Download or read book Murder in the Shenandoah written by Jessica K. Lowe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-07 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On July 4, 1791, the fifteenth anniversary of American Independence, John Crane, a descendant of prominent Virginian families, killed his neighbor's harvest worker. Murder in the Shenandoah traces the story of this early murder case as it entangled powerful Virginians and addressed the question that everyone in the state was heatedly debating: what would it mean to have equality before the law - and a world where 'law is king'? By retelling the story of the case, called Commonwealth v. Crane, through the eyes of its witnesses, families, fighters, victims, judges, and juries, Jessica K. Lowe reveals how revolutionary debates about justice gripped the new nation, transforming ideas about law, punishment, and popular government.

Download or read book Trailed written by Kathryn Miles and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2022-05-03 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "​Trailed is a beautifully written account of a great American tragedy--the unsolved murders of an undetermined number of young women, all by the same serial killer, who got away. The truth is still buried. I couldn't put it down." --John Grisham, #1 New York Times bestselling author A riveting deep dive into the unsolved murder of two free-spirited young women in the wilderness, a journalist's obsession--and a new theory of who might have done it In May 1996, Julie Williams and Lollie Winans were brutally murdered while backpacking in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, adjacent to the world-famous Appalachian Trail. The young women were skilled backcountry leaders and they had met--and fallen in love--the previous summer, while working at a world-renowned outdoor program for women. But despite an extensive joint investigation by the FBI, the Virginia police, and National Park Service experts, the case remained unsolved for years. In early 2002 and in response to mounting political pressure, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that he would be seeking the death penalty against Darrell David Rice--already in prison for assaulting another woman--in the first capital case tried under new, post-9/11 federal hate crime legislation. But two years later, the Department of Justice quietly suspended its case against Rice, and the investigation has since grown cold. Did prosecutors have the right person? Journalist Kathryn Miles was a professor at Lollie Winans's wilderness college in Maine when the 2002 indictment was announced. On the 20th anniversary of the murder, she began looking into the lives of these adventurous women--whose loss continued to haunt all who had encountered them--along with the murder investigation and subsequent case against Rice. As she dives deeper into the case, winning the trust of the victims' loved ones as well as investigators and gaining access to key documents, Miles becomes increasingly obsessed with the loss of the generous and free-spirited Lollie and Julie, who were just on the brink of adulthood, and at the same time she discovers evidence of cover-ups, incompetence, and crime-scene sloppiness that seemed part of a larger problem in America's pursuit of justice in national parks. She also becomes convinced of Rice's innocence, and zeroes in on a different likely suspect. Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders is a riveting, eye-opening, and heartbreaking work, offering a braided narrative about two remarkable women who were murdered doing what they most loved, the forensics of this cold case, and the surprising pervasiveness and long shadows cast by violence against women in the backcountry.

Download or read book Trailed written by Kathryn Miles and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2022-05-03 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A riveting, "beautifully written" deep dive into the unsolved murder of two free-spirited young women in the wilderness (John Grisham, #1 New York Times bestselling author), a journalist's obsession—and a new theory of who might have done it.​ Winner of the 2023 CrimeCon True Crime Book of the Year​ Award They must have been followed. That’s the thought I return to after all these years . . . In May 1996, two skilled backcountry leaders, Lollie Winans and Julie Williams, entered Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a week-long backcountry camping trip. The free-spirited and remarkable young couple had met and fallen in love the previous summer while working at a world-renowned outdoor program for women. During their final days in the park, they descended the narrow remnants of a trail and pitched their tent in a hidden spot. After the pair didn’t return home as planned, park rangers found a scene of horror at their campsite, their tent slashed open, their beloved dog missing, and both women dead in their sleeping bags. The unsolved murders of Winans and Williams continue to haunt all who had encountered them or knew their story. When award-winning journalist and outdoors expert Kathryn Miles begins looking into the case, she discovers conflicting evidence, mismatched timelines, and details that just don’t add up. With unprecedented access to crucial crime-scene forensics and key witnesses—and with a growing sense of both mission and obsession—she begins to uncover the truth. An innocent man, Miles is convinced, has been under suspicion for decades, while the true culprit is a known serial killer, if only authorities would take a closer look. Intimate, page-turning, and brilliantly reported, Trailed is a love story and a call to justice—and a searching and urgent plea to make wilderness a safe space for women—destined to become a true crime classic.

Download or read book Tragedy in the Shenandoah Valley written by Robert H. Moore II and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2006-09-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Try to meet me in Heaven where I hope to go. These poignant words were written in the summer of 1865 by twenty-year-old Confederate Sergeant Isaac Newton Koontz, in a letter he penned for his fiancée just hours before his death at the hands of Union firing squad in the heart of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The execution of Koontz and Captain George Summers came after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, and remains one of the most tragic yet little-known events of the Civil War. One month prior to kneeling on the hard ground to face their deaths, Koontz and Summers, along with four other Confederate soldiers, stole horses from a Union troop stationed near their home. Soon after the theft, the young men—remorseful and goaded by their fathers to uphold their honor—returned the horses and were offered a pardon by Union Colonel Francis Butterfield. The rebs returned home, free of mind and clean of conscious. All had been forgiven. Or so they thought. As the sun crept over the horizon on June 27, 1865, Union soldiers—under new command—swarmed the family homes of Summers and Koontz in a swift raid and arrested the two bewildered men. They were told that their pardons were no longer valid, and later that same day they were tied to a stake and shot with Union muskets—no trial, no judge, no jury. Before their deaths, Summers and Koontz were allowed to write farewell letters to their loved ones, and these heartrending documents serve as the basis for Robert Moore’s insightful recounting of the Summers-Koontz execution. An experienced Civil War writer and a direct descendent of Koontz’s fiancée, Moore brings this shocking story to life with a clarity that will appeal to Civil War experts and enthusiasts alike. Exhaustively researched and well written, Tragedy in the Shenandoah Valley tells one of the great and largely untold stories of the Civil War.

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 Bloody Autumn written by Daniel T. Davis and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2014-01-19 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “essential addition to serious students’ libraries” detailing the historic military offensive that helped sway the outcome of the American Civil War (Civil War News). In the late summer of 1864, Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant set one absolutely unconditional goal: to sweep Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley “clean and clear.” His man for the job: Maj. Gen. “Little Phil” Sheridan—a temperamental Irishman who’d proven himself just the kind of scrapper Grant loved. The valley had already played a major part in the war for the Confederacy as both the location of major early victories against Union attacks, and as the route used by the Army of Northern Virginia for its invasion of the North, culminating in the battle of Gettysburg. But when Sheridan returned to the Valley in 1864, the stakes heightened dramatically. For the North, the fragile momentum its war effort had gained by the capture of Atlanta would quickly evaporate. For Abraham Lincoln, defeat in the Valley could mean defeat in the upcoming election. And for the South, its very sovereignty lay on the line. Here, historians Davis and Greenwalt “weave an excellent summary of the campaign that will serve to introduce those new to the Civil War to the events of that ‘Bloody Autumn’ and will serve as a ready refresher for veteran stompers who are heading out to visit those storied fields of conflict” (Scott C. Patchan, author of The Last Battle of Winchester).

Download or read book The Wrong Side of Murder Creek written by Bob Zellner and published by NewSouth Books. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even forty years after the civil rights movement, the transition from son and grandson of Klansmen to field secretary of SNCC seems quite a journey. In the early 1960s, when Bob Zellner’s professors and classmates at a small church school in Alabama thought he was crazy for even wanting to do research on civil rights, it was nothing short of remarkable. Now, in his long-awaited memoir, Zellner tells how one white Alabamian joined ranks with the black students who were sitting-in, marching, fighting, and sometimes dying to challenge the Southern “way of life” he had been raised on but rejected. Decades later, he is still protesting on behalf of social change and equal rights. Fortunately, he took the time, with co-author Constance Curry, to write down his memories and reflections. He was in all the campaigns and was close to all the major figures. He was beaten, arrested, and reviled by some but admired and revered by others. The Wrong Side of Murder Creek, winner of the 2009 Lillian Smith Book Award, is Bob Zellner’s larger-than-life story, and it was worth waiting for.

Download or read book Shenandoah 1862 written by Peter Cozzens and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2009-11-05 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most intriguing and storied episodes of the Civil War, the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign has heretofore been related only from the Confederate point of view. Moving seamlessly between tactical details and analysis of strategic significance, Peter Cozzens presents a balanced, comprehensive account of a campaign that has long been romanticized but little understood. He offers new interpretations of the campaign and the reasons for Stonewall Jackson's success, demonstrates instances in which the mythology that has come to shroud the campaign has masked errors on Jackson's part, and provides the first detailed appraisal of Union leadership in the Valley Campaign, with some surprising conclusions.

Download or read book Murder on the Appalachian Trail written by Jess Carr and published by . This book was released on 1986-10-01 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fictionalized account of a shocking, real-life crime documents the brutal, motiveless murder of two young hikers, Bob Mountford and Susan Ramsey, by Randall Lee Smith

Download or read book Bad Moon Rising written by Ed Morrison and published by Archway Publishing. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ed Morrison's brother, Michael, and his spunky girlfriend, Debra Means, never made it home from the Mascoutah Community High School prom held on May 3, 1969. Two days later, their bodies were discovered near an abandoned strip mine on the outskirts of town. After taking his victims at gunpoint, Marshall Wayne Stauffer raped and strangled fifteen-year-old Debbie and dispatched eighteen-year-old Mike with three shots to the back of his head. In this true crime memoir, Ed Morrison chronicles his journey nearly fifty years after that fateful night to learn the truth of what happened, illuminate the evil within a murderer, and find resolution. Gathering insight from interviews with former police investigators, attorneys, judges, a survivor of a similar attack, and prison personnel, Morrison exposes the raw emotions that accompanied the senseless killings. He traces the murderer throughout his life, uncovering facts and unknown stories about his cross-country crime spree, imprisonment, and eventual death. Bad Moon Rising is the gripping true story of one man's quest to uncover the truth fifty years after his brother and his brother’s girlfriend were murdered on prom night.

Download or read book The Third Rainbow Girl written by Emma Copley Eisenberg and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2020-01-21 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *** A NEW YORK TIMES "100 Notable Books of 2020" *** A stunning, complex narrative about the fractured legacy of a decades-old double murder in rural West Virginia—and the writer determined to put the pieces back together. In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For thirteen years, no one was prosecuted for the “Rainbow Murders” though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward. In 1993, a local farmer was convicted, only to be released when a known serial killer and diagnosed schizophrenic named Joseph Paul Franklin claimed responsibility. As time passed, the truth seemed to slip away, and the investigation itself inflicted its own traumas—-turning neighbor against neighbor and confirming the fears of violence outsiders have done to this region for centuries. In The Third Rainbow Girl, Emma Copley Eisenberg uses the Rainbow Murders case as a starting point for a thought-provoking tale of an Appalachian community bound by the false stories that have been told about. Weaving in experiences from her own years spent living in Pocahontas County, she follows the threads of this crime through the complex history of Appalachia, revealing how this mysterious murder has loomed over all those affected for generations, shaping their fears, fates, and desires. Beautifully written and brutally honest, The Third Rainbow Girl presents a searing and wide-ranging portrait of America—divided by gender and class, and haunted by its own violence.

Download or read book Adios America written by Ann Coulter and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller! Ann Coulter is back, more fearless than ever. In Adios, America she touches the third rail in American politics, attacking the immigration issue head-on and flying in the face of La Raza, the Democrats, a media determined to cover up immigrants' crimes, churches that get paid by the government for their "charity," and greedy Republican businessmen and campaign consultants—all of whom are profiting handsomely from mass immigration that’s tearing the country apart. Applying her trademark biting humor to the disaster that is U.S. immigration policy, Coulter proves that immigration is the most important issue facing America today.

Download or read book Mutiny of Rage written by Jaime Salazar and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-08-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Salado Creek, Texas, 1918: Thirteen black soldiers stood at attention in front of gallows erected specifically for their hanging. They had been convicted of participating in one of America’s most infamous black uprisings, the Camp Logan Mutiny, otherwise known as the 1917 Houston Riots. The revolt and ensuing riots were carried out by men of the 3rd Battalion of the all-black 24th U.S. Infantry Regiment—the famed Buffalo Soldiers—after members of the Houston Police Department violently menaced them and citizens of the local black community. It all took place over one single bloody night. In the wake of the uprising, scores lay dead, including bystanders, police, and soldiers. This incident remains one of Texas’ most complicated and misrepresented historical events. It shook race relations in Houston and created conditions that sparked a nationwide surge of racial activism. In the aftermath of the carnage, what was considered the “trial of the century” ensued. Even for its time, its profundity and racial significance rivals that of the O.J. Simpson trial eight decades later. The courts-martial resulted in the hanging of over a dozen black soldiers, eliciting memories of slave rebellions. But was justice served? New evidence from declassified historical archives indicates that the courts-martial were rushed in an attempt to placate an angered white population as well as military brass. Mutiny of Rage sheds new light on a suppressed chapter in U.S. history. It also sets the legal record straight on what really happened, all while situating events in the larger context of race relations in America, from Nat Turner to George Floyd.

Download or read book Murder in Baker Company written by Cilla McCain and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2010-01-04 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: &“Created with an insightful heart and an activist's drive. Cilla's writing denotes a deep sense of personal responsibility for the veterans of the Iraq War.&” —Paul Haggis, Writer/Director, In the Valley of Elah, Crash, Quantom of Solace, Million Dollar Baby &“Fascinating . . . vividly recounts one of the most tragic true stories to emerge from the Iraq War . . . eloquent, disturbing, and haunting.&” —Mark Boal, journalist and screenwriter of The Hurt Locker and In the Valley of Elah Upon returning to the United States after surviving one of the Iraq War's bloodiest battles, Army Specialist Richard T. Davis was reported AWOL. But Richard was not AWOL; he was dead. On July 14, 2003, within hours of his return to Fort Benning, he was mercilessly tortured and murdered. Four members of his own platoon were arrested for the crime. In Murder in Baker Company Cilla McCain retraces the events of the case, providing a disturbing, eye-opening look at the problems within today's military. Not only an exploration of a heinous murder, the book is also a warning and a call to action for U.S. citizens.

Download or read book The Man from the Train written by Bill James and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Edgar Award finalist for Best Fact Crime, this “impressive…open-eyed investigative inquiry wrapped within a cultural history of rural America” (The Wall Street Journal) shows legendary statistician and baseball writer Bill James applying his analytical acumen to crack an unsolved century-old mystery surrounding one of the deadliest serial killers in American history. Between 1898 and 1912, families across the country were bludgeoned in their sleep with the blunt side of an axe. Some of these cases—like the infamous Villisca, Iowa, murders—received national attention. But most incidents went almost unnoticed outside the communities in which they occurred. Few people believed the crimes were related. And fewer still would realize that all of these families lived within walking distance to a train station. When celebrated true crime expert Bill James first learned about these horrors, he began to investigate others that might fit the same pattern. Applying the same know-how he brings to his legendary baseball analysis, he empirically determined which crimes were committed by the same person. Then after sifting through thousands of local newspapers, court transcripts, and public records, he and his daughter Rachel made an astonishing discovery: they learned the true identity of this monstrous criminal and uncovered one of the deadliest serial killers in America. “A suspenseful historical account” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), The Man from the Train paints a vivid, psychologically perceptive portrait of America at the dawn of the twentieth century, when crime was regarded as a local problem, and opportunistic private detectives exploited a dysfunctional judicial system. James shows how these cultural factors enabled such an unspeakable series of crimes to occur, and his groundbreaking approach to true crime will convince skeptics, amaze aficionados, and change the way we view criminal history. “A beautifully written and extraordinarily researched narrative…This is no pure whodunit, but rather a how-many-did-he-do” (Buffalo News).

Download or read book The Mountain View Murder written by Patrick Kelly and published by . This book was released on 2021-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A retired detective reluctantly helps a friend investigate a homicideBill O'Shea is living the dream. After a career of fighting crime in the big city, Bill buys a condo in the bucolic mountain resort community of Wintergreen, Virginia. When he meets his attractive new neighbor, Bill knows his retirement is off to a great start.But then a local pedestrian is killed in a hit-and-run accident, and the short-staffed community police department asks Bill to help out. With no witnesses and no vehicle, it's going to be a real challenge. Plus, the snooty groundhog and irrepressible bear are certainly no help. When a break in the case proves a connection between the car and the victim, Bill goes from no suspects to too many.Is it the victim's wife--whose husband cheated on her for many years--or the betrayed business partner? Maybe it's the victim's mistress or the friend who loaned him money. It could even be a random hiker passing through on the nearby Appalachian Trail.Join Bill O'Shea as he tries to solve this murder while dodging zany wildlife and courting a new love interest in the beautiful mountaintop resort of Wintergreen, Virginia.

Download or read book Two Truths and a Lie written by Ellen McGarrahan and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2022-08-16 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EDGAR AWARD FINALIST • A private investigator revisits the case that has haunted her for decades and sets out on a deeply personal quest to sort truth from lies. CLUE AWARD FINALIST • “[A] haunting memoir, which also unfolds as a gripping true-crime narrative . . . This is a powerful, unsettling story, told with bracing honesty and skill.”—The Washington Post A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • One of Marie Claire’s Ten Best True Crime Books of the Year Ellen McGarrahan was a young journalist for The Miami Herald in 1990 when she witnessed the botched execution of convicted killer Jesse Tafero: flames and smoke and three jolts of the electric chair. When evidence later emerged casting doubt on Tafero’s guilt, McGarrahan found herself haunted by his fiery death. Had she witnessed the execution of an innocent man? Decades later, McGarrahan, now a successful private investigator, is still gripped by the mystery and infamy of the Tafero case, and decides she must investigate it herself. Her quest will take her around the world and deep into the harrowing heart of obsession, and as questions of guilt and innocence become more complex, McGarrahan discovers she is not alone in her need for closure. For whenever a human life is taken by violence, the reckoning is long and difficult for all. A rare and vivid account of a private investigator’s real life and a classic true-crime tale, Two Truths and a Lie is ultimately a profound meditation on truth, grief, complicity, and justice.