Polit- & Justizthriller

The story of Tony Stock is astonishing: deeply disturbing it sent out ripples of disquiet when he was sentenced to ten years for robbery at Leeds Assizes in 1970. Over the next 40 years the case went to the Court of Appeal four times and has the distinction of being the first to have been referred to that court twice by the Criminal Cases Review Commission

This is the book that inspired the TV series Dark Angel. Mary Ann Cotton is not just the first but perhaps the 1st's most prolific female serial killer, with more victims than Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Beverly Allit or male predators such as Jack the Ripper and Dennis Nilsen.

Charged with the "e;Cranborne Road murder"e; of Wavertree widow Alice Rimmer, two Manchester youths were hastily condemned by a Liverpool jury on the police-orchestrated lies of a criminal and two malleable young women. George Skelly's detailed account of the warped trial, predictable appeal result courtesy of 'hanging judge' Lord Goddard and the whitewash secret inquiry will enrage all who believe in justice. And if the men's prison letters (including from the condemned cells) sometimes make you laugh, they will make you weep far longer.

The autobiography of an ex-offender and twice-times inmate of Barlinnie Prison, now a social work team-leader in his native Scotland. As a local hard case, author Allan Weaver took no prisoners. Neither does he in this compelling work in which he tells of a life of violent episodes and chaotic early life. Teachers, social workers and 'authority figures' never tried 'to get to know him' to unearth the clues and triggers and discover what his offending was all about. A natural rebel and a radical, it is hardly surprising that by ignoring the real Allan Weaver this led to an escalation of his violent activities, tensions between family and friends and dubious associates. So You Think You Know Me? is packed with contradictions: the Allan Weaver involved in mayhem and aggression is not the one telling the story from inside his own head: an often vulnerable, sensitive, articulate, unquestionably loyal and even-handed individual; mistaken, misguided and foolish perhaps but largely trapped by an increasing need to live up to his 'tough guy' reputation. That there can be any tidy ending to this graphic true-life account of approved school, assessment centres, care homes, borstal and Glasgow's notorious Barlinnie Prison is quite remarkable yet Allan Weaver survived to obtain a degree from Strathclyde University and to work on the inside of the Criminal Justice System with young people who, like he was, are in trouble with the Law. The punches that he now throws are directed towards the shortcomings of a system which he believes is failing to do all that it could to turn them away from crime and anti-social behaviour as he explains in this heartfelt autobiography. Essential reading for anyone involved with serious young offenders, especially those of a violent disposition.

Invitations to John Aspinall and John Burke's illegal gambling parties were the most sought after in 1950s London - only the wealthy and well-connected were allowed past their door. When the police finally arrested them, Aspinall and Burke challenged the law - and won. As a result gambling was legalised. Which interested crime boss Billy Hill and his lieutenant Bobby McKew, because suddenly clubs sprang up everywhere and Billy had a foolproof way of fixing the cards. He also had his eye on the ultimate prize, Aspinall's exclusive new club, The Clermont... Revealing for the first time how Aspinall and Hill plotted to steal a fortune, based on testimony from Burke and McKew, The Hustlers is a riotous journey back to 50s and 60s London. With a cast of characters that ranges from safecracker Eddie Chapman to the reckless Earl of Derby, from croupier Louis the Rat to unlucky Lord Lucan, it vividly recreates the exploits of the gamblers and gangsters whose lives collided in the clubs and pubs of Mayfair. 'a fascinating glimpse into a bygone world . . . when chemmy parties took London by storm and toffs were often found to be rubbing shoulders with gangsters' Daily Express

Story of the assassination of the Number One administrator of the British government in Ireland and his Number Two. 06 May, 1882, the Number One administrator of the British government in Ireland and his Number Two are assassinated by men wielding deadly surgical knives while the pair are walking in the Phoenix Park. The killings are witnessed from the Viceregal Lodge, now Aras an Uachtarain, the official residence of her majesty's representative in Ireland. One of the dead men is Lord Frederick Cavendish - who is married to the niece of the prime minister, William Ewart Gladstone. The other man is Thomas Henry Burke, the head of the Irish Civil Service, a man denounced by Nationalists as the leading 'Castle Rat' in the British 'occupation'. The British government must solve this crime. But there are no clues. The witness descriptions are inconclusive and the local police do not know where to begin...

'Going to law courts is a good education for a novelist. It provides you with the most extravagant material, and it teaches the near impossibility of reaching the truth.'Sybille Bedford, Paris Review (1993)For The Faces of Justice (1961) Sybille Bedford journeyed through Europe to sit in the press box of the courts of law - high courts, low courts, police courts. In England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, she watched the prisoners at the bar, the accusing community arrayed against them, the advocates, the jurors, the judges on the bench. She saw justice being attempted under the law - the best we can do, the worst we can do - varying in subtle yet astonishing ways from country to country. The result is a story about justice, humanity and the individual - moving, dramatic, superbly observed, splendidly told.

When Senior NSW Police Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox told the ABC's Lateline programme on November 8, 2012, that the Catholic Church had covered up crimes by paedophile priests, silenced investigations and destroyed crucial evidence to avoid prosecution, the public outrage that ensued triggered a Royal Commission into institutional child abuse. A case of Church interference Fox outlined was that of Patricia Feenan's son, Daniel who was a fourteen-year-old altar boy when he was first raped by a priest in the Newcastle-Maitland diocese. One of the many shocking aspects of the case was how the priest, a close family friend, set about secretly grooming his altar boy victim. The priest was later found guilty of nine charges of sexual abuse of a minor in a public criminal trial in 2004. Patricia writes with raw honesty about her son's terrible ordeal, and it's effects on her family. She bravely reveals the scars that linger from the callous and often cruel ostracism they endured, as well as the denial they encountered from the Catholic community for seeking to bring a paedophile priest to justice. "e;The story will shock and confront as it takes you through every parent's worst nightmare. It is also a story of healing and hope for the future. Patricia Feenan wasn't just a good mum; she is an extraordinary woman who never gave up the struggle to rescue her family from the terrible abyss of despair created by a paedophile priest."e; - Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox.

"e;There was a time I believed prisons existed to rehabilitate people, to make our communities safer. . . . When I saw for the first time (but not the last) a mother sobbing and clutching her son when visiting hours were up, only to be physically pried off and escorted out by guards, I knew nothing about that made me safer. This is the heart of this country's prison system. And the prison system has become the heart of America."e;Walidah Imarisha, from the introduction.This is no romanticized tale of crime and punishment. The three lives in this creative nonfiction account are united by the presence of actual harmsometimes horrific violence. Walidah Imarisha, a sexual assault survivor, brings us behind prison walls to visit her incarcerated brother Kakamia and his fellow inmate Jimmy "e;Mac"e; McElroy, a member of the Irish gang the Westies. Together they explore the questions: People can do unimaginable damage to one anotherand then what? What do we as a society do? What might redemption look like?Imarisha doesn't flinch as she guides us through the complexities and contradictions of transformative justice, eschewing theory for a much messier reality. The result is a nuanced and deeply personal analysis that allows readers to connect emotionally with the stories she shares, and the people behind them.Walidah Imarisha is a writer, organizer, educator, and spoken-word artist. She is the co-editor of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements and author of the collection of poetry Scars/Stars.

Using examples from across the globe, David Jordan shows that the narcotics problem is not merely one of supply and demand. He argues that many national and international financial systems are dependent on cash from money laundering, and some governments are far more involved in protecting than in combating criminal cartels.

The Horror of 1888 is the true story of two brothers fishing in a creek leading off the Sugar River in the township of Primrose, Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1888. They noticed a sack in the shallow waters of the creek and inside found body parts belonging to someone who had evidently been murdered. The identity of the murderer was soon determined, and the bloody crime scene discovered and searched, disclosing the details of one of the most horrible murders ever known to Wisconsin at that time.This book continues the story in great detail, following the murderer across the Atlantic to Ireland, where he was arrested before he could reach his native country of Switzerland, and brought back to Wisconsin for trial. It would be eleven months before an unusual confession emerged.The events of this crime and the extradition process that returned the criminal to Madison generated international notoriety. The operation of the legal systems in England and Wisconsin in 1889 are woven into the story, along with sketches of contemporary life in Dane County. The fact that the author of the book is related to the murderer just adds to the intrigue...

Motivated by greed and sadism-or perhaps by poverty and boredom-star-crossed lovers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow set out on a series of robberies throughout the American Southwest, many of which ended in murder.

The true story of London's most prolific armed robbery gang.

Presents research for understanding all elements of combating cyber exploitation of children, including the roles of law enforcement, international organisations, and the judicial system, and educating children and their families to the dangers of the independent internet usage through cyberspace awareness programs.

When a corrupt prosecutor was determined to send as many of the John Dillinger gang to death row as he could, female attorneys Jessie Levy and Bess Robbins rose to the challenge. The discovery of interviews, personal correspondence, and court transcripts forms the basis for this book, which traces the careers of Jessie Levy and Bess Robbins.

If you want living proof that it’s never too late to change your life, then this autobiography of Decarlo Cornish will definitely reassure you that it can be accomplished.         With a series of unwarranted events coupled with growing up in an obscured environment, Decarlo could not fathom himself beating the odds - the cards were stacked against him.           Do you know of anyone who is in need of a drastic life change?  Do you know of anyone who is in insurmounting trouble and their life seems hopeless?  If so, then this is that must read book!           In this book you will read about what it took for him to survive, bounce back and become a man full of vibrant hope and eager to live out his potential.

The machine-gun murders of seven men on the morning of February 14, 1929, by killers dressed as cops became the gangland crime of the century."" Or so the story went. Since then it has been featured in countless histories, biographies, movies, and television specials. 'The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, ' however, is the first book-length treatment of the subject, and it challenges the commonly held assumption that Al Capone ordered the slayings to gain supremacy in the Chicago underworld.""

She looked like everyone's grandmother: white-haired, plump, bespectacled, and kindly. Only Dorothea Montalvo Puente's eyes, black and hard behind her glasses, hinted at the evil that lurked within. She was the rarest of murderers, a female serial killer-probably the most cold-blooded ever recorded in the annals of crime. This shocking story of the gruesome murder of seven men for profit comes from bestselling author William P. Wood, the Deputy D.A. who had earlier prosecuted Puente for drugging and robbing elderly people. He knew intimately the malice that coursed through her veins, and thought he had seen the last of this callous and calculating woman. But her chameleon-like deviousness helped her reappear as a sweet, benevolent landlord?and later allowed her to escape police custody as they stood in her yard surrounded by the gaping graves. The Bone Garden chronicles the discoveries that ignited a media firestorm and transfixed a nation, putting an entirely new face on evil in this country.

“We never shoot unless we know who is present,” gang boss Tom Egan declared in a candid interview with a. leading St. Louis newspaper. Just who was this man who could boast in public about ordering murder? After nearly a century, the story of the Egan’s Rats can finally be told: how a group of Victorian-era street punks mushroomed into a powerful force that controlled Missouri’s largest city for nearly thirty years.Led by two childhood pals, Thomas “Snake” Kinney and Tom Egan, the Rats emerged from the city’s Irish slums. They learned their trade the old-fashioned was, via robberies, brawls, burglaries, and shootings. When Kinney ran on the Democratic ticket in the Third Ward, his friends were at the polls to ensure he received enough votes to win. For nearly ten years, the gang cut a large swath in St. Louis, spreading fear wherever it went. With Snake Kinney elected a Missouri state senator and Tom Egan entrenched as St. Louis’s most dangerous gangster, the gang boated nearly 400 members. Nearly everyone who lived in St. Louis was touched by them in some way or another.Soon the Rats became overconfident and careless, beginning with a public shooting war against a gang led by Missouri beverage inspector Edward “Jelly Roll” Hogan. When the once-fearful public grew tired of the gangs, their leadership ended up in federal prison for twenty-five years, largely on the testimony of one of their own who turned state’s evidence in fear for his life.Egan’s Rats provides a fascinating glimpse into a past that wasn’t always idyllic. It was an era in which roving gangs of thugs terrorized voters with impunity, when alcohol was illegal, when a gangster could brag of his power in the newspaper, and when the tendrils of St. Louis crime reached all the way into the White House.

Meticulously documented, lavishly detailed, exhaustively researched, and written with an eye for truths that have remained largely hidden, this edition provides a reliable source of information about the violent and lawless era of the '20s and '30s.

Who would have thought that an acting career that began as a teenage star in the "Annette" series on the "The Mickey Mouse Club," Walt Disney's "Zorro," "The Roy Rogers Show," and "That's My Mom" would lead to the role of confidante and assistant to Southern California crime-boss Mickey Cohen? King of the Sunset Strip is a pistol-to-the-side-of-your-head Hollywood story. Beginning with the parties, boozing, and sex and the "good-time" macho whoring and gambling of the mob, the story covers the action in Sunset Boulevard penthouses, Beverly Hills mansions, Brentwood estates, and across state lines to Las Vegas. Steve Stevens takes readers down the palm-lined streets of Hollywood to meet film and entertainment giants like Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Louis Prima, Robert Mitchum, and many more.

JFK and Sam is unique from other books on the Kennedy assassination. Written by an insider with access to key figures, it names the assassins and traces the assassination team's movements on November 22, 1963, and discusses the team leader's life and his taped confession.

Known as "the Enforcer" in the Capone Gang, Nitti has been glamorized in movies. This book gives a warts-and-all portrayal of the gangster.