True Crime Serial

In the horrifying annals of American crime, the infamous names of brutal killers such as Bundy, Dahmer, Gacy, and Berkowitz are writ large in the imaginations of a public both horrified and hypnotized by their monstrous, murderous acts. But for every celebrity psychopath who's gotten ink for spilling blood, there's a bevy of all-but-forgotten homicidal fiends studding the bloody margins of US history.

To his neighbors, Anthony Sowell was a friendly and helpful former Marine. But they didn't know about his dark side - or the gruesome secret inside his house. Sowell's secret life was revealed to the nation on October 29, 2009, when a Cleveland Police SWAT team entered his house to arrest him for an alleged rape. They didn't find Sowell, but they encountered a nightmarish scene: two decomposed bodies in his third-floor living room. Eight more bodies were hidden throughout the house and buried in the back yard.

When police in Florida's Volusia County were called to investigate the murder of Richard Mallory, whose gunshot-ridden body had been found in the woods just north of Daytona Beach in December 1989, their search led them to a string of dead ends before the trail went cold six months later. During the spring and summer of 1990, the bodies of six more middle-aged white men were discovered. The police soon discovered the killings were the work of a single culprit, Aileen Wuornos, one of the first women to ever fit the profile of a serial killer.

John Edward Robinson was a 56-year-old grandfather from rural Kansas. An entrepreneur and Eagle Scout, he was even honored as "Man of the Year" at a Kansas City charity. To some of the women he met on the internet, he was known as Slavemaster - a sexual deviate with a taste for sadomasochistic rituals of extreme domination and torture...even killing.

When you think of serial killers throughout history, the names that come to mind are ones like Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy. But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, Kate Bender? The narrative we’re comfortable with is the one where women are the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. In fact, serial killers are thought to be so universally, overwhelmingly male that in 1998, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood infamously declared in a homicide conference, “There are no female serial killers.”

How to Find Zodiac includes an exclusive interview between author Jarett Kobek, true crime aficionado Rebecca Lavoie, and host of True Crime Obsessed, Patrick Hinds. This title encourages you to forget everything you think you know about the infamous killer as it reinvestigates what's possible within the case and poses a new suggestion of who's to blame.

Charles Sobhraj remains one of the world's great con men and as a serial killer, the story of his life and capture endures as legend. First published in 1979, but updated here to include new material, On the Trail of the Serpent draws its listeners into the story of Sobhraj's life as told exclusively to journalists Richard Neville and Julie Clarke. Blurring the boundaries between true crime and novelisation, this remains the definitive book about Sobhraj - a riveting tale of sex, drugs, adventure and murder.

In the tranquil region of southeast South Dakota, word of the young mother who was brazenly abducted from her home in broad daylight shocked residents. Piper Streyle was the second woman to vanish, following the startling incident of a young woman who narrowly escaped abduction by fighting for her life on a dark and secluded highway. An intensive search by an elite team of investigators uncovered a secret crime location, but the discovery of a nightshirt cut in half, a burnt candle, and a homemade bondage board revealed the chilling truth behind the missing women.

Christopher Wilder was about as bad as they get. A predator and serial killer, he first came to the attention of police in Sydney when, as a teenager in 1963, he was charged with rape. A good behaviour bond was not a deterrent, and over the years his crimes escalated. After moving to the USA in his early 20s, Wilder continued to perfect his vile and deadly trade. He was a chameleon with a modus operandi refined over the decades, luring young teenage girls with the promise of a career as a photographic model.

Uncovering the disturbing true story of an unhinged psychopath and his nightmarish killing spree, this morbidly fascinating biography explores the twisted psychology of the infamous BTK killer, offering an unparalleled glimpse into the life and crimes of Dennis Lynn Rader.

There’s a California that everyone imagines, a world of Hollywood glitz and Silicon Valley, and then there’s the real California. The one where everything is the color of dirt. Where the speed freaks gangbang on Haight Street, where evil is lurking, where violence erupts like cystic acne. The place was never crazier than the ’60s and the ’70s, a time when Dad transformed from a hippie-hating Reagan voter into a weed-addled swinger with a crash pad in the Valley. And right in that moment? There’s this guy who calls himself Zodiac.

In March 1976, Ted Bundy was convicted of the aggravated kidnapping of a young woman near Salt Lake City, Utah. Bundy had not been accused or convicted of any violent crime except this one. No one knew then how many women Bundy had murdered, and many thought him incapable of doing so.

With a history marred by wild speculation, media sensationalism, and mysteries that have puzzled historians and true-crime fans for generations, the legendary con artist and killer H. H. Holmes has a strange and sinister story to tell. From tales of a gruesome “Murder Castle”, where he would trap his victims to the string of confessions that only served to muddy the waters, Holmes’ life seems to leave us with more questions than answers. Now, this gripping true-crime novel cuts through the hype and speculation, transporting listeners back in time.

Dr. Al Carlisle, PhD, evaluated Ted Bundy for the Utah court in 1976. Ever since, Carlisle has painstakingly reconstructed Ted’s history through conversations with Bundy's friends, lovers, neighbors, investigators—and through Bundy's own words. The only book of its kind, I'm Not Guilty gives a thorough analysis of the facts of Bundy's life and crimes based on Carlisle's research. Then Carlisle enhances what is known about Bundy’s victims, the origins of the Entity, and Bundy's need to kill. This book helps to explain how a good person can become a serial killer.

Jack l'éventreur est un tueur en série du Londres de la fin du XIXe siècle, dont l'identité n'a jamais été établie. Le pseudonyme passé à la postérité provient d'une lettre envoyée à l'agence de presse London Central News Agency dont l'auteur se présente comme étant le meurtrier, et qui signa "Jack l'éventreur". Il assassina au moins cinq prostituées du quartier pauvre de Whitechapel, à Londres en 1888.

Widowed Blanche Taylor Moore was about to lose her second spouse to symptoms that mysteriously mirrored those that killed her first husband—as well as her previous boyfriend. When an investigation reveals arsenic poisoning, the hideous truth about the wife and mother comes to light. Did the abuse Blanche suffered as a child at the hands of her alcoholic father turn her into a murderer she became?

A lot of people have hobbies - most of the time, that hobby is directed by their penchant for a certain thing; sometimes travel and exploration, sometimes food, and in other cases, crafts. However, there are people whose hobbies consist of sinister things: some of them desire to kill women, both young and old, children, or homosexuals.

From 1910 to 1919, New Orleans suffered at the hands of its very own Jack the Ripper-style killer while two innocent men nearly paid for one of his crimes with their lives. The story has been the subject of websites, short stories, collections of true crime, novels, a graphic novel, and the FX television series American Horror Story. But the real story of the Axeman of New Orleans has never been written - until now.

In fall 1967, friends Linda Tomaszewski and Christine Rothschild are freshmen at the University of Wisconsin. The students in the hippie college town of Madison are letting down their hair - and their guards. But amid the peace rallies lurks a killer. When Christine's body is found, her murder sends shockwaves across college campuses, and the Age of Aquarius gives way to a decade of terror. Linda knows the killer, but when police ignore her pleas, he slips away. For the next forty years, Linda embarks on a cross-country quest to find him.

From trust to terror... from security to survival...The author of The Stranger Beside Me brings her brilliantly informed understanding of the sociopath to this riveting true crime collection. Only Ann Rule, who unknowingly worked alongside the smart and charming Ted Bundy - America's most notorious serial killer - could lend her razor-sharp insight into these cases of the spouse, lover, family member, or helpful stranger who is totally trusted but whose lethally violent nature, though masterfully disguised, can and will kill.