True Crime : Murder

In this chilling investigation of foul deeds and mysterious deaths, former police inspector, Peter N Walker leads the reader through this native countryside in search of the truth behind many unexplained mysteries and unsolved murders. Isolated moorland inns and quiet dales conceal memorable tales of passion and despair from ancient times right up to the present day. This wide-ranging and breathtaking collection of murders and mysteries are intriguing and informative, whether you know the North York Moors or not. more...

Price: $17.99

Jeffrey Dahmer. Ted Bundy. John Wayne Gacy. Over the past thirty years, serial killers have become iconic figures in America, the subject of made-for-TV movies and mass-market paperbacks alike. But why do we find such luridly transgressive and horrific individuals so fascinating? What compels us to look more closely at these figures when we really want to look away? Natural Born Celebrities considers how serial killers have become lionized in American culture and explores the consequences of their fame. David Schmid provides a historical account of how serial killers became famous and how that fame has been used in popular media and the corridors of the FBI alike. Ranging from H. H. Holmes, whose killing spree during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair inspired The Devil in the White City, right up to Aileen Wuornos, the lesbian prostitute whose vicious murder of seven men would serve as the basis for the hit film Monster, Schmid unveils a new understanding of serial killers by emphasizing both the social dimensions of their crimes and their susceptibility to multiple interpretations and uses. He also explores why serial killers have become endemic in popular culture, from their depiction in The Silence of the Lambs and The X-Files to their becoming the stuff of trading cards and even Web sites where you can buy their hair and nail clippings. Bringing his fascinating history right up to the present, Schmid ultimately argues that America needs the perversely familiar figure of the serial killer now more than ever to manage the fear posed by Osama bin Laden since September 11. "This is a persuasively argued, meticulously researched, and compelling examination of the media phenomenon of the 'celebrity criminal' in American culture. It is highly readable as well."—Joyce Carol Oates. more...

Price: $19.00

An award-winning journalist delves behind the scenes of a chilling true crime story aired on TV's 48 Hours Mystery -- and uncovers twisting revelations inside an already shattering case of double homicide. Halloween night in idyllic Napa, California: two young women roommates -- a transplanted Southern beauty queen and a popular engineering graduate from the Napa area -- are brutally stabbed by an intruder who entered their home through a first-floor window. A third roommate heard the horrific commotion but never saw the killer. News of the tragedy sent shockwaves throughout the peaceful region as well as the nation -- but while investigators pursued every angle from a satanic cult to a disgruntled suitor, the murders of Leslie Mazzara and Adriane Insogna remained unsolved. Until someone came forward with a shocking confession -- someone who was close enough to the women to escape suspicion. Someone who knew the victims all too well. Complete with up-to-the-minute court action and the stunning crime scene breakthroughs that turned the case around, here is the full story of the Nightmare In Napa. more...

Price: $7.99

A daughter’s account of how one moment of violence shattered lives, made heroes, and continues to affect change in the world. On March 25, 1988, Debi Whitlock was brutally murdered in her Modesto, California, home. Debi’s murder devastated her family—and sent her loved ones careening on radically different paths. Debi’s mother, Jacque, wanted answers. Over the next nine years, Jacque courageously fought what others called a losing battle—and learned how to deal with the authorities, the media, and the public so that her daughter’s killer would not go unpunished. Debi’s husband, Harold, was tossed down another path. Police investigators focused their suspicions on him, eventually uncovering motives and opportunity—but never enough to make a case. Judged harshly in the court of public opinion, the once funny, intelligent, and fiercely loyal man fell into a spiral of guilt, anger, and alcoholism. Told by Harold’s adult daughter—the last person to see Debi alive—this is the story of a terrible murder and investigation that led to the ultimate end of one man’s life, and a renewed sense of purpose and hope in one woman’s life. more...

Price: $15.00

From Steeltown to the Punjab. The True Story of a Serial Killer. Teeth and fists clenched, it felt every muscle flexed without pause, as though a bolt of lightning ripped through her spinal chord, igniting every fiber, raping the nervous system. Her back arched, muscles contracting violently, teeth pressed together as though in a vise, freezing her face in a grotesque mask. Risus sardonicus was the Latin name the old forensic pathologists gave it: The sardonic smile. The death grin. Poison begins with a beautiful Indian-Canadian woman collapsing in front of her family at home dying an agonizingly painful death. Police are not called to the scene, and a renowned forensic pathologist is stumped over the cause of Parvesh Dhillon's demise. But soon another gruesome death strikes the Indian community in the city known as "Steeltown" - Hamilton, Ontario. This time it's a young man. Again, the cause is a mystery. The beneficiary of his life insurance policy is a close friend named Sukhwinder Dhillon, a native of the Punjab in India and the same man who received a payout for the death of his wife, Parvesh,. Veteran insurance claims investigator Cliff Elliot is dispatched to interview Dhillon. Elliot has his suspicions and calls Hamilton Police, who assign a charismatic homicide detective to the case, setting in motion an incredible international manhunt to catch a serial killer. Jon Wells, an Award-winning journalist, tells a gripping and exotic true story of multiple murder, exhumation, bigamy, and courtroom twists and turns. It is a story that took Jon into the blazing heart of the Punjab so he could walk in the footsteps of the investigators who sought to bring to justice a black-hearted and cold-blooded predator. more...

Price: $18.95