True crime: serial killers and murderers Books

Book SynopsisWho Really Killed Claire? re-investigates the brutal yet apparently motiveless murder of 16-year-old Claire Tiltman in Greenhithe, Kent in 1993. It describes how police investigations faltered for almost 20 years until Colin Ash-Smith, due to be released from a long prison sentence for lesser attacks on young women, was unceremoniously charged with this cold case murder. This was one of the UK's very first cases involving the use of evidence of 'bad character' under a controversial new law. Expertly researched, the book revisits the crime scene, investigation, prosecution, media frenzy and belated urgency that led to Ash-Smith's conviction before he was 'back on the street'. Meanwhile, the predatory serial killer Robert Napper was ignored, despite 'hallmarks' and correlations making him a strong suspect. Well placed to raise doubts, experienced investigator Alan Jackaman analyses the wholly circumstantial evidence and explains why he believes misplaced 'gut feelings' may have beset the entire case. Extract: 'When asked again if he had murdered Claire ... [Colin Ash-Smith] replied, "Out of all the interviews I've been in I haven't told one single lie. I can categorically say I had nothing to do with Claire's murder ...".'

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Book SynopsisA masterful, revelatory work of literary non-fiction about a teenage girl’s shocking crime — and its extraordinary aftermath.'An absorbing work of social history and a story about the mystery and miracle of forgiveness...it deserves to be read with attention.' Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize–winning author of the Wolf Hall trilogyOn a spring afternoon in 1985 in Gary, Indiana, a fifteen-year-old black girl kills a white elderly bible teacher in a violent home invasion. In a city with a history of racial tension the press swoops in.When Paula is sentenced to death, no one decries the impending execution of a tenth grader. But the tide begins to shift when the victim’s grandson Bill forgives the girl, against the wishes of his family, and campaigns to spare her life. This tragedy in a midwestern steel town soon reverberates across the United States and around the world — reaching as far away as the Vatican — as newspapers cover the story on their front pages and millions sign petitions in support of Paula.As Paula waits on death row, her fate sparks a debate that not only animates legal circles but raises vital questions about the value of human life. This story asks us to consider the nature of justice, and what radical acts of empathy we might be capable of.Trade Review'Addresses challenges of juvenile punishment with insight . . . A probing and moving book.' * The Wall Street Journal *'This is a harrowing and thought-provoking portrait of crime and punishment.' * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *'Seventy Times Seven is an absorbing work of social history and a story about the mystery and miracle of forgiveness...it deserves to be read with attention.' -- Hilary Mantel'A story of crime, punishment and forgiveness, in a literary non-fiction work that reads like a thriller.' -- Love Reading

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Book SynopsisIt's time to set the record straight about Steven Avery.The Netflix series Making a Murderer was a runaway hit, with over 19 million US viewers in the first 35 days. The series left many with the opinion that Steven Avery, a man falsely imprisoned for almost 20 years on a previous, unrelated assault charge, had been framed by a corrupt police force and district attorney's office for the murder of a young photographer. Viewers were outraged, and hundreds of thousands demanded a pardon for Avery. The chief villain of the series? Ken Kratz, the special prosecutor who headed the investigation and trial. Kratz's later misdeeds—prescription drug abuse and sexual harassment—only cemented belief in his corruption.This book tells you what Making a Murderer didn't.While indignation at the injustice of his first imprisonment makes it tempting to believe in his innocence, Avery: The Case Against Steven Avery and What Making a Murderer Gets Wrong and the evidence shared inside—examined thoroughly and dispassionately—prove that, in this case, the criminal justice system worked just as it should.With Avery, Ken Kratz puts doubts about Steven Avery's guilt to rest. In this exclu- sive insider's look into the controversial case, Kratz lets the evidence tell the story, sharing details and insights unknown to the public. He reveals the facts Making a Murderer conveniently left out and then candidly addresses the aftermath—openly discussing, for the first time, his own struggle with addiction that led him to lose everything.Avery systematically erases the uncertainties introduced by the Netflix series, confirming, once and for all, that Steven Avery is guilty of the murder of Teresa Halbach.Table of ContentsForewordChapter One True Crime TodayChapter Two The DisappearanceChapter Three The VictimChapter Four The PerpetratorChapter Five The BloodChapter Six The KeyChapter Seven The BonesChapter Eight The BulletChapter Nine The AccompliceChapter Ten The DecisionChapter Eleven The VillainsChapter Twelve The “Prize”Chapter Thirteen The Vast, Fantastical Police ConspiracyChapter Fourteen The AftermathAcknowledgments

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Book SynopsisBestselling author, co-host of the hit podcast The Murder Squad, and true-crime investigative journalist Billy Jensen goes to Columbus, Ohio, where he examines the unsolved cases of eighteen dead and missing women, whom he suspects were the victims of serial killers on the loose and operating under cover of the opioid epidemic in America's heartland.In Chase Darkness with Me, readers and listeners learned Billy Jensen's journalist origin story, his struggles, his call to adventure, and his first successes in solving murders. In Killers Amidst Killers, readers will ride shotgun with Jensen as he takes on serial killers who are walking among us and planning their next moves in real time. The facts are not in old police reports and faded photos. They unfold before our eyes on the page. Our story begins in 2017, when two young women, best friends Danielle and Lindsey go missing in Columbus, Ohio, within weeks of each other, and their bodies are found soon thereafter. As Jensen investigates Danielle and Lindsey's cases, he comes across other missing and murdered women, and before long, he uncovers eighteen of them. All unsolved. And no one was talking about it. These are not women who were raised in the street. They got hooked on pills. The pills were taken away. They get hooked on heroin. And when the money is gone, they have to sell themselves. It happens very quick. Through his investigations and the help of experts, Jensen identifies serial killers in Cleveland and Columbus. Why there? Because it's easy. Sharks go where the swimmers are. Serial killers go where the easy prey are: Ground zero of the opioid epidemic. The heart of America. That is what happened to Danielle and Lindsey. But serial killers murdering sex workers in the 21st century will get 45 seconds on the local news, and page 3 in the local paper, and then can disappear in the wind. Jensen hunts these predators to bring peace to the victims' suffering families while putting a spotlight on a system that is leaving hundreds of thousands of bodies in its wake.Trade Review“Jensen (Chase Darkness with Me: How One True-Crime Writer Started Solving Murders) asks a lot of questions but gets few answers in this thought-provoking and disturbing examination of how serial killers could have operated unsuspected in areas of Ohio ravaged by the opioid epidemic during the 2010s. Factors include poor record keeping, unshared information (so that the m.o. of a murder in one county might remain unknown to investigators in a neighboring county), and lack of public concern about the lives of the victims, who were typically impoverished, abused, and addicted sex workers. Jensen gives the victims a vital presence through the voices of the loved ones they left behind. In particular, he focuses on the heartbreaking stories of two Columbus sex workers, best friends Danielle Greene and Lindsey Maccabee, whose bodies were found within a month of each other in 2017. As he seeks to identify the women’s killer or killers, he lays bare the devastation wrought by a system that delivers unequal justice for people deemed marginal by American society. Jensen also discusses the sad cases of 30 other women who either went missing or were murdered. Not just true crime buffs will want to check out this impassioned cri de coeur.” -- Publishers Weekly“Billy Jensen is one of the best investigative journalists in the US. This is a chilling and very moving investigation that everyone should read.” -- Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again and Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

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