The Encyclopedia of Robberies, Heists, and Capers


Book Description

More than 250 entries cover famous robberies worldwide, along with profiles of the felons and law-enforcement officers involved.




Murder Chronicles: A Collection of Chilling True Crime Tales


Book Description

From award winning criminologist R. Barri Flowers and the bestselling author of The Sex Slave Murders 1 & 2, Serial Killer Couples, and Murder of the Banker’s Daughter comes Murder Chronicles, a gripping collection of true crime tales. The collection includes ten compelling stories of murder, madness, and mayhem that span more than a century of American history and homicidal criminality that will keep you reading from beginning to end. 1. Murder at the Pencil Factory: The Killing of Mary Phagan - 100 Years Later, the brutal murder of a young girl turn locals into vigilantes out for justice. 2. The "Gold Special" Train Robbery: Deadly Crimes of the D'Autremont Brothers, a daring train robbery by a trio of brother bandits goes wrong and turns deadly. 3. Murder of the Banker's Daughter: The Killing of Marion Parker, a brazen abduction of a schoolgirl turns tragic as authorities hunt for the killer. 4. Mass Murder in the Sky: The Bombing of Flight 629, a mother’s Christmas gift turns deadly, exploding in an airliner above Denver, with a domestic terrorist on loose. 5. The Amityville Massacre: The DeFeo Family's Nightmare, family is shot to death by a killer too close to home. Inspiration for The Amityville Horror movies. 6. The Pickaxe Killers: Karla Faye Tucker & Daniel Garrett, pair of killers seek revenge and pay the price themselves. 7. Murderous Tandem: James Gregory Marlow and Cynthia Coffman, two killers pick off victims one by one till brought to justice. 8. Murder in Mission Hill: The Disturbing Tale of Carol Stuart & Charles Stuart, a wife’s murder draws national attention with an unlikely killer on the loose. 9. Murder in Bellevue: The Killing of Alan and Diane Johnson, in a case of parricide, a teenage girl’s obsession turns deadly. 10. Murder of a Star Quarterback: The Tragic Tale of Steve McNair & Sahel Kazemi, adultery, jealousy, fame, and fortune turn deadly for a well-known ex-football great. Bonus material includes excerpts from bestselling true crime books by R. Barri Flowers, The Sex Slave Murders and Serial Killer Couples. Follow the author in Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Goodreads, LibraryThing, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, and www.rbarriflowers.net and www.rbarriflowers.com.




Violence


Book Description

Violence: The Enduring Problem offers an interdisciplinary and reader-friendly exploration of the patterns and correlations of individual and collective violent acts using the most contemporary research, theories, and cases. Responding to the fear of pervasive violence in the world, authors Alex Alvarez and Ronet Bachman address the various legislative, social, and political efforts to curb violent behavior. The authors expertly incorporate a wide range of current cases to help readers interpret the nature and dynamics of a variety of different, yet connected, forms of violence. The Fourth Edition represents a significant step forward in presenting a more complete and contemporary analysis of violence. Included in this edition is a new chapter on hate crime, a new chapter devoted to multicide, and updated discussions on current topical issues, including the #MeToo movement and epigenetics.




King of Heists


Book Description

ANOTHER TRUE CRIME STORY FROM J. NORTH CONWAY—NOW IN PAPERBACK! The riveting story of one of America’s most notorious crimes and the mysterious man behind it “Engrossing. . . . Conway skillfully paints a backdrop of fierce and flamboyant personalities who paraded across the Gilded Age. . . . [H]e capably recounts his story against a background of glitter and greed.” —Publishers Weekly “A page-turning account of one of the most brazen crimes of our time.” —Reader’s Digest “Conway, a college prof and ex-newspaper man, covers this ancient tale in a way that makes it feel like a hot news story.” —New York Post King of Heistsis a spellbinding and unprecedented account of the greatest bank robbery in American history, which took place on October 27, 1878, when thieves broke into the Manhattan Savings Institution and stole nearly $3 million in cash and securities—around $50 million in today’s terms. Bringing the notorious Gilded Age to life in a thrilling narrative, J. North Conway tells the story of those who plotted and carried out this infamous robbery, how they did it, and how they were tracked down and captured. The robbery was planned to the minutest detail by criminal mastermind George Leonidas Leslie—a society architect and ladies’ man whose double life as the nation’s most prolific bank robber led him to be dubbed the “King of the Bank Robbers.” An absorbing tale of greed, sex, crime, betrayal, and murder, King of Heistsblends all the richness of history with the thrills of the best fiction.




Murder and Menace: Riveting True Crime Tales (Vol. 2)


Book Description

R. Barri Flowers, award-winning criminologist and the bestselling author of Serial Killers & Prostitutes and The Sex Slave Murders, brings together seven of his best previously published true crime stories in this captivating second volume of Murder and Menace: Riveting True Crime Tales. Mass Murder in the Sky: The Bombing of Flight 629 tells the unbelievable and horrifying tale for all aboard a United Air Lines plane in 1955 when an act of vengeance by a ruthless and unlikely killer is carried out. Killers of the Lonely Hearts: The Tale of Serial Killers Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck is the gripping story of sex, jealousy, and preying on lonely women by murderous con artist lovers during the 1940s and the ultimate price they paid. Murder of a Star Quarterback: The Tragic Tale of Steve McNair and Sahel Kazemi tells the riveting story of an NFL sports legend, his young mistress, jealousy, money, and desperation that spins dangerously out of control in Nashville, leading to deadly results. Murder on Cromwell Street: The Chilling Story of Serial Killers Fred and Rosemary West chronicles the twisted lives of Britain's most infamous serial killer couple and the horrors they inflicted upon their young female captives, including bondage and murder, over two decades before the terror finally came to an end. The Gold Special Train Robbery: Deadly Crimes of the D'Autremont Brothers tells the harrowing story of a daring robbery by determined siblings in search of gold on the Southern Pacific Railroad Express Train bound for San Francisco in 1923 that ended in murder and mayhem. The Most Wanted Killers: The Serial Crimes of Alton Coleman and Debra Denise Brown relives the frightening rape, robbery, and murder spree by an African American serial killer couple over a two month stretch, while making the FBI's Most Wanted List. Murder in Bellevue: The Killing of Alan and Diane Johnson tells the horrific tale of an Idaho couple who were gunned down in their own home in a shocking and unforgettable case of family violence that turned deadly. Also included is a bonus excerpt from the author's bestselling true crime book, The Sex Slave Murders: The True Story of Serial Killers Gerald and Charlene Gallego, a deadly married couple who preyed upon teenage girls and young women to fulfill perverted sex slave fantasies. Other bonus excerpts include, Dead in Kihei, from the Eddie Naku Maui Mystery series and a noir mystery short story, The Wrong End of a Gun, by R. Barri Flowers. Stay tuned for the upcoming third volume of Murder and Menace: Riveting True Crime Tales.




Murdered by the King of Western Swing: The Beating Death of Ella Mae Cooley in 1961 (A Historical True Crime Short)


Book Description

From R. Barri Flowers, award-winning criminologist and the bestselling author of Murderess on the Loose, Murder of the Doctor’s Wife, Murder at the Pencil Factory, and The Sex Slave Murders, comes the gripping historical true crime short, Murdered by the King of Western Swing: The Beating Death of Ella Mae Cooley in 1961. On Monday, April 3, 1961, thirty-eight-year-old former vocalist Ella Mae Cooley was beaten to death in her home in Willow Springs, an unincorporated area located in Kern County, California. The cruelty of the crime was shocking to local residents in the normally idyllic community. A greater shock was that the murder was committed by the victim’s fifty-year-old husband, Donnell Clyde Cooley, a well-known big band leader, musician, actor, host of a television variety show, and businessman. Ella Mae and Donnell Clyde, who generally went by the name Spade Cooley, were both struggling with accusations of unfaithfulness in their marriage that had produced two children. They were in the midst of a divorce when tragedy struck. Cooley snapped in deciding to end the marriage prematurely by murdering his wife The horrific assault was witnessed by the couple’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Melody, who would testify against her father at his trial. In spite of her untimely presence at the crime scene, Cooley sought to attribute Ella Mae’s death to an accident. This fell flat, as did a short-lived attempt to plead insanity in the death of his wife. Spade Cooley would be convicted of murder and sent to prison for his heinous act of criminality, forever casting a shadow over a successful career in Western swing music and television. See how this tragic story of celebrity, suspicion, and homicidal rage unfolds in the historical crime of passion. Included is a complete bonus historical short tale, The Gold Special Train Robbery: Deadly Crimes of the D’Autremont Brothers, as well as excerpts from the author’s bestselling true crime book, Serial Killer Couples; the riveting historical true crime short, Murder of the Banker's Daughter: The Killing of Marion Parker; and the gripping historical true crime tale, Mass Murder in the Sky: The Bombing of Flight 629.




Secrets of the Sideshows


Book Description

"Joe Nickell - once a carnival pitchman, then a magician, private detective, and investigative writer - has pursued sideshow secrets for years and has worked the famous carnival midway at the Canadian National Exhibition. For this book, he interviewed showmen and performers, collected carnival memorabilia, researched published accounts of sideshows and their lore, and even performed some classic sideshow feats, such as eating fire and lying on a bed of nails as a cinderblock was broken on his chest. The result of these varied efforts, Secrets of the Sideshows tells the captivating story of the magic, tricks - real or illusory - and performers of the world's midway shows."--BOOK JACKET.




"Don't Shoot, G-Men!"


Book Description

Between 1933 and 1939, the FBI pursued an aggressive, highly publicized nationwide campaign against a succession of Depression era "public enemies," including John Dillinger, George "Baby Face" Nelson, Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, George "Machine Gun Kelly" Barnes, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, and the Ma Barker Gang. Bureau Director J. Edgar Hoover's successes in this crusade made him the hero of law and order in the public mind. This historical analysis reveals the agency's often illegal tactics, including torture, frame-ups, and summary executions--later expanded throughout Hoover's 48-year reign in Washington, D.C., and exposed only after his death (some say murder) in 1972.




The FBI Encyclopedia


Book Description

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, America's most famous law enforcement agency, was established in 1908 and ever since has been the subject of countless books, articles, essays, congressional investigations, television programs and motion pictures--but even so it remains an enigma to many, deliberately shrouded in mystery on the basis of privacy or national security concerns. This encyclopedia has entries on a broad range of topics related to the FBI, including biographical sketches of directors, agents, attorneys general, notorious fugitives, and people (well known and unknown) targeted by the FBI; events, cases and investigations such as ILLWIND, ABSCAM and Amerasia; FBI terminology and programs such as COINTELPRO and VICAP; organizations marked for disruption including the KGB and the Ku Klux Klan; and various general topics such as psychological profiling, fingerprinting and electronic surveillance. It begins with a brief overview of the FBI's origins and history.




Ma Barker


Book Description

Was Arizona Donnie Clark, AKA Kate “Ma” Barker the mastermind behind the Barker gang terrorizing the Midwest during the early years of the great Depression? Or was she a terrible mother who urged her sons to criminal behavior for her own financial gain? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between. This lively retelling of the legend of Ma Barker and her boys is full of action, intrigue, and the answers to mysteries that have lingered for more than 70 years.