, and Jill Camm’s true killer, a devil-worshiping, sexually obsessed, 11-time convicted violent psychopath was left free to roam the streets of metropolitan Louisville, Kentucky. Once identified by his DNA, but only through the efforts of David’s uncle and defense team, that same cold-blooded murderer was treated, incredibly, first as a victim and then shockingly as an accomplice of David.Their Bloody Lies & Persecution of DAVID CAMM is a chilling, reprehensible, yet very tragic and true American crime story, leaving readers demanding, “How did this case happen and why was this travesty allowed to continue?”Sam Lockhart knew, absolutely knew, his nephew couldn’t have killed his wife and children, for he was with David and ten other people at the time of the murders. For 13 years and at an enormous personal and financial cost, Sam, his family, and business suffered the disdain of those in the local community, but Sam never lost focus of his ultimate goal: the exoneration of David and justice for Kim, Brad, and Jill.Gary M. Dunn was a 27-year veteran Agent with the FBI in Miami, Chicago, Gary, Indiana, and Southern Indiana, with a wide array of experience investigating corruption, terrorism, white collar, and violent crimes while often dealing with true psychopaths. After becoming the private investigator for David’s second defense team, he was stunned by the incompetent, biased investigations; lack of a fair, impartial justice system; and those who claimed to be forensic scientists. Follow his and the defense team’s investigative path in a case you won’t soon forget. THEIR BLOODY LIES AND PERSECUTION OF DAVID CAMM: Part 1-Gary M. Dunn

“SARGE!” is a fascinating memoir by the late Chicago Police Detective Sergeant John A. DiMaggio, one of the most decorated officers on the force during a career that spanned the years 1957 to 1991. Among his awards are two Superintendent’s Awards of Valor, Mayor Richard J. Daley’s Praiseworthy Acknowledgment Plaque for Exceptional Act of Bravery Involving Risk of Life, a Presidential Citation of Appreciation, the Illinois Police Association Award of Valor, and many more.Upon his retirement in 1991, DiMaggio wrote a fascinating account of his work as a cop. The manuscript languished among his personal effects until after his death in 2008, after which his family decided to resurrect it, spruce it up, and submit it for publication. It turns out that he was an excellent word craftsman and storyteller; in fact, he was no stranger to writing—for many years he wrote the “Ask Sarge” column for the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter newsletter.Told in a conversational, “regular guy” voice in episodic fashion, “SARGE!” reveals to the reader what it was really like to be a cop. The manuscript in many ways takes the form of a prose treatment of a weekly television police drama. A large selection of PHOTOS is included.DiMaggio takes the reader back to the decades such as the turbulent 1960s, when the police department was making a painful transition from “old school” to modernization. The author describes firsthand the legendary riots that occurred in Chicago after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He illustrates the integration of minorities into the department and how that played out. He also goes into famous cases of corruption and the politics of navigating such a large department. One of the “set pieces” of the book is the story of how DiMaggio, as part of the “Three Musketeers”—a trio that included two detectives who were close friends—investigated a series of terrifying slasher attacks on women that occurred in the city in the mid-70s. The case became one of the police department’s most memorable. Among the other cases detailed in the book include how DiMaggio found himself entering the home of a crazed young man holding hostages with a shotgun; the investigation of the discovery of a headless corpse; the take-down of the Chicago “Mad Bomber”; how an anonymous audio tape provided clues to the identities of armed robbers; and the manhunt for a cop killer. SARGE: Cases of a Chicago Police Detective Sergeant in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s-Debra DiMaggio

January 14, 1927 — A.J. Mathis, a wealthy, elderly chicken rancher, is missing. One of the last of the cowboy sheriffs, Jim McDonald, is convinced A.J. is dead. Murdered. And McDonald says he knows who did it and vows to “prove it on her.”McDonald’s leading and only suspect is a former saloon singer and prostitute, Eva Dugan. Short, stocky, and plain, Eva takes off with a younger man in A.J.’s Dodge Coupe. They drive from Arizona to Texas before Eva makes her way to White Plains, New York.While on the run, her young friend, Jack, vanishes. And A.J.’s skeleton is discovered buried in a shallow grave.After she’s captured, Eva proclaims her innocence but is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Eva says if she was more attractive and a “flapper,” she would not have been convicted nor sentenced to death by hanging.A movement grows among people opposed to capital punishment to spare Eva’s life. They fail, and Eva walks to the gallows, proclaiming her innocence.What follows changes how Arizona treats those sentenced to death for capital crimes. Never again will anyone hang for murder in Arizona because of what happened the day Eva Dugan died. Was justice done? KILL. BURY. FORGET: A Shocking True Crime Story-Rod Kackley

In the early hours of March 22, 1989, two friends – career criminals with violent felony convictions - drove around the eastern Kansas City area in a stolen car committing a series of crimes. The weather was mild for late March in Kansas City; the sky was clear, and there was the pale remnant of a Full Moon that bore the dubious name of Death Moon, the last full moon of winter.A little before 7 a.m., 15-year-old Ann Harrison walked to the end of her driveway on Kansas City’s east side to wait for the bus to take her to Raytown South High School. Ten minutes later, she disappeared but no one saw what happened. As if waiting for her return, her belongings were still stacked carefully by the side of the road.BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD is the true crime story of the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Ann Harrison and the long journey forced upon her family who had to wait nearly three decades to see her killers brought to final justice. BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD: The True Story of the Abduction and Murder of Ann Harrison-Marla Bernard

Sheree Warren left her job in Salt Lake City on a mild October evening in 1985. She told a coworker she was headed to meet her estranged husband, Charles Warren, at a car dealership. But she never made it, Sheree vanished. When her car mysteriously surfaced weeks later, hundreds of miles away in Las Vegas, no one could say how it got there. When a young mother disappears under unexplained circumstances, police always turn suspicious eyes towards the husband. And although there was distrust around Charles Warren, he wasn’t the only suspect when Sheree went missing. She also had a boyfriend, a former cop named Cary Hartmann, who lived a sinister double life. Season three follows two suspects– men who both raised suspicion for investigators. But with two strong persons of interest with competing facts and evidence, it muddied the murder investigation. This season, host Dave Cawley, digs into the lives of these two men, the details of the case and examines the intersections between domestic abuse and sexual violence. The COLD team seeks to answer the question: what really happened to Sheree Warren? Hey Prime Members, listen to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast, COLD, in the Amazon Music App. Download the app today: www.amazon.com/COLD_us_pfd_AA_110122.

LaDonna Humphrey gains a new ally in her effort to find justice in the 1994 unsolved murder case of Melissa Ann Witt when Alecia Lockhart reveals a dark and troubling secret from her past. Together, Humphrey and Lockhart must delve inside a dangerous and twisted world known as the "dark web" to unlock a series of mysteries, including Alecia's haunting connection to Melissa Witt's murder. Strangled is the shocking and suspenseful account of the war Humphrey and Lockhart wage on a warped and depraved online community set on destruction, murder and mayhem. The stakes are high. Their safety is compromised. Evil lurks with every click. Just how far are they willing to go to find the answers they need? STRANGLED: Who Killed Melissa Witt?- LaDonna Humphrey and Alecia Lockhart

A devoted father. One of the most accomplished criminal law scholars in the country. Someone wanted him dead. But why?On the morning of July 18, 2014, 41-year-old Florida State law professor Dan Markel dropped his boys off at preschool, hit the gym, and headed home to his quiet, tree-canopied neighborhood. Within seconds of pulling into his garage, two .38-caliber bullets fired from point-blank range were lodged in his brain.His brutal slaying defied explanation. The case went stone cold for nearly two years before dogged pursuit by the Tallahassee Police and the FBI resulted in the arrest of two life-long criminals who had driven 10 hours from Miami with one singular purpose: to murder the esteemed professor. Were his ex-wife Wendi Adelson and her South Florida family the masterminds behind this horrific crime?EXTREME PUNISHMENT is the riveting story of a divorce between two law professors that spiraled out of control, wealthy in-laws hell-bent on revenge, an unlikely love triangle, and the relentless quest to bring Dan’s killers—all of them—to justice. EXTREME PUNISHMENT: The Chilling True Story of Acclaimed Law Professor Dan Markel's Murder-Steven B. Epstein

Deborah Sue Williamson was a newly married young woman living in Lubbock Texas on Aug. 24, 1975. One night while her husband was away at work, she was brutally stabbed 17 times in the carport of their home. Many suspects were investigated, but no one was charged. The case went cold until the mid-1980s when Henry Lee Lucas, a man notorious for admitting to murders he didn't commit confessed to her murder. It was profiled in the Netflix doc series The Confession Killer. There was only one problem. He didn't kill her. Her mother and stepfather proved Lucas didn't end Debbie's life and the case went cold once more.True Crime Author and investigative journalist George Jared teamed with his friend and former Army counterintelligence officer and university professor Jennifer Bucholtz to study the case in-depth. The two became acquainted while trying to solve the unsolved murder of Rebekah Gould. In that case they were able to lure the man, now charged with the 22-year-old woman's slaying, onto a Facebook page. Their interactions with him prior to his arrest garnered national attention. Their goal was to do the same in this case.Follow their year-long journey that took them from the mountains of Colorado to the deserts of West Texas. Their investigation led them through row crop fields of the Mississippi Delta and into the rolling Ozark hills in Missouri. The tandem was able to track down nearly every witness, person of interest, and suspect in the case.Along the way they created a massive team of citizen detectives that have brought resources to bear on a case that is now 47 years old. The team created an investigative file many times larger than the original police file. The goal was to create a web that the killer could not escape.Silent Silhouette is an in-depth look into the work that was done, complete with full interviews of every key player in this real life tragedy. One thing became clear as the investigation unfolded. This case is solvable and it's only a matter of time before this killer is behind bars. SILENT SILHOUETTE...WHO KILLED DEBORAH SUE?-George Jared

The solution to the Zodiac serial killer case is as clear as it is controversial. One man, a letter writer, bomb maker, and code creator, was living in the area at the time of the Zodiac murders, had easy access to all the crime scenes, and had had a psychotic break at the time the Zodiac began his heinous murder campaign. A genius-level mathematician, he was clever enough to disguise his handwriting, avoid leaving evidence like fingerprints, and produce diabolically difficult ciphers to taunt the police and the public with his identity that lurked just on the other side of his impossibly difficult codes. That man is Theodore J. Kaczynski.A product of the MK Ultra project at Harvard University, Kaczynski was one of the youngest mathematics professors in UC Berkeley history, a position he despised. Kaczynski committed his first murder as the Zodiac over winter break, 1968, and his second just after resigning his post as professor in July 1969. His criminal signature, letter writing and code making, continued unabated across both of his criminal careers as the Zodiac and Unabomber.EXPOSED takes the reader through all the evidence presented in the first two books, HUNTED and PROFILED, and systematically connects the Zodiac and Unabomber cases through handwriting, codes, locations, literature, cultural references, and other unexpected details. EXPOSED makes it impossible to dismiss Kaczynski as the Zodiac, one of the most evil serial killers of all time. EXPOSED: The Zodiac Revealed (The Zodiac Serial Killer)-Dr. Mark Hewitt

Unsolved crimes, unanswered questions. Crimes are meant to be solved. But what happens when they’re not? For the individuals involved—from the victims and their families to police investigators—this is the most frustrating part of all. For them there’s no resolution, no justice, no tidy boxes in which to pack away all the bits and pieces of a puzzle that finally links together. Instead, they are only left with questions that may never get answered. Chilling cold cases & unexplained mysteries. The Best New True Crime Stories examines a fascinating assortment of unsolved murders, unsolved crimes, serial killers, and mysterious stories from around the world, from the past to the contemporary. Like the previous anthologies in The Best New True Crime Stories series, this volume contains all-new and original nonfiction accounts penned by international writers from across the literary spectrum, from true crime and crime fiction to journalism. Contributors include Dean Jobb, Joan Renner, Cathy Pickens, Lindsey Danis, Anya Wassenberg, and many others. Inside, you’ll find a varied assortment of unsolved crimes and mysterious murders. Murder cases to solve, told by writers from around the world, such as France’s “Valley of Hell” mystery and the story of Austria’s most wanted. THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES: Unsolved Crimes & Mysteries-Mitzi Szereto

Acclaimed crime historian, podcaster, and author of American Sherlock Kate Winkler Dawson tells the thrilling story of Edward Rulloff—a serial murderer who was called “too intelligent to be killed”—and the array of 19th century investigators who were convinced his brain held the key to finally understanding the criminal mind.Edward Rulloff was a brilliant yet utterly amoral murderer—some have called him a “Victorian-era Hannibal Lecter”—whose crimes spanned decades and whose victims were chosen out of revenge, out of envy, and sometimes out of necessity. From his humble beginnings in upstate New York to the dazzling salons and social life he established in New York City, at every turn Rulloff used his intelligence and regal bearing to evade detection and avoid punishment. He could talk his way out of any crime...until one day, Rulloff's luck ran out. By 1871 Rulloff sat chained in his cell—a psychopath holding court while curious 19th-century "mindhunters" tried to understand what made him tick. From alienists (early psychiatrists who tried to analyze the source of his madness) to neurologists (who wanted to dissect his brain) to phrenologists (who analyzed the bumps on his head to determine his character), each one thought he held the key to understanding the essential question: is evil born or made? Eventually, Rulloff’s brain would be placed in a jar at Cornell University as the prize specimen of their anatomy collection...where it still sits today, slowly moldering in a dusty jar. But his story—and its implications for the emerging field of criminal psychology—were just beginning. Expanded from season one of her hit podcast on the Exactly Right network (7 million downloads and growing), in All That Is Wicked Kate Winkler Dawson draws on hundreds of source materials and never-before-shared historical documents to present one of the first glimpses into the mind of a serial killer—a century before the term was coined—through the scientists whose work would come to influence criminal justice for decades to come. ALL THAT IS WICKED: A Gilded-Age Story of Murder and the Race to Decode the Criminal Mind-Kate Winkler Dawson

The Generation Why Podcast released its first episode in 2012 and pioneered the true crime genre in the podcasting world. Two friends, Aaron & Justin, break down theories and give their opinions on unsolved murders, controversies, mysteries and conspiracies. One of the longest running true crime podcasts out there, Generation Why has a little something for every true crime listener. Follow The Generation Why Podcast on Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Or you can listen ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. wondery.fm/TM_GenWhy

Nearly a hundred years ago, two wealthy and privileged teenagers―Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb―were charged and convicted in a gruesome crime that would lead to the original “Trial of the Century”. Even in Jazz Age Chicago, the murder was uniquely shocking for the motive of the killers: well-to-do Jewish scions, full of promise, had killed fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks for the thrill of it. The trial was made even more sensational by the revelation of a love affair between the defendants and by defense attorney Clarence Darrow, who delivered one of the most famous defense summations of all time to save the boys from the death penalty. The story of their mad folie à deux, with Loeb portrayed as the psychopathic mastermind and Leopold as his infatuated disciple, has been endlessly repeated and accepted by history as fact. And none of it is true.Using twenty-first century investigative tools, forensics, and a modern understanding of the psychology of these infamous killers, Nothing but the Night turns history on its head. While Loeb has long been viewed as the architect behind the murders, King and Wilson’s new research points to Leopold as the dominant partner in the deadly relationship, uncovering a dark obsession with violence and sex. Nothing but the Night pulls readers into the troubled world of Leopold and Loeb, revealing a more horrifying tale of passion, obsession, and betrayal than history ever imagined. NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT: Leopold & Loeb and the Truth Behind the Murder That Rocked 1920's America-Greg King and Penny Wilson.

Boston had its Strangler. California had the Zodiac Killer. And in the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland had the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed “The Lady of the Lake,” was only the first of a butcher’s dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive.Terror gripped the city. Amid the growing uproar, Cleveland’s besieged mayor turned to his newly-appointed director of public safety: Eliot Ness. Ness had come to Cleveland fresh from his headline-grabbing exploits in Chicago, where he and his band of “Untouchables” led the frontline assault on Al Capone’s bootlegging empire. Now he would confront a case that would redefine his storied career.Award-winning author Daniel Stashower shines a fresh light on one of the most notorious puzzles in the annals of crime, and uncovers the gripping story of Ness’s hunt for a sadistic killer who was as brilliant as he was cool and composed, a mastermind who was able to hide in plain sight. American Demon reconstructs this ultimate battle of wits between a hero and a madman. AMERICAN DEMON: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack The Ripper-Daniel Stashower

On September 16, 1922, the bodies of Reverend Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills were found beneath a crabapple tree on an abandoned farm outside of New Brunswick, New Jersey. The killer had arranged the bodies in a pose conveying intimacy. The murder of Hall, a prominent clergyman whose wife, Frances Hall, was a proud heiress with illustrious ancestors and ties to the Johnson & Johnson dynasty, would have made headlines on its own. But when authorities identified Eleanor Mills as a choir singer from his church married to the church sexton, the story shocked locals and sent the scandal ricocheting around the country, fueling the nascent tabloid industry. This provincial double murder on a lonely lover’s lane would soon become one of the most famous killings in American history—a veritable crime of the century. The bumbling local authorities failed to secure any indictments, however, and it took a swashbuckling crusade by the editor of a circulation-hungry Hearst tabloid to revive the case and bring it to trial at last.Blood & Ink freshly chronicles what remains one of the most electrifying but forgotten murder mysteries in U.S. history. It also traces the birth of American tabloid journalism, pandering to the masses with sordid tales of love, sex, money, and murder. BLOOD & INK: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder that Hooked America on True Crime-Joe Pompeo

During an eight-month period in 1977 and 1978, the city of Columbus, Georgia, was terrorized by a mysterious serial killer who raped and ritualistically strangled seven elderly women in one of the community's finer neighborhoods. Despite intensive efforts on the part of police the Stocking Strangler, as he came to be known, managed to elude capture. After the last murder in April 1978, the case went cold. In the spring of 1984, a series of fortuitous events connected to an unrelated murder and a stolen pistol led to the capture of Carlton Gary, who had recently escaped from a South Carolina prison. Following a dramatic trial in 1986, Gary was convicted of three of the seven Columbus murders and sentenced to death, a penalty that would not be carried out until 2018. This convoluted tale of crime and punishment is punctuated by dramatic twists and turns including issues of race, alleged conspiracy and misconduct on the part of the police and the judiciary, and errors in DNA analysis. THE COLUMBUS STOCKING STRANGLER-William Rawlings

On August 31, 1972, Hellen Hanks, a pretty thirty-four-year-old mother of three disappeared from her place of employment at Wilcox Advertising in Valdosta, Georgia. After a brief investigation by local and state authorities, the case went cold. In the fall of 1980, a farmer clearing a field south of town discovered a buried object, a box containing the dismembered remains of the missing woman. After several months of investigation, police arrested "Foxy" Wilcox, his son Keller Wilcox, and two long-term African American employees of Wilcox Advertising. Keller was charged with Hanks's murder, and the others with concealing a death. The Wilcoxes were members of a prominent and wealthy Valdosta family. To defend their case, they hired famed defense attorney Bobby Lee Cook. Keller Wilcox's murder trial in January 1982 pitted Cook against a local prosecution team led by district attorney Lamar Cole. The case against Wilcox was entirely circumstantial, making the outcome uncertain. After a trial marked by controversy and conflicting testimony, Wilcox was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, all the while proclaiming his innocence. In 1985 he was freed by a federal judge based primarily on the harsh interrogation of the black witnesses. The true story of this horrific murder has all the elements of a work of suspense fiction: money, power, sex, race, and the haves vs. the have-nots. Multiple lives were forever changed. The outcome would have been totally different if the box had been buried only six inches deeper. SIX INCHES DEEPER: The Disappearance of Hellen Hanks-William Rawlings

Our family members are not always who we think. When Eleonore Richland exposed her father’s dark legacy, she vowed to clean up the family business – and hired her half-brother, Santino Reyes, to help her do it. But old habits die hard. In the shocking new third season, Eleonore reckons with what her father always taught her growing up: medicine is a bloody business. From Wondery, the makers of “The Shrink Next Door” and “Dr. Death,” Blood Ties stars Gillian Jacobs (Community, Love), Christian Navarro (13 Reasons Why), and Peter Stormare. Listen to Blood Ties: wondery.fm/TM_BTS3

Every serial killer is a “nice guy”—until he’s found out. The shocking, true account of a Southern charmer who left a trail of victims in his wake.Jerry Marcus fooled them all. He was “a nice guy,” always helped at home, did well in school, an athlete, and always employed. When things went wrong, he was the first to help clean up the mess. He was the last person anyone suspected of being a serial killer.After Marcus was caught and sentenced to life in prison in the late ’70s, author Linda Lou Long spent years corresponding with him. The Tuskegee Strangler gives an inside look into the workings of a man who is not your typical serial killer. THE TUSKEGEE STRANGLER: The Nicest Serial Killer They Ever Met-Linda Lou Long

Paris, 1889: Margeurite Steinheil is a woman with ambition. But having been born into a middle-class family and trapped in a marriage to a failed artist twenty years her senior, she knows her options are limited.Determined to fashion herself into a new woman, Meg orchestrates a scandalous plan with her most powerful resource: her body. Amid the dazzling glamor, art, and romance of bourgeois Paris, she takes elite men as her lovers, charming her way into the good graces of the rich and powerful. Her ambitions, though, go far beyond becoming the most desirable woman in Paris; at her core, she is a woman determined to conquer French high society. But the game she plays is a perilous one: navigating misogynistic double-standards, public scrutiny, and political intrigue, she is soon vaulted into infamy in the most dangerous way possible.A real-life femme fatale, Meg influences government positions and resorts to blackmail―and maybe even poisoning―to get her way. Leaving a trail of death and disaster in her wake, she earns the name the "Red Widow" for mysteriously surviving a home invasion that leaves both her husband and mother dead. With the police baffled and the public enraged, Meg breaks every rule in the bourgeois handbook and becomes the most notorious woman in Paris. THE RED WIDOW: The Scandal that Shook Paris and the Woman Behind It All-Sarah Horowitz

By the late 1970s, the fishermen of the Texas Gulf Coast were struggling. The bays that had sustained generations of shrimpers and crabbers before them were being poisoned by nearby petrochemical plants, oil spills, pesticides, and concrete. But as their nets came up light, the white shrimpers could only see one culprit: the small but growing number of newly resettled Vietnamese refugees who had recently started fishing. Turf was claimed. Guns were flashed. Threats were made. After a white crabber was killed by a young Vietnamese refugee in self-defense, the situation became a tinderbox primed to explode, and the Grand Dragon of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan saw an opportunity to stoke the fishermen’s rage and prejudices. At a massive Klan rally near Galveston Bay one night in 1981, he strode over to an old boat graffitied with the words U.S.S. VIET CONG, torch in hand, and issued a ninety-day deadline for the refugees to leave or else “it’s going to be a helluva lot more violent than Vietnam!” The white fishermen roared as the boat burned, convinced that if they could drive these newcomers from the coast, everything would return to normal. A shocking campaign of violence ensued, marked by burning crosses, conspiracy theories, death threats, torched boats, and heavily armed Klansmen patrolling Galveston Bay. The Vietnamese were on the brink of fleeing, until a charismatic leader in their community, a highly decorated colonel, convinced them to stand their ground by entrusting their fate with the Constitution. Drawing upon a trove of never-before-published material, including FBI and ATF records, unprecedented access to case files, and scores of first-hand interviews with Klansmen, shrimpers, law enforcement, environmental activists, lawyers, perpetrators and victims, Johnson uncovers secrets and secures confessions to crimes that went unsolved for more than forty years. This explosive investigation of a forgotten story, years in the making, ultimately leads Johnson to the doorstep of the one woman who could see clearly enough to recognize the true threat to the bays—and who now represents the fishermen’s last hope. THE FISHERMEN AND THE DRAGON: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast-Kirk Wallace Johnson

As Adolph Hitler rose to power in 1930s Germany, a growing wave of fascism began to take root on American soil. Nazi activists started to gather in major American cities, and by 1933, there were more than one-hundred anti-Semitic groups operating openly in the United States. Few Americans dared to speak out or fight back—until an organized resistance of notorious mobsters waged their own personal war against the Nazis in their midst. Gangland-style. . . .In this thrilling blow-by-blow account, acclaimed crime writer Michael Benson uncovers the shocking truth about the insidious rise of Nazism in America—and the Jewish mobsters who stomped it out. Learn about:* Nazi Town, USA: * Meyer Lansky and Murder Inc.: * Fritz Kuhn, “The Vest-Pocket Hitler”:.* Newark Nazis vs The Minutemen: * Hitler in Hollywoodland: Packed with surprising, little-known facts, graphic details, and unforgettable personalities, Gangsters vs. Nazis chronicles the mob’s most ruthless tactics in taking down fascism—inspiring ordinary Americans to join them in their fight. The book culminates in one of the most infamous events of the pre-war era—the 1939 Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden—in which law-abiding citizens stood alongside hardened criminals to fight for the soul of a nation. This is the story of the mob that’s rarely told—one of the most fascinating chapters in American history and American organized crime. GANGSTERS vs. NAZIS: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in WW2 Era America-Michael Benson

An incredible four-decade account of murder, power, and corruption in one of the country’s largest police departments In 1979, the gruesome slaying of a thirteen-year-old boy riveted the suburbs of Suffolk County, New York. As the county hustled to bring the case to a dubious resolution, a wayward local teenager emerged with a convenient story to tell. For his cooperation, Jimmy Burke was rewarded with a job as a cop.Thus began Burke’s unlikely ascent to the top of one of the country’s largest law enforcement jurisdictions. He and a crew of like minded allies utilized vengeance, gangster tactics, and political leverage to become the most powerful and feared figures in their suburban empire.Until a pilfered bag of sex toys brought it all crashing down.Jimmy the King is the story of the rise, reign, and paranoiac fall of a corrupt cop and his regime—a crime family with badges and guaranteed pensions. Novelistic in detail and piercing in its political insight, this book will leave you questioning who modern policing serves, who it protects, and who it preys upon and abandons. JIMMY THE KING: Murder, Vice, and the Reign of a Dirty Cop-Gus Garcia-Roberts

A compelling look at violence and trauma from the psychiatrist who treated mass shooter James Holmes, perpetrator of the infamous movie theater massacre.As an expert and speaker on mass shootings and gun violence, Dr. Lynn Fenton knew it was impossible to “spot a killer.” But when she met her new patient, troubled grad student James Holmes, the hair on her arms stood up. She feared he was going to kill. Yet she could find no way to thwart him. A few months later, Holmes struck: he entered a packed movie theater and opened fire, killing twelve people and wounding seventy; some were left brain damaged, several were paralyzed for life. Immediately the familiar debates reignited: The crisis of mental health access. More restrictive gun laws vs more “good guys with guns.” The morality of the death penalty. The legitimacy of the insanity defense. But what about the victims and bystanders whose lives would never be the same? Dr. Fenton’s memoir is a voice for them. Her inability to thwart Holmes’s mass murder made her a scapegoat and elicited innumerable death threats. Her chilling account provides an intimate look at her life before and after the Aurora massacre, as well as alarming insight into the sinister patient who called himself “fear incarnate.” With unprecedented access to thousands of pages of documents, audio and video recordings, trial transcripts, medical records, and notes, Aurora attempts to answer the question Holmes himself posed in his infamous notebook: “Why? Why? Why?” AURORA: The Psychiatrist that Treated the Movie Theater Killer Tells Her Story-Dr. Lynne Fenton

A former United Church minister massacres his family. What led to this act of femicide, and why were his victims forgotten?On May 2, 1963, Robert Killins, a former United Church minister, slaughtered every woman in his family but one. She (and her brother) lived to tell the story of what motivated a talented man who had been widely admired, a scholar and graduate from Queen’s University, to stalk and terrorize the women in his family for almost twenty years and then murder them.Through extensive oral histories, Cook and Carson painstakingly trace the causes of a femicide in which four women and two unborn babies were murdered over the course of one bloody evening. While they situate this murderous rampage in the literature on domestic abuse and mass murders, they also explore how the two traumatized child survivors found their way back to health and happiness. Told through vivid first-person accounts, this family memoir explores how a murderer was created. THE CASTLETON MASSACRE: Survivors' Stories of the Killins Femicide-Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson

It was a brisk April morning in 1990 when a woman walking her dog stopped cold in her tracks. She reeled back from something strange and disturbing blocking the drainage tile: a human skull. Forensic examination showed that it was the remains of Joan Webster, the 25-year-old Harvard graduate student whose disappearance had rattled the community and stumped investigators for the past eight and a half years. The prosecutors had a suspect, Leonard Paradiso, who was tried and convicted for the murder of another local woman. The only similarity between the entangled crimes was that both victims had long dark hair. Assistant District Attorney Tim Burke was obsessed with proving Paradiso guilty of both murders. However, between the lack of evidence and ever-changing stories, the circumstances of Joan Webster’s death remains a mystery to this day.Hope is not lost as Joan’s sister-in-law, Eve Carson, continues to fight for justice. Simple, Safe & Secret divulges the diabolical details and dysfunctional system that has denied and obstructed justice in solving Joan Webster’s murder case. The messy truth of the botched investigation and a wrongful conviction may be darker than the story of Joan’s murder itself. SIMPLE, SAFE & SECRET: The 1981 Murder of Joan L. Webster-Eve Carson

Before Charles Manson, there was Tony Costa—the serial killer of Cape Cod1969: The hippie scene is vibrant in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Long-haired teenagers roam the streets, strumming guitars and preaching about peace and love... and Tony Costa is at the center of it all. To a certain group of smitten young women, he is known as Sire—the leader of their counter-culture movement, the charming man who speaks eloquently and hands out hallucinogenic drugs like candy. But beneath his benign persona lies a twisted and uncontrollable rage that threatens to break loose at any moment. Tony Costa is the most dangerous man on Cape Cod, and no one who crosses his path is safe.When young women begin to disappear, Costa's natural charisma and good looks initially protect him from suspicion. But as the bodies are discovered, the police close in on him as the key suspect. Meanwhile, local writers Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer are locked in a desperate race to secure their legacies as great literary icons—and they both set their sights on Tony Costa and the drug-soaked hippie culture that he embodies as their next promising subject, launching independent investigations that stoke the competitive fires between two of the greatest American writers.Immersive, unflinching, and shocking, Helltown is a landmark true crime narrative that transports us back to the turbulent late 1960s, reveals the secrets of a notorious serial killer, and unspools the threads connecting Costa, Vonnegut, and Mailer in the seaside city that played host to horrors unlike any ever seen before. HELLTOWN: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod-Casey Sherman

In 1944 Brooklyn, newborn Michael J. Hardy is rejected by his mother so she can run with gangster Bugsy Siegel, Hardy's godfather. Shirley Rook quickly rose to the top of the criminal ranks. As the Queen of New York City crime, she laundered Mob money, ran the city's largest bookmaking operation, and handed payouts to dirty cops, politicians, and judges.To win his mother's love and respect, Hardy became a fearless gangster. Throughout his career as a criminal, he robbed banks and drug dealers alike, ran a finger of an international stolen car ring, kidnapped drug lords, and even became a hired gun. At his lowest, he ended up doing time for his mother's counterfeiting operation in Mexico's most dangerous prison.Hardy's criminal code of conduct combines elements of tough Ukrainian Jew and warm Southern Baptist, whether dealing with family and friends or fellow inmates during a combined twenty-six years spent in prisons and jails. He maintained this characteristic gregarious strength throughout his astonishing life in which Hardy was shot eleven times, committed fourteen hits for the Mob, twice wore wires for Rudy Giuliani to nab dirty cops, wrote a letter to JFK to get out of military prison, choked the Hillside Strangler, shared prison time with notorious criminals, and even spent ten years in Hollywood working as muscle for a B-studio, where he was even cast in non-speaking roles. THE LAST JEWISH GANGSTER: The Early Years-David Larson

For Tony Reid, this case began as a claim of innocence in the murder of Donna Jo Richmond in 1975. While the errors in the original investigation and a flawed trial resulted in a guilty verdict, the reassessment confirmed that the defendant was framed but the question became: by whom? Working with a new team of investigators, which included two of the original detectives, the probe uncovered a startling new possibility: Was the real culprit a serial offender?Turning to the public for information, Mr. Reid created the 12/26/75 podcast. Based on primary evidence and new interviews surrounding the murder of Donna Jo on that date in Exeter, California, the team re-examined every possibility. The investigators soon found something more than a terribly failed verdict. They discovered connections to the unsolved murders of Jennifer Armour and Claude Snelling—and links to The East Area Rapist. They uncovered shocking corruption by the original lead investigator who illegally destroyed trial evidence and looked into the unexplained death of the original defense attorney. This pursuit led them right back to Exeter, where a new suspect in these murders emerged: Joseph DeAngelo, who was then a full-time sergeant with the local police department, the officer in charge of violent crimes and burglary investigations.This book is more than an adaptation of the 12/26/75 podcast. It shares new insight formed during the investigation and provides a first-hand look at the Tulare crimes, as well as exposing the faulty evidence used to obtain and maintain the false conviction. More than anything else, 12/26/75 demonstrates the enormous consequences of letting a serial killer go free, made worse when combined with the painful mistakes, in-fighting, and finger-pointing by certain jurisdictions. The catastrophic results are undeniable. Now that the mystery of how it all unfolded is revealed, we can also begin to examine the reforms necessary to prevent this tragedy from happening again. 12/26/75-Tony Reid

Under a Cold Moon is the extraordinary true story of a man that devastated two worlds. A killer that used the chump card as his cover for two brutal murders. His first victim lay under the rocks for fifteen nights. His second lay under the dirt for sixty-one. Two women. Two murders. One spurned slayer.In this cold tale, the author exposes the dark secrets of a man that stalked older women. Latham weaves this story from an insider’s window. A writer that was in the thick of things and interviewed the man behind these two cataclysmic homicides. UNDER A COLD MOON: A Chronicle of an Unrequited Killer-Tony H. Latham

WHEN THE MOON TURNS TO BLOOD examines the culture of end times paranoia and a trail of mysterious deaths surrounding former beauty queen Lori Vallow and her husband, grave digger turned doomsday novelist, Chad Daybell.When police in Rexburg, Idaho perform a wellness check on seven J.J. Vallow and his sister, sixteen-year-old Tylee Ryan, both children are nowhere to be found. Their mother, Lori Vallow, gives a phony explanation, and when officers return the following day with a search warrant, she, too, is gone. As the police begin to close in, a larger web of mystery, murder, fanaticism and deceit begins to unravel.Vallow’s case is sinuously complex. As investigators prod further, they find the accused Black Widow has an unusual number of bodies piling up around her. WHEN THE MOON TURNS TO BLOOD tells a gripping story of extreme beliefs, snake oil prophets, and explores the question: if it feels like the world is ending, how are people supposed to act? WHEN THE MOON TURNS TO BLOOD: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a story of Murder, Wild faith, and End Times-Leah Sottile

On May 4, 2001, Bonny Lee Bakley was found fatally shot in a car on a dark North Hollywood street. The prime suspect was her husband, famed actor Robert Blake. But Bonny, a longtime con artist, had plenty of enemies. She left behind a trail of men she’d scammed, and she had a volatile relationship with Christian Brando, the troubled son of movie star Marlon Brando. Not since the O.J. Simpson case had the eyes of the nation been so fixated on a homicide. The search for Bonny’s killer took detectives on an eleven-month odyssey across the country and through Hollywood's underbelly of hustlers, drug addicts, and would-be hitmen. It would be the most expensive murder investigation in LAPD history to date. This is the story of Robert and Bonny’s toxic relationship, her shocking murder, and his chaotic trial. Did actor Robert Blake kill his wife? Or was the murder someone else's vendetta?From Wondery, and the team behind the hit series Hollywood & Crime (The Dating Game Killer, The Wonderland Murders, Death of Starlet) comes a six-part series about love, obsession and fame gone wrong. Co-hosted by Tracy Pattin and Josh Lucas. wondery.fm/TM_TEOBLB

Due to Sullivan’s extensive writing about Ted Bundy (which has produced six books), he’s become a sort of magnet over the years, drawing out many people who were part of the Bundy story, but have otherwise kept a low profile over the decades; and these first-person contacts continue to this day. As such, this is the first book in a new series of books, whose aim is to bring new revelations to the public about Bundy, the victims, the murders, and the almost murders that failed Bundy for one reason or another.This first offering, Ted Bundy: The Yearly Journal Volume One, contains a great deal of never before published information from a number of women who barely escaped his grasp. It also reveals Bundy’s geographic hunting pattern after his arrival in Salt Lake City, Utah in September 1974; a surprising discovery the author never expected to make, but did, and it all came about through the valid testimonies of the women who encountered him during this period.The book also delves into what the author believes is perhaps an accurate, albeit it conservative estimate, of how many women or young girls Bundy approached but failed to abduct during his years of murder. Each new volume will focus on particular aspects of the case where further investigation is warranted. There are still “unknowns” out there, and as the author has experienced, where unknowns exist, the possibility of discovery awaits. TED BUNDY: The Yearly Journal-Kevin M. Sullivan

Summertime in Florida. Tourists flock to the subtropical paradise for its beautiful beaches, abundant sunshine, and the magical allure of Disney World. For one Midwestern mother and her two teenaged daughters, a trip to the Sunshine State seemed like a dream vacation. But the promise of a sunset cruise by a friendly stranger turned that dream into a deadly nightmare. This is the true story of that tragic encounter and the hunt for the Sunset Killer, a modern American Monster. AMERICAN MONSTER: The Search for the Sunset Killer-J.T. Hunter

South Dakota's Mathis Family Murders brought death and deception to the heartland.It was perhaps the most infamous murder case in state history. Ladonna Mathis was shot twice in the head at point-blank range inside the family's metal shed serving as their makeshift home. Two of her three children, ages 2 and 4, were also shot in the head. The brutality of the killings shocked the state and set off a frenzy of law enforcement activity. Despite its intensity, the investigation never found the murderer or the murder weapon. Though charged with the crime, the husband was acquitted, leaving the door open for endless speculation about what really occurred on that late summer morning of Sept. 8, 1981.With renewed insight from those involved, veteran South Dakota journalist Noel Hamiel explores this cold case of murder and mystery that still haunts the Mount Rushmore state. SOUTH DAKOTA'S MATHIS MURDERS: Horror In The Heartland-Noel Hamiel

Two grisly murders—a brutal double parricide—a suicide, and a fourth death under suspicious circumstances. Drifting Into Darkness is a tangled tale of family dysfunction, fatal attraction, and greed, a saga that wends its way from the elegant Southern mansions of Montgomery, Alabama, to the New Age salons of Boulder, Colorado, to rural, windswept Wyoming.On Thanksgiving weekend in 2004, philanthropists Charlotte and Brent Springford Sr.―a wealthy, socially prominent Montgomery couple―were brutally beaten to death with an ax handle, echoing the infamous case of Lizzie Borden. Suspicion quickly fell on the Springfords' gifted but troubled son Brent Jr., who would be tried and sentenced to life without parole. But a mystery remained: Who was the mysterious, elusive woman who claimed to be a Native American shaman that investigators believed manipulated Brent into this murder?Journalists solving murders is a time-tested trope in movies, mysteries, and on television. But cops and cop reporters know that rarely happens in real life. Except when it does. Veteran crime reporter Mark I. Pinsky, who covered the sensational cases of serial killer Ted Bundy and Green Beret Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald, broke the cardinal rule of journalism by involving himself in the story. Pinsky’s extensive research prompted investigators to invite him to join their dogged pursuit of justice. His access to unique and heart-breaking behind-the-scenes material enables him to take readers with him into the troubled, tortured minds of the case's main players. DRIFTING INTO DARKNESS: Murders, Madness, Suicide and a Death "Under Suspicious Circumstances"-Mark I. Pinsky

What do mobster Meyer Lansky, banker John D. MacArthur and Jack "Murf the Surf" Murphy, have in common? The biggest secret of the century about the biggest crime of the century, that's what! Now, for the first time ever, the true story of the 1964 museum robberies and the 1966 Hendersonville, North Carolina triple murders.Based on an in-person interview with Jack Murphy, aka Murf, in 2015, the author tells a revised version of the story that Murf swore was true. This dramatic narrative of events, reconstructed from several sources including never before released FBI files, takes the reader on a wild ride of adventure, mis-steps and several surprise endings.You may think you know the truth, but you haven't read this story. MURF: Based on a True Story-The True Story of the 1964 Museum Robberies and Hendersonville Triple Murders-TRL Neal

As the soft-spoken, highly intelligent son of missionaries in Morganton, North Carolina, Luke Chang gave no indication of the killer he would become. But after hacking into a teacher's computer at his school, a stint in the Marines was his only option.As a young recruit, Luke was taunted for being a virgin who didn't cuss, drink, or smoke pot. That all changed when Luke met Casey Byrams, a fun-loving musician and fellow Marine from Cullman, Alabama. Their friendship set off a series of events that would eventually lead Luke to Pendleton, Oregon, where he brutally murdered nineteen-year-old Amyjane Brandhagen in August 2012. When Luke attempted to kill another woman almost a year later, Pendleton Police knew they had a serial-killer wannabe on their hands. Some forty years prior to Amyjane's murder, Luke's maternal grandfather, Gene Dale Lincoln, murdered a young Michigan woman and attempted to abduct a twelve-year-old girl. The similarities between the violent actions of grandfather and grandson compels the question: Is there such a thing as a murder gene? THE MURDER GENE: A True Story-Karen Spears Zacharias

By 1966, Hot Springs, Arkansas wasn’t your typical sleepy little Southern town. Once a favorite destination for mobsters like Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, illegal activities continued to lure out-of-state gamblers, flim-flam men, and high rollers to its racetracks, clubs, and bordellos. Still, the town was shaken to its core after a girl was found dead on a nearby ranch. The ranch owner claimed it was an accident. Then the rancher was found to be the killer of another woman – his fourth wife. The story begins when 13-year-old Cathie Ward was found dead after horseback riding at Blacksnake Ranch on the outskirts of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Frank Davis, the owner of the ranch, tells authorities Cathie’s death is an accident. He claims her foot caught in a stirrup and she was dragged to her death despite his pursuit of the runaway horse. People who know the 42-year-old skilled horseman don’t believe his story, and soon rumors of her rape and murder begin swirling around town. The rumors reach a crescendo after Davis viciously guns down his fourth wife and mother-in-law in broad daylight outside of a laundromat. Davis is arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Soon after, Hot Springs authorities re-open the investigation into Cathie Ward’s death. Snake Eyes is the first book to examine this decades-old murder and cover-up, and the only in-depth account of the man who would become the town’s most notorious villain. Featuring personal interviews, crime scene records, court documents, and Davis’ own prison files, author and lifelong Hot Springs resident Bitty Martin reveals the true story for the first time. SNAKE EYES: Murder In A Southern Town-Bitty Martin

Nicknamed “the most beautiful woman in Alaska,” 31-year-old Diane Wells was bruised and bloodied when she screamed for help in the early hours of October 17, 1953. Her husband Cecil, a wealthy Fairbanks businessman, had been shot dead, and she claimed they were the victims of a brutal home invasion.Blonde, glamorous and 20 years younger than Cecil, police were immediately suspicious of Diane's account, and the investigation soon turned toward her alleged lover, black musician Johnny Warren, who had left town the night of the murder.The scandal hit the pages of Newsweek, Life, Jet and the pulp detective magazines, and nearly 70 years later, journalist James T. Bartlett uncovers new evidence including an unpublished memoir, unseen photographs, and re-examines the FBI files. He tracks down and interviews the people close to Cecil, Diane, Johnny, and the mysterious “Third Suspect”, dance instructor William Colombany, to reveal the story of “the most notorious and baffling murder in the history of Fairbanks.” THE ALASKAN BLONDE: Sex, Secrets, and the Hollywood Story that Shocked America-James T. Bartlett

Learn the terrifying truth behind the world's deadliest serial killers…Serial killers haunt our dreams and inspire the terrifying villains of TV shows and horror movies. But how much do you really know about the minds behind the world's deadliest killers? What drives these murderers to kill and kill again? And what fuels our fascination with the true stories of their horrific crimes?Now forensic psychologist, private investigator, and crime writer Dr. Joni E. Johnston brings you the answers to these questions and more! SERIAL KILLERS: 101 Questions True Crime Fans Ask dives into the case files of the most infamous murderers in history, and answers the questions true crime fans have been dying to ask…SERIAL KILLERS: 101 Questions True Crime Fans Ask-Dr. Joni Johnston

In May 1996, two skilled backcountry leaders, Lollie Winans and Julie Williams, entered Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a week-long backcountry camping trip. The free-spirited and remarkable young couple had met and fallen in love the previous summer while working at a world-renowned outdoor program for women. During their final days in the park, they descended the narrow remnants of a trail and pitched their tent in a hidden spot. After the pair didn’t return home as planned, park rangers found a scene of horror at their campsite, their tent slashed open, their beloved dog missing, and both women dead in their sleeping bags. The unsolved murders of Winans and Williams continue to haunt all who had encountered them or knew their story.When award-winning journalist and outdoors expert Kathryn Miles begins looking into the case, she discovers conflicting evidence, mismatched timelines, and details that just don’t add up. With unprecedented access to crucial crime-scene forensics and key witnesses—and with a growing sense of both mission and obsession—she begins to uncover the truth. An innocent man, Miles is convinced, has been under suspicion for decades, while the true culprit is a known serial killer, if only authorities would take a closer look.Intimate, page-turning, and brilliantly reported, Trailed is a love story and a call to justice—and a searching and urgent plea to make wilderness a safe space for women. TRAILED: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders-Kathyrn Miles

Find out what truly creates and defines a psychopath, from the leading expert who helped to create Killing Eve's Villanelle.Dr. Mark Freestone has worked on some of the most interesting, infamous and disturbing cases of psychopathology in recent years. His expertise has led to a consultant role on several TV series, helping them accurately portray their fictional villains. Now, he shares his phenomenal insight into the minds of some of the world's most violent real-life criminals.Angela "the Remorseless", a rare female psychopath, casually confessed to murder on national television without a hint of regret. Danny "the Borderline" switched from grandiosity to rage to despair within minutes and killed his defenseless friend without explanation. Tony "the Conman" preferred charm, intimidation and sexual abuse over physical violence and once tried to dupe someone into buying the Eiffel Tower. Jason "the Liar" had a fantasy life that led to vicious murders around Europe and preyed on those who see the good in people. Case by fascinating case, get to know seven of the most dangerous minds that Dr. Freestone has encountered over the last 15 years. These are up-close accounts of some of the most psychopathic criminals, and of what can happen if you fall victim to their supreme powers of manipulation.Exploring the many factors that make a psychopath, the complexities and contradictions of their emotions and behavior, as well as an examination of how the lives of psychopaths develop inside and outside the institutions that are supposed to contain them, Making a Psychopath opens up a window into the world of those who operate in a void of human emotion―and what can be done to control them. MAKING A PSYCHOPATH: My Journey into Seven Dangerous MInds-Mark Freestone

A haunting account of the sixteen years when a young Jamie Gehring and her family lived closer than anyone to Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber As a child in Lincoln, Montana, Jamie Gehring and her family shared their land, their home, and their dinner table with a hermit with a penchant for murder. But they had no idea that the odd recluse living in the adjacent cabin was anything more than a disheveled man who brought young Jamie painted rocks as gifts. Ted was simply Ted, and erratic behavior, surprise visits, and chilling events while she was riding horses or helping her dad at his sawmill were dismissed because he was “just the odd hermit.” In fact, he was much more—Ted eluded the FBI for seventeen years while mailing explosives to strangers, earning the infamous title of Unabomber. In Gehring’s investigative quest twenty-five years later to reclaim a piece of her childhood and to answer the questions, why, how, she recalls what were once innocent memories and odd circumstances that become less puzzling in hindsight. The innocence of her youth robbed, Gehring needed to reconcile her lived experience with the evil that hid in plain sight. In this book, through years of research probing Ted’s personal history, his writings, his secret coded crime journals, her own correspondence with him in his Supermax prison cell, plus interviews with others close to Kaczynski, Gehring unearths the complexity, mystery, and tragedy of her childhood with the madman in the woods. And she discovers a shocking revelation―she and her family were in Kaczynski’s crosshairs. A work of intricately braided research, journalism, and personal memories, this book is a chilling response to the question: Do you really know your neighbor? MADMAN IN THE WOODS: Life Next Door to the Unabomber-Jamie Gehring

A shocking exposé of the deadliest killing spree in Canadian history, and how police tragically failed its victims and survivors.As news broke of a killer rampaging across the tiny community of Portapique, Nova Scotia, late on April 18, 2020, details were oddly hard to come by. Who was the killer? Why was he not apprehended? What were police doing? How many were dead? And why was the gunman still on the loose the next morning and killing again? The RCMP was largely silent then, and continued to obscure the actions of denturist Gabriel Wortman after an officer shot and killed him at a gas station during a chance encounter. Though retired as an investigative journalist and author, Paul Palango spent much of his career reporting on Canada’s troubled national police force. Watching the RCMP stumble through the Portapique massacre, only a few hours from his Nova Scotia home, Palango knew the story behind the headlines was more complicated and damning than anyone was willing to admit. With the COVID-19 lockdown sealing off the Maritimes, no journalist in the province knew the RCMP better than Palango did. Within a month, he was back in print and on the radio, peeling away the layers of this murderous episode as only he could, and unearthing the collision of failure and malfeasance that cost a quiet community 22 innocent lives. 22 MURDERS: Investigating the Massacres, Cover-up and Obstacles to Justice in Nova Scotia-Part 2-Paul Palango

A shocking exposé of the deadliest killing spree in Canadian history, and how police tragically failed its victims and survivors.As news broke of a killer rampaging across the tiny community of Portapique, Nova Scotia, late on April 18, 2020, details were oddly hard to come by. Who was the killer? Why was he not apprehended? What were police doing? How many were dead? And why was the gunman still on the loose the next morning and killing again? The RCMP was largely silent then, and continued to obscure the actions of denturist Gabriel Wortman after an officer shot and killed him at a gas station during a chance encounter. Though retired as an investigative journalist and author, Paul Palango spent much of his career reporting on Canada’s troubled national police force. Watching the RCMP stumble through the Portapique massacre, only a few hours from his Nova Scotia home, Palango knew the story behind the headlines was more complicated and damning than anyone was willing to admit. With the COVID-19 lockdown sealing off the Maritimes, no journalist in the province knew the RCMP better than Palango did. Within a month, he was back in print and on the radio, peeling away the layers of this murderous episode as only he could, and unearthing the collision of failure and malfeasance that cost a quiet community 22 innocent lives. 22 MURDERS: Investigating the Massacres, Cover-up and Obstacles to Justice in Nova Scotia-Paul Palango

For over two decades the identity of Melissa Witt’s murderer has been hidden among the dense trees and thorny undergrowth rooted deeply in the uneven ground of a remote mountaintop in the Ozark National Forest.Determined to find answers, LaDonna Humphrey has spent the past seven years hunting for Melissa’s killer. Her investigation, both thrilling and unpredictable, has led her on a journey like no other.The Girl I Never Knew is an edge-of-your-seat account of LaDonna Humphrey’s passionate fight for justice in the decades-old murder case of a girl she never met in person. Her unstoppable quest for the truth has gained the attention of some incredibly dangerous people, some of whom would like to keep Melissa’s murder a mystery forever. THE GIRL I NEVER KNEW: Who Killed Melissa Witt-LaDonna Humphrey

A suspense filled tale of murder on the American frontier—shedding new light on a family of serial killers in Kansas, whose horrifying crimes gripped the attention of a nation still reeling from war.In 1873 the people of Labette County, Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried by a trailside cabin beneath an orchard of young apple trees were the remains of countless bodies. Below the cabin itself was a cellar stained with blood. The Benders, the family of four who once resided on the property were nowhere to be found. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for decades, sparking an epic manhunt for the Benders. The idea that a family of seemingly respectable homesteaders—one among the thousands relocating farther west in search of land and opportunity after the Civil War—were capable of operating "a human slaughter pen" appalled and fascinated the nation. But who the Benders really were, why they committed such a vicious killing spree and whether justice ever caught up to them is a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Set against the backdrop of postbellum America, Hell’s Half-Acre explores the environment capable of allowing such horrors to take place. Drawing on extensive original archival material, Susan Jonusas introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, many of whom have been previously missing from the story. Among them are the families of the victims, the hapless detectives who lost the trail, and the fugitives that helped the murderers escape. Hell’s Half-Acre is a journey into the turbulent heart of nineteenth century America, a place where modernity stalks across the landscape, violently displacing existing populations and building new ones. It is a world where folklore can quickly become fact and an entire family of criminals can slip through a community’s fingers, only to reappear in the most unexpected of places. HELL'S HALF-ACRE: The Untold Story of the Benders, A Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier-Susan Jonusas

For nine years, South Carolina officials struggled to identify “the boy in the woods,” a young man whose body had been discovered just south of Myrtle Beach in a fishing village called Murrells Inlet.Meanwhile, 1,200 miles away in Kansas City, Missouri, Frank McGonigle's family searched for him at Grateful Dead concerts and in the face of every long-haired hitchhiker they passed. Consumed by guilt for how they'd treated him, Frank's eight siblings slowly came to understand that — like Jerry Garcia sang — he's gone and nothin's gonna bring him back.Frank McGonigle was finally found — and identified as “the boy in the woods.”Four years later, the case still unsolved, Jim Cosgrove, a McGonigle family friend and investigative journalist, picked up the trail of Frank’s cold case and began uncovering connections to a ruthless local crime boss and blunders by the threadbare sheriff’s department.When his research began to stall, a chance meeting with the soft-hearted, straight-talking “energy reader” Carol Williams provided a metaphysical spark that reignited Jim's resolve. Although his work as a journalist trained him to be skeptical, Cosgrove found himself starting to become a believer when Carol provided details about Frank’s murder that turned out to be freakishly accurate.In 2019, Cosgrove returned to Murrells Inlet with one of Frank’s brothers to dredge up some old leads and settle Frank’s case once and for all…RIPPLE: A Long Strange Search for a Killer-Jim Cosgrove

From a teen vampire cult that killed one member’s parents to naked people who tell cops, “nothing to see here,” Frank Stanfield has seen it all in thirty years as a newspaper editor and reporter, mostly in Florida.Vampires, Gators, and Whackos: A Newspaperman’s Life recalls rustlers hiding ranchers’ bodies in a bottomless pit and a Jane Doe so mauled people believed it was a bear attack. It exposes cops who bungle murder cases and praises those who are heroes. There are tales of bears, sharks, snakes, alligators, and potbellied pigs. There is the teacher who was too pretty to go to jail despite having sex with a middle-school male student. Hurricanes lash out, tornadoes spin a blender of death, and sinkholes swallow homes, roads, and people. All of this takes place while newspapers—with their own zany characters—are fighting for their survival. VAMPIRES, GATORS AND WACKOS: A Newspaperman's Life-Frank Stanfield

In the early 1980s, William Steel's life took a turn towards the macabre when he quite literally ran into Robert Durst in midtown Manhattan. Steel was attending a school for locksmithing and security systems at the time, and Durst -- the black sheep of a family that controls billions of dollars in New York real estate -- decided he could use a man of those specific talents. Little did Steel realize that his new acquaintance was not only the prime suspect in his first wife's mysterious disappearance but quite possibly the wealthiest serial killer in American history. For the better part of a decade, Steel and Durst maintained what has been called a friendship of mutual usury, as Durst paid Steel for use of his Brooklyn home to engage in drug- and fetish-fueled sex with a variety of prostitutes. As they got to know each other better, Durst boasted to Steel of darker deeds. Were they confessions of rape, torture and cold-blooded murder, or just the twisted fantasies of a maniacal multimillionaire? Steel didn't know for sure until years later. He's now convinced that Durst is, indeed, a murderous monster, and he remains haunted by thoughts that he should have done something to stop the fiend before he claimed more innocent lives. In his gripping memoir, Sex and the Serial Killer, My Bizarre Times with Robert Durst, Steel reveals the depths of the scion's depravity, and he demands justice for Durst's victims and their shattered families. SEX AND THE SERIAL KILLER: My Bizarre Times with Robert Durst-William Steel

ON AN OCTOBER NIGHT IN 1905, a horrifying scene was found on a wooden vessel off the coast of Cape Fear, North Carolina. Onboard the Harry A. Berwind, one crewman lay dead, his blood streaming down the deck. The four officers all were gone-murdered, too, it would turn out, their bodies dumped into the sea. Only three sailors remained alive, one tied up, all telling different stories, all blaming each other. The three sailors were Black. The dead officers were white.So began a legal spectacle that would captivate much of the nation's press and fuel a sensational trial in Wilmington. It was in Wilmington, after all, that shocking racial violence had occurred not long before, and now the city remained in the clutches of white supremacists. Most observers could have predicted a quick verdict and a triple hanging . . . if not an even quicker lynching. Yet the legal drama would defy predictions, lasting seven years, reaching the Supreme Court, pulling in presidents Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft-then even being twisted into a fanciful, big-budget movie. In the end, so many participants-from jurors to lawyers to politicians-acted against type that justice had a fighting chance. SHIP OF BLOOD: Mutiny and Slaughter Aboard the Harry A. Berwind, and the Quest for Justice-Charles Oldham

A brilliantly researched reinvestigation into the nearly forgotten century-old murder that inspired one of the most seductive mysteries in the history of television and film. In 1908, Hazel Drew was found floating in a pond in Sand Lake, New York, beaten to death. The unsolved murder inspired rumors, speculation, ghost stories, and, almost a century later, the phenomenon of Twin Peaks. Who killed Hazel Drew? Like Laura Palmer, she was a paradox of personalities—a young, beautiful puzzle with secrets. Perhaps the even trickier question is, Who was Hazel Drew? Seeking escape from her poor country roots, Hazel found work as a domestic servant in the notoriously corrupt metropolis of Troy, New York. Fate derailed her plans for reinvention. But the investigation that followed her brutal murder was fraught with red herrings, wild-goose chases, and unreliable witnesses. Did officials really follow the leads? Or did they bury them to protect the guilty? The likely answer is revealed in an absorbing true mystery that’s ingeniously reconstructed and every bit as haunting as the cultural obsession it inspired. MURDER AT TEAL'S POND: Hazel Drew and the Mystery that Inspired Twin Peaks-David Bushman and Mark T. Givens

Sons of Anarchy meets The Departed in this fast-paced, high-wire act memoir from former ATF agent Ken Croke, the first federal agent in history to go undercover and successfully infiltrate the infamous—and infamously violent—Pagan Motorcycle Club, a white supremacist biker gang. Longtime ATF agent Ken Croke had earned the right to coast to the end of a storied career, having routinely gone undercover to apprehend white supremacists, gun runners, and gang members. But after a chance encounter with an associate of the Pagan Motorcycle Gang created an opening, he transformed himself into “Slam,” a monstrous, axe-handle wielding enforcer whose duty was to protect the leadership “mother club” at all costs. He befriended the club’s most violent and criminally insane members and lived among them for two years, covertly building a case that would eventually take down the top members of the gang in a massive federal prosecution, even as he risked his marriage, his sanity, and his life. With today’s law enforcement largely moving toward the comparative safety of cyber operations, it became one of the last of its kind, a masterclass in old school tactics that marked Croke as a dying breed of undercover agent and became legendary in law enforcement. Now for the first time, Croke tells the story of his terrifying undercover life in the Pagans—the unspeakable violence, extremism, drugs, and disgusting rituals. Written with bestselling crime writer Dave Wedge and utilizing the exclusive cooperation of those who lived the case with him, as well as thousands of pages of court files and hours of surveillance tapes and photos, Croke delivers a frightening, nail-biting account of the secretive and brutal biker underworld. RIDING WITH EVIL: Taking Down the Notorious Pagan Motorcycle Gang-Ken Croke

The pulse-pounding account of the first time in history that the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit created a psychological profile to catch a serial killerOn June 25, 1973, a seven-year-old girl went missing from the Montana campground where her family was vacationing. Somebody had slit open the back of their tent and snatched her from under their noses. None of them saw or heard anything. Susie Jaeger had vanished into thin air, plucked by a shadow.The largest manhunt in Montana’s history ensued, led by the FBI. As days stretched into weeks, and weeks into months, Special Agent Pete Dunbar attended a workshop at FBI Headquarters in Quantico, Virgina, led by two agents who had hatched a radical new idea: What if criminals left a psychological trail that would lead us to them? Patrick Mullany, a trained psychologist, and Howard Teten, a veteran criminologist, had created the Behavioral Science Unit to explore this new "voodoo" they called “criminal profiling.”At Dunbar’s request, Mullany and Teten built the FBI’s first profile of an unknown subject: the UnSub who had snatched Susie Jaeger and, a few months later, a nineteen-year-old waitress. When a suspect was finally arrested, the profile fit him to a T...Shadowman: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling-Ron Franscell

THE TRUE STORY BEHIND NBC’S MARQUEE MINI-SERIES "THE THING ABOUT PAM" STARRING RENEE ZELLWEGER AS PAM HUPP AND JOSH DUHAMEL AS JOEL SCHWARTZ, PREMIERING FEBRUARY 2022.The explosive, first-ever insider’s account of the case that’s captivated millions – the murder of Betsy Faria and the wrongful conviction of her husband – told by Joel J. Schwartz, the defense attorney who fought for justice on behalf of Russel Faria, and New York Times bestselling author Charles Bosworth Jr.On December 27th, 2011, Russell Faria returned to his Troy, Missouri, home after his weekly game night with friends to an unthinkable, grisly scene: His wife, Betsy, lay dead, a knife still lodged in her neck. She’d been stabbed fifty-five times. First responders concluded that Betsy was dead for hours when Russ discovered her. No blood was found implicating Russ, and surveillance video, receipts, and friends’ testimony all supported his alibi. Yet incredibly, police and the prosecuting attorney ignored the evidence. In their minds, Russ was guilty. But prominent defense attorney Joel J. Schwartz quickly recognized the real killer. The motive was clear. Days before her murder, the terminally ill Betsy replaced her husband with her friend, Pamela Hupp, as her life insurance beneficiary. Still, despite the prosecution’s flimsy case and Hupp’s transparent lies, Russ was convicted—leaving Hupp free to kill again. Bone Deep takes readers through the perfect storm of miscalculations and missteps that led to an innocent man’s conviction—and recounts Schwartz’s successful battle to have that conviction overturned. Written with Russ Faria’s cooperation, and filled with chilling new revelations and previously undisclosed evidence, this is the story of what can happen when police, prosecutor, judge, and jury all fail in their duty to protect the innocent—and let a killer get away with murder. BONE DEEP: Untangling the. Betsy Faria Murder Case-Charles Henry Bosworth and Joel Schwartz

Drawing on media reports, interviews and court records, this book recounts the stories of women bank robbers in the United States, from the time of the Revolutionary War to the present. Ranging from sensational to poignant to comical, the heists of frontier outlaws, gun molls, insurrectionists, housewives, grandmas and young mothers "literally robbing for Pampers" are narrated as part of the social history of women in America. PUT THE MONEY IN MY PURSE: A History of Female Bank Robbers-Judith A. Yates

November 2, 1945: On her way to a high school football game with friends, a fourteen-year-old girl vanishes after driving away with a man who says he needs a babysitter. The FBI unleashes its top kidnapping expert, an agent who helped bring John Dillinger down. Will that be enough to find the girl and her abductor? Agents chase the suspected kidnapper from California to Illinois and back again. Arrested in Los Angeles, he admits abducting the child. He also tells the FBI he killed the girl and threw her body into the Pacific Ocean. A search for her corpse proves fruitless. Then, when all hope is lost, authorities discover the skeleton of another young woman who's fallen victim to this madman.Ready for another twist? The wife of the man who made that discovery is found dead at the bottom of the cliff. During the accused killer's trial, women around the country fall in love with the handsome monster and literally break down the doors of a courthouse to get close to him. After the child's killer is convicted and sentenced to the gas chamber, a scientist shows up and says he can bring the murderer back from the dead.The Murder of Thora Chamberlain: A Shocking True Crime Story-Rod Kackley

In this Expanded 20th Anniversary Edition of Murder of a Mafia Daughter, seasoned crime writer Cathy Scott provides in-depth new details of serial killer Robert Durst's arrest, trial, and conviction for the brutal murder of Susan Berman. Besides never-before-seen photos of Susan, also included is Durst’s $40,000 mask he planned to use to elude police while on the lam.Susan Berman grew up in Las Vegas luxury as the daughter of Davie Berman, casino mogul and notorious Mafia leader. After her father died, she learned about his mob connections. Susan then dedicated her life to learning about Vegas and its underworld chiefs. Her life took a bizarre turn in l982 when Kathie Durst, the wife of her good friend, Robert Durst, mysteriously disappeared. Kathie's husband was a prime suspect but the case was never solved. After the Kathie Durst case reopened, the media leaked that the district attorney was about to question Susan Berman about what she knew regarding a phone call that appeared to be Kathie calling her medical school dean saying she was sick and wouldn't be at school. The call was placed the morning after she disappeared. Soon after the Kathie Durst case was reopened, Susan Berman was found dead, shot in the back of head. No forced entry, no robbery, nothing missing from her home.This expanded and updated book covers what led to Durst's 2015 capture. Police records placed Durst in California at the time of his good friend Susan Berman's murder. HBO filmmakers discovered an envelope unknown before, written by Durst to Susan. The handwriting and spelling of Beverly Hills were a dead-on match to the cadaver letter police say the killer mailed to police informing them of Susan’s death before her body was discovered. This new release covers Durst’s lengthy murder trial in the slaying of his best friend. MURDER OF A MAFIA DAUGHTER: Expanded & Updated 20th Anniversary Edition-Robert Durst & Susan Berman-The Shocking Inside Story-Cathy Scott

The new edition of this Michigan Notable Book includes a new introduction and stories from interviews with two additional survivors, Myrna (Gates) Coulter and Ralph Witchell, which took place after the first edition was published in 2009.On May 18, 1927, the small town of Bath, Michigan, was forever changed when Andrew Kehoe set off a cache of explosives concealed in the basement of the local school. Thirty-eight children and six adults were dead, among them Kehoe, who had literally blown himself to bits by setting off a dynamite charge in his car. The next day, on Kehoe's farm, what was left of his wife—burned beyond recognition after Kehoe set his property and buildings ablaze—was found tied to a handcart, her skull crushed. With seemingly endless stories of school violence and suicide bombers filling today's headlines, Bath Massacre serves as a reminder that terrorism and large-scale murder are nothing new. BATH MASSACRE: New Edition-America's First School Bombing-Arnie Bernstein

On May 31, 1985, two days before her high school graduation, Shari Smith was abducted from the driveway of her family home in South Carolina. Based on the crime scene and the abductor’s repeated and taunting calls to the family, law enforcement quickly realized they were dealing with a sophisticated and highly dangerous criminal. A letter arrived the next day entitled “Last Will & Testament,” in which Shari, knowing she was to be murdered, wrote bravely and achingly of her love for her parents, siblings, and boyfriend, saying that while they would miss her, she knew they would persevere through their faith. The abduction rocked her quiet town, triggering a massive manhunt and bringing in the FBI, which enlisted profiler John Douglas. A few days later, a phone call told the family where they could find Shari’s body.Then nine-year-old Debra May Helmick was kidnapped from her yard, confirming the harsh realization that Smith’s murder was no random act. A serial killer was evolving, and the only way to stop him would be to use the study of criminal behavior to anticipate his next move before he could kill again. Douglas devised a risky and emotionally fraught strategy to use Shari’s lookalike older sister Dawn as bait to draw out the unknown subject. Dawn and her parents courageously agreed.One of the most haunting investigations of Douglas’s storied career, this case details how the eerily accurate profile he created—alongside his carefully crafted and stage-managed manipulation of the killer’s psychology—combined with dedicated police work and cutting-edge forensic science to end a reign of criminal terror. As Shari’s family took incredible personal risks to lure her killer from the shadows, Douglas and the FBI pushed criminal profiling to its limits, culminating in one of his most dramatic and effective confrontations with a sadistic and remorseless killer. WHEN A KILLER CALLS: A Haunting Story of Murder, Criminal Profiling, and Justice in a Small Town-John Douglas

In the past thirty years alone, more than 2,800 innocent American prisoners – their combined sentences surpassing 25,000 years – have been exonerated and freed after being condemned for crimes they did not commit. Terrifyingly, this number represents only a fraction of the actual number of persons wrongfully accused and convicted over the same period. Renowned criminal defense and civil rights attorney David Rudolf has spent decades defending the wrongfully accused. In American Injustice, he draws from his years of experience in the American criminal legal system to shed light on the misconduct that exists at all levels of law enforcement and the tragic consequences that follow in its wake. Tracing these themes through the lens of some of his most important cases – including new details from the Michael Peterson trial made famous in The Staircase – Rudolf takes the reader inside crime scenes to examine forensic evidence left by perpetrators; revisits unsolved murders to detail how and why the true culprits were never prosecuted; reveals how confirmation bias leads police and prosecutors to employ tactics that make wrongful arrests and prosecutions more likely; and exposes how poverty and racism fundamentally distort the system.In American Injustice, Rudolf gives a voice to those who have been the victim of wrongful accusations and shows in the starkest terms the human impact of legal wrongdoing. Effortlessly blending gripping true crime reporting and searing observations on civil rights in America, American Injustice takes readers behind the scenes of a justice system in desperate need of reform. AMERICAN INJUSTICE: Inside Stories from the Underbelly of the Criminal Justice System-David S. Rudolf

Thirteen new insomnia inducing murder stories from True Crime master Michael Benson, including: Monster of the Low Country, Born to Raise Hell, The Hollywood Ripper, The Murder of Craig Rideout, Call Me Daddy, Savage Waitress, King Creep, A Dark Stretch of Road, Family of Terror, The Tell-Tale Knot, Vengeance is Mine, Breckenridge, and A Few Thoughts on the Black Dahlia. Dozens of photos! An excerpt from the book’s final story: "It is the most famous American murder case not involving a celebrity—a crime so horrible that it changed the tone of an entire city. Before, throughout Los Angeles, women routinely walked home alone. After, they required escorts—and all because of the mind-bogglingly bizarre ordeal of Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, a celebrity only in death. The twenty-two-year-old raven-haired beauty, a show-biz wannabe, was found on the morning of January 15, 1947. She was naked, severed into two pieces below the ribcage, and arranged on the ground like a piece of surreal art, arms above her head, legs spread, her upper body parallel but to the side of her lower body, a Sardonicus smile carved into her face with a knife, and portions of a breast and a thigh cut out. The missing piece of thigh flesh was found inserted in her rectum. The skin attached to that piece contained a rose tattoo.She’s been tortured for days, tortured till dead, drained of blood and dumped, no presented, at the edge of a vacant lot, left foot only inches from the sidewalk, hair freshly washed, in the Leimert Park section of L.A. The cause of death was drowning. She’d drowned on her own blood." DARK ROSES:13 Horrific True Stories-Michael Benson

Dive Deep Into the Crime Stories of Criminal CouplesFrom harrowing heists to murderous mayhem, this collection of true crime stories will have you on the edge of your seat as you discover exactly why two criminal minds are scarier than one, especially when they belong to lovers.Discover Infamous Legends and Lesser-Known Criminals and find out why they have become solidified in true crime history. From Ted Bundy to Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killers and other criminals often work alone. But when they're in a relationship, this isn't always the case. Acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto brings us a collection that proves that two is better than one when it comes to murder, mischief, and mayhem.From Serial Killers to Your Average Joes. This chilling new collection of original crime stories takes you into the lawless and deadly activities of criminal couples who find more pleasure in crime than in each other. Featuring contributions from an international list of award-winning crime writers, journalists, and experts in the dark crimes field. THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES: Partners in Crime-Mitzi Szereto

25 years on, Florida's first serial killer GJ Schaefer returns with a new expanded volume of illustrated killer fiction, featuring the stories used to convict him of double murder in 1973. The ex-cop and serial killer was doing two life sentences for the murder of two teenage girls, when he himself murdered in 1995. Sondra London first published a collection of these stories in 1989, under the imprimatur of Media Queen. Feral House published Killer Fiction in 1997. Now comes the new expanded collection, that also includes the stories Schaefer wrote in prison for Sondra London. 73 illustrations include drawings by Schaefer seized by police in 1973 and used as evidence to convict him of murder; impressionistic sketches of Schaefer by Sondra London; and facsimiles of his handwritten statements. BEYOND KILLER FICTION: Rogue Cop-Sondra London

For almost a decade, Backpage.com was the world’s largest sex trafficking operation. Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, in 800 cities throughout the world, Backpage ran thousands of listings advertising the sale of vulnerable young people for sex. Reaping a cut off every transaction, the owners of the website raked in millions of dollars. But many of the people in the advertisements were children, as young as 12, and forced into the commercial sex trade through fear, violence and coercion.In Taking Down Backpage, veteran California prosecutor Maggy Krell tells the story of how she and her team battled against this sex trafficking monolith. Beginning with her early career as a young DA, she shares the evolution of the anti-human trafficking movement. Through a fascinating combination of memoir and legal insight, Krell reveals how she and her team started with the prosecution of street pimps and ultimately ended with the takedown of the largest purveyor of human trafficking in the world. She shares powerful stories of interviews with survivors, sting operations, court cases, and the personal struggles that were necessary to bring Backpage executives to justice. Finally, Krell examines the state of sex trafficking after Backpage and the crucial work that still remains.Taking Down Backpage is a gripping story of tragedy, overcoming adversity, and the pursuit of justice that gives insight into the fight against sex trafficking in the digital age. TAKING DOWN BACKPAGE: Fighting the World's Largest Sex Trafficker-Maggy Krell

In 1974, Dennis Lynn Rader stalked and murdered a family of four in Wichita, Kansas. Since adolescence, he had read about serial killers and imagined becoming one. Soon after killing the family, he murdered a young woman and then another, until he had ten victims. He named himself “B.T.K.” (bind, torture, kill) and wrote notes that terrorized the city. He remained on the loose for thirty years. No one who knew him guessed his dark secret. He nearly got away with his crimes, but in 2004, he began to play risky games with the police. He made a mistake. When he was arrested, Rader’s family, friends, and coworkers were shocked to discover that B.T.K. had been among them, going to work, raising his children, and acting normal.This case stands out both for the brutal treatment of victims and for the ordinary public face that Rader, a church council president, had shown to the outside world. Through jailhouse visits, telephone calls, and written correspondence, Katherine Ramsland worked with Rader himself to analyze the layers of his psyche. Using his drawings, letters, interviews, and Rader’s unique codes, she presents in meticulous detail the childhood roots and development of one man’s motivation to stalk, torture, and kill. She reveals aspects of the dark motivations of this most famous of living serial killers that have never before been revealed.The Documentary BTK: Confession of a Serial Killer premieres January 8th and 9th on A&E. The 2 night event sheds new light on Rader's double life as both an upstanding citizen and a heartless killer. Dr. Katherine Ramsland, the renowned professor of forensic psychology and author, leads the examination of Rader's transformation from an American boy to an American monster who wreaked havoc in Wichita Kansas and went uncaptured for 30 years. With exclusive conversations with Rader himself, eye-opening new archival, comprehensive interviews, and access to Rader's drawings and coded diaries all paired with Dr. Ramsland's expertise, viewers get to know the man behind the moniker, the truth behind the headline and a glimpse at the secrets Rader is still holding onto. The documentary we are discussing tonight is BTK: Confession of a Serial Killer-Dr. Katherine Ramsland

Forgotten California Murders 1915 to 1968 chronicles homicides that happened so long ago they have been forgotten even by the families of the killers and the victims. Their crimes are no less shocking than the murders that have had books and films made about them. FORGOTTEN CALIFORNIA MURDERS 1915-1968-David Kulczyk

American Scandal is a podcast from Wondery that explores the darker stories that have shaped the United States. From the Unabomber to Bernie Madoff, these are stories that reveal the underbelly of America: ruthless, secretive, and power-hungry. The new season of American Scandal looks at the controversial decision made by a young government official named Daniel Ellsburg to leak the Pentagon Papers, the documents that led Americans to demand an end to the catastrophic Vietnam War. Once Ellsburg realized this terrible truth, he made the bold decision to leak the documents, and the consequences altered the course of American history. This is just a preview of American Scandal, but you can listen to the full episode at wondery.fm/AS_TrueMurder

Over 25 people murdered in just over two and a half years. What was happening in the small coastal town of Santa Cruz between October 1970 and Feburary 1973?John Linley Frazier’s home invasion murders of the Ohta family and Dorothy Cadwallader in 1970 and the serial murder sprees of Herbert Mullin and Edmund Kemper left tremors in Santa Cruz that can still be felt today.Local law enforcement, victims’ families and friends, classmates and acquaintances of the killers, local historians, voices from the past and present, and the killers themselves all come together to tell the horrific stories and explain why Santa Cruz was dubbed THE MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD in the early 1970s.Murder Capital of the World is a primary source history telling the story of Santa Cruz in the early 1970’s through quotes and first person stories. MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD: The Santa Cruz community looks back at the John Linley Frazier, Herbert Mullin, and Edmund Kemper murder sprees of the early 1970's-Emerson Murray

A woman’s dead body is tossed off a cruise ship. It’s homicide on the high seas, a story of murder and greed, a true crime story you’ll never forget. Why are you always killed by the one you love? A research vessel finds a woman’s decomposing corpse floating in the Tyrrhenian Sea, about twenty miles off the Italian shoreline.Cruise ships frequent the area. Investigators’ best guess is that she came from one of those boats. But which one? And is it a case of accidental death, suicide, or even murder? Only one boat reported the possibility that a passenger had gone overboard. So she had to have come from the Island Star. The mystery of how she died was also swiftly solved. For one simple reason, it had to be a case of homicide. So, someone murdered this woman while both were aboard the cruise ship. Hundreds of people were onboard the Island Star. Who was the killer? Another perplexing question: Why should the DA’s office in Orange County, California, prosecute a murder that occurred off the coast of Italy? Prosecutors also have to deal with the fact that their star witnesses were thousands of miles away when Mary Takahashi went into the water. What complicated the prosecution’s case even more, was the propensity of their star witnesses to change their stories. Both had reasons to turn on the suspect. Would the jury believe them? The Murder of Mary Takahashi: A Shocking True Crime Story tells a story of greed and murder. But it’s also an extraordinary tale of legal intrigue and guile as prosecutors work for more than a decade to put one of their own, a fellow attorney, in prison for the rest of his life. THE MURDER OF MARY TAKAHASHI: A Shocking True Crime Story-Rod Kackley

Butcher of Hanover focuses on the serial killer of at least 27 young men and boys in Germany in the post-World War 1 era. At the center of this murder case were Fritz Haarmann and Hans Grans, who were lovers while committing these murders. It wasn't until the skulls and bones started washing ashore from the Leine River in Hanover that Germany realized they had a cold-blooded serial killer in their country.As you read the exploration of the case in this book, ask yourself, did Haarmann murder each victim to keep his lover Hans Grans to stay with him? Did Grans decide who it was that was to be murdered? The evidence on this case will keep you on the edge of your seat, trying to determine who was really behind these gruesome murders. BUTCHER OF HANOVER: Fritz Haarmann-Alan R. Warren

Few things are more devastating than a loved one going missing. On The Vanished podcast from Wondery, host Marissa Jones tells stories of missing persons that have gone overlooked by mainstream media. In a recent episode, Marissa looks into the disappearance of James Foster Chance. The 48-year-old man from Texas went missing in March of 2021. Devastated and without any leads, James’ family began searching for him. But in their search they began uncovering clues that James was not the man they thought he was. And worse -- that he may have disappeared on purpose. Listen to The Vanished at wondery.fm/TV_truemurder

In the small city of Binghamton in upstate New York, 23-year-old Veronica Taft, a single mother with four small children, all under the age of five, was convicted of Murder and Manslaughter for the brutal murder of her two-year-old son Lyric. She was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in state prison, with her surviving children taken away and placed in foster care.After more than five years in prison, Taft was set free after a bombshell Appellate Court decision found the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. The court overturned the theory and evidence used by authorities, including time-of-death, Taft’s alibi, and controversial testimony of a desperate jail-house snitch.Working on behalf of Taft, Defense Investigator, David M. Beers conducted an independent investigation. In his account, Immunity for Murder, he’ll guide you through the ill-fated police investigation and the shameful prosecution that, contrary to the evidence, quickly turned the tides towards Veronica and away from the real killer. This book will look closely at the suspect, bizarre events, and disturbing facts never before revealed. Furthermore, it’ll show how the evidence proves Taft’s innocence, which is why he considers her story a tragic miscarriage of justice. IMMUNITY FOR MURDER: The Veronica Taft Story-David M. Beers

Some said that the killer couldn't be a local. Others claimed that he was the wealthy son of a prominent Morgantown family. Whispers spread that Mared and Karen were sacrificed by a satanic cult or had been victims of a madman poised to strike again. Then the handwritten letters began to arrive: You will locate the bodies of the girls covered over with brush--look carefully. The animals are now on the move.Investigators didn't find too few suspects--they had far too many. There was the campus janitor with a fur fetish, the harmless deliveryman who beat a woman nearly to death, the nursing home orderly with the bloody broomstick and the bouncer with the girlish laugh who threatened to cut off people's heads. Local authors Geoffrey C. Fuller and S. James McLaughlin tell the complete story of the murders for the first time. THE WVU COED MURDERS: Who Killed Mared and Karen? Geoffrey Fuller and Sarah James McLaughlin

Since President John F. Kennedy's 1963 murder in Dallas, medical examiner and lawyer Dr. Cyril Wecht was initially inclined to accept the official theory that one person alone was responsible for the crime. But as Wecht delved into the evidence with boundless curiosity and unprecedented access, he came to understand that America had, instead, suffered a coup d'etat at the hands of rogue elements within our own government.Nobody else has Wecht's up-close and personal experience in uncovering the facts behind this assassination--and now he is sharing it with the world. Co-authored by investigative journalist Dawna Kaufmann, this comprehensive book reveals Wecht's analyses of the case's forensic and medical evidence. With his keen eye and sharp tongue, Wecht wields his scalpel on JFK's dubious autopsy report, the inept Warren Commission Report, the mishandling of crucial materials, all of the key players, and the media malpractice that has allowed the truth to remain hidden for nearly six decades. THE JFK ASSASSINATION DISSECTED: An Analysis by Forensic Pathologist Cyril Wecht-Dawna Kaufmann and Cyril Wecht.

Veteran journalist Joe Nocera’s neighbor in the Hamptons was a therapist named Ike. Ike counted celebrities and Manhattan elites as his patients. He’d host star-studded parties at his eccentric vacation house. But one summer, Joe discovered that Ike was gone and everything he’d thought he’d known about his neighbor -- and the house next door -- was wrong. From Wondery, the company behind Dirty John and Dr. Death, and Bloomberg, “The Shrink Next Door” is a story about power, control and turning to the wrong person for help for three decades. Written and hosted by Joe Nocera, a columnist for Bloomberg. The Shrink Next Door is now an Apple Original series, starring Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd. Watch now only on Apple TV+. Listen to the Shrink Next Door now! https://link.chtbl.com/shrink_next_door?sid=Audio-Shrink_Next_Door_2021-True_Murder

A man watching the Cup on a restaurant patio is shot dead on a busy Sunday afternoon in Toronto. Another dies in a sidewalk ambush just outside a bus-tling college campus. Two men in a Vancouver hotel lobby are gunned down in an attack that sends an American soccer star scrambling for cover. In Mexico, a Canadian is killed at a Nuevo Vallarta coffee shop, his death barely registering amidst the terrifying death tolls of President Calderón’s war on drugs and the cartels’ response; while a Montreal cop is beaten within an inch of his life in a Playa del Carmen nightclub. An infamous heckler from an NBA Toronto Raptors game turns up dead in a bullet-riddled car in a midtown lane-way. Throughout the 2010s, these and other disparate acts of violence entered the public awareness like iso-lated tragedies - but there was nothing isolated about them.In this masterly investigation, veteran journalists Peter Edwards and Luis Nájera introduce listeners to the common cause of a near-decade of chaos. Meet the Wolfpack, millennial-aged gangsters from across the spectrum of Canada’s underworld. Vying to fast-track their way into the criminal void left by the death of Montreal godfather Vito Rizzuto, the Wolfpack sought advantage in a steady supply of cocaine from El Chapo Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel, among the deadliest and most far-reaching of criminal organizations. The juniors had just stepped into the big leagues.This is the roiling landscape of The Wolfpack, a brilliant examination of a time of criminal disruption and rapid adaptation, when one gang’s unchecked ambition unwittingly gave away the most hotly contested corner of the Canadian underworld without a fight. Brazen criminal disruptors or entitled upstarts looking to get rich without paying their dues - whatever you think of them, you will never forget the Wolfpack. THE WOLFPACK: The Millennial Mobsters Who Brought Chaos and the Cartels to the Canadian Underworld-Peter Edwards

In the summer of 1965, several Ku Klux Klan members riding in a pickup truck shot two Black deputies on patrol in Washington Parish, Louisiana. Deputy Oneal Moore, the driver of the patrol car and father of four daughters, died instantly. His partner, Creed Rogers, survived and radioed in a description of the vehicle. Less than an hour later, police in Mississippi spotted the truck and arrested its driver, a decorated World War II veteran named Ernest Ray McElveen. They returned McElveen to Washington Parish, where he spent eleven days in jail before authorities released him. Afterward, the FBI sent its top inspector to Bogalusa, Louisiana, to participate in the murder inquiry, the only civil rights era FBI investigation into the killing of a Black law enforcement officer by the KKK. Despite that assistance, lack of evidence and witnesses unwilling to come forward forced Louisiana prosecutors eventually to drop all charges against McElveen. The FBI continued its investigation but could not gather enough evidence to file charges, leaving the murder of Oneal Moore unsolved.Klan of Devils: The Murder of a Black Louisiana Deputy Sheriff is Stanley Nelson's investigation of this case, which the FBI probed from 1965 to 2016. Nelson describes the Klan's growth, and the emergence of Black activism in Bogalusa and Washington Parish, against the backdrop of political and social change in the 1950s and early 1960s. With the assistance of two retired FBI agents who worked the case, Nelson also explores the lives of the primary suspects, all of whom are now dead, and points to the Klansmen most likely responsible for the senseless and horrific attack. KLAN OF DEVILS: The Murder of a Black Louisiana Deputy Sheriff-Stanley Nelson

Schoolteacher Olivia Dare Christian was murdered in her Hampton, Virginia apartment in 1981. Her killer left few clues and the murder went unsolved. Three decades later, in 2011, next-generation detective Randy Mayer re-opened Olivia’s dusty cold case file and began unraveling the mystery. Mayer located a reluctant witness who was a teenager back in 1981. She recalled a suspicious man lurking outside Olivia’s apartment the morning of the murder and provided a detailed description of the man. Detective Mayer then researched hundreds of old cases, hunting for a person who fit the description and used a similar MO. He identified a prime suspect, a Smithfield Foods employee, by then in his 60s, previously convicted of several brutal sexual assaults. Digging further, Mayer linked him to two other unsolved Hampton homicides. Was this man a serial killer? Mayer enlisted the help of FBI agent Liza Ludovico and special prosecutor Phil Figura. Could the team uncover enough evidence to bring Olivia’s murderer to justice? Could the witness from 1981 identify him? And would a jury convict in a cold case based entirely on circumstantial evidence? EYES OF A MONSTER-Ron Peterson Jr.

Killer Psyche is a new weekly true crime podcast from Wondery that explores the minds behind infamous killers and criminals. They cover high-profile cases that have shocked the world, and host Candice Delong uses her five decades of experience as a clinical psychiatric nurse and FBI Criminal Profiler to dissect the motivations and behaviors of the most terrifying felons in history. In a recent episode, Candace examines the mind of Ed Gein, the notorious murderer who inspired the movies "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." Candace dives deep into Gein’s mind — and how his mental illnesses led to his obsession with grave-robbing and murder. This is just a preview of Killer Psyche, but you can listen to the full episode at wondery.fm/KP_TrueMurder

In an incredible 6-year investigation, True crime writer and investigative journalist David McGrath tells the unbelievable story of one of the most prolific predators in American history. Wayne Chapman admitted to abusing 100 children over a 8-year span from 1967-76. What the world could never have known is that Chapman did not act alone. He worked in concert with other serial predators unbeknownst to parents and law enforcement. Chapman was suspected in multiple child murders, and was a completely fixated abuser. McGrath lifts the veil on Wayne Chapman, and a child sex-ring that operated in the area at the time, in this incredible true story. MONSTER: The Life and Crimes of Wayne Chapman-David McGrath

Laura Smither, twelve, was taken from the road in front of her home in the small suburban Texas town of Friendswood. Sandra Sappaugh barely escaped with her life when she was abducted from a Waffle House parking lot in the tiny Texas coastal town of Webster. Kelli Cox vanished from the police department parking lot in the Texas college town of Denton. Anjanette Sorrentino fled into woods in Harris County, trying to escape a man with murderous intentions. He caught her. Tiffany Johnston was raped and murdered in the Oklahoma City suburb of Bethany. She was washing her car when she disappeared. Jessica Cain was on her way home from dinner with friends to the Village of Tiki Island, Texas, population seven hundred and seventy-eight.Within five months in 1997, all six (most likely more; some say many more) suffered the same fate. They met a monster wearing the face of a man. WHAT EVIL LURKS: The Good Samaritan Killer-Donna Fielder

In January of 1995, 17-year-old Lizzette Martinez met Grammy-winning musician and record producer R. KELLY at Aventura Mall in Florida where he was performing. At first, it seemed that her hopes of becoming a professional singer were about to come true when he offered to help boost her career. However, this mentorship quickly turned into sexual grooming, leading to years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.After struggling to free herself of the relationship and rebuild on her own, Lizzette’s successful new life, far away from the entertainment industry, was interrupted in 2017 by allegations against R. Kelly by other women. This led her to coming forward to the authorities with her own history of abuse by the music icon.In January 2019, she participated with other survivors in a documentary series with Lifetime called “Surviving R. Kelly.” It should have been a healing experience but instead left them feeling abandoned and fearful for their lives.In August 2021, Kelly went on trial in New York on racketeering and sex trafficking charges and was found guilty of all charges. JANE DOE # 9: How I Survived R. Kelly-Lizzette Martinez

It’s one of the most haunting murder cases you’ll ever hear about, and it takes place in a small town in Israel. Tair Rada was only 13-years-old when her body was found inside a locked bathroom stall. She was viciously murdered during a school day, and yet no one saw or heard a thing. The police arrested the janitor, Roman Zadorov, and he eventually confessed, but this was far from being the end of it. Based on the hit true-crime series from Netflix, the podcast "Shadow of Truth" will take you on a journey into one of the wildest and most contested murder cases in the history of Israel, as it reaches its final resolution, 15 years after it all started.Listen to Shadow of Truth It’s one of the most haunting murder cases you’ll ever hear about, and it takes place in a small town in Israel. Tair Rada was only 13-years-old when her body was found inside a locked bathroom stall. She was viciously murdered during a school day, and yet no one saw or heard a thing. The police arrested the janitor, Roman Zadorov, and he eventually confessed, but this was far from being the end of it. Based on the hit true-crime series from Netflix, the podcast "Shadow of Truth" will take you on a journey into one of the wildest and most contested murder cases in the history of Israel, as it reaches its final resolution, 15 years after it all started.Listen to Shadow of Truth: http://wondery.fm/SOT_TrueMurder

Serial Slaughter is the story of the infamous Zodiac Killer. The killer roamed California, especially Northern California for decades. He announced himself with dramatic flair corresponding with Law Enforcement and the media in order to gain the attention he craved. "This is the Zodiac Speaking" & "This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers last Christmas at Lake Herman & the girl on the 4th of July." Making sure they knew his kills, connecting the dots for them. Fading away as promised in 1969, he continued to kill & ceased to "help" those who would hunt him. Details now included are new. The crimes are looked at, thoroughly researched, investigated, and written about with a new perspective. Great new finds of information at last to add to the story. The cases of murdered women and girls are brought back to the surface as the author works to bring attention once again to their cases. SERIAL SLAUGHTER ZODIAC KILLER-Anne Penn

South Florida in the 1970s was one of the nation's most dangerous locations. Behind the image of sun and surf, young women were the victims of a brutal killer. In the mid-1970s, over a dozen young women were murdered and found in canals. These cases became known as the Flat Tire Murders and the Canal Murders. Only one case was ever solved. More than four decades have passed since these crimes, and no arrests were ever made.This is the first book to explore these murders in depth, as well as a bizarre series of murders occurring in the years earlier, known as the Gold Sock Stranglings. Interviews with the detectives that originally worked to solve these cases provide an intimate view of the attempt to capture the killer that terrorized South Florida. In addition to the cases themselves, the book explores several suspects, including the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. Detailed maps of South Florida illustrate the complex canal system that became the victims' graveyard. THE FLAT TIRE MURDERS: Unsolved Crimes of a South Florida Serial Killer-Michael P. Burns

On May 12, 2013, 48-year-old Vicky Isaac of rural Puxico, Missouri―a woman with a history of learning disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, and drug addiction― loaded a .22 caliber handgun and shot her violent addict husband while he slept in the trailer they shared with Vicky’s adult son. Or did she? According to police reports, Vicky called 911 and confessed to the crime.Was this another sad case of murder amongst addicts or something more?Betty Frizzell escaped her family’s legacy of crime, addiction, and abuse to become a respected law enforcement officer and teacher. Drawn back to the town and people of her past, Betty works to uncover the truth of murder and her family’s history of violence. Her investigation uncovers sad realities about mental illness, small-town politics, and a society that doesn’t care about “poor, white trash”.There are never easy answers when the odds are stacked against you and no amount of “elegies” will save your family. IF YOU CAN'T QUIT CRYIN', YOU CAN'T COME HERE NO MORE: A Family's Legacy of Poverty, Crime and Mental Illness in Rural America-Betty Frizzell

A small town cop known as “GI Joe” is gunned down in a swamp in the summer of 2015 and quickly becomes a martyr in the national media. But when a dogged investigator and his team set out to get justice, they uncover unsettling secrets about Joe, the local police department, and the village of Fox Lake. From Wondery, the makers of The Shrink Next Door and Dr. Death comes the third season of Over My Dead Body: Fox Lake. Hosted by Matt Baglio. Listen to Over My Dead Body: wondery.fm/FL_TrueMurder

Set in Jazz Age San Diego against the backdrop of yellow journalism, notorious Hollywood scandals, Prohibition corruption and a lively culture war, Mystery At The Blue Sea Cottage tells the intriguing true crime story of a beautiful dancer, a playboy actor, and a debonair doctor.In January 1923, 20-year-old Fritzie Mann left home for a remote cottage by the sea to meet a man whose identity she had revealed to no one. The next morning, the barely clad body of the beautiful and bewitching dancer washed up on lonely Torrey Pines beach, her party dress and possessions strewn about on the sand.The scene baffled investigators. Was it suicide, murder, or an accidental drowning? A botched autopsy created more questions than it answered. However, the investigation revealed a scandalous secret and, possibly, a powerful motive for murder.After a suspect was arrested and charged with murder, an ambitious district attorney battled a high-profile L.A. private counsel in the most sensational trial in San Diego’s history that was followed avidly across the nation. The big question: What really happened at the Blue Sea Cottage? MYSTERY AT THE BLUE SEA COTTAGE: A True Story of Murder in San Diego's Jazz Age-James Stewart

In October of 1977, David Bowman moved to Las Vegas as a 16 year old kid with his parents and older brother. Bowman chronicles his journey through the streets of Las Vegas for the next 3 years. Bringing Down Cullotta, Bowman tells us how he worked his way into the most elite criminal organization in Las Vegas. He recounts how he became the "point man" in the Las Vegas Organized Crime Strike Force's investigation of the Chicago Outfit and Tony Spilotro and his right-hand man Frank Cullotta, the leader of the Hole in the Wall Gang. BRINGING DOWN CULLOTTA: The. Story Casino Couldn't Tell You-David Bowman

“Ted Bundy: Examining The Unconfirmed Survivor Stories,” is the first publication to collate the known and frequently discussed stories of those individuals who shared their encounters with Ted Bundy decades after the execution of the serial killer. It compares these reports with data compiled by investigators, psychologists and contemporaries of Ted Bundy, as found in police files, psychological assessments and relevant literature. Includes thorough investigations into the accounts of “Blondie” singer Debbie Harry, Rhonda Stapley, Sara A. Survivor, Sotria Kritsonis, as well as numerous other unconfirmed survivors. Features the self-debunked story of a woman who had previously believed to be a Ted Bundy survivor. Delves into the possible motivations of deliberate and indeliberate victim-players, as well as Dr. Elizabeth Loftus' discoveries of the malleability of human memory. Erin Banks, who was mentored by Ted Bundy expert Kevin M. Sullivan, previously contributed a chapter to the author's sixth book on the case, “The Enigma Of Ted Bundy: The Questions And Controversies Surrounding America's Most Infamous Serial Killer.” TED BUNDY: Examining The Unconfirmed Survivor Stories-Erin Banks

What would you do if a singular moment changed your life forever? This is Actually Happening is a weekly podcast from Wondery that features extraordinary life-changing stories told by the people who lived them...wondery.fm/TIAH_TrueMurder

Bill Kimberlin, Psy.D, invites the reader on an extensive and unbiased journey inside Ohio’s death row in WATCH ME DIE: Last Words From Death Row.You will see how these inmates think as Kimberlin not only spends time interviewing them, but also eats meals with them and, in some cases, is the last person to speak with them before they are executed. From the moment they are placed on suicide watch until the moment they are pronounced dead right in front of him, Kimberlin will walk you through the twisted and complex execution process in the state of Ohio.WATCH ME DIE presents an unbiased look at the realities of death row, in Ohio and America as a whole. This book is much more than an argument about the death penalty. Instead, Kimberlin exposes the harsh truth of what it is like to be on death row, counting the days until your own execution, as told to him by those who have lived it.With no physical or mental restraints, Kimberlin’s conversations earn the trust of many high-level and violent offenders. He shares with the reader these unfiltered and honest thoughts from people staring in the face of death. Their writings, their artwork, and their own words will put the reader in the room with these dangerous killers. Nothing is off-limits and there is nothing to shield Kimberlin from the same hands that have taken countless lives, leaving Kimberlin himself asking, “Will this be my last trip to death row?”In this newly revised edition of WATCH ME DIE, Bill Kimberlin takes the reader on a more intimate journey into death row than ever before. This edition includes a “Where Are They Now?” section, updating the reader on which inmates have faced their execution, which inmates are still counting their days, and who else has asked Kimberlin to watch them die. WATCH ME DIE: Last Words From Death Row-Bill Kimberlin

In 1935, nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser, heir to one of the wealthiest families in America, is snatched off the streets two blocks from his home. The boy is kept manacled in a pit, chained to a tree, and locked in a closet. The perps—a career bank robber, a petty thief, and his nineteen-year-old never-been-in-trouble Mormon wife—quickly become the targets of the biggest manhunt in Northwest history. The caper plays out like a Hollywood thriller with countless twists and improbable developments. Perhaps the most astonishing thing of all, though, is how it all ends. DEEP IN THE WOODS: The 1935 Kidnapping of Nine Year-Old George Weyerhaeuser, Heir To America's Mightiest Timber Dynasty-Bryan Johnston

The Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States guarantee the right against self-incrimination, the right to remain silent, and the right to counsel.A crime wave swept California in the late 1970s. Several young girls were abducted, raped, and murdered. Michael Dee Mattson was convicted of these crimes and sentenced to death.Law clerk by day, family man by night.In 1982, Jim Potts—a brilliant, idealistic, African American law student—is honored when one of his professors recruits him to assist in writing a death penalty appeal on behalf of a serial killer.Potts discovers a loophole in the case that had somehow been overlooked. One that could not only get Mattson off death row, but once presented to the Supreme Court of California, could release him to rape and murder again. When Potts confides in his pregnant wife, she says if Mattson goes free, their marriage is over. But if Potts quits the case, or withholds information, he violates his duty to client and Constitution and risks his career before it even begins.A moral dilemma with no good way out.To avoid losing his family and releasing pure evil back into the world, Potts must be smarter than his options. He must find a way to keep his family together, fulfill his duties, and keep Mattson behind bars.But can he? DEFENDING A SERIAL KILLER: The Right To Counsel-Jim Potts

“The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.”Renee Fehr knew that Gregory Houser killed her sister Sheryl. There was not a single doubt in her mind. Yet for 27 years Houser walked free.But Renee wouldn’t rest until he was convicted for murder.THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE is equal parts the story of a monstrous killer, a harrowing look at domestic violence, and an inspirational story of a family that wouldn’t quit until justice prevailed. THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE: The True Story of a 27-Year Battle To Convict My Sister's Killer-Renee Fehr

Based off Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala's popular podcast of the same name, RedHanded explores real-life true crime cases to help answer once and for all if a killer is born or made.After meeting at a house party in London, where they discovered a mutual obsession for all things true crime, Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire drunkenly promised to one day start their own murder podcast. Six weeks later they ordered their first microphones and the rest is history. From the hosts of the hit podcast RedHanded (dubbed by Anna Paquin as her “all- time favorite true crime podcast”), Bala and Maguire have amassed a cult following of “spooky bitches.”What is it about killers, cults, and cannibals that capture our imaginations even as they terrify and disturb us? Do we find these stories endlessly and equally compelling and frightening, because they hold up a mirror to society’s failings and to the horrors that we humans are capable of? RedHanded rejects the outdated narrative of killers as monsters and that a victim “was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Instead, it dissects the stories of killers in a way that challenges perceptions and asks the hard questions about society, gender, poverty, culture, and even our politics.With their trademark humor, research on real-life cases, and unflinching analysis of what makes a criminal, Bala and Maguire take you through what drives the most extreme of human behavior to find out once and for all: what makes a killer tick? REDHANDED: An Exploration of Criminals, Cannibals, Cults, and What Makes A Killer Tick-Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire

From The Author Of INCONVENIENCE GONEOn the early morning of March 6, 1993, an intense fire broke out in a tiny nursery. Sixteen minutes later, firefighters had extinguished the blaze, only to reveal a room burned so severely, everything was virtually unrecognizable. Then, they were told to look for a baby. What they discovered looked more like a monster from a horror film. The small skull had been incinerated, and the legs and arms were nothing more than charred stumps. The only identifiable human feature was the baby's genitals, covered in what remained of his diaper.Two people were home at the time the fire broke out: the newborn's parents.argerThe arson squad declared the fire suspicious and the homeowner's insurance company hired investigators, who determined the fire to indeed be arson. The prosecutor wanted to dismiss the case, but the arson unit had a newly appointed prosecutor who refused to do so.Was it arson? What was the motive? Along with the tenacious and determined Detective Leslie Van Buskirk, Diane Marger Moore persisted for more than two years to find the truth and get justice for Baby Matthew Wise. 16 MINUTES: Was The Death of Baby Matthew an Accident or Murder?-Diane Marger Moore

An apartment complex hosts a big Halloween party with themed rooms and costumed partygoers. By the end of the night one of the party’s hosts is murdered. And the partygoers are the main suspects in the eyes of the police: was it the guy in the devil mask, the guy dressed as Jesus, the bank robber, the construction worker? As a complex investigation winds its way through forensic evidence, witness testimony, DNA, and even a psychic, the police zero in on one suspect in particular -- but why? From Campside Media and Wondery, the makers of Chameleon and the Shrink Next Door, comes SUSPECT. Matthew Shaer and Eric Benson (Over My Dead Body) return to the scene of the crime to uncover what happened, and speak with everyone about a party that still haunts them a decade later. It’s a series about cutting-edge science and mislaid justice, race and policing, and the kinds of weighty choices that cops and prosecutors make every day. Choices that, once made, are difficult to reverse. wondery.fm/Suspect_TrueMurder

Obsession, Unrequited Love, Jealousy, Revenge, and Violence Collide in this Page-Turning Anthology. How can someone you hold dear become someone you fear? This riveting anthology explores the question through some of the most compelling true crime accounts and stories of obsession and vengeance.Crimes fueled by emotions. Love, passion, obsession, jealousy, and betrayal. When it comes to the emotions, people can react in strange and unexpected ways. Whether it's a heart hurt by unrequited love, or a lover so passionate they'll stop at nothing to get their way - even the most mild-mannered soul can suddenly flip, becoming a vengeful spirit with dark intentions. From the ancient Greek myth of Jason and Medea to Shakespeare's Othello, themes dealing with deeply felt emotions have persisted. But unlike mythology or fiction, The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge contains stories from real life.A special selection of stories written exclusively for this book. The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge includes stories from around the world and from different times. As with all titles in the popular The Best New True Crime Stories series, this volume contains original nonfiction accounts penned by writers from across the literary spectrum. Dive into these twisted true tales of passion and unrequited love turned violent. Examine why some have fully embraced their dark side, resorting to crime to achieve their own special brand of satisfaction and retribution. THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES: Crimes of Passion, Obsession and Revenge-Mitzi Szereto

Shortly after NYPD Chief of Detectives Thomas Byrnes publicly criticized the London police for failing to capture Jack the Ripper, he received a letter purportedly from Jack himself saying New York was his next target. Not long after, Byrnes was confronted by his own Ripper-style murder case in the death of Carrie Brown, a.k.a. "Old Shakespeare," a colorful character who worked as a prostitute and had a penchant for quoting Shakespeare. Given the near-hysteria surrounding this vicious murder soon after the Jack the Ripper murders in London, people were worried that Jack might have actually come to America.The detective bureau finally arrested Amir Ben Ali, an Algerian immigrant. The newspapers, however, immediately criticized Byrnes for moving too quickly, suggesting that he had tried to save face by pinning the crime on an easy target. When the verdict of murder in the second degree was announced, the papers erupted in anger and disbelief. With the aid of the French consulate, they embarked on a 10-year campaign to have Ben Ali pardoned and finally won his release by producing new evidence. Immediately upon Ben Ali's departure for France, fresh evidence of his guilt surfaced.Was Ben Ali falsely convicted or falsely exonerated? And if he did not commit the murder, then who did? Issues of false convictions, fake news, illegal immigration, police corruption, and racial prejudice are common tropes in today's news cycles. The East River Ripper demonstrates that these are not simply matters of recent vintage and seeks to answer such questions in trying to determine whether and in what way justice miscarried. THE EAST RIVER RIPPER: The Mysterious 1891 Murder of Old Shakespeare-George R. Dekle Sr.

Someone you know or even love is the person who will kill you. Usually, that’s true.But that is not what happened in 2018 to two college students in Iowa.Two young women who had everything to live for, killed by two men with nothing to lose. Completely random attacks. Neither case had anything else in common except they both shocked the nation and even the world.What’s worse, being murdered by a loved one or a stranger who jumps out of the bushes when you are most vulnerable?Previously published as We’ll Find You and Let’s Do Murder, The Iowa Murders tells the shocking true crime stories of the senseless deaths of Mollie Tibbetts and Celia Barquin Arozamena.When Mollie Tibbetts disappeared on July 18, 2018, her mother, Laura Calderwood, promised she would never quit searching.For five weeks in the summer of 2018, she searched, and the whole world watched Brooklyn, Iowa because this was more than a murder story — it also became one of the top political stories of 2018.Then, just after her killer led police to Mollie’s body, hidden in a cornfield, news of another shocking, senseless homicide came from Iowa.Celia Barquin Arozamena was ready to begin the next phase of her life, including a professional career and marriage.Collin Richards only wanted a woman to rape and murder.Celia had everything to live for, and Collin had nothing to lose.They would come together one day in September 2018. Only one would survive.This is the shocking true crime story of two communities and two families coming to grips with the worst crime imaginable, knowing that even if the killer’s put behind bars today, another could be waiting tomorrow. THE IOWA MURDERS: A Shocking True Crime Story-Rod Kackley

Paolo is a smart and handsome surgeon, renowned for his ability to perform surgeries that transform his patients’ lives. When television producer Benita covers him for a story, he’ll transform her life too, but not in the ways she expects. As Benita crosses professional lines to be with him, she learns how far Paolo will go to protect his secrets. And halfway around the world, four doctors at a prestigious medical institute make shocking discoveries of their own that call everything into question. From Wondery comes Season Three of the hit podcast, Dr. Death. MIRACLE MAN tells the story of a globe-trotting surgeon who seduces the medical world, and sweeps one woman off her feet. Hosted by Laura Beil.Listen to Dr. Death Season 3: wondery.fm/DDS3_TrueMurder

On a sultry August morning in 1970, the battered body of a young woman was hoisted from a dry well just outside Hogansville, Georgia. Author and investigator Clay Bryant was there, witnessing the macabre scene. Then fifteen, Bryant was tagging along with his father, Buddy Bryant, Hogansville chief of police. The victim, Gwendolyn Moore, had been in a violent marriage. That was no secret. But her husband had connections to a political machine that held sway over the Troup County Sheriff's Office overseeing the case. To the dismay and bafflement of many, no charges were brought. That is, until Bryant followed his father's footsteps into law enforcement and a voice cried out from the well three decades later. SOLVING THE WEST GEORGIA MURDER OF GWENDOLYN MOORE: A Cry From The Well-Clay Bryant

Criminal defense lawyer Lisa Peebles was taken aback by a secretly recorded phone call and police interrogation video that surfaced in a 20-year-old kidnapping case. They held the stench of a cover-up. She recruited an investigative reporter to help unearth the truth and exonerate Gary Thibodeau, the man convicted in the 1994 kidnapping and murder of 18-year-old Heidi Allen.Scrapped: Justice and a Teen Informant exposes the underbelly of a system built more for finality than justice. It's the true story of Peebles' pursuit of new evidence against three new suspects and her discovery that Heidi had lived a double life: convenience store cashier and undercover informant. The sheriff's office hid the truth after her death as the real killers roamed free. Peebles became a de facto prosecutor to prove their guilt and Gary's innocence. As Heidi's family stood by the sheriff, her remains were likely secreted right under their noses - probably inside a scrapped van and shipped to a car shredder in Canada. SCRAPPED: Justice and a Teen Informant-Lisa Peebles and John O'Brien

From the author of WRECKING CREW, John Ferak returns to discuss his incredible book TERROR TOWN U.S.A.https://podcasts.apple.com/.../true-murder.../id393525078...https://www.spreaker.com/show/truemurderhttps://open.spotify.com/show/3lB164qZi9SySMEhC2bKuVDuring the early morning hours of July 17, 1983, fatigue became a factor for the young couple from central Illinois who spent their day under the hot sun at Marriott’s Great America amusement park north of Chicago. On their drive home, the tired teenagers pulled to the shoulder of Interstate 55 to get a restful sleep.As the teens slept inside their car under the moon and the stars, a dangerous force of evil lurked in the shadows, parking directly behind them.The summer of 1983 was like no other for Joliet, Ill., a hard-working, rough-and-tough blue-collar industrial city an hour’s drive southwest of Chicago. This was one of the hottest summers on record for Joliet, and an elusive serial-killing madman kept piling up the body count as he showed no signs of being caught.One overnight killing spree claimed five victims, including members of the Will County Sheriff’s Office. The following month brought more bloodshed: a quadruple murder inside a small Joliet shop best known for its pottery classes.The plague of senseless violence sparked the controversial New York City-based Guardian Angels to mobilize foot patrols in Joliet, generating more unwanted news media attention for the community. Even the National Enquirer produced its own sensational piece, labeling Joliet “Terror Town, U.S.A.”Residents shuddered with horror. Determined detectives worked in overdrive, trying to find an overlooked clue or two. Finally, when an arrest seemed to come out of nowhere, area citizens breathed a sigh of relief.Authorities linked the so-called stone-cold killing machine to a chilling count of 14 homicides, plus three women who miraculously survived their agonizing encounters.But with multiple murder trials on the horizon, it remained anyone’s guess whether Milton Johnson, whose family nicknamed him “Big’un,” short for “Big One,” was guilty of mass murder and if so, would he die by means of lethal injection at the Illinois Department of Corrections? TERROR TOWN, U.S.A.: The Untold Story of Joliet's Notorious Serial Killer-John Ferak

Criminologist Anthony Meoli said Sondra London broke ground in publishing the confessions of serial killer Danny Rolling. But only part of that story could be told in 1996.Now in this unique new volume, the controversy surrounding The Making of a Serial Killer is revealed in a series of interviews and appearances including NBC Dateline, Court TV, talk radio and courtroom drama. Meoli shows off Rolling’s art, with a stunning painting Rolling called his Masterpiece and his hand-written explanation of its symbolism.Podcasters Dan Zupansky (True Murder) and Ariel Cooksey (Malice) share thought- provoking conversations that elicit new revelations about London's work with Rolling. And a sensational secret interview with Rolling is finally revealed. DANNY ROLLING SERIAL KILLER: Interviews-Sondra London

From the author of FIRST DEGREE RAGE: The True Story of ‘The Assassin,’ An Obsession, and Murder comes the ongoing and chilling true crime saga of L. C. Underwood, the obsessively jealous police officer from North Carolina. Underwood shocked an entire city with his reign of terror in the lives of his ex-fiancé Kay Weden, a woman he refused to let go, her son Jason whom he despised, and her mother Catherine Miller who got in his way. In FIRST DEGREE RAGE, Underwood arrogantly evaded justice for his heinous crimes until Detective Paula May and her investigative team uncovered who he really was. Because of their efforts, he was convicted for First Degree Kidnapping and Murder of Viktor Gunnarsson, Kay’s new boyfriend. But was Underwood also responsible for the brutal murder of Catherine Miller that occurred mere days after Gunnarsson’s demise?Sentenced to life in prison plus forty years, Underwood has no intention of staying in prison and vows not to stop until he exacts revenge on those he blames for his current predicament. His thirst for revenge will not be quenched until more blood is shed. Underwood rages on, plotting his next move, enlisting others to perform the evil deeds he imagines. Wreaking havoc in the lives of Kay, Jason, Detective May, and others, he sends them all on an emotional roller coaster ride that never seems to end. Will they ever find peace? Will Catherine Miller’s murderer ever be brought to justice? Will Underwood’s reign of terror ever be stopped? RAGING ON-Paula May

Sometimes the Nicest People Make the Deadliest CriminalsEnjoy a collection of non-fiction accounts by international writers and experts on crooks, criminals, and serial killers who disguise themselves among society by being what you least expect-your friendly next-door neighbor.From mild mannered coworkers to doting parents. Some might be your jack-of-all-trades friend, or others might be your family member with an altruistic persona. The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals takes you deeper into the unconventional criminal's psyche . The ones where their most prominent feature isn't a bloodied knife, but a bright smile and warm gaze meant to lure their next victim.Meet the real killers. You've heard about John Wayne Gacy. You've read about Jeffrey Dahmer. You've delved into the Ted Bundy fascination. It's time for you to meet the infamous Naun Briones, who struck fear into the hearts of the rich, and Freddie Brenman, a notorious street-fighter with mysterious ties to the Dillinger Gang. You'll find yourself realizing that being nice and friendly is a killer combination.Edited by acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto, The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks & Criminals reveals all-new accounts of true crime stories featuring serial killers from the contemporary to the depression-era. The international list of contributors includes award-winning crime writers, true-crime podcasters, journalists, and experts in the dark crimes field such as Tom Larsen, David Blumenfeld, and Anthony Ferguson. THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals-Mitzi Szereto

On a cold January morning in 1981, a knock on an apartment door began what would become one of the bloodiest crime sprees in Arkansas history. In the coming days the bodies of newlyweds Larry and Jawana Price, businessman Holly Gentry, and Police Detective Ray Tate were discovered. They had been executed in cold blood and discarded like so much trash. What kind of person murders four people in cold blood? Did the right one go to prison? COLD BLOODED: A Chilling, True Tale of Terror, Rape and Murder in the Arkansas River bottoms-Anita Paddock

‘Bobby called. He’s coming to California. He wants to see me.’Drawing on secret police files, Marilyn Monroe's private diary and never before published first-hand testimony, this book proves that Robert Kennedy was directly responsible for her death. It details the legendary star's tumultuous personal involvement with him and his brother, President John Kennedy, and how they sought to silence her.The new evidence and testimony is provided by Mike Rothmiller who, as a detective of the Organized Crime Intelligence Division (OCID) of the LAPD, had direct personal access to hundreds of secret LAPD files on exactly what happened at Marilyn Monroe’s Californian home on August 5, 1962.With his training and investigator’s knowledge, Rothmiller used that secret information to get to the heart of the matter, to the people who were there the night Marilyn died – two of whom played major roles in the cover-up – and the wider conspiracy to protect the Kennedys at all costs.There will be those with doubts, but to them, the lawman – who directed international intelligence operations targeting organized crime – says the printed, forensic and oral evidence are totally convincing. He insists: ‘If I presented my evidence in any court of law, I’d get a conviction.’ BOMBSHELL: The Night Bobby Kennedy Killed Marilyn Monroe-Mike Rothmiller

On February 21, 1992, 22-year-old Brian Bechtold walked into a police station in Port St. Joe, Florida and confessed that he’d shot and killed his parents in their family home in Silver Spring, Maryland. He said he’d been possessed by the devil. He was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and ruled “not criminally responsible” for the murders on grounds of insanity.But after the trial, where do the "criminally insane" go? Brottman reveals Brian's inner life leading up to the murder, as well as his complicated afterlife in a maximum security psychiatric hospital, where he is neither imprisoned nor free. During his 27 years at the hospital, Brian has tried to escape and been shot by police, and has witnessed three patient-on-patient murders. He’s experienced the drugging of patients beyond recognition, a sadistic system of rewards and punishments, and the short-lived reign of a crazed psychiatrist-turned-stalker.In the tradition of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Couple Found Slain is an insider’s account of life in the underworld of forensic psych wards in America and the forgotten lives of those held there, often indefinitely. COUPLE FOUND SLAIN: After A Family Murder-Mikita Brottman

Seattle's Jungle Killer takes you inside a world where depravity and evil are met by some of the best homicide detectives in the Seattle Police Department. One of them, author and retired detective Mike Ciesynski, was one of the guys whose mission it was to "hunt the men who hunt women". In this real-life murder investigation, you discover how Det. Ciesynski and his partners pursued a serial killer's trail, and how technique, persistence -- and luck -- prompted the killer to confess the truth. SEATTLE'S JUNGLE KILLER: A Detective's Account of the First Serial Killer Convicted in Seattle

In the late hours of July 22, 1991, Detective Patrick "Pat" Kennedy of the Milwaukee Police Department was asked to respond to a possible homicide. Little did he know that he would soon be delving into the dark mind of one of America's most notorious serial killers, the "Milwaukee Cannibal" Jeffrey Dahmer.As the media clamored for details, Kennedy spent the next six weeks, sixteen hours a day, locked in an interrogation room with Dahmer. There the 31-year-old killer described in lurid detail how he lured several young men to his apartment where he strangled, sexually assaulted, dismembered, and in some cases, cannibalized his victims.In GRILLING DAHMER: The Interrogation of "The Milwaukee Cannibal" the reader is taken on a horrifying tour into the mind of evil as Kennedy patiently, meticulously, listened to unspeakable horrors so that a monster would be taken off the streets forever. GRILLING DAHMER: The Interrogation of "The Milwaukee Cannibal"-Robyn Maharaj

In this second edition of The Murder of Biggie Smalls, Cathy Scott delves behind the scenes to pore over police records, coroner reports, FBI files, and interviews Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, to reveal new facts surrounding the gangsta rapper’s murder. The Notorious B.I.G. exploded onto the hip-hop scene in 1995 with his platinum-selling album Ready to Die. Biggie Smalls, born Christopher Wallace and performing as Notorious B.I.G., grew up in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, where he dropped out of high school to pursue street culture and his rapping style. Biggie began emceeing his original raps, which were discovered by producer Sean “Puffy” Combs, who took Biggie’s gangsta image to the next level. Fame followed two successful rap albums earning million of dollars, a 1996 Billboard Rapper of the Year Award, marriage to R&B singer Faith Evans, a public affair with rapper L'il Kim, and hanging out with Tupac Shakur. The high life for Biggie tragically ended March 9, 1997, after a Los Angeles post-awards party, where he was gunned down in a drive-by, much like friend-turned-enemy Shakur six months earlier. Twenty-four years later, L.A. police still have made no arrests, despite their early confidence that the case would be solved quickly, and after revealing identities of persons of interest who worked for the police department. They dropped the investigation before it ended, stalling the case. Bestselling True Crime author Cathy Scott shares it all in this second edition. The Murder of Biggie Smalls-Cathy Scott

In March 2015, Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn awoke from a sound sleep into a nightmare. Armed men bound and drugged them, then abducted Denise. Warned not to call the police or Denise would be killed. Aaron agonized about what to do. Finally he put his trust in law enforcement and dialed 911. But instead of searching for Denise, the police accused Aaron of her murder. His story, they told him, was just unbelievable. When Denise was released alive, the police turned their fire on her, dubbing her the “real-life ‘Gone Girl’” who had faked her own kidnapping. In Victim F, Aaron and Denise recount the horrific ordeal that almost cost them everything. Like too many victims of sexual violence, they were dismissed, disbelieved, and dragged through the mud. With no one to rely on except each other, they took on the victim blaming, harassment, misogyny, and abuse of power running rife in the criminal justice system. Their story is, in the end, a love story, but one that sheds necessary light on sexual assault and the abuse by law enforcement that all too frequently compounds crime victims’ suffering. VICTIM F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors-Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn

Police Chief Greg Adams was out on patrol. Christmas was coming to Saxonburg, Pennsylvania—a quaint borough of just 1,300—in three short weeks. The winter air was crisp. Colored lights sparkled on houses. He was only a block and a half from the Police Department, and this was just an average traffic stop.Until it wasn’t.The devoted husband and father of two little boys was about to meet any law enforcement officer’s nightmare. Moments later, he would lay dying in a pool of his own blood on that white winter snow, while his killer vanished like an apparition into thin air.Despite his many aliases, the true identity of the murderer was quickly found. The killer himself, was not. As State Police and FBI investigators peeled back the twisted layers of low-level mobster Donald Webb’s life, the path to the killer would wind through decades … toward a shocking conclusion. After all, secrets can only be kept for so long. THE GHOST: The Murder of Police Chief Greg Adams and the Hunt for his Killer-Maureen Boyle

Rochester, N.Y., is known for many things, great food, lilacs, innovative supermarkets, minor league baseball, and—unfortunately—crime. This heavily-illustrated book covers some of the most spectacular crimes in the Rochester area’s history, written by true-crime master Michael Benson, who grew up in the town of Chili. Read about serial killers Arthur Shawcross and Robert Bruce Spahalski, the savage murders of Kathy Bernhard and George-Ann Formicola, the all-in-the-family murders of Tabatha Bryant and Jim Tan, the hunt for Bucky Phillips, the disappearance of Flossie Wilbur, plus much more. Many shocking photos. ROCHESTER'S MOST STARTLING CRIMES-Michael Benson

Longtime author Stephanie Dickinson straddles the lines of true crime and memoir in “Razor Wire Wilderness,” (June 1, 2021, Kallisto Gaia Press) as she examines the lives of those affected by violence in this immaculately assembled account that takes readers directly inside incarceration and face to face with inmates.Krystal Riordan watched as her boyfriend beat a teenage Jennifer Moore to death in a vermin-infested New Jersey hotel room. Could she have stopped it? Or could she be his next victim? Now, Krystal is serving a maximum 30-year sentence, while the man who beat Jennifer to death received only a 50-year sentence. So what does it take to survive in a maximum security lockdown for 30 years? Is it possible to thrive? The answers only lead to more questions in Dickinson’s raw and emotional look into the criminal justice system and how it’s failed not just one but countless victims of violence. And what unfolds is a beautiful depiction of moral ambiguity, loss and redemption within the confines of the prison walls and beyond. RAZOR WIRE WILDERNESS-Stephanie Dickinson

Investigators and Central Florida residents were horrified when 16-year-old vampire cult leader Rod Ferrell was arrested and charged with bludgeoning a cult member's parents. When they realized the slain couple's 15-year-old daughter was missing, they feared she was a victim, too.Detectives and journalists swarming over three states soon uncovered a web of blood-drinking occult rituals, illicit sex, wildly dysfunctional families and spiritual warfare. Then, when police officers captured the teens, they discovered that the murdered couple's daughter was among them. But was she a victim or a participant?Ferrell faced the death penalty, sparking Constitutional battles over the ultimate punishment, juveniles in the court system, free press versus a defendant's right to a fair trial, and psychologists who worked to save him and prosecutors who wanted him dead. COLD BLOODED: A True Crime Story of a Murderous Teenage Vampire Cult-Frank StanfieldMore than 20 years later, the battles continue with new court rulings. Is he a changed man deserving freedom? Or is he still gaming the system, as prosecutors and his victims' family members believe?Decide for yourself after reading COLD BLOODED by veteran newspaper reporter Frank Stanfield, who has covered the case from the beginning in November 1996, and sheds new light on one of the darkest killers in modern history. COLD BLOODED: A True Crime Story of a Murderous Teenage Vampire Cult-Frank StanfieldMagicSpoon.com/TrueMurder

Long before the era of young people committing mass murder became a too-common event, sixteen-year-old Harry Hebard made world news when he killed all five members of his family in Kennedy-era Green Bay, Wisconsin. Harry appeared to be a relatively normal teenager. A member of the high school track team, Harry harbored a deep resentment that would make its ugly appearance on a cold winter’s day in 1963. In systematically executing his family, Harry became the first documented teenage mass murderer in Wisconsin history. Criminal profile veteran Steve Daniels details Harry’s case and provides insight into what makes Harry and other mass murderers tick. HARRY: A Study of Teenage Mass Murderers-Steve Daniels

Denville in the 1950s was an idyllic place to live, yet a dark chapter in the era's history has remained uncovered. During the summer of 1953, a wealthy traveler with a secret rap sheet as a convicted sex offender arrived in town to continue his misdeeds. A group of thirteen local boys ranging in age from fourteen to twenty-two took it upon themselves to teach the man a lesson and drive him out of town. What resulted was his brutal death and the largest number of people ever indicted for murder in the nation at the time. The harrowing trial and its aftermath revealed a town forced to grapple with how to protect its youth and come to terms with the gruesome incident. Local historian Peter Zablocki covers the crime and a small town's path to redemption. THE DENVILLE 13: Murder, Redemption & Forgiveness in Small Town New Jersey-Peter Zablocki.MURDER21#fabfitfunpartner

I got a girl, hung herself in the guest house."The call came on the morning of July 13, 2011, from the historic Spreckels Mansion, a lavish beachfront property in Coronado, California, owned by pharmaceutical tycoon and multimillionaire Jonah Shacknai. When authorities arrived, they found the naked body of Jonah's girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau, gagged, her ankles tied and her wrists bound behind her. Jonah's brother, Adam, claimed to have found Rebecca hanging by a rope from the second-floor balcony. On a bedroom door in black paint were the cryptic words: SHE SAVED HIM CAN YOU SAVE HER.Was this scrawled message a suicide note or a killer's taunt? Rebecca's death came two days after Jonah's six-year-old son, Max, took a devastating fall while in Rebecca's care. Authorities deemed Rebecca's death a suicide resulting from her guilt. But who would stage either a suicide or a murder in such a bizarre, elaborate way?Award-winning investigative journalist Caitlin Rother weaves stunning new details into a personal yet objective examination of the sensational case. She explores its many layers--including the civil suit in which a jury found Adam Shacknai responsible for Rebecca's death, and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department bombshell decision to reconfirm its original findings. As compelling as it is troubling, this controversial real-life mystery is a classic American tragedy that evokes the same haunting fascination as the JonBenet Ramsey and O.J. Simpson cases. DEATH ON OCEAN BOULEVARD: Inside the Coronado Mansion Case-Caitlin RotherMURDER21#fabfitfunpartner

Dubbed by The New York Times as one of the "most vexing and unexplained" mysteries in aviation history, the crash of Pan American World Airways Flight 7 in November 1957 resulted in 44 deaths and remains officially unsolved to this day. But Ken H. Fortenberry, an award-winning journalist whose father was the copilot and navigator aboard the ill-fated plane, has devoted nearly sixty years of his life to unraveling this cold-case mystery, and has come to a staggering conclusion: that the victims of the crash were murdered. A remarkably researched book packed with information and emotion, Flight 7 Is Missing: The Search for My Father's Killer is a gripping page-turner that reads like a fast-paced murder mystery. Join Fortenberry on his crusade as he tirelessly tracks down every possible lead and eventually exposes the person he believes responsible for this tragic crime. FLIGHT 7 IS MISSING: The Search For My Father's Killer-Ken H. Fortenberry

Interest in the Menendez brothers’ case has exploded in the last few months. Over 770 million views on TikTok. The groundswell began in 2017 with the TV premieres of several documentaries and NBC’s eight-episode limited series Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders.Social media users were overwhelmingly sympathetic to the brothers during the NBC show, which debuted during the early days of the #MeToo and #MenToo era.Investigative journalist and author Robert Rand's 2018 book The Menendez Murders provided the primary source material for NBC series Plug, streaming on Amazon, YouTube, and Google Play.The NBC series was a 180-degree flip from the general perception that the brothers were just greedy rich kids who killed Ozzie and Harriet on a quiet Sunday night in Beverly Hills. There was little internet or social media when the brothers went on trial in 1993.Earlier this year, the current explosion of passionate Menendez advocates caught the attention of the New York Times with an article, The New Menendez Defenders: Young people are making impassioned arguments for the release of Lyle and Erik Menendez. Why now?April 2, 2021, ABC’s 20/20 aired a two-hour special about the international movement of new Menendez supporters. Robert Rand continues to actively repost on the case. Some of the research included in his book The Menedez Murders could become significant new evidence when the brothers file an appeal. New evidence has. surfaced leading to an appeal court filing later this year, and the possibility of a 3rd trial for Lyle and Erik. THE NEW MENENDEZ DEFENDERS: The International Movement of Supporters Who Want Lyle and Erik Set Free-Robert Rand

The year is 1917. Less than two decades into the new century and already the Great War is occurring in the muddy fields of France. Soon there will be the Spanish Influenza which will kill many more millions. An inauspicious start to a new millennium, to be sure. In one of Canada’s largest cities, Toronto, there has been a murder. A cab driver is found dead in west-end Toronto, stabbed multiple times. The cabbie’s name is Carmine Lapello (AKA Tony Lapello, Tony Ross), an Italian Canadian. Inquests occur, but the murderer is never found.Now, we take a leap forward to the year 1964 when a ten-year-old Joe Lapello is going through some cardboard boxes in his parent’s basement. He finds an old photo of a handsome young man. He takes the picture to his father and is told that the picture is of Joe’s great uncle, Carmine Lapello. Joe’s father was only seven years old at the time of the murder.Become entwined in a story of a young man’s undying love for a woman, which would drive him to participate in illegal alcohol smuggling during the prohibition era. Carmine was a self employed taxicab driver who became caught up with notorious people, in a small immigrant community of Toronto, known as “The Ward”. Circumstances would change for the worse, turning this young man from a secretive life of crime, to that of a police informant, and eventually, paying the ultimate price. In the early morning hours of July 20, 1917, Carmine would be found brutally murdered in the street. Follow Joseph, through his discovery of this mystery, as he unravels the unsolved murder of his Great Uncle, Carmine Lapello. MURDER LOST TO TIME: The True Story of One of Canada's Oldest Unsolved Murders-Joseph A. Lapello

In 1974, the brutal murder of Anita Fagiani Andrews, a fifty-one-year-old former beauty queen and mother of two, shook the small working-class town of Napa. Detectives, criminalists and forensic experts raced to identify who'd struck Anita down in her own bar, but despite their efforts, the case went cold. Decades passed, during which the town grew into a world-renowned wine region and tourist destination, but the case remained an open question. After thirty-seven years, thanks to DNA evidence, the killer--imprisoned for a different murder--was finally found and brought to justice. Join author and retired judge Raymond A. Guadagni as he tells the story of the shocking murder, the investigation and the subsequent trial over which he presided in 2011. THE NAPA MURDER OF ANITA FAGIANI ANDREWS: A Cold Case That Caught a Serial Killer-Raymond A. Guadagni

Wealthy, beautiful, and brilliant, Shele Danishefsky had fulfillment at her fingertips. Having conquered Wall Street, she was eager to build a family with her much younger husband, promising Ivy League graduate Rod Covlin. But when his hidden vices surfaced, marital harmony gave way to a merciless divorce. Rod had long depended on Shele's income to fund his tastes for high stakes backgammon and infidelity--and she finally vowed to sever him from her will. In late December 2009, Shele made an appointment with her lawyer to block him from her millions. She would never make it to that meeting.Two days later, on New Year’s Eve, Shele was found dead in the bathtub of her Upper West Side apartment. Police ruled it an accident, and Shele’s deeply Orthodox Jewish family quickly buried her without an autopsy on religious grounds. Rod had a clear path to his ex-wife's fortune, but suspicions about her death lingered. As the two families warred over custody of Shele’s children―and their inheritance― Rod concocted a series of increasingly demented schemes, even plotting to kill his own parents, to secure the treasure. And as investigators closed in, Rod committed a final, desperate act to frame his own daughter for her mother’s death.Journalists Rebecca Rosenberg and Selim Algar reconstruct the ten years that passed between the day Shele was found dead and the day her killer faced justice in this riveting account of how one man’s irrepressible greed devolved into obsession, manipulation, and murder. AT ANY COST: A Father's Betrayal, A Wife's Murder, and a Ten-Year War for Justice-Selim AlgarMURDER #fabfitfunpartner

Law enforcement professionals and criminologists long have been challenged to arrive at a consensus over the most accurate ways to classify serial killers. With predators as diverse as the lesser-known William Zamastil to slick con artists such as Ted Bundy, one description certainly does not fit all when it comes to grouping the depraved minds that comprise America’s most prolific murderers.Veteran criminal profiler Steve Daniels takes a detailed look into the behavioral intricacies that separate contract killers from sexual deviants, highly organized planners from low-functioning opportunists. Daniels advances the notion that current classification models fall short of the reality faced by law enforcement and prosecutors, offering an additional profiling tool in the battle against violent crime. GAZING INTO THE ABYSS: Serial Killer William Zamastil, The Victims, and Other Killers-Steve Daniels

If you want a view into the world that lies behind the Ted Bundy murders, this last work in a series of six books on Bundy, is definitely for you. For within these pages you’ll read of the many questions still surrounding this fascinating and intricate case, as well as the answers that are only now being provided here. There’s so much more to learn, and new information is still surfacing about Bundy, his victims and his potential victims. As such, there is new testimony included from those who had a brush with the killer, and others who played their own roles in this multi-state case.In this book, Bundy case detectives Jerry Thompson of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Don Patchen of Tallahassee, Florida, talk about their personal experiences with Bundy. So does Ron Holmes, the Louisville criminologist who worked with the killer towards the end of his life. Also included are official reports that have rarely been viewed outside of the archives, along with the author's commentary to guide readers through them. And last but not least, is Bundy's final confession to Utah detective Dennis Couch just hours prior to Bundy's execution. In it, Bundy reveals startling facts and sparks additional questions. A must-read for those true crime readers fascinated by America's most enigmatic and infamous serial killer. THE ENIGMA OF TED BUNDY: The Questions and Controversies Surrounding America's Most Infamous Serial Killer-Kevin Sullivan

The Gospel of Blood is the autobiography of Nico Claux, a French morgue attendant whose morbid obsessions led him to grave robbery, cannibalism and murder in the early 1990s. It is a bone-chilling chronicle of a real-life vampire who prowled the Gothic cemeteries of Paris, unearthing coffins and mutilating the bodies inside. A practicing Satanist, Claux escalated to murder after working for a year in several morgues, receiving orders to kill from the corpses he had autopsied.The Gospel of Blood provides a rare insight into a killer’s tortured mind, as he relates the graphic details of his crimes, including never-before revealed confessions. It is a fascinating look inside the thoughts of a psychotic murderer who has found redemption in prison through art. THE GOSPEL OF BLOOD: The Crimes and Trial of the Vampire of Paris in His Own Words-Nico Claux

Faulkner County native Red Hall was a serial killer who confessed to murdering at least twenty-four people. Most of his victims were motorists who picked him up as he hitchhiked around the United States. In the closing months of World War II, he beat his wife to death and went on a killing spree across the state. His signature smile lured his victims to their doom, and even after his capture, he maintained a friendly manner, being described by one lawman as "a pleasant conversationalist." Author Janie Nesbitt Jones chronicles his life for the first time and explores reasons why he became Arkansas's Hitchhike Killer. THE ARKANSAS HITCHHIKE KILLER: James Waybern "Red" Hall-Janie Nesbitt Jones

In 1976, a killer who called himself ‘The Son of Sam’ shot and killed a half dozen people and wounded as many more in New York City. During his crime spree, the madman left bizarre letters mocking the police and promising more deaths.After months of terrorizing the city while garnering front-page headlines and international attention, a man named David Berkowitz was arrested. He confessed to the shootings, claiming to be obeying a demon that resided in a dog that belonged to his neighbor “Sam.”Among the alleged victims was Carl Denaro. On the night he was shot, Denaro was hanging out with some friends at a bar when he met up with a woman named Rosemary Keenan. The couple left the bar and went to Keenan’s car for some privacy. However, a few minutes later, the windows of the car exploded as Denaro was shot in the head by an unseen assailant. Miraculously, Denaro survived the attack.When Berkowitz was arrested, he was charged with trying to kill Denaro. However, there was a twist. Although he confessed to the other shootings, after his conviction Berkowitz denied attacking Denaro.Now, after years of research, Denaro is convinced that Berkowitz was telling the truth, and that someone else tried to kill him. "THE SON OF SAM" AND ME: The Truth About Why I wasn't Shot by David Berkowitz-Carl DenaroMURDER #fabfitfunpartner

Harold Schechter, Amazon Charts bestselling author of Hell’s Princess, unearths a nearly forgotten true crime of obsession and revenge, and one of the first—and worst—mass murders in American history.In 1927, while the majority of the township of Bath, Michigan, was celebrating a new primary school—one of the most modern in the Midwest—Andrew P. Kehoe had other plans. The local farmer and school board treasurer was educated, respected, and an accommodating neighbor and friend. But behind his ordinary demeanor was a narcissistic sadist seething with rage, resentment, and paranoia. On May 18 he detonated a set of rigged explosives with the sole purpose of destroying the school and everyone in it. Thirty-eight children and six adults were murdered that morning, culminating in the deadliest school massacre in US history.Maniac is Harold Schechter’s gripping, definitive, exhaustively researched chronicle of a town forced to comprehend unprecedented carnage and the triggering of a “human time bomb” whose act of apocalyptic violence would foreshadow the terrors of the current age. MANIAC: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer-Harold Schechter

Growing up on Cape Cod in the 1960s, Liza Rodman was a lonely little girl. During the summers, while her mother worked days in a local motel and danced most nights in the Provincetown bars, her babysitter—the kind, handsome handyman at the motel where her mother worked—took her and her sister on adventures in his truck. He bought them popsicles and together, they visited his “secret garden” in the Truro woods. To Liza, he was one of the few kind and understanding adults in her life. Everyone thought he was just a “great guy.”But there was one thing she didn’t know; their babysitter was a serial killer.Some of his victims were buried—in pieces—right there, in his garden in the woods. Though Tony Costa’s gruesome case made screaming headlines in 1969 and beyond, Liza never made the connection between her friendly babysitter and the infamous killer of numerous women, including four in Massachusetts, until decades later.Haunted by nightmares and horrified by what she learned, Liza became obsessed with the case. Now, she and cowriter Jennifer Jordan reveal the chilling and unforgettable true story of a charming but brutal psychopath through the eyes of a young girl who once called him her friend. THE BABYSITTER: My Summers with a Serial Killer-Liza Rodman and Jennifer Jordan

Cold Case Story is based on the brutal murder of a housewife in the Denver suburbs in 1973. A college student back then, Stephanie Kane was more than a witness to this terrible crime. For nearly thirty years, she remained silent. Then, in 2001, she tried to exorcise the crime by fictionalizing it in a mystery novel called Quiet Time. But instead of laying the murder to rest, Quiet Time brought it roaring back to life.Cold Case Story is about a family that fractured along the fault lines of a murder. It's about fiction colliding with a cold hard crime, and the very personal story of how it feels to ping-pong between participant and observer, novelist and witness to one's own uneasy set of facts. In the end, all are punished--even the guilty. COLD CASE STORY-Stephanie Kane

There was a time when New York City was dying a fast death. The slums were warzones, the government bankrupt and sputtering. Mobsters disassembled one another nightly and dropped hefty bags of mixed parts off the Canarsie pier. Gangs rumbled in the city’s playgrounds and ghost towns, each battle busted up by the sound of gunfire or a police siren. Co-eds were raped and sent home shattered. Wide swaths of real estate, former ghettos, were abandoned and left to the squatters. Times Square, once seemingly the center of the universe, had sunk into an odiferous septic tank, a choice of porn loops in a booth or somnambulant live sex shows continuous.New York had crumbled into a city of ancient ruins where city-tough blades of sharp grass poked through each crack in the pavement, a city undergoing a so-called fiscal crisis but more a crisis of the soul, a city of routine muggings, vacant lots turned dumpsite, pocked and abandoned roads to nowhere, a city that President Gerald Ford told to drop dead, a city in which four murders a night was the norm, a city of scary shadows, vacant lots, sewer gas from a cracked manhole, a stinging rain of rust from tenement fire escapes, where pedestrians routinely dodged bell-bottomed angel-dust timebombs, where young savage baby boomers washed down black beauties with Rheingold out of a can, where each glance into the shadows was an assault upon civilized sensibilities, a derelict Big Apple, rotten at the core, with no signs of hope. In the South Bronx, ten square blocks per year, 5,000 housing units, were lost to arson—owners abandoned properties rather than pay the tax, often torching them at night to collect insurance—leaving block after block of charred hulks. “Fort Apache” they called it after the old western movie—where it looked like the bomb had gone off, nothing left but steamy brick streets and smoldering rubble. It was a ghosttown inhabited only by clownishly uniformed soldiers of vague cause who moved like insects, who fought for worthless turf and pride and dignity through the smoke of despair.And for a year, scariest of all, it was the city of Son of Sam, a terrifying specter of sadism and ritualistic blood sacrifice. THE WICKED KING WICKER: The Son of Sam Siege Upon New York-Michael Benson

On a warm night in September 1985, teenagers Kimberly Dowell and Ethan Dixon were brutally murdered in Westside Park in Muncie, Indiana. Their killer has never been charged. Early on, police focused on a family member of one of the teens as a primary suspect. The investigation even ruled out fantastic scenarios, including a theory that the perpetrator was a Dungeons & Dragons devotee. The case grew cold. Only decades later did a dogged police investigator narrow the scope to a suspect whose name has never been publicly revealed until now. Keith Roysdon and Douglas Walker, authors of Wicked Muncie and Muncie Murder & Mayhem, have followed the investigation into the Westside Park murders for decades and, for the first time, report the complete and untold story. THE WESTSIDE PARK MURDERS: Muncie's Most Notorious Cold Case-Keith Roysdon

Fans of Mindhunter and true crime podcasts will devour these chilling stories of serial killers from the American "Golden Age" (1950-2000). With books like Serial Killers, Female Serial Killers and Sons of Cain, Peter Vronsky has established himself as the foremost expert on the history of serial killers. In this first definitive history of the "Golden Age" of American serial murder, when the number and body count of serial killers exploded, Vronsky tells the stories of the most unusual and prominent serial killings from the 1950s to the early twenty-first century. From Ted Bundy to the Golden State Killer, our fascination with these classic serial killers seems to grow by the day. American Serial Killers gives true crime junkies what they crave, with both perennial favorites (Ed Kemper, Jeffrey Dahmer) and lesser-known cases (Melvin Rees, Harvey Glatman). AMERICAN SERIAL KILLERS: The Epidemic Years 1950-2000-Peter Vronskymurder#fabfitfunpartner

It was the midcentury murder that fascinated a nation and kept it glued for two years to radio, television and newspapers through three trials.Did the handsome, wealthy doctor and his beautiful young paramour plan to kill his glamorous socialite wife?Or did the gun accidentally discharge as he claimed?Early in the evening on July 18, 1959, Dr. Bernard Finch and his girlfriend, Carole Ann Tregoff, drove from their Las Vegas love-nest to the Finch home in the Los Angeles suburb of West Covina to speak to his wife Barbara about obtaining a speedy divorce in Nevada. But the plan went awry and the conversation turned deadly with Barbara’s lifeless body ending up in her in-laws’ backyard next door.After a high-speed chase with police, Finch was arrested the next morning in Las Vegas and charged with Barbara’s murder. Then, during his court hearing in West Covina, Carole was arrested on the witness stand and charged as his accomplice.Soon others were named as part of a larger conspiracy. But who were they and what parts did they play in these deadly events?Set against the midcentury CinemaScope glamour of Hollywood, Las Vegas and Palm Springs, “Satin Pumps: The Moonlit Murder That Mesmerized The Nation”​ is a true crime memoir written by former Finch patient, screenwriter and author Steve Kosareff. SATIN PUMPS: The Moonlit Murders That Mesmerized The Nation-Steve Kosareff

ANGILA WAS STABBED 44 TIMES.THIS WAS PERSONAL.On a November morning in 2015, Christopher Jackson waited for his fiancée, Angila Wilder, to pick him up from work as she always did. But this time, she didn’t show—and Christopher’s calls went unanswered. The police found what looked like a scene from a horror movie at their home. The backdoor kicked in. A bedroom splattered with blood. And a pregnant young woman violently stabbed to death.Could Christopher have murdered the woman he claimed to love? Or was the crime done by an intruder Angila had feared for weeks? Angila’s womanizing ex-husband, Richie Wilder, Jr., aimed detectives straight toward Christopher. The evidence, however, pointed squarely at Richie.Kindergarten teacher Cynthia Wilder thought her dreams had come true when she married Richie. But while her husband sat behind bars, Cynthia grew lonely. When she shared some disturbing details with a former lover, Cynthia finally revealed the truth behind the sinister plot to kill Angila Wilder. After four years of lies and deceit, the real story would shock a community to its very core …WILDER INTENTIONS: Love, Lies and Murder In North Dakota-C.J. Wynn

They were all subjects of true crime newspaper reporting in the 1800s. And now these stories and that of many others are brought together in their original form in a two-volume set: TRUE CRIME CHRONICLES: ​Serial Killers, Outlaws, and Justice ... Real Crime Stories From The 1800s.Compiled and commented on by New York Times bestselling author and former detective Mike Rothmiller, these classic works of journalism resurrect astonishing stories that will take the reader on a fascinating journey back in time to when these horrific tales mesmerized a nation. Some may find these articles and their descriptions of people and crimes shocking by today’s standards, but they are representative of the most colorful true crime stories of the dayTRUE CRIME CHRONICLES, Volume Two, includes stories about Billy the Kid, Jesse James, the legendary “Jack the Ripper,” Lizzie Halliday, Anna Maria Zwanziger, Jack the Haircutter, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Nebraska Murderer, and many more shocking stories. Follow along as these reporters from another century visit the crime scenes, interview witnesses, and pen the stories of murder, evil, and swift frontier justice. TRUE CRIME CHRONICLES-Volume Two: Serial Killers, Outlaws And Justice....Real Crime Stories from the 1800's-Mike Rothmiller

In 2010, a brave whistleblower alerted the police to Dr. Stan Li’s corrupt pain management clinic in Queens, New York. Li spent years supplying more than seventy patients a day with oxycodone and , trading prescriptions for cash. Emergency room doctors, psychiatrists, and desperate family members warned him that his patients were at risk of death but he would not stop.In Bad Medicine, former prosecutor Charlotte Bismuth meticulously recounts the jaw dropping details of this criminal case that would span four years, culminating in a landmark trial. As a new assistant district attorney and single mother, Bismuth worked tirelessly with her team to bring Dr. Li to justice. Bad Medicine is a chilling story of corruption and greed and an important look at the role individual doctors play in America’s opioid epidemic. BAD MEDICINE: Catching New York's Deadliest Pill Pusher-Charlotte Bismuth

During the depths of the Great Depression in Ypsilanti, Michigan, a seven-year-old boy is found frozen to death under the Frog Island footbridge in Depot Town after being reported missing the night before by his parents. Upon examination, the Washtenaw County coroner discovers the child is the victim of foul play.After three years of investigation, the Ypsilanti and Michigan state police are no closer to making an arrest than they were when Richard Streicher Jr.'s body was discovered. Local gossips and many police are convinced they know who the guilty party is, but proving it in a court of law is a different matter. Who stabbed Richard Streicher Jr. to death? THE RICHARD STREICHER JR. MURDER: Ypsilanti's Depot Town Mystery-Gregory Fournier

Over 13 months in 1976-1977, four children were abducted in the Detroit suburbs, each of them held for days before their still-warm bodies were dumped in the snow near public roadsides. The Oakland County Child Murders spawned panic across southeast Michigan, triggering the most extensive manhunt in U.S. history. Yet after less than two years, the task force created to find the killer was shut down without naming a suspect. The case "went cold" for more than 30 years, until a chance discovery by one victim's family pointed to the son of a wealthy General Motors executive: Christopher Brian Busch, a four-time convicted pedophile, was freed weeks before the fourth child disappeared. Veteran Detroit News reporter Marney Rich Keenan takes the reader inside the investigation of the still-unsolved murders-seen through the eyes of the lead detective in the case and the family who cracked it open-revealing evidence of a decades-long coverup of misfeasance and obstruction that averted justice for the victims." THE SNOW KILLINGS: Inside The Oakland County Child Killer Investigation-Marney Rich Keenan

A successful young mother, Kelsey Berreth, vanishes on Thanksgiving Day 2018. The FBI is afraid they’ll have to do a deal with the devil to find her. Kelsey, a pilot so good she taught the military how to fly, goes shopping at a Safeway store, and simply disappears. Her fiance, Patrick Frazee, says he doesn't have a clue. In fact, he says they broke up just a few days before. He's as mystified as everyone else. But Kelsey's mother, Cheryl, is afraid she knows what happened to her daughter. A task force of FBI and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents believe they also know what happened to Kelsey. They have cell phone records and more, including surveillance video and DNA. But they have run into a roadblock. The agents have to get someone close to the killer to flip and turn state's evidence. Are they going to have to do a deal with the devil to find justice for Kelsey Berreth? The Murder of Kelsey Berreth: A Shocking True Crime Story. This is a riveting story of a young woman's disappearance, her family's will to find out what happened, and a 21st-century police investigation that nearly cracks the case wide open. Nearly. Will the FBI do a deal with the devil to solve this crime? THE MURDER OF KELSEY BERRETH: A Shocking True Crime Story-Rod Kackley

The extraordinary life and crimes of heiress-turned-revolutionary Rose Dugdale, who in 1974 became the only woman to pull off a major art heist.In the world of crime, there exists an unusual commonality between those who steal art and those who repeatedly kill: they are almost exclusively male. But, as with all things, there is always an outlier—someone who bucks the trend, defying the reliable profiles and leaving investigators and researchers scratching their heads. In the history of major art heists, that outlier is Rose Dugdale.Dugdale’s life is singularly notorious. Born into extreme wealth, she abandoned her life as an Oxford-trained PhD and heiress to join the cause of Irish Republicanism. While on the surface she appears to be the British version of Patricia Hearst, she is anything but.Dugdale ran head-first towards the action, spearheading the first aerial terrorist attack in British history and pulling off the biggest art theft of her time. In 1974, she led a gang into the opulent Russborough House in Ireland and made off with millions in prized paintings, including works by Goya, Gainsborough, and Rubens, as well as Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid by the mysterious master Johannes Vermeer. Dugdale thus became—to this day—the only woman to pull off a major art heist. And as Anthony Amore explores in The Woman Who Stole Vermeer, it’s likely that this was not her only such heist.The Woman Who Stole Vermeer is Rose Dugdale’s story, from her idyllic upbringing in Devonshire and her presentation to Elizabeth II as a debutante to her university years and her eventual radical lifestyle. Her life of crime and activism is at turns unbelievable and awe-inspiring. THE WOMAN WHO STOLE VERMEER: The True Story of Rose Dugdale and the Russborough House Art Heist-Anthony M. Amore

What do Wyatt Earp, Belle Gunness, Big Foot the Renegade, Billy the Kid, and Dr. H.H. Holmes, and The Black Hand have in common?They were all subjects of true crime newspaper reporting in the 1800s, and now these stories and that of many others are brought together in their original form in a two-volume set: TRUE CRIME CHRONICLES: Serial Killers, Outlaws, and Justice … Real Crime Stories From The 1800s.Compiled and commented on by New York Times bestselling author Mike Rothmiller, these classic works of journalism resurrect astonishing stories that will take the reader back to when these horrific tales mesmerized a nation. Some may find these articles and their descriptions of people and crimes shocking by today’s standards, but they are representative of the most colorful true crime stories of the day.TRUE CRIME CHRONICLES, Volume One, includes stories about Belle Gunness, who had a penchant for killing men and feeding them to her hogs, Dr. Holmes and his “murder castle,” The Bloody Benders, and Amelia Dyer, the “baby farmer,” the darker side of Wyatt Earp, and the forerunners of the American Mafia, “The Black Hand.” Imagine yourself accompanying these reporters visiting the crime scenes, interviewing witnesses, and penning the stories of murder, lynchings, evil, and swift frontier justice. TRUE CRIME CHRONICLES: Volume 1-Serial Killers, Outlaws, And Justice...Real Crime Stories from the 1800's-Mike Rothmiller

*This interview was recorded in 2019. The late, great Fred Rosen passed away Dec. 2020.Fred Rosen is a former columnist for the Arts and Leisure Section of The New York Times. He is also one of the most important and successful figures in true crime writing, and the author of several true crime classics.He got off to an incredible start with Lobster Boy in 1995, Blood Crimes in 1996, and Gang Mom and The Mad Chopper both published in 1998. Deacon of Death was published in 2000, Needle Work in 2001. Both Body Dump and Flesh Collectors were published in 2002. The Historical Atlas of American Crime in 2005. When Satan Wore A Cross and There But for the Grace of God were both published in 2007. Deadly Angel in 2009 and Trails of Death in 2011. Did They Really Do It? was published in 2015. Born to the Mob and Murdering the President were published in 2016. The Bayou Strangler in 2017 and Bat Masterson in 2019. We will discuss how he got started and what cases and killers in particular most shaped his remarkable true crime body of work. FRED ROSEN TRUE CRIME RETROSPECTIVE-Fred Rosen

All it took for a hundred people to die during a show by the hair metal band Great White was a sudden burst from four giant sparklers that ignited the acoustical foam lining the Station nightclub. But who was at fault? And who would pay? This being Rhode Island, the two questions wouldn't necessarily have the same answer.Within 24 hours the governor of Rhode Island and the local police chief were calling for criminal charges, although the investigation had barely begun, key evidence still needed to be gathered, and many of the victims hadn't been identified. Though many parties could be held responsible, fingers pointed quickly at the two brothers who owned the club. But were they really to blame? Bestselling author and three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist Scott James investigates all the central figures, including the band's manager and lead singer, the fire inspector, the maker of the acoustical foam, as well as the brothers. Drawing on firsthand accounts, interviews with many involved, and court documents, James explores the rush to judgment about what happened that left the victims and their families, whose stories he also tells, desperate for justice.Trial By Fire is the heart-wrenching story of the fire's aftermath because while the fire, one of America's deadliest, lasted minutes, the search for the truth would take years. TRIAL BY FIRE: A Devastating Tragedy, 100 Lives Lost, and a 15-Year Search for Truth-Scott James

Between the summers of 1967 through 1969, before the term serial killer was coined, a predatory killer stalked the campuses of Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan seeking prey until he made the arrogant mistake of killing his last victim in the basement of his uncle's home. All-American boy John Norman Collins was arrested, tried, and convicted of the strangulation murder of Karen Sue Beineman. The other murders attributed to Collins never went to trial, with one exception, and soon became cold cases. With the benefit of fifty years of hindsight, hundreds of vintage newspaper articles, thousands of police reports, and countless interviews, Terror in Ypsilanti: John Norman Collins Unmasked tells the stories of the other victims, recreates the infamous trial that took Collins off the streets, and details Collins' time spent in prison. Terror in Ypsilanti compiles an array of physical and circumstantial evidence drawing an unmistakable portrait of the sadistic murderer who slaughtered these innocent young women. TERROR IN YPSILANTI: John Norman Collins Unmasked-Gregory A. Fournier

A husband. A father. A killer. Chris Watts was a family man. Everybody, including his family, believed that. Yet, on August 13, 2018, he murdered Shanann, his pregnant wife, and two young daughters, burying Shanann and their unborn son in a shallow grave and dumping their daughters’ bodies in separate oil tanks. As terrible as his story is, it is also a warning because, to this day, living behind bars, Watts is still acting out the character traits that made him kill in the first place.In this, the first and only psychological exploration of the Watts family murders, psychotherapist Lena Derhally has pieced together the crime, the events leading to it, and most of all, her beliefs about the “why,” including the fact that Chris Watts—now a self-described “man of God”—is not in the least remorseful about killing his family. Using police discovery and other sources, Derhally recreates the night of the murders and the investigation that followed. She explores the childhoods, families of origin, meeting, and early relationship of Shanann and Chris Watts. She also examines Watts’s double life and duplicity regarding his well-publicized affair with a co-worker, who, although she claimed their affair was casual, was searching online for wedding dresses at the time of the murders.The book includes an in-depth look at community psychopaths, the different subtypes of narcissism, how to prevent this type of violence, and interviews with a neuroscientist, a criminal psychologist, and a journalist in order to determine what in Watts's twisted makeup allowed him to hide who he really is for so long. Using her knowledge of attachment theory, Imago relationship theory, and psychopathology, Derhally draws a profile of the real Chris Watts and--just as important--she warns readers that he is still a danger today. MY DADDY IS A HER0: How Chris Watts Went From Family Man To Family Killer-Lena DerhallyMURDER #fabfitfunpartner

Uncover the twisted tales that inspired the big screen's greatest screams.Which case of demonic possession inspired The Exorcist? What horrifying front-page story generated the idea for A Nightmare on Elm Street? Which film was inspired by an 18th-century Japanese folktale? Unearth the terrifying and true tales behind some of the scariest horror movies to ever haunt our screens, including the Enfield poltergeist case that was retold in The Conjuring 2 and the serial killer who inspired Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs. Behind the Horror dissects these and other bizarre tales to reveal haunting real-life stories of abduction, disappearance, murder, and exorcism. BEHIND THE HORROR: True Stories That Inspired Horror Movies-Dr. Lee Mellor

The legendary FBI criminal profiler and international bestselling author of Mindhunter and The Killer Across the Table returns with this timely, relevant book that goes to the heart of extremism and domestic terrorism, examining in-depth his chilling pursuit of, and eventual prison confrontation with Joseph Paul Franklin, a White Nationalist serial killer and one of the most disturbing psychopaths he has ever encountered.Worshippers stream out of an Midwestern synagogue after sabbath services, unaware that only a hundred yards away, an expert marksman and avowed racist, antisemite and member of the Ku Klux Klan, patiently awaits, his hunting rifle at the ready. The October 8, 1977 shooting was a forerunner to the tragedies and divisiveness that plague us today. John Douglas, the FBI’s pioneering, first full-time criminal profiler, hunted the shooter―a white supremacist named Joseph Paul Franklin, whose Nazi-inspired beliefs propelled a three-year reign of terror across the United States, targeting African Americans, Jews, and interracial couples. In addition, Franklin bombed the home of Jewish leader Morris Amitay, shot and paralyzed Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, and seriously wounded civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. The fugitive supported his murderous spree robbing banks in five states, from Georgia to Ohio. Douglas and his writing partner Mark Olshaker return to this disturbing case that reached the highest levels of the Bureau, which was fearful Franklin would become a presidential assassin―and haunted him for years to come as the threat of copycat domestic terrorist killers increasingly became a reality. Detailing the dogged pursuit of Franklin that employed profiling, psychology and meticulous detective work, Douglas and Olshaker relate how the case was a make-or-break test for the still-experimental behavioral science unit and revealed a new type of, determined, mission-driven serial killer whose only motivation was hate.A riveting, cautionary tale rooted in history that continues to echo today, The Killer's Shadow is a terrifying and essential exploration of the criminal personality in the vile grip of extremism and what happens when rage-filled speech evolves into deadly action and hatred of the “other" is allowed full reign. THE KILLER'S SHADOW: The FBI's Hunt For A White Supremacist Serial Killer-John Douglas and Mark OlshakerMURDER #fabfitfunpartner

This psychological crime thriller takes us inside the mind of a unique female serial killer, a prostitute who murdered seven adult men-a case with which the author was intimately involved. The issues raised by this high-profile criminal case remain unresolved to this day.Women, even prostitutes, have the right to self-defense in theory, but in practice, the story is more complicated.This book will challenge everything you ever thought about prostitutes, serial killers, and justice in America.Aileen Wuornos is a damaged soul, a genuine American outlaw, a symbol of women's rage, a symbol of what can happen to severely abused children, and of how our justice system fails women.Chesler's involvement with a serial killer has haunted her ever since. She speaks in Aileen Wuornos' voice, as well as in her own, and delivers an incisive, original, and dramatic portrait of a cognitively impaired, traumatized, and alcoholic woman who had endured so much pain in her short life. When she'd had enough, the results were deadly.This is a poignant, sometimes humorous, never-before-told behind-the-scenes tale. Wuornos' story is handled with great sensitivity, but also with realistic detachment by Chesler as she probes the telling moment, the telling phrase. Was Wuornos suffering from post-traumatic stress after a life lived on a "killing field?" Was she also "born evil?" So many prostitutes have been torture-murdered by serial killers-how did Wuornos, once prey, become a predator?Requiem for a Female Serial Killer will also haunt you. It won't let you put it down.Take a walk on the wild side. The ghost of Aileen Wuornos beckons. REQUIEM FOR A FEMALE SERIAL KILLER-Phyllis Chesler

Every once in a great while a genuine murder mystery unfolds before the eyes of the American public. The tragic story of Susan Powell and her murdered boys, Charlie and Braden, is the only case that rivals the Jon Benet Ramsey saga in the annals of true crime. When the pretty, blonde Utah mother went missing in December of 2009 the media was swept up in the story – with lenses and microphones trained on Susan's husband, Josh. He said he had no idea what happened to his young wife, and that he and the boys had been camping in the middle of a snowstorm.Over the next three years bombshell by bombshell, the story would reveal more shocking secrets. Josh's father, Steve, who was sexually obsessed with Susan, would ultimately be convicted of unspeakable perversion. Josh's brother, Michael, would commit suicide. And in the most stunning event of them all, Josh Powell would murder his two little boys and kill himself with brutality beyond belief.It will be eleven years December 6th since Susan Cox Powell disappeared. Her story is still unfolding. A definitive update on the case will air on ABC'S "20/20" on Friday, Nov. 6. The NYC crew came to Seattle in early March to interview Rebecca just as the city was locking down for Covid. The crew was there for the very important court trial involving the Washington State Department of Health and Human Services and their responsibility in the deaths of Charlie and Braden. There are other events happening next week that could postpone the airing of the 20/20 program November 6th.IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU-UPDATE: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance and the Murder of her Children-Rebecca Morris

It was a crime unlike anything seen in British Columbia. The horror of the "Wells Gray Murders" almost forty years ago transcends decades.On August 2, 1982, three generations of a family set out on a camping trip – Bob and Jackie Johnson, their two daughters, Janet, 13 and Karen, 11, and Jackie's parents, George and Edith Bentley. A month later, the Johnson family car was found off a mountainside logging road near Wells Gray Park completely burned out. In the back seat were the incinerated remains of four adults, and in the trunk were the two girls.But this was not just your average mass murder. It was much worse. Over time, some brutal details were revealed; however, most are still only known to the murderer, David Ennis (formerly Shearing). His crimes had far-reaching impacts on the family, community, and country. It still does today. Every time Shearing attempts freedom from the parole board, the grief is triggered as everyone is forced to relive the horrors once again.Murder Times Six shines a spotlight on the crime that captured the attention of a nation, recounts the narrative of a complex police investigation, and discusses whether a convicted mass murderer should ever be allowed to leave the confines of an institution. Most importantly, it tells the story of one family forever changed. MURDER TIMES SIX: The True Story of the Wells Gray Park Murders-Alan R. Warren

The True Story of the 1990 Gainesville Student Murders in the Killer's Own Words. 2nd Edition. Murder confessions & drawings done on Death Row in Florida during the early 1990's. The man convicted of the vicious murders of five college students in Gainesville, Florida, discusses his motivations and actions in committing the crimes, reflects on what made him into a killer, and his struggle to come to terms with what he did.New prologue, new illustrations and a new preview of the companion volume, Beyond the Making of a Serial Killer. THE MAKING OF A SERIAL KILLER: Second Edition-Sondra London

You probably know part of the Zodiac story. The guy killed five, wounded two, wrote letters in code, and drew tremendous press. There was a great movie about the case. But true crime veteran Michael Benson is taking a brand new look at that most-interesting of cold cases, coming from the mindset that the Zodiac’s combination of diverse killing styles, codemaking, and letter writing means more than one guy was involved. The Zodiac has team-work written all over it. And so, perhaps, a Zodiac Club. Many Zodiac experts assume that, in later Zodiac letters when “he” wrote the San Francisco Examiner letters claiming a prolific kill count, that the guy responsible for the murders of Betty Lou Jensen, David Faraday, Darlene Ferrin, Cecilia Shephard, and Paul Stine (and maybe Cheri Jo Bates) was just bragging about the other forty or so. Benson looks at it another way. All of them could have been the Zodiac, if the Zodiac was a psycho squad not a lone nut. Each and every victim gets Benson’s full attention and, as the body count grows, there is ongoing analysis involving hard and circumstantial evidence, commonalities between the murders, geographic profiling, and pertinent connections to known Zodiac suspects. Many murders are examined. It was the era of serial murder, an epidemic, especially bad in northern California where privacy, seclusion, dusty wilderness, and hitchhiking were prevalent. Some of these cases were found to be not the Zodiac at all, but perhaps a glimpse at the early work of a Ted Bundy, Ed Kemper, “Golden State Killer” Joseph DeAngelo, and other known killers, the next wave of psycho serial carnage. THE AGE OF ZODIAC-Michael Benson

Author Amy Petulla uncovers the curious case that left two men dead and the incredible story still surrounded by controversy, speculation and myth.In 1982, Tony West and Avery Brock made a visit to notorious Corpsewood Manor under the pretense of a celebration. They brutally murdered their hosts. Dr. Charles Scudder and companion Joey Odom built the "castle in the woods" in the Trion forest after Scudder left his position as professor at Loyola. He brought with him twelve thousand doses of LSD. Rumors of drug use and Satanism swirled around the two men. Scudder even claimed to have summoned a demon to protect the estate. The murders set the stage for a trial vibrant with local lore. THE CORPSEWOOD MANOR MURDERS IN NORTH GEORGIA-Amy Petulla

On a May morning in 1931, Nassau County police officer Fred Hirsch was gunned down by the notorious New York City gangster Francis Crowley. Nicknamed "Two Gun" for tricking and murdering cops with a second loaded firearm, Crowley left a bloody trail from the Bronx to Long Island. He shot and wounded two men at a local dance hall and a New York City police detective and murdered one of Nassau County's finest. Eventually, he was tracked to a hideout in Manhattan, where a two-hour gun battle, including more than two hundred cops and ten thousand spectators, led to his capture. His murder spree involved thousands of law enforcement personnel, stole national media attention and cut across the New York metropolitan area. Author Jerry Aylward presents the murderous life of Francis "Two Gun" Crowley from the streets of New York to the electric chair in Sing Sing. FRANCIS "TWO GUN" CROWLEY'S KILLINGS IN NEW YORK CITY AND LONG ISLAND-Jerry Aylward

Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell’s murderer was acquitted—thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the Reverend. Sitting in the audience during the vigilante’s trial was Harper Lee, who had traveled from New York City to her native Alabama with the idea of writing her own In Cold Blood, the true-crime classic she had helped her friend Truman Capote research seventeen years earlier. Lee spent a year in town reporting, and many more years working on her own version of the case.Now Casey Cep brings this story to life, from the shocking murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South. At the same time, she offers a deeply moving portrait of one of the country’s most beloved writers and her struggle with fame, success, and the mystery of artistic creativity. FURIOUS HOURS: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee-Casey Cep.

Will A Serial Killer Soon Walk The Streets Again?Don Miller was quiet and reserved. As a former youth pastor, he seemed a devout Christian. No one would have ever suspected that the recent graduate of the Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice was a serial killer.However, when Miller was arrested for the attempted murder of two teenagers in 1978, police quickly realized he was probably responsible for the disappearances of four women. Offered a still-controversial plea bargain, he led police to the bodies of the missing women.Now, after forty years in prison, Miller has served his time and is due to be released into an unsuspecting population. In KILLING WOMEN, author Rodney Sadler examines the crimes, the “justice” meted out, and the impending freedom of a man nationally renowned psychiatrist Dr. Frank Ochberg wrote:“… is a member of a small, deadly, dangerous population: murderers who stalk, capture, torture and kill; murderers who derive sexual and narcissistic gratification from their predation; murderers who maintain a ‘mask of sanity’ appearing normal and harmless.” KILLING WOMEN: The True Story of Serial Killer Don Miller's Reign of Terror-Rod Sadler

What's scarier than a murderer? Someone with the charisma to compel others to kill for them . . . or to kill themselves. Meet these cult leaders--and get an inside look at their beliefs and how they controlled others.Some cults, led by leaders like Charlie Manson, Jim Jones, and David Koresh, are notorious. But others are less well known, such as Shoko Asahara and his doomsday cult, Aum Shinrikyo, who orchestrated the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Or Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret, who founded the Order of the Solar Temple, a doomsday cult that led to the death of 51 members by murder or suicide. Then there is Marshall Applewhite, leader of Heaven's Gate, who, along with 38 followers, killed themselves in the belief that the Hale-Bopp comet signaled the arrival of a spaceship that would transport them to a higher plane of existence. What makes cult leaders so compelling is their often-unfathomable power over their adherents. Why do people kill others or themselves for a questionable set of beliefs? Killer Cults tells the stories behind both famous and unfamiliar cults, and the people behind them. Across a series of profiles, we learn the jaw-dropping truth behind some of the most mystifying and deadly cults, and their leaders, all of whom led their followers down a dark, murderous path. KILLER CULTS: Stories of Charisma, Deceit, and Death-Joyce and Stephen Singular.

An examination of the unsolved mystery of the Jack the Ripper-style serial killer who terrified early 20th century Atlanta, Georgia.As Atlanta finished rebuilding after the Civil War, a new horror arose from the ashes to roam the night streets. Beginning in 1911, a killer whose methods mimicked the famed Jack the Ripper murdered at least twenty black women, from prostitutes to working-class women and mothers. Each murder attributed to the killer occurred on a Saturday night, and for one terrifying spring in 1911, a fresh body turned up every Sunday morning. Amid a stifling investigation, slayings continued until 1915. As many as six men were arrested for the crimes, but investigators never discovered the identity of the killer, or killers, despite having several suspects in custody. Join local historian Jeffery Wells as he reveals the case of the Atlanta Ripper, unsolved to this day. THE ATLANTA RIPPER: The Unsolved Case of the Gate City's Most Infamous Murders-Jeffery Wells.

Just before Christmas 1902, Alfred Knapp strangled his wife in her sleep. He put her body in a box and sent the box floating down the Great Miami River, telling everyone that Hannah had left him. When the truth came out, Knapp confessed to four other murders. Newspapers across the Midwest sent reporters to interview the handsome strangler. Despite spending most of his adulthood in prison, he had a charming, boyish manner that made him an instant celebrity serial killer. True crime historian Richard O Jones examines the strangler's alleged crimes, the family drama of covering up Knapp's atrocities and how a brain-damaged drifter became a media darling. THE FIRST CELEBRITY SERIAL KILLER IN SOUTHWEST OHIO: Confessions of the Strangler Alfred Knapp-Richard O. Jones

Beachgoers usually dread riptides and rainy days, but from 1974 to 1983, a different fear gripped the New Jersey Shore: young women were disappearing. Their abductor was Richard Biegenwald, a man released for good behavior after serving seventeen years in prison for murder and spending time in a psychiatric facility. Police arrested him on suspicion of rape, and it was not until they connected him to a woman's death in Asbury Park that he finally stopped his rampage. Investigators later linked him to nine murders and convicted him of five. Former New Jersey state trooper John O'Rourke narrates the chilling story of the Jersey Shore Thrill Killer. THE JERSEY SHORE THRILL KILLER: RICHARD BIEGENWALD-John E. O'Rourke

“TRUE - A podcast that features the strange, unique, and often wacky side of criminality. These are the stories that will make you wonder if they came from Hollywood - or if Hollywood took it from them.”

Obviously, I knew better than to take a life — but that was before. Before him.The day we met in October of 1997, I was working at the District Court in Traverse City, Michigan as a Deputy Clerk. It was like most other days with arraignments, sentencings, civil case hearings and the like. People shuffling in and out, everyone taking care of their important business with court appearances, document filings, paying tickets, fines and bonding loved ones out of jail.I loved my job. It was extremely satisfying and interesting with constant interaction with all walks of life, including people on either end of the judicial spectrum and many in between. Suddenly, there he was. Tall, handsome, and looking so impressive and important in his Michigan State Police uniform with his hat, gun belt and badge. A powerful man who had chosen a profession to serve and protect. He was extremely friendly and upbeat, smiling profusely. Best of all, he, too, was unattached.What could go wrong? He was like a dream man. We clicked, immediately, and began dating exclusively. But he was not a dream man. He was a nightmare … as I learned over the next twelve years.Twelve years of enduring domestic violence at its absolute worst. Constant abuse, control, manipulation, and threats. Sadistic sexual deviance and sexual violence. It was only going to end one way: someone would die in our bed and someone would go to prison for murder.This is my story about domestic violence, resilience, reckoning and survival. TO KILL OR BE KILLED: A True Crime Memoir From Prison-Joni Ankerson

In the 1890s, a "band of robbers" terrorized Butler County, running illegal beer joints, bilking the railroad, robbing businesses and the elderly, and murdering anyone who got in their way. It is the last decade of the 1800s. Fears of Jack the Ripper, still uncaptured, have White Chapel and the rest of London on edge. Yet across the ocean, in a small southern town in Alabama, murder runs so rampant, even England is reporting the news. THE BAD BOYS OF BUTLER COUNTY: A Band of Robbers: The True Story of John Hipp, Charles Kelley, the McKay Brothers And Their Reign of Terror in the 1890's-Sarah Sexton Miller

End Game of The Most Dangerous Game GOLDEN STATE KILLER takes you through the journey of trying to find a serial cat burglar, a serial rapist and a serial killer. After a lifetime of tracing and tracking, waiting and watching one of the most dangerous serial killers the State of California has ever seen, Anne Penn takes us through the chapters including the guilty pleas of Joseph James DeAngelo June 29, 2020. End Game at last, the criminal will spend his final days in prison. This is the place he has belonged for decades. End Game was how it was supposed to be. END GAME of the Most Dangerous Game GOLDEN STATE KILLER-Anne Penn

In 1969, the body of a young woman was discovered in the woods of Renton, rocking the communities along Puget Sound. Three more brutal murders followed, drawing the attention of multiple police agencies as they tried to piece together the meager clues left behind. The seemingly unrelated cases challenged detectives, who struggled to realize they were all connected to one man: Gary Gene Grant. Before the term "serial killer" was even coined, Grant stalked his prey, destroying lives and families while walking unseen among the masses. Decades later, his crimes have all but been forgotten. Join author and homicide investigator Cloyd Steiger as he uncovers the story of the murderer who slipped through the cracks of history. SEATTLE'S FORGOTTEN SERIAL KILLER: Gary Gene Grant-Cloyd Steiger

In this revised, updated and expanded edition, the author explores the life of Theodore Bundy, one of the more infamous--and flamboyant--American serial killers on record. Bundy's story is a complex mix of psychopathology, criminal investigation, and the U.S. legal system. This in-depth examination of Bundy's life and his killing spree that totalled dozens of victims is drawn from legal transcripts, correspondence and interviews with detectives and prosecutors. Using these sources, new information about several murders is unveiled. The biography follows Bundy from his broken family background to his execution in the electric chair. THE BUNDY MURDERS: A Comprehensive History-Second Edition-Part 2-Kevin M. Sullivan

In this revised, updated and expanded edition, the author explores the life of Theodore Bundy, one of the more infamous--and flamboyant--American serial killers on record. Bundy's story is a complex mix of psychopathology, criminal investigation, and the U.S. legal system. This in-depth examination of Bundy's life and his killing spree that totalled dozens of victims is drawn from legal transcripts, correspondence and interviews with detectives and prosecutors. Using these sources, new information about several murders is unveiled. The biography follows Bundy from his broken family background to his execution in the electric chair. THE BUNDY MURDERS: A Comprehensive History-Second Edition-Kevin M. Sullivan

The World Encyclopedia of Serial Killers is the most comprehensive set of its kind in the history of true crime publishing. Written and compiled by Susan Hall, the four-volume set has more than 1600 entries of male and female serial killers from around the world.Defined by the FBI as a person who murders 3 or more people over a period of time with a hiatus of weeks or months between murders, serial killers have walked among us from the dawn of time as these books will demonstrate. While the entries to these volumes will continue to grow—the FBI estimates that there are at least fifty serial killers operating in the United States at any given time—The World Encyclopedia of Serial Killers is as complete as possible through the end of 2017.In June 2020, the set begins with Volume One, Letters A-D. The entries include Ted Bundy, the Candyman Dean Corll, Angel of Death killer Donald Harvey, the ABC Killer, and the Bodies in the Barrels Murders. You will find these killers and approximately 500 others in this first book in the series of THE WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SERIAL KILLERS: Volume One A-D-Susan Hall

S-Town meets I'll Be Gone in the Dark in this stranger-than-fiction cold case from rural Oklahoma that has stumped authorities for two decades, concerning the disappearance of two teenage girls and the much larger mystery of murder, possible police cover-up, and an unimaginable truth...On December 30, 1999, in rural Oklahoma, sixteen-year-old Ashley Freeman and her best friend, Lauria Bible, were having a sleepover. The next morning, the Freeman family trailer was in flames and both girls were missing.While rumors of drug debts, revenge, and police corruption abounded in the years that followed, the case remained unsolved and the girls were never found.In 2015, crime writer Jax Miller--who had been haunted by the case--decided to travel to Oklahoma to find out what really happened on that winter night in 1999, and why the story was still simmering more than fifteen years later. What she found was more than she could have ever bargained for: evidence of jaw-dropping levels of police negligence, entire communities ravaged by methamphetamine addiction, and a series of interconnected murders with an ominously familiar pattern.These forgotten towns were wild, lawless, and home to some very dark secrets. HELL IN THE HEARTLAND: Murder, Meth, and the Case of Two Missing Girls-Jax Miller

In August 1945, Gladys Lincoln of Sacramento contacted prosperous Dr. W. D. Broadhurst of Caldwell, Idaho, and rekindled a romance from twenty years earlier. After many passionate letter exchanges and several sexually-charged meetings, they were married in Reno, Nevada on May 20, 1946. After a passion-filled three-day weekend together, the doctor returned to his home in Idaho, and Gladys returned to Sacramento … and to her husband, Leslie Lincoln! But Gladys was much more than a bigamist.Gladys needed something even she didn’t understand. She married her first husband when she was 20, and her second husband only 14 months later. The second marriage lasted only two years, the third less than 16 months. Leslie Lincoln was her fifth, and Dr. Broadhurst became her sixth. But what desperate need drove her to go from marriage to marriage?Then what dark mindset moved her and her young cowboy chauffeur to commit murder? Find out in ‘TIL DEATH DO US…’ the gripping new true crime from WildBlue Press author Patrick Gallagher, whose grandfather was Gladys’ lead defense attorney during her sensational trial. TIL DEATH DO US: A True Crime Story of Bigamy and Murder-Patrick Gallagher

Bestselling true-crime master Harold Schechter explores the real-life headline-making psychos, serial murderers, thrill-hungry couples, and lady-killers who inspired a century of classic films.The necktie murders in Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy; Chicago’s Jazz Age crime of passion; the fatal hookup in Looking for Mr. Goodbar; the high school horrors committed by the costumed slasher in Scream. These and other cinematic crimes have become part of pop-culture history. And each found inspiration in true events that provided the raw material for our greatest blockbusters, indie art films, black comedies, Hollywood classics, and grindhouse horrors.So what’s the reality behind Psycho, Badlands, The Hills Have Eyes, A Place in the Sun, Arsenic and Old Lace, and Dirty Harry? How did such tabloid-ready killers as Bonnie and Clyde, body snatchers Burke and Hare, Texas sniper Charles Whitman Jr., nurse-slayer Richard Speck, and Leopold and Loeb exert their power on the public imagination and become the stuff of movie lore?In this collection of revelatory essays, true-crime historian Harold Schechter takes a fascinating trip down the crossroads of fact and fiction to reveal the sensational real-life stories that are more shocking, taboo, and fantastic than even the most imaginative screenwriter can dream up. RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES: The Shocking True Stories Behind the Movies' Most Memorable Crimes-Harold Schechter.MURDER #fabfitfunpartner

#1 New Release in Forensic Psychology ─ Small Town Charm With Deadly ConsequencesA collection of non-fiction accounts by international writers and experts on small town true crime shows readers that the real monsters aren’t hiding in the woods, they’re inside our towns.Small towns aren’t always what they seem. We’ve been told nothing bad happens in small towns. You can leave your doors unlocked, and your windows wide open. We picture peaceful hamlets with a strong sense of community, and everyone knows each other. But what if this wholesome idyllic image doesn’t always square with reality? Small towns might look and feel safe, but statistics show this isn’t really true.Tiny town, big crime. Whether in Truman Capote’s detailed murder of the Clutter family or Ted Bundy’s small-town charm, criminals have always roamed rural America and towns worldwide. Featuring murder stories, criminal case studies, and more, The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns contains all-new accounts from writers of true crime, crime journalism, and crime fiction. And these entries are not based on a true story―they are true stories. Edited by acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto, the stories in this volume span the globe. Discover how unsolved murders, kidnapping, shooting sprees, violent robbery, and other bad things can and do happen in small towns all over the world. THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES: Small Towns-New and Original Stories, Never Before Told, Criminology, Forensic Psychology, fans of Unspeakable Acts-Mitzi Szereto

There are two parts to every crime story: how they did it and why they got caught.This book is about the second part, and how it changes the way we catch serial killers. No two stories about the capture of a serial killer are the same. Sometimes, the killers make crucial mistakes; other times, investigators get lucky. And the process of profiling, hunting, and apprehending these predators has changed radically over time, particularly in the field of criminal forensics, which has exploded in the last ten to 15 years. Laser ablation, video spectral analysis, cyber-sleuthing, and even DNA-based genetic genealogy are now crucial tools in solving murders, including the recent capture of the so-called Golden State Killer. This book in the new Profiles in Crime series tells the history of forensics through the “capture stories” of some of the most notorious serial killers, going back almost a century.The killers include:Rodney Alcala, a serial rapist and murderer sometimes called “Dating Game killer” for his appearance on that TV show. No one knows the exact number of his victims.Takahiro Shiraishi, the suicide killer from Zama, Japan, who dismembered nine victims and stored their bodies in his refrigerator.Aileen Wuornos, one of the rare female serial killers. She shot seven men in Florida and was turned in by an accomplice.Jeffrey Dahmer, the “Milwaukee Cannibal,” and Bobby Joe Long, both identified by survivorsTed Bundy and David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”), who both made mistakesLudwig Tessnow, who killed several children in Germany, and was caught through new methods in forensic investigation that could distinguish human from animal blood. HOW TO CATCH A KILLER: Hunting and Capturing the World's Most Notorious Serial Killers -Katherine Ramsland

Gabriel Wortman was a 51-year-old Denturist with a successful practice where he worked with his common-law partner. They were staying in the tiny seaside community of Portapique, Nova Scotia, Canada.The Coronavirus pandemic had been declared by the World Health Organization and with the resulting personal restrictions Wortman was not allowed to work. He felt it necessary to stockpile food, firearms and $800 dollars in gasoline. He also decided to transfer money from his bank account to a Brink's facility. On March 30th, 2020 he took out 475,000 in cash.Gabriel Wortman in his graduating high school yearbook wrote, "That his future may include being a RCMP officer." One of his hobbies was restoring RCMP police cars he had bought at auctions. He had purchased 4 former police cars and bought roof lights and siren for one of the cars through an on-line auction and he and his friends installed it. He had an official looking RCMP police decal created by his neighbour and drinking buddy Peter Alan Griffon, who in 2017 was convicted of cocaine trafficking and weapons charges, linking him with the La Familia drug cartel in Mexico. Wortman even managed to acquire an official RCMP uniform. Wortman told friends that the restored RCMP car project was to be a type of tribute to fallen officers...WANNA BE COP KILLER: Mass Murder and the RCMP-Dan Zupansky

Two hundred FBI agents and Nassau County police officers combined forces to form a dragnet, hunt for his kidnappers, and rescue him.Teich lay handcuffed and chained to the walls of a closet in the Bronx with a medical bandage wrapped around his head to cover his eyes. His captors demanded that his wife, Janet, drop a bag with $750,000 (the equivalent of four million dollars in today’s currency) in a locker at Penn Station, making the Jack Teich ransom one of the highest in U.S. history at the time.FBI and Nassau County police detectives spent over a year before finally uncovering the meticulously planned kidnapping ploy hatched by radical mastermind Richard Warren Williams. The FBI internally dubbed the Jack Teich kidnapping operation “Jacknap.”The real-life crime drama that followed proved stranger than fiction, involving a tense across-the-country manhunt, a trailer in California stuffed with tens of thousands of ransom dollars hidden inside, a contentious jury trial that dominated NYC headlines for months; a guilty verdict that was overturned twenty-one years later on a controversial technicality; a retrial stymied by a mysterious fire that incinerated court records; and a civil verdict ruling that the kidnapper pay Jack Teich back the ransom money, plus interest.Operation Jacknap tells the incredible true crime story that continues even now. Indeed, as of this writing, no one knows where the majority of the ransom money is located.Inside, Teich also details his offer of a reward to anyone helping track down the still missing money and kidnappers. OPERATION JACKNAP: A True Story of Kidnapping, Extortion, Ransom, and Rescue-Jack Teich

It's one of the most shocking unsolved missing-child cases in the world. Where is Kyron Horman? Why hasn't the woman who police suspect is responsible for his 2010 disappearance-Kyron's stepmother-been charged? That the seven-year-old disappeared from his grade school got the attention of parents around the world. The twists of the case -adultery, sexting, murder-for-hire-keep the story in the media spotlight. New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Morris tells the minute-by-minute, day-by-day story of the long investigation, the search for Kyron, and his family's heartache. Based on years of research and interviews with Kyron's family, "Boy Missing" also examines what recourse families have as they wait for a loved one to be found and challenges a common assumption in no-body cases: that prosecutors must wait until there is a confession or remains are found. No-body cases can be prosecuted successfully. BOY MISSING: The Search for Kyron Horman-Rebecca MorrisMURDER#fabfitfunpartner

Did Mike accidentally drown in a Florida lake?Or was his disappearance the result of a sinister plot to kill him?The crisp, predawn hours of December 16, 2000, began much as they had many Saturdays for avid duck hunter Mike Williams—on Lake Seminole, where he’d go to relax after a stressful workweek. The Florida State grad was juggling fatherhood with a thriving real estate appraisal career. And that very evening, he and his high school sweetheart, Denise, planned to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary.But Mike Williams never returned home.When an intense search of the lake’s marshy waters turned up only his hunting boat and a camouflage hat, investigators reached the morbid conclusion he’d fallen overboard and drowned, his body eaten by alligators. Nearly two decades passed before the dark secrets hidden at Lake Seminole—and elsewhere—were finally revealed.EVIL AT LAKE SEMINOLE is a diabolical tale of betrayal, greed, and deception—and of a courageous mother who devoted her life and savings to uncovering the truth of what really happened to her son. EVIL AT LAKE SEMINOLE: The Shocking True Story Surrounding the Disappearance of Mike Williams-Steven B. Epstein

What is the price of passion? What is the power of love?Meet Martha Beck, a young nurse dedicated to healing others, until her own hurting heart lured her down a darker path. Loneliness led her to Raymond Fernandez, but love led her all the way to the electric chair.This is the tragic story of the Lonely Hearts Killers. TORTURED WITH LOVE: The True Crime Romance of the Lonely Hearts Killers-J.T. Hunter

A compilation of six fascinating historical true crime stories, all geographically attached or close to the author’s childhood home. There’s Killer of the Cloth, The Baby in the Convent, Mosquito Point Road, Death of a First Baseman, The Blue Gardenia, and Pure/Evil. Three of the killers are female. MOSQUITO POINT ROAD: Monroe County Murder & Mayhem-Michael Benson

For the first time, Boston reporters Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge draw on exclusive interviews and exhaustive investigative reportage to tell the complete story of Whitey Bulger, one of the most notorious crime bosses in American history—alongside Al “Scarface” Capone and Vito Genovese—and a longtime FBI informant. The leader of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang and #1 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, Bulger was indicted for nineteen counts of murder, racketeering, narcotics distribution, and extortion. But it was his sixteen-year flight from justice on the eve of his arrest that made him a legend and exposed deep corruption within the FBI.While other accounts have examined Bulger’s crimes, this remarkable chronicle tells the story of his life on the run, his capture, and his eventual murder inside one of America’s most dangerous prisons—”Misery Mountain”—in 2018. Interweaving the perspectives of Bulger, his family and cohorts, and law enforcement, Hunting Whitey explains how this dangerous criminal evaded capture for nearly two decades and shines a spotlight on the dedicated detectives, federal agents, and prosecutors involved in bringing him to justice. It is also a fascinating, detailed portrait of both Bulger’s trial and his time in prison—including shocking new details about his death at Misery Mountain less than twenty-four hours after his arrival.Granted access to exclusive prison letters and interviews with dozens of people connected to the case on both sides, Sherman and Wedge offer a trove of fascinating new stories and create an incomparable portrait of one of the most infamous criminals in American history. HUNTING WHITEY: The Inside Story of the Capture & Killing of America's Most Wanted Crime Boss-Dave WedgeMurder#fabfitfunpartner

In the late 1980s, Caitlin Rother wrote for the Berkshire Eagle and the Springfield Union-News in Massachusetts. She returned to California and went to work as a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News after working a year as a freelancer for the Los Angeles Times. Beginning in 1993, she worked as a metro news and investigative reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Caitlin left the paper to write non-fiction books in 2006. Caitlin Rother became a Pulitzer-nominated investigative journalist, and New York Times bestselling author. Caitlin Rother has written or co-authored 13 true crime books, and several kindle eBooks. Her book Death on Ocean Boulevard is slated for release in 2021. Caitlin's true crime body of work includes Poisoned Love, Body Parts, Lost Girls, Where Hope Begins/Deadly Devotion, Dead Reckoning, Secrets, Lies and Shoelaces, I'll Take Care of You, Then No One Can Have Her, Naked Addiction, Hunting Charles Manson, Love Gone Wrong, Twisted Triangle, A Complicated Woman, Dead on Delivery and Kill Him Some More. Caitlin will discuss how she got started in true crime writing, the cases that have most effected her career, and the background behind some of the most shocking stories in true crime history. CAITLIN ROTHER TRUE CRIME RETROSPECTIVE-Caitlin Rother

“He promised to kill me when he got out. I believed him. If I wanted justice, I had to fight both him and the courts...maybe kill him first. If I didn’t do something, I was going to die.”This is not a manufactured dialogue from a thriller but the words of attorney Sharon Muse. They came after she survived an attempted kidnapping, rape, and murder at the hands of Hank Morrison, a former client. On April 7, 2006, Muse miraculously escaped from the sociopathic Morrison, only to find that the threat to her life was just beginning. Ineptitude in the justice system threatened to release Morrison and allow him the opportunity to finish the job, which he adamantly pledged to do. Muse would have to fight at every step to ensure her safety.Muse would act as her own advocate, investigator, legal counsel, and bodyguard in the years following the event. Kidnapped by a Client covers the brutal kidnapping, two trials, two appeals, procedural errors galore, one Supreme Court reversal, and even Muse’s intricate plan to murder Morrison before he could get to her. Muse would not ultimately execute that plan, and she would emerge victorious in the legal battle thanks to her faith and her own determination and legal acumen. But her safety is not ensured: Morrison is up for parole in 2026. Muse regularly monitors his status.Muse recounts her stranger-than-fiction story in Kidnapped by a Client. Muse analyzes the failures of the legal system, the mistakes she made, the steps she took to protect herself, and how she has coped with trauma. Listeners will find not only a compelling narrative, but also insight into how to protect oneself and ensure one’s own safety and well-being. KIDNAPPED BY A CLIENT: The Incredible True Story of an Attorney's Fight For Justice-Sharon Muse

THE DOCTOR, THE HITMAN, AND THE MOTORCYCLE GANG: The True Story of One of New Jersey’s Most Notorious Murder for Hire Plots is the true story of the murder of April Kauffman, a beloved and vivacious local radio personality and veterans’ advocate who was found shot to death in the bedroom of her home in Linwood, the affluent town just outside Atlantic City, New Jersey, in May of 2012. In the months leading up to her death, she had uncovered a tangled web of deceit surrounding her husband. She feared he was trying to kill her and that he may harm her family.Her daughter, Kim Pack, never doubted her stepfather Dr. James Kauffman was responsible somehow. Reporter Annie McCormick met Kim Pack on the first anniversary of Kim’s mother’s murder. Over the next five years, McCormick tracked the case even as few clues emerged. She continued to gather information, sorting through gossip, rumors and facts to uncover the doctor’s web of lies. Dr. Kauffman shunned the media and his stepdaughter, moving on with his life in the very same town. Meanwhile, investigators uncovered how the doctor worked with the outlaw motorcycle gang, the Pagans, to run a prescription pill mill out of his New Jersey Office. More illegal deeds would catch the attention of The FBI and DEA. The twists and turns of Dr. Kauffman’s lies and schemes would leave Kim Pack, her tight-knit New Jersey community, and even investigators shocked.The murder case, which has received national attention, was the subject of a 20/20 episode on ABC in the spring of 2018. In THE DOCTOR, THE HITMAN, AND THE MOTORCYCLE GANG, McCormick details the twists and turns in the investigation that dragged on for years until investigators caught an unexpected break that sparked a string of arrests including the arrest of the doctor and several former members of The Pagans. Nearly six years later, authorities charged her husband, Dr. James Kauffman, with her murder. In 2018, a jury convicted a former leader of the Pagans Motorcycle Club with helping to carry out the murder. McCormick includes never before seen or heard details from the investigation through her years of covering the case and she documents the relentless search for justice by April’s family, friends, and her daughter. THE DOCTOR, THE HITMAN, AND THE MOTORCYCLE GANG: The True Story of One of New Jersey's Most Notorious Murder For Hire Plots-Annie McCormick

On December 21, 1978, John Wayne Gacy was arrested. Upon an initial search of the crawlspace beneath his ranch house in Norwood Park Township, Illinois, the authorities discovered the remains of several bodies. Eventually, the skeletal remains of 29 young men were unearthed on Gacy’s property. Another 4 bodies were pulled from the river where Gacy dumped them off the Smith Bridge in Channahon, Illinois, bringing the body count to 33 total. In 1978 Gacy held the title of America’s most prolific serial killer. For the first time in print, John Wayne Gacy: Hunting A Predator contains the police and other legal files covering the pursuit, arrest, and confession of Gacy. JOHN WAYNE GACY HUNTING A PREDATOR: The Pursuit, Arrest, And Confession-John Borowski

Nina, a new graduate from fashion design in college, gladly accepts the offer to have her palm read as a graduation gift. Smiling, the palm reader tells Nina that she has a long lifeline, as she traces it on her hand. As soon as the words are uttered, the palm reader’s facial expression turns to one of fear. In broken English, she whispers, “Break – very bad break in middle of life. Maybe you die.”Nina does come close to death at age thirty-four when she and her family are involved in a serious auto accident. She assumes she has successfully cheated the death that the palm reader prophesied. Unfortunately, the sinister and tragic break in the lifeline and its deliverer are yet to be revealed. MAYBE YOU DIE: The True Story of a Couple Living the All-American Nightmare-Nancy Lee

David Parrish was in disbelief when he learned that nineteen-year-old Jon Bowie’s body had been found hanged from a backstop at the local high school’s baseball field and the death declared a suicide. David had known Jon and his twin brother since they were boys. He had coached them on the baseball field and welcomed them into his home for sleepovers with his own sons. However, when David learned how Jon’s body was found, he felt compelled to find the facts behind this incomprehensible tragedy. Soon, David would learn of a brutal incident at a local motel where Jon and his brother had been severely beaten by police officers, the charges filed against those officers, and the months of harassment and intimidation Jon and his brother endured. Few in the utopian community of Columbia, Maryland, believed Jon could commit such a final act. Like many others, David wondered how a fateful night of teens blowing off steam could lead to such a tragic end. As law enforcement failed to find answers and seemed intent on preventing the truth from surfacing, David uncovered a system of cover-ups that could only lead to one conclusion—Jon’s death was an act of murder. LOSING JON: A Teen's Tragic Death, A Police Cover-up, A Community's Fight For Justice-David Parrish

It was a bleak November in 2012 when Cari Lea Farver vanished from Omaha, Nebraska. Cari, thirty-seven, was a devoted mother, reliable employee, and loyal friend—not the type to shirk responsibilities, abandon her son, and run off on an adventure while her dying father took his last breaths. Yet, the many texts from her phone indicated she had done just that.It appeared that Cari had dumped her new boyfriend, quit her job, and relinquished custody of her son to her mother—all by text. While Cari’s boyfriend, Dave Kroupa, and her supervisor were bewildered by her abrupt disappearance, they accepted the texts at face value. Her mother, Nancy Raney, however, was alarmed and reported Cari missing. Police were skeptical of her claims that a cyber impostor had commandeered her daughter’s phone and online identity.While Nancy was afraid for Cari, Dave Kroupa was growing afraid of her, for he believed Cari was stalking him. Never seen or heard, the stalker was aware of his every move and seemed obsessed with his casual girlfriend, Shanna “Liz” Golyar, often calling her “a fat whore” in the twelve thousand emails and texts he received in a disturbing three-year deluge.How did the stalker know Dave’s phone numbers immediately after he changed them, the names of his lady friends, even what he wore as he watched TV? He and Liz reported death threats, vandalism, and burglaries, but the stalker remained at large. The threats were vicious, vile and often obscene, sent mostly via text and always in Cari’s name. There was some truth in the messages, but all of them contained one big lie. The culprit was not Cari, but had killed and planned to kill again.With mesmerizing detail and compelling narrative skill, Leslie Rule tracks every step of the heart-pounding path to long-awaited justice—from a sociopath’s twisted past to the deadly deception and the high-tech forensics that condemned the killer to prison. A TANGLED WEB: A Cyberstalker, a Deadly Obsession, and the Twisted Path to Justice-Leslie Rule

Terrifying things are happening to Kay Weden, a forty-something single mom and high school teacher in Salisbury, North Carolina. Despite having no known enemies, Kay’s home, car, and peace of mind are under attack throughout 1993. Most chilling of all are the senseless attacks on her only son and the shot fired in the night through a wall of her house, which narrowly misses his head as he sleeps.Kay’s new love interest is the charming Viktor Gunnarsson. He’s a handsome Swede who left his home country to seek political asylum in the U.S. after being charged with the 1986 assassination of Sweden’s Prime Minister Palme. Viktor was briefly held in custody but subsequently released due to a lack of evidence.The romantic connection between Kay and Viktor is immediate and intense until Viktor disappears without warning, leaving Kay baffled and sad. Kay leans on her loving, elderly mother, Catherine Miller, for solace until Catherine is brutally murdered inside her home by an unknown intruder.With nowhere else to turn, Kay reconnects with her ex-fiancé L.C. Underwood, a seasoned police officer, particularly adept at criminal investigations. L.C. assures Kay he will get to the bottom of the incessant and tormenting occurrences.When Viktor’s nude body is found two hours away in the snowy Appalachian Mountains, local Sheriff’s Detective Paula May is assigned to investigate his murder. What follows is an intense, hair-raising investigation that will shock you from the bitterly cold beginning to the unthinkable end. FIRST DEGREE RAGE: The True Story of 'The Assassin, An Obsession, and Murder-Paula May

At a high school dance in 1964, 17 year-old Sondra London met a bright, handsome, well mannered Catholic boy, 18 year-old Gerard John Schaefer. They hung out all the time and soon fell in love. But after a year, as young lovers will, they went their separate ways. She thought she'd never see him again.Then in 1972 came the screaming headlines: “6 Dead, 28 May Be,” and the ghoulish stories about the smiling cop turned sadistic killer and corpse-loving fiend, hoarding mementos of his mutilated victims, and writing it all up in feverish prose. Absolutely unbelievable! She was appalled that crimes like this could be committed by anyone, much less someone she had known intimately. Remember, those were the days before the term “serial killer” existed, before Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer so irrevocably showed us what it meant. In those days, Schaefer’s type of crime was not only unnamed, it was unheard-of.Between March and July of 1989, Schaefer sent her the stories included in two sections of Killer Fiction, “Whores” and “Starke Stories.” Selections from the stories and drawings used as evidence in his 1973 murder trial are included in the section, “Actual Fantasies.” A limited edition of the volume comprising these three sections was copyrighted and published in June of 1989.“I’m not writing non-fiction,” explained the literary madman. “It’s killer fiction: a new genre, where the writer takes violence as an artistic medium and instead of glorifying it, makes the reader see it as the cruel and horrid act it is in reality. I don’t represent violence as good or bad, merely as it is. I let the reader conclude that violence is a socially negative force, not to be revelled in.” Thus he expounded his grim postmodern aesthetic.The truth about his crimes did not matter to her as much as the chance to take a look into his deranged mind. Somehow she managed to overcome her revulsion to his sexually violent obsessions enough to continue documenting them. His sexism, his racism, his fury at every living being in the world, including himself… his boasts of rape, sodomy, murder, even necrophilia… these she managed to tolerate by reminding herself that this was important data.And so she decided to set aside her own personal distaste for the ugliness of the work, and focus on presenting it in all its twisted glory and leave it to the audience to tell her what it was. KILLER FICTION: Stories That Convicted the Ex-Cop of Murder-Sondra London

The story raced across the news wires in 1966. Residents jumped in their cars and drove to Lake Summit to see the gruesome crime scene. On a late, hot July summer night in 1966, in a small North Carolina mountain town, the days-old bodies of two local men were found on a hillside overlooking a lake south of town. Nearby was a woman's body, a tire jack shoved into her genitals. Author Terrance Ryerson Neal discovered the crime in 2014, forty-eight years after it happened, and still unsolved. Now, the truth. Finally. THE TRUE STORY OF THE 1966 HENDERSONVILLE TRIPLE MURDERS: Volume 1: The Confessions 1966-1968-Terrance Ryerson Neal

Stephen Singular is the author of 25 non-fiction books, many of them about high-profile criminal cases. His first book in 1987 was Talked to Death: The Life & Murder of Alan Berg, which became the basis for the 1989 Oliver Stone film, “Talk Radio", and set the tone for his journalistic career. Since 1991, Denver native Joyce Jacques Singular has partnered with Stephen on eight of the true-crime books. The 1995 study of the O.J. Simpson case, Legacy of Deception, went beneath the media hysteria surrounding these murders and explored the racial underpinnings of the case. In their 1999 book, Presumed Guilty: An Investigation into the JonBenet Ramsey Case, the Media, and the Culture of ography, they conducted a similar probe for the infamous child killing in Boulder, Colorado. In 2015, The Spiral Notebook: The Aurora Theater Shooter and the Epidemic of Mass Violence Committed by American Youth and in 2016 Shadow on the Mountain: Nancy Pfister, Dr. William Styler, and the Murder of Aspen’s Golden Girl. The Singulars have an intense interest in the psychological aspects of murder, which has shaped their work together as forensic journalists. A number of their books have focused on the intersection of religion and violence, including their 2006 book, Unholy Messenger: The Life & Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer; and The Wichita Divide: The Murder of Dr. George Tiller and The Battle over Abortion. Also their books include A Killing in the Family; Sweet Evil and Charmed to Death. Anyone You Want Me to Be, the story of the Internet’s first known serial killer, was co-authored with John Douglas. And in 2006, When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult Of Fear, And The Women Who Fought Back. Stephen and Joyce are currently working on an anthology about national and international cult leaders to be published in the summer, 2020. STEPHEN AND JOYCE SINGULAR TRUE CRIME RETROSPECTIVE.

Elliot Rodger considered himself to be intelligent, refined, handsome, fashionable and charming. He spent years trying to be cool so women would like him. He thought if he just wore expensive and fashionable clothing, had a better car, or if he were rich, then women would throw themselves at him. In fact, he thought himself to be “The Supreme Gentleman.”Yet, women paid no attention to him. His only conclusion was that they were genetically flawed, and because of this they ignored him and threw themselves at men who were ignorant, savage brutes. In his mind, his lack of success with women had ruined his life. He began to psychologically deteriorate.Rodger decided to get revenge. He spent months planning his “Day of Retribution,” an act where he would kill as many attractive women, and the type of men that they were drawn to, as he could in a savage attack. Then he acted on his plan, killing 6 people and wounding numerous others in what became known as the Isla Vista Massacre. The story does not end with Rodger however, as numerous other incels have since committed copycat attacks.The “Supreme Gentleman” Killer by Brian Whitney is the story of Elliot Rodger and how he turned from a nice, quiet polite young man to the first self-identified incel (involuntarily celibate) killer. THE "SUPREME GENTLEMAN" KILLER: The True Story of an Incel Mass Murderer-Brian Whitney

As seen on ID Discovery’s The Devil You Know, Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry?, and TabloidThe shocking true story of how Barbra’s picket fence turned to prison bars, trapped in her twisted husband’s dangerous web of addiction, abuse, and world-infamous crime.Barbra Reifel, former wife of notorious Body Snatcher Michael Mastromarino, has appeared on Oprah, Nancy Grace, ID Discovery, and Lifetime. Never before has her raw account been laid so bare. Fairytale shattered, deceit and danger beyond her wildest nightmares, betrayal, addiction, abuse, ultimate crime, and utter destruction beyond reason—her riveting story is one of so many. To survive, protect her children and family, and combat the monster who was her husband, Barbra evolved…a dreamer turned badass, playing his game to the bittersweet end. THE BODY SNATCHER'S WIFE: My Life With A Monster-Barbra Reifel

"'No witnesses, no problems.' Thompson’s mantra was supposed to be reassuring to the smaller man, but Percy felt the shadow of his own death coming. There was one witness. Him. And he cowered, wondering when his neck would be broken, when his body would be ripped apart with bullets."Maybe the youngest son of a violent criminal named Hoggy Thompson was born a beast. Maybe rage was beaten into him.One thing was certain, by the time he reached manhood, Jerry Thompson was a savage killer. He had no conscience about rape, child molestation, or thrashing a dozen men in a prison fight. Once he got his hands on a gun, any target would do. He didn't leave witnesses.When he terrorized an entire courtroom and offered to rip deputy prosecutor Larry Sells apart, people wondered if there would ever be a way to stop his viciousness.Now from the authors of bestselling true crime, RACE TO JUSTICE, comes an even more frightening story of a monster and what it took to defeat him once and for all. BEAST OF NEW CASTLE:The Heart-Pounding Battle to Stop a Savage Killer-Larry Sells and Margie Porter

In April, 1893, John Marshall, an immigrant and successful farmer on Sumas Prairie in British Columbia, was found dead lying sprawled across the veranda of his farmhouse. The farmer's face was a mess, his nose smashed in and cracked blood covering his forehead around a jagged black hole. The shocked neighbour who discovered the body rushed to summon the authorities. An autopsy, coroner's inquest and murder investigation followed. Two days later, a handyman named Albert Stroebel was arrested for Marshall's murder. Stroebel was an unlikely killer: short and physically disabled. The young man the community knew was not capable of murder, and locals were shocked to imagine that Stroebel could have killed the man who had treated him like family. But something had gone tragically wrong on the night Marshall died. Unravelling the mystery would take nine months and two lengthy trials that seized the attention on both sides of the Canadian-American border, splitting them into pro- and anti-Stroebel factions. Newspapers devoted page after page of coverage and throngs of spectators squeezed into the courtroom galleries. The first trial in New Westminster ended with the jury hopelessly deadlocked, the second in Victoria found him guilty and set an impending date for his execution. The heaviest hitters of BC?s political and legal establishment took part including former and current premiers, an Attorney General, and a future Supreme Court justice. When the second trial ended with a guilty verdict and death sentence many in the public howled in protest, convinced that a young man had been condemned to die for a crime he did not commit. And the dramatic events would not stop there. With the condemned man sitting on death row, the case would take more twists and turns that would lead Albert Stroebel to the shadow of the gallows.THE TRIALS OF ALBERT STROEBEL: Love, Murder and Justice at the end of the Frontier-Chad ReimerCoupon code MURDER, #Fabfitfunpartner

Jim Jones convinced his 1000 followers they would all have to commit suicide since he was going to die. Shoko Asahara convinced his followers to release a weapon of mass destruction, the deadly sarin gas, on a Tokyo subway. The Order of the Solar Temple lured the rich and famous, including Princess Grace of Monaco, and convinced them to die a fiery death now on Earth to be reborn on a better planet called Sirius. Charles Manson convinced his followers to kill, in an attempt to incite an apocalyptic race war.These are a few of the doomsday cults examined in this book by bestselling author Alan R. Warren. Its focus is on cults whose destructive behavior was due in large part to their apocalyptic beliefs or doomsday movements. It includes details surrounding the massacres and a look into how their members became so brainwashed they committed unimaginable crimes at the command of their leader.Usually, when we hear about these cults and their massacres, we ask ourselves how it possibly happened. We could also ask ourselves, what then is the difference between a cult and a religion? We once had a small group of people who unquestionably followed a person who believed he was the son of God. Two thousand years later, that following is one of the most recognized religions in the world. This book in no way criticizes believing in God. Rather, it examines how a social movement grows into a full religion and when it does not. And what makes the conventional faiths such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism stand above groups such as the Branch Davidians or Children of God. DOOMSDAY CULTS: The Devil's Hostage-Alan R. Warren

21 year-old Vancouver student Elisa Lam was last heard from on January 31, 2013, after she checked into downtown L.A.’s Cecil Hotel—a 600-room building with a nine-decade history of scandal and tragedy. The next day, Elisa vanished. A search of the hotel yielded nothing. More than a week later, complaints by guests of foul-smelling tap water led to a grim discovery: Elisa’s nude body floating in a rooftop water tank, in an area extremely difficult to access without setting off alarms. The only clue was a disturbing surveillance video of Elisa, uploaded to YouTube in hopes of public assistance. As the eerie elevator video went viral, so did the questions of its tens of millions of viewers. Was Elisa’s death caused by murder, suicide, or paranormal activity? Was it connected to the Cecil Hotel? And in that video, what accounted for Elisa’s strange behavior? With the help of web sleuths and investigators from around the world, journalist Jake Anderson set out to uncover the facts behind a death that had become a macabre internet meme, as well as a magnet for conspiracy theorists.In poring through Elisa’s revealing online journals and social-media posts, Anderson realized he shared more in common with the young woman than he imagined. His search for justice and truth became a personal journey, a dangerous descent into one of America's quiet epidemics. Along the way, he exposed a botched investigation and previously unreported disclosures from inside sources who suggest there may have been a corporate conspiracy and a police cover-up. Anderson chronicles eye-opening discoveries about who Elisa Lam really was and what—or whom—she was running from, and presents shocking new evidence that may re-open one of the most chilling and obsessively followed true crime cases of the century. GONE AT MIDNIGHT: The Mysterios Death of Elisa Lam-Jake Anderson

Ron Crisp invites the reader to follow him through his investigation of the Leslie Barry murder; the trial of Art Anzures for the murder; the evidence that led him to his 3 suspects; how his investigation of the Barry murder led him to the defense of Angelo Buono in the Hillside Strangler case; and what happened in his personal life as a result of his attempts to expose the systematic cover-up in California V. Angelo Buono. The single most important clue in the case came from the statement of a 14 year old boy on the night of the Barry murder. Crisp wasn't at the crime scene that night, but would read the statement in police reports a week and a half later. When he read it, he was astonished that the police seemed to be showing no interest in this remarkable 16 word statement from a friend of the victim. The cops ignoring evidence that could help crack a case that had baffled them for 18 months, caused him to wonder if they were so stupid they couldn't connect these two simple dots or if something more sinister was going on. A dozen books or more have been written about the Hillside Strangler case, and taking a cue from the books, screenwriters have used the case in movies and TV cop shows to lend an air of credibility to their fictitious story lines. However, these movies and cop shows have kept the myth alive that Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono were the Hillside Stranglers. Author Ron Crisp reduced the statement by the 14 year old boy to 4 words and made it the title of this book. A CROSSING OF PATHS: The True Untold Story of the Hillside Strangler Case-Ron Crisp

Michael Benson is one of today's most popular true-crime writers. His books--including Betrayal In Blood, Murder In Connecticut, Killer Twins, The Burn Farm, Mommy Deadliest, A Killer's Touch, Evil Season, Watch Mommy Die, A Knife in the Heart, Escape From Dannemora, Nightmare In Rochester, Haunting Homicides and The Devil at Genesee Junction--tell vividly of today's most heinous criminals, and the clever and stalwart lawmen who bring them to justice. He is currently a regular commentator for two true-crime series, Evil Twins and Evil Kin, on the Investigation Discovery (I.D.) channel, and had also made guest appearances on that channel's Evil Stepmoms, Deadly Sins, Southern Fried Homicide, and On the Case with Paula Zahn.The Devil at Genesee Junction, tells the story of his return to the scene of a childhood trauma. Two of his friends were murdered and mutilated near his rural home south of Rochester, N.Y. when he was nine. Those murders were never solved. As an adult and veteran true-crime writer, Benson teamed up with the mother of one of the victims and a local private investigator to heat up that cold case and propel it in a startling new direction. During his three decades as a professional writer, Benson has worked closely with a retired Army Intelligence agent during the tense days after 9/11 for a book about the CIA, and with a retired FBI agent for a book about National Security; co-written two books with a former New York Police Department "Cop of the Year"; explored the Grassy Knoll in Dallas with a former KGB agent while researching his much-acclaimed Who's Who in the JFK Assassination; collaborated efficiently with an astronaut; and covered the Stephen Hayes triple-murder trial in New Haven, Ct., for the New York Post. MICHAEL BENSON TRUE CRIME RETROSPECTIVE-Michael Benson

Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with curiosities–beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds upon hundreds of books–sat an investigator who would go on to crack at least two thousand cases in his forty-year career. Known as the “American Sherlock Holmes,” Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America’s greatest–and first–forensic scientists, with an uncanny knack for finding clues, establishing evidence, and deducing answers with a skill that seemed almost supernatural.Heinrich was one of the nation’s first expert witnesses, working in a time when the turmoil of Prohibition led to sensationalized crime reporting and only a small, systematic study of evidence. However with his brilliance, and commanding presence in both the courtroom and at crime scenes, Heinrich spearheaded the invention of a myriad of new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests, and the use of fingerprints as courtroom evidence. His work, though not without its serious–some would say fatal–flaws, changed the course of American criminal investigation.Based on years of research and thousands of never-before-published primary source materials, American Sherlock captures the life of the man who pioneered the science our legal system now relies upon–as well as the limits of those techniques and the very human experts who wield them. AMERICAN SHERLOCK: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI-Kate Winkler Dawson.Third Love.com/TRUEMURDER, www.thirdlove.com

Sexual predators exist in our society and their evil desire leads them to commit heinous, brutal crimes with little concern for their victims or the toll it takes on the community. Violent sociopaths have no interest in the needs or safety of anyone else and see ordinary people as either targets or competitors. They have no hesitation taking what they want from their victims. Whether they are rapists, pedophiles, or murderers, these monsters will do whatever it takes to get their needs met and their evil desires satisfied. Captain Dean T. Olson (retired) is a veteran sex crimes detective with the Douglas County (Nebraska) Sheriff’s Office, serving the Omaha area. In his 30-year law enforcement career he has seen some of the most horrible crimes committed by one person against another and he has arrested some of the worst sexual predators the nation has ever seen. EVIL DESIRES: The Recollections of a Sex Crime Detective-Dean T. Olson

Diane Fanning is the author of fourteen true crime books published by St. Martin's Press and Berkley Books including the Edgar Award nominated Written in Blood, about Michael Peterson of Netflix's The Staircase and the best-selling Mommy's Little Girl, about the infamous Casey Anthony case. For the work she began with Through The Window about serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells, she received the "Defender of Innocence" award from the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project.Diane's 14 true crime books are Written in Blood, Baby Be Mine, Under The Knife, Gone Forever, Through The Window, The Pastor's Wife, A Poisoned Passion, Mommy's Little Girl, Her Deadly Web, Sleep My Darlings, Under Cover of the Night, Out There, Bitter Remains and Death on The River.We will discuss how her incredible true crime writing began; the cases and books that most effected her career, and what's next for the incomparable author. DIANE FANNING TRUE CRIME RETROSPECTIVE-Diane Fanning

A young pregnant mother is killed, and a small town demands justice, a conviction, someone to blame. When an unlikely suspect is convicted, it raises a question: Is this the culprit, a scapegoat, or a martyr? This question prompted a mother and daughter to go beyond the official version to search for the truth. As they delved deeper into the story of this murder and conviction, they found themselves asking, how many victims came out of this tragedy, and how many perpetrators? Why did it feel like everyone involved had blood on their hands but the person convicted of this horrible crime?So, crack a cold beer, sleuths, and follow along as we search for clues and question everything. The truth could be around any corner. In this devil’s playground, no one is completely innocent.A great mystery awaits. Join us in our search for the killer. DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND: God's Country Has Blood on it's Hands-Nova West

The story of a woman whose ambition and accomplishments far exceeded the expectations of her time, 18 Tiny Deaths follows the transformation of a young, wealthy socialite into the mother of modern forensics...Frances Glessner Lee, born a socialite to a wealthy and influential Chicago family in the 1870s, was never meant to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity.Yet she developed a fascination with the investigation of violent crimes, and made it her life's work. Best known for creating the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a series of dollhouses that appear charming―until you notice the macabre little details: an overturned chair, or a blood-spattered comforter. And then, of course, there are the bodies―splayed out on the floor, draped over chairs―clothed in garments that Lee lovingly knit with sewing pins.18 Tiny Deaths, by official biographer Bruce Goldfarb, delves into Lee's journey from grandmother without a college degree to leading the scientific investigation of unexpected death out of the dark confines of centuries-old techniques and into the light of the modern day.Lee developed a system that used the Nutshells dioramas to train law enforcement officers to investigate violent crimes, and her methods are still used today.18 Tiny Deaths transports the reader back in time and tells the story of how one woman, who should never have even been allowed into the classrooms she ended up teaching in, changed the face of science forever. 18 TINY DEATHS: The Untold Story of Francis Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics-Bruce Goldfarb

In “The Garden State Parkway Murders,” true crime writer and attorney Christian Barth dives into the harrowing story of the unsolved murders of Elizabeth Perry and Susan Davis. College friends, the two women were brutally knifed to death and their bodies left off the parkway in the early hours of May 30, 1969.Among the numerous suspects Barth identifies are infamous serial killers Ted Bundy and Gerald Eugene Stano, who were living within an hour’s drive from the murder scene at the time they occurred. The killers also resided next to one another on Florida’s Death Row, and indirectly confessed to the double homicide.A culmination of more than nine years of research, Barth’s book is compiled from multiple sources, including interviews with retired New Jersey State Police detectives, law enforcement officials from other jurisdictions, federal agents, possible witnesses, victim family members, as well as information gathered from FBI case files, letters, journals, libraries, newspaper articles, and university archives.In scintillating detail, Barth presents the case, including previously undisclosed information surrounding these brutal murders, as well as an examination of recent technological advancements in crime scene analysis and FBI serial killer profiling that could help identify the killer. When all is said and done, the reader is asked to consider: Why hasn’t this cold case been solved? THE GARDEN STATE PARKWAY MURDERS: A Cold Case Mystery-Christian Barth

The Gwinnett County, Georgia, Police Department was formed by tough, honorable men who were brought in to clean up the county after the sheriff made moonshining his personal business. With a low budget—officers had to buy their own uniforms, guns, even bullets—the police had to take anyone with a pulse who could stand upright. Even with the odds against them, the police department grew into a force feared by the criminals and respected by county citizens.Late one night in spring of 1964, the police in Gwinnett County—and everywhere—learned just how far that respect would go in saving their lives in a tight spot. Officers Jesse Gravitt, Ralph Davis, and Jerry Everett responded to a report of suspicious activity on a desolate country road named Arc. What they found was a kind of criminal they were completely unprepared for, a psychopath who would do anything to avoid the consequences of his actions, including the cold-blooded killing of three county police officers.This began one of the most intense murder investigations that Georgia had ever seen. Arc Road is the story of those officers, that investigation, and the fallout from those horrific murders that changed the way law enforcement officers are trained. ARC ROAD: The Horrific Murders of Three Police Officers in Gwinnett County Georgia That Changed Law Enforcement Forever-Tony Tiffin

When Piper Streyle failed to show up for work, a coworker called her home. Piper’s three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Shaina, answered and said, “A mean man carried Mommy away.” Then the line went dead. In the tranquil region of southeast South Dakota, word of the young mother who was brazenly abducted from her home in broad daylight shocked residents. Piper was the second woman to vanish, following the startling incident of a young woman who narrowly escaped abduction by fighting for her life on a dark and secluded highway.An intensive search by an elite team of investigators uncovered a secret crime location, but the discovery of a nightshirt cut in half, a burnt candle, and a homemade bondage board revealed the chilling truth behind the missing women. With the help of a quick-witted and streetwise maximum security prison inmate, prosecutor Larry Long and his team were able to piece together the sinister facts of the diabolical crimes.Bestselling authors PHIL AND SANDY HAMMAN, along with former Attorney General LARRY LONG, dive into the grim and demented world of Robert Leroy Anderson, a sexual sadist, rapist, and murderer. Duct Tape Killer is also the story of perseverance and proof that love will not be extinguished by the ruinous evil that seeks to take root in our world. DUCT TAPE KILLER: The True Inside Story of Sexual Sadist and Murderer Robert Leroy Anderson-Phil Hamman and Sandy Hamman

Fred Rosen is a former columnist for the Arts and Leisure Section of The New York Times. He is also one of the most important and successful figures in true crime writing, and the author of several true crime classics.He got off to an incredible start with Lobster Boy in 1995, Blood Crimes in 1996, and Gang Mom and The Mad Chopper both published in 1998. Deacon of Death was published in 2000, Needle Work in 2001. Both Body Dump and Flesh Collectors were published in 2002. The Historical Atlas of American Crime in 2005. When Satan Wore A Cross and There But for the Grace of God were both published in 2007. Deadly Angel in 2009 and Trails of Death in 2011. Did They Really Do It? was published in 2015. Born to the Mob and Murdering the President were published in 2016. The Bayou Strangler in 2017 and Bat Masterson in 2019. We will discuss how he got started and what cases and killers in particular most shaped his remarkable true crime body of work. FRED ROSEN TRUE CRIME RETROSPECTIVE-Fred Rosen

Burl Barer definitely is a legendary figure in true crime writing and broadcasting, co-hosting the very first true crime podcast, True Crime Uncensored. He is an Edgar Award winning author and two-time Anthony Award nominee. Burl Barer is the author of 9 truly important true crime books.In 2000, Murder in the Family was published, In 2004, Broken Doll, In 2008, Mom Said Kill. In 2011, Fatal Beauty, In 2012, Body Count and also Head Shot were published, Man Overboard in 2014, and with co-author Frank C. Girardot Jr., A Taste For Murder was published in 2016 as was Betrayal in Blue. A short story The Alaska Mail-Bomb Conspiracy was also published in 2016.In this Burl Barer Retrospective we will discuss how his true crime writing career began; his very first case and book; the murder cases that shaped his career, and his incredible personal experiences with psychopaths and serial killers writing these now 9 true crime classics. BURL BARER RETROSPECTIVE-Burl Barer

On September 12, 2001, Michele Harris went missing from a small town in upstate New York. She has never been found, and the mystery surrounding her disappearance remains. Four years after she went missing, her wealthy husband, Cal Harris, was arrested and charged with her murder.With neither a body nor a murder weapon, Cal was shockingly tried and convicted of her murder. Then new evidence surfaced. His conviction was overturned, and a new trial granted. But once again, he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. That conviction, too, was overturned on appeal. The saga continued as Cal went on trial for the third time. This one ended in a mistrial.By the time Cal went on trial the fourth time, Michele had been missing for nearly 15 years.Defense investigator, David M. Beers, worked on the Cal Harris case from start-to-finish. His account, “Reign of Injustice,” walks you through the details and events of the case never before revealed. It provides a inside view of the scandalous case facts you will not find elsewhere, including why he considers Cal’s story a reign of injustice. REIGN OF INJUSTICE: The Cal Harris Story-David M. Beers

"Sullivan's A-to-Z coverage of Ted Bundy provides a solid guide to the people and places that define the man and the monster, including some not present in other Bundy narratives. It nicely rounds out his Bundy oeuvre and gives readers an extensive reference tool on one of the world's most infamous serial killers." - Katherine Ramsland, author of Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer.A writer of history and true crime, Kevin M. Sullivan is the author of 15 books, including what has now become with the publication of this book, a 5-volume set covering the life and murders of Ted Bundy. Indeed, because of his almost 14-year immersion into this many-faceted case, Sullivan has been a guest on documentaries pertaining to the killer on REELZ, HLN (CNN’s Headline News), the Oxygen Network, and ABC’s 20/20 program, as well as many radio shows and podcasts.The Encyclopedia of the Ted Bundy Murders lists the names of hundreds of people involved in the case as well as dozens of locations where significant events occurred. Being the final installment in a five-volume series, this veritable “Who’s Who” of the Bundy murders, is the kind of book you’ll want to keep handy as you study the case because there is no other book like it.THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE TED BUNDY MURDERS-Kevin Sullivan

INFOCOMMENTSTrue Crime, #1 lunatic 1 ice pick, #anna yourkin, #brian whitney, #gore site, #luka magnottaBEFORE NETFLIX'S DON'T F**CK WITH CATS: Hunting an Internet Killer-Brian Whitney had an exclusive interview with Luka Magnotta for his book, My Son The Killer.In 2012, the Canadian Press ignited a firestorm of criticism by naming killer Luka Magnotta as its “Newsmaker Of The Year.” But while the recognition was questionable for its sensitivity, there’s no doubt that few people had captured the public’s attention like the young murderer and internet sensation.A male escort and sometimes model, Magnotta had earned his notoriety by videotaping himself stabbing Chinese student Lin Jun to death with an ice pick and dismembering the body, before posting the video online. After mailing Jun’s hands and feet to elementary schools, he then led Interpol on a manhunt that ended when he was arrested at an Internet café in Berlin where he was reading news stories about himself. An international celebrity in a macabre sort of way, with a legion of fans, Magnotta was brought back to Canada, convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to prison. During this time, Anna Yourkin, his estranged mother, troubled by Magnotta’s abused childhood and her role in that, reconnected with her killer son. Despite his internet fame, Magnotta never agreed to any in-depth interviews. Now Magnotta has given award-winning journalist and author, Brian Whitney (RAW DEAL, THE SHAWCROSS LETTERS) an exclusive look inside the mind of this “social media” killer. Joining Whitney to tell this unique true crime story is Anna Yourkin. The book also contains exclusive photos provided by Yourkin. MY SON, THE KILLER: The Untold Story of Luka Magnotta and "1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick"-Brian Whitney.

Serial killers Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer are often the first names that spring to mind. Many people assume serial killers are primarily an American phenomenon that came about in the latter part of the twentieth century. But such assumptions are far from the truth. Serial killers have been around for a very long time and can be found in every corner of the globe. Some of these predators have been caught and brought to justice whereas others have never been found, let alone identified.Edited by acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto, The Best New True Crime Stories: Serial Killers reveals all-new accounts of true crime serial killers from the contemporary to the historic. The international list of contributors includes award-winning crime writers, true-crime podcasters, journalists, and experts in the dark crimes field such as Martin Edwards, Lee Mellor, Danuta Kot, Craig Pittman, Richard O Jones, Marcie Rendon, Mike Browne, Vicki Hendricks and Mark Fryers. Mitzi Szereto's story included is about Vlado Taneski, a particulalry brutal serial killer from Macedonia, The Kicevo Monster.The Man in Black and the Silver Screen: The Life and Crimes of Peter Moore by Mark Fryers.The Man in Black physically and sexually assualted countless men in a reign of terror that lasted over 20 years, his crimes culminating in a killing spree in the winter of 1995, which ended the lives of 4 men. He owned and ran several cinemas in the area and acted like a film star at his trial, dressing all in black and claiming that it wasn't he who committed the murders but a phantom named Jason, after the homicidal killer in the film Friday the 13th. THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES: SERIAL KILLERS-Mitzi Szereto and Mark Fryers

To all appearances, Dennis Rader was a model citizen in the small town of Park City, Kansas. The self-named BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill) had terrorized Wichita for thirty-one years. In 1974, BTK committed his first murders -- torturing and strangling four members of the Otero family -- and wrote the police an audacious letter declaring his responsibility for the Oteros' deaths and labeling himself BTK. Thus he established a pattern -- stalking and killing a series of ten victims, then bragging and claiming ownership of his crimes -- that ended in 1991. Until, that is, he resurfaced in 2004 with another string of letters that would finally lead to his arrest. Drawing from extensive interviews with Rader's pastor, congregation, detectives, and psychologists who worked the case, and from his unnervingly detailed thirty-two-hour confession, bestselling author Stephen Singular delves into the disturbing life and crimes of BTK to explore fully -- for the first time -- the most dangerous and complex serial killer of our generation and the man who embodied, at once, astonishing extremes of normality and abnormality. In Unholy Messenger, Singular recounts the year prior to Rader's arrest, in which the BTK killer reemerged, and the aftermath. The result is a chilling story of a man considered a "spiritual leader" by his pastor and congregation, who turned out to be the devil next door. UNHOLY MESSENGER: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer-Joyce and Stephen Singular

Robert Maudsley casually walked into the cell of another inmate, who was sleeping on his bunk facedown. A savage rage quickly took over, and Maudsley started stabbing the back of the man’s head. There was blood, pieces of brain, and chunks of hair flying in a fury. After the man went limp, Maudsley grabbed the man’s head and held it in both palms and started to smash it against the walls of the cell, so hard that the plaster began to fall off the ceiling.Nurses and guards had to watch on, not being able to get into the cell, hearing the victim’s head crack each time it was smashed against the wall. After Maudsley finished with the attack, he sat the limp body up against the bed, got down on his knees, and started to eat chunks of the brain with his home-made knife.Robert Maudsley was dubbed “Hannibal the Cannibal’ on account of his thirst for eating the brains of his victims. He is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking murderers in prison. He is housed in a bulletproof cage, in the basement of Wakefield Prison, England, where Britain holds it's most savage, high-profile convicts. He is known to be such a danger to others, even inmates, he lives in a specially designed cell that doesn’t allow him any contact with anybody, except for guards that slide his food through a small hole at the bottom of his cell.Robert Maudsley is deemed to be the ‘Most Dangerous Prisoner in Britain.’ Even though he only killed one person outside of prison, his remaining victims were claimed while incarcerated. This book reviews Maudsley’s life from his tormented childhood, his rage-filled murder outside of prison, and the planned torturous murders of three convicted pedophiles. HANNIBAL THE CANNIBAL: The True Story of Robert Maudsley-Alan R. Warren

Experience some of the most intense hostage, serial homicide, mass casualty, stalking, and violent “true-believer” cases encountered by an expert during his thirty-year police and forensic psychology career.Some of the scariest and most interesting criminals are broken down and analyzed by Dr. Kris Mohandie, an expert police and forensic psychologist who has met—and evaluated—some of the most dangerous people who have walked among us. This book has numerous first-hand accounts of his work, and interviews for cases like the Angel of Death serial killer, racist serial assassin Joseph Paul Franklin, and even the O.J. Simpson case.Detailed case information, including excerpts of interviews he’s conducted with these offenders, provides a platform to learn shocking new information about hostage takers, serial killers, mass murderers, violent “true-believers,” terrorists, and some of the worst predators on the planet. EVIL THOUGHTS: WICKED DEEDS-Dr. Kris Mohandiewondery.fm/TrueMurderDT

Fifty years ago, a serial killer prowled the quiet city of London, Ontario, marking it as his hunting grounds. As young women and boys were abducted, raped, and murdered, residents of the area held their loved ones closer and closer, terrified of the monster ? or monsters ? stalking the streets. Homicide detective Dennis Alsop began hunting the killer in the 1960s, and he didn’t stop searching until his death 40 years later. For decades, detectives, actual and armchair, and the victims’ families and friends continued to ask questions: Who was the Forest City Killer? Was there more than one person, or did a depraved individual commit all of these crimes on his own?Combing through the files Detective Alsop left behind, researcher Vanessa Brown reopens the cases, revealing previously unpublished witness statements, details of evidence, and astonishing revelations. And through her investigation, Vanessa posits the unthinkable: is it possible that the Forest City Killer is still alive and, like the notorious Golden State Killer, a simple DNA test could bring him to justice? THE FOREST CITY KILLER: A Serial Murderer, A Cold-Case Sleuth, And A Search for Justice-Vanessa Brown

When rookie FBI agent Mark Putnam received his first assignment in 1987, it was the culmination of a lifelong dream, if not the most desirable location. Pikeville, Kentucky, is high in Appalachian coal country, an outpost rife with lawlessness dating back to the Hatfields and McCoys. As a rising star in the bureau, however, Putnam soon was cultivating paid informants and busting drug rings and bank robbers. But when one informant fell in love with him, passion and duty would collide with tragic results. A coal miner’s daughter, Susan Smith was a young, attractive, struggling single mother. She was also a drug user sometimes described as a con artist, thief, and professional liar. Ultimately, Putnam gave in to Smith’s relentless pursuit. But when he ended the affair, she waged a campaign of vengeance that threatened to destroy him. When at last she confronted him with a shocking announcement, a violent scuffle ensued, and Putnam, in a burst of uncontrolled rage, fatally strangled her. Though he had everything necessary to get away with murder—a spotless reputation, a victim with multiple enemies, and the protection of the bureau’s impenetrable shield—his conscience wouldn’t allow it. Tormented by a year of guilt and deception, Putnam finally led authorities to Smith’s remains. This is the story of what happened before, during, and after his startling confession.Revised and updated, this book also includes photos and a new epilogue by the author. ABOVE SUSPICION: An Undercover FBI agent, An Illicit Affair and a Murder of Passion-Joe Sharkey

this is tantamount to myinsensititivity to peopleespecially women.I will admit the otherswhen you catch me if you can!Free-way Phantom!In 1971 and 1972, a deadly predator stalked the streets of the nation’s capital. His targets, young girls who he kidnapped, raped, and left their remains along busy roadways in plain view. Some of his victims he held captive for days, others only a few minutes. Seven victims ranging from the ages of ten to eighteen died in his hands. Then, as mysteriously as he started, the Freeway Phantom stopped.On one victim he left a note, taunting police, and confirming the name the media gave him, The Freeway Phantom.Now, after nearly five decades, Washington DC’s oldest unsolved serial killing spree is pried open with the suspects, the liars, and the evidence laid bare. Father-daughter duo and bestselling authors Blaine Pardoe and Victoria Hester shed new light and provide tantalizing new clues as to who may be the Freeway Phantom. TANTAMOUNT: The Pursuit of the Freeway Phantom Serial Killer-Blaine L. Pardoe and Victoria R. Hester

A successful entertainment executive making $2 million a year. His former beauty queen wife. Their two sons on the fast track to success. But it was all a façade. The killing of José and Kitty Menendez on a quiet Sunday evening in Beverly Hills didn’t make the cover of People magazine until the arrest of their sons seven months later, and the case developed an intense cult following. When the first Menendez trial began in July 1993, the public was convinced that Lyle and Erik were a pair of greedy rich kids who had killed loving, devoted parents. But the real story remained buried beneath years of dark secrets. Until now. Journalist Robert Rand, who originally reported on the case for the Miami Herald and Playboy, has followed the Menendez murders from the beginning and has continued investigating and interviewing key sources for 28 years. Rand is the only reporter who covered the original investigation as well as both trials. With unparalleled access to the Menendez family and their history, including interviews with both brothers before and after their arrest, Rand has uncovered extraordinary details that certainly would have changed the fate of the brothers’ first-degree murder conviction and sentencing to life without parole.Rand shares these intimate, never-before-revealed findings, including a deeply disturbing history of child abuse and sexual molestation in the Menendez family going back generations, and the shocking admission O.J. Simpson made to one of the Menendez brothers when they were inmates at the L.A. County Men’s Central Jail. THE MENENDEZ MURDERS:The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation-Robert Rand#fabfitfunpartner

Nearly 100 years since his death, Bat Masterson still holds great influence. Remembered by many for his adventures in America’s Old West - buffalo hunter, scout, gunfighter, and even lawman as Dodge City sheriff. in 20th Century New York City he became a sportswriter. However, Masterson left a legacy that is much more intricate.Masterson always stood up for the underdog. And his real legacy was how he fought for them. After the days of the Old West were over, he laid down his gun and picked up his pen. So great was his writing that he was vastly respected for his opinions on many topics of the day including, crime, politics, and war.But Bat Masterson had a secret. One that he kept well-hidden his entire life. For if known, he and all those he cared about would be ruined. His reputation and all that he worked for in his life would be in tatters. BAT MASTERSON: The First Dreamer-Fred Rosen

"Oh my God, we found a dead body." The man's voice, calling from a mountain trail in Cleveland National Forest, was frantic. "Please hurry. I'm so scared. It's a little kid." When police arrived, they were met by a horrific sight. The girl was naked and had been positioned in such a way that detectives believed the murderer had seen his kill as some kind of a trophy. As if he were showing off his "work". The little kid was Samantha Runnion, a five-year-old girl who had been abducted while playing in her parents' garden the day before.Samantha is just one of too many American kids who disappear. Almost half a million children are reported missing every year. And all across America parents are searching for their missing children or if the worst case scenario has come to pass the person who killed them.Moms of the Missing investigates ten abduction cases. Through personal and heartbreaking interviews with the victims, it describes how parents maintain their hopes of one day finding their children some of whom were taken by a stranger, a family member, or human traffickers. And two survivors tell what it is like to be held captive.Moms of the Missing explores the principal types of abductions, and not of least importance who's most likely to become a victim of the epidemic of missing children. Finally the book describes how abductions can be prevented. MOMS OF THE MISSING: Living the Nightmare-Steffen Hou. Wondery.fm/BBTM

Have you ever been locked in a cooler with piles of decomposing humans for so long that you had to shave all the hair off your body in order to get rid of the smell? Joseph Scott Morgan did. Have you ever lit a Marlboro from the ignited gas of a bloated dead man's belly? Joseph Scott Morgan has. Have you ever wept over a dead dog while not giving a shit about the dead owner laying next him? Morgan did. Were you named after a murder victim? Joseph Scott Morgan was.This isn't Hollywood fantasy—it's the true story of a boy born into the deprivations of a white trash trailer park who as an adult gets further involved in the desperate backdoor sagas of the "new South." No hot blondes here, just maggots, grief, and the truth about forensics and death investigation.Joseph Scott Morgan became a death investigator with the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office in suburban New Orleans in 1987, the youngest medicolegal death investigator in the country. During the day, Morgan worked in the morgue, and at night investigated for the coroner. In 1992 Morgan became senior investigator with the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office in Atlanta. Morgan is now a college professor at Jacksonville State University, where he teaches a death investigation course based on the national standards which he helped develop. BLOOD BENEATH MY FEET: The Journey of a Southern Death Investigator-Joseph Scott Morgan

Tom and Jackie Hawks loved their life in retirement, sailing on their yacht, the Well Deserved. But when the birth of a new grandson called them back to Arizona, they put the boat up for sale. Skylar Deleon and his pregnant wife Jennifer showed up as prospective buyers, with their baby in a stroller, and the Hawkses thought they had a deal. Soon after a sea trial and an alleged purchase, however, the older couple disappeared and the Deleons promptly tried to access the Hawkses’ bank accounts.As police investigated the case, they not only found a third homicide victim with ties to Skylar, they also uncovered an unexpected and unusual motive: Skylar had wanted gender reassignment surgery for years. By killing the Hawkses with a motley crew of assailants and plundering the couple’s assets, the Deleons had planned to clear their $100,000 in debts and still have money for the surgery, which Skylar had already scheduled.Now, in this up-to-the-minute updated edition, which includes extensive new material, New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother presents the latest breaking developments in the case. Skylar, who was ultimately sentenced to death row for the three murders, transitioned to a woman via hormones while living in the psych unit at San Quentin prison. Recently, she legally changed her name and gender to female, apparently a strategic step in her quest to obtain taxpayer-subsidized gender confirmation surgery and transfer to a women’s prison. Combined with Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent moratorium on executions, this only adds insult to injury for the victims’ families, who want Skylar to receive the ultimate punishment for her crimes Dead Reckoning: Extensively Revised and Updated-Caitlin Rother

An anthology of haunting murders written by acclaimed true-crime writer Michael Benson and his “boots on the ground,” Private Investigator Donald A. Tubman. Featured stories include the murders of Joanne Lynn, Pamela Moss, Shari Smoyer and Jack King, Tammy Jo Alexander, Damita Gibson, Victoria Jobson, Kelley Gaffield, Cathleen Krauseneck (The Brighton Ax Murder), Brittanee Drexel, Regina Mae Armstrong, Loretta Jo Gates and Terri Lynn Bills, plus many more—including updates on Rochester N.Y.’s Double-Initial Murders and the “Genesee Junction” murders of George-Ann Formicola and Kathy Bernhard. HAUNTING HOMICIDES-Michael Benson

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.In this riveting true story, a group of landscapers transformed 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 trial shook the community to the core, raising many issues that continue to plague society today: from the epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder within law enforcement to religious extremism and the militarization of local police forces. NORCO '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History-Peter Houlahan

Golden State Killer, East Area Rapist, Original Night Stalker, Visalia Ransacker and more. The Story of The Golden State Killer’s beginnings. Who else was he as he traveled through time? Was he, is he the Zodiac Killer who terrorized us in the 1960's and who sits in the Sacramento County Jail awaiting trial? Anne Penn presents evidence of other monikers that belong to this man, spanning the almost 6 decades the killer roamed the state of California. The career and possible monikers for the same man 1960 - 2018. This is the true story of how such a man remained free all of these years. This is the true story of the man's patterns and attacks from the beginning until the end. The story continues. The most prolific serial criminal in California History. He could be the most prolific serial killer ever. He could not be stopped until DNA and Genetic Genealogy found him. What if this is truly how the story goes? Anne has written about the possibilities and writes about things no one else has mentioned in the Zodiac story. WHAT IF? Golden State Killer-Zodiac Solved-Anne Penn

The true account of the man who murdered his family in their New Jersey mansion—and eluded a nationwide manhunt for eighteen years.Until 1971, life was good for mild-mannered accountant John List. He was vice president of a Jersey City bank and had moved his mother, wife, and three teenage children into a nineteen-room home in Westfield, New Jersey. But all that changed when he lost his job. Raised by his Lutheran father to believe success meant being a good provider, List saw himself as an utter failure. Straining under financial burdens, the stress of hiding his unemployment, as well as the fear that the free-spirited 1970s would corrupt the souls of his children, List came to a shattering conclusion. “It was my belief that if you kill yourself, you won’t go to heaven,” List told Connie Chung in a television interview. “So eventually I got to the point where I felt that I could kill them. Hopefully they would go to heaven, and then maybe I would have a chance to later confess my sins to God and get forgiveness.” List methodically shot his entire family in their home, managing to conceal the deaths for weeks with a carefully orchestrated plan of deception. Then he vanished and started over as Robert P. Clark. Chronicling List’s life before and after the grisly crime, Death Sentence exposes the truth about the accountant-turned-killer, including his revealing letter to his pastor, his years as a fugitive with a new name—and a new wife—his eventual arrest, and the details of his high-profile trial. Revised and updated.DEATH SENTENCE: The Inside Story of the John List Murders-Joe Sharkey

Whispers in the Willows is an anthology style, true crime book that chronicles three unsolved murders, a series of Death Row executions, and the harrowing stories of two Holocaust survivors. A 22-year-old college student, Rebekah Gould, vanished from a friend’s house Sept. 20, 2004, near the town of Melbourne, Arkansas. Her partially clothed, bludgeoned body was found near a rural road not far from the house a week later. Her case has never been solved. It’s been profiled on The Dr. Oz show, and was featured on the Hell and Gone podcast in 2018. Jared has written about her case since the day she vanished. There’s a glaring amount of evidence in the case that points in several directions, and he has dedicated another chapter about her in his newest work. Amanda Tusing, a 20-year-old aspiring veterinarian, left her fiancée’ home on a rain soaked night. A few hours later she would be dead, and her case has baffled law officers for almost 20 years. Karen Johnson Swift was a mother of four that vanished just before Halloween, 2011, in Dyersburg Tennessee. Her body was found in a cemetery a couple of months later. Her killer remains free. Four men who committed unspeakable acts of violence and torture were set to die on Death Row in April, 2017. Jared was there for the planned executions and gives a detailed look into one the darkest places on earth. The book also includes two Holocaust survivors and their tales of survival. The murders they witnessed cannot be imagined. Jared has also written two other true crime books, Witches in West Memphis and The Creek Sides Bones. Those books included chapters about the internationally famous West Memphis Three case. Jared wrote more stories about the WM3 case than any other journalist in the world and includes Death Row interviews with Damien Echols. WHISPERS IN THE WILLOWS: Who Killed Rebekah Gould? Who killed Amanda Tusing? And Why?-George Jared.

In 1977, four teenagers were kidnapped and attacked near and on Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Only one survived. This book is written by the first responder to the call, Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper J.B. King. He goes back in time to tell it how it was from the moment of the crime until the conviction of Military Police Game Warden Johnny Lee Thornton.His purpose is to tell the story of Pulaski County Missouri's ‘Crime of the Century’ in detail and with clarity. From the first minutes after this attack was reported, the United States Army, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID), and the United States Attorney’s office worked together to bring the killer to justice. This book is a first-hand, comprehensive look into the investigation--and the shocking story. FROZEN TEARS:The Fort Leonard Wood MP Murders-J.B.KIng

In 1968, a budding New York City entrepreneur who provided immigrants with jobs takes a Florida vacation with his family. Meanwhile, his relative, an employee, is murdered on Long Island.Upon returning to New York, Sam Sommer learns the fate of his wife’s uncle, Irving Silver, when he doesn’t show up to carpool to work. Three days pass with no clues about his death. Then a recent contractor at Sam’s deli sets up a meeting to share news on the investigation. Within moments after pulling into a donut shop parking lot to meet, Sam is kidnapped by detectives with the engine still running. While held in custody, he is beaten and allegedly confesses to the murder. Court proceedings amount to do-overs, appellate victories and overturns, and mysterious documents. Sam is found guilty of murder in 1971. Within short order, his case is highlighted in college law courses. After surviving years of power-hungry guards and moving often from prison to prison for good behavior, Sam is released on parole in 1991. Justice continued to railroad him until 2015 when he finds an eerie document in the police archives that proves his innocence. That discovery triggered the re-opening of his case and free legal assistance. What will a momentous turn of events bring next? RAILROADED: Framed For Murder, Fighting For Justice-Christopher Jossart

How does a high school valedictorian, former member of the famed 101st Airborne, respected church deacon, husband and father of three end up with a first-degree murder conviction and serving life without parole? Deacon’s Crossbow is a bone-chilling and compelling work of true crime — about fate, fear, facts and personality, especially that of convict Donald S. Graham.Donald and his wife were driving home from dance lessons when they happened upon two men on Interstate 95 in Massachusetts. When Donald reached for his crossbow, all hell broke loose. The end result: the male driver is dead and the deacon is in prison for the rest of his life. You will follow a labyrinth of events from the incident all the way to the present. The story is unique because it includes Mr. Graham’s views and sentiments from within the walls of incarceration, as well as perspectives from a free man, the author.Was justice served? Or was the driver the aggressor and the deacon the victim? DEACON'S CROSSBOW: The True Story of a Crossbow Killing on Interstate 95-David G. Brown

Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, then eight months pregnant. With no mercy and seemingly no motive, the Manson Family followed their leader's every order-their crimes lit a flame of paranoia across the nation, spelling the end of the sixties. Manson became one of history's most infamous criminals, his name forever attached to an era when charlatans mixed with prodigies, free love was as possible as brainwashing, and utopia-or dystopia-was just an acid trip away. Twenty years ago, when journalist Tom O'Neill was reporting a magazine piece about the murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Then he unearthed shocking evidence of a cover-up behind the "official" story, including police carelessness, legal misconduct, and potential surveillance by intelligence agents. When a tense interview with Vincent Bugliosi-prosecutor of the Manson Family, and author of Helter Skelter-turned a friendly source into a nemesis, O'Neill knew he was onto something. But every discovery brought more questions.O'Neill's quest for the truth led him from reclusive celebrities to seasoned spies, from San Francisco's summer of love to the shadowy sites of the CIA's mind-control experiments, on a trail rife with shady cover-ups and suspicious coincidences. The product of two decades of reporting, hundreds of new interviews, and dozens of never-before-seen documents from the LAPD, the FBI, and the CIA, CHAOS mounts an argument that could be, according to Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Steven Kay, strong enough to overturn the verdicts on the Manson murders. This is a book that overturns our understanding of a pivotal time in American history. CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the 60's-Tom O'Neill

San Francisco, a city founded in part by criminals, was once one of the most dangerous cities in America. Its Barbary coast was called “a unique criminal district that was the scene of more viciousness and depravity, but it possessed more glamour, than any other area on the American continent.” “San Francisco Notorious” brings back the glamorous depravity and noir atmosphere that made it the premier location for murder thrillers like “The Maltese Falcon,” “Vertigo,” and “Zodiac.” This book contains more than 20 compelling tales of serial killers, deadly women, con-men, masters of escape, and unsolved mysteries. San Franciscan criminals were as colorful as the city they inhabited. Take William Thoreson, a murderous millionaire who hid the nation’s largest private armory in his Pacific Heights mansion. Then there’s Isabella Martin, the murderous “Queen of Grudges” who tried to poison an entire town, or Ethan McNabb and Lloyd Sampsell, the “Yacht Bandits,” who used a luxurious sloop as a getaway vehicle for their dozens of bank robberies. Most of these unusual cases are largely unknown and have never appeared in book form. Included are cases that are still mysteries today, including the mysterious tale of the Zodiac Killer, complete with a new analysis and a startling new theory on the murder. NOTORIOUS SAN FRANCISCO: True Tales of Crime, Murder and Passion-Paul Drexler

Like a real-life Hannibal Lecter--the psychopathic murderer from Thomas Harris' "Silence of the Lambs"--Charles Hatcher was cunning, sadistic and totally remorseless. He was a man with no conscience. He killed sixteen people, three of them children. Hatcher was also responsible for a different kind of tragedy--the conviction and imprisonment of an innocent man who was mercilessly hounded by the police, the prosecutor and the community for a brutal murder that Hatcher himself committed. A nomadic Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde who manipulated the legal system with gruesome skill, Charles Hatcher was the embodiment of evil, the devil's emissary on Earth. His nemesis was the lone FBI-man in St. Joseph, Missouri who risked his career to end Hatcher's reign of terror. "Innocent Blood" is the true story of Charles Hatcher and his life of crime--a powerful, and blood-chilling glimpse into the darkness between sanity and madness. It also chronicles a justice system gone wrong. Throughout his criminal career Hatcher was able to fool dozens of psychiatrists, who repeatedly failed to identify him as a multiple murderer. Hatcher's astonishing skill was not just in his ability to murder and escape imprisonment. He became an expert at manipulating the criminal justice system; overall, he outwitted police, prosecutors, psychiatrists and judges in twelve cities and eight states.Terry Ganey first covered this story as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Later, he spent four years researching the material for this book, interviewing over seventy-five people and reviewing thousands of documents, court transcripts, prison files, police reports and mental health records.What emerges is a fascinating and horrifying portrait of a mass murderer at large in America. INNOCENT BLOOD: A True Story of Obsession and Serial Murder-Terry Ganey

Truth and Honour explores the 2011 murder of Saint John businessman Richard Oland, of the prominent family that owns Moosehead Breweries, the ensuing police investigation and the arrest, trial, and conviction of the victim's son, Dennis Oland, for second­ degree murder.Oland's trial would be the most publicized in New Brunswick history. What the trial judge called "a family tragedy of Shakespearian proportions," this real ­life murder mystery included adultery, family dysfunction, largely circumstantial evidence, allegations of police incompetence, a high-powered legal defence, and a verdict that shocked the community.Today, the Oland family maintains Dennis Oland's innocence. Author Greg Marquis, a professor of Canadian history at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, leads readers through the case, from the discovery of the crime to the conviction and sentencing of the defendant. Offering multiple perspectives, Truth and Honour explores this question: was Dennis Oland responsible for the death of his father? TRUTH AND HONOUR: The Death of Richard Oland and the Trial of Dennis Oland-Greg Marquis

Was Jason the monster who bludgeoned his beautiful wife to death, leaving his toddler alone for hours to walk through her blood? If so--would he get away with it?To the outside world, Jason and Michelle Young lived a storybook life--an attractive couple with great jobs, a beautiful home, a precocious two-year-old daughter, and a baby boy on the way.Soon after the 29-year-old pregnant mother's brutally beaten body was discovered on their bedroom floor, a very different picture emerged. Of a marriage crumbling at its foundation. Of a meddlesome New York mother-in-law whose running critique left Jason frustrated and angry. Of a 32-year-old man who behaved like a frat boy rebelling against adult responsibilities.MURDER ON BIRCHLEAF DRIVE documents the gripping tale of a family's marathon quest for justice, confounding crime scene evidence, persistence of law enforcement officers, and riveting courtroom combat. MURDER ON BIRCHLEAF DRIVE: The True Story of the Michelle Young Murder Case-Steven B. Epstein

Eleven women went missing over the spring and summer of 1988 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, an old fishing port known as the Whaling City, where Moby Dick, Frederick Douglass, textile mills, and heroin-dealing represent just a few of the many threads in the community’s diverse fabric. In Shallow Graves, investigative reporter Maureen Boyle tells the story of a case that has haunted New England for thirty years. The Crimes: The skeletal remains of nine of the women, aged nineteen to thirty-six, were discovered near highways around New Bedford. Some had clearly been strangled, others were so badly decomposed that police were left to guess how they had died. The Victims: All the missing women had led troubled lives of drug addiction, prostitution, and domestic violence, including Nancy Paiva, whose sister was a hard-working employee of the City of New Bedford, and Debra Greenlaw DeMello, who came from a solidly middle-class family but fell into drugs and abusive relationships. In a bizarre twist, Paiva’s clothes were found near DeMello’s body. The Investigators: Massachusetts state troopers Maryann Dill and Jose Gonsalves were the two constants in a complex cast of city, county, and state cops and prosecutors. They knew the victims, the suspects, and the drug-and-crime-riddled streets of New Bedford. They were present at the beginning of the case and they stayed to the bitter end. The Suspects: Kenneth Ponte, a New Bedford attorney and deputy sheriff with an appetite for drugs and prostitutes, landed in the investigative crosshairs from the start. He was indicted by a grand jury in the murder of one of the victims, but those charges were later dropped. Anthony DeGrazia was a loner who appeared to fit the classic serial-killer profile: horrific childhood abuse, charming, charismatic, but prone to bursts of violence. He hunted prostitutes in the city by night and served at a Catholic church by day. Which of these two was the real killer? Or was it someone else entirely? Maureen Boyle first broke the story in 1988 and stayed with it for decades. In Shallow Graves she spins a riveting narrative about the crimes, the victims, the hunt for the killers, and the search for justice, all played out against the backdrop of an increasingly impoverished community beset by drugs and crime. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews, along with police reports, first-person accounts, and field reporting both during the killings and more recently, Shallow Graves brings the reader behind the scenes of the investigation, onto the streets of the city, and into the homes of the families still hoping for answers. SHALLOW GRAVES:The Hunt for the New Bedford Highway Serial Killer-Maureen Boyle

1926 was the year that Americans all over the country said screw it. And screw it they did... mixing too much bootleg booze, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, with fast cars, sex, and jazz music can only lead to trouble. The number of allegedly normal people senselessly committing ghastly murders in 1926 is astounding. It is like a switch got turned on and some people went mad unlike any other time in American history. 1926 HOMICIDE IN AMERICA-David Kulczyk