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Books > Fiction > True stories > Crime
Jimmy James was only twelve-years-old when he tried drugs for the
first time. That one taste of marijuana affected him the rest of
his life. He didn't graduate from high school, but he did graduate
with excellence from the drug game, which eventually led him into
the drug dealer lifestyle.
It's that lifestyle that contributed to forty-year-old Jimmy
James' arrest for the death of a female friend, forty-four-year-old
Lisa Amour. A general laborer in Huntsville, he was charged with
first-degree reckless homicide by use of the dangerous weapon of
cocaine.
"A Line 2 Die 4" provides a firsthand account of his actions
and thoughts, his arrest, incarceration, court proceedings, and
interactions with police, attorneys, family, and friends. At one
time in his life, James felt on top of the world as a user and
dealer. But a dealer's life will end in one of three ways: broke
and living on the street with no family or money, dead on the
street, or in prison. That's the story of James' life.
On 7 November 1938, an impoverished seventeen-year-old Polish Jew
living in Paris, obsessed with Nazi persecution of his family in
Germany, brooding on revenge - and his own insignificance - bought
a handgun, carried it on the Metro to the German Embassy in Paris
and, never before having fired a weapon, shot down the first German
diplomat he saw. When the official died two days later, Hitler and
Goebbels used the event as their pretext for the state-sponsored
wave of anti-Semitic violence and terror known as Kristallnacht,
the pogrom that was the initiating event of the Holocaust.
Overnight this obscure young man, Herschel Grynszpan, found himself
world-famous, his face on front pages everywhere, and a pawn in the
machinations of power. Instead of being executed, he found himself
a privileged prisoner of the Gestapo while Hitler and Goebbels
prepared a show-trial. The trial, planned to the last detail, was
intended to prove that the Jews had started the Second World War.
Alone in his cell, Herschel soon grasped how the Nazis planned to
use him, and set out to wage a battle of wits against Hitler and
Goebbels, knowing perfectly well that if he succeeded in stopping
the trial, he would certainly be murdered. Until very recently,
what really happened has remained hazy. Hitler's Scapegoat, based
on the most recent research - including access to a heretofore
untapped archive compiled by a Nuremberg rapporteur - tells
Herschel's extraordinary story in full for the first time.
"Rigor mortis had set in by the time police arrived," Special
Prosecutor Tony Clayton told the jury, watching their eyes as they
viewed the photograph of the bloodied arm of Geralyn Barr DeSoto.
Geralyn's clenched fist, frozen in death away from her body, held
her secret. "Geralyn was trying to tell us something. She was
telling us how hard she fought. She was telling us who her killer
is. 'Right here, ' she said. 'Right here I have the killer. Just
open my hand. Just open my hand, and you'll know who did it to
me.'" Two months later: "Charlotte Murray Pace fought from one room
of that apartment to the other," Prosecutor John Sinquefield told
jurors as they blinked tears away. "She clawed, she hit, she
fought. As her young, strong heart pumped its last blood out of the
holes he cut out of her, she fought. And in the fight, he took her
life, her body. But he could not take her honor. She preserved her
honor by the way she lived and the way she died. That fight is not
over, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Charlotte Murray Pace has
brought her fight to you." These crimes are vividly depicted in
this first comprehensive book about Derrick Todd Lee. I've Been
Watching You-The South Louisiana Serial Killer dramatically tells
the story of Lee's life and follows the timeline of his reign of
terror over South Louisiana. Readers will become intimately
acquainted with the seven victims who have been linked to Lee by
DNA, along with the frustrated investigators who could not catch
this diabolical killer. This recounting also details the murders of
ten other women who were not connected by DNA, but whom these
authors believe should be included on the list of Lee's victims due
to strong circumstantial evidence. There are many unanswered
questions regarding these series of killings. How did Lee find his
victims, and why did he choose them? Why didn't the Multi-Agency
Homicide Task Force believe he was the killer when his name was
brought repeatedly to its attention? What evil possessed him to
rape and murder so many women? All of these questions are answered
as I've Been Watching You journeys for more than a decade through
the small towns and swamps of South Louisiana to create a graphic
accounting of Lee's vicious rapes and homicides. I've Been Watching
You vividly paints the portrait of this monster and the beautiful
women who died as a result of his twisted compulsion to kill.
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
There is a cancer growing on the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS). The best and brightest agents we have are being
systematically harassed out of DHS. This is a story of bureaucracy
run amok at the expense of our national security. We are less safe
now than before "9-11," even though billions of taxpayer dollars
have been spent. Why? This is the gripping true story of National
Security Whistleblowers and their courageous fight for justice
against the very people who are supposed to be protecting us. If
these whistleblowers lose their fight we all lose. What America's
enemies have not been able to accomplish will be done instead from
within our own government. The Honorable Roger T. Benitez, United
States District Judge, while presiding over "Fitzgerald-Nunn Vs.
Department of Homeland Security" "Boy, there's something about this
that doesn't pass the smell test " "All Americans who read this
book should worry about the government's ability to protect us from
terrorist and drug lords."-Mark Edwards, former Marine and host of
the "Wake Up America" radio show. "They who give up essential
liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither
liberty or safety."-Benjamin Franklin "This should be one of the
few books that not only every attorney should read, but every one
who calls themselves a patriot."-Attorney and Veteran Austin Price
"This is a MUST READ for anyone who is concerned with the long-term
viability of the republic."-Travis Alexander, CEO World Wide
Protective Services, and former Marine. "A coincidence is a
remarkable concurrence of events or things without apparent
connection-Here too many things connect."-Attorney Gastone Bebi
during land mark case "Fitzgerald-Nunn Vs. Department of Homeland
Security"
During the last few decades, financially and technologically
corrupt practices, such as financial and technological crimes,
frauds, forgeries, scandals, and money laundering, have been
monitored in many countries around the globe. There is a general
lack of awareness regarding these issues among various stakeholders
including researchers and practitioners. Concepts, Cases, and
Regulations in Financial Fraud and Corruption considers all aspects
of financial and technological crimes, frauds, and corruption in
individual, organizational, and societal experiences. The book also
discusses the emergence and practices of financial crimes, frauds,
and corruption during the last century and especially in the
current technological advancement. Covering key topics such as
financing, ethical leadership, tax evasion, and insider trading,
this premier reference source is ideal for computer scientists,
business owners, managers, researchers, scholars, academicians,
practitioners, instructors, and students.
Anita Biressi examines the historical origins and development of true crime and its evolution into distinctive contemporary forms. Embracing a range of non-fiction accounts including true crime books and magazines, law and order television, and popular journalism, Biressi traces how they harness and explore current concerns about law and order, crime and punishment, and personal vulnerability.
How would you feel if you were convicted of a crime you did not
commit? Would you lie down and do nothing? Would you accept the
truth that the judicial system played out for you? Would you fight
for the truth? Would you seek justice that isn t there for you?
Would you do everything in your power to fight for your freedom? Or
would you just allow the judicial system to tear your world apart?
These are some of the things that I had to answer in my book
Justice or just Us . . . You Decide. Justice or Just Us is an up
close and personal account of the inadequacies of the judicial
system on racial profiling. No matter what walk of life you come
from, this can happen to you. It takes place in Eastbay, California
in the city of Devils Bay. I was a 41yr old African American
disabled woman that was wrongfully accused of a crime I did not
commit. Before this happened in my life my record was clean. The
charges were 2 counts of battery on a couple (man and woman). This
couple befriended me, stole from me, lied about me, used me, and
wanted to sue me to get money. On their last few days at living
above me, they decided to put their plan into action. I walked out
of my house, and was dragged into the bushes underneath the stairs
at the apartments and beaten by them. As I lay there I am screaming
bloody murder for they both were beating on my body, as I was
begging someone to call the police, my poor black body was being
brutally beaten. The Police told them to press charges against me.
The Caucasian Officer said to me How dare you come into my town
thinking you can beat up on my white women . At that point I knew I
was in for a long hard, drug out fight of my life. In my story I
will show you the evidence, the transcripts, all paperwork
pertaining to this incident and bring you through the process. All
I ask is to look at the evidence and decide for yourself if this
was a fair verdict. From the Misrepresentation of Attorneys, to
witnesses testimonies, to the unfair treatment at the hospital, to
the inadequate judges in the trial and appeal process, all the way
through to the sentencing and home monitoring. This book will take
you through from the incident to the trial and beyond."
Death in a Texas Desert is a fast-paced collection of 17 compelling
true crime stories from the pages of the award-winning The Dallas
Observer. From the "Phantom Killer" that haunted Texarkana in teh
mid-1940s to the day of terror in 1991 when a crazed man began
spraying bullets into Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, author Carlton
Stowers recoutns the infamy and infamous from the crime files of
Texas.
WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES ALAN PATON AWARD
On 9 June 2003, a 43-year-old coloured man named Magadien Wentzel walked out of Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town. Behind him lay a lifelong career in the 28s, South Africa's oldest and most reviled prison gang, for decades rumoured to have specialised in rape and robbery. In front of him lay the prospect of a law-abiding future, and life in a household of eight adults and six children, none of whom earned a living. Jonny Steinberg met Wentzel in prison in the dying months of 2002. By the time Wentzel was released, he and Steinberg had spent more than 50 hours discussing his life experiences.
The Number is an account of their conversations and of Steinberg's journeys to the places and people of Wentzel's past. Wentzel had lived a bewilderingly schizophrenic life, wandering to and fro between three worlds: the arcane universe of prison gangs, steeped in a mythology of banditry and retribution, where he was known as JR; the fringes of South Africa's criminal economy, where he lived by a string of stolen names and learned the arts of commercial fraud; and his scattered family which eked out a living int the coloured ghettos of the Cape flats. The Number visits each of those worlds in turn. It is a tale of modern South Africa's historic events seen through the eyes of the country's underclass.
Surprisingly, perhaps, it is neither a story of passivity nor despair, but of beguiling ingenuity and cool cynicism. Most of all, the book is an account of memory and identity, of Wentzel's project to make some sense of his bewildering past and something worthy of his future. When Steinberg met him, Wentzel was embarking on a quest to retrieve the name he had been given at birth. He was also beginning the daunting task of gathering together the estranged children he had sired into a nuclear family. It was an eccentric and painful venture for a man with his past, but it has led him to construct an account of himself that begs to be told.
'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.
Here is the story of Sante Kimes, a cold-blooded, calculating
killer who lived according to her own mad rules, conned her way
into millions with logic, cunning, and subterfuge and left a
cross-country trail of bodies. Dragging her brain-washed and
beloved son into her devious and passionate acquisition of houses,
furs, and cars, she indoctrinated the boy into the subtle craft of
thievery -- and murder. The focus of this book is the trial and
conviction of Sante and Kenneth Kimes for the bizarre murder of
Irene Silverman, whose New York mansion they were attempting to
steal. The fascination lies in the amazing story of Sante Kimes --
a woman whose sociopathic tendencies know no bounds -- and whose
dedication to evil has few equals.
From January through October 2003, a group of individuals engaged
in an in-depth discussion of the death of one of the 20th century's
most beloved figures, Marilyn Monroe. The result is "The DD Group,"
the highly detailed work of author David Marshall. It chronicles
Monroe's final day and her tragic and puzzling demise.
Using available information including police reports, vintage
magazine and newspaper accounts, documentaries and biographies, and
correspondence with some of the principals in the case, the group
had one purpose--to reconstruct the events of Monroe's last summer
and reach an understanding of what likely took place on August 4,
1962.
By verifying sources, considering agendas, and, above all else,
applying logic, the DD Group was able to weed through the
conflicting and often contradictory reports. Through careful
research and study, they arrived at the most comprehensive
understanding of the events surrounding Monroe's disturbing
death.
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