True Crime Review

Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations

2011-10-08T11:01:00.002-06:00

Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations by the Detective Who Solved Both Cases, by Greg Kading. Two of the most notorious unsolved cases in the annals of American crime, the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls have been the subject of exhaustive investigations, relentless speculation and a tangled web of rampant rumors, crackpot conspiracies and dark secrets. Now, for the first time, the truth behind these sensational cases is laid bare in Murder Rap, a raw and riveting account of how a dedicated and driven police detective spearheaded the task force that finally exposed the shocking facts behind the deaths of these two rap music icons. Told by Greg Kading, a much-decorated LAPD detective assigned to solve the homicides, Murder Rap unravels a twisted tale of music, money, and murder, finally answering the question of who killed Biggie and Tupac and why. With access to never-before-seen material, including the confessions of those directly involved in the killings, Kading’s spellbinding saga takes readers directly inside the four-year cold case investigation, introduces a cast of unforgettable characters and provides compelling new evidence for its explosive conclusions. A torn-from-the-headlines true crime blockbuster, the scathing revelations of Murder Rap are sure to make headlines all their own.

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Greg Kading is a retired Los Angeles Police Department detective. Specializing in the fields of gangs, narcotics, and homicide, Detective Kading spent most of his career assigned to federal task forces to investigate complex criminal cases in the City of Angels. Decorated with the Medal of Valor for bravery and Police Star for heroic action, Detective Kading achieved the departments highest ranking as an investigator. After his 25-year law enforcement career he retired in 2010 to write this book.

We Have Your Husband: One Woman's Terrifying Story of a Kidnapping in Mexico

2011-05-19T20:07:00.000-06:00

We Have Your Husband: One Woman's Terrifying Story of a Kidnapping in Mexico, by Jayne Garcia Valseca. In the mountains of Guanajuato, Mexico sits a picturesque community favored by artists and tourists. But for American-born Jayne Valseca and her husband Eduardo, son of a legendary Mexican newspaper publisher, it became a hell on earth when Eduardo was ambushed by strangers and kidnapped in the summer of 2007. Jayne knew that in Mexico kidnapping was a pervasive and lucrative business-a burgeoning criminal industry with few happy endings. This time the merchandise was her husband. Sealed in a dark seven-by-six, two-feet-wide box, Eduardo lived for seven months on little more than eggshells and chicken bones. He was subjected to the most cruel and humiliating mental and physical torture imaginable. He had no reason to believe he'd ever be found alive. As the ransom escalated, so did the stakes. But Jayne refused to be a pawn in the kidnappers' sick game. She decided to become a player. If she was to get her husband back alive, she'd have to be more cunning than the kidnappers and be cool, calculated and determined... Click here for more information or to order.

Analyzing Criminal Minds: Forensic Investigative Science for the 21st Century

2011-05-19T19:53:00.000-06:00

Analyzing Criminal Minds: Forensic Investigative Science for the 21st Century (Brain, Behavior, and Evolution), by Don Jacobs. This new book explores new and emerging approaches to a perennially fascinating subject. Author Don Jacobs looks at 10 tools and products that have revolutionized the discipline, explaining how modern criminal mind analysis incorporates advances in criminal and forensic psychology, forensic neuropsychology, brain imaging, adolescent neurobiology, criminal profiling, and brain fingerprinting, as well as research into the paralimbic brain system and the impact of the "DANE" brain upon adolescent and young adult behavior. Twenty-three characteristics shared by jailed violent criminals are analyzed and considered in terms of neuropsychology and developmental psychology. The book also probes psychopathy in its various degrees, in children, adolescents, and adults, and explains a controversial but increasingly accepted theory that psychopathy is a "natural" outgrowth of evolution, describing how this "natural" psychopathy can become a condition typified by violent, sadistic, and irreversible personality disorder.

Don Jacobs is department chair of behavioral science at Weatherford College in Weatherford, TX, a position he has held for more than ten years. Since 1997, Professor Jacobs has written 15 books most recently, Psychology of Deception: Analysis of Sexually Psychopathic Crime, that focus on various topics related to forensic psychology, psychopathy, and sexually psychopathic serial crime. Click here for more information or to order.

Pirates of the 21st Century

2011-05-13T16:11:00.000-06:00

Pirates of the 21st Century: How Modern-Day Buccaneers are Terrorising the World's Oceans, by Nigel Cawthorne. Piracy is rife in the South China Sea and has returned to the Caribbean and South America, and this fascinating book examines how a phenomenon thought to be consigned to history is once again a worldwide problem. It also looks at attacks that have taken place in the Malacca Straits and the fate of the couple making a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world by yacht, and questions how the international community and its peacekeeping forces can try to bring stability and security back to the oceans. What started as a patrol to combat commercial plundering of Somali fish stocks has now grown into a highly organized and lucrative business. In a war-torn country, the pirates have brought hope and entire villages depend on the wealth that they bring in—they have even been likened to Robin Hood. But these modern-day buccaneers should not be romanticized—their attacks are becoming more violent and they are increasingly in possession of automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

This book looks at the attacks that have taken place in the Malacca Straits, the Gulf of Guinea, and off the coast of Bangladesh, and questions how international peacekeeping forces can try to bring stability and security back to the oceans of the world. Click here for more information or to order or download.

Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, Third Edition: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet

2011-05-13T16:02:00.000-06:00

Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, Third Edition: Forensic Science, Computers, and the Internet, by Eoghan Casey. Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, Third Edition provides the knowledge necessary to uncover and use digital evidence effectively in any kind of investigation. The widely-adopted first and second editions introduced thousands of students to this field and helped them deal with digital evidence. This completely updated edition provides the introductory materials that new students require, and also expands on the material presented in previous editions to help students develop these skills. The textbook teaches how computer networks function, how they can be involved in crimes, and how they can be used as a source of evidence. Additionally, this third edition includes updated chapters dedicated to networked Windows, Unix, and Macintosh computers, and Personal Digital Assistants. Ancillary materials include an Instructor's Manual and PowerPoint slides.

This extensive book provides a thorough explanation of how computers & networks function, how they can be involved in crimes, and how they can be used as evidence. Features coverage of the abuse of computer networks and privacy and security issues on computer networks. Click here for more information or to order.

Square Grouper: Godfathers of Ganja

2011-05-10T16:20:00.000-06:00

Square Grouper: Godfathers of Ganja, directed by Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman. In 1979, the U.S. Customs Service reported that 87% of all marijuana seizures in the U.S. were made in the South Florida area. Due to the region's 5,000 miles of coast and coastal waterways and close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America, South Florida was a pot smuggler's paradise. In sharp contrast to the brazenly violent cocaine cowboys of the 1980s, Miami's marijuana smugglers were cooler, calmer, and typically nonviolent. Square Grouper paints a vivid portrait of Miami's pot smuggling culture in the '70s and '80s and its major players: the smuggling Black Tuna Gang, the pot dealing Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church and the tiny fishing village Everglades City. Click here for more information or to order.

Kirk's Fire Investigation (7th Edition)

2011-05-10T15:51:00.000-06:00

Kirk's Fire Investigation (7th Edition), by John D. De Haan and David J. Icove. As fire investigation continues to evolve, author John DeHaan, a forensic scientist with extensive experience in all phases of fire and explosion, is joined by recognized forensic fire engineering expert David Icove for the 7th edition of Kirk’s Fire Investigation, the leading and most widely read textbook in the field of fire investigation. With today’s investigators being held to higher standards than ever before, this text, written to the FESHE curriculum, details the “need-to-know” investigation skills and includes special topics such as lab analysis, fire deaths, and explosions while offering correlation to both the NFPA 921 and 1033 guidelines. Presenting new case examples, updated chapters with Key Terms and Review Questions, color photographs, as well as reorganized appendices and a robust supplements package in MyFireKit for both students and instructors, this adventurous new edition is written to improve the skills of all investigators and help them find the right answers for the right reasons. Click here for more information or to order.

Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano

2011-05-07T14:31:00.000-06:00

Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano: Whitey Bulger's Enforcer and the Most Feared Gangster in the Underworld, by Howie Carr. Martin Scorsese's The Departed barely touched on his story. Now radio talk-show sensation, crime reporter, and Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr takes us into the heart of the life of Johnny Martorano.

For two decades, Martorano struck fear into anyone even remotely connected to his world. His partnership with Whitey Bulger and the infamous Winter Hill Gang led to twenty murders... for which Johnny would serve twelve years in prison. Carr also looks at the politicians and FBI agents who aided Johnny and Whitey, and at the flamboyant city of Boston, which Martorano so ruthlessly ruled.

A plethora of paradoxes, Johnny Martorano was Mr. Mom by day and man-about-town by night. Surrounded by fast-living politicians, sports celebrities, and showbiz entertainers, Johnny was charismatically colorful--as charming as he was frightening. After all, he was, in the end... a hitman. Click here for more information or to order or download.

The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer

2011-05-07T13:32:00.000-06:00

The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer, by Anthony Bruno. Smoothly written bio of a lone-wolf executioner for the mob. At home Richard Kuklinski was a dedicated suburban family man. On the street he was the Iceman, a professional hit man and lethal scam artist, a man so heartless he kept one of his victims frozen for over two years to disguise the time of death. His personal body count was over 100, but the police didn't have a clue. THE ICEMAN exposes Kuklinski's murderous double life.

The Ice Man used of cyanide, a car- bomb invention called the "seat of death," and other exotic methods of murder. Cyanide proved to be Kuklinski's favorit: It was quiet and discreet--you could walk by your victim, spray his face with the poison while pretending to sneeze, and he'd be dying even as he crumpled to the sidewalk. Bruno details how Dominick Polifrone, a cop who grew up with the wiseguys in Hackensack, goes undercover and gets in with the cagey Kuklinski. The hit man wants cyanide and a rich Jewish kid to sell coke to, and Polifrone wants to record Kuklinski proposing murders. As cop and killer play cat and mouse, and the bartering goes bad, the danger of Polifrone being shot at any moment is torqued tighter and tighter by Bruno. Finally, Kuklinski is caught and tried: It's determined that he's committed approximately one hundred murders, including that of Roy DeMeo, a killer so dangerous that he intimidated even John Gotti. A fast-paced, suspenseful re-creation of how a vicious killer was run to ground. Download here for just $2.99.

Prodigal Father, Pagan Son: Growing Up Inside the Dangerous World of the Pagans Motorcycle Club

2011-05-01T10:08:00.000-06:00

Prodigal Father, Pagan Son: Growing Up Inside the Dangerous World of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, by Anthony "LT" Menginie and Kerrie Droban. By the time he was thirteen, he already had attended thirteen funerals. Abandoned by his mother, and with his father, “Mangy” Menginie—president of the Pagans Motorcycle Club, Philadelphia chapter—in jail, Anthony “LT” Menginie is raised inside the Pagans and inducted into a life of sex, violence, drugs, and organized crime.

In Mangy’s absence, LT finds a father figure in the Saint, a club member who helps teach him the difference between the club members you respect…and those you fear. The author recounts the power struggles that occur when Mangy is released from jail and tries to resume his role as father and president. Soon all hell breaks loose when Mangy betrays the club by going over to the rival Hells Angels, helping to touch off the “Biker Wars” in Philadelphia. The chapter’s new president grooms LT to one day confront his father for his treachery. Faced with an impossible decision, LT has to decide where his loyalties lie.

Prodigal Father, Pagan Son is a voyeuristic glimpse into the shocking and hypnotic underworld of notorious “one-percenter” biker clubs, hit men, drug dealers, and the other individuals who operate under no other rules than the “club code.” But more than this, Menginie’s story is the gritty and powerful true tale of surviving amid personal trials and tragedies, and of one man’s determination to escape to a better life. Click here for more information or to order.

Digital Forensics with Open Source Tools

2011-05-01T10:01:00.000-06:00

Digital Forensics with Open Source Tools, by Cory Altheide and Harlan Carvey. Digital Forensics with Open Source Tools is the definitive book on investigating and analyzing computer systems and media using open source tools. The book is a technical procedural guide, and explains the use of these tools on Linux and Windows systems as a platform for performing computer forensics. Both well known and novel forensic methods are demonstrated using command-line and graphical open source computer forensic tools for examining a wide range of target systems and artifacts. This essential manual is written by world-renowned forensic practitioners and it details core concepts and techniques of forensic file system analysis. It covers analysis of artifacts from the Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Click here for more information or to order.

Jackpot: High Times, High Seas, and the Sting That Launched the War on Drugs

2011-04-23T13:46:00.002-06:00

Jackpot: High Times, High Seas, and the Sting That Launched the War on Drugs, by Jason Ryan. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a cadre of freewheeling, Southern pot smugglers lived at the crossroads of Miami Vice and a Jimmy Buffett song. In less than ten years, these irrepressible adventurers unloaded nearly a billion dollars worth of marijuana and hashish through the eastern seaboard’s marshes. Then came their undoing: Operation Jackpot, one of the largest drug investigations ever launched and an opening volley in Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs.

In Jackpot, author Jason Ryan takes us back to the heady days before drug smuggling was synonymous with deadly gunplay. During this golden age of marijuana trafficking, the country’s most prominent kingpins were a group of wayward and fun-loving Southern gentlemen who forsook college educations to sail drug-laden luxury sailboats across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean. Les Riley, Barry Foy, and their comrades eschewed violence as much as they loved pleasure, and it was greed, lust, and disaster at sea that ultimately caught up with them, along with the law.

In a cat-and-mouse game played out in exotic locations across the globe, the smugglers sailed through hurricanes, broke out of jail and survived encounters with armed militants in Colombia, Grenada and Lebanon. Based on years of research and interviews with imprisoned and recently released smugglers and the law enforcement agents who tracked them down, Jackpot does for marijuana smuggling what Blow and Snowblind did for the cocaine trade. Click here for more information or to order.

Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong

2011-04-23T13:39:00.002-06:00

Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong, by Branden L. Garrett. On January 20, 1984, Earl Washington—defended for all of forty minutes by a lawyer who had never tried a death penalty case—was found guilty of rape and murder in the state of Virginia and sentenced to death. After nine years on death row, DNA testing cast doubt on his conviction and saved his life. However, he spent another eight years in prison before more sophisticated DNA technology proved his innocence and convicted the guilty man.

DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling in-depth analysis, Brandon Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing.

Based on trial transcripts, Garrett’s investigation into the causes of wrongful convictions reveals larger patterns of incompetence, abuse, and error. Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system. Garrett proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory.

Very few crimes committed in the America involve biological evidence that can be tested using DNA. How many unjust convictions are there that we will never discover? Convicting the Innocent makes a powerful case for systemic reforms to improve the accuracy of all criminal cases. Click here for more information or to order.

How Shelter Pets are Brokered for Experimentation

2011-03-08T07:11:00.003-07:00

How Shelter Pets are Brokered for Experimentation: Understanding Pound Seizure, by Allie Phillips. Back in the 1940s, the practice referred to as "pound seizure" became a common practice in taxpayer-funded animal shelters across the country. Whether for cosmetic testing, human or animal drug testing, medical technique and tool testing, or biochemical testing, these once-family pets are subjected to experimentation that often ends in death. While many states fail to keep accurate data, the number of pets that become victims of pound seizure easily reaches the thousands and though most citizens are unaware of the practice, it may very well be happening at their local animal shelter. Pound seizure remains a dirty little secret in American society, but the practice is moving toward extinction with the help of local citizens advocating for change at their shelter, as well as animal rescue and welfare organizations providing assistance and advocacy. Learning more about the practice, as well as alternatives, will help give readers a fuller picture of what's happening in American animal shelters and what they can do to stem the tide of dealers and brokers sweeping off animals to their almost-certain demise.

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The Good Son: A True Story of Greed, Manipulation, and Cold-Blooded Murder

2011-02-14T14:25:00.001-07:00

The Good Son: A True Story of Greed, Manipulation, and Cold-Blooded Murder, by Stella Sands. Rick and Suzanna Wamsley were well-loved in their Mansfield, Texas, community. Former high-school sweethearts, they provided their two children with every comfort. But their twenty-year-old son, Andrew, had a bitter, rebellious streak...and resented his parents for making him go to college, for not giving him the title to the sports car he wanted, and for their disapproval of his teenage girlfriend, Chelsea Richardson. She was from the other side of the tracks—and she had a deadly plan in store for the Wamsleys... On the night of December 11, 2003, Chelsea and two accomplices entered the Wamsley home. Carrying guns and knives, they killed Suzanna instantly. Rick fought his attackers tooth and nail…but couldn’t save himself. Later, DNA evidence would link Chelsea’s best friend, Susana Toledano, to the crime scene. Then authorities learned that a fourth suspect provided the murder weapon. It was only a matter of time before investigators closed in on the last perpetrator—the one person who stood to inherit almost two million dollars in the event of the Wamsleys’ deaths: Andrew, The good SON. Click here for more information or to order.

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The Boys of the Dark

2010-09-16T19:18:00.002-06:00

The Boys of the Dark: A Story of Betrayal and Redemption in the Deep South, by Robin Gaby Fisher, Michael O'McCarthy, and Robert W. Straley. A story that garnered national attention, this is the harrowing tale of two men who suffered abuses at a reform school in Florida in the 1950s and 60s, and who banded together fifty years later to confront their attackers. Michael O’McCarthy and Robert W. Straley were teens when they were termed “incorrigible youth” by authorities and ordered to attend the Florida School for Boys. They discovered in Marianna, the “City of Southern Charm,” an immaculately groomed campus that looked more like an idyllic university than a reform school. But hidden behind the gates of the Florida School for Boys was a hell unlike any they could have imagined. The school’s guards and administrators acted as their jailers and tormentors. The boys allegedly bore witness to assault, rape, and possibly even murder.

For fifty years, both men---and countless others like them---carried their torment in silence. But a series of unlikely events brought O’McCarthy, now a successful rights activist, and Straley together, and they became determined to expose the Florida School for Boys for what they believed it to be: a youth prison with a century-long history of abuse. They embarked upon a campaign that would change their lives and inspire others.

Robin Gaby Fisher, a Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist and author of the New York Times bestselling After the Fire, collaborates with Straley and O’McCarthy to offer a riveting account of their harrowing ordeal. The book goes beyond the story of the two men to expose the truth about a century-old institution and a town that adopted a Nuremberg-like code of secrecy and a government that failed to address its own wrongdoing. What emerges is a tale of strength, resolve, and vindication in the face of the kinds of terror few can imagine.

Alphabet Killer: The True Story of the Double Initial Murders

2010-09-16T19:05:00.001-06:00

Alphabet Killer: The True Story of the Double Initial Murders, by Cheri Farnsworth. Between 1971 and 1973, three young girls, ages ten to eleven, were found sexually assaulted and slain near Rochester, New York. The girls all had double initials for their first and last names and were found dead in suburbs with names in which the first letter co-ordinated with the girls' initials. Two prime suspects later committed suicide. A third suspect, Kenneth Bianchi, went to California where he went on to become one of the infamous Hillside Stranglers, but to this day he insists he had nothing to do with the so-called Double Initial, or Alphabet, murders. The crimes remain unsolved, but interest in the case was re-energised with the release of a fictionalised motion picture loosely based on the murders. This factual account, the first book fully devoted to the case, explores the crime and the ongoing investigation.

Internet Child Abuse: Current Research and Policy

2010-09-16T19:01:00.001-06:00

Internet Child Abuse: Current Research and Policy, by Julia Davidson. This book provides a timely overview of international policy, legislation and offender management and treatment practice in the area of Internet child abuse. Internet use has grown considerably over the last five years, and information technology now forms a core part of the formal education system in many countries. There is however, increasing evidence that the Internet is used by some adults to access children and young people in order to ‘groom’ them for the purposes of sexual abuse; as well as to produce and distribute indecent illegal images of children. This book presents and assesses the most recent and current research on internet child abuse, addressing: its nature, the behaviour and treatment of its perpetrators, international policy, legislation and protection, and policing. It will be required reading for an international audience of academics, researchers, policy-makers and criminal justice practitioners with interests in this area. Julia Davidson is Professor of Criminology and Director of Research in Criminology at Kingston University, she is also Co-Director of the newly formed Centre for Abuse & Trauma Studies.

Runaway Devil: How Forbidden Love Drove a 12-Year-Old to Murder Her Family

2010-09-15T16:44:00.002-06:00

Runaway Devil: How Forbidden Love Drove a 12-Year-Old to Murder Her Family, by Robert Remington. Marc and Debra seemed to have it all — a lovely home in the Prairie town of Medicine Hat, fulfilling careers, a supportive marriage, and two beautiful children: eight-year-old Jacob and twelve-year-old JR. After years of struggle to reach this point, they finally felt their future held promise. But on April 23, 2006, their bodies were discovered in their basement, covered in savage stab wounds. Upstairs, Jacob lay dead on his bed, his toys spattered with blood.

Investigators worried for JR’s safety, but unknown to them, the pretty honor roll student had been developing a disturbing alter ego online. Runaway Devil professed a fondness for a darker world of death metal music, the goth subculture, and a love for Jeremy Steinke, a twenty-three-year-old high-school dropout who lived in a rundown trailer park. Soon, shocking evidence in JR’s school locker — printed here for the first time — led police to believe the girl was a suspect in her family’s murders.

The case horrified parents everywhere. Journalists Robert Remington and Sherri Zickefoose have been covering it from the beginning, and in Runaway Devil, they reveal what really happened: the unlikely young love, the teenage rebellion, a troubling world of adolescent drifters, and a small community torn apart by an unthinkable crime. A modern cautionary tale, Runaway Devil is also a chilling portrait of an approval-seeking man smitten with a manipulative young girl — who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted.

Robert Remington is a columnist with the Calgary Herald. His journalism career has taken him to Pakistan, East Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Central America. He was formerly a western Canadian correspondent for the National Post, an editor and columnist at the Edmonton Journal, and a syndicated columnist for United Features, New York. Sherri Zickefoose is a crime reporter for the Calgary Herald. Her tenacious reporting on the murders led her to an exclusive interview with Steinke’s mother, who revealed a different side of the man being called a monster.

Color Atlas of Forensic Toolmark Identification

2010-09-15T16:35:00.001-06:00

Color Atlas of Forensic Toolmark Identification, by Nicholas Petraco. In the wake of the Daubert ruling, the use of forensic toolmark evidence in court has been problematic, in that the conclusions of forensic scientists as to toolmark origin often lack scientifically sound statistical proof. In the Color Atlas of Forensic Toolmark Identification, noted forensic expert Nicholas Petraco helps move toolmark examination from an art to a science. The first part of the book contains an anthology of tried and true methods, procedures, and traditional techniques used by practitioners of this discipline for over a century. It contains rationales and methodologies for casework, discussion of the use of new materials and techniques for preparation of known standards, and the application of various methods of statistical proof to further establish toolmark examination as a sound scientific endeavor. The second section contains a compilation of commonly used hand tools and the marks they typically produce. More than 400 color photos enhance the text, and numerous case studies describe evidence found and conclusions drawn from the evidence. This unique atlas empowers law enforcement professionals to capture the evidence they need to solve the case.

Nicholas Petraco earned a B.S. in chemistry and an M.S. in forensic science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the City University of New York. He served as a detective/criminalist at New York City’s Police Laboratory from 1968 to 1990 and held the position of senior forensic microscopist of the laboratory’s trace section between 1982 and 1990, when he became a private forensic consultant. Mr. Petraco has helped educate thousands of forensic scientists, worked on more than 5000 death investigations on behalf of prosecution and defense attorneys, and testified as an expert in more than 500 trials conducted in local, state, and federal criminal and civil courts.

Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition

2010-09-15T16:30:00.001-06:00

Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition, by David Garland. The U.S. death penalty is a peculiar institution, and a uniquely American one. Despite its comprehensive abolition elsewhere in the Western world, capital punishment continues in dozens of American states– a fact that is frequently discussed but rarely understood. The same puzzlement surrounds the peculiar form that American capital punishment now takes, with its uneven application, its seemingly endless delays, and the uncertainty of its ever being carried out in individual cases, none of which seem conducive to effective crime control or criminal justice. In a brilliantly provocative study, David Garland explains this tenacity and shows how death penalty practice has come to bear the distinctive hallmarks of America’s political institutions and cultural conflicts.

America’s radical federalism and local democracy, as well as its legacy of violence and racism, account for our divergence from the rest of the West. Whereas the elites of other nations were able to impose nationwide abolition from above despite public objections, American elites are unable– and unwilling– to end a punishment that has the support of local majorities and a storied place in popular culture.

In the course of hundreds of decisions, federal courts sought to rationalize and civilize an institution that too often resembled a lynching, producing layers of legal process but also delays and reversals. Yet the Supreme Court insists that the issue is to be decided by local political actors and public opinion. So the death penalty continues to respond to popular will, enhancing the power of criminal justice professionals, providing drama for the media, and bringing pleasure to a public audience who consumes its chilling tales.

Garland brings a new clarity to our understanding of this peculiar institution– and a new challenge to supporters and opponents alike.

Mind of a Serial Killer

2010-08-15T15:03:00.001-06:00

Mind of a Serial Killer, DVD by NOVA. The Boston Strangler. The Son of Sam. Jeffrey Dahmer. Every time a serial killer hits, it touches a deep collective nerve of fear—in part because his grisly acts so defy comprehension. Or do they? Step behind the scenes at the FBI's Investigative Support Unit, where psychological detectives race against time to penetrate the minds and emotions of the most elusive of murderers. Using state-of-the-art science, elite investigators tease apart crime scene evidence and scrutinize victim profiles to construct an astonishingly accurate personality print of the perpetrator—and a good guess as to how and when he'll make his next move.

This time the scene is Rochester, New York, where multiple slayings of prostitutes have left local authorities baffled. Find out how FBI sleuths figure out what makes this dark mind tick—and how remarkable prediction lets them stop the killer in his tracks before he can strike again.

The Lizard King: The True Crimes and Passions of the World's Greatest Reptile Smugglers

2009-09-15T18:00:00.000-06:00

The Lizard King: The True Crimes and Passions of the World's Greatest Reptile Smugglers, by Bryan Christy. Imagine The Sopranos, with snakes! The Lizard King is a fascinating account of a father and son family business suspected of smuggling reptiles, and the federal agent who tried to take them down. When Bryan Christy began to investigate the world of reptile smuggling, he had no idea what he would be in for. In the course of his research, he was bitten between the eyes by a blood python, chased by a mother alligator, and sprayed by a bird-eating tarantula. But perhaps more dangerous was coming face to face with Michael J. Van Nostrand, owner of Strictly Reptiles, a thriving family business in Hollywood, Florida. Van Nostrand imports as many as 300,000 iguanas each year (over half the total of America's most popular imported reptile), as well as hundreds of thousands of snakes, lizards, frogs, spiders, and scorpions. Van Nostrand was suspected of being a reptile smuggler by Special Agent Chip Bepler of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who devoted years of his life in an obsessive quest to expose The Lizard King's cold-blooded crimes. How this cat-and-mouse game ended is engrossing and surprising.

Bryan Christy has had a life-long fascination with reptiles and an even greater fascination with the men responsible for smuggling them to the U.S. He graduated from University of Michigan Law School, took a Fulbright Scholarship to University of Tokyo Law School, worked for Senator Bradley, and later in the Executive Office of the President. In 1999, he was asked to become the country's first post-Vietnam War resident legal adviser to the government of Vietnam but turned it down to write. This is his first book.

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Alcatraz Reunion

2009-09-15T16:21:00.000-06:00

Alcatraz Reunion, directed by John Paget. What happens when America's most notorious prison hosts an 'alumni' reunion? Award-winning filmmaker John Paget presents Alcatraz Reunion, the critically acclaimed documentary on America's legendary prison. This Special Edition DVD comes packed with bonus features and is beautifully packaged in a full-color six-panel Digipak, complete with pictorial timeline history of Alcatraz.

Synopsis: Calling All Cons! Calling All Cons! With the 70th Anniversary of Alcatraz Penitentiary fast approaching, National Park Service Ranger John Cantwell is inviting every ex-Alcatraz inmate - and their former cellhouse guards - back to the Rock for an Alcatraz Alumni Gathering! (And you thought your family reunion was dysfunctional!)

Intrigued by this most unlikely of reunions, filmmaker John Paget travels the continent to find the few known surviving ex-prisoners of Alcatraz. They were once America's most dangerous public enemies - but who and where are they now?

Against the backdrop of these colorful characters and their imminent rendezvous, Alcatraz Reunion traces the history of the iconic island, and its mysterious transformation from notorious prison to tourist mecca. Once this tale holds you captive, there is no escape!

In this film you'll meet the real ex-cons of Alcatraz, and experience their humor, hubris and humanity like never before...plus commentary from legendary San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carl Nolte and the heartwarming story of 'the Alcatraz priest' Father Bernie Bush.

DVD BONUS FEAUTURES: Three complete historic newsreels from key moments in Alcatraz history: The Famous Escape of 1962, Jack LaLanne's Handcuffed Swim, Alcatraz Closing Day, 1963

Manson 40 Years Later

2009-09-15T15:19:00.000-06:00

Manson 40 Years Later, He was the mastermind of the most notorious murders in U.S. history, a crazed guru who terrified the world and plunged the city of Los Angeles into a state of paranoia and panic. This two-hour docudrama from HISTORY takes viewers deep inside Charles Manson s twisted world of hate, fear, and mind control to tell the story of how one man transformed a harmless group of hippies into a gang of brutal murderers. Intertwining first-person accounts with rare archive footage, Manson looks back at the nine months leading up to and including the brutal murder of Sharon Tate, the Manson family s most famous victim, four decades after her bludgeoning. It features key Manson family member Linda Kasabian, who was at the scene of the Sharon Tate murders as lookout and getaway driver, in her first interview in 20 years, as well as interviews with fellow Manson family member Catherine Share; Vincent Bugliosi, the lead prosecutor who wrote Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders; and Deborah Tate, Sharon Tate s sister.

America's Serial Killers: Portraits in Evil

2009-09-15T15:14:00.000-06:00

America's Serial Killers: Portraits in Evil, This DVD will strip the covers from a world of profiling, forensic science and painful investigation as history's most brutal serial killers are exposed. Wars have terrorized entire populations for thousands of years. The American West was home to ruthless killers who were idolized in fiction and folklore. Evil evolved to a hideous new form with the genocidal dictators of the 20th century such as Hitler, Stalin and MaoTseTung who ordered the death of tens of millions. But in the middle of the 20th century a new and chilling phenomenon emerged in post-war Western society: The Serial Killer. As if fashioned from our nightmares, they terrify and fascinate us. Lurking behind masks of bland normality they often evade capture for years, decades or eternity. They are America's serial killers.

When Evil Came to Good Hart

2008-08-07T14:49:00.001-06:00

When Evil Came to Good Hart, by Mardi Link. There is an intemporal quality to Good Hart, the kind born of ancient rocks, mature mixed forests, enduring Ottawa legends, and the turquoise waters of Little Traverse Bay. Hovering over this paradise is the dark chapter in the village's past that locals still don't care to talk about: the massacre of six members of the vacationing Robison family in the summer of 1968. In the first nonfiction book about this baffling and still unsolved crime, Link offers up a balanced and absorbing account of this mystery, allowing readers to form their own opinions and leaving them wanting more from this very talented writer. Mardi Link's look at a 1968 case is a stellar example of how a mystery, when well presented, can be even more compelling than one that's been solved. In digging through evidence, reading numerous newspaper accounts from that time, and talking to a score of Good Hart residents, Link doesn't come up with any answers about whodunnit, but she does explore more than just the Robison case. In presenting the facts, she asks questions about the nature of evil, and comments on loss of innocence in many ways, her own, the town's, the era's. Her descriptions vary from melodic and wistful to hard-hitting, a combination that keeps the pages turning fast. For the Robisons, she writes, it was to be their first full summer in Good Hart, a result of business success: "It was a simple but enduring dream, shared by thousands of Michigan families, but one that for the Robisons this summer in 1968, lasted just eight days." Order From Amazon.com Here

Detroit Mob Confidential

2008-02-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

Detroit Mob Confidential, Detroit Mob Confidential explores the history of Detroit's La Cosa Nostra Family, which, in many ways, is the most successful crime family in the United States. Detroit's family has had only 2 Dons, the current boss has served for 30 years and is the longest serving mob Don in America. The documentary consists of interviews with multiple FBI agents and Federal prosecutors as well as several mafia associates from the 1950's and 1960's. Topics such as the Detroit "Combination's" (as the Family is known) infiltration of Las Vegas casinos and their centrality to the dissapearance of Jimmy Hoffa are discussed. The Detroit Family was the first LCN chapter that had members convicted of corruption involving Las Vegas casinos, and has been the target of the FBI's still ongoing Jimmy Hoffa investigation since 1975. The formation of the family during the prohibition era, culminating in the "Crosstown Mob War" of 1930 is covered, as well Detroit Mafia connections to the battles between Ford Motor Company and the UAW in the 1930's and 40's. The Detroit Family's role in the international heroin trade and their ties to the French Connection are discussed as well as various murders the Federal government suspects them of involvment in. Detroit area underworld legends like Tony "Jack" Giacalone and his brother Vito (Billy Jack), Freddy "the Pope" Salem and "the General" Henry Hilf are covered, as well as the Denny Mclain, Alex Karras, and Isiah Thomas gambling investigations. The Mafia's role in controlling the African-American "numbers rackets" is exposed as well as the internal politics and conflicts of the family. In addition to law enforcement and media sources, former associates reflect on the past and their work with Detroit Mafia members in sports gambling and other criminal activities. Several hundred unique and never-seen-before surveillance photographs from Federal law enforcement are used as well as family photos of Don Joe Zerilli on his Grosse Pointe estate. "Detroit Mob Confidential" is the first and only documentary made about America's most secretive, and most succesful Mafia family. Beginning in 1912 and finishing in 2009, "Detroit Mob Confidential" is a must-see DVD for any student of American History, crime buffs, and Detroiters of all ages and backgrounds.

Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem

2008-02-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem, As some of the country s most notorious criminals, they were responsible for an historic crime spree that included hundreds of bank robberies, kidnappings, and murders. Though the havoc they wreaked across America lasted just 18 months, it resulted in the rise of the FBI and the nation s first war on crime. Meet the outlaws who defined this golden age of crime, from John Dillinger and Machine Gun Kelly to Ma Barker, Bonnie and Clyde, and Pretty Boy Floyd, as HISTORYTM details the crime wave of 1933-34. At the height of the Great Depression, police jurisdictions ended at state lines, the FBI barely existed, and many of the thirteen million Americans out of work blamed their troubles on the banks, setting up an opportune time for criminals to rob, steal, and kill. And with technological advances like the Tommy Gun, electric-start V-8 engines, and bulletproof vests, the robbers often had the advantage over the cops.

Attention-grabbing and action-packed, CRIME WAVE: 18 MONTHS OF MAYHEM mixes archival footage with evocative reenactments to help capture the hectic pace of the heists, stick-ups, and high-speed chases that turned these charismatic thieves and murderers into legendary characters, as well as the bloody sprees and shoot-outs that resulted in their deaths.

Rampage: Killing Without Reason

2008-02-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

Rampage: Killing Without Reason, Dare to take a look deep inside the dark, twisted minds of America's most disturbed mass murderers. This 10-part documentary series explores the motives and events leading up to the most horrifying rage-murder cases in recent history. This original documentary production features rare and never-before-seen footage and information. See leading experts discuss the psychological reasoning that leads to hate crimes, arsonists, deadly cults, workplace killings and school massacres.

Excellent Cadavers

2008-01-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

Excellent Cadavers, directed by Marco Turco. Excellent Cadavers is a documentary about the real Mafia: not the comical hoods of the Sopranos or the tragic warriors of The Godfather, but the historic, violent Sicillian gang that has flourished in Italy and the U.S. for more than a century, leaving bloody havoc in its wake. The focus is not on individual Mafiosi but on the Cosa Nostra as a powerful and amoral coporate entity, intimately emmeshed with Italian business and politics, and, on two brave, unshakeably honest prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who battlled them in the courts for years, winnning hundreds of convictions, before both were assassinated. Sicily is one of the most picturesque of movie locations, and director Marco Turco takes full advantage of that here. One of his main interviewees is the gifted photojournalist Letizia Battaglia, who has recorded the Mafia's violent legacy in Palmero for decades, and uses her searing black-and-white shots evocatively and well. Cadavers is a rich mine of information on a subject about which it is sometimes too easy to be superficial.

Vegas: The City the Mob Made

2008-01-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

Vegas: The City the Mob Made, Las Vegas...Sin City...There is no place like it on earth. The adult playground in the Sun... The country s greatest resort city... the gambling capital of the world...A place of casinos...Home of the famous, and infamous Strip. It is a city where for the right price every kind of entertainment is available for everyone and anyone at any time... It is a city that never sleeps. But it is also a uniquely American city...A Western city ... A desert city. The story of Las Vegas is a 20th century tale...A tale that unites the Mob with the Wild West s culture of cowboys, gunslingers, and saloons. Las Vegas reflects the greater American story of freedom, and the American dream of striking it rich...The last place where you can arrive as a nobody and leave as a king.

Effective Interviewing and Interrogation Techniques

2008-01-14T18:52:00.002-07:00

Effective Interviewing and Interrogation Techniques, by Nathan J. Gordon. (3rd edition) This is a practical manual which provides the forensic practitioner/investigator critical insight into human behavior, enabling one to become a better interviewer, interrogator and, most importantly, an expert detector of truthful and deceptive behavior. The Forensic Assessment Interview Technique (FAINT) and the Integrated Interrogation Technique (IIT) were developed at the Academy for Scientific Investigative Training and are used by forensic practitioners and investigators to detect truthful or deceptive behavior. FAINT is applicable to all forensic type interviews and incorporates the assessment of nonverbal behavior, projective analysis of unwitting verbal cues, statement analysis and the Morgan Interview Thematic Technique (MITT). This volume teaches how to combine, apply and quantify these techniques to reach a numerical conclusion to the truthfulness of the interviewee.

The third edition expands chapters on torture, assessing the interview, statement analysis, MITT, and interrogation. It contains new chapters on passenger screening, and report writing, along with new case studies. Also covered are ways to maximize the collection of information from a prospective employee, and legal considerations.

Gordon and Fleisher have created a one-stop guide to mastering the art of credibility assessment during an interview, with successfully tested techniques for obtaining a confession from guilty suspects. Forensic practitioners, law enforcement, the intelligence community, the private security sector, attorneys, and forensic and criminal justice students will all find this volume a valuable resource.

The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul, and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles

2006-09-23T09:55:00.001-06:00

The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul, and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles, by Don Wolfe. In 1946, Elizabeth Short traveled to Hollywood to become famous and see her name up in lights. Instead, the dark-haired beauty became immortalized in the headlines as the "Black Dahlia" when her nude and bisected body was discovered in the weeds of a vacant lot. Despite the efforts of more than four hundred police officers and homicide investigators, the heinous crime was never solved. Now, after endless speculation and false claims, bestselling author Donald H. Wolfe discovers startling new evidence-;buried in the files of the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office for more than half a century.

With the aid of archival photos, news clippings, and investigative reports, Wolfe documents the riveting untold story that names the brutal murderer;the notorious Mafia leader, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and the motive;an unwanted pregnancy resulting from Short's involvement with the most powerful figure in Los Angeles, Norman Chandler. But Wolfe goes even further to unravel the large-scale cover-up behind the case. Wolfe's extensive research, based on the evidence he discovered in the recently opened LADA files, makes The Black Dahlia Files the authoritative work on the murder that has drawn endless scrutiny but remained unsolved....until now.

Hollywood Kryptonite, The Bulldog, the Lady, and the Death of Superman

2006-09-23T09:52:00.002-06:00

Hollywood Kryptonite, The Bulldog, the Lady, and the Death of Superman, by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger. George Reeves is not unique among Tinseltowners for dying in strange circumstances. What makes his death of greater lasting interest than other dubious Hollywood suicides is his fame, then and still, as star of the lovably low-tech 1950s syndicated TV series, Superman. And it must be admitted, the circumstances are tantalizing. His fiancee gave a nearly perfect account of his death as it occurred, even though they were on different floors of the house. There were three other people in the house when Reeves died, all apparently too drunk to make sense when questioned. And so forth. Kashner and Schoenberger dig deep to re-create Reeves' death and the events that led to it. Their detective work is convincing, and their solution to the mystery plausible. They tell their story entertainingly and bring its characters to life. In evoking the milieu of 1950s Hollywood and providing a provocative perspective on the Reeves suicide story, their effort is truly more powerful than a locomotive. -Mike Tribby, Booklist.

Nancy Schoenberger and Sam Kashner are a married writing team who have co-authored the biography of Oscar Levant (A TALENT FOR GENIUS, recently optioned for film by Ben Stiller and Dreamworks) as well as HOLLYWOOD KRYPTONITE (a source for Focus Features movie HOLLYWOODLAND, starring Ben Affleck and Adrien Brody). Schoenberger's 2001 biography of Lady Caroline Blackwood (DANGEROUS MUSE) was published by Nan A. Talese Books/Doubleday. The couple also contribute articles to Vanity Fair.

Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind of the Green River Killer

2006-09-23T09:47:00.001-06:00

Defending Gary: Unraveling the Mind of the Green River Killer, by Mark Prothero and Carlton Smith. Mark Prothero, co-lead defense attorney who helped save Gary Ridgway from the death sentence, has heard that question many times. Now he's written a book that reveals the true, inside story of exactly how an idealistic public defender, high school swim coach, husband, and dad could bring himself to spend many months of close confinement with a man who brutally murdered at least seventy-five young women, often in the act of sex. Defending Gary shows how Prothero could reconcile these monstrous acts knowing the reality of this unassuming fellow Gary Ridgway, a mild-mannered, church-going, devoted husband, father, and former Navy man, with an IQ of around eighty-two and a longtime job as a truck painter from Auburn, Washington, near Seattle.

Prothero's job was to zealously and ethically represent his client and protect his legal rights. To accomplish this, the author took a harrowing, two-year-long journey into the psychological recesses of a serial killer's soul to find out where Ridgway came from, how he thought, how he got away with the crimes for so long, and why he really did it. Written with the intensity of a thrilling novel, Defending Gary utilizes Prothero's notes, original research documents, transcripts, and photographs that detail the suspenseful story of the author's search for the truth about a man who many people feel represents "the banality of evil."

Hunt for Jack the Ripper

2006-09-15T15:26:00.000-06:00

Hunt for Jack the Ripper, DVD (The History Channel) Many serial killers were more brutal. Others slaughtered more often. But Jack the Ripper remains the world's most infamous murderer. In 1888, he slashed his way across London and into the annals of crime when he murdered and mutilated seven women. His ghastly rampage remains one of history's great mysteries. Who was this butcher that baffled Scotland Yard's best minds? Today's foremost Ripper experts offer insights into the madman's mind and theories of who he really was.

The Medici Conspiracy

2006-05-02T20:53:00.002-06:00

The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities--From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums, by Peter Watson and Cecelia Todeschini. A true-life thriller completely exposes the network behind the illegal trade in ancient artifacts--and features a rich cast of rogues and some of the world's most prestigious art institutions. The story begins, as stories do in all good thrillers, with a botched robbery and a police chase. Eight Apuleian vases of the fourth century B.C. are discovered in the swimming pool of a German-based art smuggler. More valuable than the recovery of the vases, however, is the discovery of the smuggler's card index detailing his deals and dealers. It reveals the existence of a web of tombaroli-tomb raiders-who steal classical artifacts, and a network of dealers and smugglers who spirit them out of Italy and into the hands of wealthy collectors and museums.

Peter Watson, a former investigative journalist for the London Sunday Times and author of two previous exposes of art world scandals, names the key figures in this network that has depleted Europe's classical artifacts. Among the loot are the irreplaceable and highly collectable vases of Euphronius, the equivalent in their field of the sculpture of Bernini or the painting of Michelangelo. The narrative leads to the doors of some major institutions: Sothebys, the Getty Museum in L.A., the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York among them. Filled with great characters and human drama, The Medici Conspiracy authoritatively exposes another shameful round in one of the oldest games in the world: theft, smuggling and duplicitous dealing, all in the name of art.

Dr Henry Lee's Forensic Files: Five Famous Cases

2006-05-02T20:48:00.001-06:00

Dr Henry Lee's Forensic Files: Five Famous Cases, by Henry C. Lee and Jerry Labriola. Dr. Henry C. Lee is considered by many to be the greatest forensic scientist in the world. His vast investigative experience (over 6,000 cases!) and participation in many high-profile trials have earned him not only the highest respect from the law enforcement community but also widespread public recognition. Here Dr. Lee once again gives avid fans of true crime an intimate glimpse into the real world of crime investigation, combining his unparalleled expertise with a clear and lively narrative. Beginning with the infamous Scott Peterson trial, Dr. Lee vividly recounts his investigation of the case, by focusing on the crucial issue of physical evidence. As a criminalist who examined the remains of both Laci Peterson and Conner, he brings a distinctive perspective and unique voice to the case, and weighs in on the verdict. Next, Dr. Lee considers the much-publicized abduction of Elizabeth Smart from her family’s Salt Lake City home. After a fruitless ten-month search, Elizabeth was found alive in a Salt Lake City suburb with Brian Mitchell and his wife, both of whom appeared to be mentally unstable. Dr. Lee—who investigated this compelling case—demonstrates the importance of physical evidence in reconstructing this crime. He also describes the role of brainwashing and outlines distinct similarities with the Patty Hearst case. In the final three chapters, Dr. Lee examines the case of a novelist accused of murdering his wife–who had also been the suspected link to a similar death in Germany—where a woman also fatally fell down a flight of stairs; the murder of a man’s wife in which both the husband and her lover are considered suspects (with an outcome that is guaranteed to shock!); and the killing of a witness of an accused arsonist shortly before his trial, with a stunning conclusion that derived from Dr. Lee’s intriguing investigative work. In each case, Dr. Lee presents—in addition to an engrossing narrative—the scientific details of how law enforcement investigated the crime, using the most recent advances in modern forensic tools. This is a fascinating insider's look by a world-renowned expert into the pursuit of justice in some of the most sensational and intriguing criminal cases of recent times.

A Simple Act of Murder: November 22, 1963

2006-05-02T20:44:00.002-06:00

A Simple Act of Murder: November 22, 1963, by Mark Fuhrman. A Simple Act of Murder is the investigation that this case should have had from the beginning. America's most famous detective, Mark Fuhrman -- who has cracked some of the best-known and most puzzling crimes in American history -- cuts through the myths and misinformation to focus on the hard evidence. He examines the ballistics and medical records, scrutinizes photographs from the crime scene and the famous Zapruder film, and weighs the testimony of hundreds of witnesses. Filled with vivid photos, informative diagrams, and original drawings by Fuhrman himself that show the evidence in a new light and make complex forensic matters clear and easily understood, this book is the visual record of the JFK assassination. In this gripping and highly personal account, Fuhrman unveils a major clue that had been ignored for forty years -- a breakthrough that will change the debate over the assassination.

Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers

2006-04-28T21:15:00.002-06:00

Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers, by Michael Connelly. From #1 bestseller Michael Connelly's first career as a prizewinning crime reporter--the gripping, true stories that inspired and informed his novels. Before he became a novelist, Michael Connelly was a crime reporter, covering the detectives who worked the homicide beat in Florida and Los Angeles. In vivid, hard-hitting articles, Connelly leads the reader past the yellow police tape as he follows the investigators, the victims, their families and friends--and, of course, the killers--to tell the real stories of murder and its aftermath. Connelly's firsthand observations would lend inspiration to his novels, from The Black Echo, which was drawn from a real-life bank heist, to Trunk Music, based on an unsolved case of a man found in the trunk of his Rolls Royce. And the vital details of his best-known characters, both heroes and villains, would be drawn from the cops and killers he reported on: from loner detective Harry Bosch to the manipulative serial killer the Poet. Stranger than fiction and every bit as gripping, these pieces show once again that Michael Connelly is not only a master of his craft, but also one of the great American writers in any form. Michael Connelly is a former journalist and has won every major prize for crime fiction. He lives in Florida.

Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay

2006-04-28T21:09:00.002-06:00

Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay, by Kenneth Walton. It was the golden age of eBay. Optimistic bidders went online to the world's largest flea market in droves, ready to spend cash on everything from garden gnomes to Mercedes convertibles. Among them were art collectors willing to spend big money on unseen paintings, hoping to buy valuable pieces of art at below-market prices. EBay also attracted the occasional con artist unable to resist the temptation of abusing a system that prided itself on being "based on trust." Kenneth Walton -- once a lawyer bound by the ethics of his profession to uphold the law -- was seduced by just such a con artist and, eventually, became one himself.

Ripped from the headlines of the New York Times, the first newspaper to break the story, Fake describes Walton's innocent beginnings as an online art-trading hobbyist and details the downward spiral of greed that ultimately led to his federal felony conviction. What started out as a satisfying exercise in reselling thrift store paintings for a profit in order to pay back student loans and mounting credit card debt soon became a fierce addiction to the subtle deception of luring unsuspecting bidders into overpaying for paintings of questionable origins.

In a landscape peopled with colorful eccentrics hoping to score museum-quality paintings at bargain prices, Walton entered into a partnership with Ken Fetterman, an unslick (yet somehow very effective) con man. Over the course of eighteen months they managed to take in hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling forged paintings and bidding on their own auctions to drive up the prices. When their deception was discovered and made international headlines, Walton found himself stalked by reporters and federal agents while Fetterman went on the lam, sparking a nationwide FBI manhunt. His elaborate game of cat and mouse lasted nearly three years, until the feds caught up with him after a routine traffic violation and brought him to justice. In this sensational story of the seductive power of greed, Kenneth Walton breaks his silence for the first time and, in his own words, details the international scandal that forever changed the way eBay does business.

Fundamentals of Forensic Science

2006-04-28T21:06:00.001-06:00

Fundamentals of Forensic Science, First Edition, by Max M. Houck and Jay A. Siegel. Unlike other introductory textbooks on the topic, Fundamentals of Forensic Science presents a complete look at the forensic sciences, emphasizing the biology, chemistry, and physical sciences that underpin forensic science. By covering the principles that are central to forensic science, and by discussing topics that are typically excluded from generalized discussions of criminalistics, this book provides a depth and breadth of information that no other textbook contains. Written by two of the leading experts in forensic science today, Fundamentals of Forensic Science approaches the field from a truly unique and exciting perspective.

Ranging from traditional topics such as crime scene investigation, spectroscopy, and DNA analysis, to the less-commonly covered --but just as essential-- topics of pathology, entomology, and anthropology, Fundamentals of Forensic Science is everything a student or practicing professional needs. Organized along the timeline of a real case, it begins with an introduction and history of forensic science, covers the basic methods of analysis used in most forensic examinations, addresses the biological, chemical, and physical elements relevant to the field, and concludes with an examination of how forensic science intersects with the law.

Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer

2006-04-24T16:48:00.002-06:00

Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer, by Stephen Singular. To all appearances, Dennis Rader was a model citizen in the small town of Park City, Kansas, where he had lived with his family almost his entire life. He was a town compliance officer, a former Boy Scout leader, the president of his church congregation, and a seemingly ordinary father and husband. But Rader's average life belied the existence of his dark, sadistic other self: he was the BTK serial killer. The self-named BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill) had terrorized Wichita for thirty-one years, not only with his brutal, sexually motivated crimes, but also through his taunting, elusive communications with the media and law enforcement. In 1974, BTK committed his first murders -- torturing and strangling four members of the Otero family -- and wrote the police an audacious letter declaring his responsibility for the Oteros' deaths and labeling himself, for the first time, BTK. Thus he established a pattern -- stalking and killing a series of ten victims, then bragging and claiming ownership of his crimes -- that ended in 1991 but left law enforcement confounded and the public with deeply troubling memories. Until, that is, he resurfaced in 2004 with another string of letters that would finally lead to his arrest.

Drawing from extensive interviews with Rader's pastor, congregation, detectives, and psychologists who worked the case, and from his unnervingly de-tailed thirty-two-hour confession, bestselling author Stephen Singular delves into the disturbing life and crimes of BTK to explore fully -- for the first time -- the most dangerous and complex serial killer of our generation and the man who embodied, at once, astonishing extremes of normality and abnormality. In Unholy Messenger, Singular recounts the year prior to Rader's arrest, in which the BTK killer reemerged, and the aftermath. Woven throughout are the details of his crimes, elaborate schemes, and bids for public attention, and the wrenching impact his deception had on his family, church, and heartland community.

The result is a chilling story of a man considered a "spiritual leader" by his pastor and congregation, who turned out to be the devil next door. More than just true crime, Unholy Messenger is a powerful, thoroughly engrossing examination of the intersection between good and evil, and of the psychology and spirituality of a killer in whom faith and bloodshed converged.

Booked: The Last 150 Years in 366 Mug Shots

2006-04-24T16:44:00.002-06:00

Booked: The Last 150 Years in 366 Mug Shots, by Giacomo Papi. Why are we so fascinated with seeing celebrities arrested? Is it the guilty pleasure of seeing the mighty fall? Or the voyeuristic appeal of witnessing people at their seemingly most candid and vulnerable moments? Using a dazzling selection of mug shots that are arrestingly raw in their starkness and strangely eloquent in their simplicity, this absorbing, humorous, often bewildering collection sheds a whole new light on our rebellious century. From A-list celebrities Hugh Grant and 50 Cent to political icons Martin Luther King, Jr. and Angela Davis, from serial killer Ted Kaczinsky to the oddly beautiful actor privy to Abraham Lincoln's assignation, from prisoners of Auschwitz to a bearded Saddam Hussein, all of them declare a simple truth: the last 150 years told through police photographs is truly an alternative history. Author Giacomo Papi's brisk and insightful commentary enlightens us with intriguing backstories and little-known facts. A feast for the eyes and the mind, Booked presents an ingenious and utterly unique snapshot of our times.

Giacomo Papi is the author of several books including Era una notte buia e tempestosa (It was a dark and stormy night), an anthology of the best opening lines in world literature, with a preface by Umberto Eco; Papa, a best-selling humorous guide for expecting fathers; and Accusare: Storia del Novecento in 366 foto segnaletiche. Since 2000 he has worked as a journalist for Diario, an Italian weekly newsmagazine.

Money Laundering: A Guide for Criminal Investigators

2006-04-24T07:27:00.002-06:00

Money Laundering: A Guide for Criminal Investigators, by John Madinger. With numerous case studies, graphs, tables, and charts, Money Laundering: A Guide for Criminal Investigators gives law enforcement professionals a clear understanding of money laundering practices, legislation, and investigation. This second edition highlights the link between money laundering and terrorist funding. It includes new sections on basic terrorist financing and explores specific terrorist financing schemes, describing in detail methods, applicable federal laws, and examples from real cases. The author also presents up-to-date information on legislation and its impact on money laundering investigation and explains how changes to federal forfeiture law affect money laundering law.

A Death in Belmont

2006-04-18T09:00:00.002-06:00

A Death in Belmont, by Sebastian Junger. In the spring of 1963, the quiet suburb of Belmont, Massachusetts, is rocked by a shocking sex murder that exactly fits the pattern of the Boston Strangler. Sensing a break in the case that has paralyzed the city of Boston, the police track down a black man, Roy Smith, who cleaned the victim's house that day and left a receipt with his name on the kitchen counter. Smith is hastily convicted of the Belmont murder, but the terror of the Strangler continues. On the day of the murder, Albert DeSalvo—the man who would eventually confess in lurid detail to the Strangler's crimes—is also in Belmont, working as a carpenter at the Jungers' home. In this spare, powerful narrative, Sebastian Junger chronicles three lives that collide—and ultimately are destroyed—in the vortex of one of the first and most controversial serial murder cases in America.

Pirates Aboard!

2006-04-18T08:55:00.002-06:00

Pirates Aboard!: 40 Cases of Piracy Today And What Bluewater Cruisers Can Do About It, by Klaus Hympendahl. In 1895, Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail alone around the world, scattered thumbtacks on the sole of Spray to repel an attack by intruders on Tierra del Fuego. In December 2001, an attack on Sir Peter Blake’s yacht in Brazil resulted in his death. Pirates Aboard! deals with recent cases of piracy studied by author Klaus Hympendahl, who interviewed the victims of about 40 cases. He asks them what lessons they learned from their hostile encounter and what they would suggest others do differently to avoid (or just survive) similar incidents. He then gives an appraisal of which areas in the world are the most dangerous, including Somalia, the Gulf of Aden, Venezuela, Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and parts of Brazil. This invaluable document suggests what preventive measures sailors can take and advises how they should deal with stress, aggression, and fear when faced with a confrontation.

Klaus Hympendahl is a German author and sailor. The former owner of an advertising agency, he has completed a five-year circumnavigation. His novel about the Apollonia case, concerning the disappearance of two sailors on a transatlantic race, won him the 2001 German award for best sailing book of the year.

Citizens, Cops, and Power: Recognizing the Limits of Community

2006-04-18T08:51:00.002-06:00

Citizens, Cops, and Power: Recognizing the Limits of Community, by Steve Herbert. Politicians, citizens, and police agencies have long embraced community policing, hoping to reduce crime and disorder by strengthening the ties between urban residents and the officers entrusted with their protection. That strategy seems to make sense, but in Citizens, Cops, and Power, Steve Herbert reveals the reasons why it rarely, if ever, works. Drawing on data he collected in diverse Seattle neighborhoods from interviews with residents, observation of police officers, and attendance at community-police meetings, Herbert identifies the many obstacles that make effective collaboration between city dwellers and the police so unlikely to succeed. At the same time, he shows that residents’ pragmatic ideas about the role of community differ dramatically from those held by social theorists. Surprising and provocative, Citizens, Cops, and Power provides a critical perspective not only on the future of community policing, but on the nature of state-society relations as well. Steve Herbert is associate professor in the Department of Geography and the Law, Societies, and Justice Program at the University of Washington. He is the author of Policing Space: Territoriality and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Race to Incarcerate

2006-04-16T17:45:00.003-06:00

Race to Incarcerate, by Mark Mauer. In this revised edition of his seminal book on race, class, and the criminal justice system, Marc Mauer, executive director of one of the United States' leading criminal justice reform organizations, offers the most up-to-date look available at three decades of prison expansion in America. Including newly written material on recent developments under the Bush administration and updated statistics, graphs, and charts throughout, the book tells the tragic story of runaway growth in the number of prisons and jails and the over-reliance on imprisonment to stem problems of economic and social development. Called "sober and nuanced" by Publishers Weekly, Race to Incarcerate documents the enormous financial and human toll of the "get tough" movement, and argues for more humane—and productive—alternatives.

Marc Mauer is executive director of The Sentencing Project. He has served as a consultant to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the National Institute of Corrections, and the American Bar Association. He lives in the Washington, D.C., area. The Sentencing Project is a national organization based in Washington, D.C., that promotes criminal justice reform and the development of alternatives to incarceration.

Beyond Fear

2006-04-16T17:28:00.002-06:00

Beyond Fear, by Bruce Schneier. In "Beyond Fear," Bruce Schneier invites us to take a critical look at not just the threats to our security, but the ways in which we're encouraged to think about security by law enforcement agencies, businesses of all shapes and sizes, and our national governments and militaries. Schneier believes we all can and should be better security consumers, and that the trade-offs we make in the name of security - in terms of cash outlays, taxes, inconvenience, and diminished freedoms - should be part of an ongoing negotiation in our personal, professional, and civic lives, and the subject of an open and informed national discussion.With a well-deserved reputation for original and sometimes iconoclastic thought, Schneier has a lot to say that is provocative, counter-intuitive, and just plain good sense. He explains in detail, for example, why we need to design security systems that don't just work well, but fail well, and why secrecy on the part of government often undermines security. A skeptic of much that's promised by highly touted technologies like biometrics, Schneier is also a refreshingly positive, problem-solving force in the often self-dramatizing and fear-mongering world of security pundits.Schneier helps the reader to understand the issues at stake, and how to best come to one's own conclusions, including the vast infrastructure we already have in place, and the vaster systems--some useful, others useless or worse--that we're being asked to submit to and pay for.

Execution

2006-04-16T17:22:00.001-06:00

Execution: The Guillotine, the Pendulum, the Thousand Cuts, the Spanish Donkey, and 66 Other Ways of Putting Someone to Death, by Geoffrey Abbott. From the preparation of the victim to the disposal of the body, Execution is everything you ever wanted to know about capital punishment-and a lot you never thought to ask. Cave of Roses: A rare Swedish method of execution in which the victim was confined to a cave full of snakes and poisonous reptiles. Bastinado: Involved the victims being caned gently and rhythmically with a lightweight stick on the soles of the feet until the mental collapse and eventual death of the victim. Sewn in an Animal's Belly: A living person is sewn into the belly of an animal and left to die. The Spanish Donkey: This method of torture consisted of seating a victim on top of a wall that resembled an inverted V with weights attached to the ankles, the weights being slowly increased until the victim's body split in two. Including death by cannibalism, a thousand cuts, and more, Execution is an insightful and interesting look at the grim and gritty history of sanctioned death.

Under and Alone

2006-04-02T10:20:00.002-06:00

Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, by William Queen. In 1998, William Queen was a veteran law enforcement agent with a lifelong love of motorcycles and a lack of patience with paperwork. When a “confidential informant” made contact with his boss at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, offering to take an agent inside the San Fernando chapter of the Mongols (the scourge of Southern California, and one of the most dangerous gangs in America), Queen jumped at the chance, not realizing that he was kicking-starting the most extensive undercover operation inside an outlaw motorcycle gang in the history of American law enforcement.

Nor did Queen suspect that he would penetrate the gang so successfully that he would become a fully “patched-in” member, eventually rising through their ranks to the office of treasurer, where he had unprecedented access to evidence of their criminal activity. After Queen spent twenty-eight months as “Billy St. John,” the bearded, beer-swilling, Harley-riding gang-banger, the truth of his identity became blurry, even to himself.

During his initial “prospecting” phase, Queen was at the mercy of crank-fueled criminal psychopaths who sought to have him test his mettle and prove his fealty by any means necessary, from selling (and doing) drugs, to arms trafficking, stealing motorcycles, driving getaway cars, and, in one shocking instance, stitching up the face of a Mongol “ol’ lady” after a particularly brutal beating at the hands of her boyfriend.

Yet despite the constant criminality of the gang, for whom planning cop killings and gang rapes were business as usual, Queen also came to see the genuine camaraderie they shared. When his lengthy undercover work totally isolated Queen from family, his friends, and ATF colleagues, the Mongols felt like the only family he had left. “I had no doubt these guys genuinely loved Billy St. John and would have laid down their lives for him. But they wouldn’t hesitate to murder Billy Queen.”

From Queen’s first sleight of hand with a line of methamphetamine in front of him and a knife at his throat, to the fearsome face-off with their decades-old enemy, the Hell’s Angels (a brawl that left three bikers dead), to the heartbreaking scene of a father ostracized at Parents’ Night because his deranged-outlaw appearance precluded any interaction with regular citizens, Under and Alone is a breathless, adrenaline-charged read that puts you on the street with some of the most dangerous men in America and with the law enforcement agents who risk everything to bring them in.

William Queen spent twenty years as a Special Agent with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. A Vietnam War veteran, Queen served with the U.S. Army Special Forces and was awarded the Silver Star during his 1971 tour of duty. After his military service, Queen devoted his entire career to law enforcement. For his groundbreaking undercover work playing the part of biker “Billy St. John,” William Queen was awarded the 2001 Federal Bar Association’s Medal of Valor, the Director’s Award from the Department of Justice, the Robert Faulkner Memorial Outstanding Investigation Award from the International Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigator Association, the Medal of Valor from the International Narcotics Investigators Association, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

Every Woman's Nightmare: The Fairytale Marriage and Brutal Murder of Lori Hacking

2006-04-02T10:18:00.002-06:00

Every Woman's Nightmare: The Fairytale Marriage and Brutal Murder of Lori Hacking, by Steven Long. Well-liked and respected, Mark Hacking came from a highly successful Mormon family. His father was a pediatrician. One of his brothers was also a doctor, and his other brother was an electrical engineer. With acceptances into both George Washington University and University of North Carolina medical schools, Mark was on the road to continuing his family’s legacy of achievement. And with a beautiful wife by his side, Mark seemed to have it all. But what he had was a tangled web of lies…

For eight years, Mark lived a double life of deceptions, petty crimes, and failures, duping everyone, including his trusting wife Lori. But when Lori uncovered his most extraordinary lie, Mark Hacking turned from deceiver to stone-cold killer. On a hot July day in Utah, Mark Hacking told police that his wife had disappeared while jogging. For fourteen days, searchers looked frantically for Lori. The people who knew Mark Hacking and his wife best watched in amazement as suspicion fell on the outwardly normal, doting young husband who everyone thought was on his way to medical school.

When Lori Hacking’s badly decomposed body was found in a Salt Lake City landfill, investigators and even family members finally discovered the shocking truth: Mark Hacking was not the man he seemed to be...

'Till Death Do Us Part

2006-04-02T10:08:00.002-06:00

'Till Death Do Us Part: Love, Marriage, and the Mind of the Killer Spouse, by Nancy Grace (Foreword), Robi Ludwig, and Matt Birkbeck. Every day six people in the United States are murdered by spouses or intimate partners. The stories of killer spouses tend to captivate us, as they beg the question of how so many seemingly normal and happy people manage to go over the edge. Indeed, every relationship presents "extreme moments" where scary feelings surface, yet what happens when those feelings turn to action?

In Till Death Do Us Part, noted psychotherapist Dr. Robi Ludwig, along with journalist Matt Birkbeck, presents the psychological profiles of notorious killer spouses -- from Scott Peterson and Clara Harris to Rabbi Fred Neulander and Betty Broderick. Ludwig reveals ten killer personality types. These ten personality types are defined in detail and illustrated with examples from high-profile cases along with in-depth analyses of the motivations behind the murders. The ten types range from the Betrayal/Abandonment Killer (who loses control and kills from a broken heart) to the Control Killer (who micromanages every aspect of the spouse's life) and the Black Widow/Profit Killer (who kills for money).

With gripping stories and probing insight, authors Ludwig and Birkbeck examine the concept of peaceful versus violent resolution and why certain spouses believe murder is the best and only response. In an age when spousal murder is headline news, Till Death Do Us Part explores a phenomenon that many spouses can't help but think about at some point in their relationships -- which sheds light on the very notion of "happily ever after."

Coroner's Journal

2006-03-11T17:22:00.001-07:00

Coroner's Journal, by Louis Cataldie. The frank and unvarnished memoir of a life spent stalking death in the Deep South. Baton Rouge is a little town with big-city problems. Rich with Creole history, colorful locals, and a strong sense of community, it's also the home of Napoleonic codes, stubborn cops, and a sometimes-troubled leadership. Baton Rouge-which literally means "Red Stick"-lives up to its bloody namesake. And after more than ten years as a deputy coroner and then as its chief coroner, Louis Cataldie has seen his fair share of unusual and disturbing cases. They range from the bizarre to the heartbreaking: an LSU professor killed by a barn door; the bones of a young woman found scattered in a churchyard; and as many as three serial killers loose at one time under Cataldie's watch. He has worked the scene of one of the Malvo/ Muhammad Beltway Sniper shootings and had a hand in bringing to justice serial killer Derrick Todd Lee in a controversial investigation that was featured in an ABC Prime Time special with Diane Sawyer and Patricia Cornwell.

Justice For Marlys: A Family'S Twenty-Year Search For A Killer

2006-03-11T17:18:00.002-07:00

Justice For Marlys: A Family'S Twenty-Year Search For A Killer, by John S. Munday. Marlys Wohlenhaus was an animated, energetic eighteen-year-old girl. Then, one afternoon, everything changed. She should have been safe working at the town restaurant. She should have been safe in her own home. She should still be alive today. But in May 1979, Marlys became the victim in every parent’s most horrific nightmare. At once a gripping story and an in-depth look at the grief of losing a child, Justice for Marlys relates the true account of a serial killer, Joseph Ture Jr., who slipped past the law again and again during a three-year-long crime spree. It was Ture who brutally murdered Marlys Wohlenhaus in her own home. John S. Munday, the husband of Marlys’s mother, reconstructs the murder and the seventeen-year investigation that led to the capture and conviction of Ture, allowing the reader to explore the horror, obsession, dedication, and finally the peace that he and his wife experienced in the search for and eventual conviction of her daughter’s killer. Justice for Marlys generates suspense and sympathy as Munday recounts how Marlys’s case was solved through the efforts of the victim’s tenacious family, supportive news media, and persistent investigators. Munday gives readers a terrifying sense of the unimaginable grief and despair in the hearts of those who lose a child, yet he also shares his intensely personal exploration of the resilience and power within the human spirit. John S. Munday is an intellectual property attorney who lives with his wife Fran in Isanti County, Minnesota. He is also the author of Surviving the Death of a Child, a contributing editor for Grief Digest, and a member of the board of directors of the Other Side Magazine.

Dial M: The Murder of Carol Thompson

2006-03-11T17:15:00.002-07:00

Dial M: The Murder of Carol Thompson, by William Swanson. At 9:00 on the morning of March 6, 1963, in the quiet neighborhood of Highland Park, Mrs. Fritz Pearson glanced out her window and saw something almost unimaginable: slumped on the front steps of the home across the street was a woman, partially clothed in a blue bathrobe and bloodied beyond recognition. The woman, Mrs. Pearson would come to learn, was her beloved neighbor Carol Thompson, wife and mother of four. Earlier that morning, T. Eugene Thompson, known to friends as “Cotton,” dropped his son off at school and headed to the office, where he worked as a criminal attorney. At 8:25 am, he phoned home, later telling police that he did so to confirm evening plans with Carol. Mr. Thompson lied. Through police records, court transcripts, family papers, and extensive interviews, William Swanson has recreated Middle America’s “crime of the century,” the deadly plot by a husband that made headlines around the world. But Dial M: The Murder of Carol Thompson also tracks the lives of the Thompsons’ children. Their journey from disbelief to acceptance culminates in a private family trial where they decide whether their father truly was responsible for the violent act that crushed their childhood and forever altered their views of the world.

Wanted: Historic County Jails of Texas

2006-03-01T19:55:00.002-07:00

Wanted: Historic County Jails of Texas, by Edward A. Blackburn, Jr. Along with the settlement of the Texas frontier came rustlers, public drunks, gunfighters, and other outlaws. A jail in which to incarcerate the lawbreaker was thus often the first public building raised in a new town. Later, as government developed, public buildings—notably county courthouses and jails—assumed not only practical but also symbolic importance. The architecture of these buildings in the nineteenth century reflected the power and status with which the community imbued the government; many of the same architects applied the aesthetic standards of the day to both. In later years, the safety and at least limited comfort of the prisoners became concerns and jails were remodeled or abandoned to other uses in favor of modern, more utilitarian structures.

In this heavily illustrated guide to the historic county jails of Texas, Edward A. Blackburn, Jr., takes readers to each of the 254 counties in the state, presenting brief histories of the counties and the structures that housed their criminals. He provides general information about the architecture and location of the buildings and, when possible, describes the present uses of those that have been decommissioned. Interviews with local officials, historians, and newspaper publishers have yielded colorful anecdotes for many of the jails. Revealing photographs of many of the old jails have been gathered from local and archival sources, and Blackburn himself has taken pictures of extant buildings. Together, these words and images not only provide a survey of the way Texans have housed their criminals, but also, with the aid of thumbnail maps of county locations, offer residents and tourists throughout the state a guide to a fascinating aspect of architectural and cultural history.

Edward A. Blackburn, Jr. a retired Houston physician, visited all 254 Texas counties to collect information and photographs, both historical and contemporary. He has long had an interest in Texas history and is an avid collector of Texana.

The Mammoth Book of Famous Trials

2006-03-01T19:47:00.002-07:00

The Mammoth Book of Famous Trials, by Roger Wilkes (Editor). A collection of 35 of the most famous trials of the 20th century. Recorded by the people who were there, some of the contributors include Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Brian Masters, and Damon Runyon. Among the cases included in this book are the following: The longest on record in the United States — of the deadly duo Bianchi and Buono for the dozen Hillside Stranglings; Brady and Hindley — the iconic case of multiple-child murder; the media frenzy surrounding Bruno Hauptmann's alleged murder of the infant son of Charles Lindberg; O.J. Simpson's trial of the 1990s; the 1968 trial of eleven-year-old Mary Bell who was convicted for killing two little boys; the trial of Oscar Wilde; and the nine-month trial of Charles Manson.

The Disenfranchisement of Ex-Felons

2006-03-01T19:44:00.002-07:00

The Disenfranchisement of Ex-Felons, by Elizabeth Hull. In the 2004 presidential election, 4,686,539 Americans—a population greater than the city of Los Angeles—were barred from the polls. In a country that has extended suffrage to virtually every other class of citizen, ex-felons are the sole segment of our population deemed unworthy to exercise what the Supreme Court has called "the right preservative of all other rights," the right to vote. The Disenfranchisement of Ex-Felons provides a comprehensive overview of the history, nature, and far-reaching sociological and political consequences of denying ex-felons the right to vote. Readers learn state practices in Florida and Ohio during the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections; arguments that have been used in court houses, legislatures, and the press to justify such practices; and attempts to reverse legislation through state and federal governments. In a timely appendix to the 2004 election, Elizabeth Hull makes her case that the battle for civil rights will not be won unless ex-felons, who have fulfilled their obligations to society, are restored the same rights afforded all other American citizens.

Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster

2006-02-24T21:06:00.002-07:00

Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster, by T. J. English. Here is the shocking true saga of the Irish American mob, from the mid-nineteenth century all the way to the present day. History shows that the heritage of the Irish American gangster was established in America long before that of the more widely portrayed Italian American mafioso, and has held strong through the modern age. In fact, the highest-ranking organized crime figure on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List -- alongside Osama bin Laden -- is not a wiseguy, a Latin King, or a gangbanging Blood or Crip, but an old-style Irish American mob boss from South Boston.

In Paddy Whacked, bestselling author and organized crime expert T. J. English brings to life nearly two centuries of Irish American gangsterism, which spawned such unforgettable characters as Mike "King Mike" McDonald, Chicago's subterranean godfather; Big Bill Dwyer, New York's most notorious rumrunner during Prohibition; Mickey Featherstone, troubled Vietnam vet turned Westies gang leader from Hell's Kitchen; and James "Whitey" Bulger, the ruthless and untouchable Southie legend. This is an epic story of corrupt politics, wanton murders, gambling empires, notorious brothels, tough women, and hard-drinking pugilists from the underbelly of America's most dangerous cities -- including New York, Boston, New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, and Cleveland.

Combining storytelling verve with thorough research and a slew of never-before-published material -- including new interviews with former gang members -- English presents a riveting, seamless cultural history of the Irish American underworld. He offers a brilliant portrait of a people who fought tooth and nail for a better life from the moment they arrived in America, whether it meant taking charge within the realms of law enforcement and politics -- from Tammany Hall to the White House -- or capitalizing on what opportunities they could in the darker world beyond the law. Paddy Whacked is an irresistible tour of the undercarriage of our history -- a ride that stretches from the earliest New York and New Orleans street wars through decades of bootlegging scams, union strikes, gang wars, and FBI investigations ... and along the way deepens our understanding of the American experience.

After Capone: The Life And World Of Chicago Mob Boss Frank "the Enforcer" Nitti

2006-02-24T20:55:00.002-07:00

After Capone: The Life And World Of Chicago Mob Boss Frank "the Enforcer" Nitti, by Mars Eghigian, Jr. and Frank Nitti. Meticulously combining previously scattered accounts with abundant fresh research, After Capone provides a comprehensive and arousing portrait of underworld boss Frank Nitti and his gang's far-reaching power emanating from Chicago in the 1930s. The last word on the life of the cunning mob boss, his life experiences, the people around him, and organized crime in Chicago after Al Capone, this in-depth analysis, based on many years of research and supported by original sources from state and federal archives, is the definitive reference on Nitti's violent life and times.

After Capone traces Nitti (born Francesco Raffele Nitto—his name was misspelled on early bond and arrest warrants, and the press always seemed to pen him as "Frank Nitti") from his Italian origins and entry and rise in Chicago's underworld mob to his near-fatal shooting by city detectives, his strange death, and the ultimate downfall of those associated with him. In addition to dispelling popular notions as that Nitti followed Capone to Chicago and was Scarface's cousin, author Mars Eghigian provides an all-encompassing view of Nitti's criminal activities, which stretched farther beyond Chicago than those of any other organized crime family until that time. Following Capone's incarceration and his eventual release from prison on income tax charges, Nitti was the driving force that expanded the Chicago mob's operations. Moving away from the illegal booze that was the gang's mainstay during Prohibition, he led the mob into the legitimate distribution of alcohol after repeal, labor union racketeering, and attempts to control illicit gambling from coast to coast.

After Capone is the first book to present the complete, never-before-told story of one of America's leading crime kingpins. A fascinating and chilling account of mob power, it stands as proof that sometimes fact is indeed stranger than fiction. Mars Eghigian Jr. is a veteran organized-crime researcher who has extensively examined archives in Chicago, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and numerous institutions from Iowa to Texas. He has contributed to several published works on Chicago's gangster era and has spoken extensively on gangs and gang members. A former college educator, he currently works in employment development and lives in Belleville, Illinois.

Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques, Fourth Edition

2006-02-24T20:44:00.002-07:00

Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques, Fourth Edition, by Vernon J. Geberth. Combining detailed techniques with instructive case studies, the best-selling Practical Homicide Investigation stresses the basics and provides patterns on which to build a foundation for a prosecutable case. This fourth edition presents the latest information on DNA analysis and the latest assessment of crime scene reconstruction principles. It offers updated information on crime scene processing, including new blood enhancement reagents and current constitutional law, and contains new serial murder cases and a revised chapter on profiling, also with a new case. All of the illustrations are now presented in full color, including new medical-legal drawings for instruction and courtroom testimony.

Dead Center: The Shocking True Story of a Murder on Snipe Mountain

2006-02-19T13:30:00.001-07:00

Dead Center: The Shocking True Story of a Murder on Snipe Mountain, by Frank J. Daniels. When three bullets strike first time hunter and newly married John Bruce Dodson high on beautiful Snipe Mountain in Colorado, nearly everyone is able to label his death an accident. After all, each year there are hundreds of hunting accidents in the United States, many fatal and most involving shotguns or rifles. However, Colorado District Attorney Frank Daniels' suspicions about Dodson's unlucky accident are raised after learning from his forensics team that Dodson was hit by three bullets - one tearing through his chest, dead center. Delving deeper into the case, he discovers that Dodson's new wife is not only a crack marksman but half a million dollars richer from her recently deceased husband's insurance. A taut and gripping legal thriller, this is Daniels' own account of the case that changed his life. A fascinating tale of violent homicide, complex and tangled evidence trails and the trial of Daniels' life, Dead Center is a riveting behind-the-scenes story of greed, violence, and a crusading prosecutor's quest for justice.

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer

2006-02-19T13:27:00.002-07:00

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, by James L. Swanson. The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history -- the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness. At the very center of this story is John Wilkes Booth, America's notorious villain. A Confederate sympathizer and a member of a celebrated acting family, Booth threw away his fame and wealth for a chance to avenge the South's defeat. For almost two weeks, he confounded the manhunters, slipping away from their every move and denying them the justice they sought. Based on rare archival materials, obscure trial transcripts, and Lincoln's own blood relics, Manhunt is a fully documented work, but it is also a fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, this is history as you've never read it before.

Gunstories: Life-Changing Experiences with Guns

2006-02-19T13:22:00.001-07:00

Gunstories: Life-Changing Experiences with Guns, by S. Beth Atkin. Guns are a fact of life for young people growing up in the United States. They are present in homes -- for protection, sport, and hunting. Guns are also on the street -- for defense and security, and in gang-related uses. Guns can cause accidents, injuries, and deaths, while they can also nurture self-esteem, bolster confidence, and foster athletic abilities. The impact of guns is life changing and undoubtedly twofold. In a series of evocative and stirring interviews and photographs, S. Beth Atkin presents an array of young people who candidly share the mixed consequences of guns in their lives. Told in their own voices, these are their remarkable stories.

My Sister Is Missing: Bringing A Killer To Justice

2006-02-07T10:08:00.002-07:00

My Sister Is Missing: Bringing A Killer To Justice, by Sherrie Gladden-Davis and Brad Crawford. On October 1, 1991, Fran Gladden-Smith disappeared without a trace from her home in Princeton, New Jersey, and suspicion immediately turned to her new husband, John David Smith III. In a highly unusual move, the police allowed her family to be involved in the investigation — as long as they didn't interfere with law enforcement. Over the next several years, Fran's sister Sherrie Gladden-Davis played a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, tracking Smith and his activities across the United States. She could go where police couldn't — and she dedicated herself to helping authorities get the evidence they needed to unravel the mystery of her sister's disappearance. My Sister Is Missing is Sherrie Gladden-Davis's harrowing account of the search for her sister's killer, and the inspiring story of her extraordinary path to justice.

Gone Forever: A True Story of Marriage, Betrayal, and Murder

2006-02-07T10:04:00.001-07:00

Gone Forever: A True Story of Marriage, Betrayal, and Murder, by Diane Fanning. Susan McFarland was a vivacious, successful mother of three young sons. On November 25, 2002, she disappeared. Three days later, her car was found, keys in the ignition. Later that day, her husband reported her missing—and a desperate search began. Her friends and family hoped against hope that Susan was not gone forever. But investigators became increasingly suspicious of Richard McFarland. When the charred, decomposed body of Susan McFarland was finally discovered at an overgrown farmstead outside of San Antonio, a new hunt began—for justice. McFarland maintained his innocence, and investigators only had circumstantial evidence against him. While headlines screamed out new details in the case, and police tried to gather more evidence, a blockbuster trial was about to begin. Then, Richard McFarland finally spoke...and a terrifying, chilling truth came out...

Handbook of Workplace Violence

2006-02-07T10:01:00.002-07:00

Handbook of Workplace Violence, by E. Kevin Kelloway (Editor), Julian Barling (Editor), Joseph J., Jr. Hurrell (Editor). In the Handbook of Workplace Violence, editors E. Kevin Kelloway, Julian Barling, and Joseph J. Hurrell Jr. bring together the contributions of leading researchers to provide summaries and unique perspectives on current theory, research, and practice relating to workplace violence. This is the most up-to-date resource available providing a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge regarding all aspects of workplace violence and aggression. Part I summarizes the leading theoretical perspectives on violence and aggression and provides prevalence estimates for aggression and violence in North American workplaces. Part II focuses on leading experts in the field summarizing what is known about the sources of workplace violence (e.g., partner violence, communal violence, industrial relations violence, public-initiated violence) forms of aggression in the workplace (e.g., emotional abuse, workplace bullying, cyber-aggression) and populations (e.g., occupations, youth) at special risk for workplace violence and aggression. Part III considers the experience of victims as well as individual (e.g., critical incident stress debriefing) and organizational (e.g., selection, training) interventions designed to prevent, or ameliorate the consequences of workplace violence. This is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in the fields of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Human Resources, Health Psychology, Public Health, and Employee Assistance Programs. It is also an excellent textbook for graduate courses in Organizational Behavior, Occupational Health Psychology, and Organizational Psychology.

Assassination Vacation

2006-02-04T10:30:00.001-07:00

Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell. Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other -- a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.

From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue -- it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and -- the author's favorite -- historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.

The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions

2006-02-04T10:26:00.001-07:00

The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, by Helen Prejean. Since the 1993 publication of her memoir Dead Man Walking and the 1995 film it inspired, Sister Helen Prejean has become a powerful and articulate presence in the fight against the death penalty in America. In The Death of Innocents, Prejean focuses her argument on the ways in which an unjust system may be killing innocent people. She tells the story of two inmates she came to know as a spiritual adviser. Dobie Williams, a poor black man with an IQ of 65 from rural Louisiana, was executed after being represented by incompetent counsel and found guilty by an all-white jury based mostly on conjecture and speculation. Joseph O'Dell was convicted of murder after the court heard from an inmate who later admitted to giving false testimony for his own benefit. O'Dell received neither an evidentiary hearing nor potentially exculpatory DNA testing and was executed, insisting on his innocence the whole while. Besides exploring the shaky cases against them, Prejean describes in vivid detail the thoughts and feelings of Williams and O'Dell as their bids for clemency fail and they are put to death. The second part of the book details "the machinery of death," the legal process that Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, dismayed at the inequities of the death penalty, cited as his reason for resigning and that current justice Antonin Scalia has boasted of being a part of. Prejean is impassioned as she describes what she sees as an arrogant attitude by both Scalia and the contemporary judicial system. Her chance confrontation with Scalia at an airport is a gripping collision of disparate worlds. In recent years, DNA testing has overturned the convictions of scores of prisoners, including many on death row. As the death penalty is increasingly called into question, Sister Helen Prejean will surely be a force in that debate. --John Moe

Scientific Protocols for Fire Investigation

2006-02-04T10:22:00.001-07:00

Scientific Protocols for Fire Investigation, by John J. Lentini. Scientific Protocols for Fire Investigation provides comprehensive coverage from historical, developmental, current, and practical perspectives. The author, uniquely qualified with years of experience in both on-site investigations and lab analyses, provides a resource that is unparalleled in depth and focus. The book is distinctive in that it not only discusses the appropriate techniques for fire scene investigation and the chemical analysis of fire debris, but it also focuses on the history of fire investigation and how the profession has evolved.

Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World

2006-01-19T09:27:00.001-07:00

Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World, by Roger Atwood. Writing for magazines such as ARTnews, Atwood is an expert on the global traffic in stolen archaeological objects. His meticulous book tracks his investigation of one such object, a gold ornament cast by the Moche culture of pre-Columbian Peru. But in a prelude, Atwood recounts the night he accompanied, with their permission, Peruvian grave robbers at work. Although sympathetic to their destitution, Atwood is appalled at their obliteration of a site's archaeological value. Of course, the demand for these objects emanates from the acquisitive appetites of museums and wealthy collectors, who appear in the course of Atwood's account of the Moche "backflap." Plundered by grave robbers in 1987, it was smuggled into the U.S. by a corrupt Panamanian diplomat and seized in an FBI sting in 1997. Atwood's high-velocity, true-crime narrative immediately hooks readers while also informing them about the international antiquities business. A case study of the sordid trade, Atwood's stern admonition to the art world to reform, before archaeological knowledge becomes irretrievable forever, deserves a hearing. Gilbert Taylor Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed

2006-01-19T09:15:00.001-07:00

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed, by Patricia Cornwell. "I knew the identity of a murderer and couldn't possibly avert my gaze," declares bestselling author and Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine chairman of the board Cornwell (The Last Precinct). Claiming to have cracked the unsolved case of Jack the Ripper, the author, combining superb investigative skills and meticulous research with modern technology, presents strong, albeit largely circumstantial, evidence as to the true culprit in this uncharacteristic work of nonfiction. Cornwell's man is the handsome, educated actor-cum-artist Walter Richard Sickert, and she delves into his life, probing the psychological pain and sexual deformity which led to his "impotent fury." Screen, stage and TV actress Burton's splendid, professional narration deserves much of the credit for the book's smooth translation to abridged audio format. Transporting listeners to 19th century England, Burton easily transitions between American and English accents, bringing an authentic, resonating flavor to the era and to the desperate lives of London's "unfortunates" who became the killer's prey. Despite some tedious and over-detailed readings of medical records, laws and police reports, as well as descriptive accounts of Cornwell's experiences re-opening the case, this audiobook turns potentially dry material into an enthralling exploration.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Starkweather : Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer

2006-01-19T09:00:00.001-07:00

Starkweather: Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer, by William Allen. In January 1958, a nineteen-year-old Nebraskan, Charles Raymond Starkweather, accompanied and assisted by his fourteen-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, murdered ten people in eight days. William Allen has produced a meticulously researched documentary… Aesthetes of mayhem will appreciate Allen’s nose for nuance. Allen’s book undoubtedly is the most thoroughly researched and best-written account of Starkweather and his short-lived reign of terror. William Allen’s literary career spans close to four decades. A contemporary of Starkweather and Fugate, he is the leading expert on the Starkweather spree and the only person with first-hand knowledge of most of the characters central to the 1958 carnage. Allen currently is a Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University, where he introduced literary nonfiction to that school’s distinguished creative writing program. He is the author of six books, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Fire in the Birdbath and Other Disturbances, as well as numerous essays for Esquire, the New York Times, and the Atlantic Monthly.

Every Mother's Nightmare: The Murder of James Bulger

2006-01-07T09:33:00.001-07:00

Every Mother's Nightmare: The Murder of James Bulger, by Mark Thomas. More than almost any recent crime, the killing of two-year-old James Bulger shocked and horrified all those who witnessed its unfolding on security camera footage. The discovery that the killers were but boys themselves forced a national (and international) self-examination: what kind of society could breed such a monstrous act? Reporter Mark Thomas tells the story of this unthinkable crime and its aftermath. He asks the questions: How did it happen? and How can we make sure it will never happen again?

Tacoma Confidential: A True Story of Murder, Suicide, and a Police Chief's Secret Life

2006-01-07T09:30:00.001-07:00

Tacoma Confidential: A True Story of Murder, Suicide, and a Police Chief's Secret Life, by Paul LaRosa. Gig Harbor, Washington, a quiet Tacoma suburb, knew little of tragedy and scandal-until April 26, 2003. On that day, David Brame, distraught over his impending divorce, shot his wife to death in a busy public parking lot. Then, with the couple's two children only feet away, he turned the gun on himself. It was a horrific event, but Tacoma residents had special reason to be shocked. Brame was, after all, the chief of police. But as the investigation unfolded, a bizarre and depraved side of Brame and his marriage came to light. Here, in chilling detail, is the full story of one of Gig Harbor's most violent and disturbing crimes.

A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation

2006-01-07T09:27:00.001-07:00

A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation, by Catherine Crier. Catherine Crier has been covering the Peterson case since Laci Peterson disappeared from her home on December 24, 2002. Crier, a former judge and one of television's most popular legal analysts, was among the first to question the behavior of Laci's husband, Scott Peterson. And with her network of journalistic sources, Crier was soon able to penetrate the core of the police investigation that followed -- gaining access to a huge and revealing body of previously unseen police reports, transcripts of recorded conversations, photographic evidence, and other exclusive materials. Drawing on these resources -- and extensive interviews with key witnesses and lead investigators -- Crier has written this astonishingly detailed and intimate look at the most notorious murder case since O. J. Simpson.

Bodies We've Buried: Inside the National Forensic Academy, the World's Top CSI Training School

2006-01-02T16:48:00.001-07:00

Bodies We've Buried: Inside the National Forensic Academy, the World's Top CSI Training School, by Bill Bass. In Bodies We've Buried, the very first book to reveal the inside workings of the National Forensic Academy, two NFA administrators offer readers and CSI fans exclusive access to a world normally off-limits to all but law enforcement officials, doctors, and scientists: inside the only hands-on crime-scene investigation school of its kind, where students are trained in burial recovery with actual human remains. This is the shocking, uncensored, and sometimes darkly humorous reality of forensic investigation. It features firsthand stories of the students themselves and shows how the remarkable science of CSI has solved some of the most famous cases in recent history. From the world-wide authority on crime scene investigation, Bodies We've Buried is the never-before-told story of CSI investigation as it really is.

Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime

2006-01-02T16:44:00.002-07:00

Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime, by Dylan Rodriguez. More than two million people are currently imprisoned in the United States, and the nation’s incarceration rate is now the highest in the world. The dramatic rise and consolidation of America’s prison system has devastated lives and communities. But it has also transformed prisons into primary sites of radical political discourse and resistance as they have become home to a growing number of writers, activists, poets, educators, and other intellectuals who offer radical critiques of American society both within and beyond the prison walls. In Forced Passages, Dylan Rodríguez argues that the cultural production of such imprisoned intellectuals as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Angela Davis, Leonard Peltier, George Jackson, José Solis Jordan, Ramsey Muniz, Viet Mike Ngo, and Marilyn Buck should be understood as a social and intellectual movement in and of itself, unique in context and substance. Rodríguez engages with a wide range of texts, including correspondence, memoirs, essays, poetry, communiqués, visual art, and legal writing, drawing on published works by widely recognized figures and by individuals outside the public’s field of political vision or concern. Throughout, Rodríguez focuses on the conditions under which imprisoned intellectuals live and work, and he explores how incarceration shapes the ways in which insurgent knowledge is created, disseminated, and received.

More than a series of close readings of prison literature, Forced Passages identifies and traces the discrete lineage of radical prison thought since the 1970s, one formed by the logic of state violence and by the endemic racism of the criminal justice system. Dylan Rodríguez is assistant professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Mobsters, Unions, And Feds: The Mafia And the American Labor Movement

2006-01-02T16:37:00.001-07:00

Mobsters, Unions, And Feds: The Mafia And the American Labor Movement, by James B. Jacobs. Nowhere in the world has organized crime infiltrated labor as effectively as in the United States. From the early 1930s to the assassination of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa in 1975, the federal government neglected this illicit marriage for most of the twentieth century. Since 1975, the FBI, Department of Justice, and other federal agencies have pursued a relentless battle against labor racketeering in mobbed-up unions all over the country. This struggle continues today. Mobsters, Unions, and Feds is the first book to tell the full story of the relationship between organized crime and organized labor, as well as recent federal efforts to clean up unions. One of America's leading experts on the mafia, James B. Jacobs explains how the Cosa Nostra families first gained a foothold in labor during violent struggles between workers and employers in the early twentieth century, then after Prohibition's repeal, made labor racketeering its top priority. Jacobs also outlines the failure of law enforcement to address the problem, especially the inaction of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover.

Since Hoover's death and Hoffa's murder, the U.S. Department of Justice has aggressively prosecuted many of the mafia's activities using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) statute. Jacobs places the federal efforts to liberate the unions in the context of this larger war, which has sent hundreds of organized crime members and bosses to prison. There have been some impressive victories--including substantial progress toward liberating the four most racketeer-ridden national unions from the grip of organized crime--but there have been many frustrating defeats in a struggle that continues to this day. The only book to investigate how the mob has distorted American labor history, Mobsters, Unions, and Feds sheds new light on the influence of the mafia in American unions and the extraordinary efforts of law enforcement to erase the shadow that the mob has left on the labor movement.

The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul, and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles

2005-12-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

The Black Dahlia Files: The Mob, the Mogul, and the Murder That Transfixed Los Angeles, by Donald H. Wolfe. In 1946, movie star wannabe Elizabeth Short traveled to Hollywood to become famous and see her name up in lights. Instead, the dark-haired beauty became immortalized in the headlines as the "Black Dahlia" when her nude and bisected body was discovered in the weeds of a vacant lot. Despite the efforts of more than 400 police officers, homicide investigators, and the arrest of numerous suspects, the heinous crime was never solved. Now, after endless speculation, theories, and false claims, bestselling author Donald H. Wolfe discovers startling new evidence and reveals the shocking secrets of the sealed autopsy -- buried in the files of the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office for more than half a century. Furthermore, Wolfe discloses that the brutal murder of Elizabeth Short was the work of one of the most notorious mob leaders of the era, a brazen playboy known for his explosive temper and pathological bouts of violence -- Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.

How did this ordinary young woman from Medford, Massachusetts, end up the victim of Los Angeles's most powerful political and criminal elements? Wolfe evokes the time, place, and converging circumstances that led her down a tangled trail to her death. Desperate for cash and showbiz connections, Short entered a labyrinthine world of Syndicate-run clubs, brothels, casinos, and other shady velvet rope operations that catered to Hollywood's elite and preyed on naive, ambitious beauties such as herself. Soon after she took a job with Madam Brenda Allen's call-girl ring, which fell within Bugsy Siegel's vice-map, Short found herself involved with the most powerful political figure in the city, the mogul who ran Los Angeles -- Norman Chandler. Wolfe discovers that the real trouble began when Short became pregnant with his child. In recounting the whole noir tale in The Black Dahlia Files, Wolfe not only reveals the motive behind the murder and identifies the killer and his accomplices, but also shrewdly unravels the large-scale cover-up behind the case. With the aid of more than 150 archival photos, news clippings, and investigative reports, Wolfe documents the riveting untold story that stands apart from all other works on the Black Dahlia case and casts a far wider net -- implicating practically an entire city and Hollywood way of life in the murder of an aspiring starlet. Wolfe's extensive research, based on the evidence he discovered in the recently opened LADA files on the murder, make The Black Dahlia Files the authoritative work on the mystery that has drawn endless scrutiny but remained unsolved -- until now.

Debating the Death Penalty

2005-12-27T17:31:00.001-07:00

Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment? The Experts on Both Sides Make Their Best Case, by Hugo Adam Bedau and Paul G. Cassell. When news breaks that a convicted murderer, released from prison, has killed again, or that an innocent person has escaped the death chamber in light of new DNA evidence, arguments about capital punishment inevitably heat up. Few controversies continue to stir as much emotion as this one, and public confusion is often the result. This volume brings together seven experts--judges, lawyers, prosecutors, and philosophers--to debate the death penalty in a spirit of open inquiry and civil discussion. Here, as the contributors present their reasons for or against capital punishment, the multiple facets of the issue are revealed in clear and thought-provoking detail. Is the death penalty a viable deterrent to future crimes? Does the imposition of lesser penalties, such as life imprisonment, truly serve justice in cases of the worst offences? Does the legal system discriminate against poor or minority defendants? Is the possibility of executing innocent persons sufficient grounds for abolition? In confronting such questions and making their arguments, the contributors marshal an impressive array of evidence, both statistical and from their own experiences working on death penalty cases. The book also includes the text of Governor George Ryan's March 2002 speech in which he explained why he had commuted the sentences of all prisoners on Illinois's death row. By representing the viewpoints of experts who face the vexing questions about capital punishment on a daily basis, Debating the Death Penalty makes a vital contribution to a more nuanced understanding of the moral and legal problems underlying this controversy.

Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide Between America and Europe

2005-12-27T17:22:00.001-07:00

Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide Between America and Europe, by James Q. Whitman. Why is American punishment so cruel? While in continental Europe great efforts are made to guarantee that prisoners are treated humanely, in America sentences have gotten longer and rehabilitation programs have fallen by the wayside. Western Europe attempts to prepare its criminals for life after prison, whereas many American prisons today leave their inhabitants reduced and debased. In the last quarter of a century, Europe has worked to ensure that the baser human inclination toward vengeance is not reflected by state policy, yet America has shown a systemic drive toward ever increasing levels of harshness in its criminal policies. Why is America so short on mercy? In this deeply researched, comparative work, James Q. Whitman reaches back to the 17th and 18th centuries to trace how and why American and European practices came to diverge. Eschewing the usual historical imprisonment narratives, Whitman focuses instead on intriguing differences in the development of punishment in the age of Western democracy. European traditions of social hierarchy and state power, so consciously rejected by the American colonies, nevertheless supported a more merciful and dignified treatment of offenders. The hierarchical class system on the continent kept alive a tradition of less-degrading "high-status" punishments that eventually became applied across the board in Europe. The distinctly American, draconian regime, on the other hand, grows, Whitman argues, out of America's longstanding distrust of state power and its peculiar, broad-brush sense of egalitarianism. Low-status punishments were evenly meted out to all offenders, regardless of class or standing. America's unrelentingly harsh treatment of transgressors--this "equal opportunity degradation"-- is, in a very real sense, the dark side of the nation's much vaunted individualism. A sobering look at the growing rift between the United States and Europe, Harsh Justice exposes the deep cultural roots of America's degrading punishment practices.

Wilkie Collins's The Dead Alive: The Novel, the Case, and Wrongful Convictions

2005-12-10T09:09:00.001-07:00

Wilkie Collins's The Dead Alive: The Novel, the Case, and Wrongful Convictions, by Wilkie Collins and Rob Warden, with a foreward by Scott Turow. On the evidence of The Dead Alive, Scott Turow writes in his foreword that Wilkie Collins might well be the first author of a legal thriller. Here is the lawyer out of sorts with his profession; the legal process gone awry; even a touch of romance to soften the rigors of the law. And here, too, recast as fiction, is the United States' first documented wrongful conviction case. Side by side with the novel, this book presents the real-life legal thriller Collins used as his model-the story of two brothers, Jesse and Stephen Boorn, sentenced to death in Vermont in 1819 for the murder of their brother-in-law, and belatedly exonerated when their "victim" showed up alive and well in New Jersey in 1820. Rob Warden, one of the nation's most eloquent and effective advocates for the wrongly convicted, reconsiders the facts of the Boorn case for what they can tell us about the systemic flaws that produced this first known miscarriage of justice-flaws that continue to riddle our system of justice today. A tale of false confessions and jailhouse snitches, of evidence overlooked, and justice more blinkered than blind, the Boorns' story reminds us of the perennial nature of the errors at the heart of American jurisprudence-and of the need to question and correct a system that regularly condemns the innocent.

Environmental Forensics: Contaminant Specific Guide

2005-12-10T09:06:00.001-07:00

Environmental Forensics: Contaminant Specific Guide, by Robert D. Morrison and Brian L. Murphy. Environmental forensics is the application of scientific techniques for the purpose of identifying the source and age of a contaminant. Over the past several years, this study has been expanding as a course of study in academia, government and commercial markets. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are among the governmental agencies that utilize the study of environmental forensics to ensure national security and to ensure that companies are complying with standards. Even the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE), a group supported by the European Commission and the World Bank, utilizes the study of environmental forensics as it applies to terror threats. This title is a hand-on guide for environmental scientists, engineers, consultants and industrial scientists to identify the origin and age of a contaminant in the environment and the issues involved in the process. An expansion of the authors first title with Academic Press, Introduction to Environmental Forensics, this is a state-of-the-art reference for those exploring the scientific techniques available.

Essentials of Autopsy Practice: Current Methods and Modern Trends

2005-12-10T09:00:00.002-07:00

Essentials of Autopsy Practice: Current Methods and Modern Trends, by Guy N. Rutty. "Essentials of Autopsy Practice: Current Methods and Modern Trends" provides an update on the advances and developments in autopsy practice. This concise, well-referenced text consists of chapters that can be read independently of each other, in addition to forming a cohesive book, which can act as a laboratory manual or reference guide. It starts with a general subject related to death or death investigation and then proceeds through a series of related chapters which become more specialized, ending in a highly specialized chapter related to a specific type of injury. Each chapter brings together the world knowledge in the particular subject. Useful to both trainees and consultants in all specialty areas within pathology including forensic pathology, the book also serves as a guide to all those involved in death investigation i.e. nurses, lawyers, paramedics and police officers. Medical-Legal Center, Sheffield, UK. Inaugural volume in a series for pathologists on issues related to autopsy. Comprises recent developments in current autopsy, with previously unpublished topical chapters. Of interest to clinicians, trainees, and consultants in all areas of pathology.

Witch: The True Story of Las Vegas' Most Notorious Female Killer

2005-12-05T08:55:00.001-07:00

Witch: The True Story of Las Vegas' Most Notorious Female Killer, by Glen Puit. Drawing on extensive interviews with the accused herself, here is the sordid, twisted, and surprising story of Brookey Lee West--a successful technical writer from Silicon Valley who went on a twenty year crime and killing spree. An incredible true story. The book includes eight pages of photographs.

Killer Kids: Shocking True Stories Of Children Who Murdered Their Parents

2005-12-05T08:38:00.001-07:00

Killer Kids: Shocking True Stories Of Children Who Murdered Their Parents, by Clifford L. Linedecker. Nothing was too good for precious Katy-- sports cars, jewelry, designer clothes. Her father, a successful South Florida businessman, could not resist any of her whims. But when he tried to curb her fast-lane lifestyle, she had him shot through the head while he slept. Behind closed doors of her suburban Chicago home, Nancy Knuckles was a sadistic disciplinarian who, for years, terrorised her four children with religious fanaticism, beatings, and psychological torture, until they finally rebelled with a vengeance. After the oldest daughter strangled mom and stuffed her in a trunk, the kids partied hard, inviting their friends over for booze and rock 'n' roll. Susan Cabot was a beautiful B-movie queen and obsessive mother. Her son Tim-- born a dwarf-- was pumped full of experimental drugs extracted from cadavers to increase his height. When the ex-film star's badly beaten body was discovered in her Hollywood home, little Timmy claimed she had been killed by men using Ninja methods--before confessing. From grisly crime scenes to tense courtroom dramas, bestselling author Clifford Linedecker goes behind closed doors to unravel the shocking truth behind 10 of the country's most sensational cases.

Organized Crime: A Worldwide Perspective

2005-12-05T08:22:00.001-07:00

Organized Crime: A Worldwide Perspective, by Sean Grennan and Marjie Britz. Readers not only gain knowledge concerning the development of organized groups in the United States, but within international boundaries as well. Each group is viewed historically, territorially, economically, and politically in an effort to provide a complete package of all international groups. Each chapter also explores law enforcement inititatives, including history, legislation, and success rate, as well as a discussion of the corruption of authority where applicable. In depth analysis of La Cosa Nostras./Total anaylsis of street organized crime gangs and lack of police response./View of terrorist groups as organized crime narco/terrorists gangs, IRA, Arab groups, etc./Complete anaylsis and review of all ethnic and racial organized crime groups./All chapters include historical backgrounds on all groups. This book would be helpful in the training of members of the law enforcement and/or military community who deal with organized crime groups. It would give the average law enforcement/military officer a more than sufficient amount of information regarding the ongoing, past and present, operations of all organized crime worldwide. Helping them identify gang members in and out of the officer's work environment, making the officers aware of the criminal activities of these groups and how to identify a crime these groups might have committed.

Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated

2005-11-29T08:08:00.001-07:00

Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated, by Dave Eggers and Lola Vollen, editors. Beverly Monroe spent seven years in prison for murdering her companion of thirteen years; in fact, he had killed himself. Christopher Ochoa was persuaded to confess to a rape and murder he did not commit, and served twelve years of his life sentence before he was freed by DNA evidence. Michael Evans and Paul Terry each spent twenty-seven years in prison for a brutal rape and murder they did not commit. They were teenagers when they entered prison; they were middle-aged men when DNA proved their innocence. After spending years behind bars, hundreds of men and women with incontrovertible proof of their innocence—including 120 from death row—have been released from America’s prisons. They were wrongfully convicted because of problems that plague many criminal proceedings—inept defense lawyers, overzealous prosecutors, deceitful and coercive interrogation tactics, bad science, snitches, and eyewitness misidentification. The lives of these victims of the U.S. criminal justice system were effectively wrecked. Finally free, usually after more than a decade of incarceration, they re-enter society with nothing but the scars from a harrowing descent into prison only to struggle to survive on the outside.

The thirteen men and women portrayed here, and the hundreds of others who have been exonerated, are the tip of the iceberg. There are countless others—thousands by all estimates—who are in prison today for crimes they did not commit. These are the stories of some of the wrongfully convicted, who have managed, often by sheer luck, to prove their innocence. Their stories are spellbinding, heartbreaking, unimaginable, and ultimately inspiring. After reading these deeply personal accounts, you will never look at the criminal justice system the same way.

Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team

2005-11-29T08:01:00.001-07:00

Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, by George Jonas. Vengeance is a true story that reads like a novel. It is the account of five ordinary Israelis, selected to vanish into "the cold" of espionage secrecy -- their mission to hunt down and kill the PLO terrorists responsible for the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. This is the account of that secret mission, as related by the leader of the group -- the first Mossad agent to come out of "deep cover" and tell the story of a heroic endeavor that was shrouded in silence and speculation for years. He reveals the long and dangerous operation whose success was bought at a terrible cost to the idealistic volunteer agents themselves.

"Avner" was the leader of that team, handpicked by Golda Meir to avenge the monstrous crime of Munich. He and his young companions, cut off from any direct contact with Israel, set out systematically to find and kill the central figures of the PLO's Munich operation, tracking them down wherever they lived. The mechanics, the horror, the day-by-day suspense of what they did surpass by far anything John le Carré or Robert Ludlum could imagine, as they themselves were tracked in turn (and some killed) by PLO assassins, changing identities constantly, moving from country to country, devoting their young lives to the brutal task of vengeance.

Vengeance is a profoundly human document, a real-life espionage classic that plunges the reader into the shadow world of terrorism and political murder. But it goes far beyond that, to explore firsthand the feelings of disgust and doubt that gradually came to torment each member of the Israeli team, and that in the end inexorably changed their view of the mission -- and themselves. Vengeance opens a window onto a secret world, a book that at the same time inspires and horrifies. For its subject is an act of revenge that goes to the very heart of the ancient biblical questions of good and evil.

Dreams of Justice: Mysteries as Social Documents

2005-11-29T07:55:00.001-07:00

Dreams of Justice: Mysteries as Social Documents, by Dick Adler. Dick Adler reviews mysteries and thrillers every other week in his Crime Watch column for the Chicago Tribune. He is the co-author, with the late Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, of Public Justice, Private Mercy: A Governor's Education On Death Row. Anthony Lewis in the New York Times Book Review called it "a compelling and important book," and Jonathan Kirsch in the Los Angeles Times said, "Some of the most fascinating passages are the dozen or so case histories of the men and women themselves, the stuff of hard-boiled detective fiction come to life." Adler has also written Sleeping with Moscow, an account of the Richard Miller FBI espionage case. His mystery novel, The Mozart Code, was published in May, 1999, as an electronic book and was a Frankfurt eBook Award nominee in 2000.

Girl Trouble: The True Saga of Superstar Gloria Trevi and the Secret Teenage Sex Cult That Stunned the World

2005-11-26T09:36:00.001-07:00

Girl Trouble: The True Saga of Superstar Gloria Trevi and the Secret Teenage Sex Cult That Stunned the World, by Christopher McDougall. Gloria Trevi, Mexico's most popular singer in the 1990s, stunned fans and the world when revelations surfaced that the talent school she and her boyfriend, producer Sergio Andrade, operated was a front for a sex-slave operation. Trevi eluded authorities for two years before being apprehended and jailed in Brazil, where she then became pregnant and blamed a guard for raping her. An extradition struggle ensued, with the Mexican government demanding her return and Brazil denying the request -- on the grounds that the parent of a Brazilian-born child cannot be extradited. The shocking truth of the baby's paternity is only one twist in this stranger-than-fiction tale. In Girl Trouble, Christopher McDougall recounts the complete story of how Trevi rose to fame and then notoriety. With exclusive interviews with Trevi, Andrade, and many of the victims, he offers readers an inside look at this scandal that continues to astound a decade later.

Arsenic Under the Elms: Murder in Victorian New Haven

2005-11-26T09:18:00.001-07:00

Arsenic Under the Elms: Murder in Victorian New Haven, by Virginia A. McConnell. A high-profile murder can function as a mirror of an era, and attorney and crime researcher Virginia McConnell provides a fascinating view of Connecticut in Victorian times, as glimpsed through the unrelated, but disturbingly similar murders of two young women near New Haven in the late 1800s. The colorful characters involved in the commission, investigation, and prosecution of these crimes emerge as real, vibrant individuals, and their stories, compelling in themselves, reveal much about Victorian sex and marriage, drugs from arsenic to aphrodisiacs, early forensic medicine, and 19th-century courtroom procedures.

Deadly Mistress: A True Story of Marriage, Betrayal and Murder

2005-11-26T09:09:00.001-07:00

Deadly Mistress: A True Story of Marriage, Betrayal and Murder, by Michael Fleeman. Love gone bad. Murder gone wrong. West Coast doctor Kenneth Stahl would do anything to free himself from his wife Carolyn. Then Adriana Vasco—Kenneth’s former receptionist and mistress of nine years—obliged by introducing him to ex-con Dennis Earl Godley. The deal was set. Godley would murder Carolyn for thirty-thousand dollars. On the day after her 44th birthday, the trusting victim was lured to a lonely stretch of road. The deadly rendezvous took a shocking turn. Not only was Carolyn gunned down with a .357 Magnum, but Kenneth would also be killed. The hit man’s getaway driver was the other woman, Adriana Vasco. But who is double-crossing whom? In a sensational trial, a tangled web of lies, sex, and betrayal unfolded as Adriana and Dennis turned against each other.

A Little Girl Is Missing

2005-11-09T21:27:00.001-07:00

A Little Girl Is Missing, by Samuel Roen. Here is the true story of the disappearance, pursuit, and discovery of a violated, murdered, buried eight-year-old girl, including and the police tracking, arrest, and classic trial which led to the conviction of the murderer. In Little Girl Is Missing, Samuel Roen gives the full details of Florida's most heinous sexual murder, and places readers right in the midst of the unfolding drama. The grim man-hunt is described, as the author reveals the community fervor that boils up in reaction to the horror of the crime, and the great police work, which includes the interminable investigation and interrogation of hundreds of suspects and painstaking attention to every clue. Covering three years of careful work, A Little Girl is Missing is dramatic reportage.

Hunting Eric Rudolph

2005-11-09T21:22:00.001-07:00

Hunting Eric Rudolph, by Henry Schuster and Charles Stone. Accused of detonating bombs at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, two abortion clinics, and a gay nightclub, Eric Rudolph went on the run. He shot bears and ate salamanders for more than five years, but finally was captured in June 2003 and now sits in a Birmingham jail. Hunting Eric Rudolph covers the problems that hampered the investigation into the Centennial Park bombing, including a wrongful accusation, and discusses where and how Eric Rudolph obtained bomb components. Going into detail as to who the FBI suspected of helping him during his time on the run, the story covers the secret surveillance methods used to track him in the woods and mountains, and also takes an in-depth look at life inside the Rudolph family--including rarely seen photographs. Henry Schuster is senior producer of CNN's investigative unit, and has been covering the Eric Rudolph case since the beginning. He broke the story of Rudolph's capture. Charles Stone is head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Anti-Terrorist Task Force and was the lead investigator on the case.

The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crime: The Biggest and Best Collection of Unsolved Murder and Mystery Cases

2005-11-09T21:20:00.001-07:00

The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crime: The Biggest and Best Collection of Unsolved Murder and Mystery Cases, by Roger Wilkes. This compelling volume presents thirty-five of the most intriguing crime cases that still defy solution, as reported by leading authors and journalists in the field of crime writing. Expanded and updated, this new edition of The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crime includes such recent cases as British backpacker Peter Falconio, lost in the Australian outback, and reporting as diverse as Colin Wilson's look at the Zodiac Killer of California and Russell Miller's examination of the ongoing obsession with LA's Black Dahlia Killer, to Sydney Horley on the woman who was cleared of murdering her husband and went on to become a Broadway star, and Philip Sugden on that most mythic criminal enigma of them all, Jack the Ripper. Nearly all the cases involve one or more acts of murder, and all are left with a question mark hanging over them—real-life whodunits that offer a continuing challenge to all who find fascination in the criminal mind.