Previously published as Becky, this is the heartbreaking story behind the murder of 16-year-old Bristol schoolgirl Becky Watts, a crime that shocked the nation and tore a family in two. A vulnerable and shy girl, Becky Watts was brutally murdered and dismembered by her own step-brother on 19 February 2015. As her father Darren discovered the horrific details of what happened to his darling girl, his world fell apart. Writing about the darkest hours, Darren uncovers what Becky's relationship with her step-brother Nathan, a child he had raised as his own son, was really like. He recalls the devastation of discovering the truth about the depravity with which Becky was torn from him in the safety of her own home. And he recounts the torment of the legal battle to see his step-son sentenced to life behind bars. Both heartfelt and haunting, searingly honest and unflinching, this is the ultimate story of a family tragedy.

'Bobby called. He's coming to California. He wants to see me.' Drawing on secret police files, Marilyn Monroe's private diary and never before published first-hand testimony, this book proves that Robert Kennedy was directly responsible for her death. It details the legendary star's tumultuous personal involvement with him and his brother, President John Kennedy, and how they plotted to silence her. The new evidence and revelatory statements are provided by Mike Rothmiller who, as a detective of the Organized Crime Intelligence Division (OCID) of the LAPD, had direct personal access to hundreds of restricted LAPD files on exactly what happened at Marilyn Monroe's Californian home on August 5, 1962. With his training and investigator's knowledge, Rothmiller used that confidential information to get to the heart of the matter, to the people who were there the night Marilyn died - two of whom played major roles in the cover-up - and the wider conspiracy to protect the Kennedys whatever the collateral damage. There will be those with doubts, but to them, the lawman - who directed international intelligence operations targeting organized crime - says the printed, forensic and oral evidence are totally convincing. He insists: 'If I presented my evidence in any court of law, I'd get a conviction.'

Prisons, an integral part of society, generally are not familiar to most people. Length of sentence and treatment by others in the prisons vary widely. The immediate "Man-in-charge" of each prison unit is the warden, who has some flexibility within TDCJ guidelines. Warden Dr. Keith Price gained a reputation for turning around some chaotic prison units. He knows from experience that at best, prisons are very difficult places for people, whether they are behind the bars or in front of them. "People that wind up in prison, inmates, generally are society's rejects," Price said. "They've been unable to do the things other people do to make life a success, whether it's because of an abusive parent, addiction to some substance, stupidity, being unable to read or write, they've been failures and have chosen alternate means, that is crime." Price also knows officers have a challenging life, "The correctional officer, has to deal with people so maladjusted that society says they can't live amongst them anymore. It's conflict day after day, hour after hour and it really takes a toll, from broken marriages to financial problems to substance abuse. It's continual." The Texas Prison System was named "one of the best" in the country by a leading penology expert. However, shortly after that, a Federal Judge took control of the entire Texas Department of Corrections for "unconstitutional treatment" of inmates. TDC denied and resisted many of the reforms the judge ordered. The result was chaos. Too few guards, rampant gangs, gang wars and overcrowding were the norm for several years. The court kept control 20 years and finally the prison system adapted to the new (and constitutional) ways of operating. At the same time Texas prison population doubled, and more than doubled, again. During that time, 19-year-old Rickie Smith began a 10-year sentence in TDC on a drug charge. He joined the gang wars, in the Aryan Brotherhood and then made his own personal war with prison officers. He could have been released in a few short years, but, in 3 separate trials juries added 3 ninety-nine-year sentences for him to serve. Trial transcripts have many references in testimonies to how dangerous Rickie Smith is--even calling him "the most violent inmate" in TDC. REAL PRISON / REAL FREEDOM is a biography of Rickie Smith and how his life intersects with the woes of the prison system and with Warden Keith Price. Naturally, he wanted out, knowing that realistically it will never happen. Officials told him he'll never get out. Then came the impossible that shocked everyone, especially Rickie.

'What a fantastic read, but not for the faint-hearted!' MARTINA COLE 'True crime has never been more female - or more deadly.' KIMBERLEY CHAMBERS 'Admired and respected by the men who worked with her, she is the real deal.' FREDDIE FOREMAN If you think you know everything about the East End's toughest gangsters, think again. Meet Linda Calvey, aka the Black Widow. Growing up after the war in the East End of London, Linda falls in with local gangsters including the Krays, Freddie Foreman and Ronnie Cook. When the love of her life, Mickey Calvey, is gunned down on a job gone wrong, Linda resolves to carry on his work. But in 1990, after years of living in fear of her lover Ronnie Cook, Linda finds herself accused of his murder alongside Danny Reece, in a trial that shocks the nation. Still, Linda sticks to her code of honour, refusing to confess. Until now... After 18 years behind bars alongside notorious names including Rose West and Myra Hindley, she is released. This is the final truth about her life and what happened the day Ronnie Cook was murdered.

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.

When FBI Special Agent Joe Pistone began a six-month" operation infiltrating New York's Bonanno crime family in 1975, he had no idea what was about to happen. Posing as jewel thief Donnie Brasco," Pistone spent the next six years undercover in the Family, witnessing-and sometimes participating in-the Mafia's gruesome activities while gathering enough evidence to send over 200 gangsters to jail. Pistone told his story in the 1988 book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia -a New York Times bestseller and later a feature film starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacino. But because of pending trials at the time of publication, many details of the alleged crimes were held back. Now, in Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business , Pistone for the first time reveals with great detail the horrific deeds of wiseguys Tony Mirra, Lefty" Ruggiero, Sonny Black, and the rest of the cold-blooded Bonanno crew. Pistone puts the operation into historical perspective, detailing the timeline of Mafia trials that crippled the New York City crime family over the past 25 years. He also recounts his experiences after the operation, his time on the Hollywood set with Pacino and Depp, and other undercover operations through present-day. A tense, thrilling account of the greatest infiltration ever by a federal agent into the most brutal gang of killers in the world, Donnie Brasco: Unfinished Business is the final chapter in the story of a real American hero.

Rickie Smith's crimes got him 10 years in Texas Prisons. He joined Aryan Brotherhood and gang wars, then added war with guards. He became known as "the most violent man in the prisons" and juries added 3 ninety-nine-year sentences. Rage and hatred controlled his life--more than prison. Then what seemed impossible shocked everyone, most of all Rickie.

In August 1961, 22-year-old Valerie Storie and 36-year-old Michael Gregsten were the victims of James Hanratty in the notorious 'A6 Murder'. After a five-hour ordeal, ending in a layby on the A6 in Bedfordshire, Michael was shot dead and Valerie was raped, shot and left for dead. She survived, but was paralysed and remained in a wheelchair until her death in 2016. In 1962, Hanratty became one of the last men in the UK to be hanged, unleashing forty years of fierce and passionate debate, as many were convinced of his innocence, until 2002 when DNA evidence proved that he was indeed guilty. Valerie, however, was never in any doubt, and picked out Hanratty in an identity parade. She always intended to write a book, and over the years had secretly drafted its contents and written hundreds of notes. Yet for over thirty-five years she gave no interviews, despite persistent media pressure to do so. The Long Silence is, in essence, Valerie's posthumous autobiography, explaining for the first time every explicit detail of the 'cat and mouse' drive, as Michael and Valerie tried on over twenty occasions to deter and thwart the apparently indecisive Hanratty.

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. A fierce memoir of a mother's murder, a daughter's coming-of-age in the wake of immense loss, and her mission to know the woman who gave her life. When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse; she took it as a good omen for her and her mother, Crystal. But that moment of darkness foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine. It took twelve years to find the killer. In that time, Sarah rebuilt her life amid abandonment, police interrogations, and the exacting toll of trauma. She dreamed of a trial, but when the day came, it brought no closure. It was not her mother's death she wanted to understand, but her life. She began her own investigation, one that drew her back to Maine, deep into the darkness of a small American town. &#8220Pull[ing] the reader swiftly along on parallel tracks of mystery and elegy" in After the Eclipse, &#8220Perry succeeds in restoring her mother's humanity and her own" (The New York Times Book Review).

On August 13, 1986, just one day after his thirty-second birthday, Michael Morton went to work at his usual time. By the end of the day, his wife Christine had been savagely bludgeoned to death in the couple's bed-and the Williamson County Sherriff's office in Texas wasted no time in pinning her murder on Michael, despite an absolute lack of physical evidence. Michael was swiftly sentenced to life in prison for a crime he had not committed. He mourned his wife from a prison cell. He lost all contact with their son. Life, as he knew it, was over. Drawing on his recollections, court transcripts, and more than 1,000 pages of personal journals he wrote in prison, Michael recounts the hidden police reports about an unidentified van parked near his house that were never pursued; the bandana with the killer's DNA on it, that was never introduced in court; the call from a neighbouring county reporting the attempted use of his wife's credit card, which was never followed up on; and ultimately, how he battled his way through the darkness to become a free man once again. "Even for readers who may feel practically jaded about stories of injustice in Texas-even those who followed this case closely in the press-could do themselves a favour by picking up Michael Morton's new memoir...It is extremely well-written [and] insightful" (The Austin Chronicle). Getting Lifeis an extraordinary story of unfathomable tragedy, grave injustice, and the strength and courage it takes to find forgiveness.

Dive Deep Into the Crime Stories of Criminal Couples"You'll love this book and the stories of devious partnerships that ended in mayhem and murder!" Bob Batchelor, cultural historian and author of The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition's Evil Genius #1 New Release in Hoaxes & Deceptions, Memoirs of Criminals, and Forensic Psychology From harrowing heists to murderous mayhem, this collection of true crime stories will have you on the edge of your seat as you discover exactly why two criminal minds are scarier than one-especially when they belong to lovers. Discover Infamous Legends and Lesser-Known Criminals and find out why they have become solidified in true crime history. From Ted Bundy to Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killers and other criminals often work alone. But when they're in a relationship, this isn't always the case. Acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto brings us a collection that proves that two is better than one when it comes to murder, mischief, and mayhem. From Serial Killers to Your Average Joes. This chilling new collection of original crime stories takes you into the lawless and deadly activities of criminal couples who find more pleasure in crime than in each other. Featuring contributions from an international list of award-winning crime writers, journalists, and experts in the dark crimes field, The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime is a must-read for any true crime addict. If you enjoy true crime books such as The Perfect Father, American Predator, The Devil You Know, or The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns then you'll love The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime. THE BEST NEW TRUE CRIME STORIES: PARTNERS IN CRIME Contributors include Cathy Pickens, Joan Renner, Paul Willetts, Jason Half, and Morgan Barbour.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 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 blind enemies by slashing them with the disposable safety razor blades stitched in to the peaks of their flat caps, as they fight bloody gangland wars involving Irish terrorists and the authorities led by a devious Home Secretary, Winston Churchill. But who were the real Peaky Blinders? Did they really exist? Well-known social historian, broadcaster and author, Carl Chinn, has spent decades searching them out. Now he reveals the true story of the notorious Peaky Blinders, one of whom was his own great grandfather and, like the Shelbys, his grandfather was an illegal bookmaker in back-street Birmingham. In this gripping social history, Chinn shines a light on the rarely reported struggles of the working class in one of the great cities of the British Empire before the First World War. The story continues after 1918 as some Peaky Blinders transformed into the infamous Birmingham Gang. Led by the real Billy Kimber, they fought a bloody war with the London gangsters Darby Sabini and Alfie Solomon over valuable protection rackets extorting money from bookmakers across the booming postwar racecourses of Britain. Drawing together a remarkably wide-range of original sources, including rarely seen images of real Peaky Blinders and interviews with relatives of the 1920s gangsters, Peaky Blinders: The Real Story adds a new dimension to the true history of Birmingham's underworld and fact behind its fiction.

The killing took place outside a busy coffee bar in Naples in broad daylight. Pupetta was eighteen years old and six months pregnant when she pulled the gun from her bag. The victim? A man known as Big Tony who had ordered the hit on her husband just months earlier... In this unputdownable expose of women in the Mafia, investigative journalist Barbie Latza Nadeau tells the stories of the women who have risen to prominence in the Italian mob, beginning with the first documented female boss, the infamous Pupetta Maresca. Through personal interviews and groundbreaking research, Nadeau gives us a jaw-dropping 360-degree view of the dark underbelly of Italian society, taking us deeper into the Mafia and its complex realities than ever before. 'Takes the reader into the little-known role of the women that underpin Italy's most ruthless mob families' Sara Gay Forden, author of House of Gucci 'An unflinching portrait of one the original divas of organised crime' Clare Longrigg, author of Mafia Women 'A must for true-crime fans' Publishers Weekly

He was a serious 'Face' in the London underworld. His jackets were tailored to hold his machete. His drug deals earned him thousands of pounds. Penthouse apartment, luxury cars, designer clothes and women. John Pridmore had everything he wanted. Until one night outside a London club he nearly killed a man.

'An Extraordinary story of innocence and persecution, determination and grit ... it had me rattling through the pages' SOPHIE DRAPER A gripping true crime investigation into the longest miscarriage of justice in British legal history. In September 1973, Stephen Downing was convicted and indefinitely sentenced for the murder of Wendy Sewell, a young legal secretary in the town of Bakewell in the Peak District. Wendy was attacked in broad daylight in Bakewell Cemetery. Stephen Downing, the 17-year-old groundskeeper with learning difficulties and a reading age of 11, was the primary suspect. He was immediately arrested, questioned for nine hours, without a solicitor present, and pressured into signing a confession full of words he did not understand. 21 years later, local newspaper editor Don Hale was thrust into the case. Determined to take it to appeal, as he investigated the details, he found himself inextricably linked to the narrative. He faced obstacles at every turn, and suffered several attempts on his life. All of this merely strengthened his resolve: why should anyone threaten him if Downing had committed the crime? In 2002, Stephen Downing was finally acquitted, having served 27 years in prison. Immerse yourself in this masterful account of Hale's long, dedicated and often dangerous campaign to rescue a long-forgotten victim of the British legal system; the longest miscarriage of justice in British history.

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.