Publisher: BooxAi
This is the true story of a young child growing up with adversities, incredible deception, juvenile delinquency, and placed in several California state prisons. After serving 34 years in state prison for murder in the second degree, I have returned back to society as a productive citizen.
United States of True Crime is an anthology series with books devoted to the most disturbing cases in each of the 50 states. This book focuses on ten of the most chilling crimes in Arkansas history. The cases included in this book: Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, & Jessie Misskelley: Three teenagers who were convicted of murdering three eight-year-old boys. After eighteen years in prison all three men were released after the discovery of new DNA evidence and potential juror misconduct. Mary Lee Orsini: While under investigation for the murder of her husband, she hired a hitman to execute her lawyer’s wife. Travis Lewis: Convicted of murdering two cousins in 1996. Upon his release in 2020 he bludgeoned the daughter of his first victim to death. Andrew Golden & Mitchell Johnson: Were just eleven and thirteen years old when they ambushed their school in a savage attack that left five dead and ten wounded. Debra Sue Tuggle: Convicted of suffocating her daughter, and accused of killing four of her sons. James Williams: Abducted a young mother from her home while her four year old son was in the other room. Texarkana “Phantom Killer”: Still unsolved case of a killer who targeted couples in 1946. Eight were attacked and five perished at the hands of the elusive murderer. Charles Ray Vines: Serial killer who was a well-liked father while he moonlighted as a monster. He raped four women, murdering two of them. Dorthy Jean Matajke: Nurse who abused, robbed, then fatally poisoned her elderly patients. Ronald Gene Simmons: Brutally murdered fourteen members of his family. He then continued his rampage, executing two more innocent victims and wounding two others.Show book
In the vein of Erin Brockovich, The Departed, and T. J. English's Savage City comes Busted, the shocking true story of the biggest police corruption scandal in Philadelphia history, a tale of drugs, power, and abuse involving a rogue narcotics squad, a confidential informant, and two veteran journalists whose reporting drove a full-scale FBI probe, rocked the City of Brotherly Love, and earned a Pulitzer Prize . In 2003, Benny Martinez became a Confidential Informant for a member of the Philadelphia Police Department's narcotics squad, helping arrest nearly 200 drug and gun dealers over seven years. But that success masked a dark and dangerous reality: the cops were as corrupt as the criminals they targeted. In addition to fabricating busts, the squad systematically looted mom-and-pop stores, terrorizing hardworking immigrant owners. One squad member also sexually assaulted three women during raids. Frightened for his life, Martinez turned to Philadelphia Daily News reporters Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker. Busted chronicles how these two journalists—both middle-class working mothers—formed an unlikely bond with a convicted street dealer to uncover the secrets of ruthless kingpins and dirty cops. Professionals in an industry shrinking from severe financial cutbacks, Ruderman and Laker had few resources—besides their own grit and tenacity—to break a dangerous, complex story that would expose the rotten underbelly of a modern American city and earn them a Pulitzer Prize. A page-turning thriller based on superb reportage, illustrated with eight pages of photos, Busted is modern true crime at its finest.Show book
What’s it really like to be related to a murderer? Beyond the shock value of crime dramas and documentaries, there are real people who know this painful reality, yet their voices often go unheard.What if the son you took to Little League grew up to kill your grandchildren? What if your Nana who served you cookies also served time for dismembering her mother? What if the father who called you princess and kissed your forehead at bedtime was a serial killer?Could you still love them knowing what they had done?Author Melissa G. Moore, daughter of Keith Jesperson, “The Happy Face Killer,” has made it her mission to connect with other families who know the heartbreak and shame of learning that one of their own secretly committed monstrous acts. For six years, Moore was invited into the private lives of nine families tied to some of the most infamous, headline-making crimes in the world, and welcomed as a trusted fellow family member who understood their unique kind of grief.Through deeply personal interviews with spouses, siblings, children, grandchildren, and more—including some individuals who agreed to speak for the first time—this book exposes the shared undercurrent of guilt and betrayal that unites these families. Stories include:Chris Watts, family annihilator. Left behind: Parents Ronnie and Cindy/Sister JamieKeith Jesperson, serial killer. Left behind: Daughter Melissa MooreDiane Downs, monstrous mother. Left behind: Ex-husband Steve DownsDiane Downs, biological mother. Left behind: Daughter Becky BabcockJohn E. Robinson, the Internet’s first serial killer. Left behind: Kidnapped niece Heather RobinsonDrew Peterson, killer cop. Left behind: Son Stephen PetersonMagen Fieramusca, baby stealer/killer. Left behind: Brother Corban BatesChristine Varness, slayer granny. Left Behind: Granddaughter Kourtney NicholeNicole Brown Simpson, crime of the century. Left Behind: Sister Denise Brown Killer in the Family is the intimate, unflinching account of what it’s like to love a killer in the family. Moore and coauthor Michele Matrisciani share these rare, unguarded conversations resulted from asking deeply uncomfortable questions that until now have gone undiscovered—moments where these families opened up exclusively and without reservation about the hidden cost of loving someone the world hates.Show book
One of the last baby boomers, Luke Gordon, was born in the mining town of Boksburg, South Africa to catholic parents. He grew up in a family of five children in a middle-class neighbourhood.His father was a teacher, and his mother worked as a typist to make ends meet. Luke was raised by his nanny, Sarah, as his surrogate mother.Although his parents were not well-to-do, he enjoyed a happy childhood. His parents scraped and scrounged to ensure that their children could get university degrees to enjoy a better life than they had.As a small boy, he was inspired by his family's GP - a caring and kind Jewish doctor. Those were the days when doctors still did house calls. When he was sick as if by magic, a bottle of cough syrup and some antibiotics made him feel better in no time.In this, the first book in his serialised memoir, he describes his childhood and school years. He chronicles his university years at medical school and his time spent becoming a plastic and reconstructive surgeon.Returning to the community in which he grew up, he sets up his practice, and it thrives.One day, he has a seemingly minor tiff with an old cantankerous plastic surgeon. The fallout of this trivial incident would only manifest ten years later with catastrophic consequences….Show book
'If you made me angry, to me, for that anger to go away, I have to get hold of you ... I have to do something to you.' 'I didn't feel myself. I felt numb, like a zombie, like a switch had been flicked and a light had gone off.' These are the words of some of South Africa's most terrifying serial killers, who spoke to psychologist Brin Hodgskiss in the bowels of the country's most secure prisons. Hodgskiss interviewed several of the most notorious serial killers and his recordings sat gathering dust until recently, when top true-crime podcaster Nicole Engelbrecht found his research online. The two connected and now they bring their love of storytelling to this highly readable book. In Killer Stories, Hodgskiss combines his interviews with the tenets of narrative psychology to take the reader into the minds of the killers and shares with us the ways in which his own journey as a psychologist and human being contributed to his deeper understanding of them. The book intertwines the killers' versions of the truth and the true-crime stories behind them, re-telling their killing sprees in gripping detail. Journey with the authors as they lay out how the stories these men told themselves about their lives contributed to where they ended up – and how those stories aren't that different from those we all tell ourselves.Show book
In September 2001, Narda Pitkethly’s brother vanished near Sun Valley, Idaho. Clues pointed in many directions sparking a determined search—one that pushed Narda to the edge and led her down an unexpected path. From a chaotic childhood and restless adolescence to daring travels and recovery, Narda’s story is a testament to what can emerge from grief, and the light that can follow darkness. Along the way, Narda finds her brother, and she creates Nardagani, an innovative reading method for people who struggle to read. One woman’s search has become a gift to the world.Show book
