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Books > Fiction > True stories > Crime
DESCRIPTION: Elmore Leonard meets Franz Kafka in the wild,
improbably true story of the legendary outlaw of Budapest. Attila
Ambrus was a gentleman thief, a sort of Cary Grant--if only Grant
came from Transylvania, was a terrible professional hockey
goalkeeper, and preferred women in leopard-skin hot pants. During
the 1990s, while playing for the biggest hockey team in Budapest,
Ambrus took up bank robbery to make ends meet. Arrayed against him
was perhaps the most incompetent team of crime investigators the
Eastern Bloc had ever seen: a robbery chief who had learned how to
be a detective by watching dubbed Columbo episodes; a forensics man
who wore top hat and tails on the job; and a driver so inept he was
known only by a Hungarian word that translates to Mound of
Ass-Head. BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER is the completely bizarre
and hysterical story of the crime spree that made a nobody into a
somebody, and told a forlorn nation that sometimes the brightest
stars come from the blackest holes. Like The Professor and the
Madman and The Orchid Thief, Julian Rubinsteins bizarre crime story
is so odd and so wicked that it is completely irresistible.
Canzio Ricci survived a parachute jump behind enemy lines during
WWII. Figuring he has won one roll of the dice, he is determined to
do it his way on the next roll. Coming home after the war he
becomes the smartest gangster on the east coast, living large,
driving big cars, and having beautiful ladies on his arm. Never
busted, never needed a lawyer, he outsmarted police chiefs, mayors,
and other crew bosses. From cons and scams to loan sharkin in
Vegas, its all there. Philadelphia reporter Sal Luca gives details
of what this very wise guy got away with in CANZIO: A Sal Luca Gig.
The true identity of the psychotic ZODIAC killer has been known by
the Mandamus Seven (group of retired law enforcement officers,
federal agents, a minister, and a District Attorney) since March
15, 1971. This true story is now being told for the very first
time. Official corruption and political intervention forced the
investigation into a top-secret, covert status, giving the insane
ZODIAC killer immunity and a license to kill. Of the over 2,500
suspects cleared by the local authorities and the Department of
Justice, this man is the only suspect who had the uncontrollable
and powerful motive adultery Mind and body ravaged by years of
severe alcoholism, his blood-lusting revenge turned him into the
most shocking and vicious killer in our 20th century. Through his
tauntings of the police, his codes, ciphers, and letters, he was on
a mission to redeem his shattered ego, to prove that he is better,
smarter, and more clever than all the judges and police put
together. With lordly arrogance and jealousy, and with the
assistance of the police, he continued his killing spree until he
claimed a total of 37 victims. Lips sealed by secret oaths and
federal obstructions of justice, the investigation was further
impeded by personal associations with the suspect and his
tenacious, intrepid wife, placing family members in imminent
danger. The evidence is overwhelming and given the totality of the
facts, it is the author 's opinion that there is no jury in the
world that would not find the suspect guilty of being the criminal
genius, ZODIAC. Author 's Bio: Lyndon E. Lafferty is an passionate
outdoorsman who hiked to the top of Mt. Lassen three times and once
to the top of Mt. Fujiyama, Japan during the Korean War. He also
made two attempts each to climb Mt. Shasta and Mt. Whitney. Lyndon
holds a U.S. patent and two patents pending. He loves to write and
is currently working on two more novels. Lyndon has an excellent
record with the California Highway Patrol with many commendations
devoting 27 years to law enforcement. He is best known for crushing
the hood and top of a patrol car as he and fellow officers used it
as a platform to rescue 38 injured and trapped passengers on a
commercial bus in November 1976. Inheriting the Zodiac
investigation has been both a blessing and a curse. Bound by oaths
of secrecy to a highly respected homicide detective, his lips were
sealed until the death of the detective in 1977.
Many nefarious characters have passed through Maine on their way to
infamy, including the pirates Dixie Bull and Blackbeard (Edward
Teach), and gangster Al Brady, who was gunned down by G-men in the
streets of Bangor. The rogues and scoundrels assembled in this
book, however, are either Maine natives or notorious individuals
whose mischief, misdeeds, or mayhem were perpetrated in the Pine
Tree State.
Waco and Ruby Ridge were neither conspiracies nor flukes. They
represent the worst-case scenario of problems that now plague
federal law enforcement, including its militarisation, judicial
rubberstamping of search and arrest applications, aggressive and
violent arrest procedures, indifference to religious beliefs, the
complicity of an overzealous media, and failed congressional
investigations. In "No More Wacos", David B. Kopel and Paul H.
Blackman use their expertise in law and criminology to outline the
evidence in these cases and dozens of others to explain how and why
such tragedies occur. Meticulously documented, this volume analyses
all sides of this complex subject: flawed search warrants,
authorities ignoring the difference between religious and criminal
suspects, and intra-governmental deception, among other issues.
Whenever problems are found, specific remedies are proposed - over
one hundred solutions in all - both comprehensive and technical in
nature. Each is offered in the hope of preventing future Wacos by
properly placing federal law enforcement under the rule of law.
"Chicago Tribune" editor Bill O'Connell O'Connell explores one of
the most heinous but least publicized crimes in Illinois history:
the 1968 abduction, sexual assault, and murder of fourteen-year-old
David Stukel by fourteen-year-old bullies Billy Rose Sprinkle and
James Perruquet. O'Connell-David Stukel's Little League
teammate-recalls the victim's idyllic childhood and takes readers
into the minds of the murderers and inside the homes, hearts, and
photo albums of the victim's family, whose grief is palpable a
generation after the crime. His research includes parole
interviews, inmate psychological reports and conversations with the
families of the murderers and the family of the victim.
"Fourteen" is a masterfully crafted, thoroughly insightful
account of the years leading up to, and the four decades since, the
unconscionable and unprovoked slaying of an innocent
ninety-five-pound high school freshman.
Using the Peruvian internal armed conflict as a case study, this
book examines wartime rape and how it reproduces and reinforces
existing hierarchies. Jelke Boesten argues that effective responses
to sexual violence in wartime are conditional upon profound changes
in legal frameworks and practices, institutions, and society at
large.
Pentecostal evangelist Mario Ivan "Tony" Leyva was considered by
many to be a true prophet of God. Clutching his black Bible, for
over twenty-five years Brother Tony delivered mesmerizing sermons
to millions of people. When he proclaimed his vision and version of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Leyva's devoted followers readily gave
their hard-earned dollars to one who, they thought, was clearly
doing the Lord's work. But at the same time, Brother Tony used
Christianity and his status as a respected Pentecostal evangelist
and prophet of God to systematically and insidiously put an end to
the childhood innocence of young adolescent boys in twenty-three
states. This is the hard-hitting true crime story of how Leyva and
his preacher cohorts seduced, sodomized, and pimped the young sons
of hundreds of unsuspecting parents who came to hear them preach.
How did it happen? How could this serial pederast get away with his
crimes for so long without parents' knowing? And how could these
crimes against nearly a thousand boys go undetected by law
enforcement for over two decades? Based on his meticulous
interviews with victims, their parents, and others, Mike Echols
answers these and many other questions.
Christopher Berry-Dee, criminologist and bestselling author of
books about the serial killers Aileen Wuornos and Joanne Dennehy,
turns his uncompromising gaze upon women who not only kill, but
kill repeatedly. Because female murderers, and especially serial
murderers, are so rare compared with their male counterparts, this
new study will surprise as well as shock, particularly in the cases
of women like Beverley Allitt, who kill children, and Janie Lou
Gibbs, who killed her three sons and a grandson, as well as her
husband. Here too are women who kill under the influence of their
male partners, such as Myra Hindley and Rosemary West, and whose
lack of remorse for their actions is nothing short of chilling. But
the author also turns his forensic gaze on female killers who were
themselves victims, like Aileen Wuornos, whose killing spree, for
which she was executed, can be traced directly to her treatment at
the hands of men. Christopher Berry-Dee has no equal as the author
of hard-hitting studies of the killers who often walk among us
undetected for many years, and who in so many cases seem to be
acting entirely against their natures.
Few women seek the profession of law enforcement and even less stay
until retirement. In Crossing the Line, the eighth woman ever to
retire from the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia offers
an in-depth glimpse into her life as a female police officer. When
Connie Novak was hired by the Fairfax County Police in 1979, there
were 700 sworn officers, of which just thirty were women. As Novak
chronicles the good and the evil, the lighthearted and the insane,
the humorous and the sad, she allows others to see what really goes
on behind the yellow police tape. From boot camp where she was
clobbered with a right hook and learned how to shoot a handgun and
shotgun, to the bulletproof vest that made her look like Dolly
Parton, to the gun belt that bruised her hips on a regular basis,
Novak tells a fascinating story of how she balanced a shift-based
career where personal sacrifice is expected with the demands of
motherhood where little people depended on her for everything.
Crossing the Line offers a compelling look into an honorable
profession where officers must be lifesavers, marriage counselors,
judges, and parents-all while keeping their emotions in check. This
is real life.
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