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Books > Fiction > True stories
As a twenty-three-year-old veterinarian, William W. Putney joined
the Marine Corps at the height of World War II. He commanded the
Third Dog Platoon during the battle for Guam and later served as
chief veterinarian and commanding officer of the War Dog Training
School, where he helped train former pets for war in the Pacific.
After the war, he fought successfully to have USMC war dogs
returned to their civilian owners.Always Faithful is Putney's
celebration of the four-legged soldiers that he both commanded and
followed. It is a tale of immense courage as well as of incredible
sacrifice. For anyone who has ever read "Old Yeller" or the books
of Jack London, here is a real-life story that rivals any fiction.
At once a wistful tribute and a stirring adventure, "Always
Faithful" will enthrall readers with one of the great animal
stories of all time.
**As seen on BBC news** **As featured on BBC Radio 4: Today with
Frank Gardner** 'In order to defeat your enemy, you must first
understand them.' - Tamer Elnoury Tamer Elnoury, a long-time
undercover agent, joined an elite counterterrorism unit after
September 11. Its express purpose is to gain the trust of
terrorists whose goals are to take out as many people in as public
and devastating a way as possible. It's a furious race against the
clock for Tamer and his unit to stop them before they can implement
their plans. Yet as new as this war still is, the techniques are as
old as time. Listen, record and prove terrorist intent. Due to his
ongoing work for the FBI, Elnoury writes under a pseudonym. An
Arabic-speaking Muslim American, a patriot, a hero. To many people,
it will be a revelation that he and his team even exist, let alone
the vital and dangerous work they do keeping all of us safe. It's
no secret that federal agencies are waging a broad, global war
against terror. Now, for the first time, an active, Muslim American
federal agent reveals his experience infiltrating and bringing down
a terror cell in North America.
Speak truth to power presents inspiring stories of courage by
remarkable men and women from nearly 40 countries. In searing
interviews conducted by noted activist Kerry Kennedy and with
incisive portraits by photographer Eddie Adams, these heroes speak
of their individual struggles on a variety of issues: from free
expression to children at war, from environmental activism to
religious self-determination, from sexual slavery to minority
rights. A play by the celebrated novelist Ariel Dorfman accompanies
the project and has been performed to acclaim in nine countries and
twenty major cities; an exhibition of photographs tours
internationally, and an educational curriculum for schools is
available in partnership with Amnesty International/USA and other
organizations.
Although they account for only ten percent of all murders, those
attributed to women seem especially likely to captivate the public.
This absorbing book examines why that is true and how some women,
literally, get away with murder. Combining compelling storytelling
with insightful observations, the book invites readers to take a
close look at ten high-profile killings committed by American
women. The work exposes the forces that underlie the public's
fascination with female killers and determine why these women so
often become instant celebrities. Cases are paired by motive-love,
money, revenge, self-defense, and psychopathology. Through them,
the authors examine the appeal of women who commit murders and show
how perceptions of their crimes are shaped. The book details both
the crimes and the criminals as it explores how pop culture treats
stereotypes of female murderers in film and print. True crime
aficionados will be fascinated by the minute descriptions of what
happened and why, while pop culture enthusiasts will appreciate the
lens of societal norms through which these cases are examined.
How a series of violent Amish-on-Amish attacks shattered the peace
of a peace-loving people and led to a new interpretation of the
federal hate crime law. On the night of September 6, 2011, terror
called at the Amish home of the Millers. Answering a late-night
knock from what appeared to be an Amish neighbor, Mrs. Miller
opened the door to her five estranged adult sons, a daughter, and
their spouses. It wasn't a friendly visit. Within moments, the men,
wearing headlamps, had pulled their frightened father out of bed,
pinned him into a chair, and-ignoring his tearful protests-sheared
his hair and beard, leaving him razor-burned and dripping with
blood. The women then turned on Mrs. Miller, yanking her prayer cap
from her head and shredding it before cutting off her waist-long
hair. About twenty minutes later, the attackers fled into the
darkness, taking their parents' hair as a trophy. Four similar
beard-cutting attacks followed, disfiguring nine victims and
generating a tsunami of media coverage. While pundits and
late-night talk shows made light of the attacks and poked fun at
the Amish way of life, FBI investigators gathered evidence about
troubling activities in a maverick Amish community near Bergholz,
Ohio-and the volatile behavior of its leader, Bishop Samuel Mullet.
Ten men and six women from the Bergholz community were arrested and
found guilty a year later of 87 felony charges involving
conspiracy, lying, and obstructing justice. In a precedent-setting
decision, all of the defendants, including Bishop Mullet and his
two ministers, were convicted of federal hate crimes. It was the
first time since the 2009 passage of the Matthew Shepard and James
Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act that assailants had been
found guilty for religiously motivated hate crimes within the same
faith community. Renegade Amish goes behind the scenes to tell the
full story of the Bergholz barbers: the attacks, the investigation,
the trial, and the aftermath. In a riveting narrative reminiscent
of a true crime classic, scholar Donald B. Kraybill weaves a dark
and troubling story in which a series of violent Amish-on-Amish
attacks shattered the peace of these traditionally nonviolent
people, compelling some of them to install locks on their doors and
arm themselves with pepper spray. The country's foremost authority
on Amish society, Kraybill spent six months assisting federal
prosecutors with the case against the Bergholz defendants and
served as an expert witness during the trial. Informed by trial
transcripts and his interviews of ex-Bergholz Amish, relatives of
Bishop Mullet, victims of the attacks, Amish leaders, and the jury
foreman, Renegade Amish delves into the factors that transformed
the Bergholz Amish from a typical Amish community into one
embracing revenge and retaliation. Kraybill gives voice to the
terror and pain experienced by the victims, along with the deep
shame that accompanied their disfigurement-a factor that figured
prominently in the decision to apply the federal hate crime law.
Built on Kraybill's deep knowledge of Amish life and his contacts
within many Amish communities, Renegade Amish highlights one of the
strangest and most publicized sagas in contemporary Amish history.
In February 1983, civil servant Dennis Nilsen was arrested after
body parts were found to be blocking drains at the house where he
lived. As the squad car drove him away, he confessed he had
strangled 15 young men. It wasn't just the crimes that stunned the
police, but the way Nilsen talked. He spoke as if he loved the
young men he killed. His words seemed bizarre. When newspapers
carried stories of how the 37-year-old lured men back to his flat
and why, the nation was shocked by his sheer evil. Yet some
psychiatrists considered him a man of rare, complex, and extreme
psychological problems. Moreover, they had never met a killer who
seemed so keen to understand his own psyche. Whilst on remand in
Brixton Prison, Nilsen filled 55 exercise books with thoughts.
During his subsequent thirty years in prison he has continued to
write, most notably on the first draft of a multi-volume
autobiography. The Home Office has now banned it, calling the work
pornographic and outrageous. Only one journalist has read the book.
Using exclusive access to Nilsen's writing and extensive
independent research, Russ Coffey explains what Nilsen says and how
much of it we can believe. This is a shocking glimpse into the mind
of a killer.
As Judge Robert Clive Jones enters the courtroom, plaintiff
Frank Romano takes a deep breath. Finally, after all this time, his
opportunity to seek justice has arrived. As Judge Jones bangs his
gavel, a trial to determine the responsibility for the largest
cheating scandal in Nevada Gaming History begins.
Several years earlier, beneath the neon lights of Las Vegas,
Romano became a partner in the American Coin Company. In the 1980s,
as the company grew to be the third largest slot company in Nevada,
Romano was content with his challenging and profitable work,
despite regularly being at odds with his partners over the
operating principles of the business. But in 1989, Romano's world
changed forever when American Coin was seized and closed by the
Gaming Control Board for rigging programs. In his gripping story of
white collar crime, Frank shares the incredible details of his fall
from grace and how he dedicated the rest of his life to recovering
his monetary losses and professional reputation.
"American Coin" provides an unforgettable glimpse behind closed
doors of Nevada's biggest gaming scandal as one man embarks on a
road to redemption lined with betrayal, deception, and murder.
National intelligence cultures are shaped by their country's
history and environment. Featuring 32 countries (such as Albania,
Belgium, Croatia, Norway, Latvia, Montenegro), the work provides
insight into a number of rarely discussed national intelligence
agencies to allow for comparative study, offering hard to find
information into one volume. In their chapters, the contributors,
who are all experts from the countries discussed, address the
intelligence community rather than focus on a single agency. They
examine the environment in which an organization operates, its
actors, and cultural and ideological climate, to cover both the
external and internal factors that influence a nation's
intelligence community. The result is an exhaustive, unique survey
of European intelligence communities rarely discussed.
A Thorough, Comprehensive Guide to Serial Killers for True-Crime
Fans Equal parts fascinating and horrifying, the stories of serial
killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer have taken on a new
cultural prominence with the rise of the true-crime genre. Now, The
Wikipedia Encyclopedia of Serial Killers offers murder fans and
curious readers a new opportunity to learn about the lives and
histories of these infamous criminals in greater depth and detail
than ever before. Featuring extensive information about the
backgrounds, crimes and aftermaths, victims, arrests and trials,
and current lives of serial killers across the globe, as well as a
variety of supplemental information--mug shots and crime-scene
photos, letters from murderers, and information on victims and
survivors--this book is an essential guide for all true-crime fans
or any reader who wants an insight into the dark minds of the most
notorious criminals in the world. Included in The Wikipedia
Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, among many others, are: Ted Bundy
The Zodiac Killer John Wayne Gacy Aileen Wuornos Son of Sam Jeffrey
Dahmer The BTK Killer Gary Ridgway Samuel Little Karla Homolka and
Paul Bernardo With nearly six million English-language articles
covering essentially any topic imaginable, Wikipedia is one of the
most visited websites on the internet and an important resource for
anyone curious to learn about the world. This curated selection of
content has been carefully selected and compiled by our editors to
be the definitive book on the subject.
In her bestselling book Slave Girl, Sarah Forsyth told of her
terrible ordeal as a young woman sex-trafficked from England to the
Red Light District of Amsterdam - and of her dramatic escape from
forced prostitution. But Sarah's journey from the dark back into
light was far from over. Still addicted to drugs and drink, she
struggled to cope with life, with love and with the marriage she
desperately hoped would bring her happiness. It would take three
more long and painful years to be rid of the terrible after-effects
of sex slavery. But as she fought her draining battle to survive,
Sarah came to realise that there was something she needed to do. It
was a decision that would take her back into the modern scandal of
sex trafficking - and back into the hell of Amsterdam's Red Light
District. Now Sarah tells the incredible story of her very personal
mental journey to find goodness within herself - and the shocking
and painful physical journey to find the sex slaves she left
behind. Both are journeys which will take all the strength, courage
and love that she has. But if she is to survive, they are journeys
she must make.
In October 1991, three weather systems collided off the coast of
Nova Scotia to create a storm of singular fury, boasting waves over
one hundred feet high. Among its victims was the Gloucester,
Massachusetts-based swordfishing boat the Andrea Gail, which
vanished with all six crew members aboard. "Drifting down on
swimmers is standard rescue procedure, but the seas are so violent
that Buschor keeps getting flung out of reach. There are times when
he's thirty feet higher than the men trying to rescue him. . . .
[I]f the boat's not going to Buschor, Buschor's going to have to go
to it. SWIM! they scream over the rail. SWIM! Buschor rips off his
gloves and hood and starts swimming for his life." It was the storm
of the century, boasting waves over one hundred feet high a tempest
created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists
deemed it "the perfect storm." When it struck in October 1991,
there was virtually no warning. "She's comin' on, boys, and she's
comin' on strong," radioed Captain Billy Tyne of the Andrea Gail
off the coast of Nova Scotia, and soon afterward the boat and its
crew of six disappeared without a trace. In a book taut with the
fury of the elements, Sebastian Junger takes us deep into the heart
of the storm, depicting with vivid detail the courage, terror, and
awe that surface in such a gale. Junger illuminates a world of
swordfishermen consumed by the dangerous but lucrative trade of
offshore fishing, "a young man's game, a single man's game," and
gives us a glimpse of their lives in the tough fishing port of
Gloucester, Massachusetts; he recreates the last moments of the
Andrea Gail crew and recounts the daring high-seas rescues that
made heroes of some and victims of others; and he weaves together
the history of the fishing industry, the science of storms, and the
candid accounts of the people whose lives the storm touched, to
produce a rich and informed narrative. The Perfect Storm is a
real-life thriller that will leave readers with the taste of salt
air on their tongues and a sense of terror of the deep.
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.
There are other manifestations of greatness than to relieve
suffering or to wreck an empire. Julius Caesar and John Howard are
not the only heroes who have smiled upon the world. In the supreme
adaptation of means to an end there is a constant nobility, for
neither ambition nor virtue is the essential of a perfect action.
How shall you contemplate with indifference the career of an artist
whom genius or good guidance has compelled to exercise his peculiar
skill, to indulge his finer aptitudes? A masterly theft rises in
its claim to respect high above the reprobation of the moralist.
The scoundrel, when once justice is quit of him, has a right to be
appraised by his actions, not by their effect; and he dies secure
in the knowledge that he is commonly more distinguished, if he be
less loved, than his virtuous contemporaries. While murder is
wellnigh as old as life, property and the pocket invented theft,
late-born among the arts. It was not until avarice had devised many
a cunning trick for the protection of wealth, until civilisation
had multiplied the forms of portable property, that thieving became
a liberal and an elegant profession. True, in pastoral society, the
lawless man was eager to lift cattle, to break down the barrier
between robbery and warfare. But the contrast is as sharp between
the savagery of the ancient reiver and the polished performance of
Captain Hind as between the daub of the pavement and the perfection
of Velasquez.
Forget Breaking Bad, this is the extraordinary story of the 1970s
Welsh LSD ring that supplied the world, told by a cop in deepest
cover on the case. Life undercover was one great adrenaline rush
fuelled by copious amounts of alcohol, hash, weed and some cocaine.
I was off the leash. In the mid-1970s, at the age of 29, Stephen
Bentley, a fresh-faced detective, turned himself into Steve
Jackson, a dope-smoking, hard-drinking hippie. His time spent
undercover with a gang making and distributing LSD helped bring
down two criminal networks - but the operation also led to deep
personal aftershocks felt long after the case closed. As we get
up-close-and-personal with the people who were the operators of the
drug supply chain that fuelled 70s counter-culture, the story
becomes laden with heavy drug-taking, blurred lines between cop,
criminal and friend, and creeping doubts about who Steve really is.
Taking us into the unlikely setting of the rural Welsh valleys and
infiltrating the gang that was responsible for about 90% of the LSD
production in the UK, Steve Bentley's insider account shows what it
really takes to go undercover - to befriend, to betray and to bury
your sense of self. Now in development as an 8-part TV series.
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