True Kidnapping

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.

He pulled off what some deem the crime of the century: skyjacking a commercial jetliner, collecting a ransom of $200,000, parachuting off the aft stairs of the Boeing 727 into the night, and simply disappearing. Since November 1971, “D. B. Cooper”—no one knows his real name or identity—has become a figure of enduring fascination and obsession. The FBI pursued him for over forty years, before closing the case and leaving it unsolved. Unsolved, perhaps, but much admired. D. B. Cooper’s exploit over the skies of the American Northwest has inspired books, films, and endless speculation.

The Great Depression was a time of desperation in America - parents struggled to feed their children and unemployment was at a record high. Adding to the lawlessness of the decade, thugs with guns and corrupt law-enforcement officers ran rampant. But amidst this panic, there was one surefire way to make money, one used by criminals and resourceful civilians alike: kidnapping. The Kidnap Years is a thoughtfully reported pause-resister that chronicles the sweep of abductions that afflicted all corners of the country as desperate people were pushed to do the unthinkable.

More than 200 stories of killers, con artists, master thieves, and brazen kidnappers—and strong survivors, detectives, forensic breakthroughs, and legal minds on all sides of the action. In other words, a mini-encyclopedia perfect for newcomers and hard-core crime fans alike. Here are the big names—Bundy, Manson, Berkowitz, Borden, and the Black Dahlia. The lingering mysteries—like JonBenet Ramsey and Natalie Wood. The disturbing puzzle of the Zodiac Killer. The true story behind the most lurid headline ever: “Headless Body in the Topless Bar.” And more.

Soon after the first maritime trade routes became operational, seafaring bandits appeared to prey upon the cargo, crews, and ships of others. Crimson Waters traces the history of piracy around the globe, stretching back from its roots in 2500 BCE, through the Golden Age of Piracy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and up to the modern-day pirates who still threaten boats along coastlines and on the open seas.

Alla tragedia di Giulio Regeni, scomparso il 25 gennaio 2016 al Cairo, il mondo della politica non ha ancora risposto. Non ha risposto l’Egitto di Al Sisi. Che, anzi, continua a sabotare le indagini sul sequestro, la tortura e l’omicidio del figlio di Paola Deffendi e Claudio Regeni: in quasi quattro anni gli egiziani hanno ucciso cinque innocenti, inventato storie incredibili, falsificato documenti per allontanare i sospetti dai loro apparati. Senza però riuscirci.

On September 12, 2001, Michele Harris went missing from a small town in upstate New York. She has never been found, and the mystery surrounding her disappearance remains. Four years after she went missing, her wealthy husband Cal Harris was arrested and charged with her murder. With neither a body nor a murder weapon, Cal was shockingly tried and convicted of her murder. Then, new evidence surfaced. His conviction was overturned, and a new trial granted. But once again, he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. That conviction, too, was overturned on appeal.

In September 2002, Mexican writer Ernestina Sodi and her sister, actress Laura Zapata, were kidnapped at gunpoint in Mexico City. Deliver Us from Evil is a first-person account of the living nightmare endured by the two women. Blindfolded for much of her ordeal, Ernestina Sodi learns to identify the members of this well-organized, brutal, and professional kidnapping gang by voice and smell. Plunging listeners into the dark world of crime, rage, and violence without mercy, this real-life drama culminates in a thrilling and truly unforgettable climax.

El periodista, escritor y académico méxicano, José Miguel Tomasena, nos ofrece en este audiolibro un retrato de la impunidad y la violencia desde el punto de vista de las víctimas. Una novela con una sólida base de investigación sobre la realidad del narcotráfico, o el acoso a periodistas para que no investiguen sobre las desapariciones; pero también una novela sobre el amor a la familia, sobre la esperanza de cambio y una justicia que pueda hacerse real.

On 4th July 1975, Juanita Nielsen set out on foot through the wintry streets of Sydney's red-light district. The chic heiress and newspaper publisher had a business meeting with a man called Eddie Trigg, a manager at the seedy Carousel Cabaret nightclub in Kings Cross. The following day, Juanita was reported missing. She has not been seen since and her body has never been found.

"Yo pensaba: al final se ha disfrazado de guardia civil y, para escarnecerme más, me va a sacar de aquí para matarme fuera. Entonces fue cuando le dije: "No, no, fuera no. Hazlo aquí, que es más fácil y no quiero salir"". Así describe José Antonio Ortega Lara su liberación en una extensa entrevista en la que relata, por primera y única vez, los detalles de su cautiverio por parte de la banda terrorista ETA en aquel zulo de cuatro metros cuadrados en el que permaneció secuestrado 532 días.

Resilience isn’t inherited. It’s a hard-fought skill forged by our ability to pick up the broken pieces of our past and remake them into something new. Meet four-year-old Delicia, a poor but carefree child who is about to have her world shattered. Along with her seven-year-old brother Nile, she is kidnapped from her Los Angeles home by her estranged father and taken to Iraq, a foreign world she has never known. This is just the beginning of a string of traumas, hardships, and assaults Delicia will endure throughout her tumultuous childhood.

Mit den hier versammelten Fallerzählungen führt Romy Hausmann den Beweis, dass kein Thrillerautor auch nur annähernd so bizarre Verbrechen schreiben kann wie das Leben. In einfühlsamen Gesprächen mit Angehörigen und Opfern, Tätern und Ermittlern, mit renommierten Richtern, Forensikern, Medizinern und Traumaexperten spürt sie den Fragen hinter dem Offensichtlichen nach. Die Ergebnisse dieser Gespräche verdichtet sie zu einer sehr persönlichen Tagebucherzählung über die Macht der Gefühle von Opfern und Hinterbliebenen.

Il 22 giugno 1983 Emanuela Orlandi scompare. Dopo quarant'anni e due lunghe inchieste della magistratura italiana archiviate, la famiglia non ha ancora potuto mettere la parola "fine" a questa storia. L'avvocato Laura Sgrò, dal 2017 legale della famiglia Orlandi, fin dall'inizio del suo mandato ha lavorato perché il Vaticano, dopo decenni di silenzi, ambiguità, incongruenze e chiusure, iniziasse a collaborare e a indagare sulla scomparsa di Ema.

El 20 de noviembre de 1992 secuestraron a Maria Àngels Feliu Bassols, farmacéutica de Olot. Esta mujer, madre de tres hijos, pasó dieciséis meses bajo tierra, enterrada viva en un agujero del tamaño de un armario. Arañas, hormigas, ratas, serpientes y humedad fueron sus compañeras de cautiverio. Así empieza la historia increíblemente real de uno de los casos más extremos de la crónica negra española.

On the night of August 6, 1930, Joseph Force Crater, a newly appointed judge and prominent figure in many circles of Manhattan, hailed a taxi in the heart of Broadway and vanished into thin air. Despite a decades-long international manhunt led by the New York Police Department's esteemed Missing Persons Bureau, the reason for Crater's disappearance remains a confounding mystery.

The book focuses on the 1978 disappearance of Genette Tate. The 13-year-old schoolgirl vanished while out delivering newspapers on her bicycle in the Exeter countryside; no trace of her was ever discovered. With new and rarely seen comments from family, police and inside the courtroom, the story links her case to the earlier abductions of April Fabb (also 13), Christine Markham (9) and Mary Boyle (6).

Den 11.11.11 anholdes forretningsmanden Pierre Fle�nsborg i Mexico City, ankla�get for at vill�e smugle� diktatoren Gaddafis søn over grænsen. I 533 dage sidder danskeren i nogle� af Mexicos værste fængsle�r. F�lensborg hævder at være uskyldig og Mads Brügger kommer på sagen. Under gravearbejdet opdager Brügger imidlertid, at intet i Pierre F�lensborgs li�v er, hvad det giver sig ud for at være. Mere og mere tvivlsomt bli�ver det også, hvi�lken roll�e Mads Brügger har påtaget sig som journa�list.

In the second book of the PATHS CROSSED series, the listener shadows the author as he sheds the uniform of a trooper for the plainclothes of a detective to take a closer look at unsolved crimes. These true cases, ranging from murders, to a serial kidnapper of children, to organized crime, to police shootings, and more, are full of twists and turns that often sound like fiction.

A successful lawyer, Perry March married the beautiful daughter of one of the most powerful attorneys in Nashville. Through his wife Janet, Perry won a position in his father-in-law's firm and joined the city's social elite. They seemed to have the good life. But in 1996, when Janet vanished, police dug into Perry's past, turning up strange stories of sexual obsession, unfaithfulness, and vicious arguments with Janet. When they suspected that one of those fights ended in murder, Perry skipped town with his children. Janet's father would not let Perry escape so easily.