True Crime Kidnapping

Beautiful, bubbly, 20-year-old Kim Antonakos was returning to her New York City apartment after a night of clubbing with a friend. A business major with wild black hair, long polished fingernails, and a new Honda her loving father had bought her, Kim took good care of herself and looked forward to a bright future. But on her way home in the early morning darkness of that Ash Wednesday, Kim was abducted - and her mysterious kidnappers would be the last people to see her alive. Kim's father, wealthy computer executive Tommy Antonakos, launched a widespread search for his daughter.

The incredible true story of one of America's largest ransom cases - and the massive FBI and police manhunt to bring the radical captors to justice.

In 1936, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. Almost all of America believed Hauptmann guilty; only a few magazines and tabloids published articles questioning his conviction. In the ensuing decades, many books about the Lindbergh case have been published. Some have declared Hauptmann the victim of a police conspiracy and frame-up, and one posited that Lindbergh actually killed his own son and fabricated the entire kidnapping to mask the deed.

Situated in Northern California, Yuba County boasts vast wilderness, rugged terrain, and close-knit communities. However, the families of five local individuals were left to grapple with the heart-wrenching mystery of their sudden disappearance on a cold winter night in 1978. Even now, the mystery remains unsolved. On the night they went missing, Bill Sterling, Jack Madruga, Jack Huett, Ted Weiher, and Gary Mathias were affectionately known as "the boys."

Saving Abigail is a true story about a little girl taken hostage by Hamas the morning of October 7, 2023, after thousands of terrorists breached Israel by land, sea, and air. That day, Hamas slaughtered 1,200 men, women, and children, and 246 innocent people were dragged across the border into Gaza against their will. Among them was three-year-old Abigail Mor Edan.

Eine Sammlung spannender, echter Kriminalfälle aus Dänemark, Schweden und Norwegen: Eine entstellte Frauenleiche in einem Kopenhagener Hotelzimmer; ein exzentrischer norwegischer Maler, der der Steuerhinterziehung angeklagt wird; zwei grausame Mädchenmorde im ländlichen Schweden; ein mysteriöser Leichenfund in einem Kopenhagener Park; ein Mini-U-Boot, das auf Leichensuche in einen norwegischen Fjord geschickt wird - diese Zusammenstellung unterschiedlicher True-Crime-Fälle kann es mit jedem Krimi aufnehmen.

A gripping expose of a notorious cold case. 1978. An idyllic beachside community. A series of abductions and rapes. So what happened to Trudie Adams? Back in the 1970s, Sydney's Northern Beaches felt like a slice of paradise to those who lived there. Bordered on one side by the glistening blue of the Pacific and on the other by stunning rugged bushland, it was the kind of place where everyone knew everyone. So, when a popular local girl, 18-year-old Trudie Adams, disappeared one night while hitchhiking home from the surf club dance, her family, friends and community were devastated.

In the early hours of 27th January 1996, after an evening spent celebrating at Club Bayview in the Perth suburb of Claremont, 18-year-old Sarah Spiers called a taxi to nearby Mosman Park. But when the cab arrived, she’d already gone. She was never seen again. Four months later, on 9th June 1996, 23-year-old Jane Rimmer disappeared from the same area, her body later found in bushland south of Perth. When the body of a third young woman, 27-year-old Ciara Glennon, was found north of the city, having vanished from Claremont in August 1997, it was clear a serial killer was on the loose.

Grand Junction, Colorado, 2001: When Michael Blagg's adoring wife, Jennifer, and his six year-old-daughter, Abby, disappeared from their home, Michael led the charge to find them, even going so far as to make a nationwide appeal on Good Morning America for information. But seven months later, investigators found Jennifer's remains in a Mesa County landfill, and things took a darker turn. While Michael, a respected prayer-group leader, played the part of grieving survivor, authorities became increasingly suspicious.

This book is going to look at a variety of cases of missing people. They will have unresolved endings in many of the cases. In some there are conspiracy theories and improbable suggestions for what might have happened. In others, there is every reason to believe in foul play and deeply sinister motives.

This book, based on actual cases and investigations, tells how a widespread criminal network in Spain and Morocco, stole and sold babies through an underground baby black market for decades. All the while, government, church and doctors and nurses either looked the other way, or worse, conspired together to deceive parents and family while lining their own pockets.

In March 2005, Dr. Steven Berk was kidnapped in Amarillo, Texas, by a dangerous and enigmatic criminal who entered his home, armed with a shotgun, through an open garage door. Dr. Berk's experiences and training as a physician, especially his understanding of Sir William Osler's treatise on aequanimitas, enabled him to keep his family safe, establish rapport with his kidnapper, and bring his captor to justice.

In 1931, San Diego's idyllic image as a beach town with peaceful suburbs concealed a harrowing reality: a series of unsolved crimes targeting women, fueling fear and vulnerability. Monsters on the Loose tells the tragic and true stories of three women murdered early that year: Virginia Brooks, Louise Teuber, and Hazel Bradshaw. Local law enforcement, out-of-town criminologists, and investigators from what would become the FBI pursued hundreds of leads. Yet, the killer(s) were never identified and brought to justice.

Tara is on her way to pick up both her children from the airport following a visit with their father in America, but within seconds, her happiness is replaced by the shocking realization that only her daughter returned. Tara’s world is shattered as she’s thrust into the American legal system, determined to fight for her son.

"I just want to make sure I've got this right. You hanged all three of them?" That's how it began, a case where the cops are crooks and the crooks are cops, a kidnapping where the victim is the bad guy, and the good guys must cross some lines to get him back. Welcome to the upside down and backward world of the undercover agent, where nothing is as it seems, and people may not be what they appear. Going Under by former undercover agent John Madinger takes you into that world, and closer to the truth of the undercover experience than any other law enforcement memoir has ever gone.

Although the 1932 kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby was a worldwide sensation, it was only one of an estimated 3,000 ransom kidnappings that occurred in the United States that year. The epidemic hit America during the Great Depression and the last days of Prohibition as criminal gangs turned kidnapping into the highly lucrative “snatch racket". Wealthy families and celebrities purchased kidnap insurance, hired armed chauffeurs and bodyguards, and carried loaded handguns. Some sent their children to school or summer camp in Europe to get them out of harm’s way.

In this meticulous and authoritative account of the trial and the times of the Lindbergh kidnapping, Robert Zorn clears away decades of ungrounded speculation surrounding the case. Inspired by his father's relationship with the actual accomplices—including the mastermind—he presents the clearest ever picture of a criminal partnership that would shake every class and culture of American society.

In 1935, nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser, heir to one of the wealthiest families in America, is snatched off the streets two blocks from his home. The boy is kept manacled in a pit, chained to a tree, and locked in a closet. The perps - a career bank robber, a petty thief, and his 19-year-old never-been-in-trouble Mormon wife - quickly become the targets of the biggest manhunt in Northwest history. The caper plays out like a Hollywood thriller with countless twists and improbable developments. Perhaps the most astonishing thing of all, though, is how it all ends.

Australia's most prolific serial sexual killers met in prison. They were a complete contrast: Christopher Worrell, the charismatic psychopathic youngster; and James Miller, the older and socially awkward loner. For Miller, it was love at first sight. They developed an ominous sexual bond–proving that opposites can attract–and then kill. Once free, the inseparable tag team slayed as many people as notorious Australian serial killer Ivan Milat. Whereas Milat took a year to murder seven victims, the duo achieved the same in seven short weeks … the last four killed in only six days.

Marie seems to have it all: a devoted husband, two wonderful children, and a professional career. But all of that changes when she drives her car into the darkened parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. After she lowers her car window to place an order at the drive-through, a man suddenly appears and places a gun at her temple. What follows is every woman's worst nightmare.