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Running with the Krays: My Life in London's Gangland
By Billy Webb. 1993
Running with the Krays lifts the liid off London's underworld, from street gangs and race-course con games to protection rackets,…
beatings, maimings, intimidation and even murders. It reveals elements of police corruption and provides insights into the interdependence of both sides of the underworld scene - a compelling and gruesome account of how the other half of London lives.Born in wartime London's east end, Billy Webb grew up in the violence of air-raids and street warfare. His first weapon was a knuckleduster which he had made to measure for the price of five cigarettes when he was 11. When he first met the Krays they were scraping a living by doorknocking for old clothes to be sold in street markets. For three years he and the twins were on the run together as army deserters, and over the course of time, he was a friend, ally and foe of the Krays in their violent rise to fame.Ring of Death: Famous Kerry Murders
By Anthony Galvin. 2013
To all appearances, Kerry is an idyllic tourist destination. Yet scratch beneath its scenic surface and the sordid secrets of…
the county known as 'the Kingdom’ flow free like blood . . .Some of the most notorious murders in the history of Ireland have taken place in Kerry, including a two-day orgy of slaughter perpetrated by state forces during the Civil War. Another is the case of two farmers fighting over a patch of land not big enough to accommodate a picnic blanket, resulting in a killing that inspired the play and film The Field. The county’s most infamous case was the discovery of a baby stabbed to death on a beach, with another infant’s body found during the subsequent investigation. To this day, the identities of the children, their mothers and the murderer remain a mystery, but the case led to the government setting up a tribunal to investigate the Gardaí and how they had handled the inquiry.In Ring of Death, true-crime writer Anthony Galvin explores the bloody history of Kerry and the many fascinating murder cases that have occurred in the county over the past century.Powder Wars: The Supergrass who Brought Down Britain's Biggest Drug Dealers
By Graham Johnson. 2004
Gangster Paul Grimes was a one-man crimewave with a breathtaking capacity to steal. Any villains who got in his way…
were made to pay - often with their blood. But when his son died of a drugs overdose, the old-school mobster swore revenge on the new generation of Liverpool-based heroin and cocaine dealers. Against all odds, he turned undercover informant. The first gangster to fall foul of Grimes' change of heart was Curtis Warren, aka 'Cocky', the wealthiest and most successful criminal in British history. Grimes infiltrated his cocaine cartel and led Customs to the largest narcotics seizure on record, putting Warren in the dock in the drugs trial of the twentieth century. After turning his attention to heroin baron John Haase, Grimes rose to become the boss of the villain's notoriously bloodthirsty 'security firm' - a professional gang of racketeers addicted to cocaine, explosive violence and non-stop criminality. But as his net began to tighten, Grimes was confronted with the ultimate dilemma. He discovered his second son was now a rising star in the drugs business. The life-or-death question was: should he shop him or not?Powder Wars also reveals the secrets behind one of the most controversial episodes in British judicial history - how former Home Secretary Michael Howard was duped into granting John Haase a Royal Pardon.Today, Paul Grimes has a £100,000 contract on his head and is a real-life dead man walking. Powder Wars is a riveting account of modern gangsters told in brutal detail.Peter Manuel, Serial Killer
By Hector MacLeod, Malcolm McLeod. 2009
Peter Manuel was an icy-eyed psychopath and sexual predator, a petty thief and a relentless liar given to violent and…
uncontrollable rages. His unprecedented crimes presented the Scottish police and public with a new sort of criminal: the ruthless serial killer. Manuel was hanged at the age of thirty-one and convicted of seven murders, but suspected of many more. He slew many of his victims as they lay sleeping in bed, while others were picked up in lonely places and strangled or savagely beaten to death. Right up to his final arrest, he played a taunting game with the police, mocking their bungling attempts to trap him and continuing to kill with impunity - that is until he was trapped by his own vanity and arrogance.This definitive definitive biography recounts Manuel's chilling story from his birth in the USA to the moment the hangman's rope snapped his spine in Glasgow's notorious Barlinnie Prison.The Penguin Dictionary of Judaism
By Nicholas De Lange. 2008
The Penguin Dictionary of Judaism is a remarkable feat of Reference scholarship by renowned Cambridge professor and translator, Nicholas de…
Lange. With an approachable A-Z format the book covers everything from Jewish traditions and biographical entries on key historical figures to theology, religious law and practice, and the history of Jewish thought. Each entry is presented with clarity, precision and authority. With extensive cross-referencing and invaluable additional material such as a chronology of Judaism and the Jewish calendar, this is an essential companion for students of Jewish studies, Hebrew, Religion and Theology plus anyone with a general interest in this rich religion.Restlessly vital and possessed of great physical strength, José Beyaert lived many lives. During the Second World War, he boxed…
and trafficked arms for the Resistance on his bicycle. After it, he became an international cyclist. In 1948, a mile from the end of the Olympic road race around Windsor Park, he broke away alone to take the gold medal and started an adventure that would last the rest of his life. A Tour de France rider in the sport's golden age, José was invited to open a new velodrome in Colombia, South America. He travelled, intending to stay a month. Instead, driven by his thirst for adventure, he stayed for fifty years, becoming by turns athlete, coach, businessman, emerald-trader, logger, smuggler, perhaps even hired killer. Matt Rendell, who knew José Beyaert and met many of his family, friends and associates, tells the fascinating story of an almost-forgotten sporting hero who, incapable of living by other people's rules, lived his many lives on his own terms.The Old Bailey: Eight Centuries of Crime, Cruelty and Corruption
By Theresa Murphy. 1999
This is the story of an arena of crime and degradation, of infamy and human suffering. It is the history…
of the Old Bailey, an institution as flawed as all man-made attempts at justice are doomed to be.In the beginning there was barbarity and injustice. The court was packed with a restless, muttering mob, eager for the verdicts of 'Guilty' so they could enjoy public executions, hurling abuse and missiles at those with the noose around their neck. Today we fool ourselves that we have evolved beyond barbarism, but are made uneasy by the continuing exposure of miscarriage of justice. If we use the Old Bailey as a yardstick, it is possible to argue that mankind has not made much progress through the centuries. In these pages, we tour the courts of long ago, meeting the Dracula-garbed court chaplains, drunken, brutal judges and cold-blooded hangmen. With wit and skill, Theresa Murphy brings to life a cast of hundreds, from the well-known to the less imfamous, who together make up the harrowing history of the Old Bailey.Financial Crimes: A Threat to Global Security (Advances in Police Theory and Practice)
By Maximillian Edelbacher, Peter Kratcoski, Michael Theil. 2012
Financial market reform has focused chiefly on the threats to stability arising from the risky, uncontrolled activity of the leaders…
of financial institutions. Nevertheless, organized crime, white-collar crime, and corruption have a huge impact on financial systems worldwide and must also be confronted if true reform is to be achieved. A collectionMurder Mile
By Mike Mulloy. 2011
Life was cheap in the Toxteth and Wavertree districts of Liverpool, and more murders were committed there than in any…
other part of the city; and so this tough inner-city area became known as Murder Mile. Rising to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector, and becoming the most commended officer in the history of the force, Mike Mulloy had the job of investigating a series of high-profile cases over the years involving murder, arson, rape, armed robbery, drug dealing, burglary and bombing. He and his colleagues witnessed the most appalling brutality and violence where neither age nor sex provided any defence - young children, women and old people were constantly vulnerable.MURDER MILE is a fascinating and engaging addition to the literature of True Crime, written by a man who put his life on the line in the defence of the public and who saw it all at first-hand.Mummy’s Little Angels: A mother’s agonising story of losing her sons to a murderous father
By Denise Williams. 2015
Losing a child is a mother’s worst nightmare, but when you lose two children – your innocent sons – at…
the hands of the man they should have trusted the most, it’s almost unimaginable.For Denise Williams this was her reality – her very real nightmare. In her harrowing yet inspiring memoir, she tells her personal story of falling under the spell of her control-freak husband, suffering a decade of domestic violence, finding the strength to leave and then his despicable act of revenge. Denise endured agonising grief and heavy guilt, but she has slowly rebuilt her life without her beautiful boys – learning to live, love and trust again.This is her heartbreaking memoir.Mr Nice & Mrs Marks: - Adventures with Howard
By Judy Marks. 2008
'I have long wanted to write a book about my life and the extraordinary years I spent with my husband…
Howard Marks. I feel now is the time. I want to write it from a woman's perspective and describe what it was like to be married to such a charismatic drug smuggler.' Judy MarksHoward Marks's story has passed into hippie folklore. At one time, the world's then most wanted man had 43 aliases, 89 phone lines and 25 registered companies. Thanks to the technical brilliance of his networking skills, it was estimated that he was trafficking as much as a tenth of all the marijuana smoked in the world. But this is only half the story. Intimately involved throughout was Marks's wife Judy. From living the high life hobnobbing with movie stars and euro trash to mixing it with the IRA and CIA, then the long, increasingly desperate years on the run, Mr Nice and Mrs Marks is about the exhilaration of their criminal life and the hell of not knowing what's happening when your husband stops telling you the truth. Now, for the first time, Judy tells her own side of the tale.Marrying Out: Jewish Men, Intermarriage, & Fatherhood (The Modern Jewish Experience)
By Keren R. McGinity. 2014
&“Captures the telling details and the idiosyncratic trajectory of interfaith relationships and marriages in America.&” —The Forward When American Jewish…
men intermarry, goes the common assumption, they and their families are &“lost&” to the Jewish religion. In this provocative book, Keren R. McGinity shows that it is not necessarily so. She looks at intermarriage and parenthood through the eyes of a post-World War II cohort of Jewish men and discovers what intermarriage has meant to them and their families. She finds that these husbands strive to bring up their children as Jewish without losing their heritage. Marrying Out argues that the &“gendered ethnicity&” of intermarried Jewish men, growing out of their religious and cultural background, enables them to raise Jewish children. McGinity&’s book is a major breakthrough in understanding Jewish men&’s experiences as husbands and fathers, how Christian women navigate their roles and identities while married to them, and what needs to change for American Jewry to flourish. Marrying Out is a must read for Jewish men and all the women who love them. &“An important analysis of this thorny issue . . . filled with vivid vignettes about intermarried couples.&” —Jewish Book WorldThe Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry
By Gwen Adshead, Eileen Horne. 1991
In this &“unmissable book&” (The Guardian), an internationally renowned forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist demonstrates the remarkable human capacity for radical…
empathy, change, and redemption.What drives someone to commit an act of terrible violence? Drawing from her thirty years of experience in providing therapy to people in prisons and secure hospitals who have committed serious offenses, Dr. Gwen Adshead provides fresh and surprising insights into violence and the mind. Through a collaboration with coauthor Eileen Horne, Dr. Adshead brings her extraordinary career to life in a series of unflinching portraits.Alongside doctor and patient, we discover what human cruelty, ranging from serial homicide to stalking, arson or sexual offending, means to perpetrators, experiencing firsthand how minds can change when the people some might label as &“evil&” are able to take responsibility for their life stories and get to know their own minds. With outcomes ranging from hope to despair, from denial to recovery, these men and women are revealed in all their complexity and shared humanity. In this era of mass incarceration, deep cuts in mental health care and extreme social schisms, this book offers a persuasive argument for compassion over condemnation.Moving, thought-provoking, and brilliantly told, The Devil You Know is a rare and timely book with the power to transform our ideas about cruelty and violence, and to radically expand the limits of empathy. &“A welcome contribution to the literature of crime and rehabilitation&” (Kirkus Reviews).On the Alternative Punishment to the Death Penalty in China
By Gui Huang. 2024
This book presents a study of alternative penalties to the death penalty in China, aiming to promote theoretical exploration of…
death penalty reform in China as well as long-term penal reform. Currently, China is endeavouring to control the use of the death penalty and is gradually moving towards its abolition. The factors influencing the choice of the punishment option to replace the death penalty are complex and varied and include the traditional punishment culture, penalty concepts, the political system, the punishment system, public opinion and human rights, etc. Given the differences between China and developed Western democratic states, when we examine these influencing factors, we cannot ignore the culture of the punishment and the special political and legislation system in China. In this light, this work examined and analysed the factors that influence the choice of punishment option to replace the death penalty in this special political system with its clearly Chinese characteristics. Criminal policy and public opinion are two significant and typical factors involving obvious political considerations in China. The former normally reflects and carries out the will of the Government as expressed to the national management; the latter responds to the majority of citizens’ view on the current legal system and it is, to a great extent, the basis for national leadership’s running of the country. Even though life imprisonment without release (hereinafter, LWOR) has been stipulated by the Ninth Amendment for the crime of corruption, it should not be the preferable option as the alternative sanction to the death penalty because it is a kind of cruel torture and violates the constitutional principle of human rights protection. On the contrary, life imprisonment with possibility of release (hereinafter, LWPR) would be an option, but the termination mechanisms for inmates should be set out in accordance with the principle of proportional justice; aggravatedlife imprisonment can be chosen to replace the death penalty in China. In addition, there needs to be improvements made to the relevant criminal systems. By examining China's death penalty reform and long-term imprisonment reform, this book not only explains the methodology of the reform theoretically, but also pays attention to the issues of legislation and judicial practice. This book is of interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of criminal justice, penal reform issues, and crime control in China.Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith
By Anita Diamant. 2003
From the bestselling author of The Red Tent and Good Harbor, a collection of intimate, autobiographical reflections on the milestones,…
revelations, and balancing acts of life as a wife, mother, friend, and member of a religious community.Before The Red Tent won her international literary acclaim, Anita Diamant was a columnist in Boston. Over the course of twenty years, she wrote essays that reflected the shape and evolution of her life, as well as the trends of her generation. In the end, her musings about love and marriage, birth and death, nature versus nurture, politics and religion—and everything from female friendships to quitting smoking—have created a public diary of the progress of her life that resonated deeply with her readers. Now, Pitching My Tent collects the finest columns of a writer who is a reporter by training and a storyteller by heart, all revised and enriched with new material. Personal, inspiring, and often funny, Pitching My Tent displays the warmth, humor, and wisdom that Diamant's legions of fans have come to cherish.Too Young to Kill
By M. William Phelps. 2011
The New York Times bestselling author of Love Her to Death shares the true-crime story of a small-town Midwestern teenager…
murdered by her own friends.Sixteen-year-old Adrianne Reynolds couldn't unravel the twisted tangles of jealousy and domination complicating her new life in East Moline, Illinois. What began as a fresh start after a troubled home life in Texas ended with Adrianne's body charred, stuffed into garbage bags, and scattered. It seemed the work of hardened criminals, but the truth was far more astonishing: her own “best friends” choked Adrianne to death and cut her up. Now, master crime writer M. William Phelps recounts this horrific saga of teen lust and violence in every gripping detail.Praise for Too Young to Kill“Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers.” —Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author of Tell No LiesIncludes sixteen pages of revealing photosA Passover Haggadah: As Commented Upon By Elie Wiesel And Illustrated B
By Elie Wiesel. 1993
A Passover Haggadah, enhanced with more than fifty original drawings, Elie Wiesel and his friend Mark Podwal invite you to…
join them for the Passover Seder—the most festive event of the Jewish calendar.Read each year at the Seder table, the Haggadah recounts the miraculous tale of the liberation of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, with a celebration of prayer, ritual, and song. Wiesel and Podwal guide you through the Haggadah and share their understanding and faith in a special illustrated edition that will be treasured for years to come. Accompanying the traditional Haggadah text (which appears here in an accessible new translation) are Elie Wiesel's poetic interpretations, reminiscences, and instructive retellings of ancient legends. The Nobel laureate interweaves past and present as the symbolism of the Seder is explored. Wiesel's commentaries may be read aloud in their entirety or selected passages may be read each year to illuminate the timeless message of this beloved book of redemption.The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount
By Gershom Gorenberg. 2000
The new millennium dawned quietly, defying modern-day prophets of apocalypse. Yet for countless believers around the globe - Christians, Jews…
and Muslims -- anticipation that the world is about to end burns more intensely than ever. God's kingdom is near, they believe, and the key to salvation is Jerusalem's Temple Mount, -- the most sacred and contested real estate on earth. In The End of Days, leading Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg portrays how such faith has fueled the real-world struggle in the Middle East and reveals why, even in times of peacemaking, it continues to be a powerful catalyst for conflict. Adroitly portraying former-hippies-turned-true-believers, American radio evangelists of the End, radical Palestinian sheikhs, and Israeli ex-terrorists, Gorenberg weaves a story that stretches from California churches to West Bank settlements. He explains why believers hope for the End, and why prominent American fundamentalists provide hard-line support for Israel, while looking forward to an apocalypse in which they expect Jews to die or else convert. He makes sense of the messianic fervor that has driven Israeli settlers to oppose peace, and describes the Islamic apocalyptic visions that cast Israel's actions in Jerusalem as diabolic plots. He examines, as well, what happens when secular politicians try to channel these religious passions for their own purposes. At the center of this story is the Temple Mount, where Solomon and Herod built their Temples, where the Dome of the Rock now stands -- and where both Jewish extremists and millions of Christian fundamentalists expect the Third Temple to be built soon. Holy to both Judaism and Islam, the Mount is where nationalism and faith join in a volatile mix. Any attempt to spark the End by clearing the ground for the Temple, therefore, could ignite holy war. This book explains the Mount's dangerous fascination for fundamentalists, and shows why the risks will actually increase in the new millennium as prophesied dates pass and believers look for a way to ensure that the End comes. Cain murdered Abel, according to an ancient legend, in an argument over who would possess the Temple Mount. That parable sums up the passions aroused by the sacred hilltop. The End of Days shows, with clarity and poise, how conflict over Jerusalem is rooted not only in the past but even more in expectations of the future, and how the fiery belief in apocalypse has a very real impact on contemporary life and international politics.After: How America Confronted the September 12 Era
By Steven Brill. 2003
The story begins on September 12, 2001. It reads like a novel. But the characters in award-winning journalist Steven Brill's…
America are real. They don't have all the answers or all the virtues of fictional heroes. It is because they are so human -- so much like the rest of us -- that makes the way they rise to the challenge of September 12 such an inspiring story about how America really works. A Customs inspector somehow has to guard against a nuclear bomb that could be hidden in one of the thousands of cargo containers from all over the world sitting on his dock in New York harbor. A young woman in New Jersey, suddenly widowed with three young children, doesn't know how to get the keys to her husband's car, much less how she can challenge the head of a federal victims' fund. An entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, who makes machines that screen luggage for bombs, can't decide if this crisis is an opportunity he should seize. Attorney General John Ashcroft has no idea how to find the new, hidden enemy living among us. The young, just-hired director of the American Civil Liberties Union wonders how he can keep Ashcroft from going too far. The CEO of a giant insurer has to decide whether to risk economic panic by not paying damage claims that he might legally be able to avoid. Red Cross President Bernadine Healy has to figure out how to collect and allocate donations while dodging a hostile board of directors. Career civil servant Gale Rossides has to recruit and train the largest workforce ever hired by the government -- the new airport passenger screeners. A proprietor of a shoe repair shop -- helped by two young women, pro bono lawyers -- has to rebuild a business buried in the rubble of Ground Zero. A Detroit Border Patrol agent -- whose bosses want to fire him for speaking out about how unprotected his stretch of border is -- has to choose whether to risk his family's livelihood by sounding the alarm. Tom Ridge has to run through a bureaucratic wall to mount a true homeland security defense. Drawing on 347 on-the-record interviews and revelations from memos of government meetings, court filings, and other documents, Brill gives us a front-row seat as these and other players in this real-life drama cross paths in a series of alliances and confrontations and fight for their own interests and their version of the public interest. The result is a gritty story -- and trailblazing journalism -- that inspires us not because these Americans or their country are perfect, but because they were tough enough, anchored enough, and living in a system that encouraged and enabled them to meet the awesome challenges they faced.Furnishing an accessible introduction to the traditions and teachings of the Kabbalah, this informative volume discusses the origins, history, study,…
and trends of Jewish mysticism, covering such topics as meditation and mystical techniques, the Kabbalahistic theory of creation and the human role in the universe, Kabbalahistic philosophy, and more.