True Crime Short

"The Old Man and the Gun" is the incredible story of a bank robber and prison escape artist who modeled himself after figures like Pretty Boy Floyd and who, even in his 70s, refuses to retire. "True Crime" follows the twisting investigation of a Polish detective who suspects that a novelist planted clues in his fiction to an actual murder. And "The Chameleon" recounts how a French impostor assumes the identity of a missing boy from Texas and infiltrates the boy's family, only to soon wonder whether he is the one being conned.

When acclaimed mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers first began compiling anthologies of the best crime stories in the 1920s and ’30s, the genre was in the flush of its first golden age. While it is hard to imagine today - after every possible mystery plot has been told, retold, subverted, and played straight again by hundreds of writers over nearly a century - in Sayers’s day there were still twists that had never been seen, and machinations of crime that would shock even jaded Jazz Age fans.

On January 15, 1947, the tortured body of a beautiful young woman was found in a vacant lot in Hollywood. Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, a young Hollywood hopeful, had been brutally murdered. Her murder sparked one of the greatest manhunts in California history.

A little before midnight on May 30, 1997, 14-year-old Brandy DuVall waited at a bus stop in the Denver area for a ride back to her grandparents' home after spending the evening at a friend’s home. She was wearing a bright-red Chicago Bulls jersey bearing the number of her favorite player Michael Jordan. It was the shirt, a favorite of the Bloods gang, that attracted the five young gang members in the car that circled the block and came back to where she stood.

This novel take on the history of wine reveals that, whether by adding toxic sweeteners or passing off counterfeit bottles, wine fraud is abundant—and as old as wine itself. Vintage Crime will intrigue even the most sated of wine drinkers with its juicy tales of deception, raising interesting questions along the way: what counts as wine, why do we drink it, and what makes a wine truly authentic?

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, Jim Fraser introduces the concept of forensic science and explains how it is used in the investigation of crime.

In this gruesome true crime anthology, you will hear about twelve true crime stories that baffled investigators and continue to draw interest among the public due to their shocking details. From tragic cases of spousal murder to tragic cases of child murder, this true crime book will surely keep your attention. Follow the course of these true murder cases and learn how the investigators worked tirelessly to put these monsters behind bars.

Embark on an unforgettable journey through the shadows and spotlights of our contemporary world with Scandal & Tragedy 100 Short Stories That Will Shock & Amaze You. This extraordinary anthology delves deep into the most riveting and controversial episodes in recent history, pulling back the curtains on the untold stories that have left an indelible mark on society. Within these pages, you'll find yourself immersed in a world of astonishing twists, jaw-dropping revelations, and enigmatic figures who have forever altered the course of our collective narrative. From the murky backrooms of ...

In this frightening tale of dark fantasies, pornography, rape, and murder, British serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley targeted children in the early 1960s - killing five and burying most of them in the Saddleworth Moor in Northern England - before being brought to justice. Included as a bonus is a complete true crime short, The Sunset Strip Killers, about serial killers Douglas Clark and Carol Mary Bundy, who targeted runaways and prostitutes in Hollywood, California in 1980 for rape, torture and murder.

Warning! The following true crime book may shock and frighten the faint hearted. In this book are assembled 12 of the strangest true crime stories in human history. There is no doubt that some of these cases will disturb you, but it is equally assured that you will not be able to stop listening!

In this gripping tale of sex, jealousy, con artists, and murder, the author gets to the root of the violent crimes perpetrated by 1940s serial killers Fernandez and Beck, who preyed on lonely women through personal ads, stealing from them, and murdering them before the ultimate justice was served on the killer lovers.

The gripping tale chronicles the lives of Britain's most infamous husband and wife serial killers couple. Over the course of two decades, Fred and Rosemary West murdered more than a dozen young females. Most of the murders were sexually motivated and took place at the couple's house of horrors on 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, in South West England. Only when the killers were brought to justice did their murderous reign of rape, torture, bondage, and terror come to an end.

Albert Maltz’s novel captures the racial tension of America and the failure of the American dream. As time ticks along with indifference, the inmates of Washington’s District Jail now spend their lives numbed by a daily routine behind bars, shut out of society. Each prisoner has a story: some are charged with assault, murder and manslaughter, others with forgery, robbery and larceny; others still were simply born to certain parents at a certain time in a certain country.

One case that stood out to Flowers for its sheer brutality as well as shocking aftermath was that of Karla Faye Tucker and Daniel Garrett, who used a pickaxe to hack to death two people. It began in the wee hours of June 13, 1983, in Houston, Texas, as lovers Tucker and Garrett broke into the apartment of Jerry Lynn Dean. By the time the couple left, Dean and his companion, Deborah Thornton, were dead following a vicious attack with a pickaxe and hammer.

This is the story of an unforgivable con man. Vulnerable families were his prey. His promise was an impossible dream and a lie. Peter Candlewood understood the system. That’s how he could commute prison sentences and reunite hopeless families with incarcerated loved ones. For a price. Except there was no Candlewood. No hope. Just a lowly Texas con artist who bet on the desperate - and won. And he wasn’t working alone. The multimillion-dollar deception cost the betrayed more than their savings.

Ned Kelly the man - warts and all - the most vivid portrait yet of Australia's immortal outlaw! Author, Ian Jones, acknowledged Kelly authority, shares with us the results of a lifetime's research. For the first time, Ned Kelly truly emerges as a man - a man who hated conflict yet never escaped it. A private man incapable of being ordinary and unnoticed. A man who was seen, even in his own lifetime, as what he represented rather than what he was.

In this Very Short Introduction, Georgios A. Antonopoulos and Georgios Papanicolaou uncover the reality of organized crime in our world today. Shining a light on the people involved in organized crime, Antonopoulos and Papanicolaou question whether the term "organized" is used to evoke the image, the operations, and power of a legitimate organization, such as a corporation. Discussing whether there are particular crimes that the label "organized crime" applies to, or if any crime can be organized, they also consider what happens when organized crime extends beyond borders. 

Den of Thieves tells, in masterfully reported detail, the full story of the insider-trading scandal that nearly destroyed Wall Street, the men who pulled it off, and the chase that finally brought them to justice. Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart shows for the first time how four of the biggest names on Wall Street - Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine - created the greatest insider-trading ring in financial history and almost walked away with billions.

Thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan arrived at the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta, Georgia, where she worked, to pick up her paycheck. The next day, Mary’s bloody, battered, and bruised dead body was found in the basement of the pencil factory, the victim of foul play. The Jewish-American factory superintendent Leo Frank was arrested, tried, and convicted for the murder in a controversial trial. Frank himself became the victim of a lynch mob, when they broke him out of prison and hung him from a tree.

Charlie White leads a simple life in 1920s Philadelphia as a chemist at the Dupont Corporation. One day, as he's walking home from work, he is approached by two men and is forced into the world of bootlegging, corruption and murder. When tragedy strikes, Charlie must decide whether to continue his double-life or tell the world his story before it's too late. The Chemist is based on a true story during Prohibition.