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Books > Fiction > True stories > Crime
Charlie Bronson has spent three decades in solitary confinement,
and yet has stayed as fit as a fiddle, gaining several world
strength and fitness records in the process. Now, in this
no-nonsense guide to getting fit and staying fit, he reveals just
how he's done it. Forget fancy gyms, expensive running shoes and
designer outfits, what you need are the facts on what really works
and the motivation to get on with the job. From his cell at
Wakefield Prison, Charlie has complied this perfect guide to show
you the best way to burn those calories, tone your abs and build
your stamina giving you the know-how you need to be at the peak of
mental and physical form.
Orchestrated to the sounds of getaway cars and machine guns, the
abduction of Oklahoma City businessman Charles Urschel in 1933 was
a highly publicized crime in an era when gangsters were folk heroes
and kidnapping had become a scourge. The criminals' interstate
flight to a desolate hideout in Texas called for federal action,
instigating the most intensive manhunt the country had yet seen. It
also set in motion a chain of events that would have lasting
significance for crime-fighting in America.
In an exciting account of that celebrated manhunt, Stanley
Hamilton rekindles the spirit of yesterday's newsreels to chronicle
the pursuit and capture of George "Machine Gun" Kelly and his wife,
Kathryn. Tapping a wealth of newspaper reports, court transcripts,
literary accounts, and recollections of participants, he draws
readers into the chase and its aftermath, unraveling what was then
considered the most compelling crime mystery of the day.
Hamilton sets the stage with an overview of the lawlessness of
that era and of Kelly's formative years, getting under the skin of
a hard-boiled criminal to show us what made Kelly tick. He
assembles a cast of larger-than-life characters to weave this tale
of true crime, one of the largest of whom was the 38-year-old
director of the national police force, J. Edgar Hoover.
Hoover had revitalized an ineffective agency whose operatives
were still not authorized to carry firearms or make arrests, and
when the Urschel case broke, it was Hoover who stepped up to
coordinate the manhunt. Hamilton takes readers behind the scenes in
Hoover's operation to show how this case was responsible for
popularizing the G-man and institutionalizing the FBI, creating the
agent-as-hero image that replaced earlier characterizations of
blundering foils to glamorous gangsters.
, br>This iconic kidnapping case, breathlessly followed by a
fascinated public, was so quickly and effectively concluded that it
was largely instrumental in bringing about the end of the Gangster
Era in America. "Machine Gun Kelly's Last Stand" brings that era to
life again by providing a fresh look at one of America's most
notorious criminals, vividly recreating the times in which he lived
and sharing the stories of the people whose lives he touched.
Very few women are wartime rapists. Very few women issue commands
to commit sexual violence. Very few women play a role in making war
plans that feature the intentional sexual violation of other women.
This book is about those very few women. Women as Wartime Rapists
reveals the stories of female perpetrators of sexual violence and
their place in wartime conflict, legal policy, and the punishment
of sexual violence. More broadly, Laura Sjoberg asks, what do the
actions and perceptions of female perpetrators of sexual violence
reveal about our broader conceptions of war, violence, sexual
assault, and gender? This book explores specific historical case
studies, such as Nazi Germany, Serbia, the contemporary case of
ISIS, and others, to understand how and why women participate in
rape during war and conflict. Sjoberg examines the contrast between
the visibility of female victims and the invisibility of female
perpetrators, as well as the distinction between rape and genocidal
rape, which is used as a weapon against a particular ethnic or
national group. Further, she explores women's engagement with
genocidal rape and how some orchestrated the ethnic cleansing of
entire regions. A provocative approach to a sensationalized topic,
Women as Wartime Rapists offers important insights into not only
the topic of female perpetrators of wartime sexual violence, but to
larger notions of gender and violence with crucial cultural, legal,
and political implications.
As World War II ended, dancing broke out in the streets of
victorious capitals. But in Washington and Moscow, menacing
ultimatums soon replaced declarations of common purpose. The music
stopped, the Grand Alliance crumbled, and the Soviet Union and the
United States squared off against one another. The victor in this
war would be determined by the outcome of a series of geo-strategic
battles. Which side would capture the Persian Gulfs oilfield's, and
who would seize the Congolese uranium essential for the manufacture
of atomic bombs? And whose air and naval bases would dominate the
globe's vital traffic lanes from the Black Sea Straits to the
Pacific Islands? Three British diplomats, Donald Maclean, Kim
Philby, and Guy Burgess, did everything in their power to see to it
that the Soviet Union prevailed in these clashes. The Cambridge
Spies is the first book to detail their behind-the-scenes effort to
sabotage America's national security apparatus during the crucial
period between 1945 and 1951 when each, at various times, served at
the British embassy in Washington. The book is the result of many
years of digging through the State Department and Foreign Office
records overlooked by previous scholars and undiscovered by
government officials responsible for "purging" such files. For the
first time in history the reader can follow the Soviet spies as
they work behind enemy lines to sabotage the machinery of Western
foreign policy. It is also the first book written by an American on
these fabled British spies, and the first to chronicle their most
effective period as allied diplomats and enemy agents. The
Cambridge Spies reveals the story Washington managed to cover up
for forty years. Telling it at a time the work is beginning to
relive the fiftieth anniversary of many of the events described in
these pages will only add to its explosive impact, and spark new
historical debates on issues of abiding interest and contemporary
concern.
Do you believe in ghosts? In his years of travel writing and
research, Dr. Robin Mead has found that people are almost equally
divided between believers in ghosts and those who think ghost
stories are just that--entertaining stories. In Haunted Hotels in
America, you'll find a state-by-state guide to the lodgings that
cheerfully admit to having an intangible guest or two. Like the
spirits themselves, the stories are extraordinarily varied. Some
are sad. Some are puzzling. A few are even funny. As you uncover
these incredible mysteries, you'll also learn more about: Iconic
ghosts who've established quite frightening reputations that span
over a century The chilling hauntings that have inspired popular
documentaries and Hollywood blockbusters Each hotel's storied
history and its recent hauntings From the mischievous Victorian
children that linger in the hallways of the Gingerbread Mansion Inn
in Ferndale, California to "Old Seth" Bullock, the first sheriff of
Deadwood, South Dakota, who still keeps a watchful eye on the
Bullock Hotel that bears his name, Haunted Hotels in America is
chock full of frights and delights. Ready to plan your next
paranormal adventure? Let Haunted Hotels in America be your guide
along the way.
'I read everything he writes. Every time he writes a book, I read
it. Every time he writes an article, I read it . . . he's a
national treasure.' Rachel Maddow Patrick Radden Keefe's work has
garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award and the
National Book Critics Circle Award in the US to the Orwell Prize in
the UK for his meticulously reported, hypnotically engaging work on
the many ways people behave badly. Rogues brings together a dozen
of his most celebrated articles from the New Yorker. As Keefe says
in his preface: 'They reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations:
crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane
separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power
of denial.' Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging
$150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared
to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist,
spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain, chronicles the quest
to bring down a cheerful international black-market arms merchant,
and profiles a passionate death-penalty attorney who represents the
'worst of the worst', among other bravura works of literary
journalism. The appearance of his byline in the New Yorker is
always an event, and collected here for the first time readers can
see his work forms an always enthralling but deeply human portrait
of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up against
them.
Venture back to the Hudson Valley of 1912 in this unique look at a
salacious historical murder. The Grace murder was Walden's "Lizzie
Borden" case, and author Lisa Melville offers a fascinating
snapshot of a village's past as she chronicles one of the most
infamous murders of its time. Murder was a rare occurrence in the
small village of Walden, New York, 60 miles north of Manhattan. The
Grace case was scandalous, involving sex, lies and a violent murder
which rocked Walden, a small riverside community known for
manufacturing knives. The "Lizzie Borden" case is still one of the
most famous murder cases in America. The Grace case possessed
similarly startling characteristics to the Borden case in the
violence of the murder and family connection, but it also involved
bigamy. Grace not only abandoned his first wife and three children,
but he married a second woman and left her while she was pregnant
with their child. He also stole her family's money to make his
escape. Grace used this money to help finance a new life for
himself in Walden, a life that included yet another wife. Despite
the titillating facts of the murder, the Grace case has nearly been
forgotten. Until now.
A mesmerizing narrative about the rise and fall of an unlikely
international crime boss
In the 1980s, a wave of Chinese from Fujian province began arriving
in America. Like other immigrant groups before them, they showed up
with little money but with an intense work ethic and an unshakeable
belief in the promise of the United States. Many of them lived in a
world outside the law, working in a shadow economy overseen by the
ruthless gangs that ruled the narrow streets of New York's
Chinatown.
The figure who came to dominate this Chinese underworld was a
middle-aged grandmother known as Sister Ping. Her path to the
American dream began with an unusual business run out of a tiny
noodle store on Hester Street. From her perch above the shop,
Sister Ping ran a full-service underground bank for illegal Chinese
immigrants. But her real business-a business that earned an
estimated $40 million-was smuggling people.
As a "snakehead," she built a complex--and often vicious--global
conglomerate, relying heavily on familial ties, and employing one
of Chinatown's most violent gangs to protect her power and profits.
Like an underworld CEO, Sister Ping created an intricate smuggling
network that stretched from Fujian Province to Hong Kong to Burma
to Thailand to Kenya to Guatemala to Mexico. Her ingenuity and
drive were awe-inspiring both to the Chinatown community--where she
was revered as a homegrown Don Corleone--and to the law enforcement
officials who could never quite catch her.
Indeed, Sister Ping's empire only came to light in 1993 when the
"Golden Venture," a ship loaded with 300 undocumented immigrants,
ran aground off a Queens beach. It took New York's fabled "Jade
Squad" and the FBI nearly ten years to untangle the criminal
network and home in on its unusual mastermind.
THE SNAKEHEAD is a panoramic tale of international intrigue and a
dramatic portrait of the underground economy in which America's
twelve million illegal immigrants live. Based on hundreds of
interviews, Patrick Radden Keefe's sweeping narrative tells the
story not only of Sister Ping, but of the gangland gunslingers who
worked for her, the immigration and law enforcement officials who
pursued her, and the generation of penniless immigrants who risked
death and braved a 17,000 mile odyssey so that they could realize
their own version of the American dream. "The Snakehead" offers an
intimate tour of life on the mean streets of Chinatown, a vivid
blueprint of organized crime in an age of globalization and a
masterful exploration of the ways in which illegal immigration
affects us all.
www.doubleday.com
Follow a trial lawyer's career through the demanding, often
controversial, and suspenseful world of jury trials, tension-filled
appeals and the different worlds of courtrooms, jail cells,
corporate boardrooms, and law firms. Each of the cases in the
nineteen chapters were selected from a total of his 150 jury trials
to reflect issues of current importance, including refugees on the
Mexican border, gargantuan gender battles inside one of the largest
corporations in the world, sexual taboos on national television,
accusations of terrorism, government agents who cheat, innocent
prisoners in our jails, the constitutional right to speak and print
the truth, bringing law to a war zone, poverty and murder on Native
American Reservations, current problems of hunger in America, and
more.
THE FINAL WORD FROM THE LAST KING OF GANGLAND WITH A FOREWORD BY
MARTINA COLE 'We couldn't, we wouldn't, let anyone take a liberty.
That was never an option at that time.' Eddie Richardson is the
last brand-name gangster. Say the name and the world of violent
criminality grabs you by the throat. The Richardson brothers, Eddie
and Charlie, and their infamous 'Torture Gang', made money while
their rivals Ronnie and Reggie Kray made fatal mischief. They
fought each other, but now, in 2018, Eddie Richardson says: 'They
tell me blood is thicker than water, but with Charlie it wasn't so.
He was evil.' With his brother dead, Eddie Richardson feels free to
detail the story of a vicious family feud that provoked extravagant
acrimony. No Handcuffs unravels the mysteries of decades of crime
and political incident. The story of a turbulent era, it rivals the
most imaginative fiction in its portrayal of gangland life with all
its chanciness and rawness and careless disregard for any obstacle
on the way to its target, the big money. In an inspired
collaboration with bestselling author Douglas Thompson, the mature
Eddie Richardson is given a voice to reflect on his journey from
the scrapyards of South London to the glitz and glamour of the West
End nightclubs, to the flesh and tease of Soho, down Downing Street
and through the door of Number 10 to the perils of espionage and
international intrigue, and his elevation to demigod status in
hard-men territory - and finally as a high-security inmate at Her
Majesty's pleasure, but with a personal fridge kept well stocked
with gourmet food. No Handcuffs resonates today for, if anything,
greed and corruption are more perverse, more rampant. As Eddie
Richardson points out: 'We wrote the handbook for them.'
the best book on the Mafia in Sicily - its origins, its code of
honour, its secrecy and its brutality. A chilling insight. -
reveals how Mafia violence and corruption crept even into every
aspect of Sicilian society, including the police and the church -
and how this was only possible with the help of the American army,
who gave the Mafia, by then all but destroyed by the Fascist
government, the kiss of life when they occupied the island in 1943
- the perfect companion for any traveller to Sicily, and a gripping
armchair read
A hundred years ago, on the night of 3 October 1922, a
thirty-two-year-old clerk named Percy Thompson was stabbed to death
as he walked home to his suburban villa in Ilford. With him was his
wife, twenty-eight-year-old Edith. His killer was Edith's lover:
Frederick Bywaters, a merchant seaman aged twenty. Bywaters was
hanged for murder on 9 January 1923. So too was Edith Thompson.
There was no evidence, of any kind, that she was involved with the
killing. What condemned Edith were the letters that she had written
to her lover, which were interpreted by the law as incitement to
murder. These letters are remarkable documents. Charged with the
vitality of Edith's voice, they are moving, perplexing, maddening,
banal, spectacularly sensual, infused with a
stream-of-consciousness immediacy. And they have never been
collected in print, until now. In Au Revoir Now Darlint, Laura
Thompson - author of the CWA Gold Dagger-shortlisted Rex vs Edith
Thompson - gathers the letters together alongside illuminating
commentary to tell the story of an ordinary life and an
extraordinary imagination that ultimately led to appalling tragedy.
From Deadwood to Aberdeen, Vermillion to Belle Fourche, the
frontier towns of South Dakota were populated by some of the
toughest and most dangerous characters in the West. Chief Two
Sticks led a starving band of rebels on a desperate path of
destruction. Bud Stevens's murder of a cattle king's son rang a
death knell for an entire town. And bank robbers Stelle and Bennie
Dickinson did their best to become South Dakota's very own Bonnie
and Clyde. All these stories and more come to life in Outlaw Tales
of South Dakota.
'Hugely insightful and thought provoking . . . I read it from cover
to cover in one go' - Emilia Fox 'With characteristic brilliance
and admirable sensitivity, Wilson illuminates the complex causes of
their often horrific crimes' - Professor Simon Winlow, Vice
President of the British Society of Criminology Professor David
Wilson has spent his professional life working with violent men -
especially men who have committed murder. Aged twenty-nine he
became, at that time, the UK's youngest ever prison Governor in
charge of a jail and his career since then has seen him sat across
a table with all sorts of killers: sometimes in a tense interview;
sometimes sharing a cup of tea (or something a little stronger);
sometimes looking them in the eye to tell them that they are a
psychopath. Some of these men became David's friends; others would
still love to kill him. My Life with Murderers tells the story of
David's journey from idealistic prison governor to expert
criminologist and professor. With experience unlike any other,
David's story is a fascinating and compelling study of human
nature.
Gianni Russo was a handsome twenty-five-year-old mobster with no
acting experience when he walked onto the set of The Godfather and
entered Hollywood history. He played Carlo Rizzi, the husband of
Connie Corleone, who set up her brother Sonny, played by James
Caan, for a hit. Russo didn't have to act - he knew the Mob inside
and out, from his childhood in Little Italy, to Mafia legend Frank
Costello who took him under his wing, to acting as a messenger to
New Orleans Mob boss Carlos Marcello during the Kennedy
assassination, to having to go on the lam after shooting and
killing a member of the Colombian drug cartel in his Vegas club (he
was acquitted of murder when the court ruled this as justifiable
homicide). Along the way, Russo befriended Frank Sinatra, who
became his son's godfather, and Marlon Brando, who mentored his
career as an actor after trying to get Francis Ford Coppola to fire
him from The Godfather. Russo had passionate affairs with Marilyn
Monroe, Liza Minelli and scores of other celebrities. He went on to
star in The Godfather: Parts I and II, Seabiscuit, Any Given Sunday
and Rush Hour 2, among many other films in which he also acted as
producer. Hollywood Godfather is his no-holds-barred account of a
life lived on the edge. It is a story filled with violence,
glamour, sex - and fun.
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Chopper
(Paperback)
Mark Brandon Read
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R272
R226
Discovery Miles 2 260
Save R46 (17%)
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Ships in 12 - 19 working days
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Bullied at school, and growing up dreaming of revenge, Mark
'Chopper' Read determined to be the toughest in any company. He
became a crime commando who terrorised drug dealers, pimps, thieves
and armed robbers on the streets and in jail - but boasts never to
have hurt an innocent member of the public. Streetfighter, gunman
and underworld executioner, he has been earmarked for death a dozen
times, but has lived to tell the tale. This is his story.
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