St. Martin's True Crime Library Books

On Christmas Eve in 1985, a hunter found a young boy's body along an icy corn field in Nebraska. The residents of Chester, Nebraska buried him as "Little Boy Blue," unclaimed and unidentified-- until a phone call from Ohio two years later led authorities to Eli Stutzman, the boy's father. Eli Stutzman, the son of an Amish bishop, was by all appearances a dedicated farmer and family man in the country's strictest religious sect. But behind his quiet façade was a man involved with pornography, sadomasochism, and drugs. After the suspicious death of his pregnant wife, Stutzman took his preschool-age son, Danny, and hit the road on a sexual odyssey ending with his conviction for murder. But the mystery of Eli Stutzman and the fate of his son didn't end on the barren Nebraska plains. It was just beginning. . . Gregg Olsen's Abandoned Prayers is an incredible true story of murder and Amish secrets.

In and out of hospitals since birth, angelic nine-month-old Morgan Reid finally succumbed to what appeared to be Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Morgan's Texas-born mother Tanya, a nurse and devoted wife, pulled up stakes with her grieving husband Jim, and moved on. It was the best way to put the past behind them. Until their son Michael, a boy who by all accounts was terrified of his mother, began showing signs of the same affliction that stole the life of his baby sister... First, the suspicion: Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Then, Tanya was charged and convicted with felony child abuse of her son. She was later tried and ultimately convicted for first degree murder of Morgan. It would become a landmark trial that unfolded in a series of reversals and bizarre twists of fate as it gradually revealed another side of Tanya Reid-of her own troubling childhood and the dark secrets that drove a woman to the cruelest deception of all...

The New York Times –bestselling true crime author reveals the gruesome tale of a family falling victim to assault and murder on the waters of Tampa Bay. For Joan Rogers and her two teenaged daughters, a Florida sunset cruise was a dream come true. While on a family vacation, they gladly accepted a ride on beautiful Tampa Bay with friendly boat owner Oba Chandler. But behind Chandler’s gracious façade lurked the twisted mind of a killer. As the sun set on the Gulf of Mexico, Chandler shut down the engines, dropped anchor . . . and turned into a sadistic torturer. Hog-tying and brutally raping all three, Chandler tossed them overboard—alive—with forty-pound cement blocks tied to their necks. But the waters of Tampa Bay refused to hold his monstrous secret, and after only three days, the bodies of his victims surfaced. Thanks to a dedicated team of detectives, and clues provided by Chandler’s neighbors, the depraved killer was apprehended before he could prey on his next victim.

They Were The Perfect Family. . . For twenty years, Ken and Kristine Fitzhugh and their two sons had lived lives of comfortable middle-class normality in the university town of Palo Alto, California. Then came the shocking news that Kristine Fitzhugh was dead, the victim of a terrible accident... By the time the Palo Alto Police Department looked closer at the death of Kristine Fitzhugh, there could be only one conclusion. Someone had murdered Kristine in her own home, inflicting a series of horrific blows to the back of her head, and then cleaned up the mess to make it look like an accident. Who would do such a thing? Protesting his innocence, Kenneth Fitzhugh was arrested and tried for the murder of his wife. And as the case progressed, one by one, the hidden secrets of the Fitzhugh family came spilling out. . . Blood Will Tell is the shocking true story of a seemingly happy family and the deadly secrets that led to murder.

The disappearance of fabulously rich Chicago candy heiress Helen Brach and the suspicious deaths of a string of champion racehorses are linked in a celebrated scandal that has reverberated through every level of the glamorous enclaves of thoroughbred horse breeding. When widowed heiress Helen Brach suddenly disappeared on the morning of February 17, 1977, after a visit to the Mayo Clinic, she left behind a lavender Rolls-Royce, Cadillacs in red, pink, and coral, an eighteen-room mansion, and a fortune now estimated at $75 million. She also left behind a mystery that would tantalize investigators for years. When Assistant US Attorney Steven Miller assigned himself the challenge of solving the Brach case, he never imagined an investigation of the horse world would lead to a charming gigolo named Richard Bailey who made a career of romancing wealthy women out of huge sums of money, a shadowy figure called The Sandman who made his living by killing priceless horses so that their owners could collect insurance, and the ghastly murder of three children in 1955.

On Easter Sunday, multimillionaire Dale Ewell, his wife, and 24-year-old daughter were gunned down one by one as they returned home from their beach house. The stone-cold killer waited on a sheet of plastic to avoid leaving clues and calmly retrieved all the bullet casings before leaving the house of blood. The Ewells' tony Fresno community was shocked by the grisly murder of the socially prominent family. Only the son, handsome 21 year-old Dana, seemed strangely unaffected except for his outrage at not receiving his slaughtered family's entire multimillion-dollar fortune immediately. Although the father Dale Ewell, was a ruthless businessman with a score of enemies, Detective John Souza immediately suspected the spoiled son with the new airplane and the Armani suits. But the brilliant college student sneered at the veteran investiagtor's efforts and appeared to have an airtight alibi. But Souza knew there had to be a hole and when he found it he would bring a cold-blooded killer to justice. Seeds of Evil is a terrifying true story of murder and money in California.

The New York Times –bestselling author “brings us behind the scenes of the toughest case the NYPD has faced in 20 years” (Dan Mahoney, USA Today –bestselling author). He slipped like a sinister shadow in the night, stalking, then savagely attacking. Most of his unsuspecting targets were shot at close range and one woman was stabbed over one hundred times. After dispatching his victims, police allege he left their bloodstained bodies and crept back to the neatly kept room in his mother’s apartment. The taunting, bizarre letters alleged killer Heriberto Seda sent to the police and the New York Post were full of strange symbols and mysterious references to the Zodiac. For six terror-filled years, the Zodiac killer ruled the night, claiming nine victims in his homicidal rage. One of the biggest manhunts in New York City’s history was unleashed . . . and still the body count rose. Police claim his lethal fury finally exploded one summer afternoon. After shooting his own sister, he held her boyfriend hostage and kept scores of heavily armed police pinned down in a ferocious firefight that finally ended with his surrender. But it was only when an alert detective recognized a symbol drawn on Seda’s confession as similar to the personal signature used by the Zodiac Killer in his letters, that investigators concluded that the madman they had arrested was in fact the notorious Zodiac Killer. Author Kieran Crowley, an award-winning New York Post reporter who covered the case from the first grisly shooting and cracked the psychopath’s secret code, reveals the exclusive inside story and finally solves the biggest remaining mystery of the case.

The true crime story of the Texas mother who murdered her two young sons in 1996. Not since the Susan Smith case have two murders so shocked the nation . . . Hush Little Babies is the appalling true story of Darlie Routier, the neighborhood’s most wonderful mom, who, one night, coldly, calculatingly and brutally stabbed her two sons and watched them die in a pool of their own blood. Darlie claimed an intruder had come through the window, fatally stabbed her sons, six-year-old Devon and five-year-old Damon, slashed her throat with the same knife, then fled, while her husband and infant sons slept upstairs. At first Darlie’s heartfelt testimony evoked fear and sympathy in her safe Dallas community. Then police became suspicious after these troubling questions were raised: · Why, according to a police report, didn’t Darlie make any attempt to help her dying sons? · Why, when she called 911, did she tell the dispatcher that her own fingerprints would be on the murderer’s knife because she had picked it up? · Why did the trail of blood left behind contradict Darlie’s testimony? From the dark forces that drove her to kill her own flesh and blood, to the evidence that snared her in her own twisted web, here is a chilling account of homemaker, loving wife, mother of three, and cold-blooded killer—Darlie Routier.

When eighteen-year-old Jennifer Wendorf returned home one evening, she was witness to the most horrific scene she would ever set eyes upon: her own parents' brutally bludgeoned bodies. It was later discovered that both Richard and Naoma Wendorf each received over twenty ferocious blows to the head. As this atrocious crime came to light, so too did many troubling questions: Who, in a quiet Florida town, could harbor such hatred toward the genial couple? Where was the Wendorfs' troubled fifteen-year-old daughter, Heather? And could this ungodly murder be connected to Heather's friends, a bizarre group of teens who were obsessed with blood drinking and other vampire rituals? Read with fascination as police track down the renegade teens, extract their startling confessions, and watch as bestselling author Clifford Linedecker uncovers the twisted tale in a true-crime case as shocking as any fiction...

Was he his brother's keeper? Robert and Doris Angleton seemed to have the perfect life. Until she was coldly murdered in her own home, shot thirteen times in the head, chest, and abdomen... Suddenly the ideal husband seemed anything but perfect: he was jailed, accused of hiring his older brother, Roger, to kill his wife for money-- possibly as much as $2 million. However, without the crucial eyewitness testimony of Roger-- who soon committed suicide in a Houston jail cell-- the case against Robert rested entirely on circumstantial evidence. But the facts raise more questions than answers... * Doris Angleton-- deeply involved in a secret love affair-- had asked her husband for a divorce, which might have exposed him as a tax-skipping millionaire bookie and favored police informant... * Extensive handwritten and typewritten notes, coupled with a secretly taped conversation between Roger and another man outlining the murder, were found in a briefcase Roger Angleton was carrying when he was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, it was later concluded that the second voice on the tape was not Robert's... * Also in Roger's briefcase: $64,000 in cash, along with a money wrapper with Robert's fingerprint on it... * Ultimately Roger confessed to the murder in his suicide note, exonerating his brother of any guilt... A Texas jury came to one conclusion. Read this fascinating true-crime account of greed, deception, and cold-blooded murder-- and decide for yourself. With eight pages of shocking photos!

A good deed incites evil in a true crime mystery from the New York Times –bestselling author of Sleep My Little Dead: The True Story of the Zodiac Killer . Ash Wednesday Beautiful, bubbly, 20-year-old Kim Antonakos was returning to her New York City apartment after a night of clubbing with a friend. A business major with wild black hair, long polished fingernails, and a new Honda her loving father had bought her, Kim took good care of herself and looked forward to a bright future. But on her way home in the early morning darkness of that Ash Wednesday, Kim was abducted—and her mysterious kidnappers would be the last people to see her alive. Scorching Betrayal As Kim’s father, wealthy computer executive Tommy Antonakos, launched a widespread, feverish search for his daughter, he had no idea that her abductors were right under his nose. A cold mastermind had ordered Kim to be bound, gagged and left in the freezing basement of an abandoned house, hoping to extract ransom from her father. When the plans fell through, he and his henchman panicked, returned to the basement and doused a near-frozen Kim with gasoline, setting her on fire. Burned Alive When the fire was extinguished, all that was left of the lovely coed were her charred, lifeless remains. What would drive the kidnappers to commit such a cruel and senseless murder? How did their plans to cover their tracks result in another killing? And how were the murderers finally snared? Read all of the fascinating facts in a startling exposé of extortion, murder, and ultimate justice.

The Seductress Sexy siren Amy DeChant had a lifelong habit of finding men-- rich men-- who would take care of her. And when the money ran out, so did Amy. When she met wealthy bookie Bruce Weinstein at a poker room in Las Vegas, she had found the perfect prey... The Bookie 300-pound Bruce Weinstein was the most successful sports bookie in Las Vegas. When he met the red-haired, blue-eyed Amy DeChant, he was smitten. Amy immediately moved in with Bruce and he showered her with expensive gifts. But cars, furs and jewelry didn't hold a candle to the horde of cash Bruce had stashed in a hole in the wall of his home-- or the glittering fortune he kept in a safety deposit box... The Sin-City Murder Hoping to get her hands on Bruce's fortune, Amy murdered him and dumped his body in the Nevada desert-- then she poured industrial-strength cleaning fluid on his corpse to further decomposition. When police found the body and identified it as Weinstein's, the search for Amy was on. Finally, with the help of America's Most Wanted, the lethal lady was captured and found guilty of first-degree murder. Blood in the Sand is a fascinating case of greed, deception, and cold-blooded murder in the most outrageous city in the world.

In the summer of 1985, in his exclusive Upper East Side Manhattan apartment, Robert Bierenbaum, a prominent surgeon and certified genius, strangled his wife Gail to death. He then drove her body to an airstrip in Caldwell, N.J., and dumped it into the Atlantic Ocean from a single-engine private plane. The next day he reported her missing. Gail's parents had been thrilled to learn she was marrying Robert Bierenbaum. He seemed to be the perfect match for their daughter. he was from a well-to-do family, a medical student who spoke five languages fluently, a skier, and he even flew an airplane. But Gail would come to learn of her husband's dark side. On one occasion when Robert had tried to choke Gail because he caught her smoking, she filed a police report. She also alleged that he tried to kill her cat because he was jealous of it. For year, her sister pleaded with Gail to run for her life. Even her therapist warned his vulnerable patient that she could eventually die at the hands of the man she married. Fifteen years after this unspeakable, unfathomable crime, a jury found Robert Bierenbaum guilty of murder--and stripped the mask off of this privileged professional to reveal a monster.

On September 17, 1998, police found Las Vegas gambling magnate Ted Binion lying dead on the floor of his palatial home, an empty bos of Xanax beside him. The police had been called by Binion's live-in lover, Sandra Murphy, 23, a California girl who had been working in a Vegas strip club when Binion had first met her. At first it seemed it was a fatal drug overdose that killed the handsome multi-millionaire. But was it? A few days later, Binion's "friend" Rick Tabish was arrested for trying to break into a vault where the eccentric millionaire had stored seven million dollars' worth of silver bars and coins. Family members hired ex-homicide detective-turned-private investigator Tom Dillar to start digging into the case. Dillard turned over the evidence he collected to Las Vegas police. What they found led to Binion's death being ruled a homicide and Murphy and Tabish's arrest for murder. The state said they were greedy lovers who'd conspired to kill Binion before they could strike Murphy out of his will, while the defense claimed that his vengeful family was trying to railroad Murphy to keep her from inheriting her fair share of the estate. The two sides collided in court, amid lurid charges and countercharges of physical abuse, drug use and illicit passion, in what became the Southwest's Murder Trial of the Century!

***Please note: This ebook edition does not contain the photos found in the print edition.*** A promising young attorney and a dedicated family man, Michael Fletcher seemed to have it all. But in the summer of 2000, Michael found himself standing trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, Leann. The verdict--guilty of second-degree murder--would leave friends, family, and the public at large scrambling to make sense of a twisted and frightening series of events that ended in the brutal killing of Leann Fletcher. What could possibly have led Michael Fletcher to commit such a gruesome act? As a college student, Michael Fletcher married the girl of his dreams after a three-year courtship. It seems like a fairy-tale romance come true: a match made in heaven. So why would a man with no history of domestic violence murder his devoted wife right after he told her how much he loved her? Why would Michael shoot Leann in the back of the head, not only killing her but also the child that she was carrying inside her? According to prosecutors, Fletcher has been involved in an extramarital affair with a beautiful judge for two years. Was his relationship with respected District Judge Susan Chrzanowski enough cause for him to murder his wife in cold blood? Raising even more troubling questions, the startling discovery colored Leann's already shocking murder with shadings of sex, political scandal, and deadly betrayal.

In the fall of 1999, a twenty-two-year-old woman was discovered naked and bleeding on the streets of a small New Mexico town south of Albuquerque. She was chained to a padlocked metal collar. The tale she told authorties--of being beaten, raped, and tortured with electric shock--was unthinkable. Until she led them to 59-year-old David Ray Parker, his 39-year-old financee Cindy Hendy--and the lakeside trailer they called their "toy box". What the FBI uncovered was unprecedented in the annals of serial crime: restraining devices, elaborate implements of torture, books on human anatomy, medical equipment, scalpels, and a gynecologist's examination table. But these horrors were only part of the shocking story that would unfold in a stunning trial... Cries in the Desert is the true story of "The Toy Box Killer"--a shocking story of torture and murder in the New Mexico desert.

Pasadena pediatrician Kevin Paul Anderson was admired and trusted by his wife and patients, and looked up to as a mentor by many of his associates. Handsome, athletic, and established, he was also a magnet for women. Deepti Gupta, a thirty-three-year-old fellow doctor, was the kind of conquest Anderson sought: pretty, anxious to do well, and eager to please. It wasn't long before they began having an affair... But the affair soon ended when Deepti told her mentor that she was pregnant with his child. threatened with exposure as a sexual harasser and his career and marriage at risk, Anderson took his lover on a romantic rendezvous in the San Gabriel Mountains. under the stars, Anderson strangled Deepti with his necktie, doused her body and car with gasoline, and shoved both over a steep cliff to make it look like an accident. But was it an outburst of unexpected rage, as Anderson later claimed, or was it premeditated murder? Or was it something more mysterious still?

Rabbi Fred J. Neulander was the respected head of one of the largest synagogues in New Jersey. Yet underneath his hallowed image seethed an unfaithful husband who spoke of desire to see his wife killed. So when Carol Neulander was found bludgeoned to death in the living room of the couple's Cherry Hill home, authorities immediately suspected that the beloved spiritual leader was involved. But without any evidence the case began to stagnate. The complex web of secrets, lies, and murder was only just beginning... Six years after the killing, private eye Leonard Jenoff came forward with the shocking confession that blew the case wide open: Rabbi Neulander hired Jenoff and Paul Daniels to kill his wife. Incredibly, Jenoff thought he had been hired to kill an anti-Jewish terrorist. Daniels blamed schizophrenia for his involvement. Neulander insisted he was innocent, setting the stage for a sensational trial that would leave a wealthy community shattered and expose a much darker side to this charming man of God.

He Had A Successful Career, A Selfless Wife, And Three Loving Children. When high school sweethearts Karen and Richard Sharpe married, they shared an interest in medicine, a desire for family, and a dream for the future. For Karen, that dream became a nightmare. After years of abuse at the hands of her physician husband, she put an end to their 26-year marriage. Fearing a crushing divorce settlement, Richard ended the marriage first by unloading a .22-caliber rifle into Karen's chest. The murder revealed more about the millionaire doctor-and his double life-than polite Boston society was prepared for. He Also Had A Secret That Shot His Picture-Perfect World To Hell. Behind the doors of their upscale Massachusetts home, Dr. Sharpe was a compulsive cross-dresser with a penchant for his own daughter's underwear-a respected family man who had not only been taking hormones to grow breasts, but who stole his wife's birth control pills to supplement them. But not even his own family could have imagined that it would take cold-blooded murder to finally reveal the good doctor's disturbing secrets, and shatter forever the prosaic façade of an all-American family.

From the New York Times –bestselling author, the chilling true story of one woman who escaped the deadly hold of the killer she loved and married. All Diane Bertalan really knew of her new husband, John, was that he was a widower, he lavished her with gifts, and he preferred to keep his past a secret. What she didn’t know was that the FBI had been watching him for years. In the Fall of 2000, she found out why—it was a crime that had been haunting authorities for decades. They called it the mystery of the Lady in the Box. A decaying body that had been left along an Indiana roadside ditch in 1980 had finally been identified as Janice Hartman. In 1974, the Ohio woman had been reported missing by her estranged husband . . . John David Smith. The gruesome discovery was only the beginning of Diane Smith’s brutal awakening—for Hartman was only the first of Smith’s wives to have vanished off the face of the earth.

The accused: Thirteen-year-old Derek King and his twelve-year-old brother, Alex, Sunday school students with choirboy looks. The victim: Their own father. After midnight on November 26, 2001, someone bludgeoned Terry King to death while he slept, and set his Florida home afire. By the time the firefighters extinguished the blaze, King’s sons, Alex, twelve, and Derek, thirteen, were at the home of their forty-year-old friend, Ricky Chavis, a convicted child-molester. By the next afternoon, following confessions, both boys were charged as adults in their father’s slaying. Chavis was tried separately for the same crime—incredibly by the same attorney who would prosecute Alex and Derek, and argue two contradictory theories. When Alex divulged his sexual relationship with Chavis, the trial took a sensational turn. So did Alex and Derek, who recanted their confession and blamed Chavis to no avail. A jury convicted the boys of second-degree murder, but the judge threw the verdict out. Chavis was acquitted. But the case wasn’t over. As more disturbing revelations came to light, as criminal motives became more complex, and as the line between guilt and innocence was crossed, a stunned nation watched in disbelief to learn the ultimate fate of the . . . Angels of Death.

He Looked like the Perfect Dad... Shortly before Christmas of 2001, the bodies of Mary Jane Longo and her three young children, Zachary, Sadie Ann, and Madison were discovered. They'd been murdered and dumped off the Oregon coast in Yaquina and Alsea Bay. The youngest victim was only two years old. Their father, Christian Longo, was missing. And Became One of America's Most Wanted Within days, the twenty-seven-year-old all-American dad was added to the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted fugitives. As law enforcement officials scoured northern California in pursuit of the suspected family-killer, Longo was already looking for a new job-and a new life-under a new name. Believed to be skilled in identity theft, Christian Longo was on the run. Now investigative reporter Carlton Smith takes a journey into the heart of darkness-from Longo's masquerade as a devoted family man and finally to his capture at a beach camp in Mexico-to uncover the unfathomable trail of a deadly master of deception.

Praying for a happy ending, friends and family stood by Laci's grieving husband Scott. Four months later, Laci's decomposed body was found in the murky waters of San Francisco Bay. The body of her child had washed ashore about a mile away, after a possible "coffin birth." It was a sad closure to an exhaustive search, and a grim end to a marriage that by all accounts had appeared to be perfect. Scott Peterson's behavior had cast a mysterious shadow over the death of his pregnant wife: his alibi on the day of the disappearance was questionable; he admitted to an affair with another woman; and when he was finally charged with capital murder, he had altered his appearance. Almost immediately, the media condemned Scott, even though he maintains his innocence. Is Scott Peterson a victim of circumstantial evidence? Despite the state attorney general's claim of a "slam dunk", the case that has gripped the nation is much more complex, and is yielding even more questions, doubts, accusations, and shocking revelations.

***This ebook edition does not contain the photo insert that appears in the print edition.*** Clara and David Harris were married on Valentine's Day. Young and in love, they developed a thriving dental business, built a half-million-dollar mansion, and raised the perfect family. Then whispers of an affair between David and his beautiful secretary drifted through their exclusive Houston social circle. A private detective confirmed the rumors. When Clara saw her husband with his mistress, she climbed behind the wheel of her luxurious car and put an end to their charmed life together-by crushing her husband to death underneath the wheels of her silver Mercedes-Benz. What the headline-making trial ultimately revealed was: a high-profile marriage running on empty, marital infidelity, a woman's deadly passion, and the private hell behind a public life of the rich and privileged. Out of Control tells the whole shocking story of this marriage that ended in jealous murder.

A Wealthy Couple's Idyllic Marriage Ends in a Deadly Plunge On a May evening in 1998, the picture-perfect marriage of affluent Lake Tahoe couple Peter and Rinette Bergna came to a tragic end when their truck careened 800 feet down a Sierra-Nevada mountainside. Peter survived the crash, but Rinette, still strapped in her seat, was killed on impact. As time passed, the grieving widower found solace in a new relationship, seemingly putting the heartbreaking past behind him. However, two-and-a-half years later, his life took a shocking turn... Bergna, a respected art appraiser and son of a prominent California attorney, found himself indicted for the murder of his wife. Investigators questioned whether Rinette's death was truly an accident or a deliberate act of homicide, freeing a controlling killer from a financially and emotionally burdensome marriage. The twists and turns of the case led to a hung jury in the first trial, but the second would yield even more surprises as the community remained divided, awaiting the final stunning verdict in the Over the Edge murder case.

On September 28, 2000, former Indiana State Trooper David Camm made a frantic call to his former colleagues in the state troopers office: He'd just walked into his garage, and found lying on the floor the bodies of his 35-year-old wife, Kim, and their two children, Brad and Jill, ages 7 and 5. This was the kind of crime that could tear the heart out of a community. The Camm's lived the American Dream. They had what seemed like a loving marriage, a nice little house with a white picket fence, and two adorable children. To top it all off, David Camm was a pillar of the community who had dedicated his career to the enforcement of the law and the sanctity of human life. Then, this happened. Three days later, it got worse when police arrested David Camm for the triple murder. Soon, new stories started emerging: stories about mistresses and violent bursts of temper. And as the ugly truth about the Camms' marriage got uglier and the evidence against David started piling up, two families-and the community at large-took positions at opposite sides of a yawning and bitter divide. Was David Camm a dedicated, conscientious public servant-the victim of unspeakable tragedy, railroaded by an unfair system? Or was he a cold-hearted murderer who earned his three murder convictions and every one of the 195 years behind bars to which he was sentenced? Investigative journalist John Glatt finds out in this gripping new book.

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. In a sensational trial, a tangled web of lies, sex, and betrayal unfolded as Adriana and Dennis turned against each other…and Michael Fleeman tells the whole shocking story in his true crime book Deadly Mistress .

After the murder of her husband, a military wife becomes a fugitive from the law in an attempt to avoid conviction, in this true-crime biography. A man in uniform . . . He was a captain in the US Air Force. She was a psychologist in Fayetteville, North Carolina. On the surface, Marty and Michelle Theer appeared to be the perfect married couple. But no one knew of the double life Michelle was leading. Tired of spending one too many nights apart from Marty who was often away on his flight missions, Michelle turned to the Internet to meet men and relieve her loneliness. But one man stood out among all the rest: former US Army Staff Sergeant John Diamond. A woman in heat . . . The more time Michelle spent with Diamond, the less she wanted to be with her husband. Then on December 17, 2000, Marty was gunned down outside of Michelle’s office building. Suspicion first turned to Diamond, and she watched him take the fall for a murder she had masterminded. When authorities went after her, Michelle vanished. For months, federal marshals hunted desperately for Michelle, who had resorted to plastic surgery to avoid the law. In 2002, authorities finally captured her. A case that shocked the American military community . . . For three months, a jury would hear graphic testimony delving into the sordid details of Michelle’s swinging sex life as the happy veneer of the Theers’s marriage was quickly peeled away. But when it came time to decide Michelle Theer’s fate, her own shocking actions would finally seal her doom . . . Please note: This ebook edition does not contain the photos found in the print edition.

A chilling account of the murders of two hunters in rural Michigan—a mystery that haunted a community and baffled the police for two decades. In the bitter cold of 1985, two buddies from Detroit embark on a hunting trip to the Michigan wilderness, unaware they will soon become the hunted. The eerie silence surrounding their sudden disappearance is broken after nearly two decades when a relentless investigator inspires a terrified witness to break her silence. The witness narrates a haunting scene that had unfolded years back, pointing fingers at the prime suspects—the Duvall brothers. With no bodies unearthed, the justice system is riveted by the startling revelations during an electrifying trial in 2003. The brothers, Raymond and Donald Duvall, had bragged about the murders, evocatively explaining how they dismembered their victims and fed them to pigs. Despite the shocking confession, the case holds its ground purely on a single witness’s account, taking the courtroom through a labyrinth of dark secrets and sinister acts. This gripping thriller presents a vivid tale of crime that reveals the devastating power of evil.

He'd been shot in the head, decapitated, and set on fire. Who could have turned on the real-estate ace with such bloodthirsty fury? Even before the remains were found, circumstantial evidence was building against Rudin's 52-year-old wife, Margaret, who stood to inherit a handsome share of her husband's fortune. Rudin's friends also suspected Margaret, and the victim has thought that his wife was trying to poison him when he was alive. Then a chilling caveat was discovered in Rudin's living trust: should he die under violent circumstances, an investigation should be conducted. By the time authorities closed in on Margaret Rudin she'd disappeared. It would take two and a half years to hunt the Black Widow down, and to discover the secrets at the heart of poisonous marriage... Now, reporter Michael Fleeman delivers a startling glimpse into the mind of a woman who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. Fleeman also details the relentless pursuit of justice that would lead authorities from the glamorous facade of Las Vegas to a squalid apartment on the outskirts of Boston, to hold the remorseless wife accountable for her shocking crimes.

Greg DeVillers was a top biotech executive, and Kristen Rossum was embarking on a career in toxicology at the San Diego Medical Examiner's office. They seemed to be happily married, living the American dream. But only months shy of their second anniversary, Kristen found her handsome husband dead from a drug overdose-his corpse sprinkled with rose petals. By his side was their wedding photo. The scene was reminiscent of American Beauty, one of Kristen's favorite movies. Authorities deemed it a suicide. Until they discovered that the rare poison found in Greg's body was the same poison missing from Kristen's office. Until they discovered the truth about Kristen's lurid affair, about her own long-time drug addiction, and about the personal and professional secrets she would kill to keep hidden-secrets that would ultimately expose the beautiful blonde as the deadly beauty she really was...a Deadly American Beauty

***Please note: This ebook edition does not contain the photos found in the print edition.*** As boys, Robert and Andrew Kissel competed and excelled. As men, they made millions—Robert in the Asian markets and Andrew in real estate. But a darkness was chasing the brothers down. In November 2003, Robert was murdered in his posh Hong Kong apartment. Two-and-a-half years later, Andrew was found stabbed to death in his Greenwich Connecticut mansion. Nancy Kissel was charged with murdering her husband Robert, after serving him a milkshake laced with sedatives and then beating him to death with a blunt object. But what happened to Andrew? His marriage was failing, and he faced prison for real estate fraud. Was his death a murder—or suicide? A Family Cursed tells the riveting true story of the different paths the Kissel brothers took toward the same fate.

Cynthia George was the stunning wife of one of Akron Ohio's most successful restaurateurs, and mother of seven. She flaunted her money, her body…even her extra-marital affairs. Until she got in too deep with Jeff Zack, her younger, longtime lover who was also the father of one of her children—a secret that she kept for many years. In a crime that shocked the heartland, Zack was killed, execution style, in the parking lot of a BJ's Wholesale Club in Akron. From the beginning, investigators suspected Cynthia was involved. Little did they know that her other lover was the murderer. John Zaffino knew about Cynthia's affair with Zack—and was jealous enough to do something about it…for good.

Perry March was a brilliant attorney working for one of the top law firms in Nashville, Tennessee. When he married Janet Levine, a painter whose beauty was as striking as her art, he seemed to have it all. But their marriage began to deteriorate, and soon he and Janet did nothing but fight—often in front of their two young children. Janet decided to make an appointment with a divorce lawyer… When Janet first went missing, Perry told family members and police that she had gone on vacation, then left him and the kids for good. Since there was no body to be found, and no evidence linking him to any crime, Perry was a free man. But as police kept digging for clues, shocking facts about Perry's past came to the surface—infidelity, money trouble, sexual obsession. It would be ten years before authorities apprehended Perry, who had been living a double-life in Mexico. He would be extradited back to Nashville… and charged with his wife's murder.

In the heart of Indianapolis in the mid 1960's, through a twist of fate and fortune, a pretty young girl came to live with a thirty-seven-year-old mother and her seven children. What began as a temporary childcare arrangement between Sylvia Likens's parents and Gertrude Baniszewski turned into a crime that would haunt cops, prosecutors, and a community for decades to come… When police found Sylvia's emaciated body, with a chilling message carved into her flesh, they knew that she had suffered tremendously before her death. Soon they would learn how many others―including some of Baniszewski's own children―participated in Sylvia's murder, and just how much torture had been inflicted in one HOUSE OF EVIL

Jana Bommersbach's Bones in the Desert is the shocking story of a devoted mother and daughter, a successful business, and the man who would do everything to destroy it all ... Loretta Bowersock and her daughter, Terri, ran a multimillion-dollar furniture store based in Tempe, Arizona, where they were well-known and admired by many. Together, these two women seemed to be living the American Dream…until one man decided to take it all away. Over the course of two decades, Taw Benderly worked his way into Loretta's heart, home, and business. Though the couple appeared to be happy, their lives behind closed doors told another story. Terri had always known that the handsome, charming, and usually unemployed Taw was manipulating her mother—but she did not know the extent of the abuse or how far he would go to defraud her. Then, just before Christmas in 2004, Loretta went missing. It would be more than a year before Terri learned the shocking truth: That, before killing himself, Taw murdered the 69-year-old Loretta and left her.

On April 10, 2001, Sandra Baker, a recently separated, forty-five-year-old mother of two, went for a facelift—and a new lease on life. But the nurse anesthetist was a woman from her past. And Sandra's future was in jeopardy… Decades before, in a world of high school cliques and competition, Sally Jordan Hill had a crush on a guy whose attentions turned toward Sandra. Little did Sandra know how jealous Sally might have been… Once Nurse Sally had Sandra in her care, she administered a lethal dose of the painkiller Fentanyl. Within hours, Sandra was brain dead—and her death was ruled a medical mistake. But earlier, Sally's coworkers heard her say this: That's the woman who stole my boyfriend in high school . And soon, a determined detective would find new clues to convince a judge that Sandra's death was no accident. … Beauty Sleep is the true story of glamor, jealousy ... and cold-blooded murder.

***Please note: This ebook edition does not contain the photos found in the print edition.*** The affluent suburb of Cheshire, Connecticut, seemed like the perfect place for Dr. William Petit and his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, to raise their two lovely daughters… Until July 23, 2007, when, according to police, two ex-cons invaded the Petit home hoping to embark on a routine robbery—one that would ultimately prove deadly. What unfolded at 300 Sorghum Mill Drive was a tragic and horrifying sequence of events that shocked a community and made headlines across the nation. Before the morning was over, Mrs. Hawke-Petit and one of her daughters would be sexually assaulted, the entire house would go up in flames, and only Dr. Petit—his head bloodied, his legs bound—would manage to escape with his life. With the help of neighbors and local police, the two suspects were soon found and captured. Now, Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes await trial for murder IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT .

Forty-year-old William Coday lived the quiet life of a scholar. He spoke six languages and held degrees in history, literature, and library science. As a librarian in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he was known to be unfailingly kind and helpful. But you can't always judge a book by its cover… When Coday failed to show up for work one day, a concerned colleague looked for him at his apartment…only to discover the body of Gloria Gomez. Coday's ex-girlfriend, Gomez had been bludgeoned to death with 144 blows by two hammers and a knife. Police at the scene had little doubt that Coday was the killer. But other, darker secrets from Coday's past had yet to come to light… In one of the most shocking crime cases and legal appeals in Florida history, an extraordinary courtroom battle began.What the jury did not know was that Coday, when he lived abroad, had beaten another ex-girlfriend to death; the courts there had deemed him insane. Who was William Coday: Mentally unstable? Or perfectly capable—and guilty—of murder in the first degree? Soon it would be up to prosecutors to prove who the real man was BEHIND THE MASK . Behind the Mask is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

***Please note: This ebook edition does not contain the photos found in the print edition.*** Early one November morning, Kara Borden, a pretty fourteen year old, was caught by her parents as she snuck into their Lancaster County, Pennsylvania home. She confessed to spending the night with eighteen-year-old David Ludwig, and her parents—evangelicals who had home-schooled their daughter—were beside themselves with anger. They summoned David to talk immediately. But David arrived to the house with another plan in mind… Two hours later, police arrived at the Borden residence to find that Mr. and Mrs. Borden had been shot dead—and David and Kara were nowhere to be found. Was Kara a hostage? Or an accomplice? A manhunt began that would end hundreds of miles away in a highly televised speed chase. The two lovers were eventually captured… and one would spend a life behind bars. This is the true story of a crime set in a closely-guarded world of fundamentalist belief, and the tale of a God-fearing teenager whose DESIRE TURNED DEADLY .

In 1989, a shocking tragedy shattered an otherwise peaceful small Indiana community. Much-admired pastor Robert L. Pelley was found slain in his home. In his basement were the huddled, blood-soaked bodies of his wife and daughters, executed by shotgun at close range. The doors to the house were locked, and there were no signs of forced entry. Meanwhile, the pastor's son, Jeff, was nowhere to be found… Police had a hunch that Jeff was responsible for the massacre, but they didn't have enough evidence to convict. The case went cold…until, more than a decade later, when law officials resolved to finally try to unravel the truth about Jeff and to establish a motive—that he was angry toward his father for grounding him on prom night. Then it would be up to prosecutors to prove that Jeff was responsible for THE PROM NIGHT MURDERS

The true crime account of the two women who became gold diggers in their golden years, committing what would be known as the “Black Widow Murders.” They came from different backgrounds, but when Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt met in the 1980s, they became fast friends. For decades, they made a game of engaging in petty crime—bad deals, insurance fraud, robbing wallets. But after years of dabbling in theft, they came up with a way of making their pocketbooks even fatter. They found a way to make murder pay . . . It was a plan out of Arsenic and Old Lace : Befriend a homeless man, place life insurance policies in his name—and then have him killed. Their scheme worked once . . . but then police started to notice a pattern. Helen and Olga were discovered, and in front of a court of law, their coldhearted pact to kill and cash in would finally be exposed.

Their neighbors were Bill and Hillary Clinton. Their home was Chappaqua, the upscale New York suburb famous for its tranquility—until one dark night, when a brutal murder shattered the community. Driving home with his wife Peggy, Carlos Perez-Olivo claimed he was forced off the road by another vehicle. Entering the couple's SUV, the other driver allegedly shot and killed Peggy during a struggle. Then, while wrestling with the assailant, Carlos took a bullet in the abdomen. But disturbing facts about Carlos began to surface: He'd sent flowers to his mistress two days before Peggy's murder. He'd been recently disbarred as a criminal defense attorney. And now, he stood to inherit Peggy's life insurance policies. With each revelation, more questions were raised: Was Carlos an innocent victim? A scheming accomplice? Or a cold-blooded killer? This is what really happened…

Annie Le seemed to have it all. A beautiful graduate student at one of the world's most prestigious universities, she was also deeply in love. But just days before she was set to get married, Annie went mysteriously missing…and her fiancé started to fear the worst. Raymond Clark III seemed like an average, all-American boy next door. He was a sports hero in high school, adored by friends and family. But he had a secret dark side—and a history of violence that was about to come to light. Annie and Ray worked in the same lab facility. Security records indicated that, on September 8, 2009, Annie entered a restricted basement area…followed by Ray. On the thirteenth, the date of her wedding, Annie's lifeless body was found. DNA evidence at the crime scene was eventually linked to Ray. Why did he do it? What did Annie do to set him off? This is the shocking true story of a Murder at Yale.

A beautiful nurse. A lethal injection. A gruesomely charred corpse. Nothing could have shocked the sleepy community of Morgantown, West Virginia, more than the lurid details that surfaced after a house fire claimed the life of Shelly Michael's husband Jimmy. Local authorities suspected possible arson. Then they discovered that Jimmy had been dead before the fire even started—paralyzed by a fatal dose of muscle relaxant… Did Shelly Michael, a respected nurse and mother, kill her second husband and torch her own home? Were the rumors true that she'd had an affair with her husband's employee only two weeks before the murder? Or did she kill Jimmy simply for the insurance money? Charged with first-degree murder and first-degree arson, Shelly would never stop claiming her innocence—even to this day

Nancy Jean Siegel of Maryland became addicted to gambling during her first marriage. Sneaking off to Atlantic City—and sinking deeper and deeper into debt—she began stealing identities, conning family members, and leaving two ex-husbands buried in bills. Then she sold cemetery plots door-to-door and met Jack Watkins, a man thirty years her senior. He not only bought a grave site from the attractive younger woman, he leased a car for her, sold his house and gave her the proceeds. But Nancy wanted more… Watkins' body was found in a steamer trunk near the Appalachian Trail. Half-naked and strangled, he remained unidentified for more than six years. Meanwhile, Nancy cashed his Social Security checks and opened new lines of credit under his name. By the time the police tracked her down, she had committed bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and more. New York Times bestselling author Carlton Smith takes you inside the greed, the gambling, and one gruesome murder—to question the very nature of evil…

Barbara and Michael ran a Detroit-area comic book shop, where Renee Kotula was an employee—and Michael's lover. Their torrid affair took a shocking turn when one night Barbara was found dead at the shop, a bullet through her skull. Did Michael kill his wife so that he could collect her life insurance policy…and run off with Renee? With no weapon or witnesses, the police weren't able to arrest Michael…until, eighteen years later, a new district attorney reopened the case and found overlooked evidence that placed him at the scene of the crime. Michael was finally arrested. But after a jury found him guilty of murder, the judge overturned his case. Why? As Michael awaits a second trial, many are left to wonder if justice will ever be served for the woman who is DEAD BUT NOT FORGOTTEN .

***Please note: This ebook edition does not contain the photos found in the print edition.*** Kathleen Savio was married to Drew Peterson for eleven years before filing for divorce in 2003. The next year, she was found dead in her bathtub. Her drowning appeared to be an accident—and for years, no one had reason to question it. But when Peterson's next wife, Stacy—thirty years younger—went missing, the tough-talking and wise-cracking former Illinois cop came under suspicion…. With Stacy Peterson missing—and presumed dead—authorities exhumed Kathleen Savio's body, looking for answers. A new autopsy pointed to homicide, and a 2002 letter was revealed in which Savio wrote that Drew, "knows how to manipulate the system, and his next step is to take my children away. Or kill me instead." He was arrested for Kathleen's murder, and is a prime suspect in Stacy's disappearance, Peterson continues to protest his innocence. New York Times bestselling author Carlton Smith digs deep into the mystery behind the two Peterson wives—and sheds some light on one of the most complex crime cases in modern American history.

From a New York Times– bestselling author—a true crime story of a Texas teen’s 2008 plot to murder her parents for not approving of her boyfriend. “Readers will be haunted by Greenberg’s . . . eminently readable true crime tale.”— Publishers Weekly Alba, Texas. In 2008, Terry Caffey, a home health care aide and aspiring preacher, was asleep in his bedroom when he woke up to a barrage of bullets. His wife, Penny, was killed instantly. With blood pouring from five bullet wounds, among other serious injuries, Terry tried—but failed—to save his two youngest children before crawling out of his burning house. Meanwhile, Terry’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Erin, was missing… Once Erin was found by local authorities, she claimed she had been kidnapped—but could not remember the details. It wasn’t until Terry was fully conscious that he could explain what had really happened: He’d been shot, point-blank, by two young men. One of them he did not know; the other was Charlie James Wilkinson. Charlie was Erin’s nineteen-year-old boyfriend, forbidden from entering the Caffey home. Until Erin helped Charlie come up with a plan to do away with her disapproving parents once and for all . . . Please note: This ebook edition does not contain photos that appeared in the print edition.

“Vivid characters carry the action in latest book about grisly Metro Detroit murder . . . a page turner” from the true crime author of Darker Than Night ( The Detroit News ). Washington Township, Michigan: Valentine’s Day, 2007. Stephen Grant filed a missing person’s report on his beloved wife, Tara. The stay-at-home father of two was beside himself with despair. Why would Tara abandon him and their family? Was she involved with another man? Stephen’s frantic, emotional search for Tara made national headlines, and the case was featured on Dateline among other television shows and news outlets. But key elements in Stephen’s story still weren’t adding up: Why did he wait five days to go to police? What was the nature of his relationship with his children’s beautiful, nineteen-year-old babysitter? Why did Stephen have cuts on his hands, and random bruises? Then, the police made a gruesome discovery. Parts of Tara Grant’s body started turning up around the woods near the Grant’s home. The truth was finally coming to light . . . and, after a two-day manhunt, Stephen admitted to having killed Tara—first strangling her, then cutting her body into fourteen pieces before burying them. This is the shocking true story about a bitter, cheating husband whose crimes were revealed by the Blood in the Snow. Please note that the photos that appear in the print edition of the title do not appear in the e-book. “[ Blood in the Snow is] the third book about the case but it’s also the only one that had police cooperation. And that makes all the difference . . . a wild ride of a read that’s still compelling.” — Metro Times