True crime Books

Book SynopsisA premier historian penetrates the fog of corruption and cover-up still surrounding the murder of a Stanford University founder to establish who did it, how and whyTrade Review"Irresistibly fascinating... Richard White has brought Jane Stanford and her peculiar entourage vividly to life—and also has persuasively figured out who killed her." -- Nicholas Lemann, author of Transaction Man"Offering a detective story with more twists and turns than a Dashiell Hammett novel, Mr. White leads us through his research into the labyrinth. Along the way, [he] uncovers a century-long campaign kicked off by the university’s first president to cloud the circumstances of Jane Stanford’s death.…[A] brilliant, acerbic guide into a world that resonates with the present,…Mr. White has done an astonishing job of sifting through the available clues—and turning up an impressive array of new details. In this fascinating 'whydunit,' he makes a convincing case for why Jane Stanford’s murder was covered up for so long." -- Julia Flynn Siler - Wall Street Journal"[A] rollicking account of Jane Stanford’s final years and violent death, all set against the seamy San Francisco carnival culture of the era." -- Meryl Gordon - New York Times"Scrupulously researched… [a] lively account of the institution’s origins" -- James Lasdun - London Review of Books

Read more less

Book SynopsisA premier historian penetrates the fog of corruption and cover-up still surrounding the murder of a Stanford University founder to establish who did it, how and whyTrade Review"Irresistibly fascinating... Richard White has brought Jane Stanford and her peculiar entourage vividly to life—and also has persuasively figured out who killed her." -- Nicholas Lemann, author of Transaction Man"[A] rollicking account of Jane Stanford’s final years and violent death, all set against the seamy San Francisco carnival culture of the era." -- Meryl Gordon - The New York Times"Scrupulously researched… [a] lively account of the institution’s origins" -- James Lasdun - London Review of Books

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe multigenerational tale of three families whose paths collide one summer night in 1960 with the murder of a police officer

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Colony,/i. is one of the most gripping and disturbing true stories I've ever come across.Douglas Preston An investigation into the November, 2019 killings of nine women and children in Northern Mexicoan event that drew internationalTrade Review"Meticulously researched…. The author couldn’t have found a more bizarro clan to profile than the LeBarons, whose history of murdering family members, mental illness and incest rivals that of the Hapsburgs…. Denton provides an excellent history of a polyga" -- Julia Scheeres - The New York Times Book Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisBased on extensive sources, including newspapers, trial documents, and local histories, this gripping account of a seemingly typical woman who achieved extraordinary notoriety will appeal to true crime lovers and historians alike.Trade ReviewThe murder of a business partner doesn't sound very sexy. But Gamber raises a provocative issue when she studies the era's disapproving attitude toward any woman who dared to benefit from the commercial opportunities of a postwar world-especially if that commerce happened to be illegal. New York Times Book ReviewTable of Contents2 0. Prologue; 3 1. New Years' Day; 4 2. Business; 5 3. Cold Spring; 6 4. Detection; 7 5. Trial ; 8 6. Self-Reliant and God Defiant!; 9 7. Knowed It Was Them; 10 8. I Wish I Was an Angel; 11 9. A Good Soldier; 12 10. Lebanon; 13 11. The Indiana Murderess; 14 12. Indiana Justice; 15 13. I Kept It Rolling; 16 14. Aunty Smith; 17 15. Mrs. Dr. Patterson; 18 0. Epilogue; 1 0. Acknowledgments; 19 0. Notes; 20 0. Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn original and exciting cultural history of 1930s Britain, this innovative book and the exploits of its dissolute playboys will appeal to true-crime readers and historians alike.Trade Reviewa detailed contextual analysis of the period and its obsessions.—Times Higher EducationI found Playboys & Mayfair Men riveting.—Literary Review[McLaren] succeeds in extracting from a seedy tale some novel insights into the culture of pre-war Britain.—New StatesmanMcLaren uses an impressive range of sources, both primary and secondary, to plunge deeply into the world of Mayfair men not only in the 1930s but also in the postwar world. In a sense, they were the successors of the flappers and the Bright Young Things of the 1920s.—Peter Stansky, Stanford University, Journal of Interdisciplinary HistoryThe book is a delight to read, due largely to its effective organization, clear analysis of the playboy identity, and the timeliness of its portrayal of class and gendered entitlement . . . McLaren's style is compact and clear throughout, and the book would be an excellent addition to readers' lists for students interested in gender, class, and interwar Britain. On a more general level, the subject matter will appeal to anyone aware of the class privilege and playboy mentalities increasingly on display in our contemporary world.—Brett Bebber, Old Dominion University, H-Net ReviewsClearly written and well-organized . . . Playboys and Mayfair Men: Crime, Class, Masculinity, and Fascism in 1930s London makes a very useful addition to the growing literature on the history of masculinity . . . To read McLaren's book is to enter a world of outrageous snobbery that is not quite as remote from our own as many of us would like to believe.—Dominic Janes, Keele University, American Historical Review[Playboys and Mayfair Men] makes for an enjoyable read, demonstrating effectively the fascination that such high society cases could have for a wide readership, as much today as at the time they were reported . . . McLaren makes a number of interesting points about the socio-cultural significance of the case, principally around the importance of economic production and conspicuous consumption to definitions of masculinity in this period, which enables him to date the emergence of the playboy to two decades earlier than has generally been argued.—Jessica Meyer, University of Leeds, English Historical ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I1. The Robbery2. The Investigation3. The Suspects4. The Trial5. The AftermathPart II6. Pain7. Masculinity8. Crime9. Class10. FascismEpilogueNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisBased on extensive sources, including newspapers, trial documents, and local histories, this gripping account of a seemingly typical woman who achieved extraordinary notoriety will appeal to true crime lovers and historians alike.Trade ReviewThe murder of a business partner doesn't sound very sexy. But Gamber raises a provocative issue when she studies the era's disapproving attitude toward any woman who dared to benefit from the commercial opportunities of a postwar world-especially if that commerce happened to be illegal. New York Times Book ReviewTable of Contents2 0. Prologue; 3 1. New Years' Day; 4 2. Business; 5 3. Cold Spring; 6 4. Detection; 7 5. Trial ; 8 6. Self-Reliant and God Defiant!; 9 7. Knowed It Was Them; 10 8. I Wish I Was an Angel; 11 9. A Good Soldier; 12 10. Lebanon; 13 11. The Indiana Murderess; 14 12. Indiana Justice; 15 13. I Kept It Rolling; 16 14. Aunty Smith; 17 15. Mrs. Dr. Patterson; 18 0. Epilogue; 1 0. Acknowledgments; 19 0. Notes; 20 0. Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA behind-the-scenes look inside three key trials involving Monsanto's weed killer Roundup, cancer, and the search for justicewritten by an expert witness medical oncologist who lived it all. For years, Monsanto declared that their product Roundup, the world's most widely used weed killer, was safe. But that all changed in 2015, when the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) analyzed data from scientific studies and concluded that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is probably carcinogenic.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disagreed, other regulatory agencies got involved, and scientists clamored to understand the link between glyphosate and cancer. Toxic Exposure tells the true story of numerous patients who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer, after using Roundup and their ensuing trials against Monsanto (now owned by Bayer, one of the largest agrochemical companies in the world). Written by Chadi Nabhan, MD, MBA, a cancer specialist, tTrade ReviewThe author describes keeping his compassion for patients front and center despite tough grilling by Monsanto's lawyers and sharpening his resolve by remembering that he was there to help ameliorate suffering.Readers are invited along for the ride: sweating on the witness stand, hanging on the lawyers' every word, hoping for the truth to prevail.—Civil EatsTable of ContentsAuthor's NotePrefaceChapter 1. The Phone CallChapter 2. The First MeetingChapter 3. The EPAChapter 4. Meeting Mr. JohnsonChapter 5. The Night Before the Daubert HearingChapter 6. Coming to AmericaChapter 7. Daubert DayChapter 8. The Johnson Trial BeginsChapter 9. My Trial TestimonyChapter 10. The Johnson VerdictChapter 11. HardemanChapter 12. The Second Trial BeginsChapter 13. VerdictsChapter 14. PilliodsChapter 15. The Third Trial BeginsChapter 16. Another Day in CourtChapter 17. JudgmentChapter 18. EndingsGlossaryResourcesAcknowledgments

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe true story of how federal law enforcement flipped the playbook and convicted a corrupt unit of Baltimore police. In 2015 and 2016, Baltimore was reeling after the death of Freddie Gray and the protests that followed. In the midst of this unrest, a violent, highly trained, and heavily armed criminal gang roamed the city. They robbed people, sold drugs and guns, and divided the loot and profit among themselves. They had been doing it for years. But these were not ordinary career criminals. They were the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF). Formed in 2007 to get the guns and criminals responsible for Baltimore's high crime rates off the streets, they went rogue and abused their power to terrorize people throughout the city. On March 1, 2017, all members of the GTTF were arrested on federal racketeering charges. In Who Speaks for You?, Leo Wise, the lead federal prosecutor in the case, tells you how. Wise gives an inside look into the investigation and prosecutiTrade ReviewFederal prosecutor Wise delivers a riveting inside account of the yearslong investigation he led to take down a corrupt Baltimore police unit. Wise expertly balances detail and accessibility, writing lucidly about the case's legal intricacies and the challenges of getting jurors to view cops as criminals. This is a treat for true crime fans.—Publishers Weekly (starred review)Table of ContentsAuthor's NotesCast of CharactersPrologue: Our ForepersonPart One: Investigation1. The Barn2. The Alameda3. East 25th Street4. North Longwood Street5. The Winnebago Caper6. Westminster and the U-Store7. East Baltimore8. West Baltimore9. They're Stealing from EverybodyPart Two: Prosecution10. Indictment11. The Legacy Task Force Members12. The Newcomers13. New Charges, New Defendants14. Middle RiverPart Three: Trial15. Getting Started16. Cops Testifying Against Cops17. Drug Dealers Testifying Against Cops18. Geography is Destiny19. ChoicesAfterwordIndexNotes

Read more less

Book SynopsisCasts new light on this famous crime and its far-reaching consequences for the wrongly accused and the justice system.Trade Review"Byfield brings bifocal vision to her analysis of media treatment of the Central Park Jogger story, which she covered in her first career as a journalist for the New York Daily News... From her current perspective as a sociologist, Byfield reexamines the horrific event in light of after-acquired evidence and scholarly methodology, particularly content analysis of news coverage, and she tells a revised story in which issues of race, class, and media bias taint the justice system. VERDICT: A chilling, ultimately instructive portrayal of savage injustice " - Library JournalTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 1 Reconnecting New Forms of Inequality to their Roots 2 A Jogger Is Raped in Central Park 3 The Position of the Black Man in the Cult of White Womanhood 4 Salvaging the “Savage”: A Racial Frame that Refuses to Die 5 A Participant Observes How Content Emerges 6 The “Facts” Emerge to Convict the Innocent 7 The Case Falls Apart: Media’s Brief Mea Culpa 8 Selling Savage Portrayals: Young Black and Latino Males in the Carceral State 9 They Didn’t Do It! Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisCasts new light on this famous crime and its far-reaching consequences for the wrongly accused and the justice system.Trade Review"Byfield brings bifocal vision to her analysis of media treatment of the Central Park Jogger story, which she covered in her first career as a journalist for the New York Daily News... From her current perspective as a sociologist, Byfield reexamines the horrific event in light of after-acquired evidence and scholarly methodology, particularly content analysis of news coverage, and she tells a revised story in which issues of race, class, and media bias taint the justice system. VERDICT: A chilling, ultimately instructive portrayal of savage injustice " - Library JournalTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 1 Reconnecting New Forms of Inequality to their Roots 2 A Jogger Is Raped in Central Park 3 The Position of the Black Man in the Cult of White Womanhood 4 Salvaging the “Savage”: A Racial Frame that Refuses to Die 5 A Participant Observes How Content Emerges 6 The “Facts” Emerge to Convict the Innocent 7 The Case Falls Apart: Media’s Brief Mea Culpa 8 Selling Savage Portrayals: Young Black and Latino Males in the Carceral State 9 They Didn’t Do It! Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisLegions of bluegrass fans know the name Otto Wood from a ballad made popular by Doc Watson, telling the story of Wood's crimes and his eventual end. However, few know the history of this Appalachian figure beyond the version heard in song. Trevor McKenzie reconstructs Wood's life, tracing how he became a celebrated folk hero.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn the morning of February 6, 1999, Buenos Aires police officers shot and killed seventeen-year-old Víctor Manuel Vital, better known as Frente, while he was unarmed, hiding under a table, and trying to surrender. Widely known and respected throughout Buenos Aires''s shantytowns for his success as a thief, commitment to a code of honor, and generosity to his community, Frente became a Robin Hood--style legend who, in death, was believed to have the power to make bullets swerve and save gang members from shrapnel. In Dance for Me When I Die—first published in Argentina in 2004 and appearing here in English for the first time—Cristian Alarcón tells the story and legacy of Frente''s life and death in the context of the everyday experiences of love and survival, murder and addiction, and crime and courage of those living in the slums. Drawing on interviews with Frente''s friends, family, and ex-girlfriends, as well as with local thievesand drug dealersTrade Review“... Alarcón’s work appears to renew a long tradition of artists and writers from the center of Buenos Aires seeking insights about the nature of modern Argentina by exploring its ragged outskirts and their sordid but authentic forms of popular culture.... Much to think about indeed.” -- Brian Bockelman * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsForeword / Javier Auyero and Gabriela Polit-Dueñas xi Acknowledgments xv Prologue 1 Chapter 1 5 Chapter 2 21 Chapter 3 37 Chapter 4 45 Chapter 5 55 Chapter 6 73 Chapter 7 85 Chapter 8 101 Chapter 9 115 Epilogue 127

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn the morning of February 6, 1999, Buenos Aires police officers shot and killed seventeen-year-old Víctor Manuel Vital, better known as Frente, while he was unarmed, hiding under a table, and trying to surrender. Widely known and respected throughout Buenos Aires''s shantytowns for his success as a thief, commitment to a code of honor, and generosity to his community, Frente became a Robin Hood--style legend who, in death, was believed to have the power to make bullets swerve and save gang members from shrapnel. In Dance for Me When I Die—first published in Argentina in 2004 and appearing here in English for the first time—Cristian Alarcón tells the story and legacy of Frente''s life and death in the context of the everyday experiences of love and survival, murder and addiction, and crime and courage of those living in the slums. Drawing on interviews with Frente''s friends, family, and ex-girlfriends, as well as with local thievesand drug dealersTrade Review“... Alarcón’s work appears to renew a long tradition of artists and writers from the center of Buenos Aires seeking insights about the nature of modern Argentina by exploring its ragged outskirts and their sordid but authentic forms of popular culture.... Much to think about indeed.” -- Brian Bockelman * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsForeword / Javier Auyero and Gabriela Polit-Dueñas xi Acknowledgments xv Prologue 1 Chapter 1 5 Chapter 2 21 Chapter 3 37 Chapter 4 45 Chapter 5 55 Chapter 6 73 Chapter 7 85 Chapter 8 101 Chapter 9 115 Epilogue 127

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe surprising true story of Mexico's hunt, arrest, and conviction of its first female serial killerFor three years, amid widespread public outrage, police in Mexico City struggled to uncover the identity of the killer responsible for the ghastly deaths of forty elderly women, many of whom had been strangled in their homes with a stethoscope by someone posing as a government nurse. When Juana Barraza Samperio, a female professional wrestler known as la Dama del Silencio (the Lady of Silence), was arrestedand eventually sentenced to 759 years in prisonfor her crimes as the Mataviejitas (the little old lady killer), her case disrupted traditional narratives about gender, criminality, and victimhood in the popular and criminological imagination.Marshaling ten years of research, and one of the only interviews that Juana Barraza Samperio has given while in prison, Susana Vargas Cervantes deconstructs this uniquely provocative story. She focuses, in particular, on the cTrade ReviewSerial murderers, lucha libre wrestlers, gender-transgressing vestidas, prejudiced scientists and disoriented policemen populate the pages of this insightful study of the cultural construction of crime and criminals in Mexico. Focusing on a case that challenged what Mexicans thought they knew about crime, Vargas examines performance, images, media languages and expert discourses, and uncovers their racist and machista premises. Her criticism is original but also urgently needed, as we see how the neglect of certain victims and the criminalization of those who do not conform to gender norms contribute to the dehumanizing levels of violence that Mexico is witnessing today. -- Pablo Piccato,author of A History of Infamy: Crime, Truth, and Justice in MexicoThis brilliant mixed-genre meditation on the life and crimes of Juana Barraza combines the pulse of true crime, a picaresque cast of historical characters, the contextual nuance of cultural history, the sophistication of queer theory, and disturbing new insights into Mexican identity and its complicated relationship with human mortalitya (trans)historical achievement of the highest order. -- Robert Marshall Buffington,author of A Sentimental Education for the Working Man: The Mexico City Penny Press, 1900-1910In addition to Samperio's story, Cervantes thoroughly analyzes subjects including Mexican history, lucha libre, anthropology, serial killing and gender roles and expectations. Fascinating … not your typical true crime book. * SLAM! Wrestling *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Cry of Murder on Broadway, Julie Miller shows how a woman''s desperate attempt at murder came to momentarily embody the anger and anxiety felt by many people at a time of economic and social upheaval and expanding expectations for equal rights.On the evening of November 1, 1843, a young household servant named Amelia Norman attacked Henry Ballard, a prosperous merchant, on the steps of the new and luxurious Astor House Hotel. Agitated and distraught, Norman had followed Ballard down Broadway before confronting him at the door to the hotel. Taking out a folding knife, she stabbed him, just missing his heart. Ballard survived the attack, and the trial that followed created a sensation. Newspapers in New York and beyond followed the case eagerly, and crowds filled the courtroom every day. The prominent author and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child championed Norman and later included her story in her fiction and her writing on women''s rights. The would-be muTrade ReviewThis deeply researched, absorbing work captures the sensationalism of Norman's failed attempt at murder and the subsequent trial as well as the political and economic upheaval sweeping the country. Bound to appeal to true crime readers, especially those with an interest in the intersection of crime and socioeconomic issues. * Library Journal *Concise and engaging, Cry of Murder makes Amelia Norman's sad story a good read for anyone interested in learning more about 19th-century New York. Through Amelia Norman, Miller humanizes the often-impersonal forces of change that shaped Old New York. * Gotham Center for New York City History *Table of ContentsPrologue: Defending Amelia Norman 1. I Am Murdered 2. Jersey Maid and Damn Yankee 3. Go and Get Your Living 4. An Awful Place 5. A Great Heart 6. The Trial Begins 7. Verdict 8. The Law of Seduction Epilogue: Harlot's Fate

Read more less

Book SynopsisBernie Madoff's arrest could not have come at a more darkly poetic moment. Economic upheaval had plunged America into a horrid recession. Then, on December 11, 2008, Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme came to light. A father turned in by his sons; a son who took his own life; another son dying and estranged from his father; a woman at the center of a storm—Madoff's story was a media magnet, voraciously consumed by a justice-seeking public. Bernie Madoff and the Crisis goes beyond purely investigative accounts to examine how and why Madoff became the epicenter of public fury and titillation. Rooting her argument in critical sociology, Colleen P. Eren analyzes media coverage of this landmark case alongside original interviews with dozens of journalists and editors involved in the reportage, the SEC Director of Public Affairs, and Bernie Madoff himself. Turning the mirror back onto society, Eren locates Madoff within a broader reckoning about free market capitalism. She argues that our ideological and cultural tendencies to attribute blame to individuals—be they regulators, victims, or "monsters" like Madoff—distracts us from more systemic critiques. Bernie Madoff and the Crisis offers fresh insight into the 2008 crisis, whether we have come to terms with it, and what we have yet to gain from the case of the century.Trade Review"Eren crafts a narrative of Bernie Madoff's crimes as a sweeping comment on our society at large, which created and upheld the kill-or-be-killed finance ethos, and thereby produced the twenty-first century version of a Wall Street serial killer."—Erin Arvedlund, author of Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff"There is important primary data here and a creative analysis. Eren makes a notable contribution to the literature on financial crime, as well as our understanding of the role that the Madoff case played during an unfolding financial crisis."—Kitty Calavita, University of California, Irvine, author of Big Money Crime"Eren uses massive amounts of media commentary and interviews—with journalists and Madoff himself—to reveal salient points about the contemporary economy, society, and its demonology. An easy read, and an informative one as we continue to sift through the ashes of the financial crisis and our societal stance on white collar crime."—Michael Levi, Cardiff University and author of The Phantom Capitalists and Regulating Fraud"Eren provides the first investigation of why the crimes of Wall Street and Madoff—though economically and legally dissimilar—were culturally inseparable to the public. Steeped in the voices of reporters, regulators, and Bernie himself, this book is a major contribution to the study of white-collar crime."—Gregg Barak, Eastern Michigan University, author of Theft of a Nation: Wall Street Looting and Federal Regulatory Colluding"Bernie Madoff and the Crisis<\i> is an engaging, insightful and thought-provoking book. Its theoretical lens and empirical design should inspire future research on social reactions to white-collar crime, also of the more mundane kind. The book will be appealing to a wide readership."—Aleksandra Jordanoska, British Journal of Criminology<\i>"Bernie Madoff and the Crisis is a brief, engaging book that reminds readers about the complexity of social and economic problems and the mistake in simplifying them and thinking that criminal law alone can resolve them."—David Schultz, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice BooksTable of Contents1. A Crisis in Search of a Villain 2. Out of the Business Section, Into the Front Pages 3. Sleeping Watchdogs: Blaming the Regulators 4. It's How You're Rich That Matters: Narratives of the Haves, the Have Nots, and Have Lots 5. Boil Him in Oil: Cracking Down on Wall Street through Madoff 6. The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same?

Read more less

Book SynopsisA fascinating tale of seduction, murder, fraud, coercion—and the trial of the “Minneapolis Monster” On a winter night in 1894, a young woman’s body was found in the middle of a road near Lake Calhoun on the outskirts of Minneapolis. She had been shot through the head. The murder of Kittie Ging, a twenty-nine-year-old dressmaker, was the final act in a melodrama of seduction and betrayal, petty crimes and monstrous deeds that would obsess reporters and their readers across the nation when the man who likely arranged her killing came to trial the following spring. Shawn Francis Peters unravels that sordid, spellbinding story in his account of the trial of Harry Hayward, a serial seducer and schemer whom some deemed a “Svengali,” others a “Machiavelli,” and others a “lunatic” and “man without a soul.”Dubbed “one of the greatest criminals the world has ever seen” by the famed detective William Pinkerton, Harry Hayward was an inveterate and cunning plotter of crimes large and small, dabbling in arson, insurance fraud, counterfeiting, and illegal gambling. His life story, told in full for the first time here, takes us into shadowy corners of the nineteenth century, including mesmerism, psychopathy, spiritualism, yellow journalism, and capital punishment. From the horrible fate of an independent young businesswoman who challenged Victorian mores to the shocking confession of Hayward on the eve of his execution (which, if true, would have made him a serial killer), The Infamous Harry Hayward unfolds a transfixing tale of one of the most notorious criminals in America during the Gilded Age.Trade Review"The story of Harry Hayward is a portrait both of a genuinely chilling nineteenth-century killer and of a golden American city—Minneapolis in the 1800s—that provides a home to the darkness within us. Shawn Francis Peters does full justice to both light and shadow in this murderous tale."—Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York"At last, a great nonfiction storyteller has given this terrifying murderer the well-researched and vividly written treatment he deserves. The Infamous Harry Hayward places readers inside the disordered mind of a Victorian era killer—and won’t let them go."—Jack El-Hai, author of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist and The Lobotomist"The Infamous Harry Hayward is a riveting account of a dark chapter in Minnesota history—the murder-for-hire of a dressmaker, ‘Kittie’ Ging. The 1895 trial of Harry Hayward, a Victorian Era gambler and the murder’s criminal mastermind, grabbed lurid newspaper headlines in a case that pitted one brother against another."—John Bessler, author of Legacy of Violence: Lynch Mobs and Executions in Minnesota"The book unfolds as a play-by-play of the seven-week trial and reads much like the sensationalist reporting of the events at the time. The end result is an entertaining tale of crime and punishment from Minnesota’s gilded age and a great episode from the annals of yellow journalism."—Publishers Weekly"Peters’ scholarly, yet accessible, prose takes readers into the shadowy corners of Minneapolis and the sinister mind of a “man without a soul”."—Isthmus"If you’ve never heard of Harry Hayward you’ll love reading about this serial seducer, con man, gambler and crook. This nonfiction evocation of a sensational life reads like a thriller."—St. Paul Pioneer PressTable of ContentsIntroduction: “Under a Cloud of Moral Darkness”1. “This Woman Was Murdered”2. “Who Killed Kittie Ging?”3. “A Saturnalia of Crime”4. “Money Was My God!”5. “Go Out and Kill Somebody”6. “She Made No Sound, and Was Dead”7. “The Plot of a Fiend”8. “A Cursed Ghoulish Monster”9. “Don’t Under Any Circumstances Squeal on Me”10. “The Boldest Thing I Ever Heard of in My Life”11. “We Shall Be Able to Prove Everything”12. “You’ll Be Wearing Stripes Within a Year”13. “Evidence! Oh, What a Sham!”14. “Take Him to the Gallows!”15. “The Greatest Villain of the Nineteenth Century”16. “Stained With Blood”17. “A Kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Existence”18. “The Awful Finale”Epilogue: “I Had a Scheme”AcknowledgmentsSources and Suggested ReadingsBibliographyIllustration CreditsIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe mystery of how an ordinary Minnesota girl came to be, briefly, one of the most wanted domestic terrorists in the United States Behind every act of domestic terrorism there is someone’s child, an average American whose life took a radical turn for reasons that often remain mysterious. Camilla Hall is a case in point: a pastor’s daughter from small-town Minnesota who eventually joined the ranks of radicals like Sara Jane Olson (aka Kathleen Soliah) in the notorious Symbionese Liberation Army before dying in a shootout with Los Angeles Police in May 1974. How could a “good girl” like Camilla become one of the most wanted domestic terrorists in the United States? Rachael Hanel tells her story here, revealing both the deep humanity and the extraordinary circumstances of Camilla Hall’s life.Camilla’s childhood in a tight-knit religious family was marred by loss and grief as, one after another, her three siblings died. Her path from her Minnesota home to her final, radical SLA family featured years as an artist and activist—in welfare offices, political campaigns, union organizing, culminating in a love affair that would be her introduction to the SLA. Through in-depth research and extensive interviews, Hanel pieces together Camilla’s bewildering transformation from a “gentle, zaftig, arty, otherworldy” young woman (as one observer remarked), working for social change within the system, into a gun-wielding criminal involved in the kidnapping of Patty Hearst.During this time of mounting unrest and violence, Camilla Hall’s story is of urgent interest for what it reveals about the forces of radicalization. But as Hanel ventures ever further into Camilla’s past, searching out the critical points where character and cause might intersect, her book becomes an intriguing, disturbing, and ultimately deeply moving journey into the dark side of America’s promise.Trade Review "Who are the shadows in the background of shocking events? Rachael Hanel’s compelling exploration of Camilla Hall, a likable Minnesota social worker turned Berkeley lesbian artist turned player in the most notorious political kidnapping of its time, grippingly illuminates the barely perceptible line between an unrelenting passion for justice and devastating choices from which one can’t return."—Barrie Jean Borich, author of Apocalypse, Darling and Body Geographic "In this captivating work of narrative journalism, Rachael Hanel explores how people can become radicalized in the face of governmental failure, charting the path from idealism to violence to tragedy. At its heart, this is a book about womanhood and belonging—and one woman’s quest to understand another, to find the empathy and humanity that live beyond the headlines if we only try hard enough to see."—Melissa Faliveno, author of Tomboyland: Essays "In this affecting account, creative writing professor Hanel delves into the life of Camilla Hall, who was raised in rural Minnesota by religious parents and died at 29 in a 1974 shoot-out between members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the radical group that kidnapped Patty Hearst, and the Los Angeles police. This nuanced portrait will resonate with many."—Publishers Weekly "The story’s relevant connections to the happenings in today’s political world will linger with you. You will keep thinking about Camilla’s life and her family long after you finish the book."—KYMN Radio "Hanel breathes new life and understanding into Hall, who was often ridiculed in mainstream media, and invites readers to understand one woman’s story through a lens less viewed."—Mankato Free Press

Read more less

Book Synopsis“A snake handler convicted of the attempted murder of his wife by means of serpent bite is serving ninety-nine years in prison. The reader is gradually pulled into an increasingly complex story as Thomas Burton allows the many individuals involved in this event to tell their stories. Readers are less likely to find themselves concerned with what “really” happened than with larger issues they too will become involved in. this is more than a story about the headline ‘preacher tries to murder wife – with rattlesnakes!” it is a story of individuals struggling with their faith and their fate under the steady gaze of their God.” —Ralph W. Hood Jr., winner of the American Psychological Association’s William James Award in the psychology of religionIn this comprehensive, multilayered set of narratives, the story of Glenn Summerford’s fall from grace is told by its participants, through interviews, court documents, and other primary sources. Free of either prejudice against or romanticizing about the snake-handling Holiness religion, this book presents an absorbing story of a fascinating group of people, while allowing the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about Summerford’s guilt or innocence. The Serpent and the Spirit is a startling commentary on truth and its representation, religion and its expression, humanity and its flaws.Thomas Burton is professor emeritus of English at East Tennessee State University. He is the winner of the Appalachian Consortium Laurel Leaves Award.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAfter Tom Ketchum had been sentenced to death for attempting to hold up a railway train, his attorneys argued that the penalty was “cruel and unusual” for the offence charged. The appeal failed and he became the first individual—and the last—ever to be executed for a crime of this sort. He was hanged in 1901; in a macabre ending to his life of crime, his head was torn away by the rope as he fell from the gallows. Tom Ketchum was born in 1863 on a farm near the fringe of the Texas frontier. At the age of nine, he found himself an orphan and was raised by his older brothers. In his mid-twenties he left home for the life of an itinerant trail driver and ranch hand. He returned to Texas, murdered a man, and fled. Soon afterwards, he and his brother Sam killed two men in New Mexico. A year later, he and two other former cowboys robbed a train in Texas. The career of the Ketchum Gang was under way. In their day, these men were the most daring of their kind, and the most feared. They were accused of crimes that were not theirs, but their proven record is long and lurid. Their downfall was brought about by what one editor called “the magic of the telephone and telegraph,” by quarrels between themselves, and by their reckless defiance of ever-mounting odds. Jeffrey Burton has been researching the story of the Ketchum Gang and related outlaws for more than forty years. He has mined unpublished sources, family records, personal reminiscences, trial transcripts and other court papers, official correspondence and reports, census returns, and contemporary newspapers to sort fact from fiction and provide the definitive truth about Ketchum and numerous other outlaws, including Will Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, and Butch Cassidy. The Deadliest Outlaws initially was published in a limited run of 100 paperback copies in England. This second edition in hardcover contains additional material and photographs not found in the earlier printing. It will prove to be the final word on the Ketchum and Wild Bunch gangs.

Read more less

Book SynopsisRunning late for work one morning in September 1994, Tom Hargrove, communications director for an international agricultural aid organization in Cali, Colombia, was mildly annoyed when he spotted a roadblock, or reten, manned by soldiers in fatigues. He chafed at the delay, but told himself that guerrillas and kidnappers didn't operate on a main highway in broad daylight. But Hargrove had been dreadfully mistaken. Despite his assertions that he worked for a non-profit agricultural agency, he was forced at gunpoint into a vehicle and driven into the mountains by communist narco-terrorists who believed he was a valuable hostage. For almost a year, Hargrove was held by the guerillas and moved from one remote location to another. To maintain his grip on sanity, he recorded his daily experiences in makeshift journals: in a checkbook; on children's notebooks; and on scraps of paper scrounged during his ordeal. Hargrove's story, originally published in 1995, was the basis for the major motion picture ""Proof of Life"", starring Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan. Now available again in paperback, ""Long March to Freedom"" chronicles one man's spirited determination to hang onto life and faith amid nearly impossible circumstances.

Read more less

Book SynopsisNew York City has long been a breeding ground for spies, saboteurs, terrorists, and other threats to the nation and its greatest city. Battleground New York City examines the history of domestic security operations and the people and agencies involved in safeguarding the city that never sleeps.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe unfortunate victim of a frightened city desperately in need of a scapegoat. Though Murder Has No Tongue tells the story of Frank Dolezal, the only man actually arrested and charged with the infamous "Torso Murders" in Cleveland, Ohio, during the late 1930s. Dolezal, a fifty-two-year-old Slav immigrant, came to the attention of sheriff 's investigators because of his reputation as a strange man who possessed a stockpile of butcher knives. According to rumors, he threatened imagined transgressors and had a penchant for frequenting bars in the seedy neighborhood where the dismembered bodies of victims had been discovered. Dolezal was arrested in July 1939 and never saw freedom again.Convinced that they had captured the "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run," sheriff's deputies interrogated Dolezal for two days under harsh conditions. Sheriff Martin O'Donnell called a press conference and announced that the long hoped-for break in the torso killings had finally come: Dolezal had admitted to the January 1936 murder and dismemberment of Flo Polillo, one of the early victims of the Mad Butcher. During the next six days, Dolezal was questioned further, given a lie detector test, beaten, and generally mistreated. Ultimately he was arraigned on firstdegree murder charges that were quickly dropped because he was denied legal representation.At his second arraignment in July, Dolezal was bound over on manslaughter charges. Within a month, he was dead—found hanged in his cell. His mysterious death was ruled a suicide. But was it?In Though Murder Has No Tongue, James Jessen Badal tells a gripping tale of justice gone wrong. It is also a modern story of forensic analysis as compelling as an episode of CSI. Using police and sheriff reports, inquest testimony, autopsy and archival photographs, unpublished notes from the primary investigators, and analyses from some of today's top forensic anthropologists and medical examiners, Badal establishes the facts, dispels rumors, and presents a thorough examination of the real reasons behind Frank Dolezal's mysterious death.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMurder and miscarriage of justice in a rural community The townsfolk of Logan, Ohio, a mined-out area of the Appalachian foothills, cheered as an innocent man was convicted and sent to death row. The occasion was the conviction of Dale N. Johnston. His trial ended nothing; the tragedies had just begun. What really happened on that bitter cold day in January 1984 was the total collapse of the local criminal justice system. It began with a lovers’ quarrel. On October 4, 1982, Johnston’s stepdaughter Annette Cooper Johnston—an 18-year-old beauty contestant, horsewoman, and aspiring computer programmer—fought and quickly made up with her 19-year-old boyfriend, Todd Schultz. They were last seen walking together on the C&O Railroad tracks, crossing a trestle bridge over the Hocking River. Ten days later their mutilated torsos were found floating in the river. The next day their heads and limbs were found buried in a cornfield between the river and the tracks. Dale Johnston was the sole suspect from the beginning. It took a year, but investigators and prosecutors built a case against him, alleging he had kidnapped the victims near downtown Logan and killed them in the presence of his wife and his other stepdaughter at their mobile home ten miles outside of town. He was accused of butchering the corpses and carting them back to Logan for burial and disposal. The state’s case was built on rumours of an incestuous relationship between Johnston and Annette and was bolstered by a hypnotised “eyewitness” and a disputed footprint expert. Most of what was presented at the three-week trial was based on fabrications, melodramatic fiction, and forensic fairy tales. As a reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal, author Bill Osinski covered the trial and was shocked by the guilty verdict. After five years on death row, Johnston was released on appeal. Prosecutors were forced to dismiss the charges, but Johnston and the rest of his family remained under a cloud of presumed guilt for nearly two more decades. In 2008 two other men were indicted for the murders of Todd and Annette. True crime buffs, historians, legal professionals, and readers who enjoy an extraordinary story will find Guilty by Popular Demand a compelling addition to true crime literature.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn 2001 The Kent State University Press published James Jessen Badal's In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders—the first book to examine the horrific series of unsolved dismemberment murders that terrorized the Kingsbury Run neighborhood from 1934 to 1938. Through his access to a wealth of previously unavailable material, Badal was able to present a far more detailed and accurate picture of the battle between Cleveland safety director Eliot Ness and the unidentified killer who avoided both detection and apprehension.In his groundbreaking historical study, Badal established beyond any doubt the truth of the legend that Ness had a secret suspect whom he had subjected to a series of interrogation sessions, complete with lie detector tests, in a secluded room in a downtown hotel. Badal also disclosed recently unearthed evidence that identified exactly who that mysterious suspect was. But was he the infamous Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run? Badal presented all the evidence available at the time and invited readers to draw their own conclusions.Now, armed with conclusive new information, Badal returns to the absorbing tale of those terrible murders in an expanded edition of In the Wake of the Butcher. For the very first time in the history of research into the Kingsbury Run murders, he presents compelling evidence that establishes exactly where the killer incapacitated his victims, as well as the location of the long-fabled "secret laboratory" where he committed murder and performed both dismemberment and decapitation.Was Eliot Ness's secret suspect the Mad Butcher? Thanks to this new information, Badal is finally able to answer that question with certainty.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe brutal murder of Julia Wallace in 1931 became one of Britain’s great unsolved murders. People began arguing about the case almost immediately and continue to do so to this day.Julia was the middle-aged wife of a mild-mannered Liverpool insurance agent, William Herbert Wallace. By all accounts they were a quiet, unassuming, devoted couple. In January 1931 William Wallace received a telephone message to come to an address in Liverpool the following evening to discuss an insurance policy. Unable to find the house after searching for hours, Wallace determined there was no such address and returned home. There he found Julia bludgeoned to death on the parlor floor. In addition to the terrible shock and his unbearable loss, Wallace was accused of the crime and ultimately convicted.Using original sources, Jonathan Goodman re-creates Wallace’s trial, witness by witness. Through his meticulous reconstruction, it becomes evident that the police and the medical examiner went out of their way to twist and even manufacture evidence. Their attention to proving Wallace guilty ignored a lead to a likely suspect given to them by Wallace. The man was a fellow insurance agent, whom Goodman identifies in the book as Mr. X. The police ignored the suggestion.In 1969, when The Killing of Julia Wallace was first published in the United Kingdom, Goodman had picked up on the lead the police disregarded.As a result, he was convinced that Wallace was unjustly convicted. In 1981 Goodman revealed the name of the suspect, who was by then deceased. The suspect had a long record of criminal charges that had been dropped or dismissed due to his family connections—his father and uncle were local officials; his father’s secretary was the daughter of the police superintendent.True crime fans will welcome the return of this classic unsolved mystery by the inimitable Jonathan Goodman.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs Ted Bundy was to the 20th century, so Carlyle Harris was to the 19th. Harris was a charismatic, handsome young medical student with an insatiable appetite. His trail of debauched women ended with Helen Potts, a beautiful young woman of wealth and privilege who was determined to keep herself pure for marriage. Unable to conquer her by other means, Harris talked her into a secret marriage under assumed names, and when threatened with exposure, he poisoned her. The resulting trial garnered national headlines and launched the careers of two of New York’s most famous prosecutors, Francis L. Wellman and William Travers Jerome. It also spurred vigorous debate about Harris’s guilt or innocence, the value of circumstantial evidence, the worth of expert testimony, and the advisability of the death penalty. Six Capsules traces Harris’s crime and his subsequent trial and highlights what has been overlooked — the decisive role that the second-class status of women in Victorian Era culture played in this tragedy. The Harris case is all but forgotten today, but Six Capsules seeks to recover this important milestone in American legal history.Trade Review"A snapshot that captures the state of forensic science—and its limitations—in 1890s America. There's a lot more to unpack here—the reliability of circumstantial evidence, the impact of sensational press coverage, the second-class status that made women vulnerable to predators like Harris in the Gilded Age—and Dekle delivers."- Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine;"A secret marriage, a mother desperate to silence a burgeoning scandal, a medical student and ladies' man with a lot to lose, a headlines-dominating trial, and fierce debate over forensic test results—these are the elements of the case at the center of true-crime book Six Capsules.... The cast of characters is remarkably well drawn.... The trial reads like a legal thriller, with enough twists, turns, and reversals to keep the reader gueessing about how the increasingly circuslike proceedings will conclude. Six Capsules is a remarkably fascinating and compelling history, a true-crime study of manners, murder, science, and social attitudes that brings the era to life in gritty, absorbing detail."- The Strand

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn extraordinary look at race and policing in late nineteenth-century BaltimoreIn 1875 an Irish-born Baltimore policeman, Patrick McDonald, entered the home of Daniel Brown, an African American laborer, and clubbed and shot Brown, who died within an hour of the attack. In similar cases at the time, authorities routinely exonerated Maryland law enforcement officers who killed African Americans, usually without serious inquiries into the underlying facts. But in this case, Baltimore's white community chose a different path. A coroner's jury declined to attribute the killing to accident or self-defense; the state's attorney indicted McDonald and brought him to trial; and a criminal court jury convicted McDonald of manslaughter.What makes this work so powerful is that many of the issues that the antipolice brutality movement faces today were the very issues faced by black people in nineteenth-century Baltimore.Both Brown and McDonald represented factions in conflict during a period of social upheaval, and both men left home to escape dire conditions. Yet trouble followed both to Baltimore. While the conviction of McDonald was unique, it was not a racially enlightened moment in policing. The killing of Brown was viewed not as racial injustice, but police violence spreading to their neighborhood. White elites saw the police as an uncontrolled force threatening their well-being. The clubbing and shooting of an unarmed black man only a block away from the wealthy residences of Park Avenue represented a breakdown in the social order-but Jim Crow in Baltimore was not in danger.Prior to 1867 a Maryland statute barred African Americans from testifying against whites in proceedings before police magistrates or in any of the state's courts. During the trial of McDonald, the press described the Baltimore police as "blue coated ruffians," and there was a general distrust of the police force by both blacks and whites. Brown's wife, Keziah, gave damning testimony of Officer McDonald's actions. The jury could not agree on verdicts of first- or second-degree murder, and after an attempt to reach a compromise verdict of second-degree murder failed, the majority acquiesced to the manslaughter verdict.The Uncommon Case of Daniel Brown adds to the historiography of policing and criminal justice by demonstrating the pivotal role of the coroner's inquest in such cases and by illustrating the importance of social ties and political divisions when a community addresses an episode of police violence.Trade Review"Historian Gordon H. Shufelt's true crime book recounts the 1875 murder of a Black man by a white policeman. While racial police brutality is still not uncommon, the grim distinction surrounding Daniel Brown's death is that, in late nineteenth-century Baltimore, this particular officer was convicted. With factual suspense, the book reconstructs the fateful meeting between Brown and McDonald. A noise complaint regarding a small, non-alcoholic party somehow escalated into Brown being clubbed and shot in his own home. Witnesses recalled McDonald being angry and antagonistic. McDonald, however, insisted that he acted in self-defense. McDonald was found guilty by a white jury—a verdict, Shufelt says, that was intended to quell police overreach, rather than support racial equality. Engrossing."- Foreword; "A close and engrossing look at an obscure 19th-century homicide through a granular and judicious review of archival records. One summer night in 1875, white policeman Patrick McDonald confronted African American Daniel Brown in Brown's Baltimore home after receiving a noise complaint. The encounter ended with McDonald fatally shooting Brown. Surprisingly, given the city's endemic racism at the time, an all-white jury convicted McDonald of manslaughter after hearing testimony that Brown had done nothing violent to provoke the shooting. Shufelt puts that outcome in context, which included distrust of the police force following misconduct during elections that year, and the status of the Black witnesses to the killing; their employment as servants in affluent white homes made them viewed as trustworthy, which Shufelt considers 'the persistence of some elements of a slavery-era culture.' The verdict was not a breakthrough, however, or evidence that white Baltimoreans "objected to the oppression of African Americans" . . . Illuminat[es] race relations and the criminal justice system in post–Civil War Baltimore."- Publishers Weekly

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn the afternoon of August 19, 1997, John Harrigan-owner and publisher of the News and Sentinel newspaper in Colebrook, New Hampshire-arrived at his building to find the woman he loved lying dead in the parking lot. Lawyer Vickie Bunnell had been shot and killed by an itinerant carpenter wielding an assault rifle.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe complete story of the prison break and manhunt that kept America spellbound

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe publication of Sanyika Shakur's Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member in 1993 generated a huge amount of excitement in literary circles--New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani deemed it a ""shocking and galvanic book""--and set off a new publishing trend of gang memoirs in the 1990s. The memoirs showcased tales of violent confrontation and territorial belonging but also offered many of the first journalistic and autobiographical accounts of the much-mythologized gang subculture.In The Culture and Politics of Contemporary Street Gang Memoirs, Josephine Metcalf focuses on three of these memoirs--Shakur's Monster; Luis J. Rodriguez's Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.; and Stanley ""Tookie"" Williams's Blue Rage, Black Redemption--as key representatives of the gang autobiography. Metcalf examines the conflict among violence, thrilling sensationalism, and the authorial desire to instruct and warn competing within these works. The narrative arcs of the memoirs themselves rest on the process of conversion from brutal, young gang bangers to nonviolent, enlightened citizens.Metcalf analyzes the emergence, production, marketing, and reception of gang memoirs. Through interviews with Rodriguez, Shakur, and Barbara Cottman Becnel (Williams's editor), Metcalf reveals both the writing and publishing processes. This book analyzes key narrative conventions, specifically how diction, dialogue, and narrative arcs shape the works. The book also explores how the memoirs are consumed. This interdisciplinary study--fusing literary criticism, sociology, ethnography, reader-response study, and editorial theory--brings scholarly attention to a popular, much-discussed, but understudied modern expression.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn’t stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural Virginia coast with cameras and camouflage. Volunteer firefighters slept at their stations. The arsonist seemed to target abandoned buildings, but local police were stretched too thin to surveil them all. Accomack was desolate—there were hundreds of abandoned buildings. And by the dozen they were burning. The culprit, and the path that led to these crimes, is a story of twenty-first century America. Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse first drove down to the reeling county to cover a hearing for Charlie Smith, a struggling mechanic who upon his capture had promptly pleaded guilty to sixty-seven counts of arson. But as Charlie’s confession unspooled, it got deeper and weirder. He wasn’t lighting fires alone; his crimes were galvanized by a surprising love story. Over a year of investigating, Hesse uncovered the motives of Charlie and his accomplice, girlfriend Tonya Bundick, a woman of steel-like strength and an inscrutable past. Theirs was a love built on impossibly tight budgets and simple pleasures. They were each other’s inspiration and escape…until they weren’t. Though it’s hard to believe today, one hundred years ago Accomack was the richest rural county in the nation. Slowly it’s been drained of its industry—agriculture—as well as its wealth and population. In an already remote region, limited employment options offer little in the way of opportunity. A mesmerizing and crucial panorama with nationwide implications, American Fire asks what happens when a community gets left behind. Hesse brings to life the Eastern Shore and its inhabitants, battling a punishing economy and increasingly terrified by a string of fires they could not explain. The result evokes the soul of rural America—a land half gutted before the fires even began.Trade Review"American Fire is an excellent summer vacation companion. It has all the elements of a lively crime procedural: courtroom drama, forensic trivia, toothsome gossip, vexed sex. It also happens to be a very good portrait of a region in economic decline. . . . As with “S-Town” and the best episodes of “This American Life,” Hesse has managed to wring tension and excitement out of a story with a known ending." -- Jennifer Senior - New York Times"The propulsive pleasure of American Fire rests in author Monica Hesse's decision not to force a thing. The book has the brisk diligence of big-city journalism (Hesse writes for the Washington Post) and the languid chattiness of the small town where she lived while researching it. . . . Hesse gathers the pieces but leaves connections to the reader. When they snap together, the feeling is a bit like gazing upon a blaze you've just lit." -- Karl Vick - Time"Hesse, who covered the arsons for The Washington Post, is an ace reporter, but she’s an even better storyteller. American Fire is as propulsive as a crime thriller. A-" -- Tina Jordan - Entertainment Weekly"In American Fire, journalist Monica Hesse faces . . . quandaries of interpretation, faulty memory and lies, and deals eloquently with the he-said-she-said elements of her story. . . . What emerges is a vivid depiction of a community that is struggling economically in present-day America, but is rich in its human connections." -- Ilana Masad - NPR.org"A brisk, captivating and expertly crafted reconstruction of a community living through a time of fear, confusion and danger. . . . Masterful." -- Scott W. Berg - Washington Post"One of the year's best and most unusual true-crime books." -- Randy Dotinga - Christian Science Monitor"Mesmerizing. . . . Hesse recounts the fires and their investigation and the subsequent trials with cinematic immediacy." -- Jonathan Miles - Garden & Gun"Accomack County, Virginia, is utterly unique, but not completely atypical of America’s forgotten places: bypassed by progress on the wrong side of Chesapeake Bay, dotted with houses rotting into literal tinder. Hesse, a Washington Post reporter, finds true-crime gold here . . . . Hesse forgoes paint-by-numbers suspense, revealing the culprits early on before backing up into their hard-knock love story, their eventual arrest, and perceptive snapshots of an unusually vivid corner of drug-racked Red America." -- Boris Katchka - Vulture"American Fire is not only a twisted love story but also a portrait of Accomack County, Virginia, a once-wealthy farming community crumbling from economic hardship." -- Nora Horvath - Real Simple"Hesse enters the compelling narrative with restraint in probing, essayistic analyses. She tells the story of the fires and of the Eastern Shore and the people she got to know there with an earned familiarity that, at the same time, speaks of the unknowability of a vast, rapidly changing nation." -- Annie Bostrom - Booklist, starred review"A captivating narrative about arson, persistent law enforcers, an unlikely romantic relationship, and a courtroom drama. . . . Throughout, the author offers a nuanced portrait of a way of life unknown to most who have never resided on or visited the Eastern Shore. A true-crime saga that works in every respect." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review"Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse has created a near-masterpiece in American Fire. This true crime book — about a series of arsons on the rural Virginia coast and the Bonnie-and-Clyde duo who committed them — is not just about the crimes themselves, but about the community those crimes affected. It's well-written and eye-opening, and I couldn't put it down. For fans of Hillbilly Elegy and In Cold Blood." -- Annie Butterworth Jones - Tallahassee Democrat"Washington Post reporter Hesse leads readers on an extended tour of a bizarre five-month crime spree in rural Accomack County, Va.: a series of over 80 arsons, of predominantly abandoned buildings, committed by a local couple. . . . A page-turning story of love gone off the rails." -- Publishers Weekly"American Fire is a wonderful book of page-turning, true-crime reportage, exquisitely reported with both humanity and humor. Books like this remind us, in an uncertain time, of what journalism is supposed to look like." -- Nick Reding, author of Methland"America in decline, a love gone berserk, and fire…lots and lots of it. If you pick up this book and open it to the first page, I double-dog dare you to put it down." -- Dennis Covington, author of Salvation on Sand Mountain"A rare combination of reportorial know-how and literary flair, American Fire is a page-turner. Crimes and chaos, detectives and firefighters, headlines and red herrings, and it all boils down to a Gothic love story gone wrong. You need time to investigate a story like this, following the police leads all the way to the hidden-in-plain-sight, off-kilter individuals generating the mayhem; you need space to tell a story like this, fact-based and evocative. People who think they don’t like nonfiction will devour this book. People who love nonfiction will love it, too." -- Melissa Fay Greene, author of Praying for Sheetrock and The Underdogs

Read more less

Book Synopsis2023 Best Book Awards Winner in History sponsored by American Book Fest In Murder in Manchuria, Scott D. Seligman explores an unsolved murder set amid the chaos that reigned in China in the run-up to World War II. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a three-country struggle for control of Manchuria—an area some called China’s “Wild East”—and an explosive mixture of nationalities, religions, and ideologies. Semyon Kaspé, a young Jewish musician, is kidnapped, tortured, and ultimately murdered by disaffected, antisemitic White Russians, secretly acting on the orders of Japanese military overlords who covet his father’s wealth. When local authorities deliberately slow-walk the search for the kidnappers, a young French diplomat takes over and launches his own investigation. Part cold-case thriller and part social history, the true, tragic saga of Kaspé is told in the context of the larger, improbable story of the lives of the twenty thousand Jews who called Harbin home at the beginning of the twentieth century. Scott D. Seligman recounts the events that led to their arrival and their hasty exodus—and solves a crime that has puzzled historians for decades.Trade Review“A fascinating true-crime journey into a lost corner of history. Murder in Manchuria plunges us into Harbin, China, in the first half of the twentieth century, where Semyon Kaspé, the musician son of a wealthy and prominent Jewish family, is kidnapped and murdered. Scott D. Seligman deftly peels away the layers of the case, revealing the forces that ultimately consumed the Kaspé family and Harbin’s Jews.”—Jonathan Kaufman, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and author of The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China“Scott D. Seligman recovers an incredible cast of characters involved in this true crime—Jewish entrepreneurs, émigré Russian fascists, besieged Chinese detectives, Bolsheviks, spies of a half-dozen nationalities, adventurers, and a lone doomed musician. Ultimately, however, it is the once gloriously international city of Harbin itself that is most masterfully recreated.”—Paul French, author of the bestselling Midnight in Peking“An absorbing and meticulously researched study of one of the saddest events of the history of the Jewish diaspora in modern China. . . . Readable and important.”—Xu Xin, professor at Nanjing University and president of the Chinese National Institute of Jewish Studies“Scott D. Seligman tells the story of an ill-fated kidnap victim and brings to life the astonishing melting pot that was northeastern China in the early twentieth century. Like Guns of August it outlines the geopolitical intrigue that preceded a world war; and like an Agatha Christie detective story it follows all the twists and turns of a captivating whodunnit. A masterful blend of painstaking research and intricate storytelling.”—Ted Plafker, China correspondent and author of Doing Business in China“Seligman is a masterful storyteller. . . . You won’t be able to put this down.”—Scott Kronick, former Beijing-based CEO of Ogilvy Public Relations Asia Pacific“The dreadful murder of Semyon Kaspé by White Russian fascists working for the Japanese occupation army in Manchuria had all the marks of a political, economic, social, and antisemitic conspiracy. The truth has been driven out from under [Kaspé’s] tombstone in Harbin, and wandered on and on, until Scott D. Seligman has brought it to rest again.”—Dan Ben-Canaan, professor emeritus and chair of Sino-Israel Research and Study Center in Harbin, China"Seligman's book is chilling for what happened to Semyon, but it's also a lesson in history about a lesser known part of northeast Asia."—Susan Blumberg-Kason, Asian Review of Books"Readers wishing to escape our present political strife and immerse themselves in a long-forgotten time should try this book. It will make them realize that the social unrest and institutional distrust in today's America pales in comparison to the worldwide experience of Jewish citizens throughout history."—J. Kemper Campbell, Lincoln Journal Star"Murder in Manchuria by Scott D. Seligman is an amazing story and I highly recommend it to anyone out there who enjoys the true-crime genre or even just a story that is so full of accurate historical fact."—Reader Views blogTable of Contents List of Illustrations Introduction A Note on Language and Currency Dramatis Personae Prologue 1. Tug of War 2. Harbin—Cosmopolis in the North 3. White Russians and Antisemitism 4. The Kaspés 5. Lydia 6. Invasion 7. Two Toxic Elements 8. An Unholy Alliance 9. Kidnapped 10. Search 11. Letters 12. Playing with Fire 13. Arrest 14. Lies 15. Not Criminals but Heroes 16. No Longer Safe 17. The First Trial 18. The Second Trial 19. Powerful Influences 20. What Really Happened 21. The Fugu Plan Epilogue Acknowledgments Chronology Glossary and Gazetteer Further Reading Notes Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisMen of No Reputation is the first account to explore the life of Robert Boatright, one of America’s most gifted, but forgotten, confidence men. Boatright’s story provides a rare window into the secret world of Missouri’s criminal past, which influenced the methods of confidence men across the country. Boatright took the preexisting big-store confidence scheme and perfected it. With the assistance of a talented coterie of confederates known as the Buckfoot Gang, this “dean of modern confidence men” fleeced the gentry of the Midwest on fixed athletic contests in the turn-of-the-century Ozarks” Working in concert with a local bank and an influential Democratic boss, Boatright seemed untouchable. A series of missteps, however, led to a string of court cases across the country that brought his criminal enterprise to an end. And yet, the con continued. Boatright’s successor, John C. Mabray, and his cronies, many of whom had been in the Buckfoot Gang, preyed upon victims across North America in one of the largest Midwestern criminal syndicates in history before they were brought to heel. Like the works of Sinclair Lewis, Boatright’s story exposes a rift in the wholesome Midwestern stereotype and furthers our understanding of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American society.Trade Review“Men of No Reputation is about the confidence racket in the Ozarks circa 1900, but along the way Kimberly Harper gives a compelling account of local politics, prizefighting, foot races, attitudes toward crime, and much else. I finished reading this wonderfully written book feeling I’d just been educated.” —Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter’s Bone“Harper’s finely tuned study of this successful con-artist gang shows how capitalist dreams blurred into criminal schemes as confidence men, shady bankers, perfidious cops, and crooked politicians turned a bustling Ozarks community into a swindler’s paradise. Men of No Reputation brings to life a forgotten story of greed and corruption that sounds a timely warning amid today’s cons, big and small. For readers interested in charlatans and their marks, this book is a sure bet.”—Jarod Roll, author of Poor Man’s Fortune: White Working-Class Conservativism in American Metal Mining, 1850–1950“Masterfully woven and grounded in meticulous use of newspapers and court records, Men of No Reputation is a solid, flesh-on-the-bones contribution to the literature on American confidence men. Harper leaves no stone unturned as she tracks down a sophisticated, understudied gang of Ozark swindlers who fleeced high-stakes suckers in rigged foot races and prizefights at the turn of the twentieth century. A further reminder of the American culture of greed and crime in an age of flimflam and humbug.”—Gregg Andrews, author of Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis, 1875–1930“An original work fully supported by sound scholarship, Men of No Reputation will prove indispensable to regional historians, legal scholars, and afficionados of the American underworld.” —Eric B. Easton, author of The Life and Crimes of Jared Flagg: Adventures of a Gilded Age Huckster, Swindler, and Pimp

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat's a gal to do when her loaded lover is getting to be a nuisance? Why, just murder him and take all his money, of course. If you want to be fabulously single with tons of cash, just follow the lead of the beautiful and conniving Minnie Wallace Walkup Ketcham, who left a trail of broken hearts, empty wallets, and corpses.Minnie was just 16 when she stood trial in 1885 for the wrongful death of her first husband, a successful businessman and politician almost 40 years her senior. Despite overwhelming witness testimony that the Creole beauty from New Orleans had purchased the arsenic that killed him, Minnie's own testimony brought the entire courtroom to tears. She was acquitted. Minnie returned to New Orleans with James Walkup's fortune, life insurance, Civil War pension, and all the expensive clothes she had shipped home before he even died.Minnie still didn't have enough cash for her liking, so she successfully targeted, seduced, and murdered two more wealthy older men while evading justice in the courtroom (and escaping her lawyer's fees, too). How to Murder Your Three Lovers and Get Away with It is an extraordinary and off-the-wall true story of intrigue, scandal, and murder.Trade Review"How to Murder Your Wealthy Lovers and Get Away With Itis in the historical true crime genre, but it is full of improbable turns and twists (to say nothing of trysts) that no author would dare include in a work of fiction. Minnie Wallace Walkup Ketcham's criminal career as an unsung triple murderess and black widow—some of it in her own words—is told in rich detail and with pleasingly dark wit."—Keven McQueen, author of Horror in the Heartland and Creepy California"Jane Simon Ammeson has unearthed the fascinatingtrue story of 19th century femme fatale and psychopath, Minnie Wallace. Part brilliantly researchedhistory, part pure entertainment, this chilling tale of Minnie'sreign of terror from the brothels of New Orleans, to the echelons of Chicago's high society, is proof that truth is stranger than fiction."—Susan O'Bryan, Advisory Board, Aspen Words"A compelling and entertaining reminder that history is always with us. And sometimes all around us. A great guide to one of America's most thrilling true stories."—Mike Flannery, political editor, FOX 32 News ChicagoTable of ContentsPrologue1. True Love Never Runs Smooth: The Death of a New Groom2. There is a House in New Orleans3. Don't Cry for Me, Emporia4. Pardon My Dust: Nonstop to Nowhere5. The Company She Keeps6. Moving On Up: In Which Josephine Captures and Loses a Prince7. Blood Money Squandered: The Necessity of Catching Mr. Ketcham8. The Importance of Keeping Mr. Ketcham – and His Money9. Of Plum Jam, Champagne, Wills, Unpaid Bills, and the Final Death That We Know OfEpilogue: The Final Love?Bibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisHow does a Norwegian farm girl become an infamous American serial killer, responsible for upward of 40 murders? Born in rural Norway in 1859, "Belle" Storset Sorenson Gunness was constantly dealt bad hands in life—so she decided to take life into her own hands. In America's Femme Fatale: The Story of Serial Killer Belle Gunness, Jane Simon Ammeson traces Gunness's path from a poor teenager rejected by a wealthy lover; to a new wife in Chicago, desperate to escape the poverty of her childhood and impatient for a child to love; to an ambitious, widowed landowner in La Porte, Indiana. Ammeson's careful research reveals how the young immigrant slowly turned into one of America's most dangerous serial killers, allegedly murdering husbands, lovers, and children, and, for a price, disposing of inconvenient corpses for others. Ammeson brings this shocking story to life, detailing the suspicious neighbors who were cowed into silence by Belle's intimidating personality, the culture of orphanages trafficking children and matrimonial agencies, the carnival atmosphere that exploded around the pile of bones found on Gunness's farm, and the sensational reporting that filled newspapers for months.Perfect for true crime fans fascinated by the creation of a sociopathic serial killer, America's Femme Fatale will leave you entertained and looking over your shoulder.Trade ReviewAmmeson uses astute research and punchy prose to chronicle Belle's transformation from destitute farm girl to one of history's most egregious female serial killers. . . . Compact and captivating, this salacious tale of murderous greed during the early twentieth century will be devoured quickly by true-crime fans. -- Michelle Ross * BOOKLIST / Amer Library Assn *It's a mesmerizing cautionary tale I had to keep reading despite the late-night hour. . . . Ammeson writes narrative nonfiction with a sense of drama to propel us along the unbelievable. -- Rita Kohn * NUVO *Speaking of wild women, you'll be riveted by America's Femme Fatale. More than a century has gone since Belle Gunness killed her first victim and she didn't stop there. Belle went on to kill at least thirteen more people over the course of just twenty years. Money was involved, of course, and she had a little bit of help now and then, but what's creepiest about Belle are the circumstances of her death. And now you've gotta read the book... -- Terri Schlichenmeyer * Webb Weekly - The Bookworm Sez *Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments1. In a Faraway Land2. Dearly Departed3. A New Home and a New Husband4. My Baby She Wrote Me a Letter5. Boundless Opportunities for an Enterprising Woman6. Jennie Olson7. The Rivals8. The Beginning of the End9. The Fire10. The Discovery11. Bringing Up the Bodies12. The Confession13. The Theory of the Exploding Head14. More Bodies and More Clues15. The Company She Kept16. Dead or Alive?17. EndingsBibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom supreme president to forgotten enemy, John W. Talbot lived a remarkable life. Charismatic, energetic, and powerful, he founded a national fraternal organization, the Order of Owls, and counted senators, congressmen, and business leaders among his friends. He wielded his influence to help causes close to his heart but also to bring down those who stood against him.In So Much Bad in the Best of Us, Greta Fisher's careful research reveals that Talbot was capable of great evil, causing one woman to describe him as "the Devil Incarnate." His string of very public affairs revealed his strange sexual preferences and violent tendencies, and charges leveled against him included perjury, blackmail, jury tampering, slander, libel, misuse of the mail, assault with intent to kill, and White slavery. Ultimately convicted on the slavery charge, he spent several years in Leavenworth penitentiary and eventually lost everything, including control of the Order of Owls. His descent into alcoholism and death by fire was a fitting end to a tumultuous and dramatic life. After 50 years of newspaper headlines and court battles, Talbot's death made national news, but with more enemies than friends and estranged from his family, he was ultimately forgotten.A gripping true crime story, So Much Bad in the Best of Us offers a mesmerizing account of the life of John W. Talbot, the Order of Owls, and how quickly the powerful can fall.Trade ReviewGreta Fisher cooly travels us through "So Much Bad in the Best of Us: The Salacious and Audacious Life of John W. Talbot." No one can make up the kind of ordinary citizen gullibility that ran rampant around South Bend, Indiana, starting as early as 1872 and continuing to lope along the echelons of society for the next sixty-five years and counting. . . . The enduring scheming legacy of Talbot resides within the Order of Owls. Never heard of it? Neither did I, and now I am amazed and saddened. Owls deserve a better rap. -- Rita Kohn * Nuvo *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionAn Auspicious BeginningA Budding Career and a Blossoming CriminalDiversification: Social Networks, Political Influence, and the Importance of FamilyThe Founding of the Order of OwlsLegal Trouble: The Talbot Brothers on the DefensiveLeona Mason Tries to Put Him DownDeath and ResurrectionUnwanted OwlsA Profit in SyphilisAn Owl Rebellion and the Charitable Institutions that Weren'tCan't Keep Out of Trouble and Other Odd BehaviorNot Just Owls: Talbot Cultivates an Interest in Exotic Birds (the Kind with Feathers)"She Is Certainly Having a Fine Time""Guilty as Sin": Talbot Is Sent to LeavenworthThe Ex-Convict: Talbot Is No Longer SupremeA Quieter LifeA Fiery DeathThe Fate of the Order of OwlsTalbot's LegacyPostscriptAppendix A: Order of the Owls HandbookAppendix B: The Character and Life of John W. Talbot Exposed by an Outraged WomanAppendix C: The QuestionNotesBibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom supreme president to forgotten enemy, John W. Talbot lived a remarkable life. Charismatic, energetic, and powerful, he founded a national fraternal organization, the Order of Owls, and counted senators, congressmen, and business leaders among his friends. He wielded his influence to help causes close to his heart but also to bring down those who stood against him.In So Much Bad in the Best of Us, Greta Fisher's careful research reveals that Talbot was capable of great evil, causing one woman to describe him as "the Devil Incarnate." His string of very public affairs revealed his strange sexual preferences and violent tendencies, and charges leveled against him included perjury, blackmail, jury tampering, slander, libel, misuse of the mail, assault with intent to kill, and White slavery. Ultimately convicted on the slavery charge, he spent several years in Leavenworth penitentiary and eventually lost everything, including control of the Order of Owls. His descent into alcoholism and death by fire was a fitting end to a tumultuous and dramatic life. After 50 years of newspaper headlines and court battles, Talbot's death made national news, but with more enemies than friends and estranged from his family, he was ultimately forgotten.A gripping true crime story, So Much Bad in the Best of Us offers a mesmerizing account of the life of John W. Talbot, the Order of Owls, and how quickly the powerful can fall.Trade ReviewGreta Fisher cooly travels us through "So Much Bad in the Best of Us: The Salacious and Audacious Life of John W. Talbot." No one can make up the kind of ordinary citizen gullibility that ran rampant around South Bend, Indiana, starting as early as 1872 and continuing to lope along the echelons of society for the next sixty-five years and counting. . . . The enduring scheming legacy of Talbot resides within the Order of Owls. Never heard of it? Neither did I, and now I am amazed and saddened. Owls deserve a better rap. -- Rita Kohn * Nuvo *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionAn Auspicious BeginningA Budding Career and a Blossoming CriminalDiversification: Social Networks, Political Influence, and the Importance of FamilyThe Founding of the Order of OwlsLegal Trouble: The Talbot Brothers on the DefensiveLeona Mason Tries to Put Him DownDeath and ResurrectionUnwanted OwlsA Profit in SyphilisAn Owl Rebellion and the Charitable Institutions that Weren'tCan't Keep Out of Trouble and Other Odd BehaviorNot Just Owls: Talbot Cultivates an Interest in Exotic Birds (the Kind with Feathers)"She Is Certainly Having a Fine Time""Guilty as Sin": Talbot Is Sent to LeavenworthThe Ex-Convict: Talbot Is No Longer SupremeA Quieter LifeA Fiery DeathThe Fate of the Order of OwlsTalbot's LegacyPostscriptAppendix A: Order of the Owls HandbookAppendix B: The Character and Life of John W. Talbot Exposed by an Outraged WomanAppendix C: The QuestionNotesBibliography

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe identity of the Somerton Man, found dead on an Adelaide beach of the same name in 1948, is one of the most mysterious unsolved cases in Australian crime history. Best known as the ‘taman shud case’, after a tiny piece of rolled-up paper with these words printed on it was found sewn into the dead man’s pocket, the case has baffled police for decades. The phrase taman shud means ‘it is finished’ and is from the last page of a collection of poems called The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam, which was extremely popular in Australia at that time. The central theme of these poems is that one should live life to the full and have no regrets when it ends. As a result, police initially thought the man had committed suicide. With no hard evidence to back this theory and a raft of mysterious clues that have pointed detectives in other directions that have all led nowhere, the case remains unsolved. This case is as strange as a John Le Carre plot, but as author Kerry Greenwood makes clear, the strangest part is that whoever killed him removed all possible ways of identifying him, but left him in full public view so that he had to be found. Greenwood delves into the police and coroner’s files to find out why. In the process she uncovers new clues and finally cracks the code that was printed inside the famous copy of The Rubaiyat. But has she solved the case?

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is the story of Robert Rice Howard (1832–1906), the man known as Nosey Bob. It is also an important chapter in the story of the changing attitudes towards capital punishment in Australia, as the country transformed from generally enthusiastic spectators at executions into campaigners for the abolition of the death penalty. These interconnected stories are told through the men, and the one woman, who met Nosey Bob under the worst possible circumstances between his first employment by the Department of Justice in 1876 and his retirement as the executioner for New South Wales in 1904.Once a household name, Nosey Bob was the most infamous public servant in Sydney: a noseless hangman who sparked fear and fascination everywhere he went. Howard has only ever been cast as an extra in someone else's play, making frightening appearances in a felon's final scene on the gallows. Here, for the first time, he has taken the lead.Trade Review'Franks displays wit, writerly sensitivity and a scholar's rigour.'— Peter Doyle'Riveting, startling and brimming with powerful insights.'— Grace Karskens

Read more less

Book SynopsisSmall time heists. Failed robberies. Runs of bad luck. Payback. Love gone wrong. Drink, drugs and late-night assignations. Cops doing their job well. And badly. Plausible lies, unlikely truths. Murder and misadventure. In Suburban Noir, Peter Doyle – author of City of Shadows and Crooks Like Us – explores the everyday crime and catastrophe that went on in the fibro and brick veneers, the backyards, bedrooms, vacant lots and pokie palaces of 1950s and 1960s suburbia.Extensive research into forensic archives, public records and the private papers of the late Brian Doyle (1960s detective, later assistant commissioner of police, and Peter Doyle's uncle) also reveals important new information about two of the most famous crimes in Australian history – the Kingsgrove Slasher case and the Graeme Thorne kidnap-murder.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAmy Robsart was the wife of Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Robert Dudley, later Earl of Leicester. In September 1560, she was found dead, her neck broken, at the bottom of a flight of stairs at Cumnor Place. Amy was twenty-eight when she died and her marriage to Dudley had been one of great absences and loneliness. Some said she was ill, others that she was desperate. More sinister rumours talked of murder. In this book we look at Amy's unsolved death and examine who had motive to commit such a dark deed. Was it an accident, suicide or murder? The Death of Amy Robsart is the first volume in an exciting new historical true crime series from Chronos Books.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn the morning of April 29, 1992, Exxon International president, Sidney J. Reso, left his home for the office. He stepped out to pick up the newspaper at the end of his drive as he did every morning. A van screeched to a stop and a large man wearing a ski mask and wielding a .45-caliber pistol leaped from the vehicle and grabbed Reso, shoving him into the back of the van. The female driver sped away. No one saw or heard anything, sparking the largest kidnapping investigation in US history since Patty Hearst’s abduction.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPower on the Inside is the first book to examine the historical development of prison gangs worldwide, from those that emerged inside mid-nineteenth-century Neapolitan prisons to the new generation of younger inmates challenging the status quo within gang subcultures today. Historian-criminologist Mitchel P. Roth examines prison gangs throughout the world, from the Americas, Oceania, and South Africa to Southeast Asia, Europe, and beyond. The book examines the many variables that influence the evolution of prison subcultures, from colonialism and population demographics to prison architecture and staff-prisoner relations. Power on the Inside features eighty historical and contemporary images and will inform professionals in the field as well as general readers who want to know more about the realities of prison gangs today.Trade Review"[An] eye-opening examination of the different hierarchies and ideologies employed by prison gangs around the world. . . . A revealing study with broad implications for policymakers and law enforcement." * Kirkus Reviews *"Academic criminologist Roth offers an unprecedented historical and global perspective on prison gangs. He challenges stereotypes and misconceptions—not all prison gangs are harmful; some provide a sense of order that staff cannot. Roth explores a wide range of gangs, from the Bladebaaz gangs in India to the Camorra in Italy to South Africa's Numbers gangs; he also looks at gangs in North America, Latin America, Oceania, and Europe. His scholarly, meticulous analysis of the various types of organizations and comparisons will give readers a stronger understanding of these prison subcultures—for instance, in the Philippines, the Sigue Sigue groups are considered to be of higher status than the Visayan gangs (Manilan housekeepers tend to come from the Visayan-speaking demographics). Roth illuminates the motivations, behavior, and activity of the organizations both inside and outside of prison and discusses how members function within the prison environment. Roth's well-written, deeply researched work is a must for those in the criminology and criminal justice fields, but interested general readers will find it accessible as well." * Library Journal *“Who wields power ‘inside?’ Roth's chilling and fascinating comparative history of prison gangs demonstrates how far prisons across the world can be considered micro-states, with gangs the crude and exploitative authorities that emerge to run them through violence, fear—and a rough-and-ready sense of order.” -- Mark Galeotti, author of "The Vory: Russia's Super-Mafia "“Finally, a historical analysis of prison gangs worldwide. This book by Roth sets the new standard for prison-gang scholarship. It offers a cross-cultural and cross-border factual analysis of a major international problem not yet addressed by the United Nations. The material on organized crime alone makes this required reading and a reference work for all libraries.” -- George W. Knox, executive director, National Gang Crime Research Center, Chicago, IL“This is a thoroughly researched, well-illustrated, and yet accessible account of prison gangs, which has the advantage of being both historical and global in its reach. Above all, it was a joy to read.” -- David Wilson, emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, former prison governor, and well-known TV and radio presenter"Demonstrates both the variations in and similarities of prison gangs through time and around the world. There are few books of this scope or importance." -- Scott H. Decker, Foundation Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University"An ambitious and stimulating account that draws attention to the historical and cultural contexts in which the prison gang phenomenon has emerged worldwide. Power on the Inside should be essential reading for scholars and students in the comparative prison studies field." -- Sacha Darke, senior lecturer in criminology, University of Westminster"This is a timely book that brings together research from around the world rather than focusing on North America and Europe. In doing so, Roth demonstrates the need for, and generates ideas for, research on prison gangs in other nations." -- Mark Lauchs, associate professor of criminology, Queensland University of Technology

Read more less