True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History

The Ravenous Paparazzi had descended on Winnipeg, anxious for any photos, or any story involving Jennifer Lopez and her castmates, Susan Saarndon and Richardf Gere, in the Miramx 's followup to "Chaicago", being filmed in Winnipeg, instead of Toronto—because of the fear of the SARS epidemic, On July 1st, 2003, Winnipeg Police were called by a representative for the "Shall We Dance" movie, to report that a gold necklace belonging to Susan Sarandon had been stolen from Sarandon's trailer on a outdoor movie shoot location near the Legislative Building that morning.. The next morning, July 2nd, around 9:30 a.m., Sidney Teerhuis walked calmly through the visitors entrance into the Winnipeg Remand Center.. He said to a guard there, "I would like to speak to someone. I found a body chopped up in my bathtub, and I've turned myself in because I've killed somebody". On July 1st, Susan Sarandon and her assistant, called police from the set of "Shall We Dance".to report the theft of some of Sarandon's jewelry, including…

A self-proclaimed vampire. His harem of “witches.” And the small-town murder that shocked America. When twenty-four-year-old Sydney Loofe disappeared after a Tinder date, the quiet town of Wilber, Nebraska was stunned. Days later, her dismembered body was found scattered across nearby fields—and the horrifying truth began to emerge. Sydney hadn’t just met the wrong man. She had crossed paths with a deeply disturbed psychopath and his dangerous accomplice. In The Vampire’s Cult, investigative journalist Chet Hardin exposes the twisted world of Aubrey Trail, an aging con man who presented himself as an all-powerful being, and Bailey Boswell, the woman who called herself his “queen.” Together, they lured vulnerable young women into a spiral of sex, theft, and psychological manipulation—with deadly consequences. Through exclusive interviews, firsthand reporting, and chilling detail, Hardin unravels the making of a modern cult—and the social desperation that feeds it. In an era defined by false realities and…

A riveting new look at the parallel lives of Charles Manson and Roman Polanski reveals connections beyond the notorious Tate-LaBianca murders.Since the horrific murder of Sharon Tate in 1969, the names Charles Manson and Roman Polanski have been brutally linked. But new analysis of the parallel and intertwining stories of these two men reveals a connection that preceded that fateful day. Manson and Polanski shared remarkably similar, and similarly awful, childhoods. In their early years they both developed a hatred of the establishment and of authority—Manson, from being abused by relatives, school staff, and jailors, and Polanski from living under the Nazi regime and then Polish Communists in the 1950s. Manson was released from prison and promptly went to the wildest place in North America (San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury) at around the same time as Polanski got out of communist Poland and headed for the wildest place in Europe (swinging London). Both men went overboard with the new freedom of the era. Their…

A startling profile of one of the most prolific serial killers and the disturbing experience of the journalist who earned his trust for the sake of justice. When crime journalist Maria DiLorenzo mailed a letter to Gary Ridgway, she never expected him to reply. He refused to speak to reporters and would send only religious materials back to anyone who contacted him in prison—if he replied at all. But instead of silence or a boilerplate letter, Maria’s phone rang–and it was the Green River Killer calling. Over the next several years, Ridgway would call Maria hundreds of times, using all of his free time in prison to speak with her. Her goal: to pry the details of his dozens of unidentified and unsolved murders from him. His motivation in speaking to her: unknowable. Through these hundreds of hours of phone calls, Ridgway revealed new details about his life, his crimes, and his motives – and manipulated Maria much like he tormented his victims. An insightful and deeply personal profile of a dangerous mind,…

At the turn of the twenty-first century, Detroit investigators faced a nightmare few police divisions ever encounter: multiple serial predators operating at the same time, in the same city, often targeting vulnerable victims in overlapping neighborhoods. To the public, the crimes appeared scattered. A schoolgirl attacked on her way to class. A woman assaulted before dawn. A victim deceived, coerced, or ambushed. A body discovered. Separate incidents. Separate headlines. Inside Detroit’s Major Crimes Division, a more disturbing picture began to form. As detectives compared reports, victim statements, timelines, geography, and behavior, the investigation became something far more difficult than a search for a single suspect. The city was not hunting one predator. It was hunting several. SERIAL CITY: Detroit and the Hunt for Multiple Serial Predators—G.H.Cliff

Jerry Langton is a veteran investigative journalist and bestselling author, writing primarily about outlaw motorcycle gangs and organized crime. Former Harris County Sheriff's Department Deputy Joseph Kent McGowen was sentenced in 2002, to 20 years, his second conviction—for murdering Susan Diane White, in her home, August 25, 1992. In 2021, after almost 20 years—Kent McGowen was released. A bestselling book and documentary, depicting McGowen as a killer had been widely seen by the public. In 2025 McGowen contacted Langton—he wanted to set the record straight and have Langton tell his story.. Langton was very skeptical but decided to conduct his own investigation—and what he discovered—was a man wrongfully convicted of murder. Author Jerry Langton joins me to discuss his new book, Reasonable Doubts: How Rumor and Innuendo Convicted Deputy Kent McGowen of Murder.

Texas Deputy Kent McGowen shot and killed Susan White after she pulled a gun on him.It seemed like an open-and-shut case of an officer acting in self-defense. But before his first court date, the Houston region was inundated with rumor, innuendo and speculation about the case. Many believed those fabrications and half-truths to be fact. And an unsubstantiated-but-persistent story of how McGowen allegedly set up White as a murder victim because they had a relationship, or that she refused to have one, sealed his fate. McGowen was found guilty, Twice. He's already done his almost 20 years in prison, with this case worth examining for all the incredible ways criminal courts can be manipulated by media, fast-talking lawyers and dubious witnesses. REASONABLE DOUBTS: How Rumor and Innuendo Convicted Deputy Kent McGowen of Murder—Deputy Kent McGowen

The District Attorney began his opening statement with, "If you don't know what hell is like, you're about to find out." In 1979, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris went on a rape and killing rampage. The pliers, screwdrivers, hammers, sledgehammers, and ice picks they used on their victims became their calling card and moniker: The Toolbox Killers. They were soon apprehended and convicted for their atrocities, but for decades, refused to reveal the location of their victims' bodies. More than two decades later, criminologist Laura Brand had the opportunity to interview this sadistic pair as they sat behind bars, probing the depths of their depravity right up to the days of their deaths. Over this relentless six-year period, Bittaker finally gave Brand what he had withheld from law enforcement and families alike: the precise locations of two victims' remains. Brand's investigation tore open sealed police reports, court transcripts, and witness accounts, and unearthed brutal and shocking new findings:…

Truth is supposed to be a journalist’s north star. But during the 2010s, the fourth estate lost its way, abandoning reporting for straight-up activism. In Crimes of Omission, seasoned investigative journalist Rob Rosen will reveal the full story of the high-profile cases of law enforcement violence that rocked the world. Through dozens of exclusive interviews, this book transports readers inside the nation’s most influential newsrooms at those crucial moments when the people we trust to inform us chose instead to mislead and inflame. Crimes of omission aren’t about what is reported—they’re about what’s left out. Discover the disastrous decisions that ripped a nation apart and shattered the credibility of a once noble profession—and prepare to question everything you thought was true. CRIMES OF OMISSION: Distorted Justice—The Media's War on Truth—Rob Rosen

Why do certain women become icons of evil? This book offers the first comparative, non-sensationalist account of five of the most reviled women in the modern Anglophone world: Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Aileen Wuornos, Karla Homolka, and Karla Faye Tucker. It examines their lives, crimes, and cultural reception in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada, asking how violence committed by women is understood, judged, and remembered. Going beyond moral outrage or tabloid headlines, the book explores how concepts of “evil” are shaped by history, belief systems, and social context. Through historical and ethical reflections, it offers a deeper, more critical engagement with female violence and considers how society should respond to those who commit acts of unimaginable harm. FIVE EVIL WOMEN: Hindley, West, Wournos, Homolka, Tucker—Joanna Bourke

A True Crime Mystery Four Decades in the Making. On the cold night of January 27, 1976, twenty-two-year-old college student Kyle Clinkscales vanished after leaving his bartending shift at the Moose Club in LaGrange, Georgia. His disappearance baffled investigators and devastated his parents, John and Louise, who spent decades chasing rumors, suspects, and false leads in one of the South’s most haunting cold cases. For years, Kyle’s story became a staple in true crime circles, a case that blended small-town secrets, whispers of foul play, and the agony of parents who refused to give up. Then, in 2021, a shocking discovery was made: Kyle’s car submerged in an Alabama creek, with his remains inside. Suddenly, the case once thought frozen in time was thrust back into the spotlight. Was Kyle’s tragic end the result of an accident? Or was it a carefully staged cover-up, concealing a brutal murder that eluded justice for nearly half a century? With modern forensic analysis and renewed investigative efforts, this…

One Man. One Mission. Justice. In the Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer. Rodney K. Harrison’s life could have gone the way of the drug dealers he grew up with in South Jamaica, Queens. Instead, a twist of fate and relentless drive led him to become the NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed officer and, later, Police Commissioner of Suffolk County on Long Island—where he engineered the arrest of the elusive Gilgo Beach serial killer. Harrison survived a false arrest as a teenager and later dodged bullets as an undercover in Brooklyn. He calmed the fallout of Eric Garner’s chokehold death on Staten Island, worked shoulder-to-shoulder with outspoken community leaders in Harlem, brought Jam Master Jay's killers to justice, removed bricks from the 9/11 Twin Towers, dealt with looters during the pandemic on the streets of New York—and always advocated for every victim. This real-life Blue Bloods true crime story chronicles the triumphs, controversies, politics, and dangers that define modern policing in America’s…

They hunted together. They killed together. And for years, no one stopped them. For years, Gerald and Charlene Gallego traveled the highways of California and Nevada, searching for their next victims. They didn’t look like killers. He was quiet, calculating, and obsessed with control. She was young, vulnerable—and willing to do whatever it took to survive. Together, they abducted, tortured, and murdered young women, leaving behind a trail of fear that stretched across state lines. But behind the headlines was something even more disturbing. Charlene wasn’t just a witness. She was part of it. And Gerald wasn’t just a predator. He was building something far darker—a life fueled by domination, manipulation, and violence. As investigators closed in, the truth began to unravel: A pattern of calculated abductions. A partnership built on fear and dependency. A series of crimes that went unchecked for far too long. Stolen Lives: The Gallego Murders takes you inside the interrogation rooms, the courtroom, and the…

The infamy of Miami's cocaine wars of the 1970's and 80's is forever etched into the darkest chapters of U.S. history, and Lt. Raul Diaz was on the frontlines for all of it. The decorated and controversial law enforcement figure identified the shifting tide in the Magic City when law enforcement lost their grip on crime as a new breed of criminal flooded South Florida to ply their billion-dollar trade. In a deadly exclamation mark, Colombian cocaine godmother Griselda Blanco and her assassins swept through the city with a bloody and ruthless ambition that left countless dead bodies along the way. Lt. Diaz organized and spearheaded the multi-agency task force CENTAC-26 to combat Blanco and the cartels. Raul came to the US at age thirteen accompanied by only his younger brother and overcame insurmountable odds after finally finding law enforcement as his calling. He never did things the traditional way, and that wasn’t a popular position in the regulated world of police work. His successes came at a costly…

An immersive account of a seemingly loving father's transformation into a "family annihilator." In March 2023, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering his wife and younger son at Moselle, their home in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. By then, the story had become headline news across the country, with its revelations of corruption in high places, massive fraud, opioid abuse, fake suicides, suspicious accidents, and the generational recklessness of the wealthy legal dynasty at its center. Having covered the case for The New Yorker, where his article became the magazine’s most read story of the year, the acclaimed novelist James Lasdun brings his long-standing interest in the darker drives of the human psyche to an investigation into the serial embezzlements, fatal boat crash, and other events leading up to the slaughter at Moselle. “Justice may have been served,” Lasdun writes in the preface to The Family Man, "but the human element of the story didn’t seem to add up." Having traveled extensively in the…

Was there more than one killer? Had the crime scene been cleaned and sanitized before the police arrived? Was furniture staged to throw off detectives? In one of the most extraordinary true crime stories ever published, Broken Plea questions what really happened in the house on King Road—and the results of that investigation will astound you. In the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, four lives were lost in a brutal crime in Moscow, Idaho—and a nation demanded answers. When a suspect accepted a plea bargain, the story seemed settled. Justice, many believed, had been served. Broken Plea challenges that assumption.Drawing on court records, investigative timelines, witness statements, and apparently overlooked inconsistencies, this meticulously researched exposé examines how a rush to judgment may have shaped one of the most closely watched murder cases in recent memory. As the official narrative hardened, critical leads went unexplored, contradictory evidence was minimized, and alternative explanations…

In 1990, Monroe County’s daytime television viewing habits were disrupted by a TV first: the live broadcast of The People v. Arthur J. Shawcross. Never before had home viewers anywhere been given access to gavel-to-gavel coverage of a sordid murder trial. The show lasted eleven weeks, September to December. Viewers that normally followed daytime dramas or game shows were instead focused on the trial of a serial-killer who’d confessed to killing ten women in Monroe County, and one more in Wayne County, but whose lawyers claimed he was insane and not responsible for his actions. Fans of courtroom dramas like Perry Mason, now saw the real thing, sometimes lazy in its pacing, but raw and unfiltered in its subjects and language. The show ran on cable station WGRC (Greater Rochester Cable) and was set in teak-paneled Courtroom 206 of the Monroe County Public Safety Building, which had been equipped and wired as a TV studio. A few watched the first day’s broadcast, were repulsed and changed the channel. Most…

In this dramatic true account about the power of sensationalized crime, one woman’s case is exposed for its sexism, flagrant disregard for the truth, and, ultimately, the dangers posed by an unbridled prosecution. Unwanted and neglected from birth, Barbara Graham had to overcome the odds just to survive. Her beauty was both a blessing and a curse―offering her too many options of all the wrong kind. Her innate sensitivity left her vulnerable to the harsh realities of the street, where she was left to fend for herself before she reached double digits. Her record of petty crimes spoke to a life that constantly teetered on the brink of disaster.But in 1953, a catastrophic twist of fate would catapult her out of obscurity and into the headlines.When a robbery spiraled out of control and escalated into a brutal murder, Barbara became the centerpiece of a media circus. Her beauty enraptured the press, and they were quick to portray her as a villainous femme fatale despite abundant evidence to the contrary―a fiction…

The gripping inside story of Nathan Carman’s crimes from the maritime lawyer who solved his multimillionaire mother’s disappearance at sea and his even wealthier grandfather’s shooting death in bed. When Nathan and Linda Carman were a week overdue on a fishing trip out of Point Judith, Rhode Island, few thought they would still be alive. Even the Coast Guard had called off its search. So it seemed miraculous when Nathan was spotted—on a life raft, 106 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard—by the Chinese freighter ORIENT LUCKY. But was it more than luck? Nathan survived but his mother did not. Then news broke that Nathan was the primary suspect in his grandfather’s murder three years before, though the case chilled from a missing firearm. The last person to see both victims alive, twenty-two-year-old Nathan was now in line for a $10 million inheritance! Or was Nathan, evidently on the Autism spectrum, plain unlucky to have lost the only two people close to him? As he claimed on national TV, was the focus on him as…

“They finally got me… Emprise…the Mafia…John Adamson. Find him.” Investigative reporter Don Bolles used his final words to name the people he believed had set the car bomb that had left him dying in a hotel parking lot in midtown Phoenix. In his fourteen years as one of Arizona's top reporters, Bolles took on the Mafia, land fraud kingpins, and corrupt politicians. And someone wanted him silenced. Murder in the Fourth Estate is the first definitive account of the case, which is the most infamous assassination of a journalist in American history. MURDER IN THE FOURTH ESTATE: The Assassination of Investigative Journalist Don Bolles—Jeremy Duda

MODEL DETECTIVE takes readers where true crime has never gone before—inside the heart, mind, and soul of a Chicago homicide detective whose grit and instincts prove that a woman’s place is in the homicide division. Sergeant Michele Wood, a 25-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, has spent nearly two decades in the Detective Division. With hundreds of arrests, and an extraordinary record of solving murders, she has led homicide teams while also appearing as a legal expert on ABC’s 20/20 and other national true crime series. In MODEL DETECTIVE, Wood takes readers through complex murder cases—revealing how she interprets evidence and uses her perspective as a woman to succeed in a male-dominated world. Wood’s skills attest to her high success rate and stellar reputation on the force and explains why she’s Chicago’s (and probably the country’s) only detective who previously worked as a flight attendant, moonlighted as a fitness-magazine model, and continues her on-air fame as a crime TV expert. From…

This story seems impossible. But every word is true. Convergence is the account of a vicious double homicide in 1970s Chicago and a trial that almost didn't happen. This is a different kind of true crime book. It isn't a mystery, because the killer was arrested right away. It's not a police story, although Convergence is there at every step of their investigation. It's not a defense lawyer's story. This is a story from the other side of the courtroom. Convergence is the story of Gio Messina and Delphine Moore's murders and the trial that followed, but this time told from the perspective of the prosecution. You are there to witness how a case is built, how it's brought to court, and how it unfolds when the trial starts. You see what happens when power and money try to keep the trial from starting at all. You follow the prosecution from the courtrooms of Chicago to rural Tennessee looking for new evidence to replace the evidence that vanished. You're introduced to the choreography of the courtroom: listening…

From the author of the national bestseller The Dark Queens, an incandescent work of true crime and feminist history about Elizabeth Bathory, the woman alleged to be the world's most prolific female serial killer. There have long been whispers, coming from the castle; from the village square; from the dark woods. The great lady-a countess, from one of Europe's oldest families-is a vicious killer. Some even say she bathes in the blood of her victims. When the king's men force their way into her manor house, she has blood on her hands, caught in the act of murdering yet another of her maids. She is walled up in a tower and never seen again, except in the uppermost barred window, where she broods over the countryside, cursing all those who dared speak up against her. Told and retold in many languages, the legend of the Blood Countess has consumed cultural imaginations around the world. But despite claims that Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed as many as 650 girls, some have wondered if the Countess was…

Chicago, 1982. Seven people swallowed Tylenol capsules meant to heal, then they died within minutes. America changed overnight, then the killer vanished into darkness, and that darkness lived in my home. I was eleven, and my father was The Tylenol Killer that terrorized a nation. He created chaos, and confessed with his last breath. I uncovered the truth, and the rot behind his badge. He built lies, and I built a case. I tore the mask from the madness and discovered that each clue led deeper into a labyrinth of deceit. I stripped his name from mine, and I stripped his power too. He found me, and threatened my life, but I did not run. Instead, I shined a light into his darkness. From the son who would not stay silent, THE TYLENOL MURDERS: A Father’s Confession to His Son reveals a confession buried under four decades of fear, complicity, and blue-walled denial. The truth is not a eulogy. It is an indictment. And it bears my name. THE TYLENOL MURDERS: A Father's Confession to His Son—Joseph Cibelli

Homicide historian David Kulczyk releases 1926—Murder in America—New and Expanded Edition for the 100th anniversary of the deadliest year in American history. While researching his seven true crime books, Kulczyk noticed that there was an extraordinary number of oddball murders during the year 1926. The 1920's was a time of massive cultural and technological changes. The death and destruction of World War l dope -slapped the collective mindset of the youth of America and 1926 was the year that Americans all over the country said screw it. And screw it they did.......Mixing too much bootleg booze, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, with fast cars, sex, and jazz music can only lead to trouble. The number of allegedly normal people committing ghastly murders in 1926 is astounding. It is like a switch got turned on and some people went mad unlike any other time in American history. Originally released in 2019, Kulczyk discovered even more murders that occurred in 1926, hence this anniversary edition of the most…

A meticulously researched page-turner about one of the Philadelphia suburbs’ most shocking 20th-century crimes. A gunman broke into Jack and Peggy Abt’s house moments after the last family member left for the day. He took a seat next to the upright piano in the living room and waited silently for 11 hours. He didn’t eat. He didn’t sleep. He didn’t watch television. People expect things to go bump in the night, but, in 1976, most adults never fretted a stranger would invade the sanctity of their home in the middle of the day. Six people walked through the kitchen door one by one that afternoon, all expecting nothing more than a Friday night fish fry. The killer leaped out from behind the living room wall over and over and over and over and over and over again. He fired at them at a distance of less than 18 inches, the width of a dining room chair. After each murder, he dragged the body to the basement. Then, to maintain the element of surprise, he sped back upstairs to tidy up for his next unsuspecting…

On December 22, 1984, in a graffiti-covered New York City subway car, passengers looked on in horror as a white loner named Bernhard Goetz shot four Black teens, Darrell Cabey, Barry Allen, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur, at point-blank range. He then disappeared into a dark tunnel. After an intense manhunt, and his eventual surrender in New Hampshire, the man the tabloid media had dubbed the “Death Wish Vigilante” would become a celebrity and a hero to countless ordinary Americans who had been frustrated with the economic fallout of the Reagan 80s. Overnight, Goetz’s young victims would become villains. Out of this dramatic moment would emerge an angry nation, in which Rupert Murdoch's New York Post and later Fox News Network stoked the fear and the fury of a stunning number of Americans. Drawing from never-before-seen archival materials, legal files, and more, Heather Ann Thompson narrates the Bernie Goetz Subway shootings and their decades-long reverberations, while deftly recovering the lives of the boys…

September 1990. In Shaker Heights, Ohio, teenage honors student Lisa Lee Pruett vanishes into the night. A boy calls 911 when she does not arrive for a secret late-night meet-up. Police soon find her nearby, stabbed to death and left exposed. Lisa had just passed an important test and earned her driver’s license. She was a Girl Scout, athlete, musician, and lover of poetry. Then her life was cut short. Investigators quickly focused on a troubled young man who lived a few blocks away. His name leaked, the media swarmed, and the case became a spectacle. Two years later, he was indicted on controversial testimony, tried under national attention, and ultimately acquitted. His life never recovered. Decades later, the murder remains unsolved. Now a former police officer, Michael Kelly, reopens the trail, determined to separate rumor from evidence and find the truth, if it is still there to be found. IN PUBLIC RECORD: A Journey to the Truth of a Murder and Trial—Michael Kelly

The latter part of the Victorian era bore witness to a series of unexplained female dismemberment cases that plagued London for a period of thirty years. All the cases remain unsolved and only two women were ever identified. Today, the circumstances surrounding these deaths have largely become a footnote in history, dwarfed in attention by their much larger cousin, Jack the Ripper. In this, Suzanne Huntington’s groundbreaking exploration of the subject, we see the first in-depth analysis into all the cases, where 150 years of assumption and misinformation is stripped back and the evidence re-examined, allowing the reader to comprehend not only the complexity of the cases themselves but also the background and context of the investigations. THE THAMES TORSO MURDERS: Fact or Fiction—Suzanne Huntington

The murder of a retired Los Angeles schoolteacher in 2004 never made the evening news, yet within hours arrests were made, charges filed, and a speedy conviction sent to prison Jimmy Kitlas, an incredibly shy, special needs teenager with no criminal history whatsoever. 20 years after the murder, a woman named Kelley Leigh asked Burl Barer and Frank C. Girardot to investigate. She believed that the case’s rapid resolution concealed a deeper, more troubling narrative—one marked by deception, manipulation, dishonesty, and a profound disregard for truth and justice. She was right. Of the last three people to see the victim alive, only one had both the motive and the opportunity to strangle him to death, and it wasn’t Jimmy Kitlas. What begins with a dead body on the bed leads to a bizarre scheme to steal a fortune in gold, a plot to smuggle MDMA, and an incredible joint effort by the American Mafia and the Russian Mob to defraud the United States Government out of billions of dollars. WHERE MURDER LIES: Death…

As shots rang out on March 30, 1981 outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., President Ronald Reagan and three others lie seriously wounded. Just two months after Reagan was sworn in as the 40th president, John Hinckley Jr. shocked the world because of his movie star obsession. What followed was chaos. America learned of the deep psychosis that led to Hinckley’s obsession with actress Jodie Foster, and how, in his mind, he did it all for her. His trial gripped the nation. Many expected a guilty verdict, but his acquittal on grounds of insanity sparked outrage and forever changed how the law viewed mental illness. Now, for the first time, Hinckley tells his own story. He takes us through an early life of unfulfilled dreams, a music career and college degree that slipped away, and the descent into a mind overcome by delusion. He recounts the years spent in confinement at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the slow climb toward recovery, and the people who helped him find his way back. A life defined by a single,…

THE 911 CALL THAT OPENED HELL'S DOOR. ONE CONFESSION. A LIFETIME OF TERROR. The 911 call was harrowing. "I accidentally killed someone. Please!" the man said, his voice rising. "Who?" "My stepmom. My name is Ian Anselmo. Sue-Ellen Anselmo, she's in the car with me. My dad is going to kill me. I guess I strangled her. I don't remember doing it. I remember the argument." The call disintegrated quickly, with the 20-year-old howling and sobbing so pitifully that the dispatcher could not understand what he was saying, except that he was calling from a cemetery. The graveyard had its own lurid past as the site of a murderous teen vampire cult initiation 20 years earlier, now it was a bloody crime scene, and would later become the site of the pregnant woman's burial, more family violence, and the removal of her body. The call was just the beginning. Investigators would discover a family cult stained with allegations of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, brain-washing, and total patriarchal control. It…

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. Thirty years after Gacy’s execution, Conti looks back through the eyes of a seasoned professional on the legal and media circus that ensued—and her countless hours of detailed conversation with the killer clown. We hear for the first time about Gacy’s gruesome “Body Book.” Were there more victims? Conspirators involved in the murders? What secrets were buried with him? If one were to ask Conti, “How could you represent such a monster?” she would respond, “What you really want to know is, ‘What was he like?’” This book answers that question. KILLING TIME…

Edna's world turned upside down when her close cousin, Ted Bundy, was linked to the gruesome murders that had plagued her hometown of Seattle. Both devastating and dangerous, she reveals her journey of discovering the truth about her cousin who was more like a sibling, a man she loved, admired, and thought she knew so well. Edna delves into the unbelievable and chilling episodes she experienced, from confronting Ted and discovering a side of him she never suspected to waking to the FBI at her door after he escaped jail. Whether searching memories for signs she’d missed or detailing scenes of life under the radar in a world still fixated on her cousin, Edna’s account tells the Ted Bundy story from a critical, new perspective: someone who called him family. Including never-before-seen photos and handwritten letters from Bundy, Dark Tide’s message is as gut-wrenching as it is clear, asking the question: how well do we know those we trust most? DARK TIDE: Growing Up With Ted Bundy-Edna Cowell Martin and Megan…

The definitive true “Southern Gothic” account of the life, crimes, conviction, and execution of Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins, the charismatic, brutal, well-liked, remorseless South Carolina serial killer who was dubbed the Charles Manson of the South—written by the prosecutor who brought him to justice. Of the hundreds of murder cases that noted South Carolina attorney Dick Harpootlian has prosecuted, one in particular haunts him. Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins was a serial killer and rapist, a master manipulator who claimed to have killed over 100 people and is known to have murdered over a dozen, including a toddler, and his own teenage niece. Yet it was on Death Row that he pulled off his most audacious murder—killing another inmate with a military grade explosive. As personable as he was ruthless, Pee Wee defied easy categories. He killed to avenge minor slights as well as for pleasure, using any convenient method—including stabbing, shooting, poison, suffocation, and drowning. Evidence suggested he forced at…

Empire City Under Siege shares true stories of an FBI Special Agent spanning three tumultuous decades in New York City, beginning in the gritty 1970s when law enforcement refused to let their city be consumed by corruption and violence. Starting as an undercover operative investigating Mafia hijackers in Red Hook, Anthony John Nelson offers a gripping insider’s look at the bureau’s largest field office during one of its most transformative eras. From international manhunts, celebrity kidnappings, and late-night surveillance of Mafia hotspots with NYPD legend Kenneth “Kenny” McCabe, Nelson recounts his involvement in some of the most impactful and infamous cases of the pre-Internet age—pulling back the curtain on the dangers, strategies, and sacrifices behind the headlines. Featuring first-hand accounts from agents, officers, and prosecutors, this book honors the courage and commitment of all those like Anthony John Nelson who fought to restore order, protect the innocent, and reclaim a city once on the…

Who killed the Black Dahlia? In this eye-opening shocker, award-winning producer, true-crime researcher, and Hollywood insider Eli Frankel finally solves the greatest-and most gruesome-murder mystery of the twentieth century just before its 80th anniversary. In January 1947, the bisected body of Elizabeth Short, completely drained of blood, was discovered in an undeveloped lot in Los Angeles. Its gruesome mutilations led to a firestorm of publicity, city-wide panic, and an unprecedented number of investigative paths led by the LAPD—all dead ends. The Black Dahlia murder remained an unsolved mystery for over seventy years. Six years earlier and sixteen hundred miles away, another woman’s life had ended in a similarly horrific manner. Leila Welsh was an ambitious, educated, popular, and socially connected beauty. Though raised modestly on a prairie farm, she was heiress to her Kansas City family’s status and wealth. On a winter morning in 1941, Leila’s butchered body was found in her bedroom bearing the marks…

Good-hearted country boy Petie Miller vanishes without a trace two days before his wedding in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in 1983. Some speculate it’s a case of cold feet, but investigators suspect cold-blooded murder. The bride’s stepfather, a violent career criminal named Charlie Almond, is the prime suspect. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Almond killed Miller and successfully disposed of the body. But with no witnesses, no forensic evidence, and no body, Almond is allowed to walk free. Meanwhile, Miller’s father never stops seeking answers about what happened to his son. For three decades, he tirelessly pushes the investigation forward, imploring the authorities to keep his son’s case file open. Finally, thirty-two years later in 2015, new witnesses emerge and Almond, now an octogenarian, is charged with first-degree murder. Chances of a guilty verdict seem slim, but special prosecutor Phil Figura, known in courtrooms as the “Dragonslayer,” is determined to bring justice. Can Figura win a…

From two-time best-selling author and three-time Emmy-winning investigative reporter Mark Pettit comes the haunting true story of Nebraska serial killer John Joubert—a case that shocked a nation and still echoes across the true-crime world. It was one of the most terrifying times in Nebraska's history. The year a young Air Force Airman went on a killing spree, leaving two young boys dead and a community gripped by fear. TV news anchorman and investigative reporter Mark Pettit managed to interview John Joubert on Death Row. In a series of exclusive, face-to-face interviews with Pettit, Joubert admits to a string of violent crimes and another killing—that sends investigators into a frenzy ending with Joubert being convicted for a third murder and ultimately executed in Nebraska’s electric chair. Pettit had also been told by Joubert about 'death row drawings' he had created, and that were to be given to Pettit. After a contentious legal battle, a confidential source came forward providing the final piece in the…

In The People vs. the Golden State Killer, Thien Ho, the current District Attorney of Sacramento, recounts his harrowing and exhilarating experience as the lead prosecutor responsible for capturing and prosecuting Joseph DeAngelo. Referred to at various times by law enforcement and the media as the Visalia Ransacker, the East Bay Rapist, the Original Nightstalker, and finally the Golden State Killer, DeAngelo, a former policeman, is widely considered “one of the most notorious serial predators in American history. Ho’s book is the first official account of how the Golden State Killer was apprehended and put behind bars for life. Ho led an elite team of law enforcement from six California prosecutor's offices, using a newly developed tool known as “investigative genetic genealogy” to connect DeAngelo to multiple cold cases stretching back nearly a half century. Many previous narratives about DeAngelo, including two bestselling books and multiple documentaries, focused largely on the killer and his heinous…

The film NUREMBERG, to be released November 7th, 2025 is an American drama written, co-produced and edited by James Vanderbilt. It is based on the 2013 book, THE NAZI AND THE PSYCHIATRIST by Jack El Hai.. In 1945, after his capture at the end of the Second World War, Hermann Göring arrived at an American-run detention center in war-torn Luxembourg, accompanied by sixteen suitcases and a red hatbox. The suitcases contained all manner of paraphernalia: medals, gems, two cigar cutters, silk underwear, a hot water bottle, and the equivalent of 1 million in cash. Hidden in a coffee can, a set of brass vials housed glass capsules containing a clear liquid and a white precipitate: potassium cyanide. Joining Göring in the detention center were the elite of the captured Nazi regime. Grand Admiral Dönitz; armed forces commander Wilhelm Keitel and his deputy Alfred Jodl; the mentally unstable Robert Ley; the suicidal Hans Frank; the pornographic propagandist Julius Streicher. Fifty-two senior Nazis in all, of whom the…

In the 1980s, the tiny town of Arcadia, Florida, was “fifty miles and fifty years from Sarasota.” With its cowboy roots, low-wage agricultural industries, and violent frontier history, Arcadia was a curious mix of the desolate ranchlands of West Texas and the stately homes and bitter race relations of the South. In A Town without Pity, award-winning author Jason Vuic recounts two heartbreaking stories from Arcadia that rose to national prominence at the end of the Reagan era and forced the town to reckon with not only AIDS hysteria but also the legacies of a racist past. This book delves into the case of James Richardson, a Black migrant worker accused in 1967 of poisoning his seven children. Richardson spent twenty years in prison due to suppressed evidence for a crime he didn’t commit. Vuic also tells the story of the public mistreatment of the three Ray brothers, white school-age children with hemophilia who contracted the HIV virus from a tainted medicine called factor VIII. The Rays were barred from…

Mike Gatto was an up-and-coming young lawmaker when his father was brutally murdered. The act sucked him into the world of noir: wild theories, intransigent detectives, and unimaginable violence. This true crime story reads like a thriller, offering insight into the world of politics and the seedy underbelly of crime investigation in modern Los Angeles. Gatto shares his experiences with incredible candor and raw emotion, detailing every clue, and how he came to learn every tragic detail of his father's murder. With the case still unsolved, see if you can piece together the clues to solve this mystery. NOIR BY NECESSITY: How My Father's Unsolved Murder Took Me to Dark Places—Mike Gatto

On October 1, 2017, Mary Jo von Tillow’s world changed forever. Her husband, Kurt, was killed in the Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest in U.S. history. In just eleven minutes, her life—and the lives of thousands of others—were shattered. But what followed was more than grief. Out of devastation came unexpected bonds with other survivors, advocates, and families who knew the same kind of loss. From a 9/11 firefighter who turned his pain into kindness, to a victims’ rights attorney who changed national law, to fellow widows and survivors who refused to give up, Mary Jo discovered what it means to carry tragedy together. The Las Vegas Massacre Connections is both a deeply personal account and a collective portrait of resilience. Through Mark Gray’s in-depth reporting and Mary Jo’s courage to share her story, this book captures the enduring impact of Route 91 and the human strength that rises after unimaginable loss. THE LAS VEGAS MASSACRE CONNECTIONS: Finding Strength Through…

They blended in. They raised families, held steady jobs, and hid in plain sight. But behind the mask of normalcy, they were monsters—responsible for decades of terror, pain, and death. Every Killer Leaves A Trace is a chilling narrative nonfiction thriller that exposes moments that led to the shocking unmasking and ultimate capture of twenty-six of America’s most elusive killers. From accidental slips to cutting-edge forensic breakthroughs, each chapter reveals how justice caught up with murderers who thought they’d never be found. Meticulously researched and drawn from court records, autopsy reports, FBI case files, and firsthand interviews with investigators and victims’ families, this book is a haunting journey through deception, violence, and the relentless pursuit of truth. These are not just stories of murder. They are blueprints of how justice, though often delayed, is never truly denied. They got away with murder—until they didn’t. EVERY KILLER LEAVES A TRACE: The Fatal Mistakes That Finally Exposed…

25 Frozen, 1 Thawed: Murder and Mayhem in the Midwest takes readers deep into the heart of unsolved mysteries and chilling crimes that have haunted communities across the Midwest. From small towns shattered by sudden disappearances to cities rocked by violent acts, each chapter brings a different story—twenty-five cases left frozen in time, still waiting for justice. The book explores murders that stunned neighborhoods, kidnappings that tore families apart, and mysteries that investigators chased for years. In these pages, the quiet streets of Missouri, Illinois, and beyond become the backdrop for secrets, heartbreak, and unanswered questions. But not every case remains locked in ice. One story breaks free—the “thawed” case—where persistence and detail uncovered the truth and shows that even the coldest mysteries can sometimes find resolution. With a journalist’s eye for fact and a storyteller’s gift for detail, Cyphers presents the lives lost, the families still searching for answers, and the investigators…

Goodfellow, capo, killer, thief. A man so diabolically evil that he ordered his eldest son to murder his closest associate, and his youngest son to murder his best friend. When Greg Scarpa was in his early twenties he became a goodfellow in the Profaci family by swearing a blood oath to the Mafia, at the time the country’s largest organized-crime syndicate. And for 25 years he betrayed that oath and the men closest to him by acting as a paid informant for the FBI. He fed America’s premier law enforcement agency a steady stream of self-serving information accusing the men who trusted him with their lives of every crime he was himself committing. During those 25 years of treachery, Scarpa was a one-man crime wave who spent only 30 days behind bars thanks to his status as the FBI’s ultimate Mafia insider. His standing as a prized informant freed him to engage in mayhem and murder knowing he had a virtual license to kill with reckless abandon. Greg Scarpa, Legendary Evil is a deep dive that provides fresh…

The murder that still haunts a Pennsylvania city. On the morning of August 8, 1975, sixteen-year-old Debbie Gama disappeared after leaving her home in Erie, only to be found raped and strangled days later in a creek nearly thirty miles from her home. What followed was an investigation that lacked suspects or even evidence pointing to a viable suspect. That is, until a private investigator named Dan Barber uncovered evidence leading directly to her killer: her English teacher, Raymond Payne. After Payne’s arrest, Debbie’s mother, Betty Ferguson, embarked on her own quest for justice, which unexpectedly led her on an incredible journey of forgiveness. Utilizing newspaper articles, court documents and investigative files never before revealed, Justin Dombrowski presents a gripping narrative of one investigator’s pursuit of justice and a mother’s search for the truth. THE MURDER OF DEBBIE GAMA: Justice and Abolition in Erie—Justin Dumbrowski

Many decades before Ted Bundy roamed the country there was serial killer Earle Nelson. During the 1920s, this geographically mobile killer went from city to city. His modus operandi involved getting into a house by pretending to be a person looking for a room to rent or inspecting a house that was for sale, and then strangling the landlady, often followed by having sex with the dead body. Robbery was frequently a secondary motive. After Nelson was captured in Canada in 1927, it was commonly reported that he had killed 21 women and a baby during the 1926-27 period. But were these the only cases linked to him? The author examines an additional nine unsolved murders of landladies, two of which have never been dealt with in previous literature. Based on decades of archival research, the author examines all 31 murders, relying on primary sources when available and a wide variety of secondary sources. For each murder, the book provides biographical sketches of the victim, outlines the police investigation and the…

From the author of the critically-acclaimed true crime account, A Killer By Design (the inspiration behind Hulu's original docuseries, Mastermind), a groundbreaking look into the crucial role played by expert witnesses in the most high-profile criminal cases, based on Dr. Ann Burgess’ personal experiences within the criminal justice system. Written through Burgess’ singular lens of compassion and lived experience, Expert Witness pulls back the curtain on some of the biggest cases in the last thirty years—from Bill Cosby to the Menendez brothers to Larry Nassar—to reveal the deeply human stories behind the trials that have captivated a nation. The book explores the role of expert witnesses in high stakes court cases, offering first-hand accounts and never-before-seen interviews with attorneys, victims, and offenders.Expert Witness places listeners inside the mind of the nation’s most prominent courtroom expert, following Burgess as she takes on one seismic case after the next. Throughout the narrative, each…