Who Killed Starr Faithfull?


Book Description

From a man who kept his girlfriend in a closet to a young woman who washed ashore in Long Beach, Long Island has a colorful history of murder and mayhem. Gail Rough-Stratford has always had a fascination with murder. Even as a child, she would clip news stories and save them in a shoe box under her bed. Presented here are some of those same stories, with tales of the Amityville Horror, the Railroad shooter, young woman who arranged a murder during home room and many more. Gail Rough-Stratford is an English professor on the lovely, and dangerous, Long Island with her husband of 36 years and their two Yorkies, Max and Millie.




The Passing of Starr Faithfull


Book Description

This work, winner of the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger Award, provides an account of the international scandal and media activity surrounding the death of Starr Faithfull in 1931. Granted access to the police dossier, the author arrives at an unexpected yet credible conclusion.




Closing Time


Book Description

The real story behind the murder of a Manhattan schoolteacher that became a symbol of the dangers of casual sex: “A first-rate achievement” (Truman Capote). In 1973, Roseann Quinn, an Irish-Catholic teacher at a school for deaf children, was killed in New York City after bringing a man home to her apartment from an Upper West Side pub. The crime made headlines and the ensuing case quickly evolved into a cultural phenomenon, spawning both a #1 New York Times–bestselling novel and a film adaptation starring Diane Keaton and Richard Gere, and sparking debates about the sexual revolution and the perils of the “pickup scene” at what were popularly known as singles bars. In this groundbreaking true crime tale, Lacey Fosburgh, the New York Times reporter first assigned to the story, utilizes an inventive dramatization technique, in which she gives the victim a different name, to veer between the chilling, suspenseful personal interactions leading up to the brutal stabbing and the gritty details of its aftermath, including the NYPD investigation and the arrest of John Wayne Wilson. An Edgar Award finalist for Best Fact Crime, this classic of the genre is “more riveting, and more tragic, than the Judith Rossner novel—and 1977 movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar” (Men’s Journal).




The Killing of Julia Wallace


Book Description

Originally published by George C. Harrap & Co. in 1969.




New Castle’s Kadunce Murders: Mystery and the Devil in Northwest Pennsylvania


Book Description

Author Dale Richard Perelman tells the tragic story of the 1978 murders and the mystery surrounding them. In the summer of 1978, a mother and her four-year-old were stabbed to death in the quiet town of New Castle. Police suspected the husband, Lou Kadunce, but were unable to find either a weapon or a motive. Sitting in a Lawrence County jail in 1981, convicted serial killer Michael Atkinson accused Frank Costal - a carny, petty thief and Satanist - of having an affair with the Kadunce husband and participating in the murder. A series of intense trials ensued as Costal was convicted of the homicides and a jury found the husband not guilty. Questions surrounding the case gripped the region and grabbed headlines in the Pittsburgh Press.




The Combat Zone


Book Description

The story of a Harvard student’s murder in 1970s Boston amid racial strife and rampant corruption, told with “careful reporting and historical context” (Providence Journal). Shortlisted for the 2021 Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction and the 2022 Anthony Award for Best Critical or Nonfiction Work At the end of the 1976 football season, more than forty Harvard athletes went to Boston’s Combat Zone to celebrate. In the city’s adult entertainment district, drugs and prostitution ran rampant, violent crime was commonplace, and corrupt police turned the other way. At the end of the night, Italian American star athlete Andy Puopolo, raised in the city’s North End, was murdered in a stabbing. Three African American men were accused of the crime. The murder made national news, and led to the eventual demise of the city’s red-light district. Starting with this brutal murder, The Combat Zone tells the story of the Puopolo family’s struggle with both a devastating loss and a criminal justice system that produced two trials with opposing verdicts, all within the context of a racially divided Boston. Brogan traces the contentious relationship between Boston’s segregated neighborhoods during the busing crisis; shines a light on a court system that allowed lawyers to strike potential jurors based purely on their racial or ethnic identity; and lays bare the deep-seated corruption within the police department and throughout the Combat Zone. What emerges is a fascinating snapshot of the city at a transitional moment in its recent past. “The grim history of racism in Boston, the crime and corruption of the Combat Zone, and the legal permutations of the case take up the bulk of the book. But its heart lies in a character who wasn’t even in the Combat Zone that fateful night—the victim’s brother, Danny Puopolo.” —Providence Journal Includes photographs




The Memory Book of Starr Faithfull


Book Description

The unsolved mystery of Starr Faithfull, a 1930s heiress. After her body washed up on a beach, police found a diary containing passages of erotic lovemaking when she was 11 with her 45-year-old cousin, a mayor of Boston. By the author of Never Say Goodbye.




We Have Your Daughter


Book Description

New information from We Have Your Daughter has been revealed. Here is some of it. The Family As a top reporter in Denver, Paula Woodward was one of the few who had access to the Ramsey attorneys and thus the family. One of the prevailing questions in most of the television specials is about the bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table with Burke and Patsy’s fingerprints on the bowl. That pineapple has been linked to JonBenét’s death on some television broadcasts because of a reference in the autopsy to JonBenét having “fragments like pineapple” in her stomach. For more than a year after the murder, the pineapple theory behind her death was talked about. But when Boulder police finally had the material in her stomach tested at the University of Colorado in Boulder in October of 1997, they found out two months later in December, that the material was pineapple, plus grapes, grape skins, and cherries. That is food similar to that found in a fruit cocktail. What does that mean? This is the type of exclusive and factual information you will find in We Have Your Daughter that allows you to challenge preconceived theories. In 2010, Woodward interviewed Burke Ramsey specifically for her book. • Burke discussed his family and the chaos surrounding the case. Woodward has obtained a Boulder Social Services Evaluation of the Child about Burke Ramsey that states “From the interview it is clear that Burke was not a witness to JonBenét’s death.” That raises more doubts about those who believe Burke was involved in his sister’s death and again reinforces the information Woodward has researched and uncovered. • In an interview with Burke Ramsey from 2010, he talks about his mom and how she taught him he could be optimistic or pessimistic about all the tragedies in their family. She chose positive for herself and so did he both believing it was important to find joy in each day. • After Patsy Ramsey was diagnosed again with cancer in 2002, she began sharing private conversations with Paula in 2004 and 2005. This information was to be used after she died. • John Ramsey gave Paula access to his personal journal as well as access to JonBenét’s personal drawings and photos The Handwriting Test Results Handwriting is another key controversial part of this investigation and story. Paula has information and findings that show issues with how Boulder Police handled this aspect of the investigation. She discusses the results of the handwriting. Exclusive Reports & Documents Investigative Reporter Paula Woodward reviewed portions of thousands of police reports and documents for her book. Here are some highlights of her findings which she includes in the book, all of which affected the investigation and the public’s view of the family. Exclusive: The police report from the Boulder Police Officer who was FIRST to arrive on scene the morning of December 26, 1996 – before JonBenét’s body was found and why he didn’t find it. Exclusive: In the police report from the BPD Detective who stayed on scene until JonBenét’s body was found – Paula lists some discrepancies in that report. Exclusive: Paula discovered what she calls a “deliberate campaign of disinformation” by law enforcement, based on information she received from her sources. She also cites issues with the media coverage, with outlets reporting information without verifying it. Woodward says much of the information and “anonymous leaks” reported were untrue and has all had an effect on the investigation. She cites several examples. Exclusive: Paula found found that Boulder police withheld the results of the DNA tests that excluded the Ramsey family from both the Boulder district attorney and the public. The evidence that was submitted as DNA excluded the Ramseys. In We Have Your Daughter: The Unsolved Murder of JonBenét Ramsey Twenty Years Later, Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Paula Woodward offers an unprecedented, definitive, insider perspective on the twentieth anniversary of one of the most heinous, sensationalized, unsolved crimes in American history. Here for the first time, Woodward examines conversations and information from all sides of those involved in the case. She shares information compiled during the twenty years she reported on the murder, including private conversations with law enforcement individuals directly involved in the case, their thoughts and dissections of what went wrong and right, and who they now believe is the killer. Woodward has included drawings by JonBenét, letters from her teachers, and photographs that show a normal, happy six-year-old whose life was cut short in such a horrible manner. She shares portions of John Ramsey’s private journal, where he wrote of his torment and grief in the aftermath of the murder. And she recounts personal conversations with JonBenét’s mother prior to her death from cancer in 2006. JonBenét’s brother Burke talks publicly about his sister’s death and how it affected the family and his life. We have Your Daughter is an extraordinary work of journalism, twenty years in the making. It depicts a family under siege with their guilt or innocence still openly questioned. This book allows readers to decide in this heartbreaking story - was it Ramsey or an unknown intruder?




Backstage Passes


Book Description

Having outlasted the gag order that was part of their divorce agreement, Angela Bowie produced this memoir of her turbulent life with David.




Butterfield 8


Book Description