True Crime

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.

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.

"The new bible for crime writers." —The Wall Street Journal

How does it feel to be in a high-speed car chase? What is it like to shoot someone? What do cops really think about the citizens they serve? Nearly everyone has wondered what it's like to be a police officer, but no civilian really understands what happens on the job. 400 Things Cops Know shows police work on the inside, from the viewpoint of the regular cop on the beat—a profession that can range from rewarding to bizarre to terrifying, all within the course of an eight-hour shift. Written by veteran police sergeant Adam Plantinga, 400 Things Cops Know brings the reader into life the way cops experience it—a life of danger, frustration, occasional triumph, and plenty of grindingly hard routine work.

In a laconic, no-nonsense, dryly humorous style, Plantinga tells what he's learned from 13 years as a patrolman, from the everyday to the exotic—how to know at a glance when a suspect is carrying a weapon or is going to attack, how to kick a door down, how to drive in a car chase without recklessly endangering the public, why you should always carry cigarettes, even if you don't smoke (offering a smoke is the best way to lure a suicide to safety), and what to do if you find a severed limb (don't put it on ice—you need to keep it dry.)

400 Things Cops Know deglamorizes police work, showing the gritty, stressful, sometimes disgusting reality of life on patrol, from the possibility of infection—criminals don't always practice good hygiene—to the physical, psychological, and emotional toll of police work. Plantinga shows what cops experience of death, the legal system, violence, prostitution, drug use, the social causes and consequences of crime, alcoholism, and more. Sometimes heartbreaking and often hilarious, 400 Things Cops Know is an eye-opening revelation of what life on the beat is really all about.

This fascinating and gripping portrayal is the only book-length account ever written about criminal mastermind Clarence Ray Allen, the last man to be executed in the state of California

Even hardened detectives were shaken by the scene at Fran's Market in rural Fresno County that night in 1980: four young people lay on the market's concrete floor, bloodily murdered by a killer without mercy or remorse. Then a grim investigation became even grimmer when the evidence led to the prime suspect--a convicted murderer already behind the stone walls of Folsom. A true crime story that reads like an intricately woven mystery, the book depicts the chilling scenes of murder, a dogged investigation, and the true story behind the Fran's Market murders and their psychopathic mastermind. Written by former prosecutor James Ardaiz, who was one of the first investigators on the scene at Fran's Market, Hands Through Stone provides an insider's view of the tortuous, multiyear investigation that brought a killer to justice.

*BASED ON ACCOUNTS FEATURED IN THE #1 NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY FILM RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL*

A 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Best True Crime

John McAfee: internet pioneer, presidential candidate, and probable madman.

After parting ways with the eponymous McAfee Antivirus software company in 1994, McAfee embarked on innumerable business, political, and criminal enterprises. From investing in cybersecurity and cryptocurrency, to accusations of murdering his neighbor in Belize, to making two unsuccessful bids for President of the United States—the latter attempt done in exile following a federal indictment—this larger-than-life man nurtured a rakish public profile while evading law enforcement for his involvement with drugs, weapons, and murder.

For six months, Alex Cody Foster—hired as McAfee’s ghostwriter—traveled with McAfee across America and Europe, occasionally going on the run to evade purported killers and kidnappers. Foster tells the incomparable tale of how the two of them met, where their adventures had taken them, and what precipitated McAfee’s death.

*BASED ON ACCOUNTS FEATURED IN THE #1 NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY FILM RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL*

A 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Best True Crime

John McAfee: internet pioneer, presidential candidate, and probable madman.

After parting ways with the eponymous McAfee Antivirus software company in 1994, McAfee embarked on innumerable business, political, and criminal enterprises. From investing in cybersecurity and cryptocurrency, to accusations of murdering his neighbor in Belize, to making two unsuccessful bids for President of the United States—the latter attempt done in exile following a federal indictment—this larger-than-life man nurtured a rakish public profile while evading law enforcement for his involvement with drugs, weapons, and murder.

For six months, Alex Cody Foster—hired as McAfee’s ghostwriter—traveled with McAfee across America and Europe, occasionally going on the run to evade purported killers and kidnappers. Foster tells the incomparable tale of how the two of them met, where their adventures had taken them, and what precipitated McAfee’s death.

In a place where murder isn’t supposed to happen—rural Missouri and Southern Illinois—deputy sheriff and investigator Harry Spiller learned the hard reality: murder is all around us. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a big city or small county with farms and churches—murder is swift and can happen to anyone, anywhere, and any time. All too often, victims fall prey in places we think are safe to raise our families, where we take walks on hot summer nights, where our children play in the park or yard without concern, and where we leave our doors unlocked at night.

Murder in the Heartland, Book 2 tells the stories of innocent victims in these seemingly innocent places. From his research and investigations of ten murder cases, Spiller recounts the gruesome details of a fraternity hazing gone deadly, teen killings, and even murders by those living and working with the victims.

As much as we like to think we’re safe, murder can happen even in rural America—and it does. Join Spiller in the second installment of his three-book series of these horrifying murders in the heartland.

In a place where murder isn’t supposed to happen—rural Missouri and Southern Illinois—deputy sheriff and investigator Harry Spiller learned the hard reality: murder is all around us. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a big city or small county with farms and churches—murder is swift and can happen to anyone, anywhere, and any time. All too often, victims fall prey in places we think are safe to raise our families, where we take walks on hot summer nights, where our children play in the park or yard without concern, and where we leave our doors unlocked at night.

Murder in the Heartland, Book 2 tells the stories of innocent victims in these seemingly innocent places. From his research and investigations of ten murder cases, Spiller recounts the gruesome details of a fraternity hazing gone deadly, teen killings, and even murders by those living and working with the victims.

As much as we like to think we’re safe, murder can happen even in rural America—and it does. Join Spiller in the second installment of his three-book series of these horrifying murders in the heartland.

In a place where murder isn’t supposed to happen—Southern Illinois—deputy sheriff and investigator Harry Spiller learned the hard reality: murder is all around us. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a big city or small county with farms and churches—murder is swift and can happen to anyone, anywhere, and any time. All too often, victims fall prey in places we think are safe to raise our families, where we take walks on hot summer nights, where our children play in the park or yard without concern, and where we leave our doors unlocked at night.

Murder in the Heartland tells the stories of innocent victims in these seemingly innocent places. From his research and investigations of twenty murder cases, Spiller recounts the gruesome details of an axe murder, a hitchhiking incident, serial killings, and even a victim buried within the concrete floors of her own basement.

As much as we like to think we’re safe, murder can happen even in rural America—and it does. Join Spiller in his first of three installments of these horrifying murders in the heartland.

The machine-gun murders of seven men on the morning of February 14, 1929, by killers dressed as cops became the gangland “crime of the century.” Or so the story went. Since then it has been featured in countless histories, biographies, movies, and television specials. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, however, is the first book-length treatment of the subject. Challenging the commonly held assumption that Al Capone ordered the wholesale slayings to gain supremacy in the Chicago underworld, authors William J. Helmer and Arthur J. Bilek assert the crime was a case of bad timing and poor judgment by a secret crew from St. Louis known to Capone’s mostly Italian mob as the “American boys.”

The target of the murder squad was indeed Bugs Moran, but the American boys, who were dressed as policemen and arrived in two bogus police cars, entered the garage where the massacre took place before Moran arrived. Not knowing who Moran was or what he looked like, the counterfeit cops stupidly killed everyone to make sure they got their man.

Based on a careful review of reliable evidence, a critical reading of news accounts of the time, a 1935 manuscript written by the widow of one of the gunmen, and  a lookout’s long-suppressed confession, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre is a fresh new look at the crime that captured the nation’s imagination. In the end, the machine-gun bullets heard ’round the world marked the beginning of the end for Al Capone.

After Capone is the first book-length work to present the complete, never-before-told story of Frank "the Enforcer"Nitti—born Francesco Raffele Nitto—the driving force behind the Chicago mob's operations in the years that followed Al Capone's imprisonment. Beginning with Nitti's Italian origins, Mars Eghigian traces the Enforcer's entry into and subsequent rise inside Chicago's underworld, his near-fatal shooting by city detectives, his strange death, and the ultimate downfall of all who were associated with him.
Based on years of research and supported by original sources from state and federal archives, After Capone is the definitive reference on Nitti's violent life and times. The result is a comprehensive and arousing portrait of the cunning mob boss, his life experiences, the people around him, and organized crime in Chicago in the post-Capone era. In addition to dispelling such popular notions as that Natti followed Capone to Chicago and that he was Scarface's cousin, Eghigian provides an all-encompassing view of Nitti's criminal activities, which stretched farther beyond Chicago than those of any other organized crime family until that time.
The driving force that expanded the Chicago mob's operations, Nitti led the mob away from the illegal booze that had been its mainstay during Prohibition into the legitimate distribution of alcohol after the repeal of Prohibition, labor union racketeering, and the mob's attempts to control illicit gambling from coast to coast. After Capone is a fascinating and chilling account of the ability of mob power to adapt to the constantly shifting nature of American culture.

Dozens of theories have attempted to resolve the mystery of the identity of Jack the Ripper, the world's most famous serial killer. Ripperologist Robert House contends that we may have known the answer all along. The head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation Department at the time of the murders thought Aaron Kozminski was guilty, but he lacked the legal proof to convict him. By exploring Kozminski's life, House builds a strong circumstantial case against him, showing not only that he had means, motive, and opportunity, but also that he fit the general profile of a serial killer as defined by the FBI today.

• The first book to explore the life of Aaron Kozminski, one of Scotland Yard's top suspects in the quest to identify Jack the Ripper
• Combines historical research and contemporary criminal profiling techniques to solve one of the most vexing criminal mysteries of all time
• Draws on a decade of research by the author, including trips to Poland and England to uncover Kozminski's past and details of the case
• Includes a Foreword by Roy Hazelwood, a former FBI profiler and pioneer of profiling sexual predators
• Features dozens of photographs and illustrations

Building a thorough and convincing case that completes the work begun by Scotland Yard more than a century ago, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to know who really committed Jack the Ripper's heinous and unforgettable crimes.

"Acevedo is one of the most talented boxing writers working today and this is a book in the lineage—and spirit—of some of the great boxing compendia, McIlvanney on Boxing, or A. J. Liebling’s round-ups."—Electric Literature

Boxing has one of the richest literary traditions in sports. From A. J. Liebling to Donald McRae, the sweet science has consistently inspired great writing. The work of Carlos Acevedo stands firmly in that distinguished tradition.

In this expanded edition of Sporting Blood, Acevedo adds two new masterful essays—one about the murder of Stanley Ketchel, the other about the gangland slaying of Battling Siki—to those that made his debut collection an instant classic. Other highlights include a moving meditation on Muhammad Ali; a penetrating look at the enigmatic Charles “Sonny” Liston; and a vivid profile of Mike Tyson, which brilliantly conjures the Boy King’s late 1980s reign of terror. Acevedo also offers many other unforgettable tales from boxing’s dark side, featuring Jack Johnson, Joe Frazier, Roberto Duran, Aaron Pryor, Jake LaMotta, and more.

Sporting Blood is ultimately a poetic throwback, an uncanny book that evokes journalism’s golden age and places Acevedo not only among the best sportswriters of this generation, but of any other as well.

Contents

Foreword: Thomas Hauser

1: A Ghost Orbiting Forever: Muhammad Ali 1942–2016

2: Fugitive Days: Jack Johnson in Exile

3: The Last Goodbye: Remembering the Rivalry Between Roberto Durán and Esteban De Jesús

4: Right on for the Darkness: On Aaron Pryor 1955–2016

5: The Catastrophist: The Troubled World of Don Jordan

6: Dark Sun: Remembering Joe Frazier

7: Strange Days: The Johnny Saxton Story

8: The Hurting Kind: Wilfredo Gomez vs. Lupe Pintor

9: Yesterday Will Make You Cry: The Short, Tragic Career of Davey Moore

10: Under Saturn: Johnny Tapia 1967–2012

11: Total Everything Now: Mike Tyson, 1988

12: The Windfall Factor: The Night Bert Cooper Almost Beat Evander Holyfield for the Heavyweight Title

13: Red Arrow: The Mysterious Death of Sonny Liston

14: The Dark Corner: The Furious Life of Jake LaMotta

15: A Young Old Man: The Tragic Life of Ad Wolgast

16: The Lightning Within: Tony Ayala, Jr.

17: No Exit: Eddie Machen

18: One Long Season in Hell: On Michael Dokes

19: Lightning Express: The Quick Rise and Even Quicker Fall of Al Singer

20: Live Forward, Learned Backward: Mike Quarry and the “Quarry Curse”

21: Leftover Life to Kill: Who Will Remember Carmelo Negron?

22. The Busy World: The Murder of Stanley Ketchel

23. Too Far from Home: Battling Siki Comes to America

“Ferranti continues to amaze us with the most infamous OGs and their unfathomable street life.”—The Source

“Seth Ferranti is one of the most prolific true-crime writers of our era. He knows the street game inside and out. From the streets to the penitentiary, nobody rates better.”—“White Boy Rick” Wershe

From the penitentiary to the streets, it’s on and popping. Thug life is more than spitting rhymes or hustling on the corner.

Thugs live and die on the streets or end up in the “belly of the beast.” Rappers name-drop guns by model number and call out drug dealers by name. Gangsta rap is crack-era nostalgia taken to the extreme. It’s a world where rappers emulate their favorite hood stars in videos, celebrate their names in verse, and make ghetto heroes out of gangsters. But what happens when hip-hop and organized crime collide?

From the blocks in Queens where Supreme and Murder Inc. held court to the neighborhoods of Los Angeles where Harry-O and Death Row made their names to Rap-A-Lot Records and J Prince in Houston, whenever rap moguls rose the street legends weren’t far behind. From Bad Boy Records and Anthony “Wolf” Jones in New York to Gucci Mane and the Black Mafia Family in Atlanta to Too Short and Daryl Reed in the Bay Area, thug life wasn’t glamorous. The shit on the street was real. In the game there was a common struggle to get out of the gutter. Cats were trying to get their piece of the American Dream by any means necessary. Drug game equals rap game equals hip-hop hustler.

In Thug Life, Seth Ferranti takes you on a journey to a world where gangsterism mixes with hip-hop, a journey of pimps, stick-up kids, numbers men, drug dealers, thugs, players, gangstas, hustlers, and of course the rappers who live dual lives in entertainment and crime. The common denominator? Money, power, and respect.

"Tobin astutely looks at the varying possibilities that would have led to Gatti’s death. Such an approach intelligently and respectfully piques interest in a real-life mystery that has left Gatti’s fans and family in need of both solace and satisfactory answers."—Kirkus Reviews

"[Tobin is] an intelligent writer and a thoughtful person, tender even, who writes with authority...I know he’s invited me to a place I’d not have accessed without him."—Bart Barry, 15rounds.com

“Tobin’s purpose is welcomely, deliberately, indefinite. Instead of a Shakespearean tragedy, or yet another bloody chapter of boxing’s wider legacy...Tobin’s document becomes a meditation on the human condition...”—The Sportsman

Arturo "Thunder" Gatti hung up his gloves in 2007, closing the book on a boxing career that bordered on the mythical. At long last, he seemed ready to leave the business of blood behind for a long, happy life outside the ring. His retirement was celebrated—boxing’s modern gladiator had earned his freedom.

Two years later, he was gone—found dead in a hotel in Brazil under mysterious circumstances. He was only thirty-seven years old. Did he commit suicide? Or was he killed by his new wife?

In Killed in Brazil?, Jimmy Tobin recounts the dramatic events surrounding Gatti's tragic demise and shines a light on what may have happened on that fateful night.

Killed in Brazil is the fourth in the Hamilcar Noir series. Hamilcar Noir is "Hard-Hitting True Crime" that blends boxing and true crime, featuring riveting stories captured in high-quality prose, with cover art inspired by classic pulp novels.

Perfect Gift For Boxing and True Crime Fans!

Killed in Brazil?, combined with other books in the Hamilcar Noir series, makes a great gift for fans of stories about the darker side of boxing. Books in the Hamilcar Noir series also make for a great gift idea for true crime fans—whether they are a die-hard boxing fan or not, they will devour these quick reads and ask for more!

"Brings to life the fight world of that era. Mr. Mitchell's account is full of memorably drawn scenes, and the stories we haven't heard before make Jacobs Beach a cigar-chomping read."—Wall Street Journal

"The value of Mitchell’s book lies not only in bringing back to life a lost era. He also shows us how the blood, sweat, and toil of the ring has been distilled into hard-won wisdom passed down through the generations—the connective tissue of the sweet science."—From the Foreword by Mike Stanton, author of the award-winning Unbeaten: Rocky Marciano's Fight for Perfection in a Crooked World

Gangsters have always infected fight game. At the end of the First World War, through Prohibition, and into the 1930s, the Mob emerged as a poisonous force, threatening to ravage the sport. But it was only when cutthroat Madison Square Garden promoter Mike Jacobs, chieftain of a notorious patch of Manhattan pavement called Jacobs Beach, stepped aside that the real devil appeared former Murder, Inc. killer and underworld power broker Frankie Carbo, a man known to many simply as Mr. Gray.

And Carbo wasn't alone. Along with a crooked cast of characters that included a rich playboy and an urbane lawyer, he controlled boxing through most of the 1950s, with the help of a diabolical deputy, Francis Blinky Palermo, who did much of Mr. Gray's dirty work, reportedly drugging fighters and robbing them blind. Not until 1961, when Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy shipped Carbo and Palermo to jail for twenty-five years, did it all come crashing down.

Enriched by the recollections of some of the men who were there, Kevin Mitchell's Jacobs Beach offers a gripping, noirish look at boxing and organized crime in postwar New York City and reveals the fading glamour of both.

#1 New Release in Forensic Psychology — Serial Killer? Your Neighbor, Friend, Even Your Spouse?

Serial killers: Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer are often the first names that spring to mind. Many people assume serial killers are primarily an American phenomenon that came about in the latter part of the twentieth century. But such assumptions are far from the truth. Serial killers have been around for a very long time and can be found in every corner of the globe—and they’re not just limited to the male gender either. Some of these predators have been caught and brought to justice whereas others have never been found, let alone identified. Serial killers can be anywhere. And scarier still, they can be anyone.

Edited by acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto, The Best New True Crime Stories: Serial Killers reveals all-new accounts of true crime serial killers from the contemporary to the historic. The international list of contributors includes award-winning crime writers, true-crime podcasters, journalists, and experts in the dark crimes field such as Martin Edwards, Lee Mellor, Danuta Kot, Craig Pittman, Richard O Jones, Marcie Rendon, Mike Browne, and Vicki Hendricks.

If you are a fan of true crime books such as I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Mindhunter, The Devil in the White City, or Peter Vronsky’s Sons of Cain; you will want to read Mitzi Szereto’s The Best New True Crime Stories: Serial Killers. This book will leave you wondering if it’s ever really possible to know who’s behind the mask you’re allowed to see.

This book offers the first in-depth study of one of the most gripping trials of inter-war Britain, that of farmer’s wife Beatrice Pace for the arsenic murder of her husband. A riveting tale from the golden age of press sensationalism, the book offers insights into the era’s justice system, gender debates and celebrity culture. Based on extensive research, it locates the Pace saga in the vibrant world of 1920s press reporting and illuminates a forgotten chapter in the history of civil liberties by considering the debates the case raised about police powers and the legal system.

Spanning settings from the Paces’ lonely cottage in the Forest of Dean to the House of Commons and using sources ranging from meticulous detective reports to heartfelt admirers’ letters, The most remarkable woman in England combines serious scholarship with vivid storytelling to bring to life the extraordinary lives of ordinary people between the wars.

This book offers the first in-depth study of one of the most gripping trials of inter-war Britain, that of farmer’s wife Beatrice Pace for the arsenic murder of her husband. A riveting tale from the golden age of press sensationalism, the book offers insights into the era’s justice system, gender debates and celebrity culture. Based on extensive research, it locates the Pace saga in the vibrant world of 1920s press reporting and illuminates a forgotten chapter in the history of civil liberties by considering the debates the case raised about police powers and the legal system.

Spanning settings from the Pace's lonely cottage in the Forest of Dean to the House of Commons and using sources ranging from meticulous detective reports to heartfelt admirers’ letters, The most remarkable woman in England combines serious scholarship with vivid storytelling to bring to life the extraordinary lives of ordinary people between the wars.

The History of Espionage recounts the fascinating story of spies and spying from the cloak-and-dagger machinations of the Ancient Greeks and Romans to the high-tech surveillance operations of the post-9/11, post-truth world.

It is a tale of clandestine agents, military scouts, captured documents, dead-letter drops, intercepted mail, decoded telegrams, secret codes and ciphers, bugging devices, desperate plots and honey traps. Featuring case studies on the most fascinating spies and plots through history and illustrated with rare photographs throughout, The History of Espionage decodes the sinister world of surveillance like never before.

Going beyond the popular TV show, this is the true story of forensic science from those who solve crimes without witnesses.

How do you identify a serial killer?

What are the tell-tale signs of guilt?

Can we now solve the unsolvable?

Since even before the first season of Silent Witness in 1996, forensic science has played an increasingly important role in the investigation of violent crimes. With a boom in cold-blooded cases throughout the 1980s, police began to rely on DNA evidence to help them find perpetrators and since then forensic science has taken off as a powerful tool in solving murders.

Bestselling true crime author Wensley Clarkson takes us beyond the headlines to examine the real-life stories where forensics have played a crucial role. He speaks to experts who have worked on the most gruesome, most chilling and most shocking crime scenes and explains how notorious criminal cases from across the world were solved. And he shows how the silent witness is often the one who screams the loudest.

Explore the means, motives, and opportunities of more than 100 notorious serial killers, revealing what (if anything) drove them to their crimes.

In recent years, the popularity of true-crime series, books, and podcasts has exploded, with audiences riveted by the horrifying details of these killings and the chilling methodologies of their perpetrators. Serial Killer looks at means, motive, and opportunity for each of these deadly monsters. The profiles ask: what made the murderers this way? Were they born to kill? What possibly went through their minds? How were they caught, and how did they pay for their crimes? And most importantly, what can we learn from this to prevent future atrocities? 

All the serial killers are arranged by nationality, and include:

• John Wayne Gacy, David Berkowitz (Son of Sam), Jeffrey Dahmer, and Aileen Wuornos from the US 
• Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the “Moors Murderers,” who abducted and tortured children in northwestern England 
• José Vincente Matias, a Brazilian serial killer who cannibalized his victims 
• Russell Williams of Canada, who committed multiple murders and sexual assaults
• And predators from Australia, China, Columbia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, India, South Korea, and beyond

The true story of London's toughest, deadliest street gangs: the events, the rules and the real top boys.

Are the streets of London some of the deadliest in the world? What's the truth behind the headlines? And who are the real top boys?

Looking beyond the hit TV series, The Real Top Boys reveals the lives of the street gangs who have taken over, and now rule, dozens of corners of the UK's capital. Bestselling true crime author Wensley Clarkson takes us on a tour of the housing estates and volatile neighborhoods where pride, rivalry and revenge are the codes people live and die by.

He talks to the criminals who have helped create this chilling modern-day underworld and recounts the vicious turf wars that changed the map, unravels the rules and rights of the streets, and charts the rise and fall of many of the game's key players over the decades that have transformed the city. Featuring interviews with real-life gangsters and told in a gripping story that lays bare the hard life in this world, The Real Top Boys is the ultimate account of gang life in London and a jaw-dropping look at who really runs the streets.

A unique and unbelievable first-hand account of how one man fought his way to the top of the criminal underworld… and what he needed to do to stay there.

As you read this, someone somewhere is buying drugs.

Across the globe, millions of people are involved in the brutal, cold-blooded world of drug dealing, but only a small number make life-changing money. Only a few get to the top, make the calls, know how it all works and truly become drugs lords. And even fewer survive.

I know because I am one of those drug lords.

After thirty years, I’ve decided to retire and tell the story of how I got to the top of this tainted profession, what’s involved in being a serious criminal, the tricks of the trade, the art of the deal and what it really takes to stay alive for so long.

This will be my last confession. And I hope you learn something.

Unedited, uncensored and unbelievable: this book shows the harsh reality of life behind bars from a real prison governor who spares no details. 

How do you bring order to the lawless? 

The Secret Prison Governor has spent decades surrounded by every type of prisoner known to man, from petty thieves and street-level drug dealers to crime bosses and dangerous serial killers.  

Since starting as a rookie, he has experienced the reality of the UK’s harsh prison system and the hard challenge of ruling those within it.  

In his own words, the Secret Prison Governor spares no detail of prison life, whether that’s breaking up shiv fights, crushing vast underworld networks, negotiating with hostage-takers or dealing with full-scale cellblock gang wars. 

This is the truth of what life is like behind bars. 

The unbelievable account of life as a hitman from a man who has been doing it for decades

Hitmen commit heinous crimes virtually every day of the week and, in most instances, we don’t even realize.

He’s been a killer for hire for more than twenty years now, but life as a fulltime professional assassin has never been easy.

There have been close calls, failed attempts and a lot of looking over his shoulder.

And now, he has decided to come clean and seek atonement for his life as a murderer and one of the most covertly dangerous men alive.

An account of a life lived between our world and a shadowy underworld of criminals, a life lived under the radar of the law, a life lived in death.

This is the true story of a hitman.

"Cold Serial" contains riveting, fast-paced portraits of the personal and family tragedies of these five girls as well as the brutality and victim blaming of that time. Yet the deaths of these girls were not in vain, as they made significant contributions to the Dayton, Ohio, area and, ultimately, the nation. Sadly, though, according to the police authorities of the time, these crimes were never solved.

Using criminological thinking of today, the author attempts to solve these murders/rapes. Did he discover others? Can the suspect be placed at the scene of all of the crimes? Does a serial murderer/rapist emerge in a time even before the coining of the term? The escape of one girl creates a twist that opens the door to solving these crimes.

There are no memorials to any of these girls, nor were any tributes made. As their cases grew cold, their voices were silenced. "Cold Serial" provides the long-overdue justice and the voice they so richly deserve.

Obsession, Unrequited Love, Jealousy, Revenge, and Violence Collide in this Page-Turning Anthology

#1 New Release in Forensic Science Law, Hoaxes & Deceptions, and Forensic Psychology

Crimes of passion are both eerie and strangely tantalizing. How can someone you hold dear become someone you fear? This riveting anthology explores the question through some of the most compelling true crime accounts and stories of obsession and vengeance.

Crimes fueled by emotions. Love, passion, obsession, jealousy, and betrayal. When it comes to the emotions, people can react in strange and unexpected ways. Whether it’s a heart hurt by unrequited love, or a lover so passionate they’ll stop at nothing to get their way—even the most mild-mannered soul can suddenly flip, becoming a vengeful spirit with dark intentions. From the ancient Greek myth of Jason and Medea to Shakespeare’s Othello, themes dealing with deeply felt emotions have persisted. But unlike mythology or fiction, The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge contains stories from real life.

A special selection of stories written exclusively for this book. The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge includes stories from around the world and from different times. As with all titles in the popular The Best New True Crime Stories series, this volume contains original nonfiction accounts penned by writers from across the literary spectrum. Dive into these twisted true tales of passion and unrequited love turned violent. Examine why some have fully embraced their dark side, resorting to crime to achieve their own special brand of satisfaction and retribution.

If you enjoyed Mitzi's last book in her series, The Best New True Crime Stories: Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals, and books like You Love Me, and The Big Book of Serial Killers Volume 2, then you’ll love The Best New True Crime Stories: Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge.

The did it for love or money...or both

Some of them fabled femme fatales of yesteryear. some headliners in yesterday's newspapers. Jean Harris, Ruth Snyder, Kate Bender, Belle Starr, Bonnie Parker, Phoolan Devi, Lizzie Borden, Grace Marks, Valerie Solanas, Amy Fisher and more true life who, where, why, when, and howdunnits. Bandit queens, gun molls, mothers, and widows (often selfmade) this array of reallife women who murdered makes for fascinating reading. Thoroughly researched, with archival photos and illustrations.

Terrifying True Crime Stories

"What makes Double Lives so terrifying is that these events are real. After 20 years as a cop, these are the stories that keep me up at night." ─Sgt. Joseph Kuns, LAPD

#1 New Release in True Crime and Espionage

Eric Brach's true crime book Double Lives: True Tales of the Criminals Next Door offers terrifying true stories about the criminals hidden among us and the banality of evil and crime, elevated by its frank discussion of the nation-wide criminal scourge of the moment: opioid addiction.

A true crime roller-coaster. Double Lives chronicles the very monsters who walk unnoticed among us─even serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, or John Wayne Gacy. They are neighbors and students, professionals and friends living out criminal double lives. Double Lives is both a nonfiction exposé and a nationwide search that details the exploits of some of the worst criminals in recent American history, all of whom succeeded in going undetected for years while perpetrating one crime after another… and all in their own hometowns. Gender? Race? Age? Socioeconomic class? It doesn’t matter.

Double Lives a sensational yet sobering read. The author also provides a personal look at opioid addiction and its current effects right alongside binge-worthy tales of two-faced criminals caught and incarcerated.

If you're a fan of true crime or serial killer books such as Pretty Little Killers, Mind Hunter, If You Tell, The Pale-Faced Lie, or The Big Book of Serial Killers, you'll love Double Lives.

When corporations misbehave the consequences are devastating. The monetary costs of the 2008 financial crisis, a direct result of financial mismanagement, were in the trillions, and yet none of those responsible were held to account. The monetary costs of Criminal Code theft pale in comparison, and yet our prisons are filled with people who commit “street theft.” In order to understand why governments, regulators, unions, activists and community groups have such a difficult time preventing and sanctioning corporate criminals we must first recognize the vital role of corporate economic power.
Focusing on crimes against workers/employees, and the environment and financial crimes, About Canada: Corporate Crime traces the ways that particular systems of government — from nineteenth-century crony capitalism to neoliberalism and globalized capitalism — develop policies regarding the socially harmful and illegal behaviour of corporations. This book shows why governments are reluctant to pass, enforce and administer meaningful regulation of corporations: institutions and actors with the power to put thousands of potential voters out of work, generate negative commentaries from highly respected experts, and produce critical editorials from 80 percent of Canadian media (owned and controlled, let us remember, by many of these same corporations).
Assessing the present state and future prospects of corporate crime, this book asks: How did we get here? What do we know about corporate crime? Why does it matter? and What are the main issues/developments today? In the end, it asks the most important question of all: How can political and economic systems be changed to prevent, or at the very least mitigate, the tremendous damage corporate activities are inflicting on human lives, health, jobs, communities and economies?

“With unnerving conviction, this novel inhabits the mind, heart and voice of Belgium's 'most hated woman', the ex-wife of murderer Marc Dutroux – the authenticity makes for a compelling narrative.” —Blake Morrison

The most hated woman in Belgium sits in her prison cell preparing for imminent release. Between brief interludes of counsel from Sister Virginie and Anouk, the prison psychiatrist, Odette is left alone to labor through the memories of her former life. Obsessive and reflective, yet crucially lacking in remorse, Odette's testimony is a tricky script to untangle. Based on the real-life events of Michelle Martin, ex-wife of the notorious child abductor, murderer and serial rapist, Marc Dutroux, this is a fictionalized account of the inner workings of Martin's mind before, during, and after the crimes that shook a nation in the 1990s.

The excuses and abuses of this killer's accomplice make for a brave exploration of psychological trauma, and the slide towards its most extreme of consequences. In The Woman Who Fed the Dogs, Hemmerechts has produced a daring novel that positions the reader uncomfortably close to the human behind these unforgivable acts.

In 1940 and 1941 a group of ruthless gangsters from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood became the focus of media frenzy when they—dubbed “Murder Inc.,” by New York World-Telegram reporter Harry Feeney—were tried for murder. It is estimated that collectively they killed hundreds of people during a reign of terror that lasted from 1931 to 1940. As the trial played out to a packed courtroom, shocked spectators gasped at the outrageous revelations made by gang leader Abe “Kid Twist” Reles and his pack of criminal accomplices.

News of the trial proliferated throughout the country; at times it received more newspaper coverage than the unabated war being waged overseas. The heinous crimes attributed to Murder, Inc., included not only murder and torture but also auto theft, burglary, assaults, robberies, fencing stolen goods, distribution of illegal drugs, and just about any “illegal activity from which a revenue could be derived.” When the trial finally came to a stunning unresolved conclusion in November 1941, newspapers generated record headlines.

Once the trial was over, tales of the Murder, Inc., gang became legendary, spawning countless books and memoirs and providing inspiration for the Hollywood gangster-movie genre. These men were fearsome brutes with an astonishing ability to wield power. People were fascinated by the “gangster” figure, which had become a symbol for moral evil and contempt and whose popularity showed no signs of abating. As both a study in criminal behavior and a cultural fascination that continues to permeate modern society, the reverberations of “Murder, Inc.” are profound, including references in contemporary mass media.

The Murder, Inc., story is as much a tale of morality as it is a gangster history, and Murder, Inc., and the Moral Life by Robert Whalen meshes both topics clearly and meticulously, relating the gangster phenomenon to modern moral theory. Each chapter covers an aspect of the Murder, Inc., case and reflects on its ethical elements and consequences. Whalen delves into the background of the criminals involved, their motives, and the violent death that surrounded them; New York City’s immigrant gang culture and its role as “Gangster City”; fiery politicians Fiorello La Guardia and Thomas E. Dewey and the choices they made to clean up the city; and the role of the gangster in popular culture and how it relates to “real life.” Whalen puts a fresh spin on the two topics, providing a vivid narrative with both historical and moral perspective.

In 1940 and 1941 a group of ruthless gangsters from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood became the focus of media frenzy when they—dubbed “Murder Inc.,” by New York World-Telegram reporter Harry Feeney—were tried for murder. It is estimated that collectively they killed hundreds of people during a reign of terror that lasted from 1931 to 1940. As the trial played out to a packed courtroom, shocked spectators gasped at the outrageous revelations made by gang leader Abe “Kid Twist” Reles and his pack of criminal accomplices.

News of the trial proliferated throughout the country; at times it received more newspaper coverage than the unabated war being waged overseas. The heinous crimes attributed to Murder, Inc., included not only murder and torture but also auto theft, burglary, assaults, robberies, fencing stolen goods, distribution of illegal drugs, and just about any “illegal activity from which a revenue could be derived.” When the trial finally came to a stunning unresolved conclusion in November 1941, newspapers generated record headlines.

Once the trial was over, tales of the Murder, Inc., gang became legendary, spawning countless books and memoirs and providing inspiration for the Hollywood gangster-movie genre. These men were fearsome brutes with an astonishing ability to wield power. People were fascinated by the “gangster” figure, which had become a symbol for moral evil and contempt and whose popularity showed no signs of abating. As both a study in criminal behavior and a cultural fascination that continues to permeate modern society, the reverberations of “Murder, Inc.” are profound, including references in contemporary mass media.

The Murder, Inc., story is as much a tale of morality as it is a gangster history, and Murder, Inc., and the Moral Life by Robert Whalen meshes both topics clearly and meticulously, relating the gangster phenomenon to modern moral theory. Each chapter covers an aspect of the Murder, Inc., case and reflects on its ethical elements and consequences. Whalen delves into the background of the criminals involved, their motives, and the violent death that surrounded them; New York City’s immigrant gang culture and its role as “Gangster City”; fiery politicians Fiorello La Guardia and Thomas E. Dewey and the choices they made to clean up the city; and the role of the gangster in popular culture and how it relates to “real life.” Whalen puts a fresh spin on the two topics, providing a vivid narrative with both historical and moral perspective.