Download or read book True Crime Philadelphia written by Kathryn Canavan and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Serial killer H.H. Holmes built his murder castle in Chicago, but he met the hangman in Philadelphia. Al Capone served his first prison sentence here. The real-life killers who inspired HBO’s Boardwalk Empire lived and died here. America’s first bank robbery was pulled off here in 1798. The country’s first kidnapping for ransom came off without a hitch in 1874. A South Philadelphia man hatched the largest mass murder plot in U.S. history in the 1930s. His partners in crime were unhappy housewives. Catholics and Protestants aimed cannon at each other in city streets in 1844. Civil rights hero Octavius V. Catto was gunned down on South Street in 1871. Take a walk with us through city history. Would you pass Eastern State Penitentiary on April 3, 1945, just as famed bank robber Willie Sutton popped out of an escape tunnel in broad daylight? Or you might have been one of the invited guests at H.H. Holmes’ hanging at Moyamensing Prison on a gray morning in May 1896. It still ranks as one of the most bizarre executions in city history. Or, if you walked down Washington Lane on July 1, 1874, would you have been alert enough to stop the two men who lured little blond Charley Ross away with candy? You might have stopped America’s first kidnapping for ransom, the one that gave rise to the admonition, “Never take candy from a stranger.” The case inspired the Leopold and Loeb kidnapping. Then there was the bank robber whose funeral drew thousands of spectators and the burglary defendant so alluring that conversation would stop whenever she entered the courtroom. Mix in murderous maids, bumbling burglars, and unflinching local heroes and you have True Crime Philadelphia.
Download or read book Philadelphia Sinners written by Kathryn Canavan and published by Lyons Press. This book was released on 2021-11 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who would you see first if you walked the streets of Philadelphia in 1961 or 1874 or 1945? Would you walk up Fairmount Avenue on April 3, 1945 just as famed bank robber Willie Sutton popped up out of a prison tunnel in broad daylight? You might have been one of the invited guests at serial killer H. H. Holmes' hanging at Moyamensing Prison on the gray morning of May 7, 1896. It still ranks as one of the most bizarre executions in city history. Perhaps you'd stroll past Mary Hill's picture-perfect mansion at Tenth and Pine just as her corpse was thrown from a second story window in 1868? Or, if you walked down Washington Lane on the first day of July 1874, could you have stopped the two men who lured little blond Charley Ross with candy? It was America's first kidnapping for ransom, the one that gave rise to the admonition, "Never take candy from a stranger." The case remained in the headlines for so long that it inspired the Leopold and Loeb kidnapping in 1924. Would you be sitting on your front stoop on sunny Alma Street in 1961 as Richie Blaney, clad in a freshly ironed shirt and Bermuda shorts, turned the key on his sedan, igniting the dynamite that blew most of his body into the back seat and sent his car hood aloft over the rowhouse roofs? Philadelphia is a city of firsts - first zoo, first library, first computer, first hospital, first university, first stock exchange, first art museum, first volunteer fire department. It also boasts the first bank robbery, the first octo-murder, first kidnapping for ransom, and the first arsenic murder ring complete with soothsayers, demon lovers, womanizing witch doctors and the evil eye. Al Capone served his first prison sentence here. H.H. Holmes met the hangman here. The real-life killers who inspired HBO's Boardwalk Empire lived and died here. Add to that murderous maids, bumbling burglars, self-made widows and some unflinching local heroes.
Download or read book True Crime Pennsylvania written by Patricia A. Martinelli and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2008-08-18 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of criminal offense in Pennsylvania is documented in this book, beginning with a general survey of crime in the state and then focusing on its headline cases.
Download or read book Philadelphia True Noir written by George Anastasia and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stories presented here are true slices of life taken from an underworld where people don't play by the rules and where the good guys don't always win. These are real-life stories about wiseguys and drug dealers, con men and murders. In these pages, you'll find the true noir stories that have bubbled up under the magnifying glass of a 30-year veteran reporter at the The Philadelphia Inquirer. It's a fascinating look into the minds, crimes, fates, and lives of Philadelphia's most intriguing criminals. So sit back and enjoy this illuminating look into the dark world of Philadelphia True Noir.
Download or read book Philadelphia Organized Crime in the 1920s and 1930s written by Anne Margaret Anderson with John J. Binder and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2014 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philadelphia Organized Crime in the 1920s and 1930s explores a little-known but spirited chapter of the Quaker City's history. The hoodlums, hucksters, and racketeers of Prohibition-era Philadelphia sold bootleg booze, peddled illicit drugs, ran numbers, and operated prostitution and insurance rings. Among the fascinating personalities that created and contributed to the Philadelphia crime scene of the 1920s and 1930s were empire builders like Mickey Duffy, known as "Prohibition's Mr. Big," and Max "Boo Boo" Hoff, dubbed the "King of the Bootleggers"; the violent Lanzetti brothers, who ran their own illegal enterprise; mobster Harry "Nig Rosen" Stromberg, a New York transplant; and the arsenic widows poison ring, which specialized in fraud and murder. Bringing to light rare photographs and forgotten characters, the authors chronicle the underworld of Philadelphia in the interwar era. The upheaval caused by the gangs and groups herein mirrors the frenzied cultural and political shifts of the Roaring Twenties and the austere 1930s.
Download or read book Philadelphia Noir written by Carlin Romano and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Residents of Philadelphia have been nagging Akashic Books for years to see their own entry in the award-winning Noir series. The time has finally arrived - but the city must beware as there may be no recovery from the tarnishing of this collection of 15 original crime stories. Features brand-new stories by Diane Ayres, Cordelia Frances Biddle, Keith Gilman, Cary Holladay, Solomon Jones, Gerald Kolpan, Aimee LaBrie, Halimah Marcus, Carlin Romano, Asali Solomon, Laura Spagnoli, Duane Swierczynski, Dennis Tafoya and Jim Zervanos.
Download or read book Confessions of a Second Story Man written by Allen M. Hornblum and published by Barricade Books. This book was released on 2013-10-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author Allen Hornblum tells the strange but true story of Junior Kripplebauer and his Philadelphia-based crew known as the Kripplebauer Gang. Up and down the East Coast, they robbed wealthy suburban residences with assembly line skills of breaking, entering, and bagging the loot. Hornblum describes the transformation of the K&A Gang from a group of blue collar thieves to their work in conjunction with numerous organized crime families and their help to make Philadelphia the "meth" capital of the nation. It is a compelling read about a fascinating bunch of hoodlums.
Download or read book Principal Suspect written by William C. Costopoulos and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early hours of June 25, 1979, a gruesome scene unfolded. The body of Susan Reinert, a suburban Philadelphia high school teacher, was found jammed into the hatchback of a car. She was in the fetal position. She was naked. Her two young children were missing. Thus began one of the most prominent murder cases in Pennsylvania's history. The Main Line murders, as they came to be known, would grip the nation and become the target of a seven-year investigation by the FBI and the Pennsylvania State PoliceDthe most massive homicide investigation in American history. The main suspect in the brutal murder turned out to be Jay Smith, the Principal of Upper Merion High School, where Reinert taught. The local and national media went on a rampage, especially as rumors of Smith's bizarre sexual habits emerged. There was one sensational headline after another about the "Prince of Darkness". There was a TV miniseries. Yet the truth, the whole truth, was never told. Until now. This legal drama is about crossing the fine. It's about fixing cases, rigging testimony, plandng evidence, and overzealous prosecutors. William Costopoulos, Smith's lawyer, takes you inside the case, right to the heart of the cover-ups, the corruption, and finally to the floor of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. You'll read portions of the actual transcripts. You'll meet the players in the case. You'll hear Costopoulos argue for Smith's life and fight for truth. Even if you know the outcome, this story will grip you with breathtaking suspense, and at times, make you want to rage at a legal system that went haywire. To this day, Susan Reinert's murderer has never been conclusively identified. The bodies of her childrenhave never been found. Many people think they know exactly who the real murderer is. But ultimately, when a legal system fails so miserably, it is you who must weigh the evidence. Did Jay Smith do it? It is you who must decide.t
Download or read book Black Brothers Inc written by Sean Patrick Griffin and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 2005, a prominent and politically influential Muslim cleric, Imam Shamsud-din Ali, became the latest person convicted in a massive federal corruption probe in Philadelphia. As the revelations emanating from the probe continue, a critically acclaimed author and leading authority on organized crime exposes for the very first time the disturbing contemporary and historical ties between Ali, the city's notorious Black Mafia, and the sweeping federal probe. The Black Mafia was one of the bloodiest crime syndicates in modern US history. From its roots in Philadelphia's ghettos in the 1960's, it grew from a rabble of street toughs to a disciplined, ruthless organization based on fear and intimidation with links across the Eastern Seaboard. Known in its "legitimate" guise as Black Brothers, Inc., it held regular meetings, appointed investigators, treasurers and enforcers, and controlled drug dealing, loan-sharking, numbers rackets, armed robbery and extortion. Its ferocious crews of gunmen grew around burly founder Sam Christian, the most feared man on Philly's streets. They developed close ties with the influential Nation of Islam and soon were executing rivals, extorting bookies connected to the city's powerful Cosa Nostra crew, and cowing local gangs. The Black Mafia was responsible for over forty killings, the most chilling being the 1973 massacre of two adults and five children in Washington, D.C. Despite the arrests that followed, they continued their rampage, exploiting their ties to prominent lawyers and civil rights leaders. A heavy round of convictions and sentences in the 1980's shattered their strength â" only for the crack-dealing Junior Black Mafia to emerge in their wake. Researched with scores of interviews and unique access to informant logs, witness statements, wiretaps and secret FBI files, Black Brothers, Inc. is the most detailed account ever of an African-American organized crime mob, and a landmark investigation into the modern urban underworld. "Griffin did extensive research and backs up his claims carefully...If you're a crime buff, a history lover, or if you just want something fascinating to read, it's a book you can't refuse."---Terri Schlichenmeyer, syndicated reviewer and host of "The BookWormSez" "A gripping story...Griffin richly documents the Black Mafia's organization, outreach and over-the-top badness." --Joseph N. DiStefano, Philadelphia Inquirer
Download or read book The Basement written by RJ Parker PhD and published by RJ PARKER PUBLISHING, INC.. This book was released on 2017-04-08 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a shocking story of kidnapping, rape, torture, mutilation, dismemberment, decapitation, and murder. The subject matter in this book is graphic On March 24, 1987, the Philadelphia Police Department received a phone call from a woman who stated that she had been held captive for the last four months. When police officers arrived at the pay phone from which the call was made, Josefina Rivera told them that she and three other women had been held captive in a basement by a man named Gary Heidnik. He imprisoned women in chains, in the filth and stench of a hole dug under his home.
Download or read book Pay To Play written by Jerri Williams and published by Money Pit Press. This book was released on 2019-07-26 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Special Agent Kari Wheeler may have made the worst decision of her life. The deeper she digs into the new assignment she unwisely accepted, investigating corruption in the Philadelphia strip club industry, the more her work begins to threaten everything she values most—her FBI career, her marriage, even the closely held secrets of her painful past. Her new case has her gathering the evidence to prove that a corrupt city official is accepting bribes and breaking the same adult entertainment laws he’s supposed to be enforcing. But when Kari enters the seductive world of high-end clubs and sleazy strip joints she finds herself facing temptations too difficult to resist. Before she becomes the star of a media scandal that could sidetrack the corruption investigation and trial, the married mother-of-three must devise a counter plan to protect all at risk of being destroyed. How far will she go? Inspired by true crime FBI cases featuring extortion, sex, money, and more, Pay To Play is gritty and raw, with strong language.
Download or read book Busted written by Wendy Ruderman and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-03-11 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Cellar of Horror written by Ken Englade and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2013-09-24 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ***Please note: This ebook edition does not contain the photos found in the print edition.*** Serial killer Gary Heidnik's name will live on in infamy, and his home, 3520 North Marshall Street in Philadelphia, is a house tainted with the memory of unbelievable horrors. What police found there was an incredible nightmare made real. Four young women had been held captive--some for four months--half-naked and chained. They had been tortured, starved, and repeatedly raped. But more grotesque discoveries lay in the kitchen: human limbs frozen, a torso burned to cinders, an empty pot suspiciously scorched... This is not a story for the faint-hearted. Cellar of Horror is a shocking true account of the self-proclaimed minister with a long history of mental illness, who preyed upon the susceptible in a bizarre plan to create his own "baby factory." It is a macabre web spun around money, power, and religion, tangled with courtroom drama and lawyers' tactics, sure to send a chill into your very soul.
Download or read book We Is Got Him written by Carrie Hagen and published by ABRAMS. This book was released on 2011-08-18 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “relentlessly suspenseful” story of America’s first known kidnapping in nineteenth century Philadelphia is “elegantly told, superbly accomplished” (The Philadelphia Enquirer). In 1874, a little boy named Charley Ross was snatched from his family’s front yard in Philadelphia. A ransom note arrived three days later, demanding twenty thousand dollars for the boy’s return. The city was about to host the America’s Centennial celebration, and the mass panic surrounding the Charley Ross case plunged the nation into hysteria. The desperate search led the police to inspect every building in Philadelphia, set up saloon surveillance in New York’s notorious slums, and begin a national manhunt. With white-knuckle suspense and historical detail, Hagen vividly captures the dark side of an earlier America. Her brilliant portrayal of its criminals, detectives, politicians, spiritualists, and ordinary families will stay with the reader long after the final page. “Hagen skillfully narrates a saga that transcends one kidnapping, a saga tied up with the World’s Fair that was about to open in Philadelphia.” —Kirkus Reviews “As Erik Larson mined the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair for Devil in the White City, Hagen chronicles a tragically more relevant 19th-century story.” —Michael Capuzzo, author of The Murder Room
Download or read book Roots of Violence in Black Philadelphia 1860 1900 written by Roger Lane and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lane offers a historical explanation for rising levels of black urban crime and family instability during a paradoxical era. Modern crime rates and patterns are shown to be products of a historical culture traceable from its formative years. The author charts Philadelphia's story but also makes suggestions about national and international patterns.
Download or read book The Lex St Massacre written by Antonne M. Jones and published by Eldon Pub. This book was released on 2007 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Lex Street massacre chronicle the worst mass murder in the history of Philadelphia. Ten people were shot while seven succombed to their injuries. Four young men were areested within a few days. Shortly there after another young man confessed to the murders and implicated four different guys. the prosecutors moved forward with the original four and refused to drop charges. The world awaited their next decision. Worst than the murders was the motive!
Download or read book Blood and Honor written by George Anastasia and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the rise and fall of the Scarfo family, one of the most violent Mafia families in America.
