If you've ever wanted to get inside the mind of a police officer, then this candid book written by a former Chicago cop will take you there.

Terrence Howard, who retired from the force after twenty-four years, recalls an adventurous career that includes the good, bad, and ugly sides of law enforcement. Whether you are considering becoming a police officer or just curious about how they think, Howard offers answers.

This Gun's for Hire identifies the three models of police officers; examines the forty golden rules of police survival; and provides advice on how to work with police so you can steer clear of trouble.

When encountering a police officer, it's important to know the difference between the laws of the courts and the laws of the streets. Figure out how police officers really think, and take the necessary steps to ensure a more positive experience the next time you meet one.

Out of the annals of the author's own family history comes this story of the strange death of a popular circuit judge in a mysterieous shooting that remained unsolved for many years. "Who shot the Judge?" remained an unsettled question, despite all efforts to find the answer. This is the account of a hunting accident in the north woods of Michigan and the effects of such unsolved mystery on members of the family and others. The story concludes with a surprise ending and alludes to the question of the degree to which such unhealed grief might affect even succeeding generations. The prompting to write the story was born for the author in an experience of personal healing in a prayer group, from which the author emerged with a compelling sense that this story had to be written. He could never seem to let it go. The judge was the author's own grandfather, whom he, of course, never knew.

It is one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century. How did Marilyn Monroe die? Although no pills were found in her stomach during the autopsy, it was still documented in the Los Angeles coroner's report that she had swallowed sixty-four sleeping pills prior to her demise. In "Marilyn Monroe: A Case for Murder," biographer Jay Margolis presents the most thorough investigation of Marilyn Monroe's death to date and shares how he reached the definitive conclusion that she was murdered.

Margolis meticulously dissects the events leading up to her death, revealing a major conspiracy and countless lies. In an exclusive interview with actress Jane Russell three months before her death, he reveals Russell's belief that Monroe was murdered and points the finger at the man she held responsible. While examining the actions of Peter Lawford, Bobby Kennedy, and Monroe's psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, Margolis establishes a timeline of her last day alive that leads to shocking revelations.

In August 1962, Marilyn Monroe's lifeless body was found on her bed, leaving all to wonder what really happened to the beautiful young starlet. "Marilyn Monroe: A Case for Murder" provides a fascinating examination of one of the most puzzling deaths of all time.

No one could believe the handsome young doctor might be a serial killer. Wherever he was hired -- in Ohio, Illinois, New York, South Dakota -- Michael Swango at first seemed the model physician. Then his patients began dying under suspicious circumstances.

At once a gripping read and a hard-hitting look at the inner workings of the American medical system, Blind Eye describes a professional hierarchy where doctors repeatedly accept the word of fellow physicians over that of nurses, hospital employees, and patients -- even as horrible truths begin to emerge. With the prodigious investigative reporting that has defined his Pulitzer Prize­winning career, James B. Stewart has tracked down survivors, relatives of victims, and shaken coworkers to unearth the evidence that may finally lead to Swango's conviction.

Combining meticulous research with spellbinding prose, Stewart has written a shocking chronicle of a psychopathic doctor and of the medical establishment that chose to turn a blind eye on his criminal activities.

The historical context of family violence is explored, as well as the various forms of violence, their prevalence in specific stages of life, and responses to it made by the criminal justice system and other agencies. The linkage among child abuse, partner violence and elder abuse is scrutinized, and the usefulness of the life-course approach is couched in terms of its potential effect on policy implications; research methods that recognize the importance of life stages, trajectories, and transitions; and crime causation theories that can be enhanced by it.

Lofortovo prison, built by Catherine the Great, was reputed to have niches in the walls of an underground hallway where executioners with silenced pistols concealed themselves before emerging to shoot in the back of the head an enemy of the state being walked along the corridor. Persistent rumors told of beatings and tortures at Lofortovo, but I kept repeating to myself: This is the new Russia, not the old Soviet state. The men taking me in have been pleasant, even courteous. No threats. No raised voices. "Just a few questions and you'll be on your way again."

Another eight-by-fifteen room. Three steel tablets meant as beds. One sink, one toilet, one small mirror embedded into the concrete, no bars, one opaque window. It was cold in the cell—not freezing, but 45 degrees Fahrenheit, kept at that temperature to make me miserable. I paced for a while. Nervous. Upset. Confused. Unable to sleep. Everything in the world went through my mind: I will get out of here, I won't get out of here, best-case scenario, worst-case scenario...

I lay down on the mattress, under the blanket, and was so cold that I had to put on my sport coat to keep from shivering. It was dim but not dark, as there was a light on in my cell that never went out. Every few minutes the quality of light coming from outside the opaque glass would change, and I guessed that the guards were checking in on me, making sure I hadn't tried to commit suicide or send a message from the Flash Gordon transmitter concealed in my wedding ring....
There was no sleep that night.
—from TORPEDOED

He was an innocent man: Edmond Pope—former Naval Intelligence officer, then private businessman, in Russia looking for some answers. Little did he know that he was looking in some very dangerous places.

There was the top-secret operation: Western military and intelligence agencies out to steal one of Russia's crown jewels—the plans to a submarine torpedo that traveled an astonishing 300 miles per hour.

There was the new man in charge: Vladimir Putin—former head of the KGB, now boss of all Russia and a man who wanted to set an example at almost any cost.

It would all come together, and the result would be an incredible story of duplicity, secrets, and lies. Now, for the first time ever, Edmond Pope tells the real story of what led to his becoming the first American since Francis Gary Powers to be convicted of espionage in Russia. Combining a gripping account of his arrest, trial, and 253-day imprisonment with a deeply disturbing look at today's Russia—where you can trust no one, and everything is for sale—his book reads like a John Le Carré novel come to life. And with a large dollop of espionage—insider information and secret submarine warfare technology, Pope's enthralling memoir will also remind readers of the best of Tom Clancy or Blind Man's Bluff.

Torpedoed reveals that the new Russia isn't that different from the old, that a fresh Cold War is brewing, and that Americans in Russia are at risk. With vivid portraits of Russians devoted to framing an American and Americans devoted to justice—Pope's wife Cheri first and foremost among them— it moves from dank Moscow prison cells to the White House to the inner rooms of the Kremlin. And like the secret torpedo in question, Edmond Pope's harrowing story races to a conclusion of devastating impact.

The New York Times bestselling True Crime Files series continues with this haunting collection of the dangers lurking among those we trust the most-from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me. Doomed relationships and deadly betrayals are at the heart of this unputdownable collection of true cases from the personal files of Ann Rule, "America's best true-crime writer" (Kirkus Reviews). First is one of the most tragic unsolved crimes of the last twenty years: the disappearance of Susan Powell and the murder of her two young sons. With in-depth research and clear-eyed compassion, Rule leaves no stone unturned as she searches for the truth in this shocking story. Rule also chronicles the strange tale of a Coronado, California mansion that was the site of two horrifying deaths only days apart: a billionaire's son's plunge from a balcony and his girlfriend's hanging. Although the cases are quickly closed, baffling questions remain. In these and seven other riveting cases, Ann Rule exposes the twisted truth behind the facades of Fatal Friends, Deadly Neighbors.

Press coverage of the 1888 mutilation murders attributed to Jack the Ripper was of necessity filled with gaps and silences, for the killer remained unknown and Victorian journalists had little experience reporting serial murders and sex crimes. This engrossing book examines how fifteen London newspapers - dailies and weeklies, highbrow and lowbrow - presented the Ripper news, in the process revealing much about the social, political, and sexual anxieties of late Victorian Britain and the role of journalists in reinforcing social norms. L. Perry Curtis surveys the mass newspaper culture of the era, delving into the nature of sensationalism and the conventions of domestic murder news. Analyzing the fifteen newspapers - several of which emanated from the East End, where the murders took place - he shows how journalists played on the fears of readers about law and order by dwelling on lethal violence rather than sex, offering gruesome details about knife injuries but often withholding some of the more intimate details of the pelvic mutilations. He also considers how the Ripper news affected public perceptions of social conditions in Whitechapel. 'It is a major contribution to cultural history', Christopher Frayling, Rector of the Royal College of Art, London 'An excellent book that offers a new angle on an always fascinating subject', John Davis, Queen's College, Oxford L. Perry Curtis, Jr., is professor of history and modern culture and media at Brown University, Rhode Island.

By the age of nine, I will have lived in more than a dozen countries, on five continents, under six assumed identities. I'll know how a document is forged, how to withstand an interrogation, and most important, how to disappear . . . To the young Cheryl Diamond, life felt like one big adventure, whether she was hurtling down the Himalayas in a rickety car or mingling with underworld fixers. Her family appeared to be an unbreakable gang of five. One day they were in Australia, the next in South Africa, the pattern repeating as they crossed continents, changed identities, and erased their pasts. What Diamond didn't yet know was that she was born into a family of outlaws fleeing from the highest international law enforcement agencies, a family with secrets that would eventually catch up to all of them. By the time she was in her teens, Diamond had lived dozens of lives and lies, but as she grew older, love and trust turned to fear and violence, and her family--the only people she had in the world--began to unravel. She started to realize that her life itself might be a big con, and the people she loved, the most dangerous of all. With no way out and her identity burned so often that she had no proof she even existed, all that was left was a girl from nowhere. Surviving would require her to escape, and to do so Diamond would have to unlearn all the rules she grew up with. Wild, heartbreaking, and often unexpectedly funny, Nowhere Girl is an impossible-to-believe true story of self-discovery and triumph.

The men and women of Appalachia are strong and self-sufficient. In Roane County, Tennessee they most often have lived on and between the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains. Times changed and as they did in this story, those who had become clearly isolated in their long-standing culture took change personally. They didn't like it. Leon and Rocky Houston are two such men, along with a large group of sympathetic followers. In the end that sympathy portrayed years of self-styled, anti-government lawsuits as well as the death of a sheriff's deputy and his retired, disabled ride-along officer. To believe the fifteen to twenty years of this rising storm ended in death for two men patrolling the public road "reserved" for the Houston clan came only as somewhat of a surprise. To believe that the storm clouds descended due to a school zone traffic violation five years before the killin's was at first a mystery. But a deep look at Rocky's 2001 courtroom "ticket tantrum" unveiled much more: Then and there he reportedly threw himself on the floor while yelling, "if you remember Waco you haven't seen anything yet." The comment's starkness unwinds within the book to explore the "sovereign citizens and militia mania" of the 90's and where that might have taken the brothers Houstons' thinking and need to kill "a few cops."