Modern True Crime

“A fast-burning fuse of a book, every page bursting with revelatory detail.”—ERIK LARSON A sweeping account of the anarchists who terrorized the streets of New York and the detective duo who transformed policing to meet the threat—a tale of fanaticism, forensic science, and dynamite from...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The gripping story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos—one of the biggest corporate frauds in history—a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley, rigorously reported by the prize-winning journalist. With a new Afterword. “Chilling...

Revisiting Dr. Michael Stone's groundbreaking 22-level Gradations of Evil Scale, a hierarchy of evil behavior first introduced in the book The Anatomy of Evil, Stone and Dr. Gary Brucato, a fellow violence and serious psychopathology expert, here provide even more detail, using dozens of cases to exemplify the categories along the continuum. The New Evil also presents compelling evidence that, since a cultural tipping-point in the 1960s, certain types of violent crime have emerged that in earlier decades never or very rarely occurred.

In 1927, while the majority of the township of Bath, Michigan, was celebrating a new primary school - one of the most modern in the Midwest - Andrew P. Kehoe had other plans. The local farmer and school board treasurer was educated, respected, and an accommodating neighbor and friend. But behind his ordinary demeanor was a narcissistic sadist seething with rage, resentment, and paranoia. On May 18 he detonated a set of rigged explosives with the sole purpose of destroying the school and everyone in it.

Murder in the 19th century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous, with cold-blooded killings transformed into novels, broadsides, ballads, opera, and melodrama - even into puppet shows and performing-dog acts. Detective fiction and the new police force developed in parallel, each imitating the other - the founders of Scotland Yard gave rise to Dickens's Inspector Bucket, the first fictional police detective, who in turn influenced Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, even P. D. James and Patricia Cornwell.

Frances Glessner Lee, born a socialite to a wealthy and influential Chicago family in the 1870s, was never meant to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity. Yet she developed a fascination with the investigation of violent crimes and made it her life's work. Best known for creating the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a series of dollhouses that appear charming - until you notice the macabre little details: an overturned chair, or a blood-spattered comforter.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER A heartbreaking memoir from a girl who escaped county line trafficking only to become prey to other abusers… Emily has always felt like an outsider, so when a family friend takes her under his wing she is delighted. But soon it becomes clear that his motives...

Demonic possession. Exorcism. Haunted Houses. Satanic Rituals. For most people this is the stuff of nightmares, horror movies, folklore, and superstition. For New York City police Sergeant Ralph Sarchie, it's as real—and dangerous—as midnight patrol . . . A sixteen-year NYPD veteran, Ralph...

THE NIGHT SHE VANISHED In November 2018, thirty-one-year-old Ashley Young disappeared after a night out in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her friends searched. Her mother called everyone she knew. And then the truth began to surface — piece by horrifying piece. THE DISCOVERY Under a blood-stained tarp in a basement, police uncovered a torso. No head. No hands. No feet. Within days, the evidence led to Jared Chance — Ashley’s friend, her killer, and a man who refused to reveal where he hid the rest of her body. #JUSTICE FOR ASHLEY This haunting true crime story follows the investigation, ...

50 Crimes That Rocked the World takes readers on a gripping journey through history’s most shocking and impactful criminal cases. From high-profile murders and daring heists to political scandals and notorious conmen, this book delves into the crimes that not only captured global attention but also changed the course of history. Each chapter uncovers the intricacies of these crimes, exploring the motives, methods, and consequences that reverberated far beyond the immediate aftermath. With detailed accounts of some of the world’s most infamous criminals, this book offers a deeper ...

He wasn’t looking for love. He was looking for control. Craigslist gave him exactly what he wanted. When eighteen-year-old Brooke crossed paths with a man known online as “Hard Mike,” it wasn’t romance, curiosity, or recklessness that brought them together. It was opportunity—and a predator who recognized it instantly. What began as a casual online exchange quickly turned into something far more dangerous. Behind the anonymity of Craigslist, a thirty-one-year-old man with a growing appetite for domination discovered how easily the internet could be used to hunt. Each interaction ...

Craig Glazer was an ordinary college student when he planned and successfully executed his first fake sting to get back at some drug dealers who had robbed him. The rush he got from the experience led him and a crew of 11 accomplices to mastermind a two-year, 33-sting spree that stretched coast to coast, posing as everything from local police to IRS agents and hotel managers.

When Violence Became Content—and Murder Became Performance by Elliot Christopher A True Crime Files Investigation In February 2024, Melody Hoffman trusted the wrong people. What followed was not chaos, panic, or a crime spiraling out of control. It was methodical, planned, and quietly documented. Phones tracked movement. Wearables recorded distress. Cameras captured preparation. And after Melody Hoffman was dead, selfies were taken. THE SELFIE KILLERS is not a book about shock or spectacle. It is an examination of how violence unfolded in plain sight—and how modern technology preserved ...

Rome whispers about a poison that looks like holy water. They call it Aqua Tofana—a saint-faced bottle passed hand to hand, a rumour with a price, a promise made to desperate wives behind shuttered windows. Men call it evil. Priests call it temptation. The streets call it justice. But Giulia knows what it really is: a brand built in the cracks of a city that leaves women no safe exits. When a quiet network of laundresses, servants and midwives begins to fray under pressure—boots on stone, coins offered for silence, and the Church leaning close—Giulia must protect the one person she ...

The gripping story of the Ruby Ridge siege, showing how the historic standoff between federal agents and a white-separatist family set the stage for the conspiracy-laced politics of the Trump era. “Vivid, frightening, and fascinating…This book blew me away and opened my eyes.”—Walter...

With 20 custom illustrations, Medieval Torture and Execution of Modern Serial Killers explores the real life atrocities of both ancient and modern man. This shocking yet morbidly amusing book examines nine real life serial killers and discusses their crimes and motives. In each biopic, their most deplorable acts are reviewed and reckoned, for they will be the determining factors for punishment. As a thought experiment, each serial killer is placed in a primitive time where justice is carried out by way of a medieval executioner. Through documented eye-witness accounts, you will read how ...

In 1979, Brenda Spencer, a seemingly average teenage girl living in a nice suburban neighborhood, made and executed plans that would place her in infamy and set a violent and terrifying national precedent. She recieved a rifle for Christmas and a month later set her sights and opens fire on the elementary school across the street. The event is forever glorified by the song "I Don't Like Mondays" by The Boomtown Rats and marks the bloody beginning of the American phenomenon of school shootings.

A nun who fled enclosure. A soldier who crossed oceans. A case that forced power to decide. Born in early seventeenth-century Spain and raised within convent walls, Catalina de Erauso escaped a life of enclosure and moved through the Spanish Empire under a male identity. She worked, travelled, fought, and survived in worlds governed by violence, honour, and rigid social control—until repeated conflict and custody brought her life under institutional scrutiny. The Lieutenant Nun reconstructs Catalina’s life as a historical case, following the points where private survival collided with ...

In July 2010, Bahamian police shot out the engine of a stolen boat in the dark Caribbean waters off Harbour Island, ending one of the most extraordinary manhunts in American history. The nineteen-year-old at the helm had spent more than two years evading the FBI, stealing five airplanes without a single flying lesson, and becoming an international folk hero with sixty thousand Facebook followers cheering his every escape. His name was Colton Harris-Moore, but the world knew him as the Barefoot Bandit. This is the definitive account of the teenage fugitive who taught himself to fly from ...

A power-hungry baroness with two lovers disrupts life on an Eden-like island in the Galápagos, and an isolated community descends into madness and murder—a true story of utopia gone wrong from New York Times bestselling author Abbott Kahler. “Abbott Kahler’s wickedly gothic tale confronts...