Classic True Crime

Ken Rex McElroy terrorized the residents of several counties in northwestern Missouri. He raped young girls and brutalized them after they went to live with him or even married him; he shot at least two men; he stole cattle and hogs, and burned down the houses of some who interfered with his criminal activities. Thanks to the expert efforts of his lawyer and the pro-defendant bias of state laws, he served no more than a few days in jail, the author shows.

A true-crime collection culled from the crime files of the New York Times best-selling series, Notorious USA.

The tragic story of Susan Powell and her murdered boys, Charlie and Braden, is the only case that rivals the Jon Benet Ramsey saga in the annals of true crime. When the pretty, blonde Utah mother went missing in December of 2009 the media was swept up in the story - with lenses and microphones trained on Susan's husband, Josh. He said he had no idea what happened to his young wife, and that he and the boys had been camping in the middle of a snowstorm.

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...

In Shadows of Death, acclaimed author Katherine Ramsland takes listeners on a tour of New Jersey, New York and Delaware. Home of the Jersey Devil, New Jersey has its share of other devils, from predatory nurses to thrill killers and sadists. The Empire State has witnessed many unique and perverse crimes. Quite a few triggered international headlines. The first documented female serial killer in the US came out of the tiny state of Delaware, as did a "signature killer" who attracted FBI profilers.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER An enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city: “Elegant and wicked.... [This] might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime." —The New York Times Book...

A distraught 20-year old Jett Carter shows up at the Ryan house because her mother and sister are imprisoned - perhaps if Kevin writes their story and reveals the truth, he might help exonerate them. The Carters' tale is the perfect white-trash-attempted-murder-love-triangle that Kevin’s editor will love and his fans will devour. He begins to write "Love You to Death." Then on a beautiful summer day, the wheels of homicide are set in motion and Kevin’s own story begins to eclipse the crime he is chronicling.

Welcome to the latest box set in the New York Times best-selling series of stories about America's most notorious criminals. For DARKEST WATERS, Wall Street Journal best-selling author Katherine Ramsland is the perfect guide to the famous and not so famous cases that still haunt the states huddled around the Great Lakes. Say hello to Notorious USA!

Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore had a lot in common: They sang together in the Methodist church choir, their daughters were best friends, and their husbands had good jobs working for technology companies in the North Dallas suburbs known as Silicon Prairie. But beneath the placid surface of their seemingly perfect lives, both women simmered with unspoken frustrations and unanswered desires. On a hot summer day in 1980, the secret passions and jealousies that linked Candy and Betty exploded into murderous rage. 

Two impossible crimes. Two chilling true-life inspirations. One unparalleled consulting detective. Step back into the fog-shrouded streets of 1890s London with two meticulously crafted Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Written in the authentic, classic style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, these thrilling pastiche novellas pit the great detective against cunning adversaries who have weaponized the very laws of human biology and physics. The Enigma of Ashbourne Gables A locked room. A deadly timeline. A poison that defies medical logic. When wealthy young barrister Quentin Sterling suffers an agonizing ...

When the body of 45-year-old Glen Harrelson was found in his Denver home, police tried to contact his wife, but soon they made a startling realization. She had played the part of grieving widow once before: Her previous husband also had died a mysterious accidental death...

From #1 New York Times bestselling true-crime author Ann Rule comes “a convincing portrait of a meticulous criminal mind” (The Washington Post) in this chilling true story of marriage and murder about a beautiful and charming widow with a dark side. An idyllic Hawaiian wedding held the...

A macabre domestic conspiracy, a stolen fortune, and a phantom wandering the streets of Victorian London. When the notoriously eccentric and tight-fisted widow Mrs. Clarissa Hargrave precipitously leaves her secluded Richmond villa for a health resort in the Swiss Alps, London’s financial markets are caught in an unexpected upheaval. Prime riverside properties, irreplaceable family heirlooms, and thousands of pounds in consols are liquidated at fire-sale speed by an unassuming clerk wielding an absolute power of attorney. Scotland Yard sees merely the erratic behavior of an aging recluse....

On March 16, 1992, Elizabeth DeCaro, a 28 year-old mother of four, was found dead in her own home, murdered execution-style with two bullets to the head. Her husband, Rick, was immediately a suspect, having previously struck her "accidentally" with the family van after taking out a $100,000 life insurance policy on her. A Killer Among Us presents the true shocking story of Elizabeth's family and their search for justice against the man who continued to play father to the children whose mother he had killed.

This story follows a true crime murder case from New York in 1906. Clyde Griffiths is the impoverished young man from a family of street preachers who dreams of bettering his station in life. However, his dream ends in murder and he is subsequently arrested and put on trial—putting the media...

Every horror classic claims it: based on a true story. This book asks the question the trailer never wants you to: how much of that is actually true? Thirty horror films. Thirty real-world case files, legends, and myths pulled apart chapter by chapter — from Ed Gein's Wisconsin farmhouse behind Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, to the real BTK killer who outlived Red Dragon by twenty-four years, to the Amityville house a federal judge once called "largely a work of fiction." Each chapter comes tagged with a verdict: † for a documented real case, ‡ for myth tangled with reality,...

Thomas Horn Jr. was an infamous figure in the 19th-century American Old West. Cowboy, soldier, government scout, translator, and gunman, Horn’s storied life has become an important part of western folklore. In 1902, he was convicted for murdering a 14-year-old boy after a run-in during a feud with a cattle rancher. The Life of Tom Horn is his life story in his own words, written from prison before he met his fate at the gallows the following year.

The Singular Affair of the Hollow Quetzal A New Adventure of Sherlock Holmes When the rarest ornithological archives of the British Empire ring with the chime of tempered steel, Sherlock Holmes is summoned to unravel a conspiracy of unprecedented ingenuity. On a dense, fog-bound November morning at 221B Baker Street, an unhinged taxidermist collapses across the threshold, his fingers stained with cochineal and his mind unraveling in terror. He brings with him an impossible anomaly: priceless museum bird skins that have been hollowed out from within and replaced with dense, ticking ...

Step into the fog-shrouded streets of 1952 London, where justice and revenge are separated by the thinnest of lines. Sam "Too" True has perfected the art of invisibility. As a post room clerk at Bridgestone Consulting Limited, he sorts letters, delivers memos, and observes the powerful from the shadows - content to remain unseen, unheard, and safely beneath notice. Until the morning he discovers director Clifford Henshaw dead in the boardroom, a letter opener through his chest and the word "JUSTICE" written in blood across the table. When Detective Inspector Forsythe Sinclair arrives to ...

Reveals the harrowing story of two mothers, Jude Govreau and Mari Winzen, whose children were brutally killed by a vicious murderer, and recounts their efforts with a lone district attorney to bring the murderer to justice.