Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Good Mothers - The True...

  Alex Perry

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  As seen in The New Yorker 
  An unprecedented look inside a deadly and obscenely wealthy branch of the Italian mafia and the electrifying story of the women who risked everything to bring them down. 
  The Calabrian Mafia—known as the 'Ndrangheta—is one of the richest and most ruthless crime syndicates in the world, with branches stretching from America to Australia. It controls seventy percent of the cocaine and heroin supply in Europe, manages billion-dollar extortion rackets, brokers illegal arms deals—supplying weapons to criminals and terrorists—and plunders the treasuries of both Italy and the European Union. 
  The 'Ndrangheta's power derives from a macho mix of violence and silence—omertà. Yet it endures because of family ties: you are born into the syndicate, or you marry in. Loyalty is absolute. Bloodshed is revered. You go to prison or your grave and kill your own father, brother, sister, or mother in cold blood before you betray The Family. Accompanying the 'Ndrangheta's reverence for tradition and history is a violent misogyny among its men. Women are viewed as chattel, bargaining chips for building and maintaining clan alliances and beatings—and worse—are routine. 
  In 2009, after one abused 'Ndrangheta wife was murdered for turning state's evidence, prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti considered a tantalizing possibility: that the 'Ndrangheta's sexism might be its greatest flaw—and her most effective weapon. Approaching two more mafia wives, Alessandra persuaded them to testify in return for a new future for themselves and their children. 
  A feminist saga of true crime and justice, The Good Mothers is the riveting story of a high-stakes battle pitting a brilliant, driven woman fighting to save a nation against ruthless mafiosi fighting for their existence. Caught in the middle are three women fighting for their children and their lives. Not all will survive.

  Show book

• 

  Manhattan Cult Story - My...

  Spencer Schneider

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Right under the noses of neighbors, clients, spouses, children, and friends, a secret society, simply called School—a cult of snared Manhattan professionals—has been led by the charismatic, sociopathic, and dangerous leader Sharon Gans for decades. Spencer Schneider was recruited in the eighties, and he stayed for more than twenty-three years as his life disintegrated, his self-esteem eroded, and he lined the pockets of Gans and her cult. Cult members met twice weekly, though they never acknowledged one another outside of meetings or gatherings. In the name of inner development, they endured the horrors of mental, sexual, and physical abuse, forced labor, arranged marriages, swindled inheritances and savings, and systematic terrorizing. Some of them broke the law. All for Gans. “During those years,” Schneider writes, “my world was School. That’s what it’s like when you’re in a cult, even one that preys on and caters to New York’s educated elite. This is my story of how I got entangled in School and how I got out.” At its core, Manhattan Cult Story is a cautionary tale of how hundreds of well-educated, savvy, and prosperous New Yorkers became fervent followers of a brilliant but demented cult leader who posed as a teacher of ancient knowledge. It’s about double-lives, the power of group psychology, and how easy it is to be radicalized—all too relevant in today's atmosphere of conspiracy and ideologue worship.

  Show book

• 

  Missouri's Mad Doctor McDowell -...

  Lorelei Shannon, Victoria Cosner

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Discover the twisted 19th century tale of a respected St. Louis doctor who was also a body snatcher and suspected murderer in this true crime biography.   Though he was never caught in the act, it was widely known among St. Louis locals that Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell routinely stole corpses for strange and illegal experiments. McDowell was so loathed for this practice that he wore body armor in public. Meanwhile, he was so idolized by his anatomy students that they often dug up the bodies for him.    The ghoulish Dr. McDowell—who later served as a Confederate Army surgeon—left a host of fiendish rumors and mysteries behind. Did he ever resort to murder for the sake of a fresh specimen? Did his mother's ghost actually help him escape an angry mob? Did he really hang the corpse of his daughter in the Mark Twain Cave of Hannibal, Missouri? What very real horrors remained in his medical college after Union soldiers took it over? In this grimly fascinating biography, Victoria Cosner dissects a life surrounded by speculation and a legend littered with ghosts.

  Show book

• 

  One Deadly Night

  John Glatt

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  On September 28, 2000, former Indiana state trooper David Camm made a frantic call to his former colleagues in the state troopers office: He had just walked into his garage and found lying on the floor the bodies of his thirty-five-year-old wife, Kim, and their two children, Brad and Jill, ages seven and five.Three days later, things got worse when police arrested David Camm for the triple murder. Soon new stories started emerging 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 who was being 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?

  Show book

• 

  21st Precinct The - The Brother...

  Stanley Niss

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Cop shows have been a staple of the media almost from the beginning. These fictional accounts created the easy to understand the formula of ‘’ diabolical crime plus brilliant detective equals the sometimes not-so-obvious solution’’. 
   
  But in the early years of the 1950s something radically different came along. 
   
  21st precinct was a very dramatic police drama and based on the workings of a true life Police Department, described in the program as ‘’just lines on a map of the city of New York, most of the 173,000 people wedged into the nine-tenths of a square mile between 5th Ave and the East River wouldn't know if you ask them they lived or worked in the 21st. Whether they know it or not, the security of their persons, their homes, and their property is the job of the men of the 21st.’’ 
   
  From the opening phone call the listener is right in the middle of the drama. Privy to the actual workings from start to conclusion. 
   
  The 21st’s manpower was made up of 160 patrolmen, eleven sergeants, and four lieutenants, under the command of one captain - Frank Kennelly, played by Everett Sloane, who was also the show’s narrator.  
   
  He’s about to take that call….

  Show book

• 

  John George Haigh the Acid-Bath...

  Jonathan Oates

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  What motivated John George Haigh to murder at least six people, then dissolve their corpses in concentrated sulphuric acid? How did this intelligent, well-educated man from a loving, strongly religious family of Plymouth Brethren become a fraudster, a thief, then a serial killer? In the latest of his best-selling studies of criminal history, Jonathan Oates reinvestigates this sensational case of the late 1940s. He delves into Haigh's Yorkshire background, his reputation as a loner, a bully and a forger during his years at Wakefield Grammar School, and his growing appetite for the good life which his modest employment in insurance and advertising could not sustain. Then came his move to London and a rapid, apparently remorseless descent into the depths of crime, from deceit and theft to cold-blooded killing. As he follows the course of Haigh's crimes in graphic, forensic detail, Jonathan Oates gives a fascinating inside view of Haigh's attempt to carry through a series of perfect murders. For Haigh intended not only cut off his victims' lives but, by destroying their bodies with acid, literally to remove all traces that they had ever existed.

  Show book