True White Collar Crime

For two decades, the water in the taps and wells of Mingo County didn’t look, smell, or taste right. Could the water be the root of the health problems - from kidney stones to cancer - in this Appalachian community? Environmental lawyer Kevin Thompson certainly thought so. For seven years, Thompson waged an epic legal battle against Massey Energy, West Virginia’s most powerful coal company, helmed by CEO Don Blankenship. Working with fellow lawyers and a crew of young activists, Thompson would uncover the ruthless shortcuts that put the community’s drinking water at risk.

They are battered women, grieving parents, and burglarized homeowners who responded to criminal violence by taking the law into their own hands. Their cases have struck a deep chord in American society. Are they victims of a failing judicial system or criminals themselves? True crime writer Gary Provost examines the stories of ordinary citizens who have taken on the roles of judge, jury and - sometimes - executioner.

Allen Stanford is a man who lives by his own rules. From building an empire that conned people out of $8 billion to landing a helicopter in the center of Lord’s Cricket Ground, he has never done anything by halves. Throughout this book, we will take an always interesting, sometimes humorous, and plenty staggering look at the life of Sir Allen Stanford. We will cover his younger years at Baylor where he pretended he was related to the founder of Stanford University all the way up to his claimed amnesia soon after the FBI had cuffed him.