Search Results for: True Crime

It’s a total crime wave: A mini encyclopedia of true crime, packed with stories of killers, cons, survivors, forensics and more! More than 200 stories of killers, con artists, master thieves, and brazen kidnappers—and strong survivors, detectives, forensic breakthroughs, and legal minds on all sides of the action. In other words, a mini-encyclopedia perfect for newcomers and hard-core crime fans alike. Here are the big names—Bundy, Manson, Berkowitz, Borden, and the Black Dahlia. The lingering mysteries—like JonBenet Ramsey and Natalie Wood. The disturbing puzzle of the Zodiac Killer. The true story behind the most lurid headline ever: “Headless Body in the Topless Bar.” Plus a feast of trivia and more, including the Psychopath test, how DNA profiling began, tattoo analysis, and quizzes like “Where Did They Hide?” and “Serial Killer Trophies.”

Filled with terrifying tales of gruesome murders, grand theft and kidnappings, this compendium of the worst side of humanity is guaranteed to chill the blood

Did you hear about London’s Victorian, all-female gang? What about the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist? Do you know the story of the killer nun? Prepare yourself for the urge to sleep with the light on and to double-check you’ve locked the door, because this collection of True Crime Stories is not for the faint-hearted.

Spanning criminal activity from across the world, this book will take you on a journey to the darkest reaches of human nature. Ranging from white-collar criminals and con artists to kidnappers and killers, there’s plenty to shred your nerves.

Whether you’re a true crime junkie or just morbidly curious, let these stories of charismatic criminals and their sinister deeds ensnare your interest and send a shiver down your spine.

This arresting miscellany is jam-packed with intriguing and enlightening stories, facts, and trivia about all manner of murderers, miscreants, and malcontents.

The book reveals incredible tales about criminal gangs around the world, such as the Japanese Yakuza, the L.A. Crips and Bloods, and the Italian Camorra. Plus, there are extensive lists of criminal slang throughout the centuries; an exploration of Russian prison tattoos; a confidence trickster’s lexicon; insights into the world’s most audacious crimes-like the the ft of the Mona Lisa-and quotes from the criminals themselves, and the cops who chased them. Inside are gritty black-and-white illustrations and revealing portraits of some of society’s scariest criminals.

Put your knowledge of real-life kidnappers, killers, con artists and thieves to the test with this gripping compendium of puzzles and trivia

Journey to the darkest corners of human nature and discover the events that have ensnared the interest of humankind across the globe and throughout time. Dive deep into this entertaining book, where the most notorious heists, cons and crimes are reimagined as puzzles.

From crosswords and counting conundrums to spot the differences and sudoku, whether you’re a true crime junkie or just morbidly curious, there’s plenty in these pages to sharpen your mind and shred your nerves.

Inside you will find a variety of puzzles, including:

– Spot the differences between the two detective boards
– Shuffle the letters to reveal three types of murderer
– Guide the stolen goods through the maze to the getaway vehicle
– Solve the trivia questions to uncover gruesome facts about notorious serial killers

‘Death is my beat.’ Those words, spoken by the narrator and hero of The Poet, Jack McEvoy, could also apply to Michael Connelly. Time and time again in these riveting true crime, non-fiction pieces, we make the connection between Connelly the crime reporter and Connelly the novelist:

‘On the day I arrived in Los Angeles I sat in the newspaper editor’s office being interviewed for a job on the crime beat. The day before there had been a bank heist in which the thieves had gone into the city’s labyrinthine storm water tunnel system to get beneath the bank before tunnelling upward.’ Years later that story would become The Black Echo.

‘Moments. They kept coming. One morning an editor called me and told me to swing by a murder scene on my way to the office. Just like that, like I was picking up a coffee on the way to work. The murder was on Woodrow Wilson Drive in the Hollywood Hills. I went as instructed and got the story. I also got the place where I would put the home of the fictional detective [Harry Bosch] I had secretly begun writing about . . .’ The cops, the killers, the cases – it’s all here in a collection that is a MUST for Connelly fans.

Put your puzzle-solving wits and criminal knowledge to the test with mind-bending puzzles from the bestselling True Crime author, Jack Rosewood.

Do your friends go to you with info on all things gory and gruesome? Have you seriously thought about starting a podcast because nobody watches as many crime documentaries as you? Does your family worry about you just a little bit?

Basically, are you obsessed with true crime and want to prove it?

Then The Ultimate True Crime Puzzle Book is for you! Inside you’ll find:

Word Searches
Crosswords
Ciphers
Cryptograms
Sudoku
Riddles
Logic Puzzles
Spot the difference
Trivia
Anagrams

As you solve the puzzles, you’ll also uncover new information about the world’s most infamous killers, from terrifying facts to gruesome last words.

Whether you’re a documentary binger, an armchair detective, or puzzle book expert, these entertaining activities will have you breaking codes and delving deeper into the terrifying world of serial killers. So pick up a pencil and turn the page…if you’re brave enough.

Crime Scene Investigtor offers a unique insight into the work and thinking of a major expert in the captivating field of forensic science. Semi-autobiographical, it charts the development of one individual and the science of crime scene investigation, with real life stories, the horror and the humour, human endeavour at its very best and worst. It tells the stories of real cases and real people.

The book is punctuated by chapters explaining the thought processes and practise behind the science during its recent development.

Inventive, electrifying and daring, True Story is a novel like nothing you’ve ever read before.

‘A mind-blowing page-turning un-put-downable heartwarming empathetic formally inventive horror suspense thriller, with a life-affirming and timely feminist message‘ Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot

‘Where our obsession with true-life crime meets page-turner’ Stylist, The best summer reads for 2020
‘Provocative’ Red

‘Clever and inventive, this is a supremely accomplished debut about the nature of truth in a world littered with monsters both real and imagined. It’s up to the reader to decide which is which’ Daily Express


After a college party, two boys drive a girl home: drunk and passed out in the back seat. Rumours spread about what they did to her, but later they’ll tell the police a different version of events. Alice will never remember what truly happened. Her fracture runs deep, hidden beneath cleverness and wry humour. Nick – a sensitive, misguided boy who stood by – will never forget.

That’s just the beginning of this extraordinary journey into memory, fear and self-portrayal. Through university applications, a terrifying abusive relationship, a fateful reckoning with addiction and a final mind-bending twist, Alice and Nick will take on different roles to each other – some real, some invented – until finally, brought face to face once again, the secret of that night is revealed.

Startlingly relevant and enthralling in its brilliance, True Story is by turns a campus novel, psychological thriller, horror story and crime noir, each narrative frame stripping away the fictions we tell about women, men and the very nature of truth. It introduces Kate Reed Petty as a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction.

Nighttime is the perfect time for the perfect crime. #1 SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Charlaine Harris edits and contributes an all-new story – set in her Sookie Stackhouse universe, now filmed as TRUE BLOOD – to this anthology from the Mystery Writers of America.

Other authors include:
Steve Brewer, Dana Cameron, Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane, Barbara D’Amato, Brendan DuBois, Terrie Farley Moran, Jack Fredrickson, Parnell Hall, Carolyn Hart, S. W. Hubbard, Toni L. P. Kelner, Lou Kemp, William Kent Kreuger, Harley Jane Kozak, Margaret Maron, Martin Meyers, Jeffrey Somers, Elaine Viets and Mike Wiecek

In 1940s Los Angeles, an unidentified murder victim is found bisected in a shadowy lot. A catchy nickname is given her in jest,”The Virgin Tramp”,and suddenly a “nice little homicide that would have drifted off the front pages in a couple of days” becomes a storm centre. Two brothers, Tom and Des Spellacy, are at the heart of this powerful novel of Irish-Catholic life in Southern California just after World War II. Played in the film version by Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro respectively, Tom is a homicide detective and Des is a priest on the rise within the Church. The murder investigation provides the background against which are played the ever changing loyalties of the two brothers. Theirs is a world of favours and fixes, power and promises, inhabited by priests and pimps, cops and contractors, boxers and jockeys and lesbian fight promoters and lawyers who know how to put the fix in. A fast-paced and often hilarious classic of contemporary fiction, True Confessions is about a crime that has no solutions, only victims. More important, it is about the complex relationship between Tom and Des Spellacy, each tainted with the guilt and hostility that separate brothers.

WINNER OF THE THURBER PRIZE

The compelling, inspiring, (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.

One of the comedy world’s brightest new voices, Trevor Noah is a light-footed but sharp-minded observer of the absurdities of politics, race and identity, sharing jokes and insights drawn from the wealth of experience acquired in his relatively young life. As host of the US hit show The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he provides viewers around the globe with their nightly dose of biting satire, but here Noah turns his focus inward, giving readers a deeply personal, heartfelt and humorous look at the world that shaped him.

Noah was born a crime, son of a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the first years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, take him away.

A collection of eighteen personal stories, Born a Crime tells the story of a mischievous young boy growing into a restless young man as he struggles to find his place in a world where he was never supposed to exist. Born a Crime is equally the story of that young man’s fearless, rebellious and fervently religious mother – a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence and abuse that ultimately threatens her own life.

Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Noah illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and an unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a personal portrait of an unlikely childhood in a dangerous time, as moving and unforgettable as the very best memoirs and as funny as Noah’s own hilarious stand-up. Born a Crime is a must read.

John W. Fountain grew up on some of the meanest streets in Chicago, where drugs, crime, decay, and broken homes consigned so many black children to a life of despair and self-destruction. A father at seventeen, a college dropout at nineteen, a welfare case soon after, Fountain was on the verge of giving up all hope. One thing saved him,his faith, his own true vine. True Vine is John Fountain’s remarkable story,of his childhood in a neighbourhood heading south of his strong-willed grandparents, who founded a church (called True Vine) that sought to bring the word of God to their neighbours of his mother, herself a teenage parent, whose truncated dreams help nurture bigger dreams in him of his friends and cousins, whose youthful exuberance was extinguished by the burdens they faced and of his religious awakening that gave him the determination to rebuild his life. Today John Fountain is an award-winning reporter for The New York Times , based in his hometown. His return to Chicago marks how his story has come full circle, this time in triumph. True Vine is an inspiring, moving, gripping story of one man’s American dream,a dream that all of us can share.

A memoir of brutality, heroism and personal discovery from Europe’s dark heart, revealing one of the most extraordinary untold stories of the Second World War

In the spring of 1945, at Rechnitz on the Austrian-Hungarian border, not far from the front lines of the advancing Red Army, Countess Margit Batthyany gave a party in her mansion. The war was almost over, and the German aristocrats and SS officers dancing and drinking knew it was lost. Late that night, they walked down to the village, where 180 enslaved Jewish labourers waited, made them strip naked, and shot them all, before returning to the bright lights of the party. It remained a secret for decades, until Sacha Batthyany, who remembered his great-aunt Margit only vaguely from his childhood as a stern, distant woman, began to ask questions about it.

A Crime in the Family is Sacha Batthyany’s memoir of confronting these questions, and of the answers he found. It is one of the last untold stories of Europe’s nightmare century,spanning not just the massacre at Rechnitz, the inhumanity of Auschwitz, the chaos of wartime Budapest and the brutalities of Soviet occupation and Stalin’s gulags, but also the silent crimes of complicity and cover-up, and the damaged generations they leave behind.

Told partly through the surviving journals of others from the author’s family and the vanished world of Rechnitz, A Crime in the Family is a moving and revelatory memoir in the vein of The Hare with the Amber Eyes and The House by the Lake. It uncovers barbarity and tragedy but also a measure of peace and reconciliation. Ultimately,Batthyany discovers that although his inheritance might be that of monsters, he does not bear it alone.

The biggest and best collection of unsolved murder and mystery cases – updated and expanded. This compelling volume presents thirty-five of the most intriguing crime cases that still defy solution, as reported by leading authors and journalists in the field of crime writing. Expanded and updated, this new edition includes the mystery of ‘Jack the Stripper’ who preyed on prostitutes in Hammersmith in the 1960s, the death of Starr Faithful whose young body was found on Long Island, the vicious murder of Oxford nurse Janet Brown in her own home in 1995, and the case of Lizzie Borden who, according to the rhyme, ‘took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks’.

Other cases include: Colin Wilson and the ‘Zodiac’ killer of California; Russell Miller and the obsession with the Black Dahlia; Rebecca West on the killing of Stanley Setty, and the man who contracted out of humanity; Brian Masters on the killing of Rachel Nickell; Kenneth Alsop on who shot ‘Jake’ Lingle, and his connection with Al Capone; Philip Sugden on that most famous Victorian enigma, Jack the Ripper; Sydney Horley on the woman who was cleared of killing her husband, and went on to become a Broadway star. Nearly all the cases involve one or more acts of murder, and all are left with a question mark hanging over them with real-life whodunits that offer a continuing challenge to all who find fascination in the criminal mind.

You couldn’t make it up: incredible real-life criminal cases

A fascinating A-Z of murderous crimes which spans the globe and the centuries in uncovering the extremes of human criminality in all its strangeness.

This collection of unusual, if not sensational, murder cases recalls strange crimes of the past and offers insights into particularly macabre and shocking modern murders. Many of the cases also shed light on advances in crime detection, law enforcement and forensic science.

Cases include: Krystian Bala, the Polish writer who killed a rival, and then used the murder as the plot for a novel; Alexander Pichuskin, who was stopped one short of killing the 64 victims he needed to ‘fill a chess board’; John Lee, ‘the man they could not hang’ who survived three attempts to execute him; and Adelaide Bartlett, who was accused of killing her husband with chloroform, but was acquitted because no one could work out how she had done it – and she wouldn’t say.

BOOK 2 OF 3

It began with Broken Promise. Now the mystery deepens in the second of the Promise Falls trilogy.

A freak accident has killed Lucy Brighton’s father. And when she goes to his house, she’s convinced that someone has broken in. She asks private investigator Cal Weaver to look into it – but isn’t prepared for what he’ll find.

Cal discovers a secret ‘playroom’ in the basement, complete with video equipment, and it looks as though there’s a missing recording.

How does the stolen DVD connect to the other disturbing events that are happening in the town? As Cal investigates further, and more people start dying in mysterious circumstances, it’s clear that someone is targeting Promise Falls. But who – and how far will they go?

***

Praise for Linwood Barclay

‘Nothing is more satisfying than tucking into a new Linwood Barclay novel’ Shari Lapena, author of The Couple Next Door

‘A suspense master’ Stephen King

‘One of the best thriller writers in the world’ Mark Billingham

‘Seamless, breathless and relentlessly paced’ Mirror

Harrowing Details Included.

True crime fans, indulge your dark curiosity every day. There are historic criminals, like Gunpowder Plot conspirator Guy Fawkes, who in 1605 escaped the grisly fate of being hanged, drawn, and quartered-by leaping to his death from the gallows. Plus, the perplexing case of the stray chihuahuas allegedly terrorizing the streets of Phoenix. And killer quotes: “Assassin? Sounds so exotic. I was just a murderer.” -Richard “the Iceman” Kuklinski, hit man for organized crime.

Printed on responsibly sourced paper and 100% recyclable.

Bodies of evidence, persons of interest.

A daily true crime indulgence-including remorseless serial killers, bumbling thieves, forensic breakthroughs, and criminals in their own words. And historic cases, like Lizzie Halliday, who left a trail of dead husbands and former employers and was even suspected of being Jack the Ripper. Or the case of “the Doodler,” a sinister Bay Area cartoonist who charmed his victims with sketches of themselves before killing them. Plus, cold cases cracked, wild crime stats, and the story of a man who got bit by a cobra, then bit it back.​Printed on responsibly sourced paper and 100% recyclable.

A collection of the most mind-boggling and outrageous True Crime cases you’ve ever read. Stories so bizarre, creepy and compelling that you can’t stop turning the pages – the perfect gift for True Crime lovers.

Are you a hardcore true crime fan? Do you know all the ins and outs of popular cases and killers? Are you kind of sick of hearing the same old stories over and over? Do you long to be truly disturbed by strange and scary details that just don’t happen every day?
Then you are sure to enjoy The Most Bizarre True Crime Stories Ever Told!

Inside you’ll find:

– Tales of the paranormal: Did a dead woman really solve her own murder? Have dreams helped investigators track down killers? Did a demon possess a man and force him to kill?
– Terrifying mysteries: What was happening in the Soka Forest of Horrors? How can authorities have stacks of DNA evidence and still not be able to track down such a careless killer? How many innocent people have been killed because they knew too much.
– The strangest details of any true crime cases: How many murder attempts can one man survive? How long can someone live with a corpse in their house? How did a cannibal who committed a horrific crime not only walk free, but become a celebrity?
– Bizarre true crime stories you’ve never heard before!

As horrifying as the details of well-known cases can be, real true crime fanatics are looking for something more than the run of the mill murders they’ve heard about a thousand times. They’re looking for mysteries, twists and turns, and seemingly-impossible circumstances that take a case from lacklustre to legendary.

The Most Bizarre True Crime Stories Ever Told delivers the horrifying, interesting, weird, and disturbing tales that really get true crime connoisseurs excited. Lock your doors, close your blinds, and get ready to read about some of the strangest, and most bone-chilling true crime cases the word has ever seen.

Fact is never more strange than fiction than when it comes to crime, and the crimes described here are so bizarre it’s inconceivable that they could have been made up.

In this all-new collection of truly unusual crimes, a sequel to the bestselling Mammoth Book of Bizarre Crimes, Odell and Donnelley tell the extraordinary stories of criminal acts far stranger than any fiction, including the murder of Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace by spree-killer Andrew Cunanan and the killing of intern Chandra Ann Levy, who had had an affair with US Representative Gary Condit, though he was cleared of any involvement in her murder.

They reveal how Danilo Restivo was eventually convicted of the murder of Heather Barnett in England after the ritualistic placing of hair connected him to another murder in Italy. They tell the terrible story of the inexplicably brutal murder, over a number of days, of 15-year-old Kristy Bamu by his sister and her lover because they believed him to be practising ‘witchcraft’. They also give a chilling account of the thirty-one-year-old mother-of-two, Joanna Dennehy, who killed three men. ‘I started killing,’ she said, ‘to see if I was as cold as I thought I was. Then it got moreish and I got a taste for it.’

A collection of the most infamous murders, crimes of passion and unsolved mysteries. This book reveals the astonishing, known facts about real acts of villainy…and it probes the fascinating, missing facts that confound the law and are kept in a file marked ‘unsolved’. Although we still regard them as a horrifying crimes, most murders are unpremeditated acts committed in a brief moment of rage. But, there are other murders that are more sinister motivated by greed, or to gratify perverted desires. This book considers the compulsions of the Yorkshire Ripper, the casual shootings by Bonnie and Clyde and the inexplicable sadism of the Moors Murderers. It also tells the stories of crimes committed in the frenzies and frustrations of love – violent and tragic endings to a love story that has gone wrong. Passion, jealousy, revenge, and despair are the themes, and the eternal triangle is often the pattern. Here are true-life tales of romance, mystery and horror!

Inside Crime: Forensics is part of an exciting new series that takes the reader undercover to explore the real world of crimefighting. Using up-to-date case studies alongside real-life examples of how famous crimes have been solved, Inside Crime gives a vivid portrait of crimefighting today.

Forensic science is becoming an incredibly useful tool in the fight against violent crime. Discover how dusting for fingerprinting, testing DNA traces and other forensix techniques have helped police to crack the most difficult cases.

Discover the amazing history of policing through photographs – from historic invaders to Interpol and DNA profiling in this fascinating children’s book for ages 7+

At the first sign of danger we call 999, but what did people do before the police force existed? Learn about the evolution of the service that protects us – from keeping invaders in order to the first bobbies on the beat and the latest crime-fighting scientific developments.

Wayland have partnered with The National Archives to bring you this incredible photographic record of one of the most revered professions around: policing.

Trace policing through history, beginning with the Romans. Then learn about Scotland’s first organised police force, smuggling, poaching and street crime, the River police and the Industrial Revolution, the evolution of police vehicles, the world’s most famous detective and the introduction of women to the service.

The Hell’s Angels leader, Sonny Barger, is toasted as an American legend, and the bikers work hard to promote their folk-hero image.

But the facts tell another story. The Hell’s Angels are America’s major crime export. Their membership has spread to 25 countries including the UK, Australia and Holland, where they have inspired a violent subculture of biker gangs who traffick drugs and suppress any attempt to stop them.

ANGELS OF DEATH opens at the darkest moment of the Hell’s Angels story, with the beheading of a woman at a chapter meeting. It tells the true story of the bikers, their crime empire and the attempt of the police to stop them – with only a few successes.

With eyewitness accounts from police officers who have infiltrated the gangs and gang members who have turned informers, and undercover interviews with the bikers themselves, this is a chilling insight into the world’s fastest growing crime empire.

N.B. Also includes exclusive material from the leaders of the Hells Angels – Sonny Barger and George Christie – who have agreed to be interviewed for the book.