Legal True Crime

In the heat of the city, a man is out of time: speeding in a beat-up Ford Tempo, blasting easy-listening music. Reporter Steve Everett drinks too much, makes love to his boss' wife, and has just stumbled upon a shocking truth: A convicted killer is about to be executed for a crime he didn't commit. In the cold confines of Death Row, Frank Beachum is also out of time. Ready to say good-bye to the wife and child he loves and hello to the God he still believes in, Beachum knows he did not kill a convenience store clerk six years ago.

A sinister secret lies buried—one that swallows two young teens into an abyss of mystery. When two young teens at a county fair are drawn to desperate cries emanating from the House of Horrors, their world spins into chaos. They never enter, but suddenly, they're gone—vanished into thin air. Thus begins a baffling mystery into which rookie detective Teresa Simmonds and veteran Allan Yeats are thrown headfirst into a maze of secrets and lies. As they unravel the web of secrets and cover-ups, the question haunts them: What happened to Yasmine and Jerry, and why does no one want the truth ...

It seems straightforward to Attorney Nate Shepherd: a middle-aged billionaire dies while celebrating at a wedding reception. The grief-stricken family lashes out, though, blaming the billionaire’s date for his death. When the family brings all of its power to bear, the wheels of local justice threaten to overwhelm the woman. As Nate Shepherd steps in to defend her, he tries to deflect the misplaced anger that’s directed at the woman for the tragedy. But as the investigation progresses, a tangled history unravels, including unexpected ties to Nate’s own life.

"Defending Alex Murdaugh" Not Guilty by Reasonable Doubt, by Crime and Cask is a deep dive into the murder trial that shocked the nation. When Paul and Maggie Murdaugh's tragic story unfolded, many were left confused as to who did it. In this book, Crime and Cask explores the major pieces of evidence against Alex Murdaugh, and questions what we thought we knew about these murders. His theories use the prosecution's timeline, evidence and testimony from the trial to present you with different results based on real-world thinking and experiments. Crime and Cask made fans with his Murdaugh ...

Examining murder from an insider’s perspective, Matt Murphy—a former senior deputy district attorney and current ABC News legal analyst—discusses cases from his career, how they strained his personal life, and how he found peace seeking justice for victims and their families. Part taxonomy of murder, part prosecutor’s handbook, and part personal memoir, The Book of Murder goes through a dozen cases and his recollections of his 26 years in the Orange County DA’s office (17 in the Homicide Unit).

🔎 25 Chilling Cases of Innocent People Caught in the Crosshairs of Justice 🔎 Imagine being convicted of a crime you didn’t commit. The walls close in, the gavel slams, and the world believes you’re guilty. But what if the real killer is still out there? 📖 True Crimes: Falsely Accused delves into 25 shocking cases where the wrong person took the fall—sometimes due to corruption, false testimony, or sheer bad luck. From cold-blooded murders to high-profile scandals, these stories reveal how fragile justice can be and the horrifying consequences of wrongful convictions. 💀 ...

Abused from the age of eight by her older brother and then her step-father, Maureen Wood quickly became numb to the constant suffering. But Maureen’s world crumbled when her own mother started to abuse her too. A Family Secret is the harrowing true story of how one little girl survived sickening abuse by the people who should have loved her most and how an innocent baby finally saved her.

It’s a total crime wave: A mini encyclopedia of true crime, packed with stories of killers, cons, survivors, forensics and more! More than 200 stories of killers, con artists, master thieves, and brazen kidnappers—and strong survivors, detectives, forensic breakthroughs, and legal minds on...

Twelve jurors. One locked room. A verdict that will change everything. The case against David Kellerman seems open-and-shut. Accused of the brutal murder of his stepdaughter, Mia, the evidence is damning, the motive is clear, and eleven members of the jury are ready to vote ‘guilty.’ The public wants justice for the birthday girl. But Juror #9, Anya, can’t shake a feeling of profound doubt. A small, overlooked detail in the evidence—a detail that connects to her own secret tragedy—suggests a story far more complex than the one the prosecution presented. As she pushes back against ...

“Stunning: so clever, so gripping, so timely.” — Lucy Foley When four influential members are poisoned at London’s most exclusive private club, a young waitress is charged with their murder. Her personal life and upbringing are dissected, and five men begin to question how well they...

In the quiet, close-knit town of Lake Redding, a sudden abduction shatters the community's calm. When seven-year-old Lacy Peters vanishes, her teenage cousin Blakely is left haunted by secrets that everyone in town seems to be hiding. As Blakely digs deeper into the mystery, she uncovers a web of lies that could unravel the town’s reputation and bring a long-buried truth to light. In a race against time, Blakely must piece together the clues before Lacy’s fate is sealed forever.

John Wayne Gacy raped, tortured, and murdered 33 boys and young men, burying most of them in the crawlspace under his Chicago home. Karen Conti was in high school at the time watching the bodies being removed on the television news. Fourteen years pass. Through a twist of fate, Conti, now a young and inexperienced attorney, is called upon to handle Gacy’s final death row appeals. The serial killer soon becomes her most famous, difficult, and haunting client.

Proof doesn’t matter. Corruption hides in plain sight, and justice is just another deal to be made. This book isn’t about speculation. It’s about fact. It’s about how one man was wrongfully charged, how the real shooter walked free, and how the system bent over backward to protect itself instead of the truth. For nearly four years, Larry Rothi sat behind bars in Broward County, Florida — framed by conflicting police reports, protected lies, and a “credible eyewitness” who couldn’t keep his story straight. His sister, Schelli, dug through every statement, every report, every ...

When Sasha’s son Simon vanishes, she teams up with Beth, a former FBI agent, to find him. Their investigation leads them to Tyler, a mysterious newcomer whose guarded behavior only deepens their suspicions. As they uncover a chilling pattern of boys aged 7 to 9 disappearing every December within a 100-mile radius, they also unravel the town’s tangled web of secrets and deception. In this tight-knit community, friends and neighbors harbor hidden motives and dark pasts, where trust becomes a luxury Sasha can't afford.

“A haunting true crime tale of systemic incompetence and racism” (New York Times) – and its devastating effect on innocent lives After two three-year-old girls were raped and murdered in rural Mississippi, law enforcement pursued and convicted two innocent men: Kennedy Brewer and Levon...

As seen on ID, these two true-crime thrillers follow a neighbors' quarrel that turns violent and cyber-bullying that explodes in a double murder. Murder Thy Neighbor: Ann Hoover is a nice woman but she's come to hate her neighbor. Roy Kirk moved in next door with plans to renovate. But as the...

A murdered child. A surviving twin. A father who says he was saving them. Thirteen years ago, ten-year-old Noelle Rivera was found dead in the bed of a chemical-soaked pickup truck. Her twin brother, Malik, was barely alive in the front seat. Their adoptive father, Elias Rivera, has been behind bars ever since. Now, after more than a decade of delays, his trial is finally about to begin. But first, the court must answer one haunting question: Is Elias competent to stand trial—or is he too far gone to face what he did? Inside the courtroom, forensic psychologists battle over his sanity. ...

Today more than ever, the relevance of this work is apparent. The cultural, and political, concept of 'public welfare' has served as a justification of almost all social systems throughout history - and all tyrannies as well. When 'public safety' becomes a blanket excuse, and legal justification, to violate our fundamental rights and freedoms...then anything goes. The legal concept of ‘reasonable grounds’ (which is based on the concept of ‘public welfare’) is but one of the methods employed by the state to invalidate our civil liberties. What’s a crime? What is a right? What is a ...

Chained Birds: A Crimemoir is the story of Carla Conti’s 10-year journey to advocate for federal inmate Kevin Sanders and help him re-enter society after prison. But the mission came at a cost as Carla struggled to balance her own, Scott’s, and Kevin’s safety while writing an exposé on the horrific conditions that led to the shutdown of an experimental prison program in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

A "powerful and scary and important and true" memoir of a young woman's struggle to regain her sense of self after trauma, and the efforts by a powerful New England boarding school to silence her—at any cost (Sally Mann, author of Hold Still). Shortlisted for the 2022 William Saroyan...