Criminal History

From pre-Civil War times, through the Old West era, and into the gangster era of the early 1930s and beyond, Greene County, Missouri, has seen more than its share of spectacular crimes. In 1837, the very first murder in Springfield, the seat of county government and the largest city, involved several of the town’s leading citizens. In 1865, just after the close of the war, James Butler Hickok ushered in the era of the Wild West gunfight in America when he shot and killed Davis Tutt on the Springfield public square. In 1886, nationally known temperance revivalist Emma Molloy was implicated...

Norco '80 tells the story of how five heavily armed young men - led by an apocalyptic born-again Christian - attempted a bank robbery that turned into one of the most violent criminal events in US history, forever changing the face of American law enforcement. Part action thriller and part courtroom drama, Norco '80 transports the listener back to the Southern California of the 1970s, an era of predatory evangelical gurus, doomsday predictions, megachurches, and soaring crime rates, with the threat of nuclear obliteration looming over it all.

Mafia is an absorbing introduction to the mob's most influential personalities - their lives, loves, and terrible crimes. It also provides an in-depth history of the role of the mob in Sicily and America. For anyone who wants to know the truth about organized crime and understand the violent forces that have shaped it over the last century, this book is an indispensable guide.

A warning before we begin: this book is not for the faint-hearted. There are no disguises here, no softened edges. You won’t find sugar-coated versions or incomplete accounts—only the raw, disturbing, and brutal reality of the most ruthless killers the world has ever known. Think you know the world’s most infamous killers? This book goes far beyond the usual names. From the notorious figures to the ones history barely remembers, here you’ll uncover lesser-known stories, details overlooked by the media, and the darkest, most chilling aspects of their atrocities. Each chapter delves ...

The Dark Side of History: 50 True Crime Stories of Murder, Power and Intrigue By Prof. Heinrich Müller Step into the shadowy corridors of history where power, passion, and politics collide in chilling acts of true crime. In this gripping and meticulously researched collection, renowned historian Prof. Heinrich Müller unveils 50 of the most fascinating real-life crimes from ancient times to the 21st century. These are not just tales of murder—they are windows into the darkest corners of human ambition, greed, and betrayal. From ancient political assassinations to modern-day spy scandals,...

A young man from a privileged family, Jan Mydlar, is about to graduate from medical school when a sudden shift of fate changes his life forever. He becomes stuck in the most detested profession for the rest of his life—an executioner. Master Jan Mydlar finds himself in the middle of historical events of Bohemia. The religious and political turmoil in the Habsburg empire reaches its climax in the beginning of the 17th century. When Protestant leaders throw imperial Catholic governors out of the window of their offices at the Prague Castle, a civil war between Protestants and Catholics in ...

A colorful and groundbreaking account of the most storied friendship of the American West: the bond between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday: Legendary gunfighters and friends who gained immortality because of a thirty-second shootout near a livery stable called the O.K...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The most famous true crime novel of all time "chills the blood and exercises the intelligence" (The New York Review of Books)—and haunted its author long after he finished writing it. On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the...

From human stew to hammer murders, these are the crimes nightmares are made of. Why read ghost stories when history drips with cannibals, assassins, and ritual killers? This collection brings together all three volumes of the series, delivering 60 chilling true crime stories and mysteries from around the world. Within these pages lie the darkest corners of human history: serial killers who stalked with hammers, ritual murders steeped in superstition, cannibal feasts, political assassinations that shook nations, and unsolved mysteries that defy explanation. Each story is meticulously ...

This, the 3rd book in the Steampunk Vampires series, is also the 5th book in the Game of Freedom series. The WarSpell multiverse is a large and varied multiverse full of mostly earthlike worlds connected by the Merge World. In this book the first cross connection between game worlds is shown. As John Graham is contacted by the recovering Vampire Missy Blackwell to open a route from Twir’s World to the Steampunk world of Missy’s birth. The Steampunk world is a world of vampires and werewolves where magic is used to make steam technology work better. It is also a world of the late ...

In the late summer of 1944, 80 British Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers undertook a covert commando raid, parachuting behind enemy lines into the Vosges Mountains in occupied France to sabotage Nazi-held roads, railways, and ammo dumps, and assassinate high-ranking German officers, undermining the final stand of Hitler's Third Reich. Despite their successes, more than half the men were captured, tortured, and executed. After the war ended, a top-secret black ops unit was formed to hunt down the SS commanders who had murdered their special forces comrades....

“A provocative and page-turning work of true crime.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A provocative, eerily lyrical study of the heyday of American serial killers . . . A true-crime story written with compassion, fury, and scientific sense.” —Kirkus (starred review) Named a Most...

On the night of June 13th, 1944, a 12-man SAS unit parachuted into occupied France. Their objective: hit German forces deep behind the lines, cutting the rail-tracks linking Central France to the northern coastline. In a country crawling with enemy troops, their mission was to prevent Hitler from rushing his Panzer divisions to the D-Day beaches and driving the Allied troops back into the sea. It was a Herculean task, but no risk was deemed too great to stop the Nazi assault.

Current Edition - Updated Annually Step into the shadowy realm of humanity's most notorious figures The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers: Who, When, Where, Why! delves into the lives, methodologies, and dark motives of the world's most infamous predators. From Victorian London's fog-laden alleys to the modern streets of Beijing, each page unveils chilling tales and mind-boggling mysteries. Discover not just the crimes, but the twisted psyches behind them. Learn about the tireless detectives, the unsolved enigmas, and the very fabric of what creates a killer. A great research tool and a must-...

Brought to you by Penguin. When does a bandit become a monarch? When does a gang become a government? And is organised crime at the heart of every modern state? On a thrilling whistle-stop tour of how the world's criminal underbelly has shaped state-making, capitalism, globalisation and all...

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The renowned author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell—and the ones we don’t—shape our realities. “Ta-Nehisi Coates always writes with a purpose. . . . These...

ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 The definitive history of Russia’s most secret spy program, from the earliest days of the Soviet Union to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and a revelatory examination of how that hidden history shaped both Russia and the West. More than a century...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time...

SLASHED: THE UNFORGETTABLE TRUE STORY THAT HAUNTED A GENERATION On a sweltering July night in 1966, Chicago’s South Side descended into madness. Eight young student nurses—each with a dream, a future, and a purpose—were bound, brutalized, and murdered inside their shared townhouse. The man responsible, Richard Speck, would become one of the most infamous names in American criminal history. The nation would never be the same. “The night Chicago screamed” was more than a headline—it was the night America lost its innocence. THE KILLER WHO CHANGED AMERICA FOREVER Richard Speck ...

“Valerie Bauerlein’s blistering, unforgettable account of the Murdaugh saga leaves no stone unturned, helping us finally truly understand the man at the center of one of the century’s wildest crime stories.”—Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road and Lost Girls Power, privilege...