True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History
NeuTROPHY KILL:The Sequel—Dan Zupansky
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TRUE MURDER—The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History.
Every week host Dan Zupansky will interview the true crime authors that have written about the most shocking killers of all time. From true crime history, comes the preeminent true crime authorities in America and the world today.
From infamous serial killers, mass murderers, cult leaders and mafia hitmen to family murderers, nazis and homicidal maniacs—True Murder is a veritable true crime archive featuring historic murder cases written about by American legendary prosecutors, judges, journalists, detectives, forensic pathologists and bestselling authors. Featuring books about infamous serial killers such as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, BTK, Jeffrey Dahmer, Golden State Killer, Aileen Wournos, Charles Manson, Zodiac and Son Of Sam—the episode list includes 100's more with over 850 episodes.
Famous true criime authors interviewed include Marcia Clark, John Douglas, Katherine Ramsland, Joseph Scott Morgan, Harold Schecter, and hundreds more.
Unsolved cold cases, wrongful convictions, death row confessions, serial killer couples, psychopathic killers, DNA breakthroughs and convictions, infamous executions, cult killings—every important true crime case ever written about—is here-in this true crime archive—TRUE MURDER—The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History
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TROPHY KILL:The Sequel—Dan Zupansky
The Ravenous Paparazzi had descended on Winnipeg, anxious for any photos, or any story involving Jennifer Lopez and her castmates, Susan Saarndon and Richardf Gere, in the Miramx 's followup to "Chaicago" …
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The Ravenous Paparazzi had descended on Winnipeg, anxious for any photos, or any story involving Jennifer Lopez and her castmates, Susan Saarndon and Richardf Gere, in the Miramx 's followup to "Chaicago", being filmed in Winnipeg, instead of Toronto—because of the fear of the SARS epidemic,
On July 1st, 2003, Winnipeg Police were called by a representative for the "Shall We Dance" movie, to report that a gold necklace belonging to Susan Sarandon had been stolen from Sarandon's trailer on a outdoor movie shoot location near the Legislative Building that morning..
The next morning, July 2nd, around 9:30 a.m., Sidney Teerhuis walked calmly through the visitors entrance into the Winnipeg Remand Center.. He said to a guard there, "I would like to speak to someone. I found a body chopped up in my bathtub, and I've turned myself in because I've killed somebody".
On July 1st, Susan Sarandon and her assistant, called police from the set of "Shall We Dance".to report the theft of some of Sarandon's jewelry, including her gold chain necklace, with amber amulet depicting the 3 saint Christophers , featured prominently. in the film.
The next morning, July 2nd,phers around 9:30 a.m., Sidney Teerhuis walked through the visitors entrance into the Winnipeg Remand Center.. He said to a guard, "I would like to speak to someone. I found a body chopped up in my bathtub, and I've turned myself in because I've killed somebody".
At the rented room police found the victim dismembered, beheaded, sawn in half, disemboweled and castrated with the chest sliced open and all of the internal organs missing!
One eye had been removed and the body was posed, almost entirely bloodless, crudely reassembled.
Hollywood mega-celebrity Susan Sarandon's stolen gold necklace was found a few feet away from the True-Murder-, Shocking-Serial-Killer Spectacle.
Obsessed with celebrity, his role models, legendary serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy—armed with Susan Sarandon's stolen jewelry, Sidney, suddenly takes his next shocking.step in fulfilling his diabolical plan—to achieve his ultimate fantasy...TROPHY KILL:The"Shall We Dance" Murder—The Trial and Revelations of a Psychopathic Killer—Dan ZupanskyTHE VAMPIRE'S CULT—-Chet Hardin
A self-proclaimed vampire.His harem of “witches.”And the small-town murder that shocked America.When twenty-four-year-old Sydney Loofe disappeared after a Tinder date, the quiet town of Wilber, Nebraska was …
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A self-proclaimed vampire.
His harem of “witches.”
And the small-town murder that shocked America.
When twenty-four-year-old Sydney Loofe disappeared after a Tinder date, the quiet town of Wilber, Nebraska was stunned. Days later, her dismembered body was found scattered across nearby fields—and the horrifying truth began to emerge. Sydney hadn’t just met the wrong man. She had crossed paths with a deeply disturbed psychopath and his dangerous accomplice.
In The Vampire’s Cult, investigative journalist Chet Hardin exposes the twisted world of Aubrey Trail, an aging con man who presented himself as an all-powerful being, and Bailey Boswell, the woman who called herself his “queen.” Together, they lured vulnerable young women into a spiral of sex, theft, and psychological manipulation—with deadly consequences.
Through exclusive interviews, firsthand reporting, and chilling detail, Hardin unravels the making of a modern cult—and the social desperation that feeds it. In an era defined by false realities and toxic charisma, The Vampire’s Cult reveals just how easily darkness can disguise itself as devotion.
THE VAMPIRE'S CULT: The Untold Story of Obsession, Control, and a Small Town Murder—Chet HardinBLOOD AND FAME—Peter Rowe
A riveting new look at the parallel lives of Charles Manson and Roman Polanski reveals connections beyond the notorious Tate-LaBianca murders.Since the horrific murder of Sharon Tate in 1969, the names Charles …
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A riveting new look at the parallel lives of Charles Manson and Roman Polanski reveals connections beyond the notorious Tate-LaBianca murders.Since the horrific murder of Sharon Tate in 1969, the names Charles Manson and Roman Polanski have been brutally linked. But new analysis of the parallel and intertwining stories of these two men reveals a connection that preceded that fateful day.
Manson and Polanski shared remarkably similar, and similarly awful, childhoods. In their early years they both developed a hatred of the establishment and of authority—Manson, from being abused by relatives, school staff, and jailors, and Polanski from living under the Nazi regime and then Polish Communists in the 1950s.
Manson was released from prison and promptly went to the wildest place in North America (San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury) at around the same time as Polanski got out of communist Poland and headed for the wildest place in Europe (swinging London). Both men went overboard with the new freedom of the era. Their paths crossed in Hollywood in the late 1960s, where Polanski had wild success, Manson utter failure. Then on August 8, 1969, Manson orchestrated the murder of Polanski’s wife, actress Sharon Tate, and her unborn son.
Combining international celebrity biography, analysis of a high-profile murder, and in-depth consideration of the lasting legacy of the crime in Polanski’s directorial work,
Blood and Fame is a riveting investigation that will appeal to both film lovers and true crime readers alike.
BLOOD AND FAME: The Intersecting Lives of Roman Polanski and Charles Manson—Peter Rowe.CONFESSIONS OF THE GREEN RIVER KILLER—Maria DiLorenzo
A startling profile of one of the most prolific serial killers and the disturbing experience of the journalist who earned his trust for the sake of justice.When crime journalist Maria DiLorenzo mailed a letter …
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A startling profile of one of the most prolific serial killers and the disturbing experience of the journalist who earned his trust for the sake of justice.
When crime journalist Maria DiLorenzo mailed a letter to Gary Ridgway, she never expected him to reply. He refused to speak to reporters and would send only religious materials back to anyone who contacted him in prison—if he replied at all. But instead of silence or a boilerplate letter, Maria’s phone rang–and it was the Green River Killer calling.
Over the next several years, Ridgway would call Maria hundreds of times, using all of his free time in prison to speak with her. Her goal: to pry the details of his dozens of unidentified and unsolved murders from him. His motivation in speaking to her: unknowable. Through these hundreds of hours of phone calls, Ridgway revealed new details about his life, his crimes, and his motives – and manipulated Maria much like he tormented his victims.
An insightful and deeply personal profile of a dangerous mind, Confessions of the Green River Killer is the closest depiction of Gary Ridgway ever seen and a disturbing glimpse into what it’s like to truly know a killer. Experience Gary Ridgway through the eyes and ears of a woman he came to deeply trust—and deeply covet. CONFESSION OF THE GREEN RIVER KILLER: A True Story of Manipulation, Madness and A Search for Justice-Maria DiLorenzoSERIAL CITY—G.H. Cliff
At the turn of the twenty-first century, Detroit investigators faced a nightmare few police divisions ever encounter: multiple serial predators operating at the same time, in the same city, often targeting …
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At the turn of the twenty-first century, Detroit investigators faced a nightmare few police divisions ever encounter: multiple serial predators operating at the same time, in the same city, often targeting vulnerable victims in overlapping neighborhoods.
To the public, the crimes appeared scattered. A schoolgirl attacked on her way to class. A woman assaulted before dawn. A victim deceived, coerced, or ambushed. A body discovered. Separate incidents. Separate headlines.
Inside Detroit’s Major Crimes Division, a more disturbing picture began to form. As detectives compared reports, victim statements, timelines, geography, and behavior, the investigation became something far more difficult than a search for a single suspect. The city was not hunting one predator.
It was hunting several. SERIAL CITY: Detroit and the Hunt for Multiple Serial Predators—G.H.CliffDEPUTY KENT McGOWEN and REASONABLE DOUBTS—Jerry Langton
Jerry Langton is a veteran investigative journalist and bestselling author, writing primarily about outlaw motorcycle gangs and organized crime.Former Harris County Sheriff's Department Deputy Joseph Kent …
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Jerry Langton is a veteran investigative journalist and bestselling author, writing primarily about outlaw motorcycle gangs and organized crime.
Former Harris County Sheriff's Department Deputy Joseph Kent McGowen was sentenced in 2002, to 20 years, his second conviction—for murdering Susan Diane White, in her home, August 25, 1992.
In 2021, after almost 20 years—Kent McGowen was released.
A bestselling book and documentary, depicting McGowen as a killer had been widely seen by the public.
In 2025 McGowen contacted Langton—he wanted to set the record straight and have Langton tell his story.. Langton was very skeptical but decided to conduct his own investigation—and what he discovered—was a man wrongfully convicted of murder.
Author Jerry Langton joins me to discuss his new book, Reasonable Doubts: How Rumor and Innuendo Convicted Deputy Kent McGowen of Murder.REASONABLE DOUBTS—Deputy Kent McGowen
Texas Deputy Kent McGowen shot and killed Susan White after she pulled a gun on him.It seemed like an open-and-shut case of an officer acting in self-defense. But before his first court date, the Houston region …
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Texas Deputy Kent McGowen shot and killed Susan White after she pulled a gun on him.It seemed like an open-and-shut case of an officer acting in self-defense. But before his first court date, the Houston region was inundated with rumor, innuendo and speculation about the case. Many believed those fabrications and half-truths to be fact. And an unsubstantiated-but-persistent story of how McGowen allegedly set up White as a murder victim because they had a relationship, or that she refused to have one, sealed his fate. McGowen was found guilty, Twice.
He's already done his almost 20 years in prison, with this case worth examining for all the incredible ways criminal courts can be manipulated by media, fast-talking lawyers and dubious witnesses. REASONABLE DOUBTS: How Rumor and Innuendo Convicted Deputy Kent McGowen of Murder—Deputy Kent McGowenGOD'S NOT HERE, ONLY DEVILS—Laura Brand
The District Attorney began his opening statement with, "If you don't know what hell is like, you're about to find out." In 1979, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris went on a rape and killing rampage. The pliers …
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The District Attorney began his opening statement with, "If you don't know what hell is like, you're about to find out." In 1979, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris went on a rape and killing rampage. The pliers, screwdrivers, hammers, sledgehammers, and ice picks they used on their victims became their calling card and moniker: The Toolbox Killers. They were soon apprehended and convicted for their atrocities, but for decades, refused to reveal the location of their victims' bodies. More than two decades later, criminologist Laura Brand had the opportunity to interview this sadistic pair as they sat behind bars, probing the depths of their depravity right up to the days of their deaths. Over this relentless six-year period, Bittaker finally gave Brand what he had withheld from law enforcement and families alike: the precise locations of two victims' remains. Brand's investigation tore open sealed police reports, court transcripts, and witness accounts, and unearthed brutal and shocking new findings: undisclosed victims, forgotten evidence, and chilling new insights that resurrected this nightmare in unimaginable ways. God's Not Here, Only Devils is told through a powerful blend of narratives: the voices of Bittaker himself, his victims, traumatized witnesses, the tenacious lead detective, and the hardened District Attorney.. A visceral retelling of the horrors that unfolded and the legacy of terror the Toolbox Killers left behind.
GOD'S NOT HERE, ONLY DEVILS: Revelations From The Toolbox Killers—Laura BrandCRIMES OF OMISSION—Rob Rosen
Truth is supposed to be a journalist’s north star. But during the 2010s, the fourth estate lost its way, abandoning reporting for straight-up activism.In Crimes of Omission, seasoned investigative journalist …
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Truth is supposed to be a journalist’s north star. But during the 2010s, the fourth estate lost its way, abandoning reporting for straight-up activism.
In Crimes of Omission, seasoned investigative journalist Rob Rosen will reveal the full story of the high-profile cases of law enforcement violence that rocked the world.
Through dozens of exclusive interviews, this book transports readers inside the nation’s most influential newsrooms at those crucial moments when the people we trust to inform us chose instead to mislead and inflame.
Crimes of omission aren’t about what is reported—they’re about what’s left out. Discover the disastrous decisions that ripped a nation apart and shattered the credibility of a once noble profession—and prepare to question everything you thought was true. CRIMES OF OMISSION: Distorted Justice—The Media's War on Truth—Rob RosenFIVE EVIL WOMEN—Joanna Bourke
Why do certain women become icons of evil? This book offers the first comparative, non-sensationalist account of five of the most reviled women in the modern Anglophone world: Myra Hindley, Rosemary West …
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Why do certain women become icons of evil? This book offers the first comparative, non-sensationalist account of five of the most reviled women in the modern Anglophone world: Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Aileen Wuornos, Karla Homolka, and Karla Faye Tucker.
It examines their lives, crimes, and cultural reception in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada, asking how violence committed by women is understood, judged, and remembered.
Going beyond moral outrage or tabloid headlines, the book explores how concepts of “evil” are shaped by history, belief systems, and social context. Through historical and ethical reflections, it offers a deeper, more critical engagement with female violence and considers how society should respond to those who commit acts of unimaginable harm. FIVE EVIL WOMEN: Hindley, West, Wournos, Homolka, Tucker—Joanna BourkeTHE DEATH OF GEORGIA'S KYLE CLINKSCALES—James B. Longshore and Sheriff Donny Turner
A True Crime Mystery Four Decades in the Making.On the cold night of January 27, 1976, twenty-two-year-old college student Kyle Clinkscales vanished after leaving his bartending shift at the Moose Club in …
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A True Crime Mystery Four Decades in the Making.
On the cold night of January 27, 1976, twenty-two-year-old college student Kyle Clinkscales vanished after leaving his bartending shift at the Moose Club in LaGrange, Georgia. His disappearance baffled investigators and devastated his parents, John and Louise, who spent decades chasing rumors, suspects, and false leads in one of the South’s most haunting cold cases.
For years, Kyle’s story became a staple in true crime circles, a case that blended small-town secrets, whispers of foul play, and the agony of parents who refused to give up. Then, in 2021, a shocking discovery was made: Kyle’s car submerged in an Alabama creek, with his remains inside. Suddenly, the case once thought frozen in time was thrust back into the spotlight.
Was Kyle’s tragic end the result of an accident? Or was it a carefully staged cover-up, concealing a brutal murder that eluded justice for nearly half a century? With modern forensic analysis and renewed investigative efforts, this chilling mystery raises more questions than answers.
Delve deep inside the twists and turns of Kyle Clinkscales’s disappearance and discovery―exploring law enforcement missteps, local rumors, and the enduring fight of a family unwilling to surrender hope. More than just a Southern true crime story, Kyle’s case helped inspire legislative reform for families of the missing, proving that even decades-old mysteries can change lives. Author James B Longshore details the forty-plus-year ordeal. THE DEATH OF KYLE CLINKSCALES—James B. Longshore and Sheriff Donny TurnerTHE COMMISSIONER—Rodney K. Harrison
One Man. One Mission. Justice. In the Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer.Rodney K. Harrison’s life could have gone the way of the drug dealers he grew up with in South Jamaica, Queens. Instead, a twist of …
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One Man. One Mission. Justice. In the Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer.
Rodney K. Harrison’s life could have gone the way of the drug dealers he grew up with in South Jamaica, Queens. Instead, a twist of fate and relentless drive led him to become the NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed officer and, later, Police Commissioner of Suffolk County on Long Island—where he engineered the arrest of the elusive Gilgo Beach serial killer.
Harrison survived a false arrest as a teenager and later dodged bullets as an undercover in Brooklyn. He calmed the fallout of Eric Garner’s chokehold death on Staten Island, worked shoulder-to-shoulder with outspoken community leaders in Harlem, brought Jam Master Jay's killers to justice, removed bricks from the 9/11 Twin Towers, dealt with looters during the pandemic on the streets of New York—and always advocated for every victim.
This real-life Blue Bloods true crime story chronicles the triumphs, controversies, politics, and dangers that define modern policing in America’s largest city.
Harrison shares these true crime stories:
The harrowing night his undercover partner was shot on the street.
An insider’s view of the investigations that shaped headlines—from Jam Master Jay to his career-defining case, putting the Gilgo Beach serial killer (he called him "the Devil that walks among us") behind bars, and the personal sacrifices and moral dilemmas behind the badge.
More than a cop’s story—a rare, unfiltered look at crime, justice, and resilience in New York. Now a crime commentator on CBS and corporate security consultant,
THE COMMISSIONER: From Street Cop To Top Cop in the NYPD, and the Inside Story of the Hunt for the Long Beach Serial Killer—Rodney K. HarrisonSTOLEN LIVES—Rod Kackley
They hunted together. They killed together. And for years, no one stopped them.For years, Gerald and Charlene Gallego traveled the highways of California and Nevada, searching for their next victims.They didn’t …
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They hunted together. They killed together. And for years, no one stopped them.
For years, Gerald and Charlene Gallego traveled the highways of California and Nevada, searching for their next victims.
They didn’t look like killers. He was quiet, calculating, and obsessed with control. She was young, vulnerable—and willing to do whatever it took to survive.
Together, they abducted, tortured, and murdered young women, leaving behind a trail of fear that stretched across state lines.
But behind the headlines was something even more disturbing.
Charlene wasn’t just a witness. She was part of it. And Gerald wasn’t just a predator. He was building something far darker—a life fueled by domination, manipulation, and violence.
As investigators closed in, the truth began to unravel: A pattern of calculated abductions. A partnership built on fear and dependency. A series of crimes that went unchecked for far too long.
Stolen Lives: The Gallego Murders takes you inside the interrogation rooms, the courtroom, and the minds of two people bound together by something far more dangerous than love.
This is a story of survival. Of manipulation. And the moment the killing finally stopped.
A chilling true story of control, survival, and the deadly bond between two killers. STOLEN LIVES: The Gallego Murders—A Shocking True Crime Story—Rod KackleyKILLING THE LIEUTENANT—Lt. Raul J. Diaz and Sean Oliver
The infamy of Miami's cocaine wars of the 1970's and 80's is forever etched into the darkest chapters of U.S. history, and Lt. Raul Diaz was on the frontlines for all of it. The decorated and controversial law …
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The infamy of Miami's cocaine wars of the 1970's and 80's is forever etched into the darkest chapters of U.S. history, and Lt. Raul Diaz was on the frontlines for all of it. The decorated and controversial law enforcement figure identified the shifting tide in the Magic City when law enforcement lost their grip on crime as a new breed of criminal flooded South Florida to ply their billion-dollar trade.
In a deadly exclamation mark, Colombian cocaine godmother Griselda Blanco and her assassins swept through the city with a bloody and ruthless ambition that left countless dead bodies along the way. Lt. Diaz organized and spearheaded the multi-agency task force CENTAC-26 to combat Blanco and the cartels.
Raul came to the US at age thirteen accompanied by only his younger brother and overcame insurmountable odds after finally finding law enforcement as his calling. He never did things the traditional way, and that wasn’t a popular position in the regulated world of police work.
His successes came at a costly price, both professionally and personally, putting him in the crosshairs of those with an axe to grind, shockingly on both sides of law enforcement. The man profiled in books, documentaries, and the Netflix series Griselda is here to share the story previously told by others—now, finally told by the one man who knows the truth behind every kilo, kidnapping, and corpse. KILLING THE LIEUTENANT: Fighting Miami's Cocaine Wars, Hunting Griselda Blanco, and My Fight To Stay Alive—Lt. Raul J. Diaz and Sean OliverTHE FAMILY MAN—James Lasdun
An immersive account of a seemingly loving father's transformation into a "family annihilator."In March 2023, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife and younger son at Moselle, their home in South …
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An immersive account of a seemingly loving father's transformation into a "family annihilator."
In March 2023, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife and younger son at Moselle, their home in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. By then, the story had become headline news across the country, with its revelations of corruption in high places, massive fraud, opioid abuse, fake suicides, suspicious accidents, and the generational recklessness of the wealthy legal dynasty at its center. Having covered the case for The New Yorker, where his article became the magazine’s most read story of the year, the acclaimed novelist James Lasdun brings his long-standing interest in the darker drives of the human psyche to an investigation into the serial embezzlements, fatal boat crash, and other events leading up to the slaughter at Moselle. “Justice may have been served,” Lasdun writes in the preface to The Family Man, "but the human element of the story didn’t seem to add up."
Having traveled extensively in the Lowcountry, Lasdun draws on original interviews (including with Murdaugh’s notorious "Cousin Eddie"), transcripts of phone calls Murdaugh made from prison, the literature of criminal psychology, and the murder trial itself. Deeply researched, sharply written, and with the page-turning intensity of a Southern gothic novel, The Family Man constructs a masterful portrait of Murdaugh and the mind-boggling crimes that wreaked havoc on his community. THE FAMILY MAN: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh—James LasdunBROKEN PLEA—Christopher Whitcomb
Was there more than one killer? Had the crime scene been cleaned and sanitized before the police arrived? Was furniture staged to throw off detectives? In one of the most extraordinary true crime stories ever …
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Was there more than one killer? Had the crime scene been cleaned and sanitized before the police arrived? Was furniture staged to throw off detectives? In one of the most extraordinary true crime stories ever published, Broken Plea questions what really happened in the house on King Road—and the results of that investigation will astound you.
In the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, four lives were lost in a brutal crime in Moscow, Idaho—and a nation demanded answers. When a suspect accepted a plea bargain, the story seemed settled. Justice, many believed, had been served.
Broken Plea challenges that assumption.Drawing on court records, investigative timelines, witness statements, and apparently overlooked inconsistencies, this meticulously researched exposé examines how a rush to judgment may have shaped one of the most closely watched murder cases in recent memory.
As the official narrative hardened, critical leads went unexplored, contradictory evidence was minimized, and alternative explanations faded from view. This book does not claim certainty where none exists. Instead, it asks the questions that were never fully pursued: What happens when pressure to close a case outweighs the search for truth? What evidence may have been sidelined, and why? And what are the consequences when a plea doesn’t end scrutiny but invites it? Clear-eyed, unsparing, and deeply unsettling, Broken Plea reopens the case—and invites people to look again at what justice demands when the truth remains unresolved. BROKEN PLEA: The Explosive Search for Truth Behind the Idaho Murders-Chris WhitcombTHE TRIAL OF ARTHUR J. SHAWCROSS—Michael Benson
In 1990, Monroe County’s daytime television viewing habits were disrupted by a TV first: the live broadcast of The People v. Arthur J. Shawcross. Never before had home viewers anywhere been given access to …
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In 1990, Monroe County’s daytime television viewing habits were disrupted by a TV first: the live broadcast of The People v. Arthur J. Shawcross. Never before had home viewers anywhere been given access to gavel-to-gavel coverage of a sordid murder trial. The show lasted eleven weeks, September to December. Viewers that normally followed daytime dramas or game shows were instead focused on the trial of a serial-killer who’d confessed to killing ten women in Monroe County, and one more in Wayne County, but whose lawyers claimed he was insane and not responsible for his actions. Fans of courtroom dramas like Perry Mason, now saw the real thing, sometimes lazy in its pacing, but raw and unfiltered in its subjects and language. The show ran on cable station WGRC (Greater Rochester Cable) and was set in teak-paneled Courtroom 206 of the Monroe County Public Safety Building, which had been equipped and wired as a TV studio.
A few watched the first day’s broadcast, were repulsed and changed the channel. Most viewers however were fascinated and watched for the rest of the fall.
The show’s villain obviously was Shawcross, yet he put no work into his role. . Throughout, he sat at the defense table motionless and silent, staring at his shoes.
The hero was Assistant District Attorney Charles Siragusa, who led the prosecution. By the trial’s third week, Siragusa was receiving fan mail and baked cookies from “groupies.”
Not every witness fared well under the lights. One defense witness, a forensic psychiatrist on the stand for many days, while trying to convince the jury of Shawcross’s insanity, drew unwanted laughter and was eventually satirized by morning radio shows because of her rambling answers and disorganized demeanor.
For several weeks, videotapes were shown in the courtroom (and on Channel 5) of the defendant supposedly under hypnosis, describing horrific acts that went well beyond what we’d ever heard discussed in our own homes: necrophilia, cannibalism, atrocities in Vietnam, cruel incestuous abuse. Shawcross claimed in falsetto that his mother took over his brain when he killed, much like Alfred Hitchcock’s twisted villain Norman Bates in the movie Psycho.
The prosecution’s star witness was forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz. He, too, had extensively examined Shawcross, but not under hypnosis. He concluded that Shawcross was faking his mental illness, that he was not psychotic but rather a malingering psychopathic, not crazy just extraordinarily mean.
“He is an anti-social. He lacks moral scruples and any sense of empathy,” Dr. Dietz testified.
Viewers were horrified to learn that Shawcross as a young man had killed two children near Watertown, N.Y., ten-year-old Jack Owen Blake, murdered on May 7, 1972, and eight-year-old Karen Ann Hill, killed May 7, 1972. For those crimes, Shawcross served only 15 years in prison and was released into Rochester in 1987 to kill again. THE TRIAL OF ARTHUR J. SHAWCROSS: And Other Stories of Rochester Murders—Michael BensonTRIAL BY AMBUSH—Marcia Clark
In this dramatic true account about the power of sensationalized crime, one woman’s case is exposed for its sexism, flagrant disregard for the truth, and, ultimately, the dangers posed by an unbridled …
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In this dramatic true account about the power of sensationalized crime, one woman’s case is exposed for its sexism, flagrant disregard for the truth, and, ultimately, the dangers posed by an unbridled prosecution. Unwanted and neglected from birth, Barbara Graham had to overcome the odds just to survive. Her beauty was both a blessing and a curse―offering her too many options of all the wrong kind. Her innate sensitivity left her vulnerable to the harsh realities of the street, where she was left to fend for herself before she reached double digits. Her record of petty crimes spoke to a life that constantly teetered on the brink of disaster.But in 1953, a catastrophic twist of fate would catapult her out of obscurity and into the headlines.When a robbery spiraled out of control and escalated into a brutal murder, Barbara became the centerpiece of a media circus. Her beauty enraptured the press, and they were quick to portray her as a villainous femme fatale despite abundant evidence to the contrary―a fiction the prosecution eagerly promoted.The frenzy of public interest and willful distortion paved a treacherous path for Barbara Graham. In Trial by Ambush, author and criminal lawyer Marcia Clark investigates the case exposing the fallacies in the demonizing picture they painted and the critical evidence that was never revealed. TRIAL BY AMBUSH: Murder, Injustice, and the Truth about the Case of Barbara Graham—Marcia ClarkDEAD IN THE WATER—David J. Farrell, Jr.
The gripping inside story of Nathan Carman’s crimes from the maritime lawyer who solved his multimillionaire mother’s disappearance at sea and his even wealthier grandfather’s shooting death in bed.When Nathan …
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The gripping inside story of Nathan Carman’s crimes from the maritime lawyer who solved his multimillionaire mother’s disappearance at sea and his even wealthier grandfather’s shooting death in bed.
When Nathan and Linda Carman were a week overdue on a fishing trip out of Point Judith, Rhode Island, few thought they would still be alive. Even the Coast Guard had called off its search. So it seemed miraculous when Nathan was spotted—on a life raft, 106 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard—by the Chinese freighter ORIENT LUCKY.
But was it more than luck? Nathan survived but his mother did not. Then news broke that Nathan was the primary suspect in his grandfather’s murder three years before, though the case chilled from a missing firearm. The last person to see both victims alive, twenty-two-year-old Nathan was now in line for a $10 million inheritance!
Or was Nathan, evidently on the Autism spectrum, plain unlucky to have lost the only two people close to him? As he claimed on national TV, was the focus on him as the “the lowest hanging fruit” just prejudice?
With no witnesses, no charges in his grandfather’s shooting, and no body for his mother lost at sea, both cases might have gone cold…except that Nathan made an insurance claim for his lost boat. Enter maritime attorney David J. Farrell, Jr. who ties together Nathan’s evil and greedy scheme.
Follow the author’s team dissect Nathan’s final voyage, extract exclusive testimony, and assemble evidence from around the world. In Dead in the Water, you’ll pull up a seat inside the federal court trial to see if Nathan’s dream of drifting away with millions of dollars comes true. DEAD IN THE WATER: The Real Story of Nathan Carman—David J. Ferrell Jr.MURDER IN THE FOURTH ESTATE—Jeremy Duda
“They finally got me… Emprise…the Mafia…John Adamson. Find him.”Investigative reporter Don Bolles used his final words to name the people he believed had set the car bomb that had left him dying in a hotel …
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“They finally got me… Emprise…the Mafia…John Adamson. Find him.”
Investigative reporter Don Bolles used his final words to name the people he believed had set the car bomb that had left him dying in a hotel parking lot in midtown Phoenix.
In his fourteen years as one of Arizona's top reporters, Bolles took on the Mafia, land fraud kingpins, and corrupt politicians. And someone wanted him silenced. Murder in the Fourth Estate is the first definitive account of the case, which is the most infamous assassination of a journalist in American history. MURDER IN THE FOURTH ESTATE: The Assassination of Investigative Journalist Don Bolles—Jeremy DudaMODEL DETECTIVE—Michele Wood
MODEL DETECTIVE takes readers where true crime has never gone before—inside the heart, mind, and soul of a Chicago homicide detective whose grit and instincts prove that a woman’s place is in the homicide …
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MODEL DETECTIVE takes readers where true crime has never gone before—inside the heart, mind, and soul of a Chicago homicide detective whose grit and instincts prove that a woman’s place is in the homicide division.
Sergeant Michele Wood, a 25-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, has spent nearly two decades in the Detective Division. With hundreds of arrests, and an extraordinary record of solving murders, she has led homicide teams while also appearing as a legal expert on ABC’s 20/20 and other national true crime series.
In MODEL DETECTIVE, Wood takes readers through complex murder cases—revealing how she interprets evidence and uses her perspective as a woman to succeed in a male-dominated world. Wood’s skills attest to her high success rate and stellar reputation on the force and explains why she’s Chicago’s (and probably the country’s) only detective who previously worked as a flight attendant, moonlighted as a fitness-magazine model, and continues her on-air fame as a crime TV expert. From the story of her Chicago upbringing to the extraordinary perils of policing in Chicago, MODEL DETECTIVE is the raw inspiring, tale of courage, resilience and determination in America’s most violent city. MODEL DETECTIVE: A True Story of Heels, Handcuffs and Homicides—Michele WoodCONVERGENCE—Gregg Owen
This story seems impossible. But every word is true.Convergence is the account of a vicious double homicide in 1970s Chicago and a trial that almost didn't happen.This is a different kind of true crime book. It …
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This story seems impossible. But every word is true.
Convergence is the account of a vicious double homicide in 1970s Chicago and a trial that almost didn't happen.
This is a different kind of true crime book. It isn't a mystery, because the killer was arrested right away. It's not a police story, although Convergence is there at every step of their investigation. It's not a defense lawyer's story. This is a story from the other side of the courtroom.
Convergence is the story of Gio Messina and Delphine Moore's murders and the trial that followed, but this time told from the perspective of the prosecution. You are there to witness how a case is built, how it's brought to court, and how it unfolds when the trial starts. You see what happens when power and money try to keep the trial from starting at all. You follow the prosecution from the courtrooms of Chicago to rural Tennessee looking for new evidence to replace the evidence that vanished.
You're introduced to the choreography of the courtroom: listening in on the careful strategizing, understanding the thought behind what a jury hears, and getting a close view of what's involved in how it's presented. Most importantly, you're introduced to Mike Goggin and Gregg Owen, the two prosecutors who fought to have the case heard. Goggin and Owen had set a record for convictions that still stands. They refused to let the Messina and Moore murders break it.
Convergence is a historical snapshot of a time when Chicago was changing, and a timeless picture of how justice is sought and found. CONVERGENCE—Gregg OwenTHE BLOOD COUNTESS—Shelley Puhak
From the author of the national bestseller The Dark Queens, an incandescent work of true crime and feminist history about Elizabeth Bathory, the woman alleged to be the world's most prolific female serial …
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From the author of the national bestseller The Dark Queens, an incandescent work of true crime and feminist history about Elizabeth Bathory, the woman alleged to be the world's most prolific female serial killer.
There have long been whispers, coming from the castle; from the village square; from the dark woods. The great lady-a countess, from one of Europe's oldest families-is a vicious killer. Some even say she bathes in the blood of her victims. When the king's men force their way into her manor house, she has blood on her hands, caught in the act of murdering yet another of her maids. She is walled up in a tower and never seen again, except in the uppermost barred window, where she broods over the countryside, cursing all those who dared speak up against her.
Told and retold in many languages, the legend of the Blood Countess has consumed cultural imaginations around the world. But despite claims that Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed as many as 650 girls, some have wondered if the Countess was herself a victim-of one of the most successful disinformation campaigns known to history. So, was Elizabeth Bathory a monster, a victim, or a bit of both? With the breathlessness of a whodunit, drawing upon new archival evidence and questioning old assumptions, Shelley Puhak traces the Countess's downfall, bringing to life an assertive woman leader in a world sliding into anti-scientific, reactionary darkness-a world where nothing is ever as it seems. In this exhilarating narrative, Puhak renders a vivid portrait of history's most dangerous woman and her tumultuous time, revealing just how far we will go to destroy a woman in power. THE BLOOD COUNTESS: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster—Shelley PuhakTHE TYLENOL MURDERS—Joseph Cibelli
Chicago, 1982. Seven people swallowed Tylenol capsules meant to heal, then they died within minutes. America changed overnight, then the killer vanished into darkness, and that darkness lived in my home.I was …
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Chicago, 1982. Seven people swallowed Tylenol capsules meant to heal, then they died within minutes. America changed overnight, then the killer vanished into darkness, and that darkness lived in my home.
I was eleven, and my father was The Tylenol Killer that terrorized a nation.
He created chaos, and confessed with his last breath. I uncovered the truth, and the rot behind his badge. He built lies, and I built a case. I tore the mask from the madness and discovered that each clue led deeper into a labyrinth of deceit.
I stripped his name from mine, and I stripped his power too. He found me, and threatened my life, but I did not run. Instead, I shined a light into his darkness.
From the son who would not stay silent, THE TYLENOL MURDERS: A Father’s Confession to His Son reveals a confession buried under four decades of fear, complicity, and blue-walled denial. The truth is not a eulogy. It is an indictment. And it bears my name. THE TYLENOL MURDERS: A Father's Confession to His Son—Joseph Cibelli1926—MURDER IN AMERICA—David Kulczyk
Homicide historian David Kulczyk releases 1926—Murder in America—New and Expanded Edition for the 100th anniversary of the deadliest year in American history.While researching his seven true crime books …
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Homicide historian David Kulczyk releases 1926—Murder in America—New and Expanded Edition for the 100th anniversary of the deadliest year in American history.
While researching his seven true crime books, Kulczyk noticed that there was an extraordinary number of oddball murders during the year 1926. The 1920's was a time of massive cultural and technological changes. The death and destruction of World War l dope -slapped the collective mindset of the youth of America and 1926 was the year that Americans all over the country said screw it. And screw it they did.......Mixing too much bootleg booze, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, with fast cars, sex, and jazz music can only lead to trouble. The number of allegedly normal people committing ghastly murders in 1926 is astounding. It is like a switch got turned on and some people went mad unlike any other time in American history.
Originally released in 2019, Kulczyk discovered even more murders that occurred in 1926, hence this anniversary edition of the most insane year in American history. 1926—MURDER IN AMERICA—David KulczykKILLER IN THE HOUSE—Kathryn Canavan
A meticulously researched page-turner about one of the Philadelphia suburbs’ most shocking 20th-century crimes. A gunman broke into Jack and Peggy Abt’s house moments after the last family member left for the …
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A meticulously researched page-turner about one of the Philadelphia suburbs’ most shocking 20th-century crimes. A gunman broke into Jack and Peggy Abt’s house moments after the last family member left for the day. He took a seat next to the upright piano in the living room and waited silently for 11 hours. He didn’t eat. He didn’t sleep. He didn’t watch television.
People expect things to go bump in the night, but, in 1976, most adults never fretted a stranger would invade the sanctity of their home in the middle of the day. Six people walked through the kitchen door one by one that afternoon, all expecting nothing more than a Friday night fish fry. The killer leaped out from behind the living room wall over and over and over and over and over and over again. He fired at them at a distance of less than 18 inches, the width of a dining room chair. After each murder, he dragged the body to the basement. Then, to maintain the element of surprise, he sped back upstairs to tidy up for his next unsuspecting victim.
This first-person story from a news reporter who was on the scene 90 minutes after the killer slipped away is built from autopsy reports, prison records, IQ tests, trial transcripts, the killer’s own eidetic confession, interviews with witnesses in 1976 and in the 2020s, and the author’s experiences covering the case from the first night to the stunning courtroom moment when the announcement of six death penalties was met with loud cheers.
With that research, it was possible to reconstruct the six murders, minute by minute. Tension builds as the six innocent victims turn the kitchen doorknob at 3:30, 4:15, 4:40, 5:15, 6:10 and at 6:30. Readers know their fates, but they didn’t. KILLER IN THE HOUSE: Ten Days of Terror in a Pennsylvania Suburb—Kathryn CanavanFEAR AND FURY—Heather Ann Thompson
On December 22, 1984, in a graffiti-covered New York City subway car, passengers looked on in horror as a white loner named Bernhard Goetz shot four Black teens, Darrell Cabey, Barry Allen, Troy Canty, and …
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On December 22, 1984, in a graffiti-covered New York City subway car, passengers looked on in horror as a white loner named Bernhard Goetz shot four Black teens, Darrell Cabey, Barry Allen, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur, at point-blank range. He then disappeared into a dark tunnel. After an intense manhunt, and his eventual surrender in New Hampshire, the man the tabloid media had dubbed the “Death Wish Vigilante” would become a celebrity and a hero to countless ordinary Americans who had been frustrated with the economic fallout of the Reagan 80s. Overnight, Goetz’s young victims would become villains.
Out of this dramatic moment would emerge an angry nation, in which Rupert Murdoch's New York Post and later Fox News Network stoked the fear and the fury of a stunning number of Americans.
Drawing from never-before-seen archival materials, legal files, and more, Heather Ann Thompson narrates the Bernie Goetz Subway shootings and their decades-long reverberations, while deftly recovering the lives of the boys whom too many decided didn't matter. Fear and Fury is the remarkable account and a searing indictment of a crucial turning point in American history. FEAR AND FURY: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage—Heather Ann ThompsonIN PUBLIC RECORD—Michael Kelly
September 1990. In Shaker Heights, Ohio, teenage honors student Lisa Lee Pruett vanishes into the night. A boy calls 911 when she does not arrive for a secret late-night meet-up. Police soon find her nearby …
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September 1990. In Shaker Heights, Ohio, teenage honors student Lisa Lee Pruett vanishes into the night. A boy calls 911 when she does not arrive for a secret late-night meet-up. Police soon find her nearby, stabbed to death and left exposed.
Lisa had just passed an important test and earned her driver’s license. She was a Girl Scout, athlete, musician, and lover of poetry. Then her life was cut short.
Investigators quickly focused on a troubled young man who lived a few blocks away. His name leaked, the media swarmed, and the case became a spectacle. Two years later, he was indicted on controversial testimony, tried under national attention, and ultimately acquitted. His life never recovered.
Decades later, the murder remains unsolved.
Now a former police officer, Michael Kelly, reopens the trail, determined to separate rumor from evidence and find the truth, if it is still there to be found. IN PUBLIC RECORD: A Journey to the Truth of a Murder and Trial—Michael KellyTHE THAMES TORSO MURDERS— Suzanne Huntington
The latter part of the Victorian era bore witness to a series of unexplained female dismemberment cases that plagued London for a period of thirty years. All the cases remain unsolved and only two women were …
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The latter part of the Victorian era bore witness to a series of unexplained female dismemberment cases that plagued London for a period of thirty years. All the cases remain unsolved and only two women were ever identified. Today, the circumstances surrounding these deaths have largely become a footnote in history, dwarfed in attention by their much larger cousin, Jack the Ripper.
In this, Suzanne Huntington’s groundbreaking exploration of the subject, we see the first in-depth analysis into all the cases, where 150 years of assumption and misinformation is stripped back and the evidence re-examined, allowing the reader to comprehend not only the complexity of the cases themselves but also the background and context of the investigations. THE THAMES TORSO MURDERS: Fact or Fiction—Suzanne HuntingtonWHERE MURDER LIES—Burl Barer and Frank C. Girardot Jr.
The murder of a retired Los Angeles schoolteacher in 2004 never made the evening news, yet within hours arrests were made, charges filed, and a speedy conviction sent to prison Jimmy Kitlas, an incredibly shy …
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The murder of a retired Los Angeles schoolteacher in 2004 never made the evening news, yet within hours arrests were made, charges filed, and a speedy conviction sent to prison Jimmy Kitlas, an incredibly shy, special needs teenager with no criminal history whatsoever.
20 years after the murder, a woman named Kelley Leigh asked Burl Barer and Frank C. Girardot to investigate. She believed that the case’s rapid resolution concealed a deeper, more troubling narrative—one marked by deception, manipulation, dishonesty, and a profound disregard for truth and justice.
She was right. Of the last three people to see the victim alive, only one had both the motive and the opportunity to strangle him to death, and it wasn’t Jimmy Kitlas.
What begins with a dead body on the bed leads to a bizarre scheme to steal a fortune in gold, a plot to smuggle MDMA, and an incredible joint effort by the American Mafia and the Russian Mob to defraud the United States Government out of billions of dollars. WHERE MURDER LIES: Death and Deception in West Hollywood—Burl Barer and Frank C. Giradot Jr.
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