Gruesome Iowa
Murder, Madness, and the Macabre in the Hawkeye State
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $14.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Peter Kenyon
-
By:
-
Nick Vulich
About this listen
Murder, madness, and the macabre in Iowa? You've got to be kidding!
When most people think of Iowa, their minds conjure up pigs, cornfields, and crotchety old farmers. But ax murders, mass killings, and ghostly sightings - those atrocities are reserved for big cities like Chicago or LA, not a little burg like Villisca, Iowa - population 2,000.
People refuse to believe that a hundred years ago, every eye in the nation turned to Villisca, Iowa where eight people were butchered in their sleep by a madman using only an ax. Attention quickly turned to the Reverend Lyn Kelley, "a queer, strange, little preacher man", often accused of window peeping.
The police forced a confession from him.
Kelley said he was walking by the Moore house when a voice commanded him to, "Go in. Slay utterly". What could he do? He climbed the stairs and slaughtered the children. "Slay utterly. Suffer the little children".
Back downstairs, he went into the parent's bedroom. "More work yet. There must be sacrifices of blood". Again, the ax did its work.
In another downstairs bedroom, he discovered the Stillinger girls, asleep in their beds. "More work still". The ax resumed its work.
Eight people were dead. The ax was satisfied.
When Kelley recanted his confession, investigators turned their attention to Senator Frank Jones. Old-timers hinted there had been bad blood between Jones and Joe Moore (the deceased) ever since Moore left his position at Jones’ farm implement store and opened the local John Deere dealership.
Another rumor had it; Joe Moore was sleeping with Albert Jones’ wife. But that theory didn’t hold water, either. Reports linked Dona Jones to half the men in Villisca.
Detectives developed dozens of others suspects over the years, but none of them panned out. The Villisca Ax Murders remain Iowa’s most famous cold-case file.
Gruesome Iowa is a collection of true-life stories - most of them rescued from old newspaper accounts published over 100 years ago. Only a few of the events in this audiobook - such as the Villisca Ax Murders have ever made it into print. Except maybe in musky-old county histories. Even then, they are lucky to rate a paragraph.
Listen to them now, if you dare!
©2019 Nick Vulich (P)2019 Nicholas L VulichListeners also enjoyed...
-
Spine-Chilling Murders in Des Moines
- By: Nick Vulich
- Narrated by: Sonny Dufault
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spine-Chilling Murders in Des Moines is a collection of true-crime stories - most of them rescued from old newspaper accounts published more than 100 years ago. Only a few of the events in this book have ever made it into print, except maybe in musky old county histories.
By: Nick Vulich
-
Killers of the Flower Moon
- The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
An outstanding story, highly recommended
- By S. Blakely on 06-22-17
By: David Grann
-
In Cold Blood
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
-
-
Still the Best
- By Lisa on 01-10-06
By: Truman Capote
-
The I-5 Killer
- By: Ann Rule, Andy Stack
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all; he was a star athlete with good looks and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.
-
-
Ann Rule always delivers
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-19
By: Ann Rule, and others
-
The Man from the Train
- The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery
- By: Bill James, Rachel McCarthy James
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Using unprecedented, dramatically compelling sleuthing techniques, legendary statistician and baseball writer Bill James applies his analytical acumen to crack an unsolved century-old mystery surrounding one of the deadliest serial killers in American history.
-
-
Repetitive and Frustrating
- By Heather L. on 02-22-18
By: Bill James, and others
-
Hell's Princess
- The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. Between 1902 and 1908, she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her Indiana “murder farm". Some were hired hands. Others were well-to-do bachelors. All of them vanished without a trace.
-
-
Can a book about a serial killer be entertaining?
- By Lori Hanson on 05-08-18
By: Harold Schechter
-
Spine-Chilling Murders in Des Moines
- By: Nick Vulich
- Narrated by: Sonny Dufault
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spine-Chilling Murders in Des Moines is a collection of true-crime stories - most of them rescued from old newspaper accounts published more than 100 years ago. Only a few of the events in this book have ever made it into print, except maybe in musky old county histories.
By: Nick Vulich
-
Killers of the Flower Moon
- The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
An outstanding story, highly recommended
- By S. Blakely on 06-22-17
By: David Grann
-
In Cold Blood
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
-
-
Still the Best
- By Lisa on 01-10-06
By: Truman Capote
-
The I-5 Killer
- By: Ann Rule, Andy Stack
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all; he was a star athlete with good looks and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.
-
-
Ann Rule always delivers
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-19
By: Ann Rule, and others
-
The Man from the Train
- The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery
- By: Bill James, Rachel McCarthy James
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Using unprecedented, dramatically compelling sleuthing techniques, legendary statistician and baseball writer Bill James applies his analytical acumen to crack an unsolved century-old mystery surrounding one of the deadliest serial killers in American history.
-
-
Repetitive and Frustrating
- By Heather L. on 02-22-18
By: Bill James, and others
-
Hell's Princess
- The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. Between 1902 and 1908, she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her Indiana “murder farm". Some were hired hands. Others were well-to-do bachelors. All of them vanished without a trace.
-
-
Can a book about a serial killer be entertaining?
- By Lori Hanson on 05-08-18
By: Harold Schechter
-
American Sherlock
- Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI
- By: Kate Winkler Dawson
- Narrated by: Kate Winkler Dawson
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Berkeley, California, 1933. In a lab filled with curiosities - beakers, microscopes, Bunsen burners, and hundreds upon hundreds of books - sat an investigator who would go on to crack at least 2,000 cases in his 40-year career. Known as the "American Sherlock Holmes", Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America's greatest - and first - forensic scientists, with an uncanny knack for finding clues, establishing evidence, and deducing answers with a skill that seemed almost supernatural.
-
-
Always use a professional Editor and Reader
- By Steven F. Schroeder on 02-19-20
-
The Bloody Century
- True Tales of Murder in 19th Century America
- By: Robert Wilhelm
- Narrated by: Charles Huddleston
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A murderous atmosphere pervaded 19th-century America marked by lurid newspaper accounts and remembered in ballad and verse. The Bloody Century presents 50 of the most intriguing murder cases from the archives of American crime. It is a collection of fascinating stories - some famous, some long-buried - of Americans, driven by desperation, greed, jealousy, or an irrational bloodlust, to take another’s life.
-
-
Fun true crime with many a twist!
- By Lee Pollock on 08-04-21
By: Robert Wilhelm
-
Lust Killer
- By: Ann Rule, Andy Stack
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When young women begin mysteriously disappearing in Oregon, Police Lieutenant James Stovall leads a relentless search for a killer. With little evidence available, and the public screaming for answers, he must find a remorseless, brutal killer whose identity will shock them all....
-
-
Great book on Brudos!
- By Ms.Bliss on 01-06-18
By: Ann Rule, and others
-
Daughter of the White River
- Depression-Era Treachery and Vengeance in the Arkansas Delta (True Crime)
- By: Denise White Parkinson
- Narrated by: S. J. Tucker
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The once-thriving houseboat communities along Arkansas' White River are long gone, and few remember the sensational murder story that set local darling Helen Spence on a tragic path. In 1931, Spence shocked Arkansas when she avenged her father's murder in a DeWitt courtroom. The state soon discovered that no prison could hold her. For the first time, prison records are unveiled to provide an essential portrait. Join author Denise Parkinson for an intimate look at a Depression-era tragedy. The legend of Helen Spence refuses to be forgotten - despite her unmarked grave.
-
-
Take me to the River
- By Chet Kemp on 10-18-19
-
The Burning
- Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
- By: Tim Madigan
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob numbering in the thousands marched across the railroad tracks dividing black from white in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and obliterated a black community then celebrated as one of America's most prosperous. The Burning will recreate the town of Greenwood at the height of its prosperity, explore the currents of hatred, racism, and mistrust between its black residents and neighboring Tulsa's white population, narrate events leading up to and including Greenwood's annihilation, and document the subsequent silence that surrounded the tragedy.
-
-
Hard to listen to, but a must read.
- By Amazon Customer on 06-17-20
By: Tim Madigan
-
Alias Billy the Kid
- By: C. L. Sonnichsen, William Morrison
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Was Billy the Kid really shot to death by Sheriff Pat Garrett on a July night in 1881? At the midpoint of the last century, an old man comes forth seeking a pardon for crimes committed. He says that he wants to die a free man - and that he is Billy the Kid. The incident leads to this examination of new facts, new interpretations, and new contradictions. It is the story of "Brushy" Bill Roberts, a man who laid claim to a legend. Originally published in 1955 by University of New Mexico Press.
-
-
must read!
- By James A thornton on 03-27-18
By: C. L. Sonnichsen, and others
-
The Serial Killer Books
- 15 Famous Serial Killers True Crime Stories That Shocked the World
- By: Jack Rosewood
- Narrated by: Kevin Kollins
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are reasons why some of the most famous serial killers in the world have names that stick in our memories, send shivers up our spines, make us double-check to make sure the doors are locked at night, and maybe peek under the bed to be sure nothing is lurking there before we turn off the lights.
-
-
More Terrifying Than a Horror Movie
- By Mandymay💄👠👛 on 07-06-17
By: Jack Rosewood
-
The Want Ad Killer
- By: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After his first grisly crime, Harvey Louis Carignan beat a death sentence and continued to manipulate, rape, and bludgeon women to death - using want ads to lure his young female victims. And time after time, justice was thwarted by a killer whose twisted legal genius was matched only by his sick savagery. Here, complete with the testimony of women who suffered his unspeakable sexual abuses and barely escaped with their lives and of the police who at last put him behind bars, is one of the most shattering and thought-provoking true-crime stories of our time.
-
-
Paul Booooomer
- By Murder Fancier on 04-08-17
By: Ann Rule
-
Cold Blooded
- A Chilling, True Tale of Terror, Rape, and Murder in the Arkansas River Bottoms
- By: Anita Paddock
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a cold January morning in 1981, a knock on an apartment door began what would become one of the bloodiest crime sprees in Arkansas history. In the coming days the bodies of newlyweds Larry and Jawana Price, businessman Holly Gentry, and Police Detective Ray Tate were discovered. They had been executed in cold blood and discarded like so much trash. What kind of person murders four people in cold blood? Did the right one go to prison?
-
-
Close to home
- By Michelle1234 on 10-31-24
By: Anita Paddock
-
The Wrong Man
- The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case
- By: James Neff
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At 5:40 a.m. on July 4, 1954, the mayor of Bay Village, a small suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, received a frantic phone call from his neighbor Dr. Sam Sheppard. The news was too terrible to comprehend: Marilyn, Sam's lovely wife, was dead, her face and torso beaten beyond recognition by an unknown assailant who had knocked Sam unconscious and escaped just before dawn. In the adjacent bedroom, Chip, the Sheppards' seven-year-old son, had slept through the entire ordeal. Almost immediately, the police began to suspect Sam Sheppard.
-
-
Outstanding! But troubling
- By Tyree on 09-26-22
By: James Neff
-
Innocent Victims
- The True Story of the Eastburn Family Murders
- By: Scott Whisnant
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Mother's Day, 1985, the bodies of Kathryn Eastburn and her two young daughters were found in their Fayetteville, North Carolina, home. Katie, an air force captain's wife, had been raped and stabbed to death. Kara and Erin's throats had been slit. Their toddler sister, Jana, was the only survivor. The Cumberland County Sheriff's Department soon focused its investigation on US Army soldier Tim Hennis. Detectives and local prosecutors built their case on circumstantial evidence and a jury convicted Hennis and sentenced him to death. But his defense team refused to give up.
-
-
Not what I expected
- By Erica Seigneur on 12-18-19
By: Scott Whisnant
-
The Feud
- The Hatfields and McCoys: The True Story
- By: Dean King
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Filled with bitter quarrels, reckless affairs, treacherous betrayals, relentless mercenaries, and courageous detectives, The Feud is the riveting story of two frontier families struggling for survival within the narrow confines of an unforgiving land. It is a formative American tale, and in it, we see the reflection of our own family bonds and the lengths to which we might go in order to defend our honor, our loyalties, and our livelihood.
-
-
Get out the pad and pencil .....
- By Alan on 10-15-13
By: Dean King
Related to this topic
-
To Hell on a Fast Horse
- The Untold Story of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett
- By: Mark Lee Gardner
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat, Alan Sklar
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy the Kid - a.k.a. Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, and William Bonney - was a horse thief, cattle rustler, charismatic rogue, and cold-blooded killer. A superb shot, the Kid gunned down four men single-handedly and five others with the help of cronies. Two of his victims were Lincoln County, New Mexico, deputies, killed during the Kid's brazen daylight escape from the courthouse jail on April 28, 1881.
-
-
Great Listen
- By Susan Stilley on 10-06-21
By: Mark Lee Gardner
-
The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns
- By: Mitzi Szereto - editor
- Narrated by: Holly Palance, Phil Thron
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether in Truman Capote’s detailed murder of the Clutter family or Ted Bundy’s small-town charm, criminals have always roamed rural America and towns worldwide. Featuring murder stories, criminal case studies, and more, The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns contains all-new accounts from writers of true crime, crime journalism, and crime fiction. And these entries are not based on a true story - they are true stories. Edited by acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto, the stories in this volume span the globe.
-
-
Crime in other countries is not my cup of tea.
- By Brenda on 01-03-21
-
Psycho USA
- Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the horrifying annals of American crime, the infamous names of brutal killers such as Bundy, Dahmer, Gacy, and Berkowitz are writ large in the imaginations of a public both horrified and hypnotized by their monstrous, murderous acts. But for every celebrity psychopath who's gotten ink for spilling blood, there's a bevy of all-but-forgotten homicidal fiends studding the bloody margins of US history.
-
-
True crime enthusiast's dream
- By Athelsten on 08-24-17
By: Harold Schechter
-
Alias Billy the Kid
- By: C. L. Sonnichsen, William Morrison
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Was Billy the Kid really shot to death by Sheriff Pat Garrett on a July night in 1881? At the midpoint of the last century, an old man comes forth seeking a pardon for crimes committed. He says that he wants to die a free man - and that he is Billy the Kid. The incident leads to this examination of new facts, new interpretations, and new contradictions. It is the story of "Brushy" Bill Roberts, a man who laid claim to a legend. Originally published in 1955 by University of New Mexico Press.
-
-
must read!
- By James A thornton on 03-27-18
By: C. L. Sonnichsen, and others
-
A Death in Belmont
- By: Sebastian Junger
- Narrated by: Kevin Conway
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1963, with the city of Boston already terrified by a series of savage crimes known as the Boston Stranglings, a murder occurred in Belmont, just a few blocks from the house of Sebastian Junger's family, a murder that seemed to fit exactly the pattern of the Strangler. Roy Smith, a black man who had cleaned the victim's house that day, was convicted, but the terror of the Strangler continued.
-
-
Excellent
- By Susanna on 01-13-15
By: Sebastian Junger
-
Butcher's Work
- True Crime Tales of American Murder and Madness
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Civil War veteran who perpetrated one of the most ghastly mass slaughters in the annals of U.S. crime. A nineteenth-century female serial killer whose victims included three husbands and six of her own children. A Gilded Age “Bluebeard” who did away with as many as fifty wives throughout the country. A decorated World War I hero who orchestrated a murder that stunned Jazz Age America.
-
-
Another necessary work by Schector
- By Brandon on 12-27-22
By: Harold Schechter
-
To Hell on a Fast Horse
- The Untold Story of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett
- By: Mark Lee Gardner
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat, Alan Sklar
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Billy the Kid - a.k.a. Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, and William Bonney - was a horse thief, cattle rustler, charismatic rogue, and cold-blooded killer. A superb shot, the Kid gunned down four men single-handedly and five others with the help of cronies. Two of his victims were Lincoln County, New Mexico, deputies, killed during the Kid's brazen daylight escape from the courthouse jail on April 28, 1881.
-
-
Great Listen
- By Susan Stilley on 10-06-21
By: Mark Lee Gardner
-
The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns
- By: Mitzi Szereto - editor
- Narrated by: Holly Palance, Phil Thron
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether in Truman Capote’s detailed murder of the Clutter family or Ted Bundy’s small-town charm, criminals have always roamed rural America and towns worldwide. Featuring murder stories, criminal case studies, and more, The Best New True Crime Stories: Small Towns contains all-new accounts from writers of true crime, crime journalism, and crime fiction. And these entries are not based on a true story - they are true stories. Edited by acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto, the stories in this volume span the globe.
-
-
Crime in other countries is not my cup of tea.
- By Brenda on 01-03-21
-
Psycho USA
- Famous American Killers You Never Heard Of
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the horrifying annals of American crime, the infamous names of brutal killers such as Bundy, Dahmer, Gacy, and Berkowitz are writ large in the imaginations of a public both horrified and hypnotized by their monstrous, murderous acts. But for every celebrity psychopath who's gotten ink for spilling blood, there's a bevy of all-but-forgotten homicidal fiends studding the bloody margins of US history.
-
-
True crime enthusiast's dream
- By Athelsten on 08-24-17
By: Harold Schechter
-
Alias Billy the Kid
- By: C. L. Sonnichsen, William Morrison
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Was Billy the Kid really shot to death by Sheriff Pat Garrett on a July night in 1881? At the midpoint of the last century, an old man comes forth seeking a pardon for crimes committed. He says that he wants to die a free man - and that he is Billy the Kid. The incident leads to this examination of new facts, new interpretations, and new contradictions. It is the story of "Brushy" Bill Roberts, a man who laid claim to a legend. Originally published in 1955 by University of New Mexico Press.
-
-
must read!
- By James A thornton on 03-27-18
By: C. L. Sonnichsen, and others
-
A Death in Belmont
- By: Sebastian Junger
- Narrated by: Kevin Conway
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1963, with the city of Boston already terrified by a series of savage crimes known as the Boston Stranglings, a murder occurred in Belmont, just a few blocks from the house of Sebastian Junger's family, a murder that seemed to fit exactly the pattern of the Strangler. Roy Smith, a black man who had cleaned the victim's house that day, was convicted, but the terror of the Strangler continued.
-
-
Excellent
- By Susanna on 01-13-15
By: Sebastian Junger
-
Butcher's Work
- True Crime Tales of American Murder and Madness
- By: Harold Schechter
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Civil War veteran who perpetrated one of the most ghastly mass slaughters in the annals of U.S. crime. A nineteenth-century female serial killer whose victims included three husbands and six of her own children. A Gilded Age “Bluebeard” who did away with as many as fifty wives throughout the country. A decorated World War I hero who orchestrated a murder that stunned Jazz Age America.
-
-
Another necessary work by Schector
- By Brandon on 12-27-22
By: Harold Schechter
-
Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves
- Race and Ethnicity in the American West Series #1
- By: Art T. Burton
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Art T. Burton sifts through fact and legend to discover the truth about one of the most outstanding peace officers in late 19th-century America - and perhaps the greatest lawman of the Wild West era. Fluent in Creek and other Southern native languages, physically powerful, skilled with firearms, and a master of disguise, Bass Reeves was exceptionally adept at apprehending fugitives and outlaws, and his exploits were legendary in Oklahoma and Arkansas.
-
-
inspiring story and insightful
- By Derrick on 12-17-15
By: Art T. Burton
-
H. H. Holmes
- The True History of the White City Devil
- By: Adam Selzer
- Narrated by: David Bendena
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the first truly comprehensive book examining the life and career of the murderer who has become one of America's great supervillains. It reveals not only the true story but how the legend evolved, taking advantage of hundreds of primary sources that have never been examined before, including legal documents, letters, articles, and records that have been buried in archives for more than a century.
-
-
The truth
- By Anna Fluellen on 09-08-17
By: Adam Selzer
-
The Dillinger Days
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For 13 violent months in the 1930s, John Dillinger and his gang swept through the Midwest. The criminals of the Depression robbed almost at will, as the Indiana State Police had only 41 members, including clerks and typists. Dillinger's daring escapes at Crown Point jail or through the withering machine gun fire of FBI agents at Little Bohemia Lodge, along with his countless bank robberies, excited the imagination of a despondent country.
-
-
Must have been written by Hoover
- By Jimmy Oneal on 09-03-20
By: John Toland
-
Lust Killer
- By: Ann Rule, Andy Stack
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When young women begin mysteriously disappearing in Oregon, Police Lieutenant James Stovall leads a relentless search for a killer. With little evidence available, and the public screaming for answers, he must find a remorseless, brutal killer whose identity will shock them all....
-
-
Great book on Brudos!
- By Ms.Bliss on 01-06-18
By: Ann Rule, and others
-
A Brotherhood Betrayed
- The Man Behind the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc.
- By: Michael Cannell
- Narrated by: Gary Galone
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1941, a momentous trial was set to begin that threatened to end the careers and lives of New York’s most brutal mob kingpins. The lead witness, Abe Reles, had been a trusted executioner for Murder, Inc., the enforcement arm of a coast-to-coast mob network known as the Syndicate. But the man responsible for coolly silencing hundreds of informants was about to become the most talkative snitch of all. In exchange for police protection, Reles was prepared to rat out his murderous friends, from Albert Anastasia to Bugsy Siegel....
-
-
History from the bottom up
- By Mark on 12-12-21
By: Michael Cannell
-
Love Me to Death
- The Chilling True Story of WIlliam “Wild Bill Cody” Neal—The Vicious Denver Lady-Killer
- By: Steve Jackson
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Neal, who called himself "Wild Bill Cody," was seductive and skillful at separating love-struck women from their money, and ultimately, their lives. Apprehended by police, Neal, who proclaimed himself “better than Ted Bundy,” pleaded guilty to three murders then insisted on representing himself at his death penalty trial. But the psychopathic killer found himself up against the incredible courage of his one surviving victim.
-
-
Disappointed
- By donald on 02-09-23
By: Steve Jackson
-
The Wrong Man
- The Final Verdict on the Dr. Sam Sheppard Murder Case
- By: James Neff
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At 5:40 a.m. on July 4, 1954, the mayor of Bay Village, a small suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, received a frantic phone call from his neighbor Dr. Sam Sheppard. The news was too terrible to comprehend: Marilyn, Sam's lovely wife, was dead, her face and torso beaten beyond recognition by an unknown assailant who had knocked Sam unconscious and escaped just before dawn. In the adjacent bedroom, Chip, the Sheppards' seven-year-old son, had slept through the entire ordeal. Almost immediately, the police began to suspect Sam Sheppard.
-
-
Outstanding! But troubling
- By Tyree on 09-26-22
By: James Neff
-
The Feud
- The Hatfields and McCoys: The True Story
- By: Dean King
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Filled with bitter quarrels, reckless affairs, treacherous betrayals, relentless mercenaries, and courageous detectives, The Feud is the riveting story of two frontier families struggling for survival within the narrow confines of an unforgiving land. It is a formative American tale, and in it, we see the reflection of our own family bonds and the lengths to which we might go in order to defend our honor, our loyalties, and our livelihood.
-
-
Get out the pad and pencil .....
- By Alan on 10-15-13
By: Dean King
-
Killers of the Flower Moon
- The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
An outstanding story, highly recommended
- By S. Blakely on 06-22-17
By: David Grann
-
The Want Ad Killer
- By: Ann Rule
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After his first grisly crime, Harvey Louis Carignan beat a death sentence and continued to manipulate, rape, and bludgeon women to death - using want ads to lure his young female victims. And time after time, justice was thwarted by a killer whose twisted legal genius was matched only by his sick savagery. Here, complete with the testimony of women who suffered his unspeakable sexual abuses and barely escaped with their lives and of the police who at last put him behind bars, is one of the most shattering and thought-provoking true-crime stories of our time.
-
-
Paul Booooomer
- By Murder Fancier on 04-08-17
By: Ann Rule
-
Alice & Gerald
- A Homicidal Love Story
- By: Ron Franscell
- Narrated by: Chris Lutkin
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1974, Alice, a desperate young mother in a gritty Wyoming boomtown, kills her husband and dumps his body where it will never be found, then slips away and starts a new life. But when her new man's ex-wife and two kids start demanding more of him, Alice delivers an ultimatum: fix the problem or lose her forever. With Alice's help, Gerald fixes the problem in an extraordinarily ghastly way...and they live happily ever after...that is, until 2013, almost 40 years later, when somebody finds a dead man's skeleton in a place where Alice thought he'd never be found.
-
-
HORRIBLE narration!
- By gauzy on 09-25-19
By: Ron Franscell
-
The Burning
- Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
- By: Tim Madigan
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob numbering in the thousands marched across the railroad tracks dividing black from white in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and obliterated a black community then celebrated as one of America's most prosperous. The Burning will recreate the town of Greenwood at the height of its prosperity, explore the currents of hatred, racism, and mistrust between its black residents and neighboring Tulsa's white population, narrate events leading up to and including Greenwood's annihilation, and document the subsequent silence that surrounded the tragedy.
-
-
Hard to listen to, but a must read.
- By Amazon Customer on 06-17-20
By: Tim Madigan