Showing titles in Murder

Ever since that terrible night in January 1931, when the body of Julia Wallace was found in her Liverpool home, her head crushed by violent blows, the identity of her killer has remained a mystery. Her husband, William, was accused, tried, convicted and sentenced to hang for murder, but he was then acquitted in a sensational appeal court judgement. Yet the police refused to reopen their investigation.

In 1922, Major Herbert Armstrong, a Hay-on-Wye solicitor, was found guilty of, and executed for, poisoning his wife, Katharine, with arsenic. Armstrong's case has all the ingredients of a classic murder mystery, from a plot by Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers (indeed some aspects of his story appear in Sayers' Unnatural Death). It is a near-perfect whodunnit.

In the summer of 2000, Jane Steare received the phone call every mother dreads. Her daughter Lucie Blackman - tall, blonde and 21 years old - had stepped into the vastness of a Tokyo summer and disappeared forever. That winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a desolate seaside cave. Her disappearance was mystifying. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult? Who was the mysterious man she had gone to meet?

In this enthralling book Jim Fraser gives a unique insight into forensic science and examines in detail some of the UK's most high-profile murder investigations in recent decades, including the deaths of Rachel Nickell, Damilola Taylor and Gareth Williams, the GCHQ code breaker. Drawing on his personal experience as a forensic scientist and cold-case reviewer, Fraser reveals how each of these cases unfolded as a human, investigative and scientific puzzle and how some were solved and why others remain unsolved or controversial even today.

In 1985, Charles Ng and Leonard Lake were spotted shoplifting. Ng escaped, but Lake's capture led police to a concrete bunker in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where they discovered the grisly evidence of an orgy of sex crimes, torture, and murder that claimed at least 16 victims. Lake committed suicide: Ng fled to Canada, where he was tracked down and extradited to California. This 14-year, $10 million legal case was the costliest and longest criminal prosecution in California history.

Carolyn Pickles retraces the true story of how 11 people came to be brutally cut with a deadly sharp implement, in a spate of attacks that left a town in a state of fear and police mystified about the identity of the attacker. Halifax, West Yorkshire, 1938. The hunt is on for a razor-wielding attacker, possibly a murderer. The papers name him 'The Halifax Slasher'. A huge reward is offered for leads to his arrest. Vigilante groups form, and innocent men are set upon. Baffled, police argue with each other about how to catch the suspect.

In 1952, in a peaceful corner of Provence, a farmer's son stumbled upon a terrible scene. Three bodies. They were all British. So begins one of the most notorious murder cases in French history. Sir Jack Drummond was a senior advisor to the British government, a household name who was respected and admired. His fame made the case a cause celebre in France and resulted in the swift conviction of a local farmer, but questions about Drummond's life and death remain unanswered.

In 2007, Russell Edwards, fuelled by fascination and determination, discovered a shawl – an unexpected key in the historical mystery of Jack the Ripper. With an intriguing blend of forensic investigation and historical research, the book explores the gripping evidence, a blood-stained shawl, connected to the universally infamous criminal, Jack the Ripper. Persistent and fearless, Edwards embarks on a captivating seven-year quest to authenticate the shawl and unearth its concealed truths. His search takes him deeper into the heart of one of history's most chilling real crime stories.

What drives a person to commit seemingly inexplicable crimes? Dr Duncan Harding is the person the police and the courts turn to for answers. An expert witness, he must try to establish a defendant’s mental state and motivation. And their fitness to stand trial. Growing up in a broken, violent home, Harding became a doctor because he wanted to be good and kind. It led him on a journey that has brought him face to face with psychopaths and taken him to the limits. But he’s never turned away nor given up hope. Mesmerising, insightful and redemptive, The Criminal Mind is his unforgettable story.

When Kate married gangster Ronnie Kray, he introduced her to the most deadly criminals ever known. She persuaded them to talk about their crimes, fears and dreams. The result is a book offering an authentic, shocking and gripping insight into the criminal mind. In this true crime classic, Kate Kray delves into the world of some of Britain's most dangerous prisoners, conducting firsthand interviews with them in order to better understand their crimes.

Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, the Toolbox Killers, brought a level of terror that changed the way people carried out their daily lives. It was a time of innocence in California, where young girls could walk the streets or hitchhike along the freeways without a care or concern for their own safety, day or night. But that innocence and trust were to be shattered as five girls made the fatal mistake of accepting a ride from Bittaker and Norris. What started as a chance meeting in prison of these terrible men resulted in a murder spree that was planned right down to the finest details. They knew the type of victims they wanted, how they were going to abduct them, and what they were going to do to them. And they did everything they could to make their depraved fantasies come true. This true crime book includes chapters that explore the psychological make-up of these killers, and factors that may have influenced their twisted minds. How could these men inflict such horrific pain and suffering on their victims, and get away with it until five victims are left dead and scattered in a desolate canyon? What would have happened if Bittaker and Norris had never met? These famous serial killers were organized and sexually sadistic, and were responsible for some of the most horrendous true murders involving unimaginable torture in history. This is one of those true crime stories that will make you question humanity, and look twice at those who live among us.

"¿Por qué matamos?" son crímenes reales, diversos, dentro de la geografía española. Casos ya sentenciados sucedidos en las últimas décadas, trabajados con rigor, explicados con técnicas narrativas específicas y con un punto sociológico, como su título sugiere, intentando entender a través de la serie por qué los humanos matamos a humanos.

From the FBI’s former assistant director, a shocking journey to the dark side of America’s highways, revealing the FBI Highway Serial Killings Initiative’s hunt for the long-haul truckers behind an astonishing 850 murders–and counting.

A real-life thriller in the vein of The Devil in the White City, Kate Winkler Dawson's debut, Death in the Air, is a gripping, historical narrative of a serial killer, an environmental disaster, and an iconic city struggling to regain its footing. In winter 1952, London automobiles and thousands of coal-burning hearths belched particulate matter into the air. But the smog that descended on December fifth of 1952 was different; it was a type that held the city hostage for five long days.

It is 1935, and the deaths of Isabella Ruxton and Mary Rogerson would result in one of the most complex investigations the world had ever seen. The gruesome murders captured worldwide attention, with newspapers keeping the public enthralled with all the gory details. But behind the headlines was a different, more important story: the groundbreaking work of Scottish forensic scientists who developed new techniques to solve the case and shape the future of scientific criminal investigation.

Married to Ron before his death, and a regular correspondent with Reg, Kate Kray was granted unique access to the shadowy underworld they inhabited and was entrusted with some of the darkest secrets they possessed - secrets that could never be revealed until they were both dead. Featuring exclusive letters and thoughts from the twins themselves as well as anecdotes and tributes from gangsters, actors and East End faces, Kate has produced the definitive view of the Krays.

When Nancy Cooper moved from Canada to Cary, North Carolina, with her new husband Brad, their future was bright. Living in one of the most picturesque towns in the United States, the couple mingled with neighbors, attended parties, and raised two daughters. Then, on July 14, 2008, the façade came crashing down when Nancy's strangled body was found in a storm pond. Nancy's husband claimed that she had gone for a jog and never come back.

Best-selling author, co-host of the hit podcast The Murder Squad, and true-crime investigative journalist Billy Jensen goes to Columbus, Ohio, where he examines the unsolved cases of 18 dead and missing women whom he suspects were the victims of serial killers on the loose and operating under cover of the opioid epidemic in America's heartland.

When Ann Woodward shot her husband, banking heir Billy Woodward, in the middle of the night in 1955, her life changed forever. Though she claimed she thought he was a prowler, few believed the woman who had risen from charismatic showgirl to popular socialite. Everyone had something to say about the scorching scandal afflicting one of the most rich and famous families of New York City, but no one was more obsessed with the tale than Truman Capote.

Early in the morning of 6 May 1840, on an ultra-respectable Mayfair street, a footman answered the door to a panic-stricken maid from a nearby house. Her elderly master, Lord William Russell, was lying in bed with his throat cut so deeply that the head was almost severed. The whole of London, from monarch to street urchins, was gripped by the gory details of the Russell murder, but behind it was another story, a work of fiction, and a fierce debate about censorship and morality.