A fascinating journey through the Lone Star State's unruly past--
with maps, photos, and moreTexas rightfully claims a celebrated place in the "wildest" West of both myth and reality--which makes it truly stranger than fiction that "The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Texas" is the first-ever travel guide to the many sites related to the Lone Star State's renowned rambunctious past, complete with GPS coordinates that put you at the scene of the action. From outlaws like Sam Bass and John Wesley Hardin to Bonnie & Clyde and Houston's notorious Candy Man killer, Texas has dozens of places where true-crime buffs can actually stand close to history. For many readers, the attraction to these sites--some well-known, some obscured by time--is irresistible.
Written with the same fast-paced, gripping style that marked the author's widely praised earlier work, "The Crime Buff's Guide to Outlaw Texas"is an indispensable resource for both criminal-history enthusiasts and travelers. Each site description includes a concise summary of the location's significance, historical context, maps, directions, and photos. Praise for a previous book by the same author, " The Darkest Night" "Heartbreaking . . . Not unlike Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood."" --"Chicago"" Sun-Times" "This uncommon story has every chilling component of human terror, drama, and suspense that readers of true crime look for." --Vincent Bugliosi, #1 "New York Times" bestselling author of "Helter Skelter" "A very, very, good book . . . written by a very, very, good writer." --Ann Rule, #1 "New York Times "bestselling author of "Stranger Beside Me"

ONE CAR RIDE. TWO YOUNG SISTERS. A BRUTAL FATE.

Casper, Wyoming: 1973. Eleven-year-old Amy Burridge rides with her eighteen-year-old sister, Becky, to the grocery store. When they finish their shopping, Becky's car gets a flat tire. Two men politely offer them a ride home. But they were anything but Good Samaritans. The girls would suffer unspeakable crimes at the hands of these men before being thrown from a bridge into the North Platte River. One miraculously survived. The other did not.

A CRIME THAT TORE A SMALL TOWN APART.

Years later, author and journalist Ron Franscell--who lived in Casper at the time of the crime, and was a friend to Amy and Becky--can't forget Wyoming's most shocking story of abduction, rape, and murder. Neither could Becky, the surviving sister. The two men who violated her and Amy were sentenced to life in prison, but the demons of her past kept haunting Becky...until she met her fate years later at the same bridge where she'd lost her sister.

"Heartbreaking...not unlike Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood."" --"Chicago"" Sun-Times"

"This uncommon story has every chilling component of human terror, drama and suspense that readers of true crime look for... I highly recommend this engaging book." --Vincent Bugliosi, #1 "New York Times" bestselling author of "Helter"" Skelter"

Would you kill for love? True-crime master Ron Franscell tells the grisly story of Alice and Gerald Uden, a loving couple who murdered at least four people, and live happily ever after--while cops try for decades to piece together a petrifying tale of murder and secrets. The appalling details are made even more vivid by the author's familiarity with the Wyoming times and places that formed the backdrop of his national bestseller The Darkest Night. In 1974, Alice, a desperate young mother in a gritty Wyoming boomtown, kills her husband and dumps his body where it will never be found, then slips away and starts a new life. But when her new man's ex-wife and two kids start demanding more of him, Alice delivers an ultimatum: Fix the problem or lose her forever. With Alice's help, Gerald "fixes" the problem in an extraordinarily ghastly way . . . and they live happily ever after. That is, until 2013, almost forty years later, when somebody finds a dead man's skeleton in a place where Alice thought he'd never be found. This page-turner by bestselling true-crime author Ron Franscell revisits a shocking cold case that was finally solved just when the murderers thought they'd never be caught.

OUTLAW NEW MEXICO continues the popular series that critics, true-crime fans, historians and travelers have hailed as "the ultimate guilty pleasure," "thorough and unflinching," and "the best damn crime travel series ever published " This rollicking romp across the historic New Mexico crimescape promises all the can't-look-away allure of its predecessors ... and a few surprises This is a trip to the Land of Enchantment's darker side, where seemingly idyllic places reveal secrets: Billy the Kid's childhood home, the bridge where two spies started the nuclear arms race, the site of one of America's deadliest (and grisliest) prison riots, the former hippie commune ended by murder, a lonely desert hilltop where a UFO reportedly crashed and made a con-man rich, and many more. With photographs, maps, directions, and precise GPS coordinates, this collection of crime tales is both a travel guide and an entertaining and enlightening read.