True Crime

An NPR Best Book of the Year ● An Oprah Daily Best Book of the Summer ● A Chicago Review of Books Must-Read Book of the Month

Acclaimed author Sarah Gerard turns her keen observational eye and penetrating prose to the 2016 murder of her friend Carolyn Bush, examining the multi-faceted reasons for her death―personal and societal, avoidable and inevitable.

“Sarah Gerard redefines true crime in this poignant tribute to her friend . . . using in-depth reporting to expose the privilege and misogyny at the heart of this case.” —NPR

“Astonishing. . . . What stuns about Carrie Carolyn Coco is . . . the intricate ways in which Sarah Gerard unravels poison in the dark corners of Carolyn Bush’s world: a fancy liberal arts college with a chilling history of violence; the violence in Bush’s everyday existence; the web of people who are willing to stand up for Bush’s murderer, some with dubious motives.” ―Esmé Weijun Wang, New York Times bestselling author of The Collected Schizophrenias

On the night of September 28, 2016, twenty-five-year-old Carolyn Bush was brutally stabbed to death in her New York City apartment by her roommate Render Stetson-Shanahan, leaving friends and family of both reeling. In life, Carolyn was a gregarious, smart-mouthed aspiring poet, who had seemingly gotten along well with Render, a reserved art handler. Where had it gone so terribly wrong?

This is the question that has plagued acclaimed author Sarah Gerard and driven her obsessive pursuit to understand this horrific tragedy. In Sarah’s exploration of Carolyn’s life and death, she spent thousands of hours interviewing Carolyn's and Render’s friends and family, poring over court documents and news media, reading obscure writings and internet posts, and attending Carolyn’s memorials and Render’s trial.

What emerged from Sarah’s relentless instinct to follow a story and its characters to their darkest ends is a book that is at once a striking homage to Carolyn’s life, a chilling excavation of a brutal crime, and a captivating whydunit with a shocking conclusion.

According to the FBI, more bank and armored-car robbers have come out of Charlestown, Massachusetts, than any other one-square-mile area in the world. With these robberies also came gangland violence and corruption. Fictionalized in the movie The Town featuring Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner, this is the true story of Charlestown and the thieves and gangsters who terrorized the community for decades.

On October 31, 1961, Bernie McLaughlin got shot dead in broad daylight in front of a hundred witnesses in the City Square section of Charlestown. Because of the ironclad code of silence in the Irish stronghold known as the “Green Square Mile,” no witnesses came forward. The murder ignited a bloody war between the McLaughlin Gang and Buddy McClean’s Winter Hill Gang that left more than sixty men dead.

Three decades later, as narcotics invaded Charlestown, and a concurrent Mob war raged between J. R. Russo’s North End crew and that of Patriarca-family boss “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, five thieves called the “No Name Gang” committed over a hundred heists across New England that cemented the enclave’s infamy. Grippingly cinematic and raw, Thieves of Charlestown delivers an unprecedented look at the real criminals who ruled the streets of “The Town.”

Thien Ho, the District Attorney of Sacramento, was the lead prosecutor of DeAngelo, “one of the most notorious serial predators in American history.” (Fresh Air/NPR). His book, The People vs. the Golden State Killer, is the first official account of how the Golden State Killer was apprehended and put behind bars for life. Ho led an elite team of law enforcement from six California prosecutor's offices in the hunt for DeAngelo. They used a newly developed tool known as Investigative Genetic Genealogy, pioneered by Paul Holes (Unmasked, Celadon, 2022), to connect DeAngelo to multiple cold cases stretching back nearly a half century. 

The People vs. the Golden State Killer also recounts Ho’s fascinating personal journey—escaping communist Vietnam on a fishing boat as a child, working his way up from an internship to an elite homicide division and eventually to Sacramento District Attorney. Ho also tells the authorized accounts of three of DeAngelo’s rape survivors, Kris, Gaye, and Phylis, who recount with Ho’s help the arc of their lives from the crime, to the effects on their lives in the subsequent years, to the discovery of DeAngelo and his capture.

Thien Ho, the District Attorney of Sacramento, was the lead prosecutor of DeAngelo, “one of the most notorious serial predators in American history.” (Fresh Air/NPR). His book, The People vs. the Golden State Killer, is the first official account of how the Golden State Killer was apprehended and put behind bars for life. Ho led an elite team of law enforcement from six California prosecutor's offices in the hunt for DeAngelo. They used a newly developed tool known as Investigative Genetic Genealogy, pioneered by Paul Holes (Unmasked, Celadon, 2022), to connect DeAngelo to multiple cold cases stretching back nearly a half century. 

The People vs. the Golden State Killer also recounts Ho’s fascinating personal journey—escaping communist Vietnam on a fishing boat as a child, working his way up from an internship to an elite homicide division and eventually to Sacramento District Attorney. Ho also tells the authorized accounts of three of DeAngelo’s rape survivors, Kris, Gaye, and Phylis, who recount with Ho’s help the arc of their lives from the crime, to the effects on their lives in the subsequent years, to the discovery of DeAngelo and his capture.

Alligator in the Ocean illustrates one family’s drive to stop a serial predator and overcome the heart-wrenching struggles that followed.

Anina Swan shares the true account of how she survived the brutality of a serial predator, Ivan, unveiled traumatic amnesia, and rallied help to stop his crime spree. With deep-seated courage, Anina did the unthinkable when she confronted her perpetrator. The result eventually delivered Ivan’s confessions of assaulting hundreds of children, according to local news reports. The chaotic aftermath ultimately led to his arrest and how Anina transformed her pain into purpose and adversity into triumph.

In Alligator in the Ocean, Anina creatively weaves scenes from three different perspectives: one of the child victims, herself as a young mother, and the perpetrator through portions of his handwritten letters that he wrote to his wife, Adele, while incarcerated. Anina illustrates how the wounds of crime reach beyond the victim and spread through family and community. She gives a deeply personal account of how she persevered and overcame what seemed impossible. Then how she transformed—through forgiveness sought and found. This poignant story proves that where there is hope, the crippling effects of violence can be overcome and result in a profound desire to live a better life.

Alligator in the Ocean is a unique story based on a collection of Anina’s journals, court documents, slides and photos, newspaper articles, interviews, and the original letters written by Ivan to his wife while incarcerated.

According to the FBI, more bank and armored-car robbers have come out of Charlestown, Massachusetts, than any other one-square-mile area in the world. With these robberies also came gangland violence and corruption. Fictionalized in the movie The Town featuring Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner, this is the true story of Charlestown and the thieves and gangsters who terrorized the community for decades.

On October 31, 1961, Bernie McLaughlin got shot dead in broad daylight in front of a hundred witnesses in the City Square section of Charlestown. Because of the ironclad code of silence in the Irish stronghold known as the “Green Square Mile,” no witnesses came forward. The murder ignited a bloody war between the McLaughlin Gang and Buddy McClean’s Winter Hill Gang that left more than sixty men dead.

Three decades later, as narcotics invaded Charlestown, and a concurrent Mob war raged between J. R. Russo’s North End crew and that of Patriarca-family boss “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, five thieves called the “No Name Gang” committed over a hundred heists across New England that cemented the enclave’s infamy. Grippingly cinematic and raw, Thieves of Charlestown delivers an unprecedented look at the real criminals who ruled the streets of “The Town.”

La trepidante odisea del manuscrito maldito del Marqués de Sade, una obra descrita como «el evangelio del mal»

A primera hora de una mañana de noviembre 2014, dos semanas antes del bicentenario de la muerte del marqués de Sade, veinte policías de paisano salieron de entre la niebla y atravesaron las imponentes puertas rojas del gran Museo de Cartas y Manuscritos de París. El hombre al que buscaban era Gérard Lhéritier, el «rey de los manuscritos», acusado de hundir la venerable industria anticuaria francesa con una presunta estafa piramidal valorada en cientos de millones de euros. Durante años, este empresario había estado comprando manuscritos históricos y su fondo acaparó obras escritas por personajes como Napoleón, Einstein y otros. Pero el manuscrito que precipitó su caída fue una cosa diminuta de poco más de diez centímetros de ancho; un ajustado pergamino de escritura tan minúscula que es casi imposible de leer. Una obra que, según algunos, incluido Lhéritier, está maldita.

Joel Warner nos relata la trepidante historia de este manuscrito, Los 120 días de Sodoma o la escuela de libertinaje, escrito por Sade durante su estancia en la prisión de la Bastilla. Este aristócrata del siglo XVIII había emprendido una campaña de caos y libertinaje en toda Francia. Tras la toma de la Bastilla, el manuscrito original empezó su aventura: una odisea a lo largo de varios siglos por toda Europa, pasando de coleccionistas de libros prohibidos en el siglo XIX a investigadores sexuales pioneros y artistas de vanguardia antes de ser escondido de la quema de libros nazi y llegar, posteriormente, a manos de Lhéritier.

Repleta de engaños y escándalos, La maldición del marqués de Sade entreteje la odisea arrolladora de una obra que algunos han descrito como «el evangelio del mal». Cuando Sade empezó su escritura aquella noche de octubre de 1785 sabía exactamente qué estaba escribiendo, como señalaba en la introducción de la novela: «Es ahora, querido lector, cuando tienes que preparar tu corazón y tu espíritu para el relato más impuro que haya sido creado desde que el mundo existe».

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

The thrilling odyssey of the cursed manuscript of the Marquis de Sade, a work described as "the gospel of evil."

In the early morning of November 2014, two weeks before the bicentennial of the Marquis de Sade's death, twenty plainclothes policemen emerged from the fog and passed through the imposing red doors of the great Museum of Letters and Manuscripts in Paris. The man they were looking for was Gérard Lhéritier, the "king of manuscripts," accused of sinking the venerable French antiquarian industry with an alleged pyramid scheme valued at hundreds of millions of euros. For years, this businessman had been buying historical manuscripts, and his collection included works written by figures like Napoleon, Einstein, and others. But the manuscript that precipitated his downfall was a tiny thing just over ten centimeters wide; a tight scroll of writing so minuscule that it is almost impossible to read. A work that, according to some, including Lhéritier, is cursed.

Joel Warner tells us the thrilling story of this manuscript, The 120 Days of Sodom or The School of Libertinage, written by Sade during his stay in the Bastille prison. This 18th-century aristocrat had embarked on a campaign of chaos and libertinage throughout France. After the storming of the Bastille, the original manuscript began its adventure: an odyssey spanning several centuries across Europe, passing from 19th-century forbidden book collectors to pioneering sex researchers and avant-garde artists before being hidden from Nazi book burnings and eventually ending up in Lhéritier's hands.

Full of deceptions and scandals, The Curse of the Marquis de Sade weaves together the overwhelming odyssey of a work that some have described as "the gospel of evil." When Sade began writing that night in October 1785, he knew exactly what he was creating, as he noted in the novel's introduction: "It is now, dear reader, that you must prepare your heart and spirit for the most impure tale that has been created since the world began."

Up the close and down the stair,
Up and down with Burke and Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the man who buys the beef.
—anonymous children's song

On Halloween night 1828, in the West Port district of Edinburgh, Scotland, a woman sometimes known as Madgy Docherty was last seen in the company of William Burke and William Hare. Days later, police discovered her remains in the surgery of the prominent anatomist Dr. Robert Knox. Docherty was the final victim of the most atrocious murder spree of the century, outflanking even Jack the Ripper's. Together with their accomplices, Burke and Hare would be accused of killing sixteen people over the course of twelve months in order to sell the corpses as "subjects" for dissection. The ensuing criminal investigation into the "Anatomy Murders" raised troubling questions about the common practices by which medical men obtained cadavers, the lives of the poor in Edinburgh's back alleys, and the ability of the police to protect the public from cold-blooded murder.

Famous among true crime aficionados, Burke and Hare were the first serial killers to capture media attention, yet The Anatomy Murders is the first book to situate their story against the social and cultural forces that were bringing early nineteenth-century Britain into modernity. In Lisa Rosner's deft treatment, each of the murder victims, from the beautiful, doomed Mary Paterson to the unfortunate "Daft Jamie," opens a window on a different aspect of this world in transition. Tapping into a wealth of unpublished materials, Rosner meticulously portrays the aspirations of doctors and anatomists, the makeshift existence of the so-called dangerous classes, the rudimentary police apparatus, and the half-fiction, half-journalism of the popular press.

The Anatomy Murders resurrects a tale of murder and medicine in a city whose grand Georgian squares and crescents stood beside a maze of slums, a place in which a dead body was far more valuable than a living laborer.

Por el creador de Fausto, el podcast true crime más escuchado en América Latina.

Estado de México: el hallazgo del cadáver calcinado de una mujer con las manos atadas y una pierna fracturada marca el inicio de una macabra serie de crímenes. Los agentes Moreira y Alegría, dos judiciales veteranos convencidos de haberlo visto todo, son asignados al caso. Aunque al principio creen que será una investigación de rutina, a medida que las pistas se agotan y más cuerpos comienzan a aparecer sus esperanzas de atrapar al asesino se desmoronan.

La vulnerabilidad del azar se aleja de los estereotipos del género al explorar todas las facetas de un crimen: desde la brutalidad de los homicidios y el dolor experimentado por las familias de las víctimas, hasta el día a día de los detectives, sus dilemas personales y los obstáculos que deben vencer cuando se enfrentan a superiores incompetentes y un sistema judicial pervertido. Esta historia desentierra la investigación real sobre un violento asesino que acabó con múltiples vidas en los primeros años del nuevo milenio, pero quedó olvidado en los archivos policiales.

No existe un patrón, solo un momento y un lugar equivocados. Fernando Benavides no ha escrito un thriller convencional, sino una inquietante revelación sobre la verdadera cara de la maldad.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

By the creator of Fausto, the most listened to true crime podcast in Latin America.

State of Mexico: The discovery of the charred body of a woman with her hands tied and a broken leg marks the beginning of a macabre series of crimes. Agents Moreira and Alegría, two veteran judicial officers convinced they had seen it all, are assigned to the case. Although they initially believe it will be a routine investigation, as the clues run out and more bodies begin to appear, their hopes of catching the killer crumble.

La vulnerabilidad del azar (The Vulnerability of Chance) moves away from gender stereotypes by exploring all facets of a crime: from the brutality of the homicides and the pain experienced by the victims' families, to the day-to-day life of detectives, their personal dilemmas and the obstacles they must overcome when faced with incompetent superiors and a perverted judicial system. This story unearths the real investigation into a violent killer who took multiple lives in the early years of the new millennium, but was forgotten in police files.

There is no pattern, just a wrong time and place. Fernando Benavides has not written a conventional thriller, but a disturbing revelation about the true face of evil.

GANADOR DE LOS TRUE CRIME AWARDS 2024

 Jack Kelly es un desgastado agente de la DEA, cuyo trabajo consiste en olfatear dinero. Antes de pensar en su jubilación o en un cargo de escritorio que le permita descansar más, decide aceptar una última misión: el Proyecto Casandra. Con el fin de desmantelar una operación de tráfico de dinero, drogas y armas a través de diversas fronteras, la vida de Jack Kelly colisionará con personajes amenazantes y dispuestos a morir por sus ideales. Salvatore Pititto es el capo de una mafia italiana, cuya ambición lo lleva a forjar lazos con un peligroso cártel de drogas colombiano. Mustafa Badreddine es un temido terrorista que ha escapado una y otra vez de la ley para cumplir su última misión en la dictadura de Siria. Estos tres hombres, criados bajo contextos muy distintos, escapan el uno del otro solo para darse cuenta de una cruel realidad: pueden ser destruidos o traicionados por aquellas instituciones a las que juraron devoción, ya sea el Gobierno, la mafia italiana o el grupo terrorista Hezbollah.

Sus vidas y hazañas entre 2015 y 2016 dan forma a Sombras del crimen, un thriller que parece ficción, pero que es una historia real.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

WINNER OF THE TRUE CRIME AWARDS 2024

 Jack Kelly is a worn-out DEA agent, whose job is to sniff out money. Before thinking about his retirement or a desk position that allows him to rest more, he decides to accept one last mission: the Cassandra Project. In order to dismantle an operation of trafficking money, drugs and weapons across various borders, Jack Kelly's life will collide with menacing characters willing to die for his ideals. Salvatore Pititto is the kingpin of an Italian mafia, whose ambition leads him to forge ties with a dangerous Colombian drug cartel. Mustafa Badreddine is a feared terrorist who has repeatedly escaped the law to fulfill his last mission in Syria's dictatorship. These three men, raised in very different contexts, escape from each other only to realize a cruel reality:they can be destroyed or betrayed by those institutions to which they swore devotion, whether it is the government, the Italian mafia or the terrorist group Hezbollah.

Their lives and exploits between 2015 and 2016 shape Shadows of Crime, a thriller that seems fictional, but is a true story.

The tragic and mysterious death of Hazel Drew that inspired the cult hit TV show Twin Peaks, is finally solved by Dr. Jerry C. Drake.

The legend of Hazel Drew spread through stories of her ghost haunting the woods where her body was found. It was a hot summer day in July 1908 when the body of a young woman was found floating in a mill pond in Upstate New York. Hazel Irene Drew was murdered. Her death captured headlines across the nation and around the world, but after a whirlwind investigation lasting less than thirty days, the District Attorney abruptly closed the case.

Set against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, with clippings and photographs from local Troy and Albany newspapers from 1908, Dr. Jerry C. Drake parses out the facts from the legend through back alleys and dark mountain forests, in pursuit of Hazel Drew’s killer, in this engaging, historical investigation of a tragic American story.

With firsthand accounts from locals dreaming of clues, tabloid journalists, railroad Robber Barons and political bosses, psychic investigators, and even a mysterious hypnotist, the tabloid sensation is debunked and the real woman is finally revealed. This is the definitive story of Hazel Drew, whose ghost can finally rest, knowing that her killer has been exposed.

Cuando el asesino es el Estado: un libro durísimo, pero necesario, que recoge los desgarradores testimonios de las víctimas civiles de la violencia ejercida por las fuerzas de seguridad.

«Esta es una guerra contra el pueblo de México. Se dice que es una guerra contra el crimen organizado, pero no. Nosotros pensamos que es una guerra contra el pueblo, porque es al pueblo al que han estado desapareciendo y matando». ─ Yolanda Morán, mamá de Dan Jeremeel Fernández Morán, desaparecido por el Ejército en 2008

Este libro surge a partir de una investigación enfocada en un grupo específico de crímenes de guerra: las desapariciones forzadas y las ejecuciones extrajudiciales cometidas por las fuerzas de seguridad del Gobierno de México (agentes federales y estatales: soldados, marinos, Guardia Nacional y policías). Se enfoca en los delitos contra víctimas inocentes o indefensas, específicamente contra hombres y mujeres sin vínculos con el crimen organizado sobre los que no pesaba ninguna sospecha y que tampoco eran parte de ninguna investigación: personas que salieron a comprar comida, a trabajar, a la escuela, a atender necesidades básicas o a divertirse.

Ningún Gobierno en el poder reconoce este tipo de abusos, más allá de la manida frase de que son delitos cometidos por alguna «manzana podrida» —que excepcionalmente se filtró en sus filas—, pero no hay consecuencias legales ni reparación del daño para las víctimas o sus familiares. La violencia del Estado es sistemática y generalizada. Sobra decir que casi todos los crímenes quedan impunes. ¿Por qué el Gobierno los encubre?

Para Permiso para matar se entrevistaron a 191 familiares directos y allegados de 135 víctimas. Cada uno narró sus pesadillas y todos piden que se haga justicia. Como sociedad, no podemos seguir mirando a otro lado. Su indignación debe ser la nuestra.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

When the State is the Murderer: a very hard, but necessary, book that collects the heartbreaking testimonies of the civilian victims of the violence exercised by the security forces.

"This is a war against the people of Mexico. It is said that it is a war against organized crime, but no. We think it is a war against the people, because it is the people who have been disappearing and killing." ─ Yolanda Morán, mother of Dan Jeremeel Fernández Morán, disappeared by the Army in 2008.

This book arises from an investigation focused on a specific group of war crimes: forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions committed by the security forces of the Government of Mexico (federal and state agents: soldiers, marines, National Guard and police). It focuses on crimes against innocent or defenseless victims, specifically against men and women with no ties to organized crime who were not suspected and who were not part of any investigation: people who went out to buy food, work, school, attend to basic needs or have fun.

No government in power recognizes this type of abuse, beyond the hackneyed phrase that they are crimes committed by some "bad apple" – which exceptionally filtered into its ranks – but there are no legal consequences or reparation for the damage for the victims or their families. State violence is systematic and widespread. Needless to say, almost all crimes go unpunished. Why is the government covering them up?

For Permission to Kill, 191 direct relatives and relatives of 135 victims were interviewed. Each one narrated their nightmares and all ask for justice to be done. As a society, we cannot continue to look the other way. Their indignation must be ours.

Este libro empezó a escribirse mucho antes de que siquiera se esbozara su indignante y atroz argumento. Comenzó a echar raíces desde el día en que la narradora descubrió en el periódico una palabra sucia y oscura: «Feminicidio». Un libro que sabía iba a consumirla, a fragmentarla y que, después, por más que tratara, no podría pegar las partes de nuevo. Pero, aun así, tenía que escribirlo…

Brutal, conmovedor y honesto, Ya no quiero ser valiente reúne los testimonios de los feminicidios de Fátima, Mariana, Renata, Mäìchä Pamela, Jalix y Ana. Retrato doloroso de lo que sucede día a día en México, Mariana Morfín —joven escritora mexicana que debuta con un libro urgente y necesario— le da voz a cada una de las víctimas en una impactante mezcla de ficción y realidad, logrando que el lector se una al grito de justicia, que no es otro que «estamos hartas de vivir con miedo y ya no queremos ser valientes, queremos que las mujeres vivan con libertad».

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

This book began to be written long before its outrageous and atrocious plot was even outlined. It began to take root from the day the narrator discovered a dirty and dark word in the newspaper: "Femicide." A book that I knew was going to consume it, to fragment it and that, later, no matter how hard I tried, I could not glue the parts back together. But even so, I had to write it...

Brutal, moving and honest, Ya no quiero ser valiente (I don't want to be brave anymore) brings together the testimonies of the femicides of Fátima, Mariana, Renata, Mäìchä Pamela, Jalix and Ana. A painful portrait of what happens day by day in Mexico, Mariana Morfín – a young Mexican writer who debuts with an urgent and necessary book – gives voice to each of the victims in a shocking mixture of fiction and reality, getting the reader to join the cry for justice, which is none other than "we are tired of living in fear and we no longer want to be brave, we want women to live freely."

Real Crime Stories, Uncovered by Nature

Professor Patricia Wiltshire has dedicated her life solving over 300 real criminal cases across the UK. Learn of her shocking discoveries in this one-of-a-kind true crime forensic ecology book.

For true crime enthusiasts. This book will captivate true crime lovers everywhere. Professor Wiltshire has used her extensive background in forensic ecology to find the answers to some of the most harrowing cases in true crime history. From unraveling true crime murder cases to finding hidden remains, Professor Wiltshire has solved the unsolvable time and time again.

For forensic science enthusiasts. As a forensic scientist, Professor Wiltshire provides a unique perspective to crime scene investigation and the different investigative methodologies used to solve the toughest cases. Law enforcement personnel from all types of professions will marvel at the stories shared in The Natural History of Crime.

Inside, you’ll find:

• Real crime stories, exposed by a groundbreaking forensics expert.
• A behind-the-scenes view of what it takes to solve the most unsolvable crimes. 
• A deep understanding of the connection between the natural world and the search for justice.

If you liked The Most Bizarre True Crime Stories Ever Told, Behold the Monster, or The Best New True Crime Stories, you’ll love The Natural History of Crime.

Una estremecedora crónica de la fragilidad de la sociedad actual.

Pese a las intenciones de quienes lo perpetraron, el ataque con gas sarín que se produjo en el metro de Tokio en marzo de 1995 sólo se cobró once vidas. Sin embargo, miles de personas resultaron heridas y muchas otras sufrieron sus consecuencias y secuelas.

El novelista Haruki Murakami entrevista a las víctimas, a los que vivieron y sufrieron en propia piel el atentado, para establecer con precisión qué ocurrió ese día en las distintas líneas de metro afectadas. También para desentrañar la verdadera historia que se ocultaba bajo un acto terrorista que convirtió una anodina mañana de lunes en una tragedia nacional. Pero, sobre todo, para contestar a una pregunta primordial: ¿por qué? ¿Por qué la violencia terrorista, o cualquier violencia? ¿Y por qué en ese momento y lugar concretos? Como contrapunto, Murakami nos ofrece los testimonios de los miembros de la secta que participaron en aquel ataque y sus posibles motivos.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

In this haunting work of journalistic investigation, Haruki Murakami tells the story of the horrific terrorist attack on Japanese soil that shook the entire world.

On a clear spring day in 1995, five members of a religious cult unleashed poison gas on the Tokyo subway system. In attempt to discover why, Haruki Murakmi talks to the people who lived through the catastrophe, and in so doing lays bare the Japanese psyche. As he discerns the fundamental issues that led to the attack, Murakami paints a clear vision of an event that could occur anytime, anywhere.

The shocking crimes of a trusted teacher wrought lasting damage on Inuit communities in Canada’s Arctic.

In the 1970s, a young schoolteacher from British Columbia was becoming the darling of the Northwest Territories education department with his dynamic teaching style. He was learning to speak the local language, Inuktitut, something few outsiders did. He also claimed to be Indigenous — a claim that would later prove to be false. In truth, Edward Horne was a pedophile who sexually abused his male students.

From 1971 to 1985 his predations on Inuit boys would disrupt life in the communities where he worked — towns of close-knit families that would suffer the intergenerational trauma created by his abuse.

Journalist Kathleen Lippa, after years of research, examines the devastating impact the crimes had on individuals, families, and entire communities. Her compelling work lifts the veil of silence surrounding the Horne story once and for all.

The compelling story of South Australia’s disgraced former chief forensic pathologist and the legal scandals in which he became implicated.

For nearly three decades, Dr Colin Manock was in charge of South Australia’s forensic pathology services, and played a vital role within the state’s criminal justice system: in cases of unexpected or unexplained death, it was his job to determine when a person took their final breath and whether they had died naturally or as a result of something more sinister. Throughout his long career, he performed more than 10,000 autopsies and gave expert scientific evidence in court that helped secure approximately 400 criminal convictions.

But, remarkably, Manock, a self-described “witness of fact”, did not have the necessary training for such a senior, specialist role, and he made serious errors in several major cases—with tragic consequences, including the apparently wrongful imprisonment of innocent people. The full extent of his wrongdoing and the exact number of cases impacted by it remains a mystery more than twenty-five years after he retired, due to the continuing refusal of those in power to heed calls to launch a formal inquiry into his career.

In this book, Rooke examines several of Manock’s most controversial cases, and speaks with many of his former colleagues, people directly impacted by his flawed work, and legal experts. At its heart, A Witness of Fact is about how an entire legal system has failed badly, how unsafe verdicts have been swept under the carpet—and how forensic evidence that is admitted in courts of law in Australia and across the world is dubious more often than we would like to think.

Don't fool yourself that the innocent never go to jail.

When Bob Chappell disappeared from his yacht, moored in the Derwent Estuary near the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania's marina, on the night of 26 January 2009, he left behind his pipe and tobacco — something that his partner of 18 years, Sue Neill-Fraser, knew he would never willingly do. What she didn't know was that despite no body, no weapon, no cause of death, and no witnesses, she would soon become the only suspect in Chappell’s disappearance.

In their haste to wrap up the case, the police charged Neill-Fraser with murder. In her eagerness to assist police, she virtually talked her way into their hands. And after a lengthy trial that resulted in a guilty verdict, the judge delivered Neill-Fraser a crushing 26-year sentence.

But was the verdict unsafe? Many of Australia’s leading legal minds think so, and other reasonable hypotheses have been mooted about what might have happened on the Derwent that night. The Tasmanian government has changed its laws to give Neill-Fraser one last crack at proving her innocence, because that is what it's come to now — proving her innocence.

The result of years of investigation, and based on extensive interviews with all the key players — including Sue Neill-Fraser and her family, local underworld figures, and legal luminaries — Death on the Derwent is a riveting story of justice not served.

The riveting inside story of a journalist investigating the shocking cold-case murder of a bookseller.

“The whole place seems cold, and he feels a terrible sense of dread. He calls out, but gets no reply. Taking a knife from the cutlery drawer, he unlocks the back door as an escape route. Then he sees her on the floor. Her eyes and mouth are open, and there is blood everywhere. He’s too late.”

After a strange phone call with his ex-wife, John James had sensed something was wrong and raced over to her house. As he stood in her bedroom doorway, transfixed by the sight of her body, the killer was almost certainly just a breath away, hiding behind the door. Had John walked in, he could have been the next victim. Instead, he left to call the police. The culprit escaped, taking with him the secret of a shocking murder that has shown no sign of being solved for nearly 40 years—until now.

Based on the international #1 podcast, Trace re-examines the 1980 murder of Maria James—the single mother of two sons, one with a disability—revealing abuse in the Catholic Church, cult activities, and claims of incompetence and corruption at the highest levels. Investigating possible conspiracies and uncovering fresh evidence, Rachael Brown's riveting investigation has won multiple media awards and may lead to the reopening of this chilling case.

In November 1916, just a few years after Federation and while Australia was at war in Europe, Hazel Hood, the beautiful 18-year-old daughter of a Riverina grazier, went to a local dance and never came home. Her mysterious disappearance caused a sensation in the district around the pioneer settlement of Wakool Crossing, near the Victoria–New South Wales border.

The mystery further intensified when, a week later, Hazel’s body — still clothed in her white party dress — was recovered from the Wakool river with a mark of violence upon her head, and her silk scarf tied tightly around her neck. Her disappearance was reported in major daily newspapers as far afield as Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, but the mystery of what happened to her was never fully explained.

As a child in the Mallee in the 1950s, Mike Richards was told the story of Hazel Hood’s tragic disappearance by his grandmother, Hazel’s elder sister, who firmly believed she had been murdered. Now, almost 100 years after her death, the author takes us with him as he seeks to unravel the mystery and reveal the truth about what happened to Hazel Hood — an unassuming, fun-loving, and caring girl, and a favourite in the district.

How did Phoebe Handsjuk fall to her death? In Into the Darkness, Robin Bowles uses her formidable array of investigative and forensic skills to tell a tale that is stranger than fiction.

On 2 December 2010, the body of a 24-year-old woman was found at the bottom of the rubbish chute in the luxury Balencea tower apartments in St Kilda Road, Melbourne, twelve floors below the apartment she had shared with her boyfriend, Antony Hampel.

Within minutes, the sound of sirens filled the hall as police cars from the nearby police station filled the front forecourt in response to the day manager‘s call. So began the so-called investigation into the sudden death of a young woman called Phoebe Handsjuk.

From then, the case became weirder and weirder. Phoebe, it turned out, was a beautiful but damaged young woman who'd been in a fraught relationship with a well-connected and wealthy lover almost twice her age, who was related to the elite of Melbourne‘s judiciary. The police botched their investigation, so Phoebe‘s grandfather, a former detective, decided to run one of his own. And in December 2014, after a 14-day inquest, the Coroner delivered a finding that excluded both suicide and foul play, a ruling that shocked her family and many others who had been following the case.

A jaw-dropping story of extraordinary deceit that left many victims in its wake and travelled around the world.

Entrepreneur. Inspiration. Guru. Belle Gibson shot to fame after she convinced the world she had healed herself from terminal brain cancer with a healthy diet. There was just one problem: she did not have cancer.

Gibson, a high school dropout and teenage mother, built a global business in less than 18 months that vaulted her to fame and fortune. She had 200,000 followers from Melbourne to Los Angeles to London, international book deals, and a best-selling smartphone app, having fooled both Penguin Books and Apple. She was a digital-age celebrity, a one-woman cult, a hero of the “wellness” world, and an inspiration to many.

Written by the two journalists who assiduously uncovered the details of Gibson’s lies, The Woman Who Fooled the World unravels the mystery and motivation behind this deception. It follows the public reaction to the scandal, which included headlines in Time magazine and Gibson being named in The Washington Post's list of the year’s top 10 villains.

The Woman Who Fooled the World also explores the lure of alternative cancer treatments, the cottage industry flourishing behind the wellness movement, and the power of social media. It documents not only Gibson’s folly, but the devastating impact this con had on hers fans and on people suffering from cancer.

A powerful work of investigative journalism about a notorious cult based in Melbourne, Australia, that captured world-wide headlines.

The apocalyptic group The Family and their guru, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, captured international headlines throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Starting in Melbourne, Australia, their tentacles spread to Britain, Upstate New York, and Hawaii.

Hamilton-Byrne, who told some followers she was Jesus Christ returned in disguise, was glamorous and charismatic—and dangerous. She stole children through adoption scams and imprisoned them, bleaching their hair blonde to make them look like siblings and raising them as her own. In 1987, police swooped on The Family’s lakeside compound and rescued children who claimed they were part of Anne’s future master race, recounting terrible stories of near-starvation, emotional manipulation, and physical abuse. But Anne could not be found, sparking an international police hunt. After an extensive search, the FBI captured her in the Catskills, and helped bring her to trial.

How did such a notorious group come to flourish? How did Anne maintain a hold over her followers? The Family tells the strange and shocking story of one of the most bizarre cults in modern history.

A police procedural, a meditation on suffering and an exploration into the human condition.

In 2004, the body of a young Perth woman was found on the grounds of a primary school. Her name was Rebecca Ryle. The killing would mystify investigators, lawyers, and psychologists—and profoundly rearrange the life of the victim's family.

It would also involve the author's family, because his brother knew the man charged with the murder. For years, the two had circled each other suspiciously, in a world of violence, drugs, and rotten aspirations.

A Murder Without Motive is a police procedural, a meditation on suffering, and an exploration of how the different parts of the justice system make sense of the senseless. It is also a unique memoir: a mapping of the suburbs that the author grew up in, and a revelation of the dangerous underbelly of adolescent ennui.

An award-winning true-crime story about a fugitive on the run, told from his point of view. Winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award for Nonfiction.

Callous murderer, outlaw hero or victim of the system? The subject of Andrew Hankinson’s book defies all such labels.

After killing his ex-girlfriend’s new lover, shooting her in the stomach, and blinding a policeman, Raoul Moat disappeared into the woods of Northern England, evading discovery for seven days. Moat captured the public imagination; he soon had an online following. Eventually, cornered by the police, Moat shot himself.

Drawing on extensive research—including many hours of tapes Moat recorded whilst he was at large—Hankinson tells Moat’s story using Moat’s own words, and those of the welfare agencies which engaged with him. The result is an unprecedented examination of violent breakdown; an electrifying nonfiction narrative in the tradition of Hunter S. Thompson and Norman Mailer.

In this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism and true crime, Stacy Horn sheds light on how the subprime mortgage scandal of the 1970s and a long history of white-collar crime slowly devastated East New York, a Brooklyn neighborhood that would come to be known as the Killing Fields.

On a warm summer evening in 1991, seventeen-year-old Julia Parker was murdered in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. An area known for an exorbitant level of violence and crime, East New York had come to be known as the Killing Fields. In the six months after Julia Parker’s death, 62 more people were murdered in the same area. In the early 1990s, murder rates in the neighborhood climbed to the highest in NYPD history. East New York was dying.

But how did this once thriving, diverse, family neighborhood fall into such ruin? The answer can be found two decades earlier. In response to redlining and discriminatory housing practices, the Johnson administration passed the Housing and Urban Development Act in 1968. The Federal Housing Authority aimed to use this piece of legislation to help low-income families of color finally achieve homeownership. But they could never have predicted how banks, lenders, realtors, and corrupt FHA officials themselves would use the newly passed law to make victims of the very people they were supposed to help, and the devastation they would leave in their wake.

A compulsively readable hybrid of true crime and investigative journalism, The Killing Fields of East New York reveals how white-collar crime reduced a prospering neighborhood to abandoned buildings and empty lots. Following the dual threads of the hunt for the network of criminals behind the first subprime mortgage scandal and the ensuing downfall of East New York, Stacy Horn weaves a compelling narrative of government failure, a desperate community, and ultimately the largest series of mortgage fraud prosecutions in American history. The Killing Fields of East New York deftly demonstrates how different types of crime are profoundly entangled, and how the crimes committed in nice suits and corner offices are just as destructive as those committed on the street.

Modern Methods for Solving the Ripper Cold Case

Jack the Ripper got away long ago, but he may not have been so successful in modern-day London. Ex-detective and true crime consultant Steven Keogh shares how today’s investigation methods and technology would solve the world’s most famous cold case.

Could the Ripper escape present-day justice? Since terrorizing Victorian London, Jack the Ripper has fascinated the world as a serial killer who eluded the police of his time. But what if his crime spree happened in the 21st century? Would he have gotten away again, or would modern detective work lead to his deserved downfall? Former investigator and author Steven Keogh has the answers in Murder Investigation Team: Jack the Ripper. This true crime book reveals how Scotland Yard today would identify Whitechapel’s mysterious killer and bring him to justice.

Modern criminology vs. Jack the Ripper. Applying contemporary experience and digital forensics, Keogh outlines how an investigation into the Ripper case would work. With methods such as suspect profiling, DNA analysis, and more, readers will gain a new perspective into the identity of this famous murderer, why he killed in cold blood, and how to catch him.

Inside Murder Investigation Team: Jack the Ripper, you’ll discover:

• The types of evidence a modern investigator would look for
• How to gather witness statements and camera recordings
• How the timeline of each murder victim is investigated for possible connections
• Viable theories into who Jack the Ripper might have been

If you like true crime books such as Unmasked, American Black Widow, or The Best New True Crime Stories, then you’ll love Murder Investigation Team: Jack the Ripper.

El 24 de julio de 1984, Allen Lafferty, un mormón practicante, se encontró con una escena terrible: su mujer y su hija de quince meses habían sido brutalmente asesinadas. Allen no tenía ninguna duda de la identidad de los culpables: sus hermanos, Ron y Dan Lafferty, dos fanáticos convencidos de que su acto obedecía a un mandato divino.

Este clásico del true crime, escrito por uno de los maestros indiscutibles de la no ficción narrativa y que acaba de ser adaptada para la televisión, nos sitúa en un tiempo y unos personajes más propios del medievo que del corazón mismo de Estados Unidos. A la luz de la terrible historia de los fanáticos hermanos Lafferty y del relato del violento pasado del movimiento mormón, Krakauer ofrece un brillante y fascinante relato sobre las teocracias de la América profunda en los que la poligamia, el mesianismo y la violencia salvaje campan a sus anchas.

Si las historias que Krakauer narró en Mal de altura o Hacia rutas salvajes eran ejemplos de vidas llevadas a los límites más extremos de la aventura física, este libro es también un viaje hacia una interpretación muy extrema de la fe religiosa, así como un documento fundamental sobre uno de los aspectos más misteriosos de la naturaleza humana, el factor religioso y su interpretación.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder that happened on 1984, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief. This nonfiction book reads as a thrilling novel. It has been recently adapted as a series on HULU. 

 México, 1928. Mientras el país despierta con la noticia del atentado contra el presidente Álvaro Obregón, María Teresa Landa solo tiene ojos para el anuncio que destaca la prensa sobre el concurso Señorita México. Impetuosa y descontenta con el papel que esperan de ella, la joven encuentra en el certamen la plataforma perfecta para mostrarle al mundo su valía. La belleza y el desparpajo de la aspirante cautivan al jurado, que decide coronarla por unanimidad. La fama resulta embriagadora, pero tras fracasar en su intento de escalar a Miss Universo, Teresa contrae nupcias con un antiguo pretendiente. Tiempo después aparece en el periódico una nota en la que se acusa a la Señorita México de bigamia. Ella descubre entonces que su marido tiene un pasado desconocido… De los pormenores de este escándalo, y de la tragedia que se suscitará, dará cuenta la protagonista desde la cárcel en una novela cargada de tensión, sensualidad y drama.

¿El mundo está listo para escuchar su versión?

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

The press that supported Maria Theresa during her reign showed her as a victim; while the state press depicted her as a cold-blooded murderer.

Mexico, 1928. While the country wakes up to the attack against President Álvaro Obregón, María Teresa Landa only has eyes for the announcement about the Miss Mexico pageant. Impetuous and unhappy with the expectations placed on her, she sees the contest as the perfect platform to demonstrate her worth to the world. Her beauty and confidence captivate the jury, who crowns her unanimously. Fame is intoxicating, but after failing to become Miss Universe, Teresa marries a former suitor. Some time later, a newspaper article accuses her of bigamy. That's when she discovers that her husband has an unknown past... The details of this scandal, and the tragedy that ensues, will be told from prison, in a novel filled with tension, sensuality and drama. 

Is the world ready to hear his side of the story?

La historia al interior del clan: crímenes, pactos de sangre y fe en la tierra prometida.

El 4 de noviembre de 2019 un grupo de hombres armados abrió fuego contra tres vehículos en los que viajaba la familia LeBarón. Murieron tres mujeres y seis de sus hijos, apenas niños, mientras que otros cinco resultaron heridos. Las víctimas pertenecían a la comunidad mormona que se instaló en el norte de México cuando en su país, Estados Unidos, se prohibió la poligamia. La masacre atrajo a la prensa internacional y Trump amenazó con enviar tropas a la frontera mexicana.

¿Qué pasó esa fatídica mañana? A partir de diversas fuentes y entrevistas con mujeres anónimas del clan LeBarón, la periodista estadounidense Sally Denton viaja dos siglos atrás para entender una historia de traición y asesinatos, interpretaciones mesiánicas de la Biblia, relaciones polígamas, tráfico sexual, confrontaciones por el agua y disputa del territorio entre cárteles del narcotráfico.

Los patriarcas de LeBarón creían que el cártel los había atacado, mientras que otros sospechaban de los agricultores con quienes existe una lucha por el agua acaparada por los LeBarón para sus enormes huertos de nuez. A medida que Denton se acerca a las respuestas sobre quién cometió los asesinatos y por qué, La Colonia LeBarón revela una red de lazos de sangre unidos por la corrupción en México y Estados Unidos.

Un libro que deja al descubierto uno de los hechos más cruentos de la historia reciente de México.

The letters that led to Edith Thompson's execution in 1923, collected in print for the first time by the award-winning author of Rex vs Edith Thompson.

A hundred years ago, on the night of 3 October 1922, a thirty-two-year-old clerk named Percy Thompson was stabbed to death as he walked home to his suburban villa in Ilford. With him was his wife, twenty-eight-year-old Edith. His killer was Edith’s lover: Frederick Bywaters, a merchant seaman aged twenty. Bywaters was hanged for murder on 9 January 1923. So too was Edith Thompson.

Despite a lack of any tangible evidence linking her to the murder, Edith found herself condemned by a society steeped in sexism. What sealed her fate were the letters she had penned to her lover, which were interpreted by the law as incitement to murder. These letters are remarkable documents. Charged with the vitality of Edith's voice, they are moving, perplexing, maddening, banal, spectacularly sensual, infused with a stream-of-consciousness immediacy. And they have never been collected in print, until now.

In Au Revoir Now Darlint Laura Thompson – author of the CWA Gold Dagger-shortlisted Rex vs Edith Thompson – gathers the letters together alongside illuminating commentary to tell the remarkable story of a woman ahead of her time and an extraordinary imagination that ultimately led to appalling tragedy.

A CRIMEREADS AND WORLD LITERATURE TODAY NOTABLE BOOK OF 2023

A spellbinding, best-selling work of true crime about one of the most shocking murders in recent Italian history and set in a Rome that will be a constant revelation to anyone who knows only the city’s well-worn tourist paths.

In March 2016, in a nondescript apartment on the outskirts of Rome, Manuel Foffo and Marco Prato, two “ordinary” young men from good families, brutally murdered twenty-three year old Luca Varani. News of the seemingly inexplicable crime sent shockwaves through Rome and beyond. What motivated such extreme violence? Were the killers evil or in the grip of societal evils? Did they know what they were doing? Or were they possessed? And if the latter, possessed by what?

Going beyond anything that has ever been written on the crime, based on months of interviews, court documentation, and correspondence with the killers themselves, The City of the Living not only reads like a fast-paced, revelatory thriller in the style of Lisa Taddeo’s Animal but is also a descent into the dark heart of Rome—a city plagued by corruption, drugs, hidden violence that sometimes erupts.

Nicola Lagioia leads us through a maze of betrayed expectations, sexual confusion, inability to grow up, economic grievances, crises of identity—progressively tightening the focus of the analysis to locate the point after which anything is possible. As hypnotic as Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City, an heir to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, The City of the Living is Nicola Lagioia’s most gripping, bestselling, and critically acclaimed book to-date, the story not only of a crime but of a society and the human natures that make such a crime possible.

A True-Crime Story Set Against the Backdrop of an After-Dark World Filled with New Money, Hedonism, and Excess

Gripping, atmospheric, true-crime noir. Bandit Country takes you on a thrilling journey into the shadowy underworld of England’s organized crime. In this atmospheric tale, you are introduced to a cast of characters as diverse as the luxurious nightclubs they frequent: racketeers, gamblers, glamorous women, entrepreneurs, bunny girls, politicians, and policemen. At the heart of the story are the Luvaglio brothers, visionaries who dared to dream of an empire amidst the industrial skylines and bridges of Newcastle.

Unfolding like a cinematic thriller. Bandit Country is more than just a true crime story; it's a meticulously researched and emotionally charged portrayal of a bygone era. It delves deep into the heart of the British gambling boom and the forces that shaped it, with a particular focus on the influence of organized crime and the elusive Mafia empire. For fans of true crime biographies, books about the Mafia, gripping suspense, and noir books, Bandit Country offers a unique and captivating narrative that inspired the British classic gangster film, Get Carter.

Inside:

• Discover the secrets of an empire built on ambition and shattered by betrayal
• Explore the rise of the British gambling industry during the 1960s
• Find the perfect addition to organized crime books for the true crime obsessed

If you love books about true crime such as The Life We Chose, Five Families, or The Best New True Crime Stories, then Bandit Country is for you.

"Her prose radiates empathy, with none of the artificial distance that journalists or academics enforce between themselves and their subjects." — The Washington Post

One woman's hilarious and fascinating quest to expose the truth behind fraudulent Twitter profiles: romance scammers beware, you have met your match!

Online romance fraud is a problem across the globe. It causes financial and emotional devastation, yet many people refuse to take it seriously. This is the story of one middle-aged woman in a cardigan determined to understand this growing phenomenon. 

No other woman has had so many online romances – from Keanu Reeves to Brad Pitt to Prince William – and Becky Holmes is a favourite among peacekeeping soldiers and oil rig workers who desperately need iTunes vouchers. By winding up scammers and investigating the truth behind their profiles, Becky shines a revealing, revolting and hilarious light on a very shady corner of the internet. 

Featuring first-hand accounts of victims, examples of scripts used by fraudsters, a look into the psychology of fraud and of course plenty of Becky’s hysterical interactions with scammers, this is a must-read for anyone who needs a reminder that Keanu Reeves is NOT in love with them.

Female Serial Killers Through Time

From historical accounts to modern cases, explore the captivating psychology behind these killer women, unraveling their motives and unveiling the dark complexities of human behavior.

The fair sex. We’ve often heard this clichéd expression being used to refer to women. Although it has become increasingly outdated, the mindset still exists that women are the gentle and nurturing sex. When it comes to murder, that notion gets turned on its head. And this isn’t a recent phenomenon; we can find plenty of female killers going back in history. In fact, some of the world’s most notorious serial killers have been women. These female killers give their male counterparts a run for their money, and deserve to be counted among the most famous serial killers. 

Unearth the disturbing histories of notorious women. From the chilling accounts of infamous black widow murders to the spine-tingling narratives of women who shocked the world with their sinister deeds, this anthology delves deep into the minds of these deadly women. Spanning eras and continents, these tales of true crime offer a chilling exploration of the darkest corners of human nature.

Inside:

• Discover lesser-known cases of female killers that challenge conventional narratives and shed light on the often-overlooked stories of women who defied societal norms and perpetrated gruesome crimes.
• Enjoy a diverse selection of true crime tales that spotlight the narratives of female serial killers from various historical periods.
• Explore the international spectrum of female murderers and uncover how factors such as culture, upbringing, and personal experiences contribute to the making of these deadly women.

If you liked books such as Lady Killers, The Big Book of Serial Killers, or The Best New True Crime Stories, you’ll love Women Who Murder.

A Stanford University Press classic.

Up the close and down the stair,
Up and down with Burke and Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the man who buys the beef.
—anonymous children's song

On Halloween night 1828, in the West Port district of Edinburgh, Scotland, a woman sometimes known as Madgy Docherty was last seen in the company of William Burke and William Hare. Days later, police discovered her remains in the surgery of the prominent anatomist Dr. Robert Knox. Docherty was the final victim of the most atrocious murder spree of the century, outflanking even Jack the Ripper's. Together with their accomplices, Burke and Hare would be accused of killing sixteen people over the course of twelve months in order to sell the corpses as "subjects" for dissection. The ensuing criminal investigation into the "Anatomy Murders" raised troubling questions about the common practices by which medical men obtained cadavers, the lives of the poor in Edinburgh's back alleys, and the ability of the police to protect the public from cold-blooded murder.

Famous among true crime aficionados, Burke and Hare were the first serial killers to capture media attention, yet The Anatomy Murders is the first book to situate their story against the social and cultural forces that were bringing early nineteenth-century Britain into modernity. In Lisa Rosner's deft treatment, each of the murder victims, from the beautiful, doomed Mary Paterson to the unfortunate "Daft Jamie," opens a window on a different aspect of this world in transition. Tapping into a wealth of unpublished materials, Rosner meticulously portrays the aspirations of doctors and anatomists, the makeshift existence of the so-called dangerous classes, the rudimentary police apparatus, and the half-fiction, half-journalism of the popular press.

The Anatomy Murders resurrects a tale of murder and medicine in a city whose grand Georgian squares and crescents stood beside a maze of slums, a place in which a dead body was far more valuable than a living laborer.

Forty crimes. Forty crimes of betrayal, greed, and desperation.

Forty crimes that shed light on our shared past, and our lives today. Award-winning writer Paul Willcocks takes a sharp, fresh look at legendary crimes and criminals and the way they reflect our history.

Murderers and scam artists. Masterminds and bunglers. The infamous and the forgotten. Dead Ends looks at them all.

Leo Mantha, the last man hanged in B.C. Wong Foon Sing, the Chinese houseboy kidnapped and tortured by police. Pickton and the Pattison kidnappers. Olson and the McLean Boys.

Our crimes define us. Dead Ends shows us how.

In 2011, the lives of 48 Edmontonians came to a sudden, violent end, leading to the city of Edmonton gaining the dubious moniker of the year: “Murder Capital of Canada.” It wasn’t the first time the city of champions had snagged the title nobody wants to claim.



In Deadmonton, former Edmonton Sun reporter Pamela Roth takes a look at some of Edmonton’s most notorious murders, both solved and unsolved. Told first-hand by the victims’ families, these stories serve as a disturbing reminder of the horror that humans are capable of inflicting upon each other, and highlight the immense sadness and pain left in the wake of these crimes. But Deadmonton also gives a glimpse into the lives of detectives working tirelessly to bring closure to the families and justice to the victims’ names.

“The body would have been nearly impossible to identify. There was so little of it left, for one thing.”

Thus begins the sordid tale of the “Scissors Grinder,” one of 40 heart-pounding true crime stories that will have you looking over your shoulder. Or keeping your bedside light on at night.

With this and other blood-curdling accounts veteran crime writer Barb Pacholik offers up another installment in her best-selling series of true crime books set in Saskatchewan. This time she pursues cadaver dogs, unearths charred remains, explores the horrifying “killing room,” and delves into cold cases—those unsolved crimes, some whose perpetrators still lurk out there.

Reconstructed from court transcripts, these all-too-true stories expose the greed, desperation, and inhumanity living just down the street and around the corner.

Warning! What you are about to read is true … and not for the faint of heart, as the crime stories collected here detail the most disturbing chapters of Alberta history.

Chronicled in these pages are many of the province’s most notorious killers and outlaws from the past century: train robbers, a homicidal hired hand, prisoners of war, cannibals, kidnappers, and more.

Witness the moment when Peter Pocklington has a .357 magnum held to his head. Be there when Wiebo Ludwig “terrorizes” northwestern Alberta… when a Lethbridge city councillor fabricates a story of being stalked, drugged, abducted and sexually assaulted… when four RCMP officers are gunned down at Mayerthorpe.

From back alleys to bedrooms to the gallows, these accounts cover everything from Alberta’s largest mass execution to recent headline-making cases. Shocking, appalling… and true.

A CRIMEREADS AND WORLD LITERATURE TODAY NOTABLE BOOK OF 2023

From Nicola Lagioia, winner of the Strega Prize for Fiction, a spellbinding literary thriller based on the true story of one of the most vicious crimes in recent Italian history. An intoxicating novel that takes readers on a surprising journey into the darkest corners of contemporary Rome and of the human soul.

In March 2016, in a nondescript apartment on the outskirts of Rome, Manuel Foffo and Marco Prato, two “ordinary” young men from good families, brutally murdered twenty-three-year-old Luca Varani. News of the seemingly inexplicable crime sent shockwaves through Rome and beyond. What motivated such extreme violence? Were the killers evil or in the grip of societal evils? Did they know what they were doing? Or were they possessed? And if the latter, possessed by what?

Based on months of interviews, court documentation, and correspondence with the killers themselves, The City of the Living is not only a fast-paced, revelatory thriller in the style of Lisa Taddeo’s Animal, it is also a descent into the dark heart of Rome—a city that is unlivable and yet teeming with life, overrun by rats and wild animals, and plagued by corruption, drugs, and violence. Yet, the Eternal City is also a place that, more than any other in the world, seems to inspire a sense of absolute freedom in its inhabitants.

Proceeding in concentric circles, Nicola Lagioia leads us through a maze of betrayed expectations, sexual confusion, inability to grow up, economic grievances, crises of identity—progressively tightening the focus of the analysis to locate the breaking point after which anything is possible. As hypnotic as Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City, an heir to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, and destined to cast on spell on fans of the Morbid podcast, The City of the Living is Nicola Lagioia’s most gripping, bestselling, and critically acclaimed novel to-date. Razor-sharp, unputdownable, devastating, it is the story not only of a crime but of human nature itself; of the tension between responsibility and guilt, between the drive to oppress and the desire to be free; of who we are and who we can become.

Suelette Dreyfus and her co-author, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, tell the extraordinary true story of the computer underground, and the bizarre lives and crimes of an elite ring of international hackers who took on the establishment.

Spanning three continents and a decade of high level infiltration, they created chaos amongst some of the world's biggest and most powerful organisations, including NASA and the US military. Brilliant and obsessed, many of them found themselves addicted to hacking and phreaking. Some descended into drugs and madness, others ended up in jail.

As riveting as the finest detective novel and meticulously researched, Underground follows the hackers through their crimes, their betrayals, the hunt, raids and investigations. It is a gripping tale of the digital underground.

'I wonder what you'd think of me if you found out that I've done something really serious . . .'

So begin the confessions of Thomas Quick - Scandinavia's most notorious serial killer.

In 1992, behind the barbed wire fence of a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane, Thomas Quick confessed to the murder of an eleven-year-old boy who had been missing for twelve years. Over the next nine years, Quick confessed to more than thirty unsolved murders, revealing he had maimed, raped and eaten the remains of his victims.

In the years that followed, a fearless investigative journalist called Hannes R�stam became obsessed with Quick's case. He studied the investigations in forensic detail. He scrutinised every interrogation, read and re-read the verdicts, watched the police re-enactments and tracked down the medical records and personal police logs - until finally he was faced with a horrifying uncertainty.

In the spring of 2008, R�stam travelled to where Thomas Quick was serving a life sentence. He had one question for Sweden's most abominable serial killer. And the answer turned out to be far more terrifying than the man himself . . .

Glamorous young wife Alma Rattenbury takes her chauffeur as a lover and their scandalous relationship leads to a murder most foul.

The 1935 murder of architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury, famous for his design of the iconic Parliament Buildings and Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, and the arrest and lurid trial of his 30-years-younger second wife, Alma, and the family chauffeur, George Percy Stoner, her lover, riveted people.

Francis and Alma had moved to Bournemouth, England, after the City of Victoria had ostracized them for their scandalous, flagrant affair while Francis was married to his first wife. Their life in Bournemouth was tangled. Francis became an impotent lush. Deprived of sexual gratification, Alma seduced George, previously a virgin who was half her age. They conducted their affair in her upstairs bedroom with her and Francis’s six-year-old son in a nearby bed, “sleeping,” she said, and the near-deaf Francis in his armchair downstairs in a drunken stupor.

The lovers were tried together for Francis’s murder at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London, resulting in intense public interest and massive, frenzied media coverage. The trial became one of the 20th century’s most sensational cases, sparking widespread debate over sexual mores and social strata distinctions.

After years working in homicide, retired Toronto detective Steve Ryan reflects on six cases he will never forget.

Retired detective Steve Ryan worked in Toronto’s homicide squad for over a decade. For Ryan, the stories of Toronto’s most infamous crimes were more than just a headline read over morning coffee — they were his everyday life.

After investigating over one hundred homicides, Ryan can never forget the tragedies and the victims, even after his retirement from the police force. In The Ghosts That Haunt Me, he reflects on six of the many cases that greatly impacted him — seven people whose lives were senselessly taken — and that he still thinks about nearly every day. While the stories are hard to tell for Ryan, they were harder to live through. Yet somewhere between the crimes and the heartache is a glimmer of hope that good eventually does prevail and that healing can come after grief.

Quiet pleasant communities, sparkling under the clear blue skies of Alberta, have witnessed bloody murders and violent mayhem.

From a wide variety of accounts, Babara Smith has selected eight intriguing stories that will astound and amaze you.

Mystery still surrounds the fate of pro golfer Frank Willey who disappeared in 1962. Two men were convicted of his murder, but his body has never been found. No suspect, however, was ever found in the case of MaryAnn Plett. The pretty, young real-estate agent disappeared after going to show a property to a client — but some skeletal remains were discovered seven months later.

In 1948, a family could hardly have guessed that their newly purchased home would come complete with a corpse; and, in another case, Winnie Wanner's bathroom was found splattered with blood. Although her estranged husband was seen leaving the apartment with a suspiciously large bag, Winnie vanished from the face of the earth.

These chilling tales, previously little known outside Alberta, also include matters of greed, rum running, shoot-outs, and hostages. They will be every bit as fascinating to the crime buff as those found anywhere.

In the summer of 1993, people in Ontario were shocked by one of the most bizarre murders in the province's history. A patient at the Brockville psychiatric hospital was brutally killed in a forest grove on the grounds of the institution. One of the killers, a nearly blind psychiatric patient, walked into a nearby police station and turned himself in. The other murderer lay near the body in a sleeping bag, drugged into unconsciousness.

Police found that the myopic suspect is one of the Canada's most dangerous killers, David Michael Krueger. His accomplice was Bruce Hamill, a murderer who had been freed after years of treatment at Penatanguishene's Oak Ridge Institution for the criminally insane. Brockville hospital authorities had let Hamill escort Krueger on his first day pass in thirty-five years.

How could this killing have happened?

The bizarre story of Krueger's life unfolds in this tightly-written book. It explores how Krueger allowed his strange fantasies to run his own life and how he was able to dupe psychiatrists, lawyers, and fellow inmates of the country's toughest institution into doing his bidding.

Bestselling true crime author Edward Butts presents a rogues’ gallery of desperadoes whose crimes range from robbery to murder.

English bank robbers on the run turn up in Newfoundland. A legendary Nova Scotia detective matches wits with smugglers. In the West the Mounties track down bandits and rustlers. Vancouver police officers hunt down the bank-robbing Hyslop Gang in the 1930s. A decade later the Polka Dot Gang rampages across Southern Ontario. The Newton Brothers’ Gang, outlaws from Texas, engage in a gunfight with bank guards on the streets of Toronto, and a former Canadian Pacific Railway engineer masterminds a sensational kidnapping in Colorado.

No matter where the atrocities were committed and no matter what the circumstances, these individuals all had one thing in common: they lived on the wrong side of the law.

Twisted tales of killers who almost got away with perfect murders.

A man murders the first four infants he fathers with his lover, then tries again with a fifth. Two men have three things in common: each commits what seems like a perfect murder, each marries his victim’s wife far too soon, each has an overdue appointment with the gallows. A man cuts up the body of his victim into little pieces and gets away with the crime until he slaughters another neighbour six years later.

Practically Perfect details the crimes of killers who very nearly got away with perfect murders, including the tale of Marie Beaulne, who laced her husband’s food with poison, only to be found out when a priest recalled someone else dying that way in his village. Each tale provides specific details on the planning of each murder, the events leading up to the discovery of the criminal, and the results of the trial, usually resulting in an execution.

From the mean streets of 1930s Depression-era Toronto comes the gripping tale of a man who became one of the nation’s most notorious criminals.

Until the age of 31, Donald McDonald was only "dirty little Mickey from The Corner," the notorious intersection of Toronto’s Jarvis and Dundas Streets in a neighbourhood known in the 1930s as "Gangland." After Mickey was charged with the January 1939 murder of bookmaker Jimmy Windsor, he became a national crime figure. What followed were two murder trials, a liquor-truck hijacking, a sensational three-man escape in 1947 from Kingston Penitentiary, and a $50,000 bank robbery.

According to police, as gleaned from underworld informants, Mickey was killed in the 1950s in the United States "by his own criminal associates." Author Peter McSherry presents several versions of McDonald’s demise, one of which he endorses, and tells why it happened, delivering a compelling denouement to the chronicle of a criminal readers will never forget.

A definitive compendium of Canada’s mass murderers and spree killers.

Rampage: a state of anger or agitation resulting in violent, reckless, and destructive behaviour. In 1989, Marc Lépine mercilessly executed 14 female students at Montreal’s École Polytechnique to become Canada’s most notorious mass murderer. The following year spree killer Peter John Peters roamed from London, Ontario, to Thunder Bay, leaving a trail of bloodied bodies, broken dreams, and stolen vehicles. Both men experienced the same devastating destiny – they embarked on homicidal rampages that shook their nation to the core.

Lee Mellor has gathered more than 25 of Canada’s most lethal mass and spree killers into a single work. Rampage details their grisly crimes, delves into their twisted psyches, and dissects their motivations to answer the question every true crime lover yearns to know: why? If you think serial killers are dangerous, prepare for something deadlier …

A single gunshot on Saturday night, October 6, 1894, shattered Toronto's prevailing sense of peace and security. That gunshot took the life of Frank Westwood, a respectable young man from one of the city's most prominent families. This unprecedented attack produced a feeling of hysteria throughout Toronto and baffled the municipal police forces. The mystery was even referred to Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. However, even the Great Detective could not solve the Westwood murder.

Finally, a chance rumour led to the most unlikely of suspects -- a young Black woman named Clara Ford. She was a most unusual character, a tough, revolver-toting lady who often wore men’s clothing and defied the norms of late Victorian Toronto. While the police increasingly focused their investigation on her, the motives for the killing remained a puzzle. Was Clara seeking revenge for a previous assault, or was she the frustrated lover of a young white man?

The trial of Clara Ford captured Toronto's attention like no other case before it. The evidence revealed a bizarre story of romance and racism. In addition to the wildly unconventional Clara, the cast of characters featured dogged detectives, and wily lawyers who at times seemed to make this cause celebre more of a theatrical than a judicial display.

Short-listed for the 2007 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction

They were among Canada's most desperate criminals, yet their names have been all but forgotten in the annals of history - until now! In their day these lawless men made headline news. Author Ed Butts has rescued their stories from dusty newspaper pages and polished them up for today's readers in this fascinating volume.

The Markham Gang introduced Canada West to organized crime long before anyone had heard of the Mafia. Lew Bevis took on the whole Halifax Police Department in a blazing gun battle. The wild Macdonald cousins went to Michigan, where they ended their violent careers as victims of a savage lynching. Reid and Davis, the notorious Border Bandits of the Roaring Twenties, were the nightmare of every banker from Manitoba to the state of Washington. This rogues' gallery of killers, robbers, and men of mystery shocked the nation, challenged the forces of law and order, and sometimes even got away with it.

Despite advances in DNA testing, forensics, and the investigative skills used by police, hundreds of crimes remain unsolved across Canada. With every passing day trails grow colder and decades can pass before a new lead or witness comes forward … if one comes forward.

In Unsolved, Robert J. Hoshowsky examines twelve crimes that continue to haunt us. Some cases are well-known, while others have virtually disappeared from the public eye. All of the cases remain open, and many are being re-examined by police using the latest tools and technology. Hoshowsky takes the reader through all aspects of the crimes and how police are trying to solve them using three-dimensional facial reconstructions, DNA testing, age-enhanced drawings, original crime scene photos, and more.

None of the individuals profiled in Unsolved deserved their fate, but their stories deserve to be told and their killers need to be brought to justice.

Who committed Toronto's Silk Stocking Murder? Why did a quiet accountant in Guelph, Ontario, murder his wife and two daughters? When did police in Alberta hire a self-styled mind reader to solve a mass murder? How did an American confidence man from Arizona find himself facing a murder charge in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia? These questions and more are answered in Murder: Twelve True Stories of Homicide in Canada, the latest collection of thrilling true Canadian crime stories by Edward Butts.

The keenly researched chapters tell the stories behind some of Canada's most fascinating murder cases, from colonial times to the 20th century, and from the Atlantic provinces, to the West Coast, and up to the Arctic. You'll meet John Paul Radelmuller, the Gibraltar Point lighthouse keeper whose murder remains an unsolved mystery; wife-killer Dr. William Henry King; and Sinnisiak and Uluksuk, Inuit hunters whose trial for the murder of two priests became a national sensation. Butts also profiles the investigators who tracked the killers down, and in some cases sent them to the gallows in this collection of true tales that range from shocking and macabre to downright weird.

Although they committed separate crimes, Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin met their deaths on the same scaffold at Toronto's Don Jail on December 11, 1962. They were the last two people executed in Canada, but surprisingly little was known about them until now. This is the first book to uncover the lives and deaths of Turpin, a Canadian criminal, and Lucas, a Detroit gangster. The result of more than five years of research, The Last to Die is based on original interviews, hidden documents, trial transcripts, and newspaper accounts.

Featuring crime scene photos and never-before-published documents, this riveting book also reveals the heroic efforts of lawyer Ross MacKay, who defended both men, and Chaplain Cyril Everitt, who remained with them to the end. What actually happened the night of the hangings is shrouded by myth and rumour. This book finally confirms the truth and reveals the gruesome mistake that cost Arthur Lucas not only his life but also his head.

Across Canada peace officers put their lives on the line every day. From John Fisk in 1804, the first known Canadian policeman killed in the line of duty, to the four RCMP officers shot to death in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, in 2005, renowned true crime writer Edward Butts takes a hard-hitting, compassionate, probing look at some of the stories involving the hundreds of Canadian law-enforcement officers who have found themselves in harm's way.

Some, like the four RCMP officers who perished in the Northwest Territories on the "Lost Patrol" of 1910, died in horrible accidents while performing their duties. Others, such as the Mounties involved in the manhunts for Almighty Voice and the Mad Trapper of Rat River, found themselves in extremely dangerous, violent situations.

One thing is certain about all of these peace officers: they displayed amazing courage and never hesitated to make the ultimate sacrifice for their fellow citizens.

Canada is seen as a peaceful place, but this wake-up call shows us that there have been more than 60 serial killers in our history.

There are more than 60 serial murderers in Canadian history. For too long awareness of serial murder in Canada has been confined toWest Coastbutcher Clifford Olson and the "Schoolgirl Murderers" Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, along with the horrific acts of pig farmer Robert Pickton. Unlike our American neighbours, Canada has been viewed as a nation untouched by the shadow of multiple murder. Then came Colonel Russell Williams and his bizarre homicides and serial home invasions, which were sensational news worldwide on the Internet and television and in scores of newspapers and magazines.

The reason for Canada’s serial killer blackout is clear: until now such information has never been compiled and presented in a single concise work. ColdNorth Killers is a wake-up call. This detailed and haunting account of Canada’s worst monsters analyzes their crimes, childhoods, and inevitable downfalls. It is an indispensablecompendium for any true crime lover, criminologist, or law-enforcement officer.

A veteran police officer gives his thoughtful, balanced views on police shootings, racial profiling, community relations, and every other aspect of policing—and he’ll change what you think about the police.

From the author of the acclaimed 400 Things Cops Know, Police Craft is a thought-provoking and revelatory examination of policing in America, as seen by a working police officer. Adam Plantinga, a 17-year veteran sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department, gives an inside view of the police officer’s job, from handling evidence and conducting interrogations to coping with danger, violence, and death. Not hesitating to confront controversial issues, Plantinga presents the police officer’s views on police shootings, racial profiling, and relationships between police and the community—and offers reasoned proposals on what the police and the public can do better.

Hard-boiled, humorous, and compassionate, Plantinga wrestles with the complexities and contradictions of a job he loves in which he witnesses so much suffering. Transcending today’s strident pro-cop/anti-cop rhetoric, Police Craft will give every reader a greater respect for the police and greater understanding of the job they do.