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Books > Fiction > True stories > Crime
On the evening of July 7, 2016, protesters gathered in cities
across the nation after police shot two black men, Philando Castile
and Alton Sterling. As officers patrolled a march in Dallas, a
young man stepped out of an SUV wearing a bulletproof vest and
carrying a high-powered rifle. He killed five officers and wounded
eleven others. It fell to a small group of cops to corner the
shooter inside a community college, where a fierce gun battle was
followed by a stalemate. Crisis negotiator Larry Gordon, a 21-year
department veteran, spent hours bonding with the gunman - over
childhood ghosts and death and racial injustice in America - while
his colleagues devised an unprecedented plan to bring the night to
its dramatic end. Thompson's minute-by-minute account includes
intimate portrayals of the negotiator, a surgeon who operated on
the fallen officers, a mother of four shot down in the street, and
the SWAT officers tasked with stopping the gunman. Their stories go
to the heart of the deeply pressing issue of race and policing in
the USA, and reflect America's divide over how to view the men and
woman assigned to protect us.
Howard Marks is the most famous drug smuggler of his age, and a
hero to a generation. On his release from one of America's toughest
prisons, Howard made a promise to himself to go straight. No more
drugs, no more smuggling, no more fake passports. He would retire
to a quiet life with his family in the Balearic Islands of Spain.
It didn't quite work out that way. This was the mid-nineties, the
height of the ecstasy and clubbing boom, and Ibiza was at the very
centre of the vortex for the 'E generation'. Pills had taken the
place of marijuana, Paul Oakenfold had replaced The Rolling Stones
as the music of the masses, but some people are just born for life
on the other side of the law. It wasn't long before Howard found
himself trying pure ecstasy and rubbing shoulders with some of the
king-pins of the pill trade. These included some of Britain's most
notorious gangsters, who were laundering millions of pounds of gold
stolen from the legendary Brink's-Mat bullion raid. As Britons
descended on Ibiza ahead of one of the greatest summers of the
nineties, Howard was preparing for his most outrageous operation
yet. Incredibly funny, moving and scabrous, Howard Marks' Mr Smiley
follows a journey to the heartland of the clubbing and British
crime scene. It is also a fitting last word from one of Britain's
best loved bad boys.
What happens when the President of the United States engages in
criminal activity? He runs for re-election. Donald Trump's campaign
chairman went to jail. So did his personal lawyer. His long-time
political consigliere was convicted of serious federal crimes, and
his National Security Advisor pleaded guilty to several more.
Multiple Russian spies were indicted in absentia. Career
intelligence agents and military officers were alarmed enough by
his actions as President that they alerted senior government
officials and ignited the impeachment process. Yet despite all
this, a years-long inquiry led by Robert Mueller, and the third
Presidential impeachment trial in American history, Donald Trump
survived to run for presidency again. Why? Jeffrey Toobin's highly
entertaining, definitive account of the Mueller investigation and
the impeachment of the President takes readers behind the scenes of
the epic legal and political struggle to call Trump to account for
his misdeeds. Toobin recounts the mind-boggling twists and turns in
the case - Trump's son met with a Russian operative promising
Kremlin support; Trump paid a porn star $130,000 to hush up an
affair; Rudy Giuliani and a pair of shady Ukrainian-American
businessmen got the Justice Department to look at Russian-created
conspiracy theories. Toobin shows how Trump's canny lawyers used
Mueller's famous integrity against him, and how Trump's bullying
and bluster cowed Republican legislators into ignoring the clear
evidence of the impeachment hearings. Based on dozens of interviews
with prosecutors in Mueller's office, Trump's legal team,
Congressional investigators, White House staffers, and several of
the key players, including some who are now in prison, True Crimes
and Misdemeanours is a revelatory narrative that makes sense of the
seemingly endless chaos of the Trump years. Filled with
never-before-reported details of the high-stakes legal battles and
political machinations, the book weaves a tale of a rogue President
guilty of historic misconduct, and how he got away with it.
Environmental crime is arguably the most vital and destructive
crime of the 21st century, especially in the light of climate
change and shifts in social, economic and ecological circumstances
that will accompany global warming. The author takes an excitingly
broad and refreshing approach to environmental crime and
investigates a variety of topics including illegal fishing,
poaching, wildlife crimes, animal abuse, climate change and ecocide
as well as crimes related to waste, energy and contamination.
Written for students and based on over 15 years' worth of teaching,
this book provides students with both a very accessible
introduction to crime and punishment in early modern England and
the necessary tools to encourage discussion and debate about some
of the key sources from the period. An updated bibliography to
include historiography from the last six years provides students
with an entry point into further reading and knowledge for essays
and seminars on popular courses on crime and justice in Tudor and
Stuart England. The introduction has been revised and questions
have been added to encourage more discussion about the sources and
help students question the sources' historical context and
decisions made by authors; this is perfect for students with little
experience of primary sources from this period.
Everyone is affected by credit card fraud, if they are aware of it
or not. Every day there are a variety of ways that scams and
fraudsters can get your card and personal information. Today so
much business occurs over the Internet or via the phone where no
card is present. What can start as a seemingly legitimate purchase
can easily turn into fraudulent charges - or worse, sometimes a
physical confrontation, when a criminal steals a credit card from a
consumer who meets to pick up a product or receive a service. In
Preventing Credit Card Fraud, Jen Grondahl Lee and Gini Graham
Scott provide a helpful guide to protecting yourself against the
threat of credit card fraud. While it may not be possible to
protect yourself against all fraudsters, who have turned scamming
Internet businesses into an art, these tips and techniques will
help you avoid many frauds. As a growing concern in today's world,
there is a need to be better informed of what you can do to keep
your personal information secure and avoid becoming a victim of
credit card fraud. Preventing Credit Card Fraud is an important
resource for both merchants and consumers engaged in online
purchases and sales to defend themselves against fraud.
"A delightful read for anyone tantalized by the prospect of
disappearing without a trace." --Erik Larson, New York Times
bestselling author of Dead Wake "Delivers all the lo-fi spy
shenanigans and caught-red-handed schadenfreude you're hoping for."
--NPR "A lively romp." --The Boston Globe "Grim fun." --The New
York Times "Brilliant topic, absorbing book." --The Seattle Times
"The most literally escapist summer read you could hope for." --The
Paris ReviewIs it still possible to fake your own death in the
twenty-first century? With six figures of student loan debt,
Elizabeth Greenwood was tempted to find out. So off she sets on a
darkly comic foray into the world of death fraud, where for $30,000
a consultant can make you disappear--but your suspicious insurance
company might hire a private detective to dig up your coffin...only
to find it filled with rocks. Greenwood tracks down a British man
who staged a kayaking accident and then returned to live in his own
house while all his neighbors thought he was dead. She takes a call
from Michael Jackson (no, he's not dead--or so her new
acquaintances would have her believe), stalks message boards for
people contemplating pseudocide, and gathers intel on black market
morgues in the Philippines, where she may or may not obtain some
fraudulent goodies of her own. Along the way, she learns that love
is a much less common motive than money, and that making your death
look like a drowning virtually guarantees that you'll be caught.
(Disappearing while hiking, however, is a way great to go.) Playing
Dead is a charmingly bizarre investigation in the vein of Jon
Ronson and Mary Roach into our all-too-human desire to escape from
the lives we lead, and the men and women desperate enough to give
up their lives--and their families--to start again.
From the Sunday Times bestselling author, Carl Chinn The Peaky
Blinders as we know them, thanks to the hit TV series, are infused
with drama and dread. Fashionably dressed, the charismatic but
deeply flawed Shelby family have become cult anti-heroes.
Well-known social historian, broadcaster and author, Carl Chinn,
revealed the true story of the notorious gang in his bestselling
Peaky Blinders: The Real Story and now in this follow-up book, he
explores the legacy they created in Birmingham and beyond. What
happened to them and their gangland rivals? In Peaky Blinders: The
Legacy we revisit the world of Billy Kimber's Peaky Blinders,
exploring their legacy throughout the 1920s and 30s, and how their
burgeoning empires spread across the UK. Delve into the street wars
across the country, the impact of the declaration of War on Gangs
by the Home Secretary after The Racecourse War in 1921, and how the
blackmailing of bookmakers gave way to new and daring opportunities
for the likes of Sabini, Alfie Solomon and some new faces in the
murky gangland underworld. Drawing on Carl's inimitable research,
interviews and original sources, find out just what happened to
this incredible cast of characters, revealing the true legacy of
the Peaky Blinders.
Ann Rule presents a collection of fascinating and disturbing
true-crime stories-drawn from her real-life personal files-in this
seventeenth volume in the #1 New York Times bestselling Crime Files
series. In this gripping collection of investigative accounts from
her private archives, "America's best true-crime writer" (Kirkus
Reviews) exposes the most frightening aspect of the murderous mind:
the waiting game. Trusted family members or strangers, these
cold-blooded killers select their unsuspecting prey, wait for the
perfect moment to strike, then turn normality into homicidal mayhem
in a matter of moments. Ann Rule will have you seeing the people
and places around you with heightened caution as you read these
shattering cases, including: * New mothers murdered, their infants
kidnapped, in an atrocious baby-selling scheme * The man who kept
his criminal past hidden from his wife-and his wife from his
mistress-until he coldly disposed of one of them * The beautiful
daughter of a State Department official ran away from the
privileged world she knew and hitched a ride with a man she didn't
. . . with fatal consequences * For months, a vicious, rage-filled
serial rapist eluded police and terrorized Seattle's women-when
would he strike next, and how far would his violence escalate? * A
criminal known for his Houdini-like escapes is serving time for
murder in a botched robbery-now the convict is being served dinner
in a civilian's home, where he has one more trick up his sleeve * A
long-lost relative who came home to visit, leaving a bloody trail
through Washington and Oregon; no one realized how dangerous he and
his ladylove were-until it was far too late. . . . With her ability
to translate the most complex cases into storytelling "as dramatic
and chilling as a bedroom window shattering at night" (The New York
Times), Rule expertly analyzes the thoughts and deeds of the
sociopath, in this seventeenth essential Crime Files volume.
From her chilling personal account of knowing Ted Bundy to sixteen
collections in her #1 bestselling Crime Files series-Ann Rule is a
legendary true crime writer. Here, in Practice to Deceive, Rule
unravels a shattering case of Christmastime murder off the coast of
Washington State-presented with the clarity, authority, and
emotional depth that Rule's readers expect. Nestled in Puget Sound,
Whidbey Island is a gem of the Pacific Northwest. Life there is
low-key, and the island's year-round residents tend to know one
another's business. But when the blood-drenched body of Russel
Douglas was discovered the day after Christmas in his SUV the whole
island was shocked. At first, police suspected suicide, tragically
common at the height of the holiday season. But when they found no
gun in or near the SUV, Russel's manner of death became homicide.
A Certain Arrogance is a reticulation of eight essays on the
history of international intelligence (primarily U.S. espionage),
on Allen Dulles and John Foster Dulles and their manipulation of
religious groups and individuals to achieve U.S. elitist goals, on
the development of U.S. psychological warfare operations, and on
the sacrifice of Lee Harvey Oswald in the assassination of John F.
Kennedy.
American Spymaster Allen Dulles, based in Switzerland, had abused
religious (largely Protestant) individuals and institutions for
U.S. intelligence through two World Wars and the subsequent "Cold
War." His brother John Foster Dulles also used major religious
groups (again, largely Protestant) from 1937 through 1959 to
further both his own and the American establishment's political and
economic goals.
One religious individual, Noel Field (American Quaker, Unitarian,
and Marxist) was used by Allen Dulles to manipulate religious
relief organizations in World War II and in the post war period.
Dulles finally utilized Field to help destabilize Communist Eastern
Europe. Dulles apparently collaborated in this plan with Jozef
Swiatlo, a Communist/CIA double agent, who later surfaced in the
Warren Commission's Kennedy assassination investigation of Lee
Harvey Oswald.
Swiss based Albert Schweitzer College had major religious origins
that were both social and political. Post war liberal Protestant
movements in Europe, including the International Association for
Religious Freedom, helped to create the college in Switzerland, the
country at the center of Allen Dulles' fifty year spy program. In
the United States, the college was supported by a powerful
coalition of American religious liberalism, primarily the Unitarian
Church, the Unitarian Service Committee, and the American Friends
of Albert Schweitzer College.
Albert Schweitzer College's history strongly suggests that
American espionage assets helped establish the college and then
used it, possibly with the knowledge and even cooperation of some
of its religious supporters in the Unitarian Church movement and
those who worked for the college in Switzerland. One leading
Unitarian who worked closely with both U.S. intelligence and the
military in the '40s and '50s was President of the American Friends
of Albert Schweitzer College, exactly when Lee Harvey Oswald
applied. That same intelligence connected Unitarian worked with a
second influential Unitarian to help control U.S. space programs,
including the U 2 overflights, and in the '60s, that intelligence
connected Unitarian fronted for a major CIA proprietary. Those who
set policy for Albert Schweitzer College were, therefore, elite
members of the establishment and allies of the Central Intelligence
Agency. In 1959, Lee Harvey Oswald registered to attend Albert
Schweitzer College and therefore became a direct link between the
college and American intelligence.
Whoever masterminded the Oswald college action was knowledgeable
about both the OSS's and the CIA's use of Quakers, officials of the
World Council of Churchs, and Unitarians as contacts, assets, and
informants (often as double agents) AND about the FBI's
responsibility in tracking down and identifying Soviet illegals and
double agents. Oswald was, therefore, a creature of someone in
American counterintelligence who possessed precisely that double
body of knowledge.
At the same time that Albert Schweitzer College was extending its
international recruiting effort, both the Soviet and American
Illegals and False Identity programs were operating. For those
espionage groups, Lee Harvey Oswald initially looked like a
candidate for their intelligence operations. But Oswald was a
stunningly imperfect False Identity/Illegals prospect. A faulty
False Identity operation had apparently been carried out using Lee
Harvey Oswald and run by a branch of American intelligence.
Oswald's imperfections were certain to trip counterespionage a
'Stories that will curl your toes, make you laugh out loud and
break your heart all at the same time.' PROFESSOR DAME SUE BLACK,
author of All That Remains Why would anyone want to work with
thieves, murderers and rapists? Told from the inside out, this is a
harrowing, humorous and hard-hitting tale of life behind bars by a
prison doctor who has seen it all. Literally. Dr Shahed Yousaf
spends his time running between emergencies - from overdoses to
assaults, from cell fires to suicides - with one hand perpetually
hovering over the panic button. Being a prison doctor is not for
the faint-hearted. An outsider on the inside, in Stitched Up he
introduces us to a cast of unforgettable characters, including
killers, con men and auto-cannibals. To Dr Yousaf, they are
patients first and prisoners second - because any one of us could
end up on the wrong side of the law. Dedicated to caring for people
on the margins of society, he tells us honestly and compassionately
what it's like to be their doctor in a system that's chronically
overcrowded, drastically under-resourced and all too easy to
ignore. But while the system is failing, he and his colleagues are
doing their very best to prop it up. In stories that are frequently
harrowing, sometimes humorous and always hard-hitting, we discover
how difficult it is to be locked up - but that there is still hope
for all those who dare to care. For fans of This is Going to Hurt,
The Secret Barrister and A Bit of a Stretch
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING BENICIO DEL TORO,
PRODUCED BY LEONARDO DICAPRIO. Cuba, 1961. A failed invasion at The
Bay of Pigs results in Fidel Castro tightening his hold over Cuba.
Jose Miguel Battle Sr., a former cop and member of the
counter-revolutionary group intent on overthrowing him, is
captured. Miami, 1962. Jose Miguel Battle Sr. travels to the USA,
chased from the island by revolution, and is renamed The Godfather.
A 2,500 strong Cuban-American criminal alliance is established.
Known on both sides of the law as 'The Corporation', its powerful
members were fellow outcasts and enemies of Castro. A hero to many
Cuban-Americans, The Godfather created a unit of trusted men who
fought alongside him to reclaim their nation from the Marxist
dictator. Gaining money, power and inluence by running gambling
rackets, money- laundering, drug tra?cking and murder, The
Corporation never gave up the dream of killing Castro and
reclaiming their homeland. This explosive biography reveals how an
entire generation of political exiles, refugees, racketeers,
corrupt cops, hitmen (and their wives and girlfriends) became
caught up in this violent desire, and built a criminal empire
surviving over 40 years. An epic tale of gangsters, drugs and
violence, learn how The Corporation grew into one of the USA's most
sordid and deadly organisations.
In Food and Feast in Premodern Outlaw Tales editors Melissa Ridley
Elmes and Kristin Bovaird-Abbo gather eleven original studies
examining scenes of food and feasting in premodern outlaw texts
ranging from the tenth through the seventeenth centuries and
forward to their cinematic adaptations. Along with fresh insights
into the popular Robin Hood legend, these essays investigate the
intersections of outlawry, food studies, and feasting in Old
English, Middle English, and French outlaw narratives,
Anglo-Scottish border ballads, early modern ballads and dramatic
works, and cinematic medievalism. The range of critical and
disciplinary approaches employed, including history, literary
studies, cultural studies, food studies, gender studies, and film
studies, highlights the inherently interdisciplinary nature of
outlaw narratives. The overall volume offers an example of the ways
in which examining a subject through interdisciplinary,
cross-geographic and cross-temporal lenses can yield fresh
insights; places canonic and well-known works in conversation with
lesser-known texts to showcase the dynamic nature and cultural
influence and impact of premodern outlaw tales; and presents an
introductory foray into the intersection of literary and food
studies in premodern contexts which will be of value and interest
to specialists and a general audience, alike.
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio, this
gripping true story of the origins of the Mafia in America follows
the brilliant Italian-born detective who gave his life to stop it.
Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New
York City, and then the entire country, with fear. The children of
Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims
were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges,
senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with
gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent and
invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black hand. The
crimes whipped up the slavering tabloid press and heated ethnic
tensions to the boiling point. Standing between the American public
and the Black Hand's lawlessness was Joseph Petrosino. Dubbed the
"Italian Sherlock Holmes," he was a famously dogged and ingenious
detective, and a master of disguise. As the crimes grew ever more
bizarre and the Black Hand's activities spread far beyond New
York's borders, Petrosino and the all-Italian police squad he
assembled raced to capture members of the secret criminal society
before the country's anti-immigrant tremors exploded into
catastrophe. Petrosino's quest to root out the source of the Black
Hand's power would take him all the way to Sicily--but at a
terrible cost. Unfolding a story rich with resonance in our own
era, The Black Hand is fast-paced narrative history at its very
best.
When Maximilian Potter went to Burgundy to report for Vanity Fair
on a crime that could have destroyed the Domaine de la Romanee
Conti-the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive,
exquisite wines in the world-he soon found a story that was much
larger, and more thrilling, than he had originally imagined. In
January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the DRC,
received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his
priceless vines by poison-a crime that in the world of high-end
wine is akin to murder-unless he paid a one million euro ransom.
Villaine believed it to be a sick joke, but that proved a fatal
miscalculation; the crime was committed and shocked this fabled
region of France. The sinister story that Potter uncovered would
lead to a sting operation by top Paris detectives, the primary
suspect's suicide, and a dramatic trial. This botanical crime
threatened to destroy the fiercely traditional culture surrounding
the world's greatest wine. Like Midnight in the Garden of Good and
Evil, SHADOW IN THE VINEYARD takes us deep into a captivating world
full of fascinating characters, small town French politics, an
unforgettable narrative, and a local culture defined by the twinned
veins of excess and vitality and the deep reverent attention to the
land that run through it.
New England is notorious for its dark tourism with tragic and
treacherous attractions, both historical and recent, that re-create
death, suffering, and the outright macabre. History buffs and
paranormal enthusiasts will discover engaging stories, from
historic homes and cemeteries to serial killers and infamous
haunted locales. Featuring a balance of old favorites and brand-new
finds, full visitor information is provided, including where to
park, where to eat, and even where to find a clean restroom! Learn
about more than 100 sinister sites found throughout the region. New
England has a darker side-it awaits you.
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