Polit- & Justizthriller

In Thieves of Book Row, Travis McDade tells the gripping tale of the worst book-theft ring in American history, and the intrepid detective who brought it down. Both a fast-paced, true-life thriller, Thieves of Book Row provides a fascinating look at the history of crime and literary culture.

Massacres, mayhem, and mischief fill the pages of Outlaw Tales of Alaska. Pan for gold with dry gulchers and claim jumpers. Duck the bullets of murderers, plot strategies with con artists, hiss at lawmen turned outlaws. A refreshing new perspective on some of the most infamous reprobates of the Last Frontier.

The book tells the true story of one year in the life of a suburban village-turned-war-zone. Written by Kevin Deutsch, award-winning criminal justice reporter for Newsday, it follows two warring gangs and the anti-violence activists and police desperate to stop them.

A number of nefarious characters have passed through Maine on their way to infamy, including the pirates Dixie Bull and Edward Teach (aka Blackbeard) and gangster Al Brady. The scoundrels assembled in this book, however, are either Maine natives or notorious individuals whose mischief, misdeeds, or mayhem were perpetrated in the Pine Tree State.

For the killer, there is always the problem of getting rid of the body. This book explores many cases that suggest that, whatever the motive for murder, the back garden is a convenient place to bury their grisly secrets.

A largely hidden story of power, wealth, and allegations of attempts to re-write history in the pursuit of a vast inheritance, linked to Jane Austen's own family.

This honest and entertaining book by a twenty-two-year veteran of the service tells the story of America's oldest game warden service. The stories told cover the risks wardens face dealing with poachers, rogue wildlife, and the elements, as well as the drama that surrounds every search and rescue operation.

When Amy Cave was reported missing and later discovered murdered, it was difficult for the police and reporters to keep their emotional distance. The controversial sexuality of the killer and the tragic nature of the story made that impossible. Once the headlines had faded and the legal proceedings were ended, Pat Flagg delved further into the background and the aftermath of the high-profile case. In this book she revisits the investigation, arrest, and trial in fascinating detail.

In this gripping book, Al Cimino explores the appalling truth behind these and several more cases of the disappeared, delving into the depths of human depravity that enabled such cruel acts and shining a light on the courage and tenacity of the survivors. This is a testament to human courage and a forensic examination of some truly terrible crimes.

Examines the postwar Windsor slasher killings and the social consequences of the public paranoia that followed. This book tells the story of Windsor slasher, the social frenzy that his attacks created, and the surprising results that this hysteria generated.

Recounts the practice of grave robbing for the medical education of American medical students and physicians during the late 1700s and 1800s in the US, why body snatching came about and how disinterment was done.

From Jack Henry Abbott, who stabbed a waiter through the heart for not allowing him to use the toilet, to the ""Zodiac,"" an unknown California serial killer who may have murdered as many as 37 people, this work details 280 of the most famous murder cases of the twentieth century.

An inside account of the Hell's Angels, told by one of its most notorious leaders.

In 1946, years before the phrase "serial murder" was coined, a masked killer terrorized the town of Texarkana on the Texas-Arkansas border. Striking five times within a ten-week period, always at night, the prowler claimed six lives and left three other victims wounded. Survivors told police that their assailant was a man, but could supply little else. A local newspaper dubbed him the Phantom Killer, and it stuck. Other reporters called the faceless predator the "Moonlight Murderer," though the lunar cycle had nothing to do with the crimes. Texarkana's phantom was not America's first serial slayer; he certainly was not the worst, either in body count or sheer brutality. But he has left a crimson mark on history as one of those who got away. Like the elusive Axeman of New Orleans, Cleveland's Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, and San Francisco's Zodiac Killer, the Phantom Killer left a haunting mystery behind. This is the definitive story of that mystery.

A husband preserved in mothballs, a vigilante victim encased in red mud, and convicts beaten and burned in a prison riot are only a few of the cases of death examined here by forensic anthropologist Stanley Rhine. Drawing on cases he worked for the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, Rhine demonstrates how unidentified skeletal remains indicate race, sex, age, height, and ultimately identity and how the specialist decodes skeletal anomalies to establish cause of death. Blunt trauma, gunshot and knife wounds, and other injuries receive his attention.Step by step the author explains the techniques used to solve forensic mysteries. At the end of each case, he explains what lessons the forensic anthropologist learns from the bones. Rhine also explores specific problems and tasks: working mass disasters; recovering bodies from the field; defleshing bones; examining charred and badly decomposed remains; testifying before juries; and others.

Explores five examples of "family annihilators" in this troubling snapshot of crime twisted by the dark trajectory of machismo in economically stressful times. This title includes nearly 50 interviews of victims' friends and family, an examination of police files, and detailed profiles of the researchers who track these "killer dads".

When Sir Jimmy Savile died in 2011 he was celebrated as a prolific charity fundraiser who had dedicated his time to worthy causes. But on 3 October 2012, ITV broadcast a documentary called Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile. In it they revealed the shocking truth behind the popular TV persona. Several women alleged that Savile had sexually abused them when they were underage, sparking a flurry of further allegations in the following days and weeks. Savile was accused of abusing hundreds of young children and teenagers over nearly 50 years and on 19 October the Metropolitan Police launched a formal criminal investigation into his behaviour. Just how was Savile allowed to get away with such monstrous crimes for so long? What role did the BBC play in sweeping previous allegations under the carpet? Why was a Newsnight investigation that was set to expose Savile shelved? How was he given access to vulnerable individuals? Who else was involved? Top journalist John McShane answers these questions and more in this unflinching examination of the scandal that has rocked some of Britain's most famous institutions to the core. This is the full story of how Jimmy Savile went from being a TV favorite to the most reviled man in Britain.

On January 7, 1973, shots were fired from Howard Johnson's Motel in New Orleans, LA. Six were killed, ten wounded, and the debate began about the number of snipers. Waksler traces the course of this event and analyzes claims and counterclaims made in the search to explain it.

"A true story more incredible than fiction." -Kevin Baker, author of Striver's Row

Suitable for those interested in true-crime history and the shadier side of Buckinghamshire's past, this title includes cases such as the slaying of a family of seven in Denham in 1870, the killing of a butcher's wife in Victorian Slough for which no one was ever found guilty, and an apparent suicide in Chesham which turned out to be murder.

This book provides a look into the lives, crimes, and executions of women during the 20th and 21st centuries. The purpose is not to condone the actions of these women, but to suggest that those we executed are, in fact, humans_rather than monsters, as they are often portrayed.

Showcases 18 of the controversial, and unusual punishments and executions from an era when hangings and death by firing squad were a regular occurrence. This book features chapters which deal with: the hanging of Tom Ketchum - who was beheaded by the noose; "Big Nose" George Parrott - who was skinned; and, double trials of Jack McCall.

In 1984, at the age of 78, world-renowned rose grower Hilda Murrell was found brutally murdered in the Shropshire countryside. She had just gained approval to testify on the unsolved [problems of radioactive waste at the first British planning inquiry into a new nuclear power plant at Sizewell, Suffolk. The police theory that a lone , panicking burglar robbed and abducted Hilda in her own car for petty cash erupted into a sensational political conspiracy involving prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's plans for British nuclear energy and the controversial sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano in the 1982 Falklands War. The West Mercia police took until 2005 to secure the conviction of Andrew George as Hilda's unlikely murderer - in 1984 he was a 16-yeat-old truant from a local foster home who could not drive. The case spawned numerous books, plays and TV programmes as it became one of the most baffling British murders of the 20th century. Now, Hilda's nephew Robert Green - a former Royal Navy Commander who operated nuclear weapons before holding a key position in Naval Intelligence during the Falklands War - tells the story of his extraordinary pursuit of the truth. Believing that Hilda was abducted by those who wanted to find out what she knew about the Falklands conflict and problems in the Sizewell nuclear power plant, and undeterred by ongoing harassment, Green exposes the implausibility of the police theory and uncovers explosive new evidence that should have acquitted Andrew George. This is the incredible true story of Hilda Murrell - and one man's quest to find out how and why his beloved aunt met such a violent and bizarre death.

Award-winning author and journalist Nina Burleigh’s mesmerizing literary investigation of the murder of Meredith Kercher, the controversial prosecution, the conviction and twenty-six-year sentence of Amanda Knox, the machinations of Italian justice, and the underground depravity and clash of cultures in one of central Italy’s most beloved cities.The sexually violent murder of twenty-one-year-old British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, on the night of November 1, 2007, became an international sensation when one of Kercher’s housemates, twenty-year-old Seattle native Amanda Knox, as well as her Italian boyfriend and a troubled local man Knox said she “vaguely” knew, was arrested and charged with the murder. When Perugia authorities concluded that the murder was part of a dark, twisted rite—a “sex game”—led by the American with an uncanny resemblance to Perugia’s Madonna, they unleashed a media frenzy from Rome to London to New York and Seattle. The story drew an international cult obsessed with “Foxy Knoxy,” a pretty honor student on a junior year abroad, who either woke up one morning into a nightmare of superstition and misogyny—the dark side of Italy—or participated in something unspeakable.The investigation begins in the old stone cottage overlooking bucolic olive groves where Kercher’s body was found in her locked bedroom. It winds through the shadowy, arched alleys of Perugia, a city of art that is also a magnet for tens of thousands of students who frequent its bars, clubs, and drug bazaar on the steps of the Duomo. It climaxes in an up-close account of Italy’s dysfunctional legal system, as the trial slowly unfolds at the town’s Tribunale, and the prosecution’s thunderous final appeal to God before the quivering girl defendant resembles a scene from the Inquisition. To reveal what actually happened on that terrible night after Halloween, Nina Burleigh lived in Perugia, attended the trial, and corresponded with the incarcerated defendants. She also delved deeply into the history, secrets, and customs of Perugia, renowned equally for its Etruscan tunnels, early Christian art, medieval sorcerers, and pagan roots.A New York Times bestseller, The Fatal Gift of Beauty is the thoughtful, compelling examination of an enduring mystery, an ancient, storied place, and a disquieting facet of Italian culture: an obsession with female eroticism. By including the real story of Rudy Guede, it is also an acute window into the minds and personalities of the accused killers and of the conservative Italian magistrate striving to make sense of an inexplicable act of evil. But at its core is an indelible portrait of Amanda Knox, the strangely childlike, enigmatic beauty, whose photogenic face became the focal point of international speculation about the shadow side of youth and freedom.

Falling for a scam or con is humiliating for anyone, and can have terrible consequences. Here, Alt and Wells describe the most common scams, offer the stories of actual victims, and detail ways to protect yourself and your family from becoming easy targets. What makes the elderly such easy marks for con artists?