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Betrayal: Whitey Bulger and the FBI Agent Who Fought to Bring Him Down
By Robert Fitzpatrick, Jon Land. 2011
In Betrayal, renowned FBI agent Robert Fitzpatrick partners with USA Today bestselling author Jon Land to present the true story…
of the lawman’s pursuit of James “Whitey” Bulger, Jr., the notorious crimelord of Boston, Massachusetts’s Winter Hill Gang. The Jack Nicholson film The Departed didn’t tell half of their story. A poor kid from the slums, Robert Fitzpatrick grew up to become a stellar FBI agent and challenge the country’s deadliest gangsters. Relentless in his desire to catch, prosecute, and convict Whitey Bulger, Fitzpatrick fought the nation’s most determined cop-gangster battle since Melvin Purvis hunted, confronted, and killed John Dillinger.In his crusade to bring Bulger to justice, Fitzpatrick faced not only Whitey but also corrupt FBI agents, along with political cronies and enablers from Boston to Washington who, in one way or another, blocked his efforts at every step. Even when Fitzpatrick discovered the very organization to which he had sworn allegiance was his biggest obstacle, the agent continued to pursue Whitey and his gang . . . knowing that they were prepared to murder anyone who got in their way.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.While Innocents Slept: A True Story of Revenge, Murder, and SIDS
By Adrian Havill. 2001
Death seemed to be part of Garrett Wilson's life. Both of his parents had died by the time he was…
in his early twenties. So friends shrugged when sadly, an infant daughter, and then a son, succumbed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Six years later, after he divorced his wife, Missy, and married another woman, his former spouse became convinced that their child's passing was anything but natural. Was it cold-blooded murder by Garrett, or a quest for revenge by his ex-wife? Missy's own investigation that led to Garrett Wilson's arrest and eventual trial will keep the reader guessing until the final pages. Havill takes us through each stage of this intricate and chilling story all the way to the courtroom, where the jury's stunning verdict is given. Acclaimed author Adrian Havill conducted nineteen in-person interviews with the accused both before and after his trial. He had full access to both the defense and prosecution teams. The result is an unprecedented look at a murder investigation and an edge-of-the-seat real-life medical thriller that stretches from Maryland to Texas and Florida.The Death of an Heir is Philip Jett's chilling true account of the Coors family’s gilded American dream that turned…
into a nightmare when a meticulously plotted kidnapping went horribly wrong.In the 1950s and 60s, the Coors dynasty reigned over Golden, Colorado, seemingly invincible. When rumblings about labor unions threatened to destabilize the family's brewery, Adolph Coors, Jr., the septuagenarian president of the company, drew a hard line, refusing to budge. They had worked hard for what they had, and no one had a right to take it from them. What they'd soon realize was that they had more to lose than they could have imagined.On the morning of Tuesday, February 9, 1960, Adolph “Ad” Coors III, the 44-year-old CEO of the multimillion dollar Colorado beer empire, stepped into his car and headed for the brewery twelve miles away. At a bridge he stopped to help a man in a yellow Mercury sedan. On the back seat lay handcuffs and leg irons. The glove box held a ransom note ready to be mailed. His coat pocket shielded a loaded pistol.What happened next set off the largest U.S. manhunt since the Lindbergh kidnapping. State and local authorities, along with the FBI personally spearheaded by its director J. Edgar Hoover, burst into action attempting to locate Ad and his kidnapper. The dragnet spanned a continent. All the while, Ad’s grief-stricken wife and children waited, tormented by the unrelenting silence. The Death of an Heir reveals the true story behind the tragic murder of Colorado’s favorite son.When the Husband is the Suspect: From Sam Shepperd to Scott Peterson—the Public's Passion for Spousal Homicide
By F. Lee Bailey, Jean Rabe. 2008
From the bestselling author of The Defense Never Rests, a look at the modern spate of spousal homicides.This book provides…
an overview of several of the most famous homicidal husband cases of recent years, including:- Sam Sheppard, who inspired the TV series and movie The Fugitive- Jeffrey McDonald, who became the subject of the bestseller Fatal Vision- Mister Perfect, Brad Cunningham, who was convicted of bludgeoning his wife to death- Michael Peterson, who was the subject of the IFC documentary series The Staircase and a Lifetime movie original starring Treat Williams- OJ Simpson, whose dream team of lawyers defended the former pro-football player and movie star of the brutal murder of his ex-wife as the entire nation watched- Claus von Bulow, immortalized in the book and movie Reversal of Fortune- Robert Blake, former TV star, who was suspected of engineering the death of his conwoman wife- Scott Peterson, a philandering sociopathic husband who almost escaped arrest for the murder of his wife and unborn child.- Lambert "Bart" Knol, who claimed he suffered from "substance-induced persistent amnesia" when he was accused of killing his wife of 38 yearsThese cases and others are presented in an objective manner by a knowledgeable voice that recognizes that suspicion, and sometimes even conviction, are not always synonymous with guilt.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World
By Anthony M. Amore. 2015
Art scams are today so numerous that the specter of a lawsuit arising from a mistaken attribution has scared a…
number of experts away from the business of authentication and forgery, and with good reason. Art scams are increasingly convincing and involve incredible sums of money. The cons perpetrated by unscrupulous art dealers and their accomplices are proportionately elaborate. Anthony M. Amore's The Art of the Con tells the stories of some of history's most notorious yet untold cons. They involve stolen art hidden for decades; elaborate ruses that involve the Nazis and allegedly plundered art; the theft of a conceptual prototype from a well-known artist by his assistant to be used later to create copies; the use of online and television auction sites to scam buyers out of millions; and other confidence scams incredible not only for their boldness but more so because they actually worked. Using interviews and newly released court documents, The Art of the Con will also take the reader into the investigations that led to the capture of the con men, who oftentimes return back to the world of crime. For some, it's an irresistible urge because their innocent dupes all share something in common: they want to believe.Blood Secrets: Chronicles of a Crime Scene Reconstructionist
By Rod Englert, Kathy Passero. 2010
Blood Secrets reveals how forensic experts read the story of a murder told in the traces of blood left behind,…
providing crucial evidence that has helped convict criminals who might have otherwise walked free.When Rod Englert began his career in law enforcement, virtually no police force in the world knew how to correctly examine blood spatter. He spent years studying and testing how blood behaves, pioneering a vital new tool that is now a part of any criminal investigation. In Blood Secrets he demonstrates how detectives and forensic experts use blood-spatter analysis to solve real cases.How can the police tell what type of murder weapon was used when the body is missing and all that's left is a trace of gore? How can they tell if a victim was moved, or which person in a room fired the fatal shot? Englert lays out what he's learned on a variety of intriguing cases, from puzzling murders in tiny, remote towns to the highest-profile celebrity trials--including O. J. Simpson, Robert Blake, and many others.Filled with fascinating details of forensic science and real-life CSI stories, Blood Secrets shows the techniques and tools used to decipher blood spatter's code.The BTK Murders: Inside the "Bind, Torture, Kill" Case That Terrified America's Heartland
By Carlton Smith. 2006
From 1974 to 1991, someone in the midwestern city of Wichita was leaving behind slain tortured bodies and anonymously proclaiming…
himself to police and reporters as "BTK" for "Bind, Torture, Kill." Then, for the next 14 years, BTK was silent. But when he began sending letters again, investigators would not miss their chance...Stunningly, police arrested Dennis Rader, the president of his church board and the father of two. As a shocked community watched, evidence began to pile up. Then Rader coldly described how he went about "his projects" as the families of his victims relived the horrific scenes this supposed pillar of the community had unleashed on their loved ones.From the tricks he used to enter his victims' homes to the puzzles he sent the media and the key role his own daughter may have played in his arrest, The BTK Murders is the definitive story of the BTK killer. He was, as one victim's family member called him, "a black hole inside the shell of a human being"—and the worst American serial killer since Ted Bundy.The Accused: 13-year-old Derek King and his 12-year-old brother, Alex, Sunday school students with choirboy looks.After midnight on November 26,…
2001, someone bludgeoned Terry King to death while he slept, and set his Florida home afire. By the time the firefighters extinguished the blaze, King's sons, Alex, 12, and Derek, 13, were at the home of their forty-year-old friend, Ricky Chavis, a convicted child-molester. By the next afternoon, following confessions, both boys were charged as adults in their father's slaying. Chavis was tried separately for the same crime-incredibly by the same attorney who would prosecute Alex and Derek, and argue two contradictory theories.The Victim: Their own father.When Alex divulged his sexual relationship with Chavis, the trial took a sensational turn. So did Alex and Derek, who recanted their confession and blamed Chavis to no avail. A jury convicted the boys of second-degree murder, but the judge threw the verdict out. Chavis was acquitted. But the case wasn't over. As more disturbing revelations came to light, as criminal motives became more complex, and as the line between guilt and innocence was crossed, a stunned nation watched in disbelief to learn the ultimate fate of the...Angels of Death.Killing for You: A Brave Soldier, a Beautiful Dancer, and a Shocking Double Murder
By Keith Elliot Greenberg. 2017
Killing For You is True Crime veteran Keith Elliot Greenberg's shocking, authoritative account of a brutal double murder. A KILLER…
PLOT Twenty-six-year-old actor Daniel Wozniak was unemployed, facing eviction, and deep in debt for his upcoming wedding. So he devised a diabolical plan: He asked his neighbor Sam Herr, a young war veteran, to help him move some things into the attic of an empty theater. There, Wozniak shot Herr twice in the head before taking his ATM card and cell phone. Hours later,Wozniak performed on stage with his fiancée in a local production of the musical Nine, convinced that he had gotten away with murder…A DRAMATIC LAST ACT Wozniak dismembered his victim’s body and hid the pieces. Then he lured Herr’s college friend Juri “Julie” Kibuishi to Herr’s apartment and shot her twice in the head. The police immediately declared Herr a prime suspect—just as Wozniak had planned. But when Herr was declared missing, and his ATM withdrawals led authorities to Wozniak at his bachelor party, the actor was forced to play the role of a lifetime in a shocking murder investigation that would be his greatest—and final—performance…Includes 8 pages of photosFROM ADULTERY…Ex-Marine and bodyguard Chris Coleman was a family man with a secret: He wanted to leave his wife for…
another woman, Tara Lintz. But as head of security for the world-famous Joyce Meyer Ministries—an evangelical organization that frowns on divorce—Coleman had to make other plans. TO MURDER…On May 5, 2009, Illinois police received a call from Coleman, who claimed he was unable to contact his family. When investigators arrived at his home, they found Coleman's wife and two sons strangled in bed. Across the walls, spray-painted in red, were various obscenities—the word punished among them. TO LIFE—OR DEATH.Who could have done something so sinister? As Coleman played the part of a grieving husband, forensic evidence at the crime scene told a different story. Key testimony from Lintz afforded yet more evidence of Coleman's guilt—and soon a jury would find him guilty of three counts of murder in the first degree.Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia
By Thomas Reppetto. 2006
The riveting, often bloody account of how the fifty-year attack by the federal government virtually extinguished the nation's most powerful…
crime syndicateIn the critically acclaimed American Mafia, Thomas Reppetto narrated the ferocious ascendancy of organized crime in America. In this fascinating sequel, he follows the mob from its peak into a shadowy period of decline as the government, no longer able to deny its existence, made subduing the Mafia a matter of national priority.Reppetto draws on a lifetime of field experience to tell the stories of the Mafia's twentieth-century leadership, showing how men such as Sam Giancana and John Gotti became household names. Crusaders like Robert Kennedy led concerted—if sometimes sporadic—attacks against organized crime. As the battles between the feds and the Mafia moved from the streets to the courtrooms, Reppetto describes how it came to resemble a conflict between sovereign powers.In direct, shoot-from-the-hip prose, Reppetto chronicles a turning point in American Mafia history, and offers the provocative theory that, given the right formula of connections and shrewd business, a new generation of multinational criminals may be poised to take up the Mafia's mantle.This is the story of an author and his apprentice. It is the story of literary influence and tragedy. It…
is also the story of incarceration in America.Norman Mailer was writing The Executioner’s Song, his novel about condemned killer Gary Gilmore, when he struck up a correspondence with Jack Henry Abbott, Federal Prisoner 87098-132. Over time, Abbott convinced the famous author that he was a talented writer who deserved another chance at freedom. With letters of support from Mailer and other literary elites of the day, Abbott was released on parole in 1981. With Mailer’s help, Abbott quickly became the literary “it boy” of New York City. But in a shocking turn of events, the day before a rave review of Abbott’s book, In the Belly of the Beast, appeared in TheNew York Times, Abbott murdered a New York City waiter and fled to Mexico. Eerily, like Gary Gilmore in Mailer’s true-life novel, Abbott killed within six weeks of his release from prison. Now Jerome Loving explores the history of two of the most infamous books of the past 50 years, a fascinating story that has never before been told.Her husband was Robert Blake, the award-winning star of In Cold Blood. But she found her own fame at point-blank…
range...Obsessed with glamour and wealth, she followed her dream to Hollywood, and finally found fame-- in death.Bonny Lee Bakley's dream was to marry a movie star. Using sex and guts, the ruthless small-town blonde finally struck it rich by wedding Robert Blake, the Emmy Award-winning actor who scored in the hit show "Baretta." When Blake found his bride of six months with a bullet in her head outside a Los Angeles restaurant, he was thrust back into the spotlight, and Bonny Lee was exposed for the manipulative woman she was-- a grifter with a sordid criminal history of sex swindles, credit-card fraud, and Social Security scams. But her specialty was fleecing wealthy men for quick cash-- a lucrative sting that finally brought Bonny Lee Bakley to Hollywood to live-- and die-- among the rich and famous...But who really murdered Bonny Lee in cold blood? How did it play into Robert and Bonny's turbulent marriage? Was she a victim of her own con-- or something more sinister? What was the truth behind her fears of being stalked? And what secrets were hidden in Bonny's past that she found impossible to outrun?Now, in this riveting, fascinating account, Gary C. King brings you the inside details of the most talked-about Tinseltown murder in years.With 8 pages of unforgettable photos!Peppermint Twist: The Mob, the Music, and the Most Famous Dance Club of the '60s
By John Johnson Jr., Joel Selvin, Dick Cami. 2012
The never-before-told story of The Peppermint Lounge, the famed Manhattan nightspot and mobster hangout that launched an eraThe Peppermint Lounge…
was intended to be nothing more than a front for gambling and other rackets but the club became a sensation after Dick "Cami" Camillucci began to feature a new kind of music, rock and roll. The mobsters running the place found themselves juggling rebellious youths alongside celebrities like Greta Garbo and Shirley MacLaine. When The Beatles visited the club, Cami's uncle-in-law had to restrain a hitman who was after Ringo because his girlfriend was so infatuated with the drummer.Working with Dick Cami himself, Johnson and Selvin unveil this engrossing story of the go-go sixties and the club that inspired the classic hits "Twisting the Night Away" and "The Peppermint Twist."Without Mercy: The Shocking True Story of a Doctor Who Murdered
By Russell Ablow. 1994
Dr. John Kappler was a well-respected physician in dozens of California hospitals, yet none of his patients ever imagined that…
his real profession was murder…The horror began the day he secretly attempted to kill three patients—including a pregnant woman who suffered permanent brain damage at his evil hands. Then, in a driving rampage, Kappler rammed another car, stole it, and used it as a lethal weapon. Yet, incredibly, his fellow doctors bailed him out of jail, and he was soon back on the job.Desperate to satisfy his lust for killing, Kappler cruelly plunged a patient into cardiac arrest. Next, he pulled the plug on a defenseless man unconscious in a hospital bed. Still, no one stopped him. Finally, he exploded in a terrifying rage of violence and murder. Pressing the accelerator of his car to the floor, he cut down a promising young doctor and seconds later maimed a toddler's mom for life.Susan McFarland was a vivacious, successful mother of three young sons. On November 25, 2002, she disappeared. Three days later,…
her car was found, keys in the ignition. Later that day, her husband reported her missing—and a desperate search began.Her friends and family hoped against hope that Susan was not gone forever. But investigators became increasingly suspicious of Richard McFarland. When the charred, decomposed body of Susan McFarland was finally discovered at an overgrown farmstead outside of San Antonio, a new hunt began—for justice.McFarland maintained his innocence, and investigators only had circumstantial evidence against him. While headlines screamed out new details in the case, and police tried to gather more evidence, a blockbuster trial was about to begin. Then, Richard McFarland finally spoke...and a terrifying, chilling truth came out...The Year of Fear: Machine Gun Kelly and the Manhunt That Changed the Nation
By Joe Urschel. 2016
It's 1933 and Prohibition has given rise to the American gangster--now infamous names like Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger.…
Bank robberies at gunpoint are commonplace and kidnapping for ransom is the scourge of a lawless nation. With local cops unauthorized to cross state lines in pursuit and no national police force, safety for kidnappers is just a short trip on back roads they know well from their bootlegging days. Gangster George "Machine Gun" Kelly and his wife, Kathryn, are some of the most celebrated criminals of the Great Depression. With gin-running operations facing extinction and bank vaults with dwindling stores of cash, Kelly sets his sights on the easy-money racket of kidnapping. His target: rich oilman, Charles Urschel.Enter J. Edgar Hoover, a desperate Justice Department bureaucrat who badly needs a successful prosecution to impress the new administration and save his job. Hoover's agents are given the sole authority to chase kidnappers across state lines and when Kelly bungles the snatch job, Hoover senses his big opportunity. What follows is a thrilling 20,000 mile chase over the back roads of Depression-era America, crossing 16 state lines, and generating headlines across America along the way--a historical mystery/thriller for the ages.Joe Urschel's The Year of Fear is a thrilling true crime story of gangsters and lawmen and how an obscure federal bureaucrat used this now legendary kidnapping case to launch the FBI.El Jefe: The Stalking of Chapo Guzmán
By Alan Feuer. 2020
The definitive account of the rise and fall of the ultimate narco, "El Chapo," from the New York Times reporter…
whose coverage of his trial went viralJoaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is the most legendary of Mexican narcos. As leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, he was one of the most dangerous men in the world. His fearless climb to power, his brutality, his charm, his taste for luxury, his penchant for disguise, his multiple dramatic prison escapes, his unlikely encounter with Sean Penn—all of these burnished the image of the world's most famous outlaw. He was finally captured by U.S. and Mexican law enforcement in a daring operation years in the making. Here is that entire epic story—from El Chapo's humble origins to his conviction in a Brooklyn courthouse. Longtime New York Times criminal justice reporter Alan Feuer's coverage of his trial was some of the most riveting journalism of recent years. Feuer’s mastery of the complex facts of the case, his unparalleled access to confidential sources in law enforcement, and his powerful understanding of disturbing larger themes—what this one man's life says about drugs, walls, class, money, Mexico, and the United States—will ensure that El Jefe is the one book to read about “El Chapo.”Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano
By Howie Carr. 2011
Martin Scorsese's The Departed barely touched on his story. Now radio talk show sensation, crime reporter, and Boston Herald columnist…
Howie Carr takes us into the heart of the life of gangster Johnny Martorano in Hitman. For two decades Martorano struck fear into anyone even remotely connected to his world. His partnership with Whitey Bulger and the infamous Winter Hill Gang led to twenty mob murders—for which Johnny would serve twelve years in prison. Carr also looks at the politicians and FBI agents who aided Johnny and Whitey, and at the flamboyant city of Boston which Martorano so ruthlessly ruled. A plethora of paradoxes, Johnny Martorano was Mr. Mom by day and man-about-town by night. Surrounded by fast-living politicians, sports celebrities, and show biz entertainers, Johnny was charismatically colorful—as charming as he was frightening. After all, he was, in the end…a hitman. The paperback edition of Howie Carr's riveting true-crime story includes a new epilogue detailing Whitey Bulger's dramatic June 2011 capture..At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald's Assassin
By Danny Fingeroth. 2023
Jack Ruby changed history with one bold, violent action: killing accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV two…
days after the November 22, 1963, murder of President John F. Kennedy. But who was Jack Ruby—and how did he come to be in that spot on that day? As we approach the sixtieth anniversaries of the murders of Kennedy and Oswald, Jack Ruby's motives are as maddeningly ambiguous today as they were the day that he pulled the trigger. The fascinating yet frustrating thing about Ruby is that there is evidence to paint him as at least two different people. Much of his life story points to him as bumbling, vain, violent, and neurotic; a product of the grinding poverty of Chicago's Jewish ghetto; a man barely able to make a living or sustain a relationship with anyone besides his dogs. By the same token, evidence exists of Jack Ruby as cagey and competent, perhaps not a mastermind, but a useful pawn of the Mob and of both the police and the FBI; someone capable of running numerous legal, illegal, and semi-legal enterprises, including smuggling arms and vehicles to both sides in the Cuban revolution; someone capable of acting as middleman in bribery schemes to have imprisoned Mob figures set free. Cultural historian Danny Fingeroth's research includes a new, in-depth interview with Rabbi Hillel Silverman, the legendary Dallas clergyman who visited Ruby regularly in prison and who was witness to Ruby's descent into madness. Fingeroth also conducted interviews with Ruby family members and associates. The book's findings will catapult you into a trip through a house of historical mirrors.At its end, perhaps Jack Ruby's assault on history will begin to make sense. And perhaps we will understand how Oswald's assassin led us to the world we live in today.