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

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.

A Simple Act of Murder: November 22, 1963

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.

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

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.

Assassination Vacation

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.