True Crime Memories

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NOW AN FX LIMITED SERIES STREAMING ON HULU NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER From the author of Empire of Pain—a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions. One of The New York...

From 1977 to 1981, Ruth Finley, an ordinary wife and mother from Kansas, was tormented by an elusive maniac known as The Poet. The police, already on edge from BTK’s reign of terror, spent years searching for the stalker. Meanwhile, his cryptic letters in rhymed verse grew more disturbing and violent, spilling into deeds like stabbing and kidnapping.

In 1989, Eileen Franklin, a young California housewife, claimed to recover a repressed memory of her father killing her playmate 20 years earlier. In a landmark trial, the father was charged and convicted of first-degree murder, based solely on his daughter's testimony. This book chronicles the trial, explores the remarkably dysfunctional Franklin family and delves into the credibility of repressed memories as evidence....

The untold story behind the hit true crime podcast The Clearing, this “engrossing and absolutely terrifying read” (San Francisco Chronicle) traces one daughter’s moving quest to understand the truth about her father, the serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards, while confronting cold cases...

In the quiet town of Price, Utah, where tranquility is the norm, the summer of 1970 bore witness to a gruesome murder that forever altered the life of 4-year-old Heidi Jones. The haunting image of her mother, Loretta, lying lifeless as viewed from the keyhole of her bedroom door is an indelible memory that haunted Heidi throughout her life. It ignited an unwavering determination to ensure her mother's murder would not remain unsolved. But it would be 46 long years before Heidi's relentless pursuit of justice would find an ally in David Brewer, a high school acquaintance turned Detective Sgt...

Remembering Satan is a lucid, measured, yet absolutely riveting inquest into a case that destroyed a family, engulfed a small town, and captivated an America obsessed by rumors of a satanic underground. It follows the increasingly bizarre accusations and confessions, as well as the claims and counterclaims of police, FBI investigators, and mental-health professionals.

At the outset of the Vietnam War, the Army created an experimental fighting unit that became known as "Tiger Force." The Tigers were to be made up of the cream of the crop-the very best and bravest soldiers the American military could offer. They would be given a long leash, allowed to operate...

First, I Believe You is an astonishing memoir of resilience and recovery from severe childhood trauma she had no memory of. Terrifying flashbacks haunted her for decades despite an affluent, advantaged childhood, resulting in severe depression, food addiction, anxiety, and nightmares.

Grief, mental illness, and the bonds of family are movingly explored in this extraordinary memoir “suffused with emotional depth and intellectual inquiry” (Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises) as a writer delves into the tragedy of his mother’s violent death at the hands of...

Into the Wild meets Helter Skelter in this riveting true story of a modern-day homesteading family in the deepest reaches of the Alaskan wilderness – and of the chilling secrets of its maniacal, spellbinding patriarch. When Papa Pilgrim appeared in the Alaska frontier outpost of McCarthy...

The Miami Drug War of the 1980s was an exciting time where the drug cartels ruled and cocaine was king. These are some of my personal stories from the streets of Miami. Stories of what it was like to be a cop on the street and an undercover detective for the Miami Police Department.

Underworld standover man and executioner Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read was released from Pentridge Prison in November, 1991, vowing never to return. He became an instant celebrity when his autobiography Chopper: From the Inside hit the best-seller lists (it also holds the record as Australia's most shoplifted book). Six months later, he was back in jail charged with the shooting of a biker, and busy writing his second volume of memoirs.

When foreign correspondent Tony Maniaty goes back to Timor for the first time since he fled for his life 30 years before, he discovers a land of ghosts - some he left behind, and some he's brought with him. He's there to watch five young actors play out the last days of five friends of his - men who were murdered by the Indonesian army in one of the most infamous incidents (and cover-ups) in Australian foreign affairs.

1985. Gun Barrel City, Texas. Police searching for missing Fire Department captain Jimmy Don Beets dug inside a wishing well in the neatly tended garden of Beets's wife, forty-eight-year-old Betty Lou Beets. Not only did they find his body, but they also found the body of Betty Lou's fourth husband, Doyle Wayne Barker. It wasn't long before investigators unearthed the terrible truth. As Betty Lou's sordid past emerged, so did her chilling trail of marital violence.

On March 14, 1912, Hillsville, Virginia, native Floyd Allen (1856–1913) was convicted of three criminal charges: assault, maiming, and the rescue of prisoners in custody. What had begun as a scuffle between Allen's nephews over a young woman ended with him being charged as the guilty party after he allegedly hit a deputy in the head with a pistol.

Aged six, Robert Drewe moved with his family from Melbourne to Perth, the world's most isolated city: and proud of it. This sun-baked coast was innocently proud, too, of its tranquility and friendliness. Then a man he knew murdered a boy he also knew.

Todo el mundo tiene un don: el de Flako fue durante muchos años aprender a moverse como un fantasma por las cloacas de Madrid, donde excavaba butrones para atracar bancos. La prensa lo bautizó como el "Robin Hood de Vallecas". Todo el mundo tiene una maldición: a Flako lo detuvieron el mismo día que nació su hijo. La policía lo acusó de siete atracos. Cumplió condena por dos. Todo el mundo tiene una segunda oportunidad. La de Flako llegó en forma de cine y literatura. En la cárcel comenzó una relación epistolar con el director de cine Elías León Siminiani.