It's Halloween, so to help you get spooky, we've curated a list of True Crime ebooks. From Lizzie Borden to Chicago gangs to criminal celebrities, we've got you covered.
The case of Lizzie Bordon is one of the most infamous in criminal history having spawned songs, plays and a range of publications. It also ranks as one of the most puzzling. Having been acquitted of the axe murders of both her parents, Borden then simply returned home and carried on as before only to be roundly ostracised by the stoutly religious local community. Prosecutors never charged anyone else with the crimes leaving the case naggingly unsolved. Here, author Ronald Bartle revisits the events which occurred in Fall River, Massachussets in 1892.
Two Ripper experts examine unsolved murders--from Great Britain and around the world--that occurred during the era of the notorious killer. The number of women murdered and mutilated by Jack the Ripper is impossible to know, although most researchers now agree on five individuals. These five canonical cases have been examined at length in Ripper literature, but other contemporary murders and attacks bearing strong resemblance to the gruesome Ripper slayings have received scant attention. These unsolved cases are the focus of this intriguing book. The volume looks at a dozen female victims who were attacked during the years of Jack the Ripper's murder spree.
The true story of Louisiana serial killer Ronald Dominique's ten-year murder spree, the men he slayed, and the detectives who hunted him down. In 1997, the bodies of young African American men began turning up in the cane fields of the quiet suburbs of New Orleans.
The full story of the life and times of Kieran Patrick Kelly, the London Underground Serial Killer, who wandered up and down the Northern Line of the London Underground between 1960 and 1983, pushing innocent people that he had never met under trains, and who finished up killing over thirty people. The book provides a full biography of Kelly, discussing the details of his crimes, his victims and his ability to evade justice; he managed to secure mistrials or acquittals in twenty-five trials before being eventually convicted and sentenced to die to prison, which he did in Durham, in 2001.
This book was the inspiration for the TV drama 'Dark Angel' which will be shown on ITV and PBS in 2016. As one of the UK's leading commentators, David Wilson shows how some serial killers stay in the headlines whilst others rapidly become invisible - or "unseen". Yet Mary Ann Cotton is not just the first but perhaps the UK's most prolific female serial killer, with more victims than Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Beverly Allit or male predators such as Jack the Ripper and Dennis Nilsen. But her own north east of England (and criminologists) apart, she remains largely forgotten, despite poisoning to death up to 21 victims in Britain's 'arsenic century'.
From the day he was born, Patrick McCullough faced hardships and reacted with untempered anger. His mother, a soon-to-be-divorced military wife, was late to realize that he was deaf and never learned how to handle his outbursts. Eventually, she abandoned him by petitioning for him to be a ward of the state. Stints in mental institutions and dismissals from several schools punctuated the rest of McCullough's early years. Despite this severe childhood, no one could have predicted the outcome of his life described in Deadly Charm: The Story of a Deaf Serial Killer. Authors McCay and Marie Vernon present a compelling story about McCullough, a strikingly handsome man with a winning personality. His charm was endearing, but his incendiary temper resulted in increasing aggression and abuse.
"Serial Killers Around the World: The Global Dimensions of Serial Murder compiles serial murder case studies from several countries - from Australia to Great Britain, and from Japan to Pakistan. The author has covered accounts on a wide array of serial kil"
Believing himself to be on a "God-given mission," Joseph Paul Franklin was the only racially motivated serial killer ever pursued by the Justice Department. Mel Ayton examines his murderous life, from his poverty-stricken youth in a backward Alabama suburb to his indoctrination by militant Nazis and southern racists to his eventual capture by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ayton's exhaustive report uncovers the truth behind Franklin's three-year undertaking to murder Jews and African Americans.
In New York City, crime is big--big in newspaper headlines, big to politicians who win and lose jobs because of a flux in crime, and big in the lore of the city itself. This book begins with a survey of crime in the Big Apple and then focuses on its landmark cases, including the sixteen-year terrorism of the Mad Bomber, the bystander effect in the fatal stabbing of Kitty Genovese, the Son of Sam serial killings, the assassination of John Lennon, the fall of mob boss Paul Castellano, and the murder of Jennifer Levin by Preppie Killer Robert Chambers Jr. AUTHOR: Bryan Ethier is a freelance history writer who lives in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and is the author of True Crime: Connecticut SELLING POINTS: -Introduction to crime in the city -Headline cases
An updated edition of the ultimate serial killer book. Peter Vronsky documents the psychological, investigative, and cultural aspects of serial murder, beginning with its first recorded instance in Ancient Rome to such notorious contemporary cases as cannibal-necrophile Ed Kemper, Henry Lee Lucas, and Ted Bundy. Exhaustively researched with transcripts of interviews with killers, this new edition features up-to-date information on serial killers in the modern era - including the apprehension of BTK and the Golden State Killer.
This book provides a comprehensive sociological explanation for the emergence and continuation of organized crime in Chicago. Tracing the roots of political corruption that afforded protection to gambling, prostitution, and other vice activity in Chicago and other large American cities, Robert M. Lombardo challenges the dominant belief that organized crime in America descended directly from the Sicilian Mafia. According to this widespread "alien conspiracy" theory, organized crime evolved in a linear fashion beginning with the Mafia in Sicily, emerging in the form of the Black Hand in America's immigrant colonies, and culminating in the development of the Cosa Nostra in America's urban centers. Looking beyond this Mafia paradigm, this volume argues that the development of organized crime in Chicago and other large American cities was rooted in the social structure of American society.
The public's fascination with celebrities can reach a fever pitch when celebrities commit or are involved in a crime. Famous victims like the Lindbergh baby and Sharon Tate have raised public outcry against the cruel crimes that claimed their lives. And the trials of celebrity criminals such as Jim Bakker and O.J. Simpson are proof that even the rich and famous are not above breaking the law.
Whether it be Jack the Ripper in nineteenth-century England or Ted Bundy in 1970s America, the public has always been fascinated by the criminal offender type known as the serial killer. Professionals continue to speculate and develop new theories about their identity decades after their crimes ended. But what is it that causes such evilness in individuals that causes them to take an innocent life, not once but multiples times, and for no apparent reason beyond their own perverse psychological gratification? This fascinating book explores this question by looking at the psychosocial determinants of criminal behavior, including serial murder.