America’s First Female Serial Killer novelizes the true story of first-generation Irish-American nurse Jane Toppan, born as Honora Kelley. Although all the facts are intact, books about her life and her crimes are all facts and no story. Jane Toppan was absolutely a monster, but she did not start out that way.When Jane was a young child, her father abandoned her and her sister to the Boston Female Asylum. From there, Jane was indentured to a wealthy family who changed her name, never adopted her, wrote her out of the will, and essentially taught her how to hate herself. Jilted at the altar, Jane became a nurse and took control of her life—and the lives of her victims. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christian Barth is a writer, attorney, and photographer originally from New Jersey. The Midwest Book Review lauded his first book, The Origins of Infamy, as a very recommended read for true crime aficionados. Generally recognized as the foremost civilian authority on the 1969 Garden State Parkway murders, he resides in Connecticut. His new book, The Garden State Parkway Murders: A Cold Case Mystery, published by WildBlue Press, was released in January 2020 --This text refers to the paperback edition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did the handsome, wealthy doctor and his beautiful young paramour plan to kill his glamorous socialite wife? Or did the gun accidentally discharge as he claimed?Early in the evening on July 18, 1959, Dr. Bernard Finch and his girlfriend, Carole Ann Tregoff, drove from their Las Vegas love-nest to the Finch home in the Los Angeles suburb of West Covina to speak to his wife Barbara about obtaining a speedy divorce in Nevada. But the plan went awry, and the conversation turned deadly with Barbara’s lifeless body ending up in her in-laws’ backyard next door.After a high-speed chase with police, Finch was arrested the next morning in Las Vegas and charged with Barbara’s murder. Then, during his court hearing in West Covina, Carole was arrested on the witness stand and charged as his accomplice.Soon others were named as part of a larger conspiracy. But who were they and what parts did they play in these deadly events? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vic Feazell is an American lawyer, who was a District Attorney in Waco, McLennan County from 1983 until his resignation in 1988. During his time in office he was involved in the investigation and prosecution of the 1982 Lake Waco murders and also several crimes to which Henry Lee Lucas had been linked Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the story of Elliot Rodger, and how he turned from a nice, quiet polite young man to the first self-identified incel (involuntarily celibate) killer . . . Elliot Rodger considered himself to be intelligent, refined, handsome, fashionable and charming. He spent years trying to be cool so women would like him. He thought if he just wore expensive and fashionable clothing, had a better car, or if he were rich, then women would throw themselves at him. In fact, he thought himself to be "The Supreme Gentleman."Yet, women paid no attention to him. His only conclusion was that they were genetically flawed, and because of this they ignored him and threw themselves at men who were ignorant, savage brutes. In his mind, his lack of success with women had ruined his life. He began to psychologically deteriorate. Rodger decided to get revenge. He spent months planning his "Day of Retribution," an act where he would kill as many attractive women, and the type of men that they were drawn to, as he could in a savage attack. Then he acted on his plan, killing 6 people and wounding numerous others in what became known as the Isla Vista Massacre. The story does not end with Rodger however, as numerous other incels have since committed copycat attacks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with curiosities--beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds upon hundreds of books--sat an investigator who would go on to crack at least two thousand cases in his forty-year career. Known as the "American Sherlock Holmes," Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America's greatest--and first--forensic scientists, with an uncanny knack for finding clues, establishing evidence, and deducing answers with a skill that seemed almost supernatural.Heinrich was one of the nation's first expert witnesses, working in a time when the turmoil of Prohibition led to sensationalized crime reporting and only a small, systematic study of evidence. However with his brilliance, and commanding presence in both the courtroom and at crime scenes, Heinrich spearheaded the invention of a myriad of new forensic tools that police still use today, including blood spatter analysis, ballistics, lie-detector tests, and the use of fingerprints as courtroom evidence. His work, though not without its serious--some would say fatal--flaws, changed the course of American criminal investigation.Based on years of research and thousands of never-before-published primary source materials, American Sherlock captures the life of the man who pioneered the science our legal system now relies upon--as well as the limits of those techniques and the very human experts who wield them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Son of Sam case grew into a lifelong obsession for journalist Maury Terry, who became convinced that the murders were linked to a satanic cult. Author Maury Terry becomes convinced that serial killer David Berkowitz did not act alone and tries to prove that the web of darkness behind the Son of Sam murders goes deeper than anyone imagined -- and his investigation costs him everything.The hunt for the "Son of Sam" captivated the world in the late 1970s, but the story behind one of America's most notorious serial murderers is all but forgotten -- until now. While the arrest and conviction of David Berkowitz brought the nightmare to an end for many New Yorkers, for journalist and Ultimate Evil author Maury Terry, the real mystery was just beginning. Terry, convinced Berkowitz had not acted alone, would go on to spend decades attempting to prove that the web of darkness behind the murders went deeper than anyone imagined -- and his pursuit of that elusive truth would eventually cost him everything. Filmmaker Joshua Zeman (CROPSEY, MURDER MOUNTAIN) draws on archival news footage, conversations with the people closest to the investigation, and Terry's own words and case files to tell a cautionary tale of a man who went down a rabbit hole and never came out. But was Maury Terry just chasing ghosts -- or are the true Sons of Sam still out there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In May 2001 Bonny Lee Bakley was shot to death in a car parked on a dark Hollywood side street. Eleven months later Robert Blake—her husband, the father of her child, and the star of the classic film In Cold Blood and the popular 1970s TV detective series Baretta—was arrested for murder, conspiracy, and solicitation. Did Blake kill his wife? Did he hire someone to do the job for him?Award-winning journalist Dennis McDougal and entertainment-media expert Mary Murphy recount a real-life crime story more shocking and bizarre than any movie, chronicling the parallel worlds of Blake and Bakley, from their troubled youths to their sham of a marriage. By the late 1990s Blake was coasting on his past success. Bakley was a con artist who concocted online sex scams and victimized unsuspecting men, netting big money and dangerous enemies.In true noir style, McDougal and Murphy lay bare the stories of two violent people whose lives collided in a tragic tangle of abuse, betrayal, and love gone horribly wrong.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Luggage By Kroger has been recognized as one of 2009's top true crime thrillers with honors from five different national book competitions. The scorecard:* True Crime Silver Medal from the 2009 IPPYs* True Crime Bronze Medal and Finalist for Book-of-the-Year from the 2008 ForeWord Magazine Book-of-the-Year Awards* True Crime Runner-Up in the 2009 National Indie Excellence Awards* True Crime Finalist in the 2009 USA Book News Awards* General Nonfiction Runner-Up at the 2009 New York Book FestivalIn this true crime memoir, former Houston Post reporter Gary Taylor recounts his true-life fatal attraction involvement in the trail of violence that has dogged Texas attorney Catherine Mehaffey Shelton for nearly three decades, prompting coverage by newspapers, TV, movies and even Oprah Winfrey. Now Taylor invites readers to grab a seat on the wild ride of an obsessive relationship: erotic beginning to violent end and the trials required to clean up the mess. The result is an adventure odyssey of self-discovery through an encounter that nearly cost him his life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before Bonnie and Clyde there were Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid. In the wake of world war, a pandemic, and an economic depression, Margaret and Richard Whittemore, two love-struck working-class kids from Baltimore, reached for the dream of a better life. The couple headed up a gang that in less than a year stole over one million dollars’ worth of diamonds and precious gems—over ten million dollars today. Margaret was a chic flapper, the archetypal gun moll, partner to her husband’s crimes. Richard was the quintessential bad boy, whose cunning and violent ambition allowed the Whittemores to live the kind of lives they'd only seen in the movies. Along the way he killed at least three men, until prosecutors managed a conviction. As tabloids across the country exclaimed the details of the couple’s star-crossed romance, they became heroes to a new generation of young Americans who sought their own version of freedom. Set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties’ excesses, acclaimed author Glenn Stout takes us from the jailhouse to the speakeasy, from the cabarets where the couple celebrated good times to the gallows where their story finally came to an end—leaving Tiger Girl pining for a final kiss. Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid is a thrilling tale of rags to riches, tragedy and infamy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the phone of police artist and interview specialist Sergeant (Ret.) Michael W. Streed—The SketchCop—rings, it’s because police need his help solving their most difficult and heinous cases. During his thirty-five-year law enforcement career, Streed has provided signature images for some of America’s most notorious murders, rapes and kidnappings. His sketches decorate walls inside detective squad rooms from Los Angeles to Baltimore, a stark reminder of the evil that lurks among us.In SketchCop: Drawing a Line Against Crime, Streed takes readers on a thrilling ride across a landscape littered with crime scenes and violent criminals, including anecdotes from historical cases, such as the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He’ll share the compelling true crime stories from his portfolio, detailing how he used his specialized skills as The SketchCop to turn memories of monsters into justice. His descriptions of the psychological impression this important investigative tool leaves on victims helps to round out the book in a way that guarantees after reading SketchCop, you’ll never look at another face the same way again . . . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mo Lea was a young art student in Leeds when her life was changed forever by a deadly assault. On October 25th, 1980, serial killer Peter Sutcliffe attacked her with a hammer and stabbed her with a screwdriver. Surviving with a fractured skull and PTSD, Mo spent years wrestling with a morbid narrative that cast her as a victim.Now Mo offers a fresh perspective on her life, sharing valuable insight into her successful recovery process. While art had always been important to her, it became a vital outlet for exploring her pain, her anger, and her ultimate triumph over them. Drawing a meticulous portrait of Sutcliffe, she then found catharsis in tearing it to bits—ripping up the Ripper.In candid words and stirring illustrations, Mo reclaims her own story, telling of her journey from tragic despair to calmness and acceptance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

WITH THREE BONUS CHAPTERS FROM THE BESTSELLER "Ted and Ann: The Mystery of a Missing Child and Her Neighbor Ted Bundy." On a fall evening in Corvallis, Oregon in 1967, 17-year-old Dick Kitchel, a senior at the high school, disappeared after attending a party. Ten days later, his body was spotted by two children as it floated down the Willamette River. He had been beaten and strangled. The investigation into his murder played out during one of the most dramatic years in America. Life in Corvallis, a college town, had offered a protective, idyllic life to many. But in 1967-68, Viet Nam, a presidential campaign, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and the murder of Dick Kitchel changed that. His friends thought his death was ignored because Dick was from the wrong side of the tracks. Police and the District Attorney thought that they knew who had murdered the boy but never made an arrest. Decades later, a classmate, New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Morris, returns to her hometown to write about how the murder changed the town and the lives of Dick Kitchel’s friends.Rebecca Morris is the New York Times bestselling author of Boy Missing: The Search for Kyron Horman, If I Can’t Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance and the Murder of Her Children, Ted and Ann, and other books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Special Crimes is the capstone of a lifetime career in law enforcement for Houston native Kenny Rodgers, and details not only the inner workings of the Harris County District Attorney Special Crimes Bureau, but the complete behind-the-scenes investigations and ultimate take-down of some of the most notorious criminals in the Lone Star State during the 1970s and 80s. From "The Black Widow" to "Yankee" (former Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Yarbrough) and Karla Faye Tucker, from murder-for-hire to lust, revenge, and greed, Special Crimes is a smorgasborg of citizens at their worst and good cops at their best, including those rare, insufferable, and hilarious moments when the gun misfires, the heel falls off the shoe, or the chase begins in earnest. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is a moment that remains frozen in history. When the Mercedes carrying Diana, Princess of Wales, spun fatally out of control in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris in August 1997, the world was shocked by what appeared to be a terrible accident. But two decades later, the circumstances surrounding what really happened that night—and, crucially, why it happened—remain mired in suspicion, controversy, and misinformation. Until now. Dylan Howard has re-examined all of the evidence surrounding Diana’s death—official documents, eyewitness testimony and Diana’s own private journals—as well as amassing dozens of new interviews with investigators, witnesses, and those closest to the princess to ask one very simple question: Was the death of Princess Diana a tragedy…or treason? Diana: Case Solved has uncovered in unprecedented detail just how much of a threat Diana became to the establishment. In these pages you will learn of the covert diaries and recordings she made, logging the Windsors’ most intimate secrets and hidden scandals as a desperate kind of insurance policy. You will learn how the royals were not the only powerful enemies she made, as her ground-breaking campaigns against AIDS and landmines drew admiration from the public, but also enmity from powerful establishment figures including international arms dealers, the British and American governments, and the MI6 and the CIA. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This might be the most unjust prosecution in U.S. legal history. If you think what happened to Steven Avery in the true crime film Making a Murderer was shocking, you will be completely appalled by what happened to three little boys and three teens in Arkansas in 1993.Three 8-year-old boys vanished from their West Memphis neighborhood one sunny afternoon. A day later their mangled, nude bodies are found in a drainage ditch. Police and prosecutors believe the killings are related to the occult. Three teens are arrested one month later. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr. are convicted.There’s only one problem. Overwhelming scientific evidence proves they’re innocent and witness after witness has come forward to admit lies were told in court during the original trials.Award-winning journalist George Jared takes readers inside one of the most famous criminal cases in U.S. legal history. Witches in West Memphis gives a comprehensive insiders’ view into the West Memphis Three case. No journalist has written more stories about the case than Jared.The author recounts his firsthand court coverage, interviews with witnesses, research, and other information he gathered in the case. Those interviews include a Death Row interview with Damien Echols, interviews with Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., and interviews with other suspects, including Terry Hobbs. He’s been credited in numerous documentaries including the Academy Award nominated film Paradise Lost III: Purgatory and the New York Times best seller Life After Death.Witches graphically recounts how three Boy Scouts – Stephen “Stevie” Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers – rode their bikes after school on a bright afternoon. Their bodies are found in a wooded area near their homes the next day. The manner of death and the way they were bound, ankle to wrist, made authorities think Satanists might have sacrificed the children. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1976, a killer who called himself “The Son of Sam” shot and killed a half dozen people and wounded as many more in New York City. During his crime spree, the madman left bizarre letters mocking the police and promising more deaths.After months of terrorizing the city while garnering front-page headlines and international attention, a man named David Berkowitz was arrested. He confessed to the shootings, claiming to be obeying a demon that resided in a dog belonging to his neighbor “Sam.”Among the alleged victims was Carl Denaro. On the night he was shot, Denaro was hanging out with some friends at a bar when he met up with a woman named Rosemary Keenan. The couple left the bar and went to Keenan’s car for some privacy. However, a few minutes later, the windows of the car exploded as Denaro was shot in the head by an unseen assailant. Miraculously, Denaro survived the attack.When Berkowitz was arrested, he was charged with trying to kill Denaro. However, there was a twist. Although he confessed to the other shootings, after his conviction Berkowitz denied attacking Denaro. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is the price of passion? What is the power of love?Meet Martha Beck, a young nurse dedicated to healing others, until her own hurting heart lured her down a darker path. Loneliness led her to Raymond Fernandez, but love led her all the way to the electric chair.This is the tragic story of the Lonely Heart Killers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This remarkable memoir by a Pulitzer Prize- and Polk Award-winning journalist takes readers on a wild, tragicomic ride from the criminal courtrooms of California’s Silicon Valley to the Himalayan mountains of Pakistan to the deserts of Ethiopia. In delightful, insightful prose, Katherine Ellison reflects on her mistakes and her triumphs as she reveals the stories of how her career almost ended before it began, how she nearly missed marrying the love of her life, and how she unwittingly got drawn into a bizarre murder case.Rich in drama and self-reflection, replete with unique characters—including two bumbling hitmen, a rodeo-riding prosecutor, a flamboyant Beverly Hills defense attorney, and a charismatic stay-at-home mother-of-three who is keeping outrageous secrets—Mothers & Murderers is like a mashup of Fargo and Eat, Pray, Love—a memoir to make you laugh, cry, and think. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HOW COULD SUCH A DARK SECRETHAVE BEEN KEPT FOR SO MANY YEARS?Police Chief Greg Adams was out on patrol. Christmas was coming to Saxonburg, Pennsylvania—a quaint borough of just 1,300—in three short weeks. The winter air was crisp. Colored lights sparkled on houses. He was only a block and a half from the Police Department, and this was just an average traffic stop.Until it wasn’t.The devoted husband and father of two little boys was about to meet any law enforcement officer’s nightmare. Moments later, he would lay dying in a pool of his own blood on that white winter snow, while his killer vanished like an apparition into thin air.Despite his many aliases, the true identity of the murderer was quickly found. The killer himself, was not. As State Police and FBI investigators peeled back the twisted layers of low-level mobster Donald Webb’s life, the path to the killer would wind through decades … toward a shocking conclusion. After all, secrets can only be kept for so long. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In April of 1932, eight-year-old Dorothy Hunter was abducted while walking home from school. Her mutilated body was later found hidden in a haystack. Not long after, police reported that a local farmer named Richard Read confessed to Dorothy’s rape and murder. But his arrest was not enough for the citizens on Northwestern Kansas. Removing him from his jail cell in Cheyenne County, a mob bound and hanged Read from a tree in what would be the state’s final lynching.In Under a Full Moon, Alice Kay Hill chronicles these grim events, vividly weaving the stories of the victims and the families involved. Taking a deep dive into the psycho-social complexities of the time, the narrative spans from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of the Dust Bowl, revealing how mental and physical abuse, social isolation, the privations of homesteading, strong dreams and even stronger personalities all factored into Read’s life and crimes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When former FBI Agent Kathy Stearman read in the New York Times that sixteen women were suing the FBI for discrimination at the training academy, she was surprised to see the women come forward—no one ever had before. But the truth behind their accusations resonated.After a twenty-six-year career in the Bureau, Kathy Stearman knows from personal experience that this type of behavior has been prevalent for decades. Stearman’s It’s Not About the Gun examines the influence of attitude and gender in her journey to becoming FBI Legal Attaché, the most senior FBI representative in a foreign office.When she entered the FBI Academy in 1987, Stearman was one of about 600 women in a force of 10,000 agents. While there, she evolved into an assertive woman, working her way up the ranks and across the globe to hold positions that very few women have held before. And yet, even at the height of her career, Stearman had to check herself to make sure that she never appeared weak, inferior, or afraid. The accepted attitude for women in power has long been cool, calm, and in control—and sometimes that means coming across as cold and emotionless. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A fascinating introduction to the history of Broadmoor: Kate Summerscale, author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher.On 27 May 1863, three coaches pulled up at the gates of a new asylum, built amongst the tall, dense pines of Windsor Forest. Broadmoors first patients had arrived.In Broadmoor Revealed, Mark Stevens writes about what life was like for the criminally insane, over one hundred years ago. From fresh research into the Broadmoor archives, Mark has uncovered the lost lives of patients whose mental illnesses led them to become involved in crime.Discover the five women who went on to become mothers in Broadmoor, giving birth to new life when three of them had previously taken it. Find out how several Victorian immigrants ended their hopeful journeys to England in madness and disaster. And follow the numerous escapes, actual and attempted, as the first doctors tried to assert control over the residents.As well as bringing the lives of forgotten patients to light, this thrilling book reveals new perspectives on some of the hospital's most famous Victorian residents: Edward Oxford, the bar boy who shot at Queen Victoria. Richard Dadd, the brilliant artist and murderer of his own father. William Chester Minor, veteran of the American Civil War who went on to play a key part in the first Oxford English Dictionary. Christiana Edmunds, The Chocolate Cream Poisoner and frustrated lover from Brighton.Broadmoor Revealed became the most popular history e-book of 2011, and now this new expanded and revised edition celebrates the Hospital's 150th anniversary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The survivors of victims of murder and suspicious death are often victimized twice—first by the loss of their loved one and subsequently by the system they rely on for justice. In pursuit of police transparency, retired investigator Dennis Griffin takes us inside the world of real crime cases to expose the shocking truth behind the alarming number of unsolved murders and suspicious deaths classified as accidental, self-inflicted, or natural—with little to no investigation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A City Divided tells the story of the case involving 18-year-old Jordan Miles and three Pittsburgh police officers. David Harris, a resident of Pittsburgh and the Sally Ann Semenko Chair at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, describes what happened, explaining how a case that began with a young black man walking around the block in his own neighborhood turned Pittsburgh inside out, resulted in two investigations of the police officers and two federal trials. Harris, who has written, published and conducted research at the intersection of race, criminal justice and the law for almost thirty years, explains not just what happened but why, what the stakes are and, most importantly, what we must do differently to avoid these public safety catastrophes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 19th January 1931 a telephone message was left for Mr William Wallace at the Liverpool Central Chess Club, of which he was a member. It involved an appointment with a possible business client for the insurance collector, and instructed him to call at 25 Menlove Gardens East at 7.30pm the following evening.On the 20th Wallace duly left his home in Anfield at around 6.45pm and took three trams to Allerton. After searching the Menlove area for some time and asking several people for directions, it appeared that there was a North, South and West, but no East.Wallace returned home to find his 69-year-old wife Julia brutally murdered in the front parlour of their home in Wolverton Street.Despite consistently denying any involvement, William Wallace was tried and convicted of his wife’s murder, only for the verdict to be overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal - the first time in British legal history that an appeal had been allowed after re-examination of evidence. The question therefore still remains: who killed Julia Wallace on that cold January night in 1931?Mark Russell has a personal connection with the case: his grandparents knew both William and Julia Wallace, and were clients of Wallace's on his collection round. During the writing of this book Mark accessed numerous files associated with the case, including those held at Merseyside Police, the records of Wallace’s solicitors Hill Dickinson LLP, and also the records held at the National Archives Kew. He also consulted contemporary newspaper reports, court records and coroner's reports.CHECKMATE dispels several of the myths and inaccuracies that have surrounded the case for decades. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals,” Sherlock Holmes observed during one of his most puzzling murder investigations. Incredibly, at the time the words of the world’s most famous fictional detective appeared in print in the Strand Magazine, a real-life Canadian doctor was stalking and murdering women in London’s downtrodden Lambeth neighbourhood. Dr. Thomas Neill Cream had been a suspect in the deaths of two women in Canada, and had killed as many as four people in Chicago before he arrived in London in 1891 and began using pills laced with strychnine to kill prostitutes. The Lambeth Poisoner, as he was dubbed in the press, became one of the most prolific serial killers in history.In this fascinating book, Dean Jobb reveals how bungled investigations, corrupt officials and failed prosecutions allowed Cream to evade detection or freed him to kill, again and again. The first complete account of Dr. Cream’s crimes and his many victims explores how the stifling morality and hypocrisy of the Victorian era allowed this monster to poison vulnerable and desperate women, many of whom had turned to him for medical help. It offers an inside account of Scotland Yard’s desperate search for a killer as brazen and efficient as Jack the Ripper. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This psychological crime thriller takes us inside the mind of a unique female serial killer, a prostitute who murdered seven adult men—a case with which the author was intimately involved. The issues raised by this high-profile criminal case remain unresolved to this day. Women, even prostitutes, have the right to self-defense in theory, but in practice, the story is more complicated.This book will challenge everything you ever thought about prostitutes, serial killers, and justice in America.Aileen Wuornos is a damaged soul, a genuine American outlaw, a symbol of women's rage, a symbol of what can happen to severely abused children, and of how our justice system fails women.Chesler's involvement with a serial killer has haunted her ever since. She speaks in Aileen Wuornos' voice, as well as in her own, and delivers an incisive, original, and dramatic portrait of a cognitively impaired, traumatized, and alcoholic woman who had endured so much pain in her short life. When she'd had enough, the results were deadly.This is a poignant, sometimes humorous, never-before-told behind-the-scenes tale. Wuornos' story is handled with great sensitivity, but also with realistic detachment by Chesler as she probes the telling moment, the telling phrase. Was Wuornos suffering from post-traumatic stress after a life lived on a "killing field?" Was she also "born evil?" So many prostitutes have been torture-murdered by serial killers—how did Wuornos, once prey, become a predator?Requiem for a Female Serial Killer will also haunt you. It won’t let you put it down.Take a walk on the wild side. The ghost of Aileen Wuornos beckons Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

THE MIRACLE OF LIFEWhen Lisa Montgomery presented her husband Kevin with their new-born baby girl, he was ecstatic. Naming the child Abigail, the couple brought her to their local pastor. Miles away, police were investigating the brutal murder of a pregnant woman...THE HORROR OF MURDERTwenty-three year old Bobbie Jo Stinnett was found by her mother, lying in a pool of blood, looking as if her stomach "had exploded." Investigators soon determined: Someone had strangled Bobbie Jo to death—and then cut her fetus from her womb...THE WOMAN ACCUSED OF KILLING FOR AN UNBORN CHILD...In late 2004, two women met in a dog-breeding internet chat room. When Elizabeth Montgomery came face to face with eight-months-pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett, prosecutors claim she already had a plan. Investigators knew that Bobbie Jo had fought desperately for her life—and that her fetus, alive or dead, was gone. Investigators scrambled after a killer. An "Amber Alert" went out for an hours-old infant. And this horrifying case was about to shock neighbors and a nation: of a woman accused of murdering for a baby... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ron Moffatt was 14 years old in 1956 when he was accused of murdering a child on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto. During a tough police interrogation, Ron falsely confessed and was convicted at trial. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Piper Streyle failed to show up for work, a coworker called her home. Piper's three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Shaina, answered and said, "A mean man carried Mommy away." Then the line went dead. In the tranquil region of southeast South Dakota, word of the young mother who was brazenly abducted from her home in broad daylight shocked residents. Piper was the second woman to vanish, following the startling incident of a young woman who narrowly escaped abduction by fighting for her life on a dark and secluded highway. An intensive search by an elite team of investigators uncovered a secret crime location, but the discovery of a nightshirt cut in half, a burnt candle, and a homemade bondage board revealed the chilling truth behind the missing women. With the help of a quick-witted and streetwise maximum security prison inmate, prosecutor Larry Long and his team were able to piece together the sinister facts of the diabolical crimes. Best-selling authors Phil and Sandy Hamman, along with former Attorney General Larry Long, dive into the grim and demented world of Robert Leroy Anderson, a sexual sadist, rapist, and murderer. Duct Tape Killer is also the story of perseverance and proof that love will not be extinguished by the ruinous evil that seeks to take root in our world.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To all appearances, Dennis Rader was a model citizen in the small town of Park City, Kansas, where he had lived with his family almost his entire life. He was a town compliance officer, a former Boy Scout leader, the president of his church congregation, and a seemingly ordinary father and husband. But Rader's average life belied the existence of his dark, sadistic other self: he was the BTK serial killer.The self-named BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill) had terrorized Wichita for 31 years, not only with his brutal, sexually motivated crimes, but also through his taunting, elusive communications with the media and law enforcement. In 1974, BTK committed his first murders, torturing and strangling four members of the Otero family, and wrote the police an audacious letter declaring his responsibility for the Oteros' deaths and labeling himself, for the first time, BTK. Thus he established a pattern, stalking and killing a series of 10 victims, then bragging and claiming ownership of his crimes, that ended in 1991 but left law enforcement confounded and the public with deeply troubling memories. Until, that is, he resurfaced in 2004 with another string of letters that would finally lead to his arrest.Drawing from extensive interviews with Rader's pastor, congregation, detectives, and psychologists who worked the case, and from his unnervingly detailed 32-hour confession, best-selling author Stephen Singular delves into the disturbing life and crimes of BTK to explore fully, for the first time, the most dangerous and complex serial killer of our generation and the man who embodied, at once, astonishing extremes of normality and abnormality. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When medical student Kathie Durst vanished in 1982, she was married to Robert Durst, son of a New York real estate magnate. Kathie's friends had reason to implicate her husband. They told police that Kathie lived in terror of Robert and that she had uncovered incriminating financial evidence about him. But Durst's secrets went even deeper. For decades Kathie's disappearance remained a mystery.Then in 2001, Durst, an heir to an empire valued at two billion dollars, was arrested for shoplifting in Pennsylvania. When the police brought him in, they discovered that he was a suspect in the murder of Texas drifter Morris Black, whose dismembered remains were found floating in Galveston Bay, and that Durst was also wanted for questioning in the killing of his friend, Susan Burman, in Los Angeles.Based on interviews with family, friends, and acquaintances of Durst, law enforcement, and others involved in the case, A Deadly Secret is a cross-country odyssey of stolen IDs and multiple identities that raises baffling questions about one of the country's most prominent families - and one of its most elusive suspected killers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This true crime biography reveals the disturbing story of a serial killer who terrorized central Michigan—and now has a chance to go free. As a former youth pastor who attended the Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice, Don Miller seemed like a decent young man. But in 1978, he was arrested for the attempted murder of two teenagers. Police soon connected Miller to the disappearances of four women. In exchange for a controversial plea bargain, he led police to the missing women’s bodies. Now, thanks to the deal he was offered and changes to Michigan law, Miller is allowed to seek parole once a year. In Killing Women, author Rodney Sadler examines the crimes, the “justice” meted out, and the possibility that Miller could be unleashed on the world once again. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was a bleak November in 2012 when Cari Farver, thirty-seven, vanished from Omaha, Nebraska. Texts sent indicated that the hardworking mother had quit her job, abandoned her son, and cut ties with everyone. Cari’s boyfriend, Dave Kroupa, accepted the breakup at face value. Her mother, Nancy Raney, however, had doubts. “I need to hear your voice,” Nancy begged. When the texter refused to speak, Nancy reported Cari missing.   While no one saw or spoke to Cari, more than 12,000 sinister emails and texts were sent in her name over the next years. Police believed Dave and his girlfriend, Shanna “Liz” Golyar, when they reported that the missing woman was cyberstalking them. The tormentor was eerily aware of Dave’s every move, knew when Liz visited and threatened the couple. It never occurred to Dave that Cari was a victim—that the real stalker had killed before, and was planning to kill again. Leslie Rule tracks the heart-pounding path to long-awaited justice—from a twisted past to the deadly deception and the high-tech forensics that condemned the killer to prison. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former detective and bestselling author Mike Rothmiller has brought together classic works of journalism that will take the reader on a fascinating journey back in time to when these horrific tales mesmerized a nation. Some may find these articles and their descriptions of people and crimes shocking by today’s standards, but they are representative of the most colorful true crime stories of the dayTrue Crime Chronicles, Volume Two includes stories about Billy the Kid, Jesse James, the legendary “Jack the Ripper,” Lizzie Halliday, Anna Maria Zwanziger, Jack the Haircutter, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Nebraska Murderer, and many more shocking stories. Follow along as these reporters from another century visit the crime scenes, interview witnesses, and pen the stories of murder, evil, and swift frontier justice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The call came on the morning of July 13, 2011, from the historic Spreckels Mansion, a lavish beachfront property in Coronado, California, owned by pharmaceutical tycoon and multimillionaire Jonah Shacknai. When authorities arrived, they found the naked body of Jonah's girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau, gagged, her ankles tied and her wrists bound behind her. Jonah's brother, Adam, claimed to have found Rebecca hanging by a rope from the second-floor balcony. On a bedroom door in black paint were the cryptic words: SHE SAVED HIM CAN YOU SAVE HER.Was this scrawled message a suicide note or a killer's taunt? Rebecca's death came two days after Jonah's six-year-old son, Max, took a devastating fall while in Rebecca's care. Authorities deemed Rebecca's death a suicide resulting from her guilt. But who would stage either a suicide or a murder in such a bizarre, elaborate way? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the Name of the Children gives an unflinching look at what it's like to fight a never-ending battle against an enemy far more insidious than terrorists: the predators, lurking amongst us, who seek to harm our children.During his 30-year career with the FBI, Jeff Rinek worked hundreds of investigations involving crimes against children: from stranger abduction to serial homicide to ritualized sexual abuse. Those who do this kind of work are required to plumb the depths of human depravity, to see things no one should ever have to see—and once seen can never forget. There is no more important—or more brutal—job in law enforcement, and few have been more successful than Rinek at solving these sort of cases.Most famously, Rinek got Cary Stayner to confess to all four of the killings known as the Yosemite Park Murders, an accomplishment made more extraordinary by the fact that the FBI nearly pinned the crimes on the wrong suspects. Rinek's recounting of the confession and what he learned about Stayner provides perhaps the most revelatory look ever inside the psyche of a serial killer and a privileged glimpse into the art of interrogation.In the Name of the Children takes readers into the trenches of real-time investigations where every second counts and any wrong decision or overlooked fact can have tragic repercussions. Rinek offers an insider's perspective of the actual case agents and street detectives who are the boots on the ground in this war at home. By placing us inside the heart and mind of a rigorously honest and remarkably self-reflective investigator, we will see with our own eyes what it takes—and what it costs—to try to keep our children safe and to bring to justice those who prey on society's most vulnerable victims.With each chapter dedicated to a real case he worked, In the Name of the Children also explores the evolution of Rinek as a Special Agent—whose unorthodox, empathy-based approach to interviewing suspects made him extraordinarily successful in obtaining confessions—and the toll it took to have such intimate contact with child molesters and murderers. Beyond exploring the devastating impact of these unthinkable crimes on the victims and their families, this book offers an unprecedented look at how investigators and their loved ones cope while living in the specter of so much suffering Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On a dreary morning in April, 1893, John Marshall, a Portuguese immigrant and successful farmer on Sumas Prairie in British Columbia, was found lying sprawled across the veranda of his farmhouse, his body cold and lifeless. The farmer’s face was a mess, his nose smashed in and cracked blood covering his forehead around a jagged black hole. The shocked and unfortunate neighbor who discovered the body rushed to Huntingdon railway station to summon the authorities. An autopsy, coroner’s inquest and murder investigation followed. Only two days later, a local handyman named Albert Stroebel was arrested for Marshall’s murder. Stroebel was an unlikely killer: short and physically disabled, locals considered him a harmless “boy” who seemed much younger than his 20 years. The young man the community knew was not capable of murder, and they were shocked to imagine that he could have killed the man who had treated him like family. But something had gone tragically wrong on the night Marshall died. Unraveling the mystery would take nine months and two lengthy trials that seized the attention of local communities on both sides of the Canadian-American border, splitting them into pro- and anti-Stroebel factions. Newspapers devoted page after page of coverage and throngs of spectators squeezed into the courtroom galleries. The first trial in New Westminster ended with the jury hopelessly deadlocked, the second in Victoria found him guilty and set an impending date for his execution. The heaviest hitters of BC’s political and legal establishment took part including former and current premiers, an Attorney General, and a future Supreme Court justice. When the second trial ended with a guilty verdict and death sentence many in the public howled in protest, convinced that a young man had been condemned to die for a crime he did not commit. And the dramatic events would not stop there. With the condemned man sitting on death row, the case would take more twists and turns that would lead Albert Stroebel to the shadow of the gallows. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Albin Ludwig was furious. He had caught his wife, Cecilia, with other men before; now, after secretly following Cecilia one evening in 1906, Albin was overcome with suspicion. Albin and Cecilia quarreled that night and again the next day. Prosecutors later claimed that the final quarrel ended when Albin knocked Cecilia unconscious with a wooden potato masher, doused her with a flammable liquid, lit her on fire, and left her to burn to death. Albin claimed self-defense, but he was convicted of second-degree murder.Newspaper coverage of the dramatic crime and trial was jarringly explicit and detailed, shocking readers in Indiana, where the crime occurred. Peter Young of the South Bend Times wrote that the murder’s “horrors and its shocking features . . . have never before been witnessed in Mishawaka.” The story was front-page news throughout northern Indiana for much of a year.For several generations, the families of both Cecilia and Albin would be silent about the crime―until Cecilia’s great-grandson, award-winning journalist Gary Sosniecki, uncovered the family’s dark secret. As he discovered, wife beating was commonplace in the early 20th century (before the gender-neutral term of “domestic violence” was adopted), and “wife murder” was so common that newspapers described virtually every case by that term. At long last, The Potato Masher Murder: Death at the Hands of a Jealous Husband unearths the full story of two immigrant families united by love and torn apart by domestic violence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s the greatest crime story ever to play out on national television—the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson, the 35-year-old wife of famed pro football star O.J. Simpson, and Ron Goldman, a 25-year-old restaurant worker and friend of Nicole, who were brutally murdered by an unknown assailant outside Nicole’s home in Brentwood, California, on the evening of Sunday, June 12, 1994. Charged with the murders, O.J. Simpson underwent in October 1995 a nationally televised murder trial that lasted nearly nine months, ending in a dramatic acquittal that was watched live by over one-hundred-million people – one of the largest audiences to ever witness anything in the history of television. It was called the “trial of the century.”But people still want to know what really happened that summer night when Nicole Brown Simpson’s and Ron Goldman’s lives were literally cut short, and now, Norman Pardo—O.J.'s closest confidante and business manager for twenty years—offers readers the true story behind these murders. With revelatory never-before-seen evidence and previously undisclosed interviews with people who knew Simpson and Goldman, Pardo makes the case that the real killer was not O.J., whose only aim was to protect his children from Simpson's lifestyle. Rather, Pardo argues, the true murderer was notorious serial killer Glen Rogers, whose testimony in this book just may hold the key to unlocking the case once and for all. Equal parts eye-opening, shocking, and entertaining, Who Really Killed Nicole? is essential reading for everyone interested in the O.J. Simpson trial and the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, anyone interested in the case of Glen Rogers, and all those who still want to know the truth of what happened that fateful June evening in 1994.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amy Over is the host of Confronting: Columbine and was a senior at Columbine High School in 1999. On April 20, 1999, Amy was eating lunch in the cafeteria with friends when her school was violently attacked by two fellow students. She hid under a table fearing the worst when her basketball coach indicated that the kids in the cafeteria needed to run. As Amy ran toward the exit, the killers shot into the crowd of students Amy was in. Amy narrowly escaped with her life. She remembers fleeing past slain bodies of her classmates. Amy ran a half mile to a stranger’s home and took shelter there to catch her breath and call her mother. She has been dealing with the trauma of that day ever since.Part of her healing has been helping other survivors of mass trauma as the Director of Fundraising and Project Journey Coordinator for The Rebels Project since 2015. Amy has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and has completed level one trauma assistance training through Colorado Victims Assistance academy. Amy is a regular at kickboxing. She currently lives in Parker, Colorado with her husband of 18 years, her two beautiful children and her adored niece and nephew. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a story almost too tawdry to be true—a con woman prostitute who met the descendant of a Founding Father in a brothel, duped him into marriage using an infant purchased from a baby farm, then went to prison for stabbing the couple’s baby nurse—all while in a common-law marriage with another man. The scandal surrounding Evangeline and Robert Ray Hamilton, though little known today, was one of the sensations of the Gilded Age, a sordid, gripping tale involving bigamy, bribery, sex, and violence. When the salacious Hamilton story emerged in during Eva’s trial for the August 1889 stabbing, it commanded unprecedented national and international newspaper coverage thanks to the telegraph and the recently founded Associated Press. For the New York dailies, eager to capture readers through provocative headlines, Ray and Eva were a godsend.As lurid details emerged, the public’s fascination grew—how did a man of Hamilton’s stature become entangled with such an adventuress? Nellie Bly, the world-famous investigative reporter, finagled an exclusive interview with Eva after her conviction. Hamilton’s death under mysterious circumstances, a year after the stabbing, added to the intrigue.Through personal correspondence, court records, and sensational newspaper accounts, The Scandalous Hamiltons explores not only the full, riveting saga of ill-fated Ray and Eva, but the rise of tabloid journalism and celebrity in a story that is both a fascinating slice of pop culture history and a timeless tale of ambition, greed, and obsession Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The hitchhiker seemed harmless. He was dressed in a blue suit and a colorful sweater, accessorized with a grey cap and tan shoes. He carried nothing. It was the morning of June 8, 1927, when the Chandler family picked up the well-dressed man in Minnesota and dropped him at the Canadian border. They had unwittingly transported notorious serial killer, “The Gorilla Man,” who had strangled more than twenty women from one end of the United States to the other. He would later murder Emily Patterson and 14-year-old Lola Cowan in Winnipeg. His identity was unknown.Written by Alvin A. J. Esau, The Gorilla Man Strangler Case: Serial Killer Earle Nelson is a detailed historical account of the Canadian manhunt, capture, and identification of Earle Leonard Nelson, an escapee from a California mental institution. Drawing on archival sources, it’s the first reliable biography of Nelson, who was hung in Manitoba on January 13, 1928.This case study also deals with various political and professional issues that arose in the pretrial, trial, and post-trial periods and spotlights the clash between Nelson’s court-appointed defence attorney James Stitt, and psychiatrist Dr. Alvin Mathers, along with the chilling role of Canada’s so called official hangman “Arthur Ellis” – all information that has never been published before.Esau also raises various enduring issues about the social construction of serial killers, debates about capital punishment, psychopathy, the scope of the insanity defence, the effect of pretrial publicity, and the trial as public entertainment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neal Wooten grew up in a tiny community atop Sand Mountain, Alabama, where everyone was white and everyone was poor. Prohibition was still embraced. If you wanted alcohol, you had to drive to Georgia or ask the bootlegger sitting next to you in church. Tent revivals, snake handlers, and sacred harp music were the norm, and everyone was welcome as long as you weren’t Black, brown, gay, atheist, Muslim, a damn Yankee, or a Tennessee Vol fan.The Wooten's lived a secret existence in a shack in the woods with no running water, no insulation, and almost no electricity. Even the school bus and mail carrier wouldn’t go there. Neal’s family could hide where they were, but not what they were. They were poor white trash. Cops could see it. Teachers could see it. Everyone could see it.Growing up, Neal was weaned on folklore legends of his grandfather—his quick wit, quick feet, and quick temper. He discovers how this volatile disposition led to a murder, a conviction, and ultimately to a daring prison escape and a closely guarded family secret.Being followed by a black car with men in black suits was as normal to Neal as using an outhouse, carrying drinking water from a stream, and doing homework by the light of a kerosene lamp. And Neal’s father, having inherited the very same traits of his father, made sure the frigid mountain winters weren’t the most brutal thing his family faced.Told from two perspectives, this story alternates between Neal’s life and his grandfather’s, culminating in a shocking revelation. Take a journey to the Deep South and learn what it’s like to be born on the wrong side of the tracks, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of a violent mental illness. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rod knocked on the door, and within a few moments, the door swung open and there was O.J. Simpson. This was and is a moment that is hard to reconcile in my mind. As I stood there—a detective tasked with investigating a crime and thinking I was going to conduct this interview just like any other—I was a little star struck . . . In 1995, NFL great and movie star O.J. Simpson beat a murder rap for the death of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. But in 2007 his luck with avoiding Lady Justice ran out in Las Vegas. Written by the lead detective assigned to the case, Room 1203 is the true story of the convoluted and bizarre events surrounding a violent armed robbery of a sports memorabilia collector in a Vegas hotel. On that night, Simpson put an exclamation mark on his spectacular fall from the height of Hollywood’s glamour and glitz to a shadowy world of scams and schemers in Sin City. This book provides details, insights, and facts not previously reported—and reveals the investigation that pieced the crime together and landed an arrogant man who believed he was above the law in a Nevada prison. “Read it in two sittings. . . . Dispelled the idea that the robbery in Las Vegas was more of a misunderstanding than a real crime and that Simpson was merely trying to get back his own property.” —Dennis Griffin, bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of a Casino Mobste Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why so many Serial Killers all at the same time in one city? Between 1977 and 1987 the metropolis of Los Angeles had at least eight separate Serial Killers operating all at the same time. Many of us remember the so-called Freeway Killer and immediately think of William Bonin who left the bodies of 21 young men strewn along the freeways. However, many people have forgotten that there were two other Freeway Killers all operating in the same area at the same time. Their names were Patrick Kearney and Randy Kraft and they killed over 50 young men and dump their bodies near streets, highways and alleys.During this time period women in the Los Angeles area may have felt safe from the Freeway Killers, but it wasn’t long after that the Hillside Strangler was littering the hillsides with bodies of young women. Shortly thereafter the Tool Box Killers picked up teenage girls at the beach and scattered their dead bodies in the local mountains where the wild life devoured their corpses. Simultaneously The Sunset Strip Killer was picking up young women walking the streets of Hollywood only to have their dead bodies discarded next to portable toilets.By 1985, both men and women didn’t feel safe in Los Angeles with so many Serial Killers roaming the community. Then the double whammy occurred when the Nightstalker viciously struck and paralyzed everyone with fear in his murderous crime spree. If that wasn’t enough mayhem, at the same time the Southside Slayers were methodically raping and callously strangling women along the route to LAX.The author has a unique insight on all these Serial Killer cases since he worked on many of the cases or had personal contact with the prosecutors who tried those cases. In this book he shares information and photos on these vicious murders much of which the public has never heard or seen before. For the first time he collectively reviews each of these distinctive Serial Killers revealing what caused these individuals to continually kill people for so many years.The author next discusses the unique conditions that existed in the Los Angeles area that turned out to be a breeding ground for all these Serial Killers. The big question becomes what happened to all these Serial Killers that terrorized the City of the Angels. This unbelievable period of ten years left permanent scars on the psychic of every Angelino who endured such trepidation.Even though the Golden Era of the Serial Killers of Los Angeles has faded into history it still remains vivid in the minds of those who lived through those scary times. Finally this book spells out the blueprint as to what needs to be done to assure that there will never be another Serial Killer of Los Angeles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.