Download or read book American Murder Houses written by Steve Lehto and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are places in the United States of America where violent acts of bloodshed have occurred. Years may pass—even centuries—but the mark of death remains. They are known as Murder Houses. From a colonial manse in New England to a small-town home in Iowa to a Beverly Hills mansion, these residences have taken on a life of their own, gaining everything from local lore and gossip to national—and even global—infamy. Writer Steve Lehto recounts the stories behind the houses where Lizzie Borden supposedly gave her stepmother “forty whacks,” where the real Amityville Horror was first unleashed by gunfire, and where the demented acts of the Manson Family horrified a nation—as well some lesser-known sites of murder that were no less ghastly. Exploring the past and present of more than twenty-five renowned homicide scenes, American Murder Houses is a tour through the real estate of some of the most grisly and fascinating crimes in American history. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

Download or read book Death s Door written by Steve Lehto and published by Momentum Books LLC. This book was released on 2006 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses historical documents to conclude that at a party in 1913 for the children of copper miners who were on strike, someone supporting the mine owners yelled "fire" and fled, causing a rush that left seventy-three children dead.

Download or read book The Stately Home Murder written by Catherine Aird and published by Rue Morgue Classic British Mys. This book was released on 2008-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a stately manor home, open for public tours, a young boy lifts the helmet on a suit of armor and finds a human face staring back at him! Detective C.D. Sloan and his wisecracking sidekick, Crosby, must figure out who stashed the body and why.

Download or read book The Murders in the Rue Morgue written by Edgar Allan Poe and published by SAMPI Books. This book was released on 2024-01-24 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Rue Morgue Murders" is a pioneering tale in the mystery genre, in which detective Auguste Dupin uses his acute observation and logic to solve a brutal double murder in Paris, revealing a surprising and unusual outcome.

Download or read book The Amityville Horror written by Jay Anson and published by Gallery Books. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A fascinating and frightening book” (Los Angeles Times)—the bestselling true story about a house possessed by evil spirits, haunted by psychic phenomena almost too terrible to describe. In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. George and Kathleen Lutz knew that, one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in the house, but the property—complete with boathouse and swimming pool—and the price had been too good to pass up. Twenty-eight days later, the entire Lutz family fled in terror. This is the spellbinding, shocking true story that gripped the nation about an American dream that turned into a nightmare beyond imagining—“this book will scare the hell out of you” (Kansas City Star).

Download or read book Deer Creek Drive written by Beverly Lowry and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2023-08-01 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stunning true story of a murder that rocked the Mississippi Delta and forever shaped one author’s life and perception of home. “Mix together a bloody murder in a privileged white family, a false accusation against a Black man, a suspicious town, a sensational trial with colorful lawyers, and a punishment that didn’t fit the crime, and you have the best of southern gothic fiction. But the very best part is that the story is true.” —John Grisham In 1948, in the most stubbornly Dixiefied corner of the Jim Crow south, society matron Idella Thompson was viciously murdered in her own home: stabbed at least 150 times and left facedown in one of the bathrooms. Her daughter, Ruth Dickins, was the only other person in the house. She told authorities a Black man she didn’t recognize had fled the scene, but no evidence of the man's presence was uncovered. When Dickins herself was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, the community exploded. Petitions pleading for her release were drafted, signed, and circulated, and after only six years, the governor of Mississippi granted Ruth Dickins an indefinite suspension of her sentence and she was set free. In Deer Creek Drive, Beverly Lowry—who was ten at the time of the murder and lived mere miles from the Thompsons’ home—tells a story of white privilege that still has ramifications today, and reflects on the brutal crime, its aftermath, and the ways it clarified her own upbringing in Mississippi.

Download or read book Ghettoside written by Jill Leovy and published by One World/Ballantine. This book was released on 2015 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Discusses the hundreds of murders that occur in Los Angeles each year, and focuses on the story of the dedicated group of detectives who pursued justice at any cost in the killing of Bryant Tennelle"--Publisher's description.

Download or read book The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death written by Corinne May Botz and published by The Monacelli Press, LLC. This book was released on 2004-09-28 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death offers readers an extraordinary glimpse into the mind of a master criminal investigator. Frances Glessner Lee, a wealthy grandmother, founded the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard in 1936 and was later appointed captain in the New Hampshire police. In the 1940s and 1950s she built dollhouse crime scenes based on real cases in order to train detectives to assess visual evidence. Still used in forensic training today, the eighteen Nutshell dioramas, on a scale of 1:12, display an astounding level of detail: pencils write, window shades move, whistles blow, and clues to the crimes are revealed to those who study the scenes carefully. Corinne May Botz's lush color photographs lure viewers into every crevice of Frances Lee's models and breathe life into these deadly miniatures, which present the dark side of domestic life, unveiling tales of prostitution, alcoholism, and adultery. The accompanying line drawings, specially prepared for this volume, highlight the noteworthy forensic evidence in each case. Botz's introductory essay, which draws on archival research and interviews with Lee's family and police colleagues, presents a captivating portrait of Lee.

Download or read book Drawn to Injustice written by Timothy Masters and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-06-05 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Timothy Masters was a lonely, troubled teenager with a penchant for gory artwork when he first saw Peggy Lee Hettrick… …her dead, mutilated body nearly frozen in the early morning of Fort Collins, Colorado. Not believing it could really be a dead body, thinking he was the victim of yet another prank by his abusive classmates, the fifteen-year-old didn’t go to the police—but they came to him. So began a decade-long investigation led by a relentless detective who was sure that Masters was the killer, even without a shred of physical evidence. Against all reason, a conspiracy of silence and circumstantial evidence eventually put Masters behind bars. Only the determination of a lone investigator who believed the young man was innocent would reveal the shocking truth, and free Masters after ten years in prison. This is the compelling true story of one life ended in blood and murder, one life ruined by coincidence and prejudice, and justice long denied but finally found.

Download or read book The Jolly Roger Social Club written by Nick Foster and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the remote Bocas del Toro, Panama, William Dathan Holbert, aka 'Wild Bill,' is awaiting trial for the murder of five fellow American ex-patriots. Holbert's first victims were the Brown family, who lived on a remote island in the area's Darklands. There, Holbert turned their home into the 'Jolly Roger Social Club,' using drink- and drug-fueled parties to get to know other ex-pats ... But this is not just a book about what Holbert did and the complex financial and real estate motives behind the killings; it is about why Bocas del Toro turned out to be his perfect hunting ground, and why the community tolerated--even accepted--him for a time"

Download or read book Devil s Rooming House written by M. William Phelps and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gripping tale of a legendary, century-old murder spree *** A silent, simmering killer terrorized New England in1911. As a terrible heat wave killed more than 2,000 people, another silent killer began her own murderous spree. That year a reporter for the Hartford Courant noticed a sharp rise in the number of obituaries for residents of a rooming house in Windsor, Connecticut, and began to suspect who was responsible: Amy Archer-Gilligan, who’d opened the Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids four years earlier. “Sister Amy” would be accused of murdering both of her husbands and up to sixty-six of her patients with cocktails of lemonade and arsenic; her story inspired the Broadway hit Arsenic and Old Lace. The Devil’s Rooming House is the first book about the life, times, and crimes of America’s most prolific female serial killer. In telling this fascinating story, M. William Phelps also paints a vivid portrait of early-twentieth-century New England.

Download or read book A Nightmare in Villisca written by Richard Estep and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-09 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early morning hours of June 10, 1912, an intruder forced his way into the house of Josiah Moore and his wife, Sarah. During the nightmare that followed, everybody in the house - Mr. And Mrs. Moore, their four children, and two young girls who were visiting for the night - were murdered with an axe.The small town of Villisca, Iowa, would be scarred forever.Today, the infamous Villisca Axe Murder House has a fearsome reputation for being haunted. Each year, hundreds of fascinated people flock to the house, seeking an encounter with the paranormal. Some get more than they bargained for.Join Richard Estep of TV's Haunted Hospitals and Paranormal 911 as he and a small team of investigators lock themselves inside the Villisca Axe Murder House and delve into its deepest, darkest mysteries.

Download or read book Killers of the Flower Moon written by David Grann and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, “one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."—New York Magazine • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NOW A MARTIN SCORSESE PICTURE “A shocking whodunit…What more could fans of true-crime thrillers ask?”—USA Today “A masterful work of literary journalism crafted with the urgency of a mystery.” —The Boston Globe In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. Look for David Grann’s latest bestselling book, The Wager!

Download or read book Fiend Incarnate written by Edgar V. Epperly and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-11-18 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometime during the night of June 10, 1912, a person or persons unknown bludgeoned to death Josiah B. Moore, his wife Sara, their children Herman, Katherine, Boyd, and Paul, and two overnight guests Lena and Ina Stillinger. The sensational crime in Villisca, Iowa led to nearly 10 years of investigations and trials. The small Southwest Iowa town split over the guilt or innocence of a local businessman and State Senator. A traveling minister from England with a history of window-peeping was charged and tried. Investigators and reporters across the country speculated that the axe murders were the work of an early serial killer. Similar crimes had been committed in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Ellsworth, Kansas; and Monmouth, Illinois. This book represents the definitive written account of American's greatest unsolved mystery. Fiend Incarnate is a companion to the award-winning documentary feature film Villisca: Living With a Mystery. Author Dr. Edgar V. Epperly has been researching the 1912 Villisca axe murders for over 60 years. He has written dozens of articles and blog entries, and appeared on CourtTV and other radio and television programs. He is a popular guest speaker at colleges, universities, historical societies, museums, libraries, and book stores. He resides in Decorah, Iowa. Epperly's research journey was the subject of the award-winning short documentary film AXMAN.

Download or read book In Cold Blood written by Truman Capote and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2013-02-19 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time From the Modern Library’s new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by Truman Capote—also available are Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Other Voices, Other Rooms (in one volume), Portraits and Observations, and The Complete Stories Truman Capote’s masterpiece, In Cold Blood, created a sensation when it was first published, serially, in The New Yorker in 1965. The intensively researched, atmospheric narrative of the lives of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, and of the two men, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, who brutally killed them on the night of November 15, 1959, is the seminal work of the “new journalism.” Perry Smith is one of the great dark characters of American literature, full of contradictory emotions. “I thought he was a very nice gentleman,” he says of Herb Clutter. “Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat.” Told in chapters that alternate between the Clutter household and the approach of Smith and Hickock in their black Chevrolet, then between the investigation of the case and the killers’ flight, Capote’s account is so detailed that the reader comes to feel almost like a participant in the events.

Download or read book Big Trouble written by J. Anthony Lukas and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-07-17 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hailed as "toweringly important" (Baltimore Sun), "a work of scrupulous and significant reportage" (E. L. Doctorow), and "an unforgettable historical drama" (Chicago Sun-Times), Big Trouble brings to life the astonishing case that ultimately engaged President Theodore Roosevelt, Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the politics and passions of an entire nation at century's turn. After Idaho's former governor is blown up by a bomb at his garden gate at Christmastime 1905, America's most celebrated detective, Pinkerton James McParland, takes over the investigation. His daringly executed plan to kidnap the radical union leader "Big Bill" Haywood from Colorado to stand trial in Idaho sets the stage for a memorable courtroom confrontation between the flamboyant prosecutor, progressive senator William Borah, and the young defender of the dispossessed, Clarence Darrow. Big Trouble captures the tumultuous first decade of the twentieth century, when capital and labor, particularly in the raw, acquisitive West, were pitted against each other in something close to class war. Lukas paints a vivid portrait of a time and place in which actress Ethel Barrymore, baseball phenom Walter Johnson, and editor William Allen White jostled with railroad magnate E. H. Harriman, socialist Eugene V. Debs, gunslinger Charlie Siringo, and Operative 21, the intrepid Pinkerton agent who infiltrated Darrow's defense team. This is a grand narrative of the United States as it charged, full of hope and trepidation, into the twentieth century.

Download or read book Ninth House written by Leigh Bardugo and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The best fantasy novel I’ve read in years, because it’s about real people... Impossible to put down." —Stephen King The smash New York Times bestseller from Leigh Bardugo, a mesmerizing tale of power, privilege, and dark magic set among the Ivy League elite. Goodreads Choice Award Winner Locus Finalist Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her? Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. Their eight windowless “tombs” are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street’s biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living. Don't miss the highly-anticipated sequel, Hell Bent.