True crime Books

Book SynopsisThe story that could not be written till now!I have been collecting this informatin for more than twenty years. I was personally acquainted with many of the outlaws who nested in the dives along the Tennessee-Mississippi border, and I crossed paths with them while I was doing research for Buford Pusser's authorized biography, The Twelfth of August. Pusser fought the state-line criminals during his entire six-year reign as sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee.During the state-line wars, Pusser created a larger-than-life image. But while walking tall, he often walked outside the law.Members of the state-line mob were bold and colorful. They lived hard and fast. Most of them died the same way. ?W. R. Morris

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Book SynopsisMike Sager is to drugs, porn, and crimes of desperate delusion what Dominic Dunne is to the society murder. In addition to his long-classic Rolling Stone story The Devil and John Holmes (which helped inspire the upcoming Val Kilmer film, Wonderland) and his groundbreaking GQ piece about murdered Irish investigative reporter Veronica Guerin (also the subject of a major film starring Cate Blanchett), Scary Monsters and Super Freaks is a wonderful rogue''s gallery of up-close pieces about the most public failures of the American dream. From Rick James and his drug-fueled detour into white slavery to the life and suicide of porn starlet Savannah, from deep inside the beating of Rodney King and the Heaven''s Gate cult suicides to Chuck Berry''s sexual predilections, this book brings to high-profile true crime a highly identifiable voice and style. Currently Esquire''s Writer-at-Large, Sager takes us along for the ride with a raft of other figures including the late NWA Rapper Easy E. Winner, the FBI agent who fell in love with his informant, and the highest ranking DEA agent to be busted for drug trafficking. This is a brilliant debut collection by one of America''s most respected and stylish crime writers.

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Book SynopsisCiudad Juárez lies just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. A once-thriving border town, it now resembles a failed state. Infamously known as the place where women disappear, its murder rate exceeds that of Baghdad or Mogadishu. In Murder City , Charles Bowden has written an extraordinary account of what happens when a city disintegrates. Interweaving stories of its inhabitants- a raped beauty queen, a repentant hit man, a journalist fleeing for his life- with a broader meditation on the town's descent into anarchy, Bowden reveals how Juárez's culture of violence will not only worsen but inevitably spread north.

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Book SynopsisThe American legal system changed dramatically when the O. J. Simpson trial became a television-ratings bonanza. Now it’s all crime, all the time, from tabloid news to police procedurals. Americans now know more about the criminal justice system than ever before. Or do they?In Mistrial, Mark Geragos and Pat Harris argue precisely the opposite: In pursuit of sensationalism, the public sees only a small, distorted sample of what really happens in our courtrooms. Geragos and Harris debunk the myth of impartial American justice—from stealth jurors who secretly swing for a conviction to cops who regularly lie on the witness stand. Ultimately, the authors question whether a justice system model drawn up two centuries ago is still viable today.Geragos and Harris are legal experts and prominent criminal defense attorneys who have worked on everything from celebrity media circuses to equally compelling cases defending individuals desperate to avoid the spotlight. Mistrial gives a behind-the-scenes peek that reveals their most fascinating cases, enthralling legal eagles and armchair litigators alike—as it blows the lid off what really happens in a courtroom.

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Book SynopsisPainstakingly honest, this chilling memoir reveals how a teenager became immersed in the bizarre life of legendary porn star John Holmes. Starting with a childhood that molded her perfectly to fall for the seduction of "the king of porn," this autobiography recounts the perilous road that Dawn Schiller traveled--from drugs and addiction to beatings, arrests, forced prostitution, and being sold to the drug underworld. After living through the horrific Wonderland murders of 1981, she entered protective custody, ran from the FBI, and turned in John Holmes to the police. This is the true story of a young girl's harrowing escape from one of the most infamous public figures, her struggle to survive, and her recovery from unthinkable abuse.Trade Review"Curiously enough for a book concerned with notorious pornographic film star John Holmes, there is very little emphasis on sex here. Instead, Schiller, who met Holmes in 1976 when she was just 15, details their five-year love affair, the stability he provided in the wake of her troubled childhood, and the deterioration of their relationship after Holmes became addicted to cocaine and was ultimately arrested." --Booklist "The emotions are strong throughout this well-written book and lead the reader into a world few travel and survive. I was unable to put the book down!" --Susan Murphy Milano, violence expert and author, Time's Up: A Guide on How to Leave and Survive Abuse and Stalking Relationships "Dawn Schiller manages to write so beautifully about something so shatteringly repulsive." --National Center for Victims of Crime "Gritty and starkly honest." --Mike Sager, writer at large, Esquire; author , Scary Monsters and Super Freaks "Dawn Schiller's courageous and intimately detailed memoir has given us a rare backstage glimpse at the tragic life of one man whom the porn industry used to sustain its myth-making machinery--and the havoc he wreaked in the life of a vulnerable young woman." --Dr. Jackson Katz, author, The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help "The most mesmerizing memoir since Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle ." --AOL News "[Schiller's] unflinching prose makes a gruesome story that much more compelling." -- Los Angeles Magazine "Schiller's writing is gripping, and the reader gets sucked in to this twisted tale. The story is so shocking it's hard to believe that she lived through these terrifying events. This book is hard to put down and definitely provokes the reader to want to continue to see what happens next." --Nicole Will, Portland Book Review (March 2011)

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Book SynopsisThe Kent State University Press is excited to reissue these classic true crime detective stories by Allan Pinkerton, the Scottish American detective and spy who founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1850. His agency was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world at the height of its power, and its well-known logo of a large, unblinking eye actually served as inspiration for the term "private eye."In Bank Robbers and the Detectives, Pinkerton receives a telegram that reads, "First National Bank robbed, please come, or send at once" from Thomas Locke in Somerset, Michigan. He sets off to investigate the crime. After journeying to the quaint town in a blizzard, the detective learns that $65,000 of treasury bonds, notes, and cash had disappeared from the bank's vault overnight. Only one man knew the combination: the bank's cashier, Mr. Norton. When Pinkerton's subsequent examination of the crime scene reveals no signs of forced entry, it starts to look like Mr. Norton committed the crime.But if Pinkerton has learned anything during his three decades of detective work, it is that initial appearances are often deceiving, and he narrows the investigation down to three suspects close to the cashier. However, he soon discovers that the promise of exorbitant wealth can tempt even the most honorable man to commit treacherous crimes.

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Book SynopsisThe Kent State University Press is excited to reissue these classic true crime detective stories by Allan Pinkerton, the Scottish American detective and spy who founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1850. His agency was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world at the height of its power, and its well-known logo of a large, unblinking eye actually served as inspiration for the term "private eye."In The Somnambulist and the Detective, Allan Pinkerton Pinkerton travels to Atkinson, Mississippi, to investigate the murder of bank teller George Gordon and the theft of more than $130,000 in the City Bank of Atkinson. Atkinson appears at first to be no more than a quiet town of shopkeepers, laborers, and businessmen. But dark secrets lurk beneath the town's Southern facade, and Pinkerton wastes no time in discovering them. Traveling under the guise of a cotton speculator, Pinkerton makes inquiries into the crime without drawing suspicion.Although George's body was discovered in the morning, he was in the habit of remaining in the bank after hours. And upon learning that George would never let anyone into the locked bank save "only one or two personal friends," Pinkerton is certain George must have known his killer! But without much hard evidence, the Scottish detective must use all of his cunning to deduce the identity of the murderous thief and extract a confession.

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Book SynopsisThe Kent State University Press is excited to reissue these classic true crime detective stories by Allan Pinkerton, the Scottish American detective and spy who founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1850. His agency was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world at the height of its power, and its well-known logo of a large, unblinking eye actually served as inspiration for the term "private eye."In The Murderer and the Fortune Teller, Captain J. N. Sumner from Springfield, Massachusetts, hires Pinkerton to help solve a crime involving his sisters and the deed to a family farm. His younger sister Annie falls under the charms of a married man, Mr. Pattmore, who promises to marry Annie once his wife and her brother are out of the way. Captain Sumner possesses an opal ring with a stone that appears to foretell events. After suddenly falling violently ill, he becomes convinced his sister is trying to poison him to get his fortune and, more importantly, his ring.Recognizing Annie's superstitious nature, Pinkerton has one of his female detectives pose as a fortune teller to meet with Annie. But it soon becomes clear that Pinkerton may have gotten more than he bargained for. Is Annie actually trying to kill her brother, or is she being controlled by a much more sinister force? Is Captain Sumner's ring genuine? So unfolds this tale of adultery, politics, superstition, manipulation, and murder.

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Book Synopsis"And you wonder: How the hell did this guy go on to be a loving father and grandfather? How did he bury all that crap? That's a story in itself." —Clint Eastwood, director of THE CHANGELING The film story of young Sanford Clark and his forced participation in the Wineville Murders was covered in Clint Eastwood's movie, THE CHANGELING, but for answers to the questions Eastwood posed after completing the project, turn to the true story of the Wineville murders: Anthony Flacco's THE ROAD OUT OF HELL. The hell part isn't what makes the story important; it's the road out that does. From 1926 to 1928, Gordon Stewart Northcott committed at least 20 murders on a chicken ranch outside of Los Angeles. His nephew, Sanford Clark, was held captive there from the age of 13 to 15, and was the sole surviving victim of the killing spree. Here, acclaimed crime writer Anthony Flacco—using never-before-heard information from Sanford's son, Jerry Clark—tells the real story behind the case that riveted the nation. Forced by Northcott to take part in the murders, Sanford carried tremendous guilt all his life. Yet despite his youth and the trauma, he helped gain some justice for the dead and their families by testifying at Northcott's trial—which led to his conviction and execution. It was a shocking story, but perhaps the most shocking part of all is the extraordinarily ordinary life Clark went on to live as a decorated WWII vet, a devoted husband of 55 years, a loving father, and a productive citizen. In dramatizing one of the darkest cases in American crime, Flacco constructs a riveting psychological drama about how Sanford was able to detoxify himself from the evil he'd encountered, offering the ultimately redemptive story of one man's remarkable ability to survive a nightmare and emerge intact.

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