Death in a Texas Desert is a fast-paced collection of 17 compelling true crime stories from the pages of the award-winning The Dallas Observer. From the "Phantom Killer" that haunted Texarkana in teh mid-1940s to the day of terror in 1991 when a crazed man began spraying bullets into Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, author Carlton Stowers recoutns the infamy and infamous from the crime files of Texas.

Robberies, murders, kidnappings - Minnesota has been home to several notorious crimes. Some were committed by infamous lawbreakers: the James-Younger gang, John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde and others. But not all misdeeds have been done by career criminals. Take a closer look at more than two dozen unlawful acts that rocked Minnesota and often grabbed headlines across the country.

Donna Freed was six years old when her sister casually revealed that she and her siblings were all adopted, a subject her parents refused to discuss. The revelation fractured Donna's sense of identity. The death of her tricky yet treasured adoptive mother died left Donna feeling exposed, her life un-witnessed without a mother to look over her. When she became a mother herself, Donna felt compelled to track down her birth mother. Trawling through records of the now notorious Louise Wise Adoption Service, many previously redacted, she uncovered an explosive and salacious story, one of the biggest true crime investigations to grip the USA in the late 1960s.

AS NIGHT FALLS, A KILLER COMES TO LIGHT... 'An authentic, topical and terrifying thriller: one of Michael Connelly's very best.' THE TIMES 'The Dark Hours is yet another superb thriller from a writer at the top of his game' SUNDAY EXPRESS 'Consistently excellent ... The plotting is as skilful as ever, and the pacing as relentless' MAIL ON SUNDAY On New Year's Eve at the end of one of the hardest years in history, hundreds of revellers shoot their guns into the air in time-honoured LA tradition. But as the rain of lead comes down, a man is shot dead in the middle of a crowded street party. Detective Renee Ballard soon connects the bullet to an unsolved cold case last worked by legendary ex-LAPD detective Harry Bosch. As they investigate where the old and new cases connect, a new crime shatters the night shift. The Midnight Men are a pair of violent predators who stalk the city during the dark hours, and will kill to keep their identities secret. In a police department shaken to the core by pandemic and protests, both cases have the power to save Ballard's belief in the job - or take everything from her... * * * * * CRIME DOESN'T COME BETTER THAN CONNELLY. 'One of the very best writers working today' Sunday Telegraph 'The pre-eminent detective novelist of his generation' Ian Rankin 'A superb natural storyteller' Lee Child 'A master' Stephen King 'Crime thriller writing of the highest order' Guardian 'America's greatest living crime writer' Daily Express 'A crime writing genius' Independent on Sunday

No crime is as horrific, as mesmerizingly perplexing, as a child's murder at the hands of a parent. In most cases, the perpetrator is the father. A veteran journalist explores five examples of "family annihilators" in this troubling snapshot of American crime twisted by the dark trajectory of machismo in economically stressful times. Her research includes some fifty in-depth interviews of victims' friends and family, an examination of police files, and detailed profiles of the researchers who track these "killer dads." She also presents experts' theories on the causes that drive men to commit these heinous acts--ranging from economic pressures, the stress of perceived failure, and distorted egos, to the disturbing statistics on abuse of adopted children by step-fathers and the connection between murder and pregnancy. Finally, she discusses factors in contemporary society that may foster such crimes, and measures we can and should be taking to prevent them. Well-researched and often-shocking, Killer Dads provides disturbing insights into the dark forces that can turn family dynamics into the worst imaginable nightmare.

New England is renowned for its quaint towns, beautiful landscapes, and busy ports. But it is also infamous as the setting for unexplained deaths, ghost stories, bizarre murders, and peculiar wills and epitaphs. In New England Nightmares: True Tales of the Strange and Gothic, author Keven McQueen explores the darker and stranger side of New England and the Mid-Atlantic. With shocking and unforgettable tales from the tip of Maine all the way to the New Jersey shore, this eerie collection explores our fascination with death and the unknown, including tales of medical students digging up bodies to dissect, of a murderer's bones being wired together after death, and of Dr. Timothy Clark Smith, who requested that he be buried with a breathing tube and glass window so he could see the outside world. An intriguing and frightful look into the odder side of the Northeast, New England Nightmares promises to send chills down your spine.

On a hot and dusty Sunday in June 1872, 13-year-old Mary Secaur set off on her two-mile walk home from church. She never arrived. The horrific death of this young girl inspired an illegal interstate pursuit-and-arrest, courtroom dramatics, conflicting confessions, and the daylight lynching of a traveling tin peddler and an intellectually disabled teenager. Who killed Mary Secaur? Were the accused actually guilty? What drove the citizens of Mercer County to lynch the suspects? David Kimmel seeks answers to these provoking questions and deftly recounts what actually happened in the fateful summer of 1872, imagining the inner workings of the small rural community, reconstructing the personal relationships of those involved, and restoring humanity to this gripping story. Using a unique blend of historical research and contemporary accounts, Outrage in Ohio explores how a terrible crime ripped an Ohio farming community apart and asks us to question what really happened to Mary Secaur.

New England is renowned for its quaint towns, beautiful landscapes, and busy ports. But it is also infamous as the setting for unexplained deaths, ghost stories, bizarre murders, and peculiar wills and epitaphs. In New England Nightmares: True Tales of the Strange and Gothic, author Keven McQueen explores the darker and stranger side of New England and the Mid-Atlantic. With shocking and unforgettable tales from the tip of Maine all the way to the New Jersey shore, this eerie collection explores our fascination with death and the unknown, including tales of medical students digging up bodies to dissect, of a murderer's bones being wired together after death, and of Dr. Timothy Clark Smith, who requested that he be buried with a breathing tube and glass window so he could see the outside world. An intriguing and frightful look into the odder side of the Northeast, New England Nightmares promises to send chills down your spine.

On a hot and dusty Sunday in June 1872, 13-year-old Mary Secaur set off on her two-mile walk home from church. She never arrived. The horrific death of this young girl inspired an illegal interstate pursuit-and-arrest, courtroom dramatics, conflicting confessions, and the daylight lynching of a traveling tin peddler and an intellectually disabled teenager. Who killed Mary Secaur? Were the accused actually guilty? What drove the citizens of Mercer County to lynch the suspects? David Kimmel seeks answers to these provoking questions and deftly recounts what actually happened in the fateful summer of 1872, imagining the inner workings of the small rural community, reconstructing the personal relationships of those involved, and restoring humanity to this gripping story. Using a unique blend of historical research and contemporary accounts, Outrage in Ohio explores how a terrible crime ripped an Ohio farming community apart and asks us to question what really happened to Mary Secaur.

Within lie twelve vintage tales of true crime by master essayist William Roughead. Henry James himself once urged Roughead: "Keep on with them all please, and continue to beckon me along the gallery that I can't tread alone and where, by your leave, I link my arm fraternally in yours: the gallery of sinister perspective just stretches in this manner straight away." Here you will find such Roughead classics as My First Murder: Featuring Jessie King, the crime that fortuitously set Mr. Roughead's steps toward matters criminous, Locusta in Scotland, a familiar survey of poisoning as practiced in the realm. The Fatal Countess, a Jacobean royal flush of didoes in high places; Physic and Forgery: A Study in Confidence, and many more capital crimes old and new, but all revealed with that dry wit and mellow artistry that is the mark of fine wine or writing. Above all you must not miss Mr.Roughead's ensemble by the entire company entitled, An Academic Discussion wherein his best known murders sit in judgment on the qualities of their crimes and discuss the artistry of their chosen metier.

Things are not always as they appear, as Cyril Wecht shows in this behind-the-scenes look at nine famous murder cases. Drawing on police reports, deopsitions, trial testimony, and autopsy reports, he raises important issues and offers fresh perspectives on each case.

For as long as historical annals have been kept, they have recorded the frauds and fakes that have been imposed upon innocent dupes. Perhaps the earliest Christian story of all is that which tells of the deception that Jacob practised on his unsuspecting father Abraham, pretending to be his brother Esau; and today the theft of identity is reported to be the most rapidly spreading crime. And throughout the ages works of art and literature, coinage, and documents of all kinds have been forged for profit, personal status - and even out of pure mischief. Fakes, Scams and Forgeries details many of the most notorious acts of forgery, fraud and fakery that have taken place over the centuries, describing how they were perpetrated, their acceptance by those who considered themselves experts, and how - often after many years - they were eventually detected. As well as providing entertaining and in-depth profiles of famous forgers and legendary frauds, the text deals with the many modern scientific techniques that have been developed for the examination of suspect materials.

New York Times Bestseller! "Sam Giancana tells all . . . Controversial . . . ties seven United States presidents to the mob."-Larry King, CNN One of the most feared Chicago mobsters Sam Giancana clawed his way to the top of the Mafia hierarchy by starting as a hit man for Al Capone. He was known as one of the best vehicle escape artists, a tenacious business man, and a ruthless killer. He partied with major stars such as Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe and did business with agents ranging from the CIA to the Vatican to the shah of Iran. When politician Joe Kennedy gave Giancana the chance to use mob muscle to get his son John elected, Giancana jumped at the task. But the Kennedy brothers double-crossed him, waging full-out war on organized crime throughout the United States. And Giancana went after them. Written with suspense and conviction, we learn about how the CIA asked Giancana to assassinate Fidel Castro The book includes Giancana's testimony about the truth of his involvement in the deaths of Monroe and others, among others. Chuck Giancana, Sam's brother, contributes a unique perspective of the mob's relationship with the Bay of Pigs and many other pivotal events of the 60's and beyond. Double Cross is an eye-opening account of the interworking of the government and the mob and how this relationship has impacted American history. "Mobster chief Sam Giancana was at the heart of one of America's most notorious criminal conspiracies and this book gives us fresh information on that. His web of crimes and associations involve some of the most glamorous figures of his age, including the Kennedy family, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. Written with the crisp cadence of a thriller, it is a fascinating expose of dark deals and adds more layers to that most famous mystery-who really killed President John Kennedy?"-Tim Newark from his Foreword

Can Justice Department officials effectively investigate wrongdoing within their own administration without relying on an independent counsel? In Prosecution among Friends political scientist David Alistair Yalof explores the operation of due process as it is navigated within the office of the attorney general and its various subdivisions. The attorney general holds a politically appointed position within the administration and yet, as the nation's highest ranking law enforcement officer, is still charged with holding colleagues and superiors legally accountable. That duty extends to allegations against those who had a hand in appointing the attorney general in the first place: Even the President of the United States may be enmeshed in a Justice Department investigation overseen by the attorney general and other department officials. To assess this fundamental problem, Yalof examines numerous cases of executive branch corruption-real or alleged-that occurred over the course of four decades beginning with the Nixon administration and extending up through the second Bush administration. All of these cases-Watergate, Whitewater, and others-were identified and reported to varying degrees in the press and elsewhere. Some garnered significant attention; others drew only limited interest at the time. In all such cases the attorney general and other officials within the executive branch were charged with initially assessing the matter and determining the proper road for moving forward. Only a handful of the cases resulted in the appointment of a statutorily protected independent counsel. The primary focus of this book and the case studies that support it center on how the conflicting loyalties of the attorney general and others are resolved when executive branch corruption is at issue. As Yalof demonstrates, the particular circumstances surrounding a given investigation matter a great deal. When the media spotlight, for example, is not so glaring, career prosecutors with limited partisan biases can effectively treat the case like other routine matters. Prosecution among Friends affords readers a greater understanding of the political and legal tradeoffs inherent when the executive branch must investigate and prosecute its own.

Although many fans think Butler University basketball took off with its back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in 2010 and 2011, the Butler Bulldogs have a long history of tenaciously outplaying larger and better-known teams. In Butler Basketball Legends, veteran sports writer Stan Sutton profiles the legacy of the Butler University basketball program and the coaches, players, and fans who give it heart. Sutton takes readers behind the scenes to meet Butler's legendary stars and hear their stories, including players like Darnell Archey, Gordon Hayward, Matt Howard, and Mike Green, and unforgettable coaches like Thad Matta and Brad Stevens, and of course, Tony Hinkle. For 41 years Mr. Hinkle was the cornerstone of the athletics department and built a winning basketball program around small guards, short but stout centers, and players other coaches thought inadequate, leading Butler to over 550 victories. From the fabled feats of past teams all the way up to the first season of new head coach LaVall Jordan, Butler Basketball Legends is a must-read for all who love the game.

Dr. Henry C. Lee is highly regarded throughout the law-enforcement community as one of the most talented and experienced forensic scientists in the world. He has also received widespread public recognition and media attention through his association with sensational criminal investigations, including the JFK assassination, the suicide of White House counsel Vincent Foster, the Chandra Levy homicide, the O.J. Simpson and JonBenet Ramsey cases, and, most recently, the Caylee Anthony case. In this new book, Dr. Lee and critically acclaimed mystery writer Jerry Labriola, MD, team up again to present another true-crime page-turner on five notorious incidents:
- The Phil Spector case: Legendary music mogul Phil Spector was charged with murder in the death of actress Lana Clarkson, found slain in his mansion. But has Dr. Lee produced forensic evidence suggesting her death was a suicide?
- The Brown's Chicken massacre: The savage murder of helpless employees of a restaurant in Palatine, Illinois, was left unsolved for over a decade until the painstaking forensic skills of Task Force and Dr. Lee eventually identified the killers.
- Murder in the Sacristy: The brutal murder of a nun in a Toledo, Ohio, church had bizarre ritualistic overtones and remained unsolved until a priest was prosecuted twenty-six years later--the same priest who had conducted the nun's funeral service Dr. Lee testified at the trial of the priest and here he demonstrates how the perseverance of law enforcement officials and forensic scientists eventually solved the crime.
- The shooting of a Connecticut state trooper and the shooting death of a fourteen-year-old young man: Dr. Lee discusses the dual hazards of police work--being killed or injured in the line of duty and the accidental killing of innocent victims or suspects. In Hartford, while racial tensions threatened to spin out of control, Dr. Lee reconstructed the shooting of a young African American by a police officer. His diligent work defused hostilities that nearly led to a riot.
- Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Dr. Lee discusses his role in the excavation and, in some cases, the identification
of hundreds of bodies in the former Yugoslavia. The evidence he uncovered was later used to build a case against suspects indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal.
Combining fascinating details of forensic science with a vivid narrative, Shocking Cases from Dr. Henry Lee's Forensic Files is must reading for true-crime readers and forensic science lovers.

An immersive account of a tragedy at sea whose repercussions haunt its survivors to this day, lauded by New York Times bestselling author Ron Suskind as "an honest and touching book, and a hell of a story." In March of 1984, the commercial fishing boat Wind Blown left Montauk Harbor on what should have been a routine offshore voyage. Its captain, a married father of three young boys, was the boat's owner and leader of the four-man crew, which included two locals and the blue-blooded son of a well-to-do summer family. After a week at sea, the weather suddenly turned, and the foursome collided with a nor'easter. They soon found themselves in the fight of their lives. Tragically, it was a fight they lost. Neither the boat nor the bodies of the men were ever recovered. The downing of the Wind Blown has since become interwoven with the local folklore of the East End's year-round population. Its tragic fate will never be forgotten. In this "riveting man-vs.-nature story and compelling tribute to those who perished" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), journalist Amanda M. Fairbanks seeks out the reasons why an event more than three decades old remains so startlingly vivid in people's minds. She explores the ways in which deep, lasting grief can alter people's memories. And she shines a light on the powerful and sometimes painful dynamics between fathers and sons, as well as the secrets that can haunt families from beyond the grave.

The Linden Triangle: Linden Avenue and Linden Place, Hempstead, Long Island. At this blighted intersection, seemingly forgotten by the middle and upper class communities that surround it, the dream of suburban comfort and safety has devolved into a nightmare of flying bullets and bloodshed. Here, a war between the Bloods and Crips has torn a once-peaceful neighborhood apart.The book tells the true story of one year in the life of a suburban village-turned-war-zone. Written by Kevin Deutsch, award-winning criminal justice reporter for Newsday, it follows two warring gangs and the anti-violence activists and police desperate to stop them. As the body count climbs and conflict spreads to New York City, young men wielding military grade weaponry wage a prolonged battle over pride, respect, revenge and their legacies.Based on immersive reporting and more than 250 interviews with gang members, their families, drug addicts, police and others, The Triangle is the first insider account of a New York Bloods/Crips gang war from the only journalist ever given access to the crews' secretive realm. Triangle is a chilling investigation of a world in which teenagers shoot their childhood friends over drug debts; where gang rape is used as a form of retaliation; and once-promising students are molded into cold-blooded assassins. With gang and drug-related violence responsible for as many as half of all non-domestic homicides in the United States, The Triangle will make a significant contribution to the national conversation about gangs, chronicling the effects of armed gang conflicts not just on Long Island and New York City but throughout America.

During his 20-year career as a federal prosecutor, the author worked hundreds of criminal cases, from a botched attempted bank robbery to high profile death penalty cases. In this collection of stories, the author recounts tales of trauma, drama and criminal minds. While many prosecutors might share their reflections on the details and operations of legal proceedings, the author instead focuses this collection on the human aspects of the criminals and their trials. The book ruminates on human nature, contemplating the motivations of the featured criminals and assessing the impact their crimes had on victims, family members and others. Some of the stories are light-hearted and humorous, while others are heartbreaking, but all provide unique and compelling insight into the all too human world of federal crime.

Shortly after 9:00 P.M. on April 19, 1989, a young woman jogs alone near 102nd Street in New York City's Central Park.
She is attacked, raped, savagely beaten, and left for dead. Hours later she arrives at the emergency room -- comatose -- with a fractured skull, an 85-degree body temperature, and she has lost so much blood that her doctors believe it's a miracle she's still alive.
Meet Trisha Meili, the Central Park Jogger.
It was a crime that stunned New Yorkers, the nation, the world. Even today, more than a decade after the attack, the Central Park Jogger -- who disclosed her name upon publication of this book -- is still in the news as startling new information about the perpetrators develops. Because of the nature of her injuries, Trisha Meili remembers nothing of the attack. But for Meili, the crime was not the climax but the beginning of an extraordinary journey.
"I Am the Central Park Jogger" recounts the mesmerizing, inspiring, often wrenching story of human strength and transcendent recovery. Meili tells us who she was before the attack -- a young Wall Street professional with a promising future -- and who she has become: a woman who learned how to read, write, walk, talk, and love again...and turn horrifying violence and certain death into extraordinary healing and victorious life.

The Sahara Desert, February 1962: the wreckage of a plane emerges from the sands revealing, too, the body of the plane’s long-dead pilot. But who was he? And what had happened to him?

Baker Street, London, June 1927: twenty-five-year-old Jessie Miller had fled a loveless marriage in Australia, longing for adventure in the London of the Bright Young Things. At a gin-soaked party, she met Bill Lancaster, fresh from the Royal Air force, his head full of a scheme that would make him as famous as Charles Lindbergh, who has just crossed the Atlantic. Lancaster wanted to fly three times as far – from London to Melbourne – and in Jessie Miller he knew he had found the perfect co-pilot.

By the time they landed in Melbourne, the daring aviators were a global sensation – and, despite still being married to other people, deeply in love. Keeping their affair a secret, they toured the world until the Wall Street Crash changed everything; Bill and Jessie – like so many others – were broke. And it was then, holed up in a run-down mansion on the outskirts of Miami and desperate for cash, that Jessie agreed to write a memoir. When a dashing ghostwriter Haden Clark was despatched from New York, the toxic combination of the handsome interloper, bootleg booze and jealousy led to a shocking crime. The trial that followed put Jessie and Bill back on the front pages and drove him to a reckless act of abandon to win it all back.

The Lost Pilots is their extraordinary story, brought to vivid life by Corey Mead. Based on years of research and startling new evidence, and full of adventure, forbidden passion, crime, scandal and tragedy, it is a masterwork of narrative nonfiction that firmly restores one of aviation’s leading female pioneers to her rightful place in history.

The True American tells the story of Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a Bangladesh Air Force officer who dreams of immigrating to America and working in technology. But days after 9/11, an avowed "American terrorist" named Mark Stroman, seeking revenge, walks into the Dallas minimart where Bhuiyan has found temporary work and shoots him, maiming and nearly killing him. Two other victims, at other gas stations, aren t so lucky, dying at once.

The True American traces the making of these two men, Stroman and Bhuiyan, and of their fateful encounter. It follows them as they rebuild shattered lives one striving on Death Row to become a better man, the other to heal and pull himself up from the lowest rung on the ladder of an unfamiliar country.

Ten years after the shooting, an Islamic pilgrimage seeds in Bhuiyan a strange idea: if he is ever to be whole, he must reenter Stroman's life. He longs to confront Stroman and speak to him face to face about the attack that changed their lives. Bhuiyan publicly forgives Stroman, in the name of his religion and its notion of mercy. Then he wages a legal and public-relations campaign, against the State of Texas and Governor Rick Perry, to have his attacker spared from the death penalty.

Ranging from Texas's juvenile justice system to the swirling crowd of pilgrims at the Hajj in Mecca; from a biker bar to an immigrant mosque in Dallas; from young military cadets in Bangladesh to elite paratroopers in Israel; from a wealthy household of chicken importers in Karachi, Pakistan, to the sober residences of Brownwood, Texas, The True American is a rich, colorful, profoundly moving exploration of the American dream in its many dimensions. Ultimately it tells a story about our love-hate relationship with immigrants, about the encounter of Islam and the West, about how or whether we choose what we become."

A concise history of the controversial 1920 murder trial in suburban Boston, which saw two Italian immigrants executed for killings they may not have committed.