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The most popular reviews in /r/TrueCrimeDiscussion:
For DNA only it's $99 but with the US holiday season coming up I've seen it drop down to around half that. Might be worth it to wait 2 months for the cheaper price.
There's a fantastic book by Gregg Olsen, "Starvation Heights." It is very thorough. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1400097460/ref=cm_sw_r_fm_apa_i_vbncEbG2J804S
I had the chance to visit the property, meet the current family residing there, and do a paranormal investigation.
You should read The Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker. If you ever have kids, have them read it, too. His advice is t he same: Never go with them. Force them to commit to their choices right where you are.
It's a wild story and ultimately, Michael Madsen (aka Mr. Blonde) helped my movie get distribution and in front of the audience. It's available here - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R6YJ1RP
Okay listen, this guy is a nutjob who attached himself to this case for fame. He says something different every 5 minutes. When he worked for Baez, he was hot on the Zanny = Xanax theory. Then Baez fired him and he went to work for the Anthony family. He then decided, after her funeral, that Caylee wasn't even dead and was instead part of some complex international kidnapping scheme where she was smuggled out of the country on a plane containing US mail. Zanny the nanny was real and was somehow a part of it. Then when his fame died down, he wrote a book alleging that Casey drowned Caylee in the pool and that Jose admitted it to him.
I'm not telling any of y'all what to think about Casey, but just because you have feelings about her guilt doesn't mean that literally every negative thing about her is true.
Seriously, read my chapter on this guy. He's not a reliable source about anything:
https://www.amazon.com/Everything-didnt-about-Casey-Anthony-ebook/dp/B079WKF7J8
Here’s a link to the Amazon page. Thanks!
Thank you! That would be insane to have this in a library somewhere! Here’s a link to the book on Amazon.
I grew up an hour from Newport Beach and did not hear about this case until yesterday, so here's the tl;dr for the lazy:
Oct 2012 - Peter Chadwick's wife Quee Choo (QC) did not pick up their 2 youngest sons (9, 12) from school, which was abnormal for her. QC and Peter could not be found. The next day Chadwick calls from San Diego (100 miles from Newport) and claims they were kidnapped by a handyman. That was suspicious so he was arrested. He pleaded not guilty and then was released on $1m bond. QC's body was found in a San Diego trash can.
Jan 2015 - Chadwick vanishes, leaving behind 3 sons -- the oldest son attended a boarding school in Ojai. Before Chadwick disappeared, he withdrew millions of dollars from bank accounts, took cash advances on his credit cards, and read books about living off the grid. He might be out of the country.
Link to the podcast: https://player.fm/series/countdown-to-capture/
I think it was sensitively handled. Of course, I was probably too young to really appreciate the story as I do now, as an adult & a mother. I can't say that it would hold up well, but maybe? At that time, news came via TV incl miniseries, so there may not be much there that isn't told via internet.
If you wanted the DVD, Amazon has it for $18: https://www.amazon.com/Know-First-Name-Steven-Tvm/dp/B00366BJAK. It's possible that DailyMotion has it to stream?
This book about the Donner party.
“Drawing on fresh archaeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their unimaginable ordeal.”
https://www.amazon.com/Desperate-Passage-Donner-Perilous-Journey/dp/0195383311
There's video of Caylee alive at her great grandfather's nursing home on the 15th. I know there was some confusion over dates initially, but we have pretty good confirmation that Caylee was alive until the night of the 15th. Casey then abruptly moved out of the house a little after 4pm on the 16th and in with her boyfriend. The child was never seen again. So don't worry about who said what about the 9th because it's just people with bad memories. :-)
Source: I wrote a book about the case
Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!
Here are your smile-ified links:
^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot
I loved Tragedy in Sedona by Connie Joy. It's about self help guru/scam artist James Ray and the sweat lodge deaths.
Red Zone by Aphrodite Jones.
This is my book. It's on sale for 99 cents if anyone is interested
I know, right?
I suspect he has antisocial personality disorder, and I'm waiting for him to do something else that lands him back in prison. I hope his file then gets flagged so no well-intended governor restores his rights again.
It’s not out yet but I’m really excited for Justin Fenton’s “We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption” about the corrupt Baltimore cops.
The book that I know that it’s in English is this one I think you might like it! Would love to hear your opinion if you ever get to read it!
>I believe he killed the person who killed his mom
That was his Dad, and he did it while he was in prison. The first person he killed was a man who cheated his father, when he was 14
There is also a documentary by same name. Both doc and book are excellent and quite different https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Heartland-Murder-Missing-Girls-ebook/dp/B07XKPZLX4?ref=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=d945d3e2-eb13-4864-834b-7b1b5194f15b
There's an excellent book "The Perfect Victim" about this case. The detective that put Hooker away called him a mutant.
You can it used but also on Amazon
It's not a recent trend lol. It was Freud's first theory before he actually had to bury his research and pretend he thought that children fantasize about being molested because his original research showed that there was so much child abuse that it was embarassing:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007237VUA/ref=dbs\_a\_def\_rwt\_bibl\_vppi\_i2
This one goes over hitler's childhood and why someone with an equally traumatizing childhood who grew up with maybe a sympathetic aunt or uncle in the picture would not grow up to be hitler:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007237VUA/ref=dbs\_a\_def\_rwt\_bibl\_vppi\_i2
I went to see if Sarah Marshall ever published her book on the Satanic Panic and found this one instead. Seems to get good reviews, but haven’t read it myself. satanic panic book on Amazon
The cartoonist John "Derf" Backderf actually went to high school with Dahmer, & according to him, his high school milieu was such a "Twin Peaks" level of fucked-up that when his wife called him up one day to tell him that someone he went to high school with had become a serial murderer & had been found with bodies stashed in their home, Dahmer was his third or fourth guess.
What makes Dahmer a sympathetic figure was the level of abandonment he was subjected to as a child. By the time he graduated from Richfield High, both of his parents had abandoned him & he was living in his parents isolated house on the suburban peripheries all by himself. His father had walked out on the family due to his mother's outsized, & mishandled neuroses, followed later by not only his Mother abandoning him but taking his younger brother with her, reinforcing the messaging he was getting that told him he was the invisible boy & unworthy of any attention, never mind care or compassion.
Reading the book makes it clear that the "Milwaukee Cannibal" was failed by every single adult in his life, so I don't buy for a second anything about his Father trying to help.
The first incident came to light on Sunday, August 28, when a security guard, identified as Kalyan Lodhi, was found hammered to death in a factory at Sagar’s Bhainsa locality. Lodhi was asleep when he was attacked, police said.
The second incident was reported at Government Arts & Commerce College on Monday night — security guard Shambhuram Dubey was found dead at the college canteen with his head smashed, likely with a stone. What connected the two cases was the fact that Lodhi’s cellphone was found at the site where Dubey was killed; the phone’s sim card was missing.
As police began investigating the two cases, with the cellphone connecting them, a third incident was reported on Tuesday. A security guard, identified as Mangal Ahirwar, was killed at Moti Nagar area of the town, his head smashed with the handle of a sickle.
In May, a security guard, identified as Uttam Rajak, was found dead while on duty — his head, too, was smashed, much like this week’s killings — but police are not linking that with the present cases as of now
Shared by Indian Express android app Click here to download https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.indianexpress.android)
Just buy one of these emergency escape tools - they’re super compact, this one in particular glows in the dark, and it can both break the glass and cut your seatbelt off.
Hey, since you've asked, I have a new true crime book that will be released on Halloween. I'm looking for people who will do honest reviews on Amazon and Goodreads in exchange for a free copy of the ebook.
I Saw the Devil's Face: My Life With Joseph Michael Kalady
My Advance Review Copies will be going out at the end of this month, as soon as Goodreads lists it for reviews!
I think there is definitely a common pattern of men like Chris Watts, Scott Petersen, Jeffrey MacDonald getting rid of the entire family in order to start again. They don't want to be widowers with children to raise, they want to be young and single again.
This book explores this type of crime:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Erased-Missing-Women-Murdered-Wives/dp/0787996394
Murder of tv anchor woman in Michigan by former cop husband & criminal university lecturer. I just read it because he was a cop near where I live.
There's a really interesting (and short) docuseries on Prime called In Defense Of that goes into this. Each episode interviews a defense attorney for a relatively high-profile trial: Timothy McVeigh, Clive Doyle, Jodi Arias, and Ted Bundy.
As I recall, at least a couple were public defenders at the time - they didn't choose their client, per se, but they chose to keep working with them because providing a defense for the accused is the literal basis of the legal system. I found Kirk Nurmi's (Jodi Arias's PD) episode completely fascinating from both a legal and an ethical perspective.
It was flagged and the listing has since been updated.
You can read the in-depth story about the Stockdale in the restrictive upbringing caused Jacob to snap, but delving a little deeper, it seems much more complex than that
You can read the in-depth story about the Stockdales in Small Towns, Dark Secrets: Social media, reality TV and murder in rural America
Here's an Amazon link where you can buy paperback, audiobook or kindle.
It's just simply not the case that Homo sapiens were not subject to predation. E.g., see https://www.amazon.com/Man-Hunted-Primates-Predators-Evolution/dp/0813339367
We are predators and prey.
Actually … there was a book written about it. I actually haven’t read it myself. But now that I’m thinking of it .. I’m ordering a copy before I forget again.
The reviews were actually quite good but the consensus is that it’s definitely NOT for the faint of heart. I hear it’s a tough book to read.
On the day this happened , my mother had allowed my older sister and I to walk home by ourselves from my grandmother’s house for the 1st time.
The fire trucks passed us, and the scene was unfolding as we reached the building. We were , at the time - blissfully unaware of what was going on. We had been told not to talk to anyone during our walk , so dutifully continued walking along when it appeared there was “no fire”. We learned about it later that evening on the news.
I later had to walk past this building every day to and from school. Despite over 30 years since it happened- I think every local old enough to remember - still thinks of this EVERY time we go by it. It’s right on Main st … so pretty much anywhere you go.
It was even still the same ugly yellow color the last time I was home for a visit.
https://www.amazon.com/LuciferS-Child-Elliott-L-Epstein/dp/145203561X
True crime author here. I try to strike a balance between describing victims, perps, and investigations, and often it depends on what information is available and who will speak to me.
Sometimes, describing the victim in detail is essential. For example, I write about spree killers the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs in one book. They killed over 20 people, and there was a varying amount of information about each victim. However, their most 'famous' victim was the man in the video they produced, 3 Guys, 1 Hammer, which went viral on gore sites (don't look for it, it is sickening and traumatizing).
When writing the book, I felt it was really important to explain who that man was, and a couple of chapters of the book is spent describing him, his family and his life. I felt that if readers could come to know gentle grandfather Sergei Yatsenko, then they could not be desensitized to the horror of that video that is circulated as some kind of sick litmus test for how much gore a person can handle.
I haven’t read this but I have listened to the podcast that’s based on this guys story and there’s a short Netflix docudrama that both are interesting and let’s say NSFW
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Dahlia-Avenger-Genius-Murder/dp/1628724390/ref=nodl_
She’s a interesting one -
Buried Beneath the Boarding House: A Shocking True Story of Deception, Exploitation and Murder (Ryan Green's True Crime) https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1695085574/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_0BJRNJN5ZC6KMK01Y7P5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Amy Allwine - FBI came to her house to tell her that someone on the dark web had paid $11,000 for a hit on her. Whoever had done it accused her of having an affair with their husband and ruining their business. Nevertheless, they couldn't figure out who it might be, and Amy had no idea. Six months later, Amy was dead of an apparent suicide, that was soon determined to be murder.
No spoilers:
If you're a podcast person:
These is a recent episode that traces the phenomenon back a couple of decades, along with workplace shootings. They do take a look at why this happened with postal workers at first (one answer is, 'really shitty and toxic working conditions back then').
https://castbox.fm/vb/298525506 This is a good podcast series about this cult.
https://castbox.fm/vb/91168819 Another good podcast. This was the first media item I heard about this cult.
Sarah Edmondson also has at least one book out and HBO has a documentary "The Vow".
Copy that! Here’s a link to the book I read on it:
Murder at Holy Cross - Murder at Holy Cross (Berkley True Crime) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0425217922/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_14D6N55SWZE7EBZMZ87C
I posted this in a response to a post in another sub reddit (I was just looking up the case and reading all the posts) but- https://www.buzzsprout.com/1849500/9416961-pensacola-sea-monster do an episode on this and mention another Reddit post where another user comes up with a pretty good theory for what the sea monster could have been.
But yeah as another user said, he also described it as a "telephone pole" which is like...wth. I took it to mean its neck was really tall and long but...yeah.
He was bludgeoned to death, and the police claimed he beat himself to death. If you have Facebook have a look at “Brandon’s Voice” or have a listen to the following podcasts:
https://www.deezer.com/en/episode/270373342
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1276028/8105382-viking-the-mysterious-death-of-brandon-embry
This is just Fort Hood, there is a good podcast episode from Crime Junkies about the ones in Iraq.
"In 2010, statistics came out that 120 female U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq had died. Half of those deaths were reported to be non-combat related. 30 those non-combat related deaths were ruled suicides, but there is evidence to suggest many of them may have actually been murders. In this episode, we dive into the case of LaVena Johnson and other women of the U.S. military who died very suspicious deaths during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/conspiracy-women-in-the-us-military/ "
https://castbox.fm/vb/96974389
There are so many that we dont hear about, that are classified as suicides. Its insane what is covered up.
If you can track down a copy of this, it's a long, excellent read. The case was also known in the UK as some of the victims were from here.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sins-brother-definitive-backpacker-murders/dp/0330362844/
If you liked Who Took Johnny, I would highly suggest you check out the book [https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Cover-up-Satanism-Murder-Nebraska/dp/0963215809](The Franklin Cover up) by Senator John DeCamp. It's been a while since I read it, but I believe he was actually the attorney for a few of the kids claiming to be trafficked, including one that confessed to being a part of Johnny's abduction.
He was known as Pedrhino Matador ("Killer Petey") and his story is wilder than you can imagine.
Pedro's capacity for revenge was astonishing, and he was often dubbed the "Dexter Killer" because of his penchant for killing murderers and rapists. He also went through a sort of black magic ritual that he believed made him invincible.
He is out of prison due to Brazil's limits on incarceration and likes to cook and has a Youtube channel.
His story is featured in the book Psycho.com: Serial Killers on the Internet, along with the story of the teens behind the video 3 Guys, 1 Hammer and the infitenly less Dexter-like "Dexter Killer" Mark Twitchell.
Especially since there was a teen in the news recently who collapsed a lung using one. At least he posted a warning that went viral which is good, considering these kids only started doing this because it became a fucking meme to begin with.
That book completely destroys any "evidence" the Italian courts used. It was scientifically bad, confabulated, and irrelevant.
She was completely innocent.
This is my favorite case so I’ve listened to every podcast/video out there and they pretty much all recycle the same details/theories.
The one source I found that actually presents new information is the book Out of Bounds: What Happened to the Yuba County Five? by Drew Beeson. It’s a pretty amateur book but he was able to interview some family members who provided some interesting new details.
One of the California state's psychiatrists actually fell for Kenneth Bianch's MPD defense , and some woman psychiatrist* actually fell for Jerome Brudos' insanity act (and wrote a book full of defensiveness over her failure). Hopefully the psychiatrists around this loathsome little POS are more competent.
*I can't remember the name of the man who fell for Bianchi's act ; details are in Two of a Kind. I am 95+% sure the woman doctor is Dorothy Otnow-Lewis, and the book is Guilty by Reason of Insanity. But I don't have a copy handy to confirm this is the book in which the Brudos debacle is defended.
I knew i recognised that picture. This case was featured in this book i read recently by a man who used to run a morgue : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785785958/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I thought there were more cousins that believed them? One of Kitty's nephews and a niece whom I don't remember if she's from Kitty or Jose's side. Like multiple cousins who had visited the home while the boys were younger. I don't remember what documentary I saw that in, but that's where I'm pulling this from.
Maybe this one? "The Menendez Brothers: Erik Tells All" (Amazon Prime Video Link)
Karl Denke is also the first known (at least to me) subject of a serial killer joke (both Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer had lots of jokes about them ; the ones about Gein were called "geiners" and Schechter devotes several pages to them in his book Deviant, about Gein. The book I read on Dahmer devoted several pages to "Dahmer jokes" but I can't remember its title). Anyway, the joke goes something like this:
"Who is worse, Haarman or Grossman? (Referring to two pre WW II German cannibal serial killers)
The answer is
"Carl, I think" ( which in German would be "Carl, I denke" ; IOW, the name of the third German cannibal serial killer).
Probably isn't funny if it has to be explained.
BTW, I have a book called Behind the Horror: True Stories That Inspired Horror Movies which listed every known German serial killer cannibal from 1870-1940, and there were over a dozen. I only knew about Denke, Grossman, and Haarman.
The Postcard Killer.
It's not surprising that this killer is largely forgotten (though at least one PB was published about him), as his crimes occured before WW Imagine getting letters from your son's abductor and killer describing in copious detail exactly how he was raped, tortured , and murdered. The father protected his wife from knowledge about the letters, and he also did not share them with the police, because he feared the police would lose interest if they knew they were retrieving a corpse rather than rescuing a living victim.
Eventually the child's corpse was discovered, buried in the space beneath an outhouse's seats, encased in month's worth of filth.
Here's a wikipedia account , but my details about this early serial killer is from a book on the Bobby Dunbar case, A Case For Solomon
I have not read this so I don't know how up to date as he still has pending cases as of 2020. I grew up with this as I lived the next town over. Craig Price is one bone chilling dude.
A Call for Justice: A New England Town's Fight To Keep A Stone Cold Killer In Jail https://www.amazon.com/dp/0380780771/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_glt_i_BW85156V8VFM8882MQWM
Honestly this story has so many layers to it it’s virtually impossible to tell it in even a 2-hour documentary. But the book covers everything we know. Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593099966/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_DGYKKJ7SB97CVST30Y1E
I wrote a book about the case that goes through the reasons for acquittal if anyone has any questions. https://www.amazon.com/Everything-didnt-about-Casey-Anthony-ebook/dp/B079WKF7J8/ref=nodl_
The thing you need to remember is that the media really did a number of the case and it gave us a very different vision of what happened vs what the actual evidence was. There were a lot of reasons behind the acquittal, but the top 3:
Casey's friends and family said she was a really great mom who had very little interest in partying. This played a big role in their perception of Casey
They had great circumstantial evidence but they tried to prop the case up with really shoddy forensics. Most of what people have in their heads as being a crucial part of the case was dismissed by the jurors because the prosecution couldn't prove what they claimed
George Anthony. He was arguably the biggest factor. He is a compulsive liar just like Casey is. Now, I can't prove he was involved but he was the state's key witness and the jurors couldn't trust anything he said. He was also there that day and clearly lying about the details. So from the jurors perspective, Cindy left Caylee at the house with Casey and George. The child died. And now BOTH of them are lying and acting strangely. They couldn't pin it down to just Casey and his behavior raised the possibility that Casey hid the death because of the family dysfunction rather than guilt. The two alternate jurors were firmly convinced this was an accidental death that Casey and George hid together.
The central idea is using a compound to force someone into a semi-hypnotic state, and then having them freeze to death in a snowstorm, which in the process covers up all of the tracks. Because of the location, the bodies are not discovered for up to 24 hours after death.
How would you solve this one?
Also, you can check out the book here if interested.
Read my book and see what you think. I argue that she's more or less innocent: https://www.amazon.com/Everything-didnt-about-Casey-Anthony-ebook/dp/B079WKF7J8/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=Casey+Anthony&qid=1618372371&sr=8-5
Studies like that are intended to explain away problematic data. That study offers an explanation that is a mere possibility. Their job is literally to go to any length to explain away the two seismic spikes, regardless of how implausible their conclusion is.
Charles Key put together an impartial committee after being pressured by angry local victims’ family members and the evidence there were explosives within the Murray building are overwhelming.
That sort of damage is completely inconsistent with an ANFO bomb parked away from the building.
The Final Report on the Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building https://www.amazon.com/dp/0971051305/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_7HRETQXP9H7B0RPBQ3MP
Have fun!
It's on Amazon, the hardcover is ridiculously expensive (over 700 bucks) but there are a few used paperbacks for around $45.00...Check w/used or thrift book stores, you might get it cheaper.
https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Bandit-Heather-Robertson/dp/0888625197
I wrote a book about the trial and it explains the acquittal. Let me know if you have any questions.
The bottom line is that the state had serious evidentiary problems. They had the great circumstantial evidence with Casey's reaction to the death, but all the other evidence you mentioned was very poor quality evidence. So the 31 days really was the only reliable piece of evidence they had.
But the main reason is that George Anthony (Casey's father) is just as much of a compulsive liar as she is. Everything George told police was a lie. This may simply be an incidental finding, but it's a problem for a couple reasons: first they used him as their key witness and the jurors felt they couldn't trust his memories. But more importantly, he was the other last person to see Caylee alive. Cindy left for work, leaving Caylee with Casey and George. BOTH of them lied to police about what happened. The jurors couldn't rule him out. That's why she was acquitted.
Read this book https://www.amazon.com/Programmed-Kill-Politics-Serial-Murder/dp/0595326404
Whenever I post this link the true crime trolls usually come out in force and attack it and tell you not to read it. That should tell you something about the validity of the material in it. You’ll never look at serial killer/mass shooters the same way. Read it. It will blow you away.
Casey Anthony is my pet case. I wrote a book about the trial and an explanation of the verdict. The media made it out to be an open and shut case but the defense really did raise a significant amount of doubt at the trial. It's really a fascinating sequence of events.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079WKF7J8/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdo_t1_vaxREb8JZRFM1_nodl
And there is also a book by Sabine about her months with Dutroux, by the way. I think it was translated into English too. https://www.amazon.com/I-Choose-Live-Sabine-Dardenne/dp/1844082687
And by listening to the Belgian podcast about this, I also found out about the book about Michelle Martin, his accomplice, who didn't feed the children he had hidden (but she knew about) and who then died because Dutroux was imprisoned (imprisoned before Sabine and Letizia happened) https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Who-Fed-Dogs/dp/1642860077