Bestselling true-crime author M. William Phelps, star of the new investigative television series "Dark Minds," takes readers to his own backyard in these eight bloodcurdling murder cases. Think New England is all bucolic landscapes and Robert Frost poems? Think again. In Murder, New England, Phelps explores different motives, themes, and community reactions to horrific crimes: ** Murder by Blood: The Strange Death of Rebecca Cornwell (1673, Narragansset Bay, RI). A 73-year-old widow burned to death in front of her bedroom fireplace...** William Beadle: Husband, Father, Murderer (1782, Wethersfield, CT). A man murders his wife and kids before taking his own life... ** The Angry Man: Murder in Manchester (1821, Manchester, NH). A poor widow killed in her home by a "ruffian" looking for food and drink...** Better Off in Heaven: John Kemmler Kills His Three Children (1879, Holyoke, MA). After losing his mill job, a man kills his daughters because he fears they will become prostitutes... ** Birth of the "Big Seven": Gaspare Messina's Mafioso (1917, Boston). An ol' fashioned Mafia murder tale...** Electronic Kill Machine: "Forensic Files" Murder (2001, Somerville, MA). Teenage slackers, the show "Forensic Files," and the murder of a grandmother blamed on TV, youth, drugs, sex, money, and rock-n-roll...** Sings of Life (2006, Lanesborough, MA). A woman employs the help of her cocaine-snorting daughter and Goth son to help her get rid of their step-father.** Sesame Street Murder: Death on Big Bird's Estate (2008, Woodstock, CT). A young woman out for a jog murdered by the groundskeeper of an estate owned by the puppeteer who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. [Page Two of spread] A chilling scene unfolds on the Woodstock, Connecticut, estate of the Sesame Street puppeteer who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch: Near the end of the access road was a picnic area with a large pagoda-like structure topped by an A-framed roof. Two paddle boats were stored under the ceiling of the open-air building. The pagoda had that sacred, spiritual look one would expect of a place to relax and meditate. Here was a haven separated from the main living space where one could retreat and disconnect from the world. What upset the serenity of the scene was the trail of blood. It lead from the roadway directly to the pagoda-and yet stopped in the center of the ground under the ceiling. The paddle boats, investigators noticed, had blood spatter and smudge marks on them. But what did it mean that the trail of blood just stopped? As they continued to search, troopers looked above them and spied a set of pull-down stairs. There was a storage area or attic within the pagoda's A-frame. The blood trail had stopped directly beneath the pull-down stairs.

The gripping tale of a legendary, century-old murder spree *** A silent, simmering killer terrorized New England in1911. As a terrible heat wave killed more than 2,000 people, another silent killer began her own murderous spree. That year a reporter for the Hartford Courant noticed a sharp rise in the number of obituaries for residents of a rooming house in Windsor, Connecticut, and began to suspect who was responsible: Amy Archer-Gilligan, who'd opened the Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids four years earlier. "Sister Amy" would be accused of murdering both of her husbands and up to sixty-six of her patients with cocktails of lemonade and arsenic; her story inspired the Broadway hit Arsenic and Old Lace. The Devil's Rooming House is the first book about the life, times, and crimes of America's most prolific female serial killer. In telling this fascinating story, M. William Phelps also paints a vivid portrait of early-twentieth-century New England.

Phelps dares to tread where few others will: into the mind of a killer. ""TV Rage"" Phelps is a true-crime veteran. ""New York Post""The missing-persons case of Heather Strong, a young, beautiful suburban mother, baffled Florida detectives. When the file was handed to a veteran investigator, he knew Heather was dead. The challenge was to find her body and whoever killed her. Soon, a sordid triangle of sex, jealousy, and rage came to light.The killers were cunning, manipulative, depraved and they were as close to Heather as a man and a woman could possibly be. Vividly recreated by master investigative journalist M. William Phelps, this riveting account of seething small-town passions is a classic tale of crime and justice. Includes 16 Pages Of Dramatic Photos"

WITH PHOTOS Three complete short stories by Investigation Discovery's Dark Minds show host M. Williams with an introduction to the collection by New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen. DANCE WITH THE DEVIL In August 1982, a 30-year-old woman, Jane Goodwin, was found murdered in her Newark, New Jersey apartment. Her killer had strangled Jane until she passed out. Then, reportedly, he ripped open her blouse, posed her with her breasts exposed, and repeatedly stabbed Jane in the chest. He left no fingerprints or DNA-just a shattered, grieving family. Over the next 19 years, three other women were attacked in a similar fashion. Two of them, Karen Osman (at Rutgers University in Newark) and Carmen Rodriquez (in Hartford, Connecticut) died at this monster's hand. Police eventually caught their assailant, Edwin "Ned" Snelgrove, a promising college grad with an uncontrollable desire to hurt women. Ned was jailed. Yet while serving a 20-year sentence, he developed a twisted obsession with one very sick hero-infamous serial murderer Ted Bundy, a man he wrote about extensively in his prison letters to a friend. Ned studied the notorious killer, looked up to him. And as Ned festered in prison, waiting for the day he was to be cut loose, he decided he would be better than Bundy when he got out and started killing once again. Author M. William Phelps takes readers to some very dark places here, so hang on. EASTBOUND STRANGLER Here, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Phelps takes readers and fans of the series deep into his personal life and a dark connection to the Eastbound Strangler case, how he feels about several suspects named by law enforcement, and shares an exclusive interview he conducted with a woman who claims she was with the Eastbound Strangler and his final victim, Kim Raffo, on the night before Kim's body was found. In November 2006, the bodies of four women were discovered in a drainage ditch behind a row of hotels, on the fringes of Atlantic City, New Jersey. After years of intense investigation, law enforcement remains baffled by the fact the victims' shoes were missing, and their heads were all pointing east. Three of the women were known prostitutes who worked "The Track," a wasteland of broken dreams behind the casinos, on the dark side of Atlantic City's famous boardwalk. NOTHING THIS EVIL EVER DIES Did Son of Sam have an intimate, homosexual relationship with a fellow (serial killer) inmate while in prison? Was Sam's real name Richard Falco? Has Son of Sam-who claimed in 2011 that he does not want to seek parole because he has been "freed" by Jesus Christ-been perpetrating a fraud with his supposed "salvation"? In quoted excerpts from these exclusive letters written by Son of Sam to serial killer Gary Evans, a deeper, more interesting and eccentric psychopath emerges. For the first time, author Phelps explores how Son and Sam and serial killer Gary Evans (from Phelps's bestseller Every Move You Make) became best friends while doing time together in a New York state prison. If you thought you knew Son of Sam, think again. THE SERIAL KILLERS DOWN THE ROAD In this introductory essay, author Gregg Olsen recounts the serial killers who've crossed his path in Washington State - Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway, Linda Burfield Hazzard, and Robert Yates.