True Crime Women

Florence Maybrick was the first American woman to be sentenced to death in England - for murdering her husband, a crime she almost certainly didn't commit. Her 1889 trial was presided over by an openly misogynist judge who was later declared incompetent and died in an asylum. Hours before she was to be hanged, Queen Victoria reluctantly commuted her sentence to life in prison. In her opinion, a woman who would commit adultery, as Maybrick had admitted, would also kill her husband. Her children were taken from her; she never saw them again. Her mother worked for years to clear her name.

It was a profound "Aha!" moment for Karen Lodrick: She suddenly realized how she knew the vaguely familiar looking woman in jeans and Gucci glasses, carrying a brown suede coat and a Prada purse, standing beside her at a local Starbucks. Karen's ID had been stolen five months earlier. Her bank account had been emptied, and her life sent reeling out of control. The suede coat was the same one she'd seen in the bank surveillance tape, worn by the woman who'd stolen Karen's ID.

Nineteen-year-old Jovan Mosley, a good kid from one of Chicago's very bad neighborhoods, was coerced into confessing to a crime he didn't commit. Charged with murder, he spent five years and eight months in a prison for violent criminals. Without a trial. Jovan grew up on the rough streets of Chicago's Southeast Side. With one brother dead of HIV complications, another in jail for arson and murder, and most kids his age in gangs, Jovan struggled to be different. Until his arrest, he was.

You won't be familiar with every one of the huge array of women featured in this book, but all, familiar or not, leave unanswered questions behind them—from Cleopatra to Ruth Ellis, from Boudicca to Bonnie Parker, from Lady Caroline Lamb to Moll Cutpurse, from Jezebel to Ava Gardner. The risqué, the adventurous and the outrageous, the downright nasty and the downright desperate—all human (female!) life is here. Wicked? Misunderstood? Naïve? Foolish? Predatory? Manipulative? Or just out of their time? Listen and decide.

Cosa è successo ad Anita Garibaldi, in fuga dagli Austriaci, che non ha lasciato viva le paludi di Comacchio? In questo saggio a metà tra una biografia e un reportage, le misteriose circostanze che hanno portato alla morte di Anita Garibaldi vengono affrontate come in un romanzo poliziesco dai toni noir, riprendendo sentenze, testimonianze e articoli di giornale risalenti all'epoca dell'accaduto. Un'indagine che cerca di far luce su una delle pagine oscure del Risorgimento Italiano.

The infamous double murder that inspired elementary school rhymes is a controversial one: partially because of the insidious nature and grossness of the crime and on the other hand because some people still believe the defendant is innocent. There are many reasons to believe why Lizzie killed both her parents with an axe, and there are some that could be used to argue that she didn’t.

Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, Ronnie Biggs, the Krays.... All have become folk heroes, glamorised and romanticised, even when they killed. But where are their female equivalents? Where are the street robbers, gang leaders, diamond thieves, gold smugglers and bank robbers? Queens of the Underworld reveals the incredible story of female crooks from the 17th century to the present.

Danielle has a safe, happy childhood growing up in West London, but her bright future fades as she turns her back on school for gang life and crime. Betrayed by the police after a brutal gang rape, she finds protection under the wing of organised criminals and falls in love with the local ‘top boy’. However, her allegiances bring terror to her doorstep when gun-toting rivals target her flat – and the authorities answer by taking away her baby. Heartbroken, Danielle spirals deeper into gang life and becomes a key player in a sprawling county lines operation.

Cinco mujeres juzgadas en las décadas de 1930 y 1940: Clementina asesinó a su marido cuando este le propinaba una terrible golpiza; María Antonieta terminó con la vida de su agresor después de años de hostigamiento sexual; Carmen mató a golpes al dueño de una cantina para robarle; Amelia y Teresa abortaron, la primera para salvar su vida y la segunda para ocultar la pérdida de su virginidad tras una violación.

Tatiana Brillant a été négociatrice au RAID. Pendant plus de 13 ans, elle fut le seul officier féminin à exercer ce métier au sein de cette prestigieuse unité d'élite. "Sa mascotte est la panthère, sa devise tient en trois mots : "Servir sans faillir". Tatiana n'y a jamais dérogé. Elle s'est imposée en prouvant que la négociation n'est pas une question de genre mais avant tout une affaire de spécialistes. C'est la crédibilité de l'interlocuteur ou de l'interlocutrice qui compte."

Deutschlands profilierteste psychiatrische Gutachterin berichtet von ihren Erfahrungen mit Frauen und dem Bösen. Wie kann es sein, dass eine Frau ihren eigenen Mann umbringt? Dass sie ihr Kind nicht vor einem gewalttätigen Partner schützt? Oder dass sie ihr Baby sogar selbst tötet? Solche Gewalttaten lösen häufig große Erschütterung aus, denn Frauen gelten als empathisch, warmherzig und friedfertig. Doch diese Attribute führen dazu, dass die Gefährlichkeit von Frauen unterschätzt wird.

Everyone, it seems, missed the most obvious signs: A childhood filled with poverty, neglect, drugs, pornography, physical, mental, and sexual abuse will invariably lead to an adulthood full of greed, lust and violence. No one, however, could have predicted the terror that Reginald and Jonathan Carr, two brothers in Kansas, would inflict on seven unsuspecting men and women over nine days in December 2000.

On Thursday, December 15, 1994, Joann Katrinak and her three-month-old son, Alex, went missing from their Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, home. In what would become Pennsylvania's first use of mitochondrial DNA in a criminal case, Patricia Rorrer - a young mother who had never met either victim - was quickly tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. But did the jury make the right decision?

In July 1955 Ruth Ellis was sentenced to death for the shooting of her lover. In this book, Robert Hancock sets the record straight. Using official documents including the transcript of her trial at the Old Bailey, he unlocks the full, secret background to the story of the last woman to be hanged in Britain. Meticulous and fair in its analysis, The Last Woman to Be Hanged is an absorbing portrait of the tragic life of a young woman, a vivid snapshot of an era and a gripping account of a notorious case that shocked the nation.

Beauty business entrepreneur Dean Faiello's "life of the party" attitude was constantly leading him to disaster. When his thriving business wasn't enough for him, he jumped into the world of plastic surgery, without any medical degree or experience.

When William Joiner was asked to write the true story of an abused woman, he put out a call for the personal experiences of women who had suffered abuse. Stunned by the vast, gut-wrenching responses, he vowed to write this broader account of their stories in order to give hope, courage, and resources to women in need.

The author shares the shocking true account of how overnight her life was turned into a living hell, after her drink was spiked with GhB - a drug that can virtually turn anyone into a willing slave, combined with the potentially lethal power of hypnosis, gang stalkers on two continents, the latest technology for monitoring and recording all voyeuristic activity, outwardly "respectable" criminals send her on a journey into a 21st century hell which defies imagination, gravely endangering her physical and mental health and leaving her destitute.

Gypsy Jane stood toe-to-toe with some of the most dangerous men in the land and won. Her blood-soaked march through the criminal ranks is a unique tale of villainy in modern Britain. In a murky world where shootings and stabbings were part of daily business, Jane never forgot her Gypsy blood and stayed loyal to a personal honour code that always gave her the edge. 'If today is the day I die, it's a good day to die,' she would tell herself in the full knowledge that every day of her violent life could well be her last.

At 9 a.m. on Wednesday 13th July 1955, Ruth Ellis became the last woman to hang in Britain. Convicted of shooting her unfaithful lover, David Blakeley, in cold blood, as he stood by his sports car on Easter Sunday—the calm and dignified court appearance of this mother of two young children and the furore that accompanied her sentence, ensured that this trial was to have a memorable place in the annals of British justice.

Missing Wives, Missing Lives focuses on 30 unique cases in which the wife has never been found and the undying efforts of her family as they continue the painful search to bring her home. The audiobook covers decades older cases, such as Jeanette Zapata, who has been missing since 1976, to more recent and widely known cases, such as Stacy Peterson, who has been missing since 2007.