Polit- & Justizthriller

This true crime history examines the surprising connection between an infamous small-town murder and the bestselling novel it inspired. Born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, Grace Metalious shocked the nation in 1956 with Peyton Place, her sexually charged debut novel about murder in a small town. It spawned a series of novels, two Hollywood movies, and a long-running television series on ABC. It also made Metalious a pariah in her hometown, where she became tabloid fodder until her untimely death at the age of thirty-nine. Unknown to most readers, the fictional story was inspired by a real crime known as ';The Sheep Pen Murder,' which took place in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, in the late 1940s. Now historian Renee Mallett skillfully weaves together the lives of Metalious and Barbara Roberts, the confessed killer behind The Sheep Pen Murder. In The ';Peyton Place' Murder, Mallett explores what happens when true crime and literature meet.

"e;Having written about New Mexico history for more than forty years,"e; explains the author, "e;it was perhaps inevitable that in time I should publish a few articles on Billy the Kid. After all, he is the one figure from this state's past whose name is known around the world. The Kid's career, although astonishingly short, nonetheless, left an indelible mark in the annals of the Old West. And his name, William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid, seems locked forever into the consciousness of the starry-eyed public. Upon request,"e; the author continues, "e;I was able to assemble a collection of my varied writings pertaining to some of Billy's real or imagined deeds. Each section opens a small window on an aspect of his tumultuous life, or casts light upon others whose fortunes intersected with his. In this book, I have stalked Billy in an erratic rather than a systematic way, taking pleasure merely in adding a few new and unusual fragments to his biography. I trust that readers who have a fascination with the history and legend of Billy the Kid will find in these pages something of interest and value. As Eugene Cunningham wrote more than seventy years ago, 'in our imagination the Kid still lives--the Kid still rides.'"e;

Author Cellura provides new insight into the events surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He firmly establishes that suspect Lee Harvey Oswald was not the "lone nut" sniper who gunned the President down from a sixth-floor window of a warehouse that bounded the Dallas motorcade route, that Oswald was set-up to be the "fall guy" for the shooting, and quickly silenced to conceal all traces of the conspiratorial plot. He shows there were two successive efforts made to eliminate Oswald before Mafia-connected strip club operator was commissioned to seal the deal by gunning Oswald down while the suspect was under arrest lose protective police custody just two days after the assassination.

Frank Morris's death in 1964 was one of several Klan murders that terrorized residents of northeast Louisiana and Mississippi. In Devils Walking: Klan Murders along the Mississippi in the 1960s, Stanley Nelson details his investigation - alongside renewed FBI attention - into these cold cases.

Despite their wealth, fame, and power, celebrities are ultimately just flesh and blood like all of us. Their status or accomplishments are not a magical shield of protection when it comes to death. In fact, in some cases, celebrities are more vulnerable than your averge person. As we shall see in this book, a number of celebrities have been murdered by their own fans. A number of celebrities have also been murdered in cases that remain unsolved. Fame can be a fickle and fleeting phenomenon and Hollywood is awash with former child stars who died in tragic circumstances when the phone stopped ringing and the money ran out. In this book we will look at a number of celebrity deaths and murders. The cases that follow are eclectic and all darkly fascinating. Drug overdoses, murders, suicides, crazed fans, unsolved deaths, autoerotic asphyxiation, car crashes, freak accidents, drownings, disease, and so on...

This true crime memoir is both a ';high-speed train trip through the modern cocaine trade' and a story of reform, redemption and family (Gerald Posner, and author of Pharma). Born in 1960, Jesus Ruiz Henao wanted to be rich like the drug dealers he saw as he grew up in the cocaine-producing region of Colombia's Valle of the Cauca. In 1985, he moved to the quiet London suburb of Hendon, where he and his wife held down mundane cleaning and bus driving jobs. At least to outward appearances... While keeping a low profile, Henao built a drug trafficking network reaching from Colombia to England and across Europe. It was a risky business with law enforcement on one side and ruthless competitors on the other. By the summer of 2003, he decided to get out. But then he made the one mistake that would get him caught. It cost him a seventeen-year prison sentence, with more tacked on when he tried to make one last deal from behind prison walls. Co-written by Henao with bestselling author Ron Chepesiuk, The Real Mr. Big is the story of how an ambitious Colombian immigrant became known to law enforcement as ';the Pablo Escobar of British drug trafficking.'

The veteran character actor recounts the epic adventure of his life from the NYC mob and prison life to making movies with Hollywood legends. You might know him as the character Tony Darvoin the movie Midnight Run, but before he played tough guys in the movies, Richie Salerno was born into the real-world Brooklyn Mafia. Some of New York's most notorious gangsters were his uncles, aunts, cousins, and family friends. For a time, it looked like he was heading for a life in the family business. During a stint in prison for theft, Richie managed to turn his life around. Using the tailoring skills he learned from his father and butchering abilities he picked up from his father-in-law, he ingratiated himself with the warden and guards, and survived his 120 month sentence without a scratch. After his release, he scored an audition for the Sidney Lumet film Serpico starring Al Pacino. That audition turned into a long career as a character actor in major Hollywood films. In From the Mob to the Movies, Richie recounts his journey from the mean streets of Brooklyn and as a child of the mob to the silver screen.

In our society, there are two types. There is a log of those who do not believe in all this, their feet need to do it, a vlog who believes in science as everything. If it is not working, that is, there is unemployment, then there is science behind it because even though science has been made new by humans, but tomorrow it does not seem that s...

In this book, we detail the true story of how convicted murderersRichard Hickock and Perry Smith spent their last years on deathrow trying to avoid their execution at the Kansas StatePenitentiary (now the Lansing Correctional Facility) - often referredto as the Kansas death house. Our extensive research has revealedmany new and intriguing facts regarding the killers'' capture, thehighly publicized murder trial, the many desperate attempts to havetheir convictions overturned, and - finally - the day they paid theultimate price.Much of this information has never before been compiled andpublished. It''s a fascinating tale - one that explores in great detail boththe workings of the criminal mind and the many ways in which ourlegal system can be used to delay and deflect the best efforts of societyto exact rightful punishment for even the most heinous of crimes. The authors will dig deeper, unearthing new information about the fiveyears convicted killers Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry EdwardSmith spent on death row trying to appeal their convictions. Thebook is based on the authors research at the Kansas Historical Society''s statearchives, Kansas State Penitentiary official records, and other relatedhistorical documentation preserved for review.

Ambiguity contains the roller-coaster ride of Anthony Bulela, a newly minted homicide detective, and his team in pursuing the killer dubbed as the Skinner by the press. Corruption, deception, and lust invade the attempt to stop this scourge.

This in-depth yet highly accessible books provides compelling human stories that illuminate the thorny legal issues behind the most noteworthy capital cases. In 1969, the Supreme Court justices cast votes in secret that could have signaled the end of the death penalty. Later, the justices resolve began to unravel. Why? What were the consequences for the rule of law and for the life at stake in the case? These are some of the fascinating questions answered in Murder at the Supreme Court. Veteran journalists Martin Clancy and Tim OBrien not only pull back the curtain of secrecy that surrounds Supreme Court deliberations but also reveal the crucial links between landmark capital-punishment cases and the lethal crimes at their root. The authors take readers to crime scenes, holding cells, jury rooms, autopsy suites, and execution chambers to provide true-life reporting on vicious criminals and the haphazard judicial system that punishes them. The cases reported are truly "e;the cases that made the law."e; They have defined the parameters that judges must follow for a death sentence to stand up on appeal. Beyond the obvious questions regarding the dubious deterrent effect of capital punishment or whether retribution is sufficient justification for the death penalty (regardless of the heinous nature of the crimes committed), the cases and crimes examined in this book raise other confounding issues: Is lethal injection really more humane than other methods of execution? Should a mentally ill killer be forcibly medicated to make him "e;well enough"e; to be executed? How does the race of the perpetrator or the victim influence sentencing? Is heinous rape a capital crime? How young is too young to be executed?

Although much has been written about Al Capone, there has not been--until now--a complete history of organized crime in Chicago during Prohibition. This exhaustively researched book covers the entire period from 1920 to 1933. Author John J. Binder, a recognized authority on the history of organized crime in Chicago, discusses all the important bootlegging gangs in the city and the suburbs and also examines the other major rackets, such as prostitution, gambling, labor and business racketeering, and narcotics. A major focus is how the Capone gang -- one of twelve major bootlegging mobs in Chicago at the start of Prohibition--gained a virtual monopoly over organized crime in northern Illinois and beyond. Binder also describes the fight by federal and local authorities, as well as citizens' groups, against organized crime. In the process, he refutes numerous myths and misconceptions related to the Capone gang, other criminal groups, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and gangland killings. What emerges is a big picture of how Chicago's underworld evolved during this period. This broad perspective goes well beyond Capone and specific acts of violence and brings to light what was happening elsewhere in Chicagoland and after Capone went to jail. Based on 25 years of research and using many previously unexplored sources, this fascinating account of a bloody and colorful era in Chicago history will become the definitive work on the subject.

The veteran true crime author chronicles the terrifying murders, surprising arrest and dramatic trial of Illinois serial killer Milton Johnson. In the summer of 1983, an elusive serial killer stalked the blue-collar industrial city of Joliet, Illinois. One overnight killing spree took five victims,including members of the Will County Sheriff's Office. The following month brought a quadruple murder inside a shop known for its pottery classes. The plague of violence sparkedthe controversial New York City-based Guardian Angels to descend on Joliet, generating more unwanted media attention for the community. The National Enquirer labeled Joliet ';Terror Town, U.S.A.' With an arrest that seemed to come out of nowhere, authorities linked their suspectto a chilling fourteen 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 was guilty of mass murder and if so, would he die by means of lethal injection at the Illinois Department of Corrections?