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Gangsters and Organized Crime in Jewish Chicago (True Crime)
By Alex Garel-Frantzen. 2013
Al Capone. The Untouchables. The Valentine's Day massacre. You may think you know everything about the Roaring Twenties in the…
Windy City, but in the early twentieth century, the harsh environment of the Maxwell Street ghetto produced a proliferation of Jewish gangsters involved in everything from labor racketeering to white slavery. Their illegal activity offended their own community's value system and sparked rifts between Reform and Orthodox Jews. It also ignited tensions between city officials and Jewish leaders, indelibly marked the gentile population's perception of Chicago's Jews and shaped the city's West Side for years to come.Mother's Day
By Dennis Mcdougal. 1995
In June of 1985, while her teenage sons held their half-sister down, Theresa Cross beat her nineteen-year-old daughter Sheila unconscious…
and then stuffed her into a 2´ x 2´ storage locker. After three days, the knocking, kicking, and cries stopped. Theresa and her sons dumped the girl's body in the desolate High Sierras. The summer before, Theresa had dug a bullet out of her daughter Suesan's chest with a paring knife. When Suesan failed to recover (without benefit of doctors or hospital), Theresa and her two sons drove the delirious girl to the mountains, doused her with gasoline, and set her on fire. For nearly nine years, Theresa Cross Knorr got away with murder, until her youngest daughter, Terry Knorr Graves, finally found a cop who believed the incredible story of her two murdered sisters.?That story is all here, the shocking life of a woman whose violence, jealousy, rage, and domination led to a brutally heinous crime of ruthless ferocity.Black Mass
By Dick Lehr, Gerard O'Neill. 2012
John Connolly and James "Whitey" Bulger grew up together on the tough streets of South Boston. Decades later in the…
mid-1970s, they met again. By then, Connolly was a major figure in the FBI's Boston office and Whitey had become godfather of the Irish Mob. Connolly had an idea, a scheme that might bring Bugler into the FBI fold and John Connolly into the Bureau's big leagues. But Bulger had other plans. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger, Black Mass is the chilling true story of what happened between them--a dark deal that spiraled out of control, leading to drug dealing, racketeering, and murder.The Ivy League Killer
By Marilyn J. Bardsley, Dr Katherine Ramsland. 2012
Every killer presents a puzzle: Why did he do this? Thus, killers intrigue us. Each is unique, but some have…
a truly unusual mystique that commands our attention. The media offers simplistic motives for serial lust murder, citing factors such as a head injury or sexual abuse. But what about a gifted young man from a middle-class family who attended an Ivy League university and who was not injured or abused? While at school, he was socially active and became involved with several beautiful young women. He became engaged to one. However, as his relationships failed, along with his dream of the perfect life, he became addicted to violent sexual fantasies that inspired him to become a predator. Dr. Ramsland, drawing on her extensive expertise in forensic psychology, provides deep insight into a seemingly promising man who hunted down, raped and murdered eight young women. The same character disorder that supported his sense of entitlement prompted him to insist upon his execution, despite the state's determined efforts to avoid using the death penalty. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Katherine Ramsland, who teaches forensic psychology and criminal justice at Pennsylvania's DeSales University, is unique in having extensive experience in researching and writing about crime and the vampire subculture. She holds graduate degrees in forensic psychology, clinical psychology, philosophy and criminal justice. Dr. Ramsland has written over 1,000 articles and thirty-eight books on forensics, serial killers, mass murderers and the popular vampire culture.The Smoking Gun: Day by Day Through a Shocking Murder Trial with Gerry Spence
By Gerry Spence. 2003
From America's foremost criminal defense lawyer and author of the bestselling How to Argue and Win Every Time comes this…
riveting, true account of a trial that adeptly exposes the unrelenting power of the state, which so often crushes those -- guilty or innocent -- who come before the bar of justice. It could happen to you. When Sandy Jones and her teenage son were accused of murdering a real estate developer on their hardscrabble Oregon farm, the prosecution had an eyewitness to the shooting and a photograph of Sandy holding a smoking rifle. County officials kept Sandy in jail while they awaited the trial, despite ballistic evidence that strongly suggested she hadn't fired the fatal shot. The case erupted into an epic struggle between Sandy -- who was poor, different, and a woman -- and the "good old boys" of Lincoln County, Oregon, who held all the power. Though the Joneses' guilt seemed eminently clear to the county and the prosecution, Gerry Spence, renowned for his work on the cases of Karen Silkwood and Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, took the case pro bono and the courtroom battle exploded into three years of intensely moving jury trials, recounted here from the record of the case. The Smoking Gun follows Gerry Spence through his passionate arguments with two different judges and two different prosecutorial teams, his exacting jury selection, his expert questioning of the witnesses, and his incredible rapport with the jury as he fights for the rights of Sandy and her son. With a superb sense of drama and an intimate knowledge of the court system, Spence highlights the pitfalls that every defendant faces, making The Smoking Gun extremely relevant today, when our rights are being eroded and when the average American, even if innocent, is hard-pressed to obtain a fair trial.Fear of Our Father: The True Story of Abuse, Murder, and Family Ties
By Stacey Kananen, Lisa Bonnice. 2013
Even after a childhood of abuse and fear, Stacey M. Kananen was shocked when her brother, Rickie, admitted his guilt…
in the cold-blooded murder of their terrifying father, and years later, their helpless mother. But the greatest shock was to come--when he claimed that Stacey had helped him. In 1988, when Rickie and Stacey's father, Richard Kananen Sr., apparently left their home in Orlando, Florida, the family was so relieved that they never reported him missing. Fifteen years later to the day, their mother disappeared. When police became suspicious, Rickie admitted to Stacey that their father's body was under the cement floor of their mother's garage, and their mother was buried in Stacey's own backyard. Overwhelmed by grief and horror, Stacey's brother convinced her that they should commit suicide. After a failed attempt, she woke to discover her brother arrested--along with the realization that he had probably never intended to kill himself at all. But his betrayals were not yet over: On the eve of his trial in 2007, he suddenly claimed Stacey had been in on it, and she found herself charged with murder with a gung ho rookie detective who was convinced she was involved. This is the tragic and triumphant account of one woman's struggle to overcome her past, clear her name in what would become a dramatic public spectacle of a trial, and finally escape the nightmares that had haunted her entire life.The Secret Lives of Sgt. John Wilson: A True Story of Love and Murder
By Lois Simmie. 1995
Wise Guy: Life in a Mafia Family
By Nicholas Pileggi. 1985
The book that inspired the film, "Goodfellas," this chronicle reports the life of Henry Hill, a member of the Brooklyn…
Luchese crime family who decides to turn against his cohorts, later becoming part of the Federal Witness Protection Program.Running With Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and Other Forgotten Canadian Outlaws
By Edward Butts. 2008
This book picks up where The Desperate Ones: Canada’s Forgotten Outlaws left off. Here are more remarkable true stories about…
Canadian crimes and criminals — most of them tales that have been buried for years. The stories begin in colonial Newfoundland, with robbery and murder committed by the notorious Power Gang. As readers travel across the country and through time, they will meet the last two men to be hanged in Prince Edward Island, smugglers who made lake Champlain a battleground, a counterfeiter whose bills were so good they fooled even bank managers, and teenage girls who committed murder in their escape from jail. They will meet the bandits who plundered banks and trains in Eastern Canada and the West, and even the United States. Among them were Same Behan, a robber whose harrowing testimony about the brutal conditions in the Kingston Penitentiary may have brought about his untimely death in "The Hole"; and John "Red" Hamilton, the Canadian-born member of the legendary Dillinger gang.The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man
By Luc Sante, David Maurer. 1999
The classic 1940 study of con men and con games that Luc Sante in Salon called “a bonanza of wild…
but credible stories, told concisely with deadpan humor, as sly and rich in atmosphere as anything this side of Mark Twain.” “Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat,” wrote David Maurer, a proposition he definitely proved in The Big Con, one of the most colorful, well-researched, and entertaining works of criminology ever written. A professor of linguistics who specialized in underworld argot, Maurer won the trust of hundreds of swindlers, who let him in on not simply their language but their folkways and the astonishingly complex and elaborate schemes whereby unsuspecting marks, hooked by their own greed and dishonesty, were “taken off” – i.e. cheated—of thousands upon thousands of dollars. The Big Con is a treasure trove of American lingo (the write, the rag, the payoff, ropers, shills, the cold poke, the convincer, to put on the send) and indelible characters (Yellow Kid Weil, Barney the Patch, the Seldom Seen Kid, Limehouse Chappie, Larry the Lug). It served as the source for the Oscar-winning film The Sting.The Girl in the Leaves
By Robert Scott, Larry Maynard, Sarah Maynard. 2012
THE STORY OF ONE OF THE MOST BIZARRE MASS MURDERS EVER RECORDED. AND THE GIRL WHO ESCAPED WITH HER LIFE.…
In the fall of 2010, in the all-American town of Apple Valley, Ohio, four people disappeared without a trace: Stephanie Sprang; her friend, Tina Maynard; and Tina's two children, thirteen-year-old Sarah and eleven-year-old Kody. Investigators began scouring the area, yet despite an extensive search, no signs of the missing people were discovered. On the fourth day of the search, evidence trickled in about neighborhood weirdo Matthew Hoffman. A police SWAT team raided his home and found an extremely disturbing sight: every square inch of the place was filled with leaves and a terrified Sarah Maynard was bound up in the middle of it like some sort of perverted autumn tableau. But there was no trace of the others. Then came Hoffman's confession to an unspeakable crime that went beyond murder and defied all reason. His tale of evil would make Sarah's survival and rescue all the more astonishing--a compelling tribute to a young girl's resilience and courage and to her fierce determination to reclaim her life in the wake of unimaginable wickedness.Mortal Evidence: The Forensics Behind Nine Shocking Cases
By Cyril H. Wecht. 2003
A lifeless newborn baby is found discarded in a motel Dumpster. Authorities quickly arrest the infant's teenage parents, charging them…
with murder. Did Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, in fact, murder their own baby? Tammy Wynette died suddenly at a relatively young age, and yet no autopsy was performed? Was someone trying to hide the real cause of death? Did Sam Sheppard (later dubbed "The Fugitive" based on a television series) really kill his wife? And if not, who committed the murder?Things are not always as they appear, as world-renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht shows in this riveting behind-the-scenes look at nine famous cases. In the nationally known baby case involving Amy Grossberg and Brian Peterson, Dr. Wecht reviews the evidence and comes to a startling conclusion. In fascinating detail, he demonstrates how the tools of forensic pathology often uncover murky, long-hidden secrets that crack seemingly unsolvable crimes. Writing in the first-person Dr. Wecht leads you into the heart of the investigation, focusing each chapter on a single engrossing drama. He reveals the most startling evidence that shows why JonBenet Ramsey's killer most likely came from within her home, why O.J. Simpson probably had an accomplice in the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, shocking revelations about Robert Berdella's grisly torture and sex-abuse crimes against young men, and many intriguing facts about other infamous cases.If you find the fictional plots of such dramas as C.S.I. exciting, you will be amazed by the true stories told by Dr. Wecht, with the help of two top-flight veteran reporters, Greg Saitz and Mark Curriden, in this amazing real-life thriller. As this intriguing page-turner proves, the science of forensic pathology has changed the face of detective work forever.The Girl in the Leaves
By Robert Scott, Larry Maynard, Sarah Maynard. 2012
THE STORY OF ONE OF THE MOST BIZARRE MASS MURDERS EVER RECORDED. AND THE GIRL WHO ESCAPED WITH HER LIFE.…
In the fall of 2010, in the all-American town of Apple Valley, Ohio, four people disappeared without a trace: Stephanie Sprang; her friend, Tina Maynard; and Tina's two children, thirteen-year-old Sarah and eleven-year-old Kody. Investigators began scouring the area, yet despite an extensive search, no signs of the missing people were discovered. On the fourth day of the search, evidence trickled in about neighborhood weirdo Matthew Hoffman. A police SWAT team raided his home and found an extremely disturbing sight: every square inch of the place was filled with leaves and a terrified Sarah Maynard was bound up in the middle of it like some sort of perverted autumn tableau. But there was no trace of the others. Then came Hoffman's confession to an unspeakable crime that went beyond murder and defied all reason. His tale of evil would make Sarah's survival and rescue all the more astonishing--a compelling tribute to a young girl's resilience and courage and to her fierce determination to reclaim her life in the wake of unimaginable wickedness.Carmine the Snake: Carmine Persico and His Murderous Mafia Family
By Michael Benson, Frank Dimatteo. 2018
The shocking true story of the most ruthless and deadly mob boss in the annals of the American Mafia. In…
the golden age of organized crime, Carmine “The Snake” Persico was the King of the Streets. The defacto boss of the Colombo Mafia family since the 1970s, he oversaw gang wars, murders, and major rackets, even from prison. He is suspected of personally murdering as many as 60 people and ordering the hits of hundreds more. Sentenced to 139 years in the fed, he continued to exert power over a vast criminal empire from behind bars. His brutal rise and bloody reign is the stuff of legend. In this blistering street-level account, “Mafia survivor” Frank Dimatteo teams up with true-crime master Michael Benson to take down one of the most notorious figures in the American La Cosa Nostra. This is the real inside story of Carmine “The Snake” Persico, from his crime-filled childhood on the streets of Brooklyn to the long-term jail sentences that didn’t stop him from controlling his criminal empire with the help of his brother, the equally kill-crazy Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico. His deadly teen years as leader of the fearsome Garfield Boys. His recruitment into the Profaci—later the Colombo—crime family. His bloody betrayal of the Gallo brothers. His role in the hair-raising ambush-slaying of Albert Anastasia—the Lord High Executioner of Murder, Inc.—as he sat in a barbershop chair getting a shave. The terror he struck into the hearts of the New York Mafia’s other families, and even his own crews. And the many courtroom trials where Persico walked after witnesses came down with sudden cases of amnesia Today, Carmine “The Snake” Persico schmoozes with Ponzi king Bernard Madoff behind bars where at age 84 his legend, packed as it is with coldblooded brutality, continues to inspire goodfellas everywhere.El Club Starlight
By Joe Corso, Daniel March n. 2012
El Club Starlight: un mundo lleno de estrellas de cine, caballeros y asesinos ... ... Cubrió con cuidado las…
piernas del niño sobre la acera, volvió al automóvil, lo puso en marcha, y lentamente se adelantó hasta que el auto rebotó una vez, luego una segunda vez. Trenchie podía sentir el crujido del hueso contra el caucho, las articulaciones se separan, los tendones se estiran y se rompen, las piernas se vuelven papilla ... Bienvenido al mundo de la mafia, un mundo donde los asesinos de sangre fría tratan el asesinato como si fuera solo un asunto , pero al mismo tiempo, las mujeres son tratadas como mujeres. Conoce a Trenchie, quien acaba de ser liberado de su sentencia de diez años de prisión por homicidio. Una nueva vida está esperando, completa con sobres de dinero y un restaurante de carnes para llamar el suyo. Todo Y además al hombre Jimmy The Hat , que encuentra fama inesperada en los lugares más inverosímiles, pero siempre se mantiene fiel a los chicos , especialmente Big Red. Crazy Joey Gallo y sus hermanos se separan de la familia Profaci y ir pícaro, por su cuenta ahora. Solo recuerda: no te metas con los chicos . Podría ser peligroso para tu salud. La bala de calibre Colt 45 hizo su acción, llevándose consigo una porción considerable de cerebro, formando una niebla rosada, mezclada con hueso y materia gris . Es real. Es verdad. Yo deberia saber. Ambientada en 1960, esta historia de mafiosos de Nueva York te cautivará de principio a fin. Basado en hechos reales.Love Her To Death
By M. William Phelps. 2011
True Love Kills. In the midst of Pennsylvania's Amish country, on a peaceful summer night in 2008, the body of…
45-year-old Jan Roseboro was found at the bottom of her backyard pool. Her husband Michael, a successful businessman and member of a prominent family, showed no emotion as he learned of her death. But the next day an autopsy revealed Jan had been savagely beaten and strangled before being tossed in the water to drown. Soon Michael's secret lover, pregnant with his child, stepped into the media spotlight. And a horrifying true story of illicit passion, deadly deceit, and cold-blooded murder unfolded. . .Montana's Dimple Knees Sex Scandal: 1960s Prostitution, Payoffs and Politicians (True Crime)
By Pat Williams, John Kuglin. 2018
Beverly Snodgrass made a lot of poor choices. Once a prostitute in the old mining town of Butte, she later…
became a madam running two of the most popular brothels. She fell deeply in love with a crooked politician, whom she nicknamed "Dimple Knees." When corrupt cops in uniform came to her businesses, it usually wasn't to serve and protect but rather to collect payoffs. Butte is sometimes described as a town that "drinks her liquor straight," but things never were the same after Beverly told her story to a newspaper reporter. That reporter, John Kuglin, recounts the scandal that rocked The Richest Hill on Earth and for a time made Dimple Knees the most famous name in Montana.Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-dollar Cyber Crime Underground
By Kevin Poulsen. 2011
Former hacker Kevin Poulsen has, over the past decade, built a reputation as one of the top investigative reporters on…
the cybercrime beat. In Kingpin, he pours his unmatched access and expertise into book form for the first time, delivering a gripping cat-and-mouse narrative--and an unprecedented view into the twenty-first century's signature form of organized crime. The word spread through the hacking underground like some unstoppable new virus: Someone--some brilliant, audacious crook--had just staged a hostile takeover of an online criminal network that siphoned billions of dollars from the US economy. The FBI rushed to launch an ambitious undercover operation aimed at tracking down this new kingpin; other agencies around the world deployed dozens of moles and double agents. Together, the cybercops lured numerous unsuspecting hackers into their clutches. . . . Yet at every turn, their main quarry displayed an uncanny ability to sniff out their snitches and see through their plots. The culprit they sought was the most unlikely of criminals: a brilliant programmer with a hippie ethic and a supervillain's double identity. As prominent "white-hat" hacker Max "Vision" Butler, he was a celebrity throughout the programming world, even serving as a consultant to the FBI. But as the black-hat "Iceman," he found in the world of data theft an irresistible opportunity to test his outsized abilities. He infiltrated thousands of computers around the country, sucking down millions of credit card numbers at will. He effortlessly hacked his fellow hackers, stealing their ill-gotten gains from under their noses. Together with a smooth-talking con artist, he ran a massive real-world crime ring. And for years, he did it all with seeming impunity, even as countless rivals ran afoul of police. Yet as he watched the fraudsters around him squabble, their ranks riddled with infiltrators, their methods inefficient, he began to see in their dysfunction the ultimate challenge: He would stage his coup and fix what was broken, run things as they should be run--even if it meant painting a bull's-eye on his forehead. Through the story of this criminal's remarkable rise, and of law enforcement's quest to track him down, Kingpin lays bare the workings of a silent crime wave still affecting millions of Americans. In these pages, we are ushered into vast online-fraud supermarkets stocked with credit card numbers, counterfeit checks, hacked bank accounts, dead drops, and fake passports. We learn the workings of the numerous hacks--browser exploits, phishing attacks, Trojan horses, and much more--these fraudsters use to ply their trade, and trace the complex routes by which they turn stolen data into millions of dollars. And thanks to Poulsen's remarkable access to both cops and criminals, we step inside the quiet, desperate arms race that law enforcement continues to fight with these scammers today. Ultimately, Kingpin is a journey into an underworld of startling scope and power, one in which ordinary American teenagers work hand in hand with murderous Russian mobsters and where a simple Wi-Fi connection can unleash a torrent of gold worth millions.From the Hardcover edition.Captured by Pirates: 22 Firsthand Accounts of Murder and Mayhem on the High Seas
By Aaron Smith, John Stephens, Captain Lincoln, Captain Stairs, Captain Frink, Captain Butman, Captain Snelgrave, John Battis, Captain Sabins, Captain Roberts, Philip Ashton, Fern o Pinto, Captain Z G Lamson, John Fillmore, Richard Glasspoole, Captain Samuels, Captain Dunham, Captain j Evans, Saint De paul, Lucretia Parker, Daniel Collins. 2013
Pirates are primarily known for their swashbuckling attitudes, their freebooting lifestyle, their high-seas adventures and their stolen treasure, but their…
victims tend to be forgotten. These are the innocent and not-so-innocent voyagers who find themselves suddenly snatched up, brutalized, and franticly struggling to save their own lives. Many were viciously murdered, but a few survived. In this revised edition of Captured by Pirates, which features additional material not found in earlier editions, author and researcher John Richard Stephens has collected twenty-two astounding firsthand accounts from people who found themselves helpless prisoners on the open ocean and somehow made it through, usually badly scathed.Dead men tell no tales, but the survivors do. These true crime tales of terror are collected from personal accounts, private letters, official reports, ships' logs and pirate trial transcripts. The long-forgotten narratives from 1500 to 1850 are among the rarest of buried treasures, with some not having been in print for almost two centuries. These men and women offer a look at pirates from a unique perspective, providing rare insight into the everyday lives of pirate captains Henry Morgan, Howell Davis, Edward Low, John Phillips, and their blood-thirsty crews. Some of the captives were even forced to become pirates themselves in order to survive, while in one account, a pirate vividly describes his capture by other pirates and how he exacted his revenge.These involuntary participants describe thrilling sea chases, raging battles, desperate knife fights, treachery, double dealings, betrayals, maroonings, murders, tortures, skeletons, treasure and even a little romance. Their very personal eyewitness accounts provide an intimacy and intensity that will almost make you feel as if you're standing there alongside them looking straight into the faces of these ferocious pirates.(471 pages)Mississippi Mud: Southern Justice And The Dixie Mafia
By Edward Humes. 2010
NOW UPDATED WITH EXPLOSIVE COURTROOM DETAILS. . . . The riveting true-crime account of the heartbreaking murder that shook a…
Southern city to its corrupt foundation BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI: After the fatal shooting of one of the city's most prominent couples--Vincent Sherry was a circuit court judge; his wife, Margaret, was running for mayor--their grief-stricken daughter came home to uncover the truth behind the crime that shocked a community and to follow leads that police seemed unable or unwilling to pursue. What Lynne Sposito soon discovered were bizarre connections to the Dixie Mafia, a predatory band of criminals who ran The Strip, Biloxi's beachfront hub of sex, drugs, and sleaze. Armed with a savvy private eye--and a .357 Magnum--Lynne bravely entered a teeming underworld of merciless killers, ruthless con men, and venal politicians in order to bring her parents' assassins to justice.