Crime Con

From Benjamin Franklin's newspaper hoax that faked the death of his rival to Abbie Hoffman's attempt to levitate the Pentagon - pranksters, hoaxers, and con artists have caused confusion, disorder, and laughter in Western society for centuries. Profiling the most notorious mischief-makers from the 1600s to the present day, Pranksters explores how "pranks" are part of a long tradition of speaking truth to power and social critique.

All his life, journalist Walter Shapiro assumed that the outlandish stories about his great-uncle Freeman were exaggerated family lore; some cockamamie Jewish revenge fantasies dreamt up to entertain the kids and venerate their larger-than-life relative. Only when he started researching Freeman Bernstein's life did he realize that his family was actually holding back.

A rash of burglaries in the small town of Lark Point, California has a domino effect on a group of local residents; eight lives bound together by honor, betrayal and love. Tangled like Music rushes through the small town like a whirlwind and creates changes that none could have anticipated. Love, mystery, deception, murder, and relationships intertwine to tell the story of redemption and the unraveling of life's tangles. It's a recipe for a song.

In the heart of Indian country in the American west, clandestine criminals were profiting greatly from the sale of sacred Native American artifacts stolen from tribal lands. These artifacts were so ancient they had been used since the migration of the first Americans into North America some 15,000 years ago. In the year 1998, the illegal trafficking of these artifacts peaked in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Explore the fascinating and frightening world of conspiracy theories and organized crime with this two book bundle. Get to the bottom of conspiracies and crime groups that have helped “shape” the world we know today, in one way or another. Book #1: Conspiracies: Conspiracy Theories has 20+ conspiracy theories that all get to the bottom of what really happened. Book #2: Organized Crime: True Crime. Learn about the most influential and famous organized crime groups in the world.

A boy with a rifle walks into a middle school, intent on carrying out Western-style vigilante justice. A wife and mother of four kisses her twelve-year-old student and forever changes our definition of student-teacher conferences. The world's most famous serial killers put Washington on the map. A bathtub, a handgun, a meat grinder, and a burn barrel play a role in the murder of the captain of a freighter.

As the 21st century marches into its third decade, our understanding of the world, and our place within it, seems to be clearer than ever. Each day brings us more and more miraculous scientific discoveries, while technology has interconnected us to an extent that our ancestors and forefathers could not have conceived. And yet, despite the collective of human knowledge lying at our fingertips, there are still a multitude of unsolved mysteries that stubbornly resist any attempts at solving them.

Not all unknown forces are amiable to us humans, and some may be quite worth the fear that we instinctively feel when it comes to these forces. The idea of being confronted with a paranormal phenomenon of any kind is enough to flabbergast most people. But what if that paranormal phenomenon is coupled with a crime? Seeing a Bigfoot in the wilderness would be stunning enough, but imagine one grabbing your wallet and running off with it!

Discover unspeakable acts of brutality and violence in this volume of 12 shocking true crime cases. If you’re fascinated by the stories of both killers and victims, and how police work with forensics and evidence in pursuit of coldblooded murderers, this captivating book is for you, taking you on a journey through some of the most unforgettable murders in recent times.

In 1919, Texas rancher J. Frank Norfleet lost everything he had in a stock market swindle. He did what many other marks did - he went home, borrowed more money from his family, and returned for another round of swindling. Only after he lost that second fortune did he reclaim control of his story. Instead of crawling back home in shame, he vowed to hunt down the five men who had conned him. Through Norfleet's ingenious reverse-swindle, Amy Reading reveals the mechanics behind the scenes of the big con.

Ann Rule, who shared her own nerve-jangling account of unknowingly befriending sadistic sociopath Ted Bundy in The Stranger Beside Me, chronicles other fateful encounters with the hidden predators among us in this riveting collection, fifteenth in the best-selling series drawn from her personal files. First in line is a stunning case that spanned thirty years and took a determined detective to four states - ending, finally, in Alaska - where he unraveled not one but two murders.

Real-life murder. Real-life mystery. In some murder cases, the truth behind the most tragic of crimes crystallizes with relative ease. Not so with these fascinating accounts drawn from the personal files of Ann Rule, America's #1 bestselling true-crime writer. What happens when the case itself becomes an intractable puzzle, when clues are shrouded in smoke and mirrors, and when criminals skillfully evade law enforcement in a maddening cat-and-mouse chase?

Una exploración conmovedora y reveladora de la vida jasídica y las luchas de un hombre con la fe, la familia y la comunidad. Shulem Deen creció creyendo que las preguntas son peligrosas. Como miembro de la comunidad skver, una de las sectas jasídicas más aisladas de Estados Unidos, sabe poco sobre el mundo exterior, solo que hay que evitarlo. Conciertan su matrimonio a los dieciocho años y pronto le siguen varios hijos.

Get inside and conquer the world of cons. The world can be a deceptive place. There are individuals out there who will do anything to gain something regardless of who they hurt or who they have to deceive. Unfortunately, this practice is only becoming more of the norm.

Echando la vista atrás, todo comenzó el día del atropello. Fue en el verano de 1999 cuando las vidas de Diego y su pandilla comenzaron a desmoronarse. Veintidós años después, Diego lleva una vida tranquila en la villa costera de Getxo, su ciudad natal. Una mañana, recibe dos paquetes anónimos: contienen un reproductor de CD y un compact disc. Entonces se da cuenta de que el pasado está de vuelta. Y quiere cobrar sus deudas.

The conman and master chameleon thought of himself as a modern-day Frank Abagnale, the fraudster behind the book and movie Catch Me If You Can. It was a stark cry from how investigators saw him. To the feds chasing him, John Donald Cody was more like Jason Bourne - a fictional character on the silver screen who slips in and out of aliases and remains one step ahead.

Camilla Läckberg nos sorprende con una novela que reinventa la línea que divide el bien y el mal. Faye lleva una nueva vida en un pueblo de Italia. Su compañía Revenge va viento en popa y su exmarido está en la cárcel. Pero justo cuando piensa que todo ha vuelto a la normalidad, su pequeña burbuja de felicidad se ve de nuevo amenazada al descubrir que alguien intenta arruinar el sueño por el que tanto ha luchado. Los fantasmas del pasado todavía parecen estar muy cerca y dispuestos a arrebatarle todo lo que es suyo.

En 1927, Charley Braggs llegó a casa y encontró a dos de sus hijas muertas. El médico que observó a las niñas en sus últimos momentos diagnosticó que había sido a causa de una intoxicación alimentaria. No fue necesario realizar una autopsia. Su esposa, Nannie, atribuyó a los granos de avena contaminados como la causa de la intoxicación, pero Charley no estaba convencido.

Esta recopilación de relatos cortos y cuentos cargados de erotismo llega para generar más orgasmos que las mejores profesionales del amor.

In the court of the “King”, everyone knows their place. But as the Artist wins hearts and egos with his ballads, uncomfortable truths emerge that shake the Kingdom to its core. Part surreal fable and part narco-lit romance, this prize-winning novel from Yuri Herrera questions the price of keeping your integrity in a world ruled by patronage and power.