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Showing 3141 - 3160 of 7264 items
By Matti Friedman. 2013
A thousand years ago, the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible was written. It was kept safe through one…
upheaval after another in the Middle East, and by the 1940s it was housed in a dark grotto in Aleppo, Syria, and had become known around the world as the Aleppo Codex. Journalist Matti Friedman’s true-life detective story traces how this precious manuscript was smuggled from its hiding place in Syria into the newly founded state of Israel and how and why many of its most sacred and valuable pages went missing. It’s a tale that involves grizzled secret agents, pious clergymen, shrewd antiquities collectors, and highly placed national figures who, as it turns out, would do anything to get their hands on an ancient, decaying book. What it reveals are uncomfortable truths about greed, state cover-ups, and the fascinating role of historical treasures in creating a national identity. Winner of the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish LiteratureBy Lizzie Wade. 2017
By Lizzie Wade. 2017
By Lizzie Wade. 2017
By Lizzie Wade. 2017
By Lizzie Wade. 2017
By Lizzie Wade. 2017
By Stephanie Quinn. 2016
By Liz Huyck. 2016
By Linda Fairstein. 2003
Legal expert Linda Fairstein's investigation of why some women falsely claim rape, and of the devastating effects a charge can…
have on those who have been wrongfully accusedFor each criminal category, a small percentage of claims are proven to be unfounded. Unfortunately, cases of rape are no exception. As a district attorney in New York City, Linda Fairstein encountered these false claims more than a few times. This kind of accusation not only results in the unjust punishment of innocent men, but also serves to trivialize the experiences of rape survivors. In Why Some Women Lie About Rape,Fairstein draws upon her decades of experience to shed light on this difficult issue, including the motivations behind a false rape accusation. Originally published in Cosmopolitan, this essay is now available in digital format for the first time and features a new introduction by the author.By George Rowe. 2013
This is the high-octane, no-holds-barred, true story of a bad guy turned good who busted open one of the most…
violent outlaw motorcycle gangs in history. George Rowe's gritty and harrowing story offers not only a glimpse into the violent world of the motorcycle outlaw, but a gripping tale of self-sacrifice and human redemption that would be the stuff of great fiction--if it weren't all true. Rowe had been a drug dealer, crystal meth addict, barroom brawler, and convicted felon, but when he witnessed the Vagos brutally and senselessly beat his friend over a pool game, everything changed. Rowe decided to pay back his Southern California hometown for the sins of his past by taking down the gang that was terrorizing it. He volunteered himself as an undercover informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and vowed to dismantle the brotherhood from the inside out, becoming history's first private citizen to voluntarily infiltrate an outlaw motorcycle gang for the U.S. government. As "Big George," a full-patched member of the Vagos, Rowe spent three brutal years juggling a double life--riding, fighting, and nearly dying alongside the brothers who he secretly hoped to put away for good. During this time, Rowe also became entwined in a tumultuous relationship with a struggling addict named Jenna, never once revealing that he was actually working for the Feds. The road to redemption was not an easy ride. Rowe lost everything: his family, his business, his home--even his identity. To this day, under protection by the U.S. government, Rowe still looks over his shoulder, keeping watch for the brothers he put behind bars. They've vowed to search for him until the day they die.By Gillian Flynn, Patton Oswalt, Michelle McNamara. 2018
A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over…
a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case. For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area. Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was. At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer. A New York Times BestsellerBy Douglas Wellman, Mark Musick. 2015
This second edition of Boxes: The Secret Life of Howard Hughes continues the history-changing story of Eva McLelland and her…
reclusive life married to a mystery man she discovered was Howard Hughes. New witnesses have come forward with personal stories, additional evidence, and photographs. Hughes's links to the murder of mobster Bugsy Siegel and the killers of President John F. Kennedy are revealed as well as the real identity of the long-haired crazy man that Hughes placed in the Desert Inn Hotel to distract the world while he escaped. Eva McLelland kept her secret for thirty-one stressful years as she lived a nomadic existence with a man who refused to unpack his belongings for fear he would be discovered and have to flee. Only her husband's death finally released her to tell the story that had been burning inside her for decades.By Rino Coluccello. 2016
The Sicilian Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, is one of the most intriguing criminal phenomena in the world. It is an…
unparalleled organised criminal grouping that over almost two centuries has been able not only to successfully permeate licit and illicit economy, politics and civil society, but also to influence and exercise authoritative power over both the underworld and the upper-world. This criminal phenomenon has been a captivating conundrum for scholars of different disciplines who have tried to explain with various paradigms the reasons behind the emergence and consolidation of the mafia.By Tom Wright, Bradley Hope. 2018
The definitive inside account of the "extraordinary" (Financial Times) 1MDB scandal, "a true life thriller" (Ben Mezrich) about a "modern…
Gatsby" who managed to swindle over $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs and others--a "must read" (Booklist) "epic tale" (Publishers Weekly) that exposes the secret nexus of elite wealth, banking, Hollywood, and politics from two award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters. In 2009, with the dust yet to settle on the financial crisis, a baby-faced, seemingly mild-mannered Wharton grad began setting in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude--one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. His name is Jho Low, a man whose behavior was so preposterous he might seem made up. An epic true-tale of hubris and greed, Billion Dollar Whale reveals how this young social climber pulled off one of the biggest heists in history--right under the nose of the global financial industry. Federal agents who helped unravel Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme say the 1MDB affair will become the textbook case of financial fraud in the modern age--and its fallout is already being credited for taking down the prime minister of Malaysia. With his yacht and private jet reportedly seized by authorities and facing money-laundering charges in Malaysia, an Interpol red notice, and an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice Investigation, Low has become an international fugitive. For readers of Liar's Poker, Den of Thieves, and Bad Blood, Billion Dollar Whale will become a classic, harrowing parable about finance run amok. A New York Times BestsellerBy Reader'S Digest. 2019
More than two dozen gripping tales of murder, kidnapping, robbery, and much more from the Reader’s Digest archives.For more than…
90 years, Reader’s Digest has been telling the amazing true stories of real-life thrillers, unsolved mysteries, and tales of cold-blooded murder—and of the regular folks caught up in these harrowing situations. Now we’ve pulled together a collection of more than two dozen of these gripping narratives, including: A woman’s account of being taken hostage by a convenience store robber True crime writer Ann Rule’s encounter with Ted Bundy before she knew he was a killer The case of the man who rigged the lottery The inside story of how Al Capone was finally arrested for tax evasion The unlikely tale of a widower father who enlisted his teenage son and daughter to help rob banks These modern classics are for crime aficionados and novices alike, tantalizing enough to hold your attention yet brisk enough to be your best beach or book club read. Enjoy the ride with an airplane bomber, an identity thief, and a Bonnie-and-Clyde team living on borrowed time. (Enjoy even more their comeuppance.)The untold story of how Russia refined the art and science of targeted assassination abroad-while Western spies watched in horror…
as their governments failed to guard against the threat They thought they had found a safe haven in the green hills of England. They were wrong. One by one, the Russian oligarchs, dissidents, and gangsters who fled to Britain after Vladimir Putin came to power dropped dead in strange or suspicious circumstances. One by one, their British lawyers and fixers met similarly grisly ends. Yet, one by one, the British authorities shut down every investigation-and carried on courting the Kremlin.The spies in the riverside headquarters of MI6 looked on with horror as the scope of the Kremlin's global killing campaign became all too clear. And, across the Atlantic, American intelligence officials watched with mounting alarm as the bodies piled up, concerned that the tide of death could spread to the United States. Those fears intensified when a one-time Kremlin henchman was found bludgeoned to death in a Washington, D.C. penthouse. But it wasn't until Putin's assassins unleashed a deadly chemical weapon on the streets of Britain, endangering hundreds of members of the public in a failed attempt to slay the double agent Sergei Skripal, that Western governments were finally forced to admit that the killing had spun out of control.Unflinchingly documenting the growing web of death on British and American soil, Heidi Blake bravely exposes the Kremlin's assassination campaign as part of Putin's ruthless pursuit of global dominance-and reveals why Western governments have failed to stop the bloodshed. The unforgettable story that emerges whisks us from London's high-end night clubs to Miami's million-dollar hideouts, ultimately rendering a bone-chilling portrait of money, betrayal, and murder, written with the pace and propulsive power of a thriller.Based on a vast trove of unpublished documents, bags of discarded police evidence, and interviews with hundreds of insiders, this heart-stopping international investigation uncovers one of the most important- and terrifying-geopolitical stories of our time.By Billy Jensen. 2019
***With an exclusive behind-the-scenes conversation between Billy Jensen and retired detective Paul Holes on the Golden State Killer, their favorite…
cold cases, and more*** Have you ever wanted to solve a murder? Gather the clues the police overlooked? Put together the pieces? Identify the suspect? Journalist Billy Jensen spent fifteen years investigating unsolved murders, fighting for the families of victims. Every story he wrote had one thing in common—they didn't have an ending. The killer was still out there. But after the sudden death of a friend, crime writer and author of I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara, Billy became fed up. Following a dark night, he came up with a plan. A plan to investigate past the point when the cops had given up. A plan to solve the murders himself. You'll ride shotgun as Billy identifies the Halloween Mask Murderer, finds a missing girl in the California Redwoods, and investigates the only other murder in New York City on 9/11. You'll hear intimate details of the hunts for two of the most terrifying serial killers in history: his friend Michelle McNamara's pursuit of the Golden State Killer and his own quest to find the murderer of the Allenstown Four. And Billy gives you the tools—and the rules—to help solve murders yourself. Gripping, complex, unforgettable, Chase Darkness with Me is an examination of the evil forces that walk among us, illustrating a novel way to catch those killers, and a true-crime narrative unlike any you've read before.By Charles A. Gardner. 2019
The Prison Break, the Manhunt, the Inside Story In June 2015, two vicious convicted murderers broke out of the Clinton…
Correctional Facility in Dannemora, in New York’s North Country, launching the most extensive manhunt in state history. Aided by prison employee Joyce Mitchell, double murderer Richard Matt and cop-killer David Sweat slipped out of their cells, followed a network of tunnels and pipes under the thirty-foot prison wall, and climbed out of a manhole to freedom. For three weeks, the residents of local communities were virtual prisoners in their own homes as law enforcement from across the nation swept the rural wilderness near the Canadian border. The manhunt made front-page headlines—as did the prison sex scandal involving both inmates and Joyce Mitchell—and culminated in a dramatic and bloody standoff. Now Charles A. Gardner—a lifelong resident of the community and a former correction officer who began his training at Clinton and ultimately oversaw the training of staff in twelve prisons, including Clinton—tells the whole story from an insider's point of view. From the lax ethics and sexual hunger that drove Joyce Mitchell to fraternize with Matt and Sweat, smuggle them tools, and offer to be their getaway driver, to the state budget cuts that paved the way for prison corruption, to the brave and tireless efforts to bring the escaped killers to justice, Dannemora is a gripping account of the circumstances that led to the bold breakout and the twenty-three-day search that culminated in one man dead, and one man back in custody—and lingering questions about those who set the deadly drama in motion.By Rakesh Chandra, Larry Franklin. 2018
The penetrating look at the violence that swept prisons in the 1980’s and 1990’s and the organizational structure mirroring the…
Mafia that erupted in them. The inmates had to make a choice between joining a gang that offered protection, friendships, financial rewards, access to drugs and other contraband or serving as a lone inmate in a dangerous, even lethal world. The worst in this violent world were sent to a supermax prison. Tamms in Illinois was one of those supermax prisons.This is the story of Tamms."A must-read for anyone interested in the US criminal justice system and its supermax prisons." -- Elizabeth Theresa Klaver, Professor of English at Southern Illinois University"If you work at, administer with, or have anything to say about dangerous or mentally ill inmates, then this book is for you." -- Father Leo J. Hayes, M. Div., M.A., Author of “Evil In Mirror Lake”