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The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time: Decoding History's Unsolved Mysteries
By Brad Meltzer. 2020
Master storyteller Brad Meltzer counts down and decodes the world’s top 10 most intriguing conspiracies stories. Wanted: the truth. In…
a riveting collection, Brad Meltzer guides us through the 10 greatest conspiracies of all time, from Leonardo da Vinci’s stolen prophecy to the Kennedy assassination. This richly illustrated book serves up those fascinating, unexplained questions that nag at history buffs and conspiracy lovers: Why was Hitler so intent on capturing the Roman “Spear of Destiny?” Where did all the Confederacy’s gold go? What is the government hiding in Area 51? And did Lee Harvey Oswald really act alone? Meltzer sifts through the evidence, weighs competing theories, separates what we know to be true and what’s still––and perhaps forever––unproved or unprovable, and in the end, decodes the mystery and arrives at the most likely explanation.Lord High Executioner: The Legendary Mafia Boss Albert Anastasia
By Michael Benson, Frank Dimatteo Sr.. 2020
The bloodsoaked saga of the Murder, Inc. legend who helped create the modern American Mafia—one body at a time—featuring shocking…
eyewitness accounts... Umberto &“Albert&” Anastasia was born in Italy at the turn of the century. Five decades later, he would be gunned down in a barber shop in New York City. What happened in the years in between—and why every crime family had reason to want him dead—is one of the most brutal and fascinating stories in the history of American organized crime. This in-depth account of the man who became one of the most powerful and homicidal crime bosses of the twentieth century from Mafia insider Frank Dimatteo is the first full-length book to chronicle Anastasia&’s bloody rise from fresh-off-the-boat immigrant to founder of the notorious killer&’s club Murder, Inc.—featuring never-before-told accounts from those who feared him most... They called him &“The One Man Army.&” &“Mad Hatter.&” &“Lord High Executioner.&” Albert Anastasia came to America mean and became a prolific killer. His merciless assassination of Mafia godfather Vincent Mangano is recounted here in chilling first-hand detail. He set the record: the first man in the history of American justice to be charged with four separate murders—and walk free after each one. But in the end, he was the last obstacle in rival Mafia hoodlum Vito Genovese&’s dream of becoming the boss of bosses—and paid the ultimate price . . .A Murder in My Hometown
By Rebecca Morris. 2018
The New York Times–bestselling true crime author returns to her Oregon hometown to investigate an unsolved murder and its effect…
on her community. Corvallis, Oregon, 1967. After attending a party on a fall evening, seventeen-year-old high school senior Dick Kitchel disappeared. Ten days later, his body was spotted by two children as it floated down the Willamette River. He had been beaten and strangled. While the nation as a whole faced major upheaval—from the Vietnam War to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.—the college town of Corvallis was devastated by Dick Kitchel&’s unsolved murder. Police had a suspect but never made an arrest. Decades later, a cold case detective claimed to have solved the case. Yet justice proved elusive once again. Now Rebecca Morris, a New York Times–bestselling author and Kitchel&’s former classmate, returns to her hometown to explore how the murder changed her town and the lives Kitchel&’s friends.Evil Eyes
By Corey Mitchell. 2006
Serial Thrill-KillerIn Houston, Texas, on the morning of May 23, 1982, Coral Eugene Watts, 28, trapped two young women in…
their apartment. Only hours before, he'd killed another woman by drowning her in her bathtub. As Watts attempted to do the same to 20-year-old Lori Lister, her roommate Melinda Aguilar, 18, made a daring escape, leading to Watts's arrest.Justice DeferredWatts was a sadistic slayer with a lust for killing in a variety of ways: strangulation, suffocation, drowning, and stabbing. He confessed to thirteen murders, but with no direct evidence to link him to the crimes, he managed to plea bargain his sentence down to 60 years for burglary.A Fiend ThwartedDue to a legal flaw in the Texas criminal justice system, Watts was supposed to be released from prison in 2006. Through the ceaseless efforts of investigators and the mother of one of the victims, Watts was finally tried and convicted to life in prison for a murder he'd committed in Michigan in 1979. He remains the prime suspect in approximately 90 other slayings. Experts theorize that Watts may have slain more than Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy. . .combined! Here is the chilling story of how he almost got away with murder.16 Pages Of Shocking PhotosTrue Crime Stories of Eastern North Carolina (True Crime)
By Cathy Pickens. 2020
Eastern North Carolina is a land of contrasts, and its crime stories bear this out. A lovelorn war hero or…
a stalker? Conniving wife or consummate homemaker? Murder or suicide? The answers can be as puzzling as the questions. Mystery author Cathy Pickens details an assortment of quirky cases, including a duo of poisoning cases more than one hundred years apart, a band of folk hero swamp outlaws, sex swingers and a couple of mummies. Each story has, in its way, helped define Eastern North Carolina and its history.Gone at Midnight: The Tragic True Story Behind the Unsolved Internet Sensation
By Jake Anderson. 2020
A Fortune Magazine &“Most Anticipated Books of 2020&” SelectionA Goodreads Featured Release for February 2020Oxygen&’s List of &“Best True Crime Books of…
2020&” Selection &“The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles is a palpable presence in Gone at Midnight: The Mysterious death of Elisa Lam by Jake Anderson… While allowing for other possible interpretations (and minimizing the daunting logistics), Anderson believes that Lam was murdered, the victim of a &“traumatic sexual attack&” by one or more assailants. Or something. Given the checkered history of the Cecil Hotel (which was recently named to the Los Angeles registry of historic landmarks), I wouldn&’t rule out Jack the Ripper.&”—The New York TimesA Los Angeles hotel with a haunting history. A missing young woman. A disturbing video followed by a shocking discovery. A cold-case mystery that has become an internet phenomenon—and for one determined journalist, a life-changing quest toward uncomfortable truths. Perfect for Murderinos looking for their next fix… Twenty-one-year-old Vancouver student Elisa Lam was last heard from on January 31, 2013, after she checked into downtown L.A.&’s Cecil Hotel—a 600-room building with a nine-decade history of scandal and tragedy. The next day, Elisa vanished. A search of the hotel yielded nothing. More than a week later, complaints by guests of foul-smelling tap water led to a grim discovery: Elisa&’s nude body floating in a rooftop water tank, in an area extremely difficult to access without setting off alarms. The only apparent clue was a disturbing surveillance video of Elisa, uploaded to YouTube in hopes of public assistance. As the eerie elevator video went viral, so did the questions of its tens of millions of viewers. Was Elisa&’s death caused by murder, suicide, or paranormal activity? Was it connected to the Cecil&’s sinister reputation? And in that video, what accounted for Elisa&’s strange behavior? With the help of web sleuths and investigators from around the world, journalist Jake Anderson set out to uncover the facts behind a death that had become a macabre internet meme, as well as a magnet for conspiracy theorists. In poring through Elisa&’s revealing online journals and social-media posts, Anderson realized he shared more in common with the young woman than he imagined. His search for justice and truth became a personal journey, a dangerous descent into one of America's quiet epidemics. Along the way, he exposed a botched investigation and previously unreported disclosures from inside sources who suggest there may have been a corporate conspiracy and a police cover-up. In Gone at Midnight, Anderson chronicles eye-opening discoveries about who Elisa Lam really was and what—or whom—she was running from, and presents shocking new evidence that may re-open one of the most chilling and obsessively followed true crime cases of the century. &“Outstanding…true crime buffs won&’t want to miss this gripping search for the truth.&” —Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEWWhere Monsters Hide: Sex, Murder, and Madness in the Midwest
By M. William Phelps. 2019
An unexplained disappearance spirals into an unrelenting murder mystery. In October 2014, local Michigan police chief Laura Frizzo faced…
a perplexing missing-person case. It was not like Chris Regan, a devoted father and dependable employee, to take off without explanation. When Frizzo learned Chris was having an affair with Kelly Cochran, a married co-worker, suspicion fell on Kelly&’s hulking husband, Jason. Soon after that the Cochrans abruptly moved to Indiana. Sixteen months later, Jason Cochran died from a drug overdose. Friends and family rallied around the grieving Kelly. But when the coroner ruled Jason&’s death a homicide, no one reacted more bizarrely than his widow. Detectives tried to put Kelly&’s past into focus. But the horrific truth was hidden under a near-perfect patchwork of lies. Veteran investigative journalist M. William Phelps expertly reveals Kelly Cochran&’s staggering saga of murder, revenge, and payback. &“Anything by Phelps is an eye-opening experience.&” —Suspense Magazine &“Phelps knows how to work it.&” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review &“Master of true crime.&” —Real Crime magazineMurdered Innocents
By Corey Mitchell. 2005
Yogurt Shop MassacreOn December 6th, 1991, fresh-faced teens Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas began to close up the Austin, Texas…
yogurt shop where they worked. They were joined by Jennifer's younger sister, Sarah, and her friend Amy Ayers. Less than an hour later all four girls were dead--apparent victims of a fire. But closer examination revealed that they had been bound and gagged, sexually assaulted, and shot execution-style. It was the most horrific crime the peaceful college town had seen since the infamous University of Texas Tower shootings in 1966.False ConfessionsWith no physical evidence or eyewitnesses and more than a hundred bizarre confessions to weed through, the Austin police faced one of their toughest cases ever. The family and friends who chanted "We will not forget," would have to wait nearly eight years before Robert Springsteen IV, Michael Scott, Maurice Pierce, and Forrest Welborn--teenagers themselves at the time of the murders--were taken into custody. Intense questioning revealed how their plan to rob the yogurt shop exploded into a drug- and sex-fueled spree of rage and brutality. But their story wasn't over yet.Strange JusticeIn February 2003, several months after the final verdict had been read, a final shocking twist would rock the city of Austin once more. . .16 Pages Of Shocking PhotosStrangler
By Corey Mitchell. 2018
To the outside world, Anthony Allen Shore was an average guy: a twice-divorced father who drove a tow truck in…
suburban Houston. Handsome and charismatic, he generally kept a low profile. But in his mind he was a superstar . . . A musical prodigy who never realized his potential, Shore found a way to outsmart society—by getting away with murder. And he wanted the whole world to know it. After brutally killing a 16-year-old girl, he called the local NBC affiliate and told an editor precisely where to find her body. Eight years passed before DNA evidence caught up with Shore. Subsequent police investigations revealed a violent megalomaniac who had sexually abused his own daughters. He confessed to murdering four females, one only nine years old. And he hinted at many, many more—leading authorities to believe that Anthony Allen Shore could even be the notorious “I-45 Serial Killer,” whose bloody legacy had earned for one Texas highway the grisly moniker “Corridor of Blood.” Bestselling author Corey Mitchell recounts the case from its twisted beginnings to its chilling conclusion . . . “A must-read, cautionary tale of manipulation, control, and murder.” --Diane Fanning “Corey Mitchell empathized with crime victims in a unique and personal way. That empathy is evident in every true crime book he wrote.” —Suzy Spencer “No one faces evil head-on like Corey Mitchell.” —Gregg Olsen Includes 16 Pages of Haunting PhotosMy Story
By Chris Stewart, Elizabeth Smart. 2013
For the first time, ten years after her abduction from her Salt Lake City bedroom, Elizabeth Smart reveals how she…
survived and the secret to forging a new life in the wake of a brutal crime for the first time, ten years after her abduction from her Salt Lake City bedroom, Elizabeth Smart reveals how she survived and the secret to forging a new life in the wake of a brutal crime. On June 5, 2002, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart, the daughter of a close-knit Mormon family, was taken from her home in the middle of the night by religious fanatic, Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. She was kept chained, dressed in disguise, repeatedly raped, and told she and her family would be killed if she tried to escape. After her rescue on March 12, 2003, she rejoined her family and worked to pick up the pieces of her life. Now for the first time, in her memoir, MY STORY, he tells of the constant fear she endured every hour, her courageous determination to maintain hope, and how she devised a plan to manipulate her captors and convinced them to return to Utah, where she was rescued minutes after arriving. Smart explains how her faith helped her stay sane in the midst of a nightmare and how she found the strength to confront her captors at their trial and see that justice was served. In the nine years after her rescue, Smart transformed from victim to advocate, traveling the country and working to educate, inspire and foster change. She has created a foundation to help prevent crimes against children and is a frequent public speaker. In 2012, she married Matthew Gilmour, whom she met doing mission work in Paris for her church, in a fairy tale wedding that made the cover of People magazine.Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer
By Stephen Singular. 2006
To all appearances, Dennis Rader was a model citizen in the small town of Park City, Kansas, where he had…
lived with his family almost his entire life. He was a town compliance officer, a former Boy Scout leader, the president of his church congregation, and a seemingly ordinary father and husband. But Rader's average life belied the existence of his dark, sadistic other self: he was the BTK serial killer. The self-named BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill) had terrorized Wichita for thirty-one years, not only with his brutal, sexually motivated crimes, but also through his taunting, elusive communications with the media and law enforcement. In 1974, BTK committed his first murders -- torturing and strangling four members of the Otero family -- and wrote the police an audacious letter declaring his responsibility for the Oteros' deaths and labeling himself, for the first time, BTK. Thus he established a pattern -- stalking and killing a series of ten victims, then bragging and claiming ownership of his crimes -- that ended in 1991 but left law enforcement confounded and the public with deeply troubling memories. Until, that is, he resurfaced in 2004 with another string of letters that would finally lead to his arrest. Drawing from extensive interviews with Rader's pastor, congregation, detectives, and psychologists who worked the case, and from his unnervingly de-tailed thirty-two-hour confession, bestselling author Stephen Singular delves into the disturbing life and crimes of BTK to explore fully -- for the first time -- the most dangerous and complex serial killer of our generation and the man who embodied, at once, astonishing extremes of normality and abnormality. In Unholy Messenger, Singular recounts the year prior to Rader's arrest, in which the BTK killer reemerged, and the aftermath. Woven throughout are the details of his crimes, elaborate schemes, and bids for public attention, and the wrenching impact his deception had on his family, church, and heartland community. The result is a chilling story of a man considered a "spiritual leader" by his pastor and congregation, who turned out to be the devil next door. More than just true crime, Unholy Messenger is a powerful, thoroughly engrossing examination of the intersection between good and evil, and of the psychology and spirituality of a killer in whom faith and bloodshed converged.Gotti's Boys: The Mafia Crew That Killed for John Gotti
By Anthony M. DeStefano. 2019
Meet the men who murdered for the mob—and made John Gotti the most powerful and deadly crime boss in America…
. . . They called him the “Teflon Don.” But in his short reign as the head of the Gambino crime family, John Gotti wracked up a lifetime of charges from gambling, extortion, and tax evasion to racketeering, conspiracy, and five convictions of murder. He didn’t do it alone. Surrounding himself with a rogues gallery of contract killers, fixers, and enforcers, he built one of the richest, most powerful crime empires in modern history. Who were these men? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano takes you inside Gotti’s inner circle to reveal the dark hearts and violent deeds of the most remorseless and cold-blooded characters in organized crime. Men so vicious even the other Mafia families were terrified of them. Meet Gotti’s Boys . . . * Charles Carneglia: the ruthless junkyard dog who allegedly disposed of bodies for the mob—by dissolving them in acid then displaying their jewels. * Gene Gotti: the younger Gotti brother who ran a multimillion-dollar drug smuggling ring—enraging his bosses in the Gambino family. * Angelo “Quack-Quack” Ruggiero: the loose-lipped contract killer who was wire-tapped by the FBI—and dared to insult Gotti behind his back. * Tony “Roach” Rampino: the hardcore stoner who looked like a cockroach—and used his gangly arms and horror-mask face to frighten his enemies. * “Sammy the Bull” Gravano: the Gambino underboss who helped John Gotti execute Gambino mob boss Paul Castellano—then sang like a canary to take Gotti down. Rounding out this nefarious group were the likes of Frank DeCicco, Vincent Artuso, and Joe “The German” Watts, a man who wasn’t a Mafiosi but had all of the power and prestige of one in John Gotti’s slaughterhouse crew. Gotti’s Boys is a killer line-up of the crime-hardened mob soldiers who killed at their ruthless leader’s merciless bidding—brought to vivid life by the prize-winning chronicler of the American mob.CSI Colombia
By Fernando Salamanca Rozo. 2018
P Una magistral clase de criminal stica a partir de algunos de los hechos m s…
dram ticos y a la vez medi ticos de los ltimos a os en Colombia P El autor seleccion algunos de los casos m s escalofriantes del pa s como por ejemplo el asesinato de los once diputados del Valle o el caso de Luis Andr s Colmenares para entender c mo fueron decodificados y resueltos desde las ciencias forenses y la tecnolog a P CSI Colombia es una joya del nuevo periodismo judicial una inmersi n profunda en el campo de la criminal stica y un acierto editorialBody Hunter (Pinnacle True Crime Ser.)
By Patricia Springer. 2001
The Sex Killer Next Door To the people of Olney, Texas, 39-year-old Faryion Wardrip was an upright citizen--a happily married…
man, a valued employee, and a respected Sunday school teacher. But everyone in Olney would soon learn the chilling truth about the man they thought they knew. His Brutal Rape-Murder Spree In January, 1999, investigators reviewing the files of three unsolved murders dating back 15 years came across information linking Wardrip to the attractive young female victims--Terry Sims, 20, who had been bound, raped and stabbed to death;Toni Gibbs, 23, who was found slashed and sexually assaulted in a deserted bus shell;and Ellen Blau, 21, who disappeared after working a night shift, her badly decomposed body found a month later. The Mounting Body Count Smart police work snared a sample of Wardrip's DNA, matching it with semen found in the Sims case. Wardrip confessed to the three murders, and one more--the strangulation death of Debra Taylor, 25--though it was Sims' murder that put him on Texas's death row and made him the prime suspect in 10 other similar unsolved murders in Fort Worth.Losing Jon: A Teen's Tragic Death, a Police Cover-Up, a Community's Fight for Justice
By David Parrish. 2020
A Chilling True Story of Injustice David Parrish was in disbelief when he learned that nineteen-year-old Jon Bowie&’s body…
had been found hanged from a backstop at the local high school&’s baseball field and the death declared a suicide. David had known Jon and his twin brother since they were boys. He had coached them on the baseball field and welcomed them into his home for sleepovers with his own sons. However, when David learned how Jon&’s body was found, he felt compelled to find the facts behind the incomprehensible tragedy. Soon, David would learn of a brutal incident at a local motel where Jon and his brother had been severely beaten by police officers, the charges filed against those officers, and the months of harassment and intimidation Jon and his brother endured. Few in the utopian community of Columbia, Maryland, believed Jon could commit such a final act. Like many others, David wondered how a fateful night of teens blowing off steam could lead to such a tragic end. As law enforcement failed to find answers and seemed intent on preventing the truth from surfacing, David uncovered a system of cover-ups that could only lead to one conclusion—Jon&’s death was an act of murder. &“A true page turner, filled with almost-too-unbelievable-to-be-true details of one community&’s fight to find justice for one of its own . . . the issues raised, particularly when it comes to questions of police brutality and cover-ups, are very much relevant today.&”—New York Times bestselling author Lisa Pulitzer Includes 8 Pages of Photographs Visit us at www.kensingtonbooks.comA Tangled Web: A Cyberstalker, a Deadly Obsession, and the Twisting Path to Justice.
By Leslie Rule. 2020
You know the #1 New York Times bestselling author Ann Rule, &“America&’s best true-crime writer&” (Kirkus Reviews), from her unforgettable classic The…
Stranger Beside Me, now get ready to meet the heiress of her True Crime legacy, her daughter, Leslie Rule. It was a bleak November in 2012 when Cari Lea Farver vanished from Omaha, Nebraska. Cari, thirty-seven, was a devoted mother, reliable employee, and loyal friend—not the type to shirk responsibilities, abandon her son, and run off on an adventure while her dying father took his last breaths. Yet, the many texts from her phone indicated she had done just that. It appeared that Cari had dumped her new boyfriend, quit her job, and relinquished custody of her son to her mother—all by text. While Cari&’s boyfriend, Dave Kroupa, and her supervisor were bewildered by her abrupt disappearance, they accepted the texts at face value. Her mother, Nancy Raney, however, was alarmed and reported Cari missing. Police were skeptical of her claims that a cyber impostor had commandeered her daughter&’s phone and online identity. While Nancy was afraid for Cari, Dave Kroupa was growing afraid of her, for he believed Cari was stalking him. Never seen or heard, the stalker was aware of his every move and seemed obsessed with his casual girlfriend, Shanna &“Liz&” Golyar, often calling her &“a fat whore&” in the twelve thousand emails and texts he received in a disturbing three-year deluge. How did the stalker know Dave&’s phone numbers immediately after he changed them, the names of his lady friends, even what he wore as he watched TV? He and Liz reported death threats, vandalism, and burglaries, but the stalker remained at large. The threats were vicious, vile and often obscene, sent mostly via text and always in Cari&’s name. There was some truth in the messages, but all of them contained one big lie. The culprit was not Cari, but had killed and planned to kill again. With mesmerizing detail and compelling narrative skill, Leslie Rule tracks every step of the heart-pounding path to long-awaited justice—from a sociopath&’s twisted past to the deadly deception and the high-tech forensics that condemned the killer to prison.Zodiac
By Robert Graysmith. 2007
The Monk: The Life and Crimes of Ireland's Most Enigmatic Gang Boss
By Paul Williams. 2020
On the streets of the tough Dublin inner-city neighbourhood where he grew up, Gerry Hutch was perceived as an ordinary…
decent criminal, a quintessential Robin Hood figure who fought the law - and won. To the rest of the world he was an elusive criminal godfather called the Monk: an enigmatic criminal mastermind and the hunted leader of one side in the deadliest gangland feud in Irish criminal history.The latest book from Ireland's leading crime writer Paul Williams reveals the inside story of Hutch's war with former allies the Kinahan cartel, and how the once untouchable crime boss became a fugitive on the run from the law and the mob - with a €1 million bounty on his head.The Monk is an enthralling account of the rise and fall of a modern-day gangster, charting the violent journey of an impoverished kid from the ghetto to the top tier of gangland - until it all went wrong.La parábola de Pablo
By Alonso Salazar. 2007
Biograf a definitiva de Pablo Escobar Con realismo y gran sentido narrativo compone los claroscuros de uno…
de los peores criminales de la historia En La par bola de Pablo Alonso Salazar presenta dimensiones ntimas cuadros complejos humanos y brutales del hombre que se convirti en el mayor capo de la droga del mundo moderno y en un sanguinario que arrincon a la sociedad en la que vivi con su imperio de poder riqueza y delirio y su posterior ca da Este libro inspir la famosa serie El patr n del mal cuya aparici n 2012 le dio un segundo aire al libro Para la presente recuperaci n en Debate tendremos un pr logo de Andr s Parra el actor que hizo de Escobar en la serie Alonso Salazar es uno de los cronistas m s l cidos del pa s No nacimos pa semilla Luis Carlos Gal n profeta en el desierto y No hubo fiesta Cr nicas de la revoluci n y la contrarrevoluci n prueban su capacidad como periodista y su agudeza para abordar los temas m s oscuros de la realidad nacionalThe Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV
By Lt. Joe Kenda, Pete Crooks. 2015
The pitch went like this: Chris Butler, a retired cop, ran a private investigator firm in Concord, California. His business…
had a fascinating angle-his firm was staffed entirely by soccer moms.In fact, Butler employed PI Super Moms: attractive, organized, smart, and trained in investigative techniques, self-defense, and weaponry. This American Life host Ira Glass described them as "MILF: Charlie's Angels."When this story came across Pete Crooks's desk when he was working at Diablo magazine in 2010, he was instantly hooked. He'd heard a little bit about Butler and his super moms in the news; they'd been featured in People magazine and on Dr. Phil. What Butler's publicist was offering was too tantalizing to pass up: an opportunity to ride along with Butler and a few of his sexy PIs as they prepared to start filming a reality TV show.But after the ride-along-and after he started receiving mysterious emails from one of Butler's employees-Crooks started to realize something didn't seem right. After doing a little digging, he discovered the "sting" he'd seen only had one real victim...him. The PI bust had been a setup.Crooks wasn't a hardboiled crime reporter. He did lifestyle pieces for a regional magazine. The more he learned about Butler's operation, the more he realized he was in far over his head. But swallowing his fears, he decided he was going to write an expose on Butler and his entire organization. He soon found himself deep in the underbelly of fake sting operations, wannabe celebrities, police corruption, drug-dealing, reality television, double-crossing employees, and more twists and turns than a dozen crime thrillers.