True Crime Women

Frieda "Fritizie" Mann had several identities during her brief life, and the mysterious circumstances of her death raise as many questions as they do answers. She was born in 1903 near the present border between Poland and Ukraine. And in the last year of her life, Mann became locally famous. She had reinvented herself as a flapper and "Oriental" dancer. She claimed to have friends in Hollywood and a movie contract. On the night of her murder, she said she was going to a party to meet her Hollywood friends; instead she traveled to an isolated roadside hotel where she met her death.

Legendary outlaw Belle Starr has been written about and portrayed in various media for well over one hundred years. Born Myra Maybelle Shirley in Missouri in 1848, Belle lived most of her life in Texas. She became notorious after living with and hanging out with members of the James and Younger gangs. Belle was a crack shot who rode side saddle while engaging in horse thievery, cattle rustling, and holdups. In between these activities, Belle bore two children and was involved with (though not necessarily married to) several men, including Sam Starr.

1979. Sixteen-year-old Carolyn Russell grows increasingly infatuated with her school mathematics teacher who is also giving her private lessons. Then she disappears. 2014. Struggling journalist Stephanie Brett creates a true-crime podcast focused on the disappearance of Carolyn Russell. By digging deep into this mysterious cold case, her confidence and flagging career are boosted. But after she confronts the suspects—and talks to a potential witness—the leads dry up. Nevertheless, she refuses to let the story rest.

Writer Karen Walker knows more than most about murderers. Her first love went on to become The Bagman, a notorious serial killer now locked away for life in a maximum-security prison. Karen has spent her life running from the weight of having loved him, defended him and, ultimately, leading the police to his door. But now, ten years later, just as she’s about to publish her account of his crimes, a young woman is abducted in horribly familiar circumstances.

Greg Wilson is now in prison. Finally, it is over for Coleen and Karen. They can now move on, take time and heal. But is it that easy? Or is there still much more of the story to come? The uplifting follow-up true story to “Playing with Fire.” How after the darkest days have ended, light will always break through.

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.

Six months ago, Charlotte almost lost everything. Now, she’s determined to keep her daughter, Elle, safe. So when local girls close to Elle in age and appearance begin to go missing, it’s her worst nightmare. Charlotte’s fears are confirmed when a frantic search becomes a shocking murder investigation. The girls’ bodies have been found - half-buried, and with traces of mud and wildflowers under their fingernails. As Charlotte’s obsession with keeping her daughter close pushes her marriage to the brink, local DI Madeleine Wood embarks on a gruelling search for the killer.

Boots in the Ashes is the memoir of Cynthia Beebe's groundbreaking career as one of the first women special agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, (ATF). A smart and independent girl growing up in suburban Chicago, she unexpectedly became one of the first women to hunt down violent criminals for the federal government.

Author Tobin T. Buhk recounts the thrilling tales of Detroit's most violent, clever, and misunderstood female criminals. "Queen of the Underworld" Sophie Lyons faced off with detective Teresa Lewis in court three times, and twice in the street, rendering both women battered and bloodied. Nellie Pope goaded her lover to axe her husband in what the press called "one of the most atrocious, cold-blooded, and deliberately-planned murders" in city history.

In 1966, Kathy Leissner Whitman was a twenty-three-year-old teacher dreaming of a better future. She was an avid writer of letters, composing hundreds in the years before she was stabbed to death by her husband, Charles Whitman, who went on to commit a mass shooting from the tower at the University of Texas at Austin. Kathy's writing provides a rare glimpse of how one woman described, and sought to change, her short life with a coercive, controlling, and violent partner.

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.

Niemand stand Jack Unterweger so nahe wie Astrid Wagner, die letzte Frau in seinem Leben und heute erfolgreiche Strafverteidigerin. Sie sagt: "Es war anders, als es all die Bücher und Dokumentation darstellen. Es gibt viele Fragen, Zweifel, Verschwundenes." Astrid Wagner hat Jack Unterweger geliebt. Sie hat für ihn gekämpft und dabei die Schattenseiten der Justiz kennengelernt. Dies ist ihre Geschichte. Jack Unterweger ließ Astrid Wagner tief in sein Inneres blicken, überließ ihr seine Tagebücher, Briefe und literarischen Werke.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful, naive young woman with fairy-tale dreams. Instead of happily ever after, Beauty became the obsession of a beast. One who only found true pleasure in the vicious acts he committed. Caught within his web of cruelty, her merciless dance for survival begins. Will Beauty be able to outmaneuver the Beast? Or, will he take the ultimate sadistic prize?

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.

Kim Wall was a thirty-year-old Swedish freelance journalist with a rising career. Then, in the summer of 2017, she followed a story that led to an eccentric inventor in Copenhagen. Instead of writing the next days headline, she'd become one. As the bizarre events of Kim's murder unfolded, the world watched in shocked disbelief. For Kim's distraught parents, Ingrid and Joachim, it was a devastating personal struggle. In the ensuing months, day by grueling day, they had to come to terms with their loss, process the global media attention, and endure the investigation and trial.

On the morning of July 1, 1800, a surveyor and mapmaker named Cayetano Diaz opened the window of his study in Guatemala City to find a horrific sight: a pair of severed breasts. Offering a meticulously researched and evocative account of the quest to find the perpetrator and understand the motives behind such a brutal act, this volume pinpoints the sensational crime as a watershed moment in Guatemalan history that radically changed the nature of justice and the established social order.

The Buckeye State produced its share of wicked women. Tenacious madam Clara Palmer contended with constant police raids during the 1880s and '90s. Only her death could shut the doors of her gilded bordello in Cleveland. Failed actress Mildred Gillars left for Europe right before World War II. Because she fell in love with the wrong man, she wound up peddling Nazi propaganda on the radio as "Axis Sally." Volatile Hester Foster was already doing time at the Ohio State Penitentiary when she bashed in the head of a fellow inmate with a shovel.

In June of 1968, Irene Izak, a young French teacher from Scranton, Pennsylvania, was pulling an all-nighter on the road toward the promise of a new life in Quebec. The last time she was seen alive was at 2:09 a.m. by a toll collector at Thousand Island Bridge, who claimed Irene was visibly afraid. Less than a half-hour later, Irene was found bludgeoned to death in a ravine bordering DeWolf Point State Park. There were no signs of robbery or sexual assault. For reasons unknown, Irene had been compelled to pull off the interstate and abandon her car, only to be brutally murdered.

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.