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Books > Fiction > True stories > Crime
Harry Markopolos and his team of financial sleuths discuss first-hand how they cracked the Madoff Ponzi scheme "No One Would Listen" is the thrilling story of how the Harry Markopolos, a little-known number cruncher from a Boston equity derivatives firm, and his investigative team uncovered Bernie Madoff's scam years before it made headlines, and how they desperately tried to warn the government, the industry, and the financial press. Page by page, Markopolos details his pursuit of the greatest financial criminal in history, and reveals the massive fraud, governmental incompetence, and criminal collusion that has changed thousands of lives forever-as well as the world's financial system.The only book to tell the story of Madoff's scam and the SEC's failings by those who saw both first handDescribes how Madoff was enabled by investors and fiduciaries alikeDiscusses how the SEC missed the red flags raised by Markopolos Despite repeated written and verbal warnings to the SEC by Harry Markopolos, Bernie Madoff was allowed to continue his operations. "No One Would Listen" paints a vivid portrait of Markopolos and his determined team of financial sleuths, and what impact Madoff's scam will have on financial markets and regulation for decades to come.
On 28 November 2004, banker and father-of-two Alistair Wilson was shot three times on his doorstep in a killing more commonly associated with inner city gang wars than a sleepy seaside town in the Scottish Highlands. All these years later, the question remains: why? Who would wish to kill this respectable husband and family man in such a brutal fashion? Was it simply a tragic case of mistaken identity, or did someone have reason to end Alistair's life? And what was the significance of the envelope handed to him before he was fatally wounded? Over the years, lines of enquiry have been investigated and dismissed, gossip has spread, theories offered and rumours debated at length. And yet, so long after Alistair's death, no arrest has ever been made and precious few motives have been made public. In this gripping true crime investigation, Peter Bleksley, top ex-undercover cop and The Chief on Channel 4's Hunted, strives to uncover the truth and hunt down Alistair's killer. He travels to Scotland, speaks to experts, and draws on his decades of investigative experience in order to provide new insight into Scotland's most mysterious murder case.
Hollywood Confidential is the first truly in-depth look at the sexy, humorous, violent, and tragic history of the mob in Hollywood from the 1920s, when Joe Kennedy decided to buy a motion picture company, to the 1980s when the last vestiges of mob influence were revealed through investigations of former Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan and his union backers. The revelations continue into the 1980s when the major studios were no longer important, the independents were on the rise, and it was no longer possible to buy, bribe, or blackmail in a meaningful way. There were deals and bad guys, but the mob as it existed was finished in Hollywood.
To most Americans, homicide appears to be a random act, one committed by a deranged and irrational killer in a haphazard, unpredictable manner. Murder is seen as a chaotic, disorganized act beyond the realm of reason. In Wicked Deeds, James O'Kane shows that homicide is actually rather predictable, and patterned with respect to its assailants and victims, the circumstances in which it takes place, the time and location where it occurs, and the motives which precipitate the murderous act. Engagingly written and solidly grounded in evidence, this is a definitive study of murder in the United States. O'Kane explores the phenomena of homicide, illustrating the journalists' "who, what, why, when, and where" of murder. He differentiates criminal homicide, such as murder in the first and second degree, from other types of killings, including legal and quasi-legal killings. These include suicide, abortion, accidental death, terrorism, and other non-criminal types of homicide, such as justifiable and excusable homicide. The author's focus is criminal homicide, and he uses age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status, as well as demographic data to explain ever-recurring patterns of murder in the United States. Wicked Deeds analyzes numerous categories of murder: intimate partner homicide, child and family murders, multiple victim killings, including mass murder and serial homicide. Each type of murder is illustrated by accounts of actual murders reported in the media and on internet sites. Approximately 200 cases illustrate the typical homicides as well as the bizarre ones. In portraying the patterns and regularities of murder in the United States, Wicked Deeds is an essential treatment of a subject too often given over to sensationalism. It will be of keen interest to professionals and students of criminal justice, as well as those interested in American culture and the general reader who wants to grasp the patterns underlying the headlines.
Lizzie Borden took an axe. Or did she? Chaney looks behind the myth at one of the most grisly and controversial murders in New England history.
In the early twentieth century so many dead bodies surfaced in the rivers around Aberdeen, Washington, that they were nicknamed the "floater fleet." When Billy Gohl (1873-1927), a powerful union official, was arrested for murder, local newspapers were quick to suggest that he was responsible for many of those deaths, perhaps even dozens-thus launching the legend of the Ghoul of Grays Harbor. More than a true-crime tale, The Port of Missing Men sheds light on the lives of workers who died tragically, illuminating the dehumanizing treatment of sailors and lumber workers and the heated clashes between pro- and anti-union forces. Goings investigates the creation of the myth, exploring how so many people were willing to believe such extraordinary stories about Gohl. He shares the story of a charismatic labor leader-the one man who could shut down the highly profitable Grays Harbor lumber trade-and provides an equally intriguing analysis of the human costs of the Pacific Northwest's early extraction economy.
'Broken Blue Line is a rollercoaster of a ride depicting the realities of twenty-first-century policing on the front-line. Its well written, honest and informative. Alistair Livingstone put his life on the line, and now he's put his heart on the line. Courageous and human. Highly recommended.' Mike Pannett, author of Now Then Lad . . . and Crime Squad As a police officer, Alistair Livingstone was dubbed Supercop by the media for making more arrests than any other officer in the UK. But then Ali broke down. Broken Blue Line is the vividly told story of what brought him to that point, and the beginning of his slow, painful recovery. Ali was dubbed Supercop for making more than 1,000 arrests over one eighteen-month period, when the average arrest rate for officers in England and Wales is just nine a year. In his work as a police officer, he dealt with life-and-death situations on an almost daily basis: saving lives as a hostage negotiator; rescuing the occupant of a house fire; providing tactical advice during some of the most violent incidents; clinging onto a suicidal man hanging from the roof of a multi-storey car park; and entering a flat that had been blown up in an explosion just moments before. Ali was also engulfed in the aftermath and devastation of losing a colleague and friend who died doing the job she loved, and he witnessed the unprecedented response to the serial killings in Ipswich and the profound effect it had on the community and the police. But then an agonising and debilitating mental breakdown left the seemingly indestructible sergeant desperately seeking help. After almost two decades helping some of society's most vulnerable people he became so troubled by what he had seen and done in the line of duty that he hit rock bottom. Ali had no option but to walk away from the job that had defined him to embark on his biggest challenge yet: regaining his mental health. Ali's book offers an insight into the real world of modern policing: the demands and challenges faced by frontline officers throughout the UK. Ali's hope is that by opening up about his experiences and his struggle to regain his mental health in this no-holds-barred account, he will help to remove some of the lingering stigma that attaches to mental illness within the police and other professions and prevent others from making the same mistakes that he did. Ali says that he thoroughly enjoyed being a police officer and got to experience the sharp end of policing in so many different ways. When he finally made the decision to leave he was devastated and the months that followed his breakdown were the toughest he'd ever faced. Now that he is on the road to recovery, he hopes that by sharing his story it'll shine a light on the challenges of modern policing and the toll it can take, and, in doing so, to help others.
John Gilligan is one of the most notorious and hated criminal figures in Irish history. His name is indelibly etched in the national psyche a quarter of a century after he crossed the line to organise the execution of the fearless, high-profile journalist Veronica Guerin. Gilligan's motive for the assassination was, in the words of the prosecution at a subsequent murder trial, 'the necessity of having to protect an evil empire'. At the time Gilligan was one of the most powerful and feared godfathers in the country who controlled a colossal drugs empire and the underworld's most dangerous mob. Gilligan tells the story of a young man's rise through the ranks of gangland following his journey from petty thief to public enemy number one. He was part of the generation of young criminals - like the General, the Cahills, the Hutches - who ushered in the phenomenon of organised crime in Ireland and became household names in the process. This close-up look at a criminal mastermind contains new details including a graphic account of the planning of the Guerin murder, drawn from a sealed statement which was never used, and the prison time and criminal activity which have occupied Gilligan since, up to his recent arrest in Spain on drug trafficking charges.
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 riveting true-life tale of newspaper noir and Japanese organized
crime from an American investigative journalist.
Even in Chicago, a city steeped in mob history and legend, the Family Secrets case was a true spectacle when it made it to court in 2007. A top mob boss, a reputed consigliere, and other high-profile members of the Chicago Outfit were accused in a total of eighteen gangland killings, revealing organized crime's ruthless grip on the city throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Painting a vivid picture of murder, courtroom drama, family loyalties and disloyalties, journalist Jeff Coen accurately portrays the Chicago Outfit's cold-blooded--and sometimes incompetent--killers and their crimes in the case that brought them down. In 1998 Frank Calabrese Jr. volunteered to wear a wire to gather evidence against his father, a vicious loan shark who strangled most of his victims with a rope before slitting their throats to ensure they were dead. Frank Jr. went after his uncle Nick as well, a calculating but sometimes bumbling hit man who would become one of the highest-ranking turncoats in mob history, admitting he helped strangle, stab, shoot, and bomb victims who got in the mob's way, and turning evidence against his brother Frank. The Chicago courtroom took on the look and feel of a movie set as Chicago's most colorful mobsters and their equally flamboyant attorneys paraded through and performed: James "Jimmy Light" Marcello, the acting head of the Chicago mob; Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, one of Chicago's most eccentric mobsters; Paul "the Indian" Schiro; and a former Chicago police officer, Anthony "Twan" Doyle, among others. Re-creating events from court transcripts, police records, interviews, and notes taken day after day as the story unfolded in court, Coen provides a riveting wide-angle view and one of the best accounts on record of the inner workings of the Chicago syndicate and its control over the city's streets.
Guardian's Best Sports Books SHORTLISTED FOR THE CROSS BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2015 LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2015 In Chase Your Shadow, journalist and author John Carlin tells the gripping story of Oscar Pistorius's tragic journey from sporting icon to accused murderer. Before Valentine's Day of 2013, Pistorius was best known as an extraordinary athlete, the 'Blade Runner' who became the first amputee in history to compete in the Olympics. Everything changed after he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp dead in the early hours of 14 February. Overnight, the Olympian's status as a role model was replaced by tales of erratic behaviour and a violent dark side. His seven-month trial was broadcast live around the globe, its twists and turns captivating millions. Carlin, who followed the drama inside the courtroom, provides a vivid first-hand account of Pistorius's wrenching emotional breakdowns, the merciless interrogation to which he was submitted by the prosecutor, and the highly controversial judgment. Carlin paints a portrait of a complex personality, a man whose life story reveals extremes of courage and insecurity, ambition and vulnerability, generosity and dangerous hot-headedness. Not since the O. J. Simpson case has the world been more riveted by a champion's heroic rise and calamitous fall.
Victorian Chelsea was a thriving commercial and residential development, known for its grand houses and pleasant garden squares. Violent crime was unheard of in this leafy suburb. The double murder of an elderly man of God and his faithful housekeeper in two ferocious, bloody attacks in May of 1870 therefore shook the residents of Chelsea to the core. This volume examines the extraordinary case, one which could have leapt straight from the pen of Agatha Christie herself: the solving of the crime relied on the discovery of a packing box dripping with blood, and the capture of a mysterious French nephew. Compiled by a former detective, it looks at the facts: no direct evidence to place the suspect at either of the crime scenes; no weapon recovered; no motive substantiated. It lets you, the reader, decide: would you, on the evidence presented, have sent the same man to the gallows?
Spanning murder cases from the beginning of the twentieth century
to today, this is a must-read for fans of true crime and will also
be compelling to mystery and thriller readers. The contributors
include Harold Schechter, Katherine Ramsland, Carol Anne Davis,
Burl Barer, and other leading writers in this genre.
In 1885 Jane and Leland Stanford co-founded a university to honour their recently deceased young son. After her husband's death in 1893, Jane Stanford, a devoted spiritualist who expected the university to inculcate her values, steered Stanford into eccentricity and public controversy for more than a decade. In 1905 she was murdered in Hawaii, a victim, according to the Honolulu coroner's jury, of strychnine poisoning. With her vast fortune the university's lifeline, the Stanford president and his allies quickly sought to foreclose challenges to her bequests by constructing a story of death by natural causes. The cover-up gained traction in the murky labyrinths of power, wealth and corruption of Gilded Age San Francisco. The murderer walked. Deftly sifting the scattered evidence and conflicting stories of suspects and witnesses, Richard White gives us the first full account of Jane Stanford's murder and its cover-up. Against a backdrop of the city's machine politics, rogue policing, tong wars and heated newspaper rivalries, White's search for the murderer draws us into Jane Stanford's imperious household and the academic enmities of the university. Although Stanford officials claimed that no one could have wanted to murder Jane, we meet several people who had the motives and the opportunity to do so. One of these, we discover, also had the means...
'An incredible debut' MEL SHERRATT She is wanted by the FBI.She is a stone-cold killer.She remembers nothing.She is told her name is Reeta Doe, and that she's been in an accident. That she's in Florida. That the FBI have been following her since Mississippi. That she has brutally murdered two women. College girls, who look just like her. Two more are missing, and one survived. Reeta recalls nothing. She cannot answer their questions; all the things they want her to explain are no more familiar to her than the prison she is taken to. Her only hope is a journalist named Carol, who can follow the trail of devastation Reeta left in her wake. All the way back to Pine Ranch, and the only family she ever knew. An astonishing debut crime novel, exploring identity and nature versus nurture, with an unforgettable character at its heart. Perfect for fans of Girl A and The Girls. Praise for After Everything You Did'What an incredible debut. A story with characters that really got under my skin, told with compassion and intrigue. I was outraged, fascinated and heartbroken at the same time.' Mel Sherratt, author of The Life She Wants 'Richly detailed and atmospheric, the carefully woven strands quickly pulled me into Reeta's story, towards an ending that was both chilling and heart-breaking. An exciting debut, I can't wait to read what Stephanie Sowden does next.' Louisa Scarr, author of Last Place You Look 'Absorbing and horrifying - I was gripped from the first page' Marion Todd, author of Next in Line 'A powerful psychological thriller debut... Sowden pulls off a great twist towards the end of the book to tie all the diverse strands together, which does come as a major but welcome surprise. A most assured debut that grips like a vice and bodes well for Sowden's future.' Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time 'This savage, harrowing read will keep you on the edge of your seat.' Woman's Own 'The perfect thriller. This book has an incredible story and the perfectly drawn main character makes it even better. I would highly recommend it, I really enjoyed the pacing and the ending.' NetGalley Review 'A wonderful suspense debut novel! ... I couldn't put it down ... Hugely gripping, shocking and incredibly tense! This book made me feel real chills! The twists are incredible, and it's quite scary how realistic the book feels, how it could happen.' NetGalley Review 'This was such a good read, it had me gripped right from the beginning and kept me compelled to read it the whole way through, I read it in one sitting. It was tense, fast and suspenseful and full of unpredictability and twists. I loved it.' NetGalley Review 'After Everything You Did is a gripping, emotional, powerful thriller. It is a book that I will continue to think about long after having finished it.' NetGalley Review 'Stephanie has done an incredible job in delivering not only a complex plot and well-rounded characters but presenting such an unexpected ending that it will be a strong after-effect that lingers long after you have finished the book. A 5 star read! I cannot wait to read more from this author.' NetGalley Review 'After Everything You Did had me hooked on the very first page. I loved the premise and thought that the characters were well written... I am excited to see what she does next.' NetGalley Review
TV's top fugitive hunter investigates the UK's worst unsolved murders Roughly ten per cent of all murders in the UK go unsolved. Here, Britain's top ex-undercover cop shines new light on cases up and down the country in search of answers. Peter Bleksley's life has been devoted to investigating. As an undercover detective for the Metropolitan Police and in his ability to get to the bottom of a case was legendary as he dealt with some of the world's most feared criminals. His success rate in solving murders as a serving officer was one hundred per cent. Using the investigative skills gained from decades of experience and access to archives and contacts in the force, Bleksley shines new light on investigations that ran aground, often despite extensive media coverage and police resources. Often he discovers glaring errors made by investigators and forensic teams that will shock many of the general public. Now a renowned policing and crime expert seen on the BBC and as the Chief on Channel 4's Hunted, Bleksley's knowledge and experience is peerless. On the Run is a comprehensive and fascinating investigation into murders of the most callous kind, finding the human story behind the headlines as he hunts down the killers on the run from justice. |
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