True Crime Kidnapping

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.

2019 erschien das Erstlingswerk von Adrian Langenscheid True Crime Deutschland und erstürmte aus dem Nichts die Siegertreppchen der genrerelevanten Kategorien. Knapp 2 Jahre und 7 Bücher später ist Langenscheid einer der bekanntesten True Crime-Autoren Deutschlands. Für das achte Werk seiner Erfolgsserie recherchierte der Bestsellerautor aufs Neue einige der spektakulärsten deutschen Kriminalfälle der letzten Jahrzehnte. Dabei ist ein atemberaubendes, zutiefst erschütterndes Portrait menschlicher Abgründe entstanden, das gerade wegen seiner kühlen, sachlich-neutralen Schilderungen gewaltige Emotionen weckt.

Marie seems to have it all: a devoted husband, two wonderful children, and a professional career. But all of that changes when she drives her car into the darkened parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. After she lowers her car window to place an order at the drive-through, a man suddenly appears and places a gun at her temple. What follows is every woman's worst nightmare.

On January 21, 1998, the night before his 38th birthday, federal prosecutor Stanley Alpert was kidnapped by a car full of gun-toting thugs. Hoping to make a large withdrawal with his ATM card, they took him, blindfolded, to a Brooklyn apartment, and improvised. All night, his captors alternately held guns to his head, threatened his family, engaged him in discussions of "gangsta" philosophy, sought his legal advice, and even offered him sexual favors from their prostitute girlfriends as a "birthday present."

Deutschlands erfolgsgekrönter True Crime-Autor Adrian Langenscheid entfacht mit seinen schockierenden Kurzgeschichten über wahre österreichische Verbrechen herzklopfendes Lesevergnügen. Es ist ein atemberaubendes, zutiefst erschütterndes Portrait menschlicher Abgründe, das gerade wegen seiner kühlen, sachlich-neutralen Schilderung gewaltige Emotionen weckt.

The incredible true story of one of America's largest ransom cases - and the massive FBI and police manhunt to bring the radical captors to justice.

Arabelle's beloved town matriarch, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, is snatched from her car, held for ransom, and propped up to the sympathy of thousands online. Her leaked ransom video might have been enough to placate the headline-starved, but for the endlessly bored detective, Robert Ellery, the ticking time-bomb, Alice Daniels, and for Mrs. Thomas herself, a simple headline could never unfurl the secrets they keep from the lies they tell. There is far more to this story than meets the eye. There is more to the dueling towns of affluent, picturesque Arabelle and impoverished, crime-riddled Wood's...

In May of 2005, Beth Holloway received the worst phone call a parent can imagine. Her beautiful daughter, Natalee, had vanished without a trace in Aruba during her high school senior class trip. Four years later, Beth Holloway steps forward to tell the story of her daughter's disappearance and her own harrowing ordeal—and her never-ending belief in the power of faith that gave her hope against all odds.

The Lady Vanishes is an engrossing story of how a small team of seasoned investigative journalists and storytellers, a daughter's intuition, and a team of listener super-sleuths uncovered a web of intrigue spanning nine decades and three continents, and how—after 57 episodes, 20 million downloads, and sparking a coronial inquiry—they discovered at the heart of the mystery a stranger-than-fiction international man of mystery who could hold the key to what really happened to Marion.

Así empieza la historia increíblemente real de uno de los casos más extremos de la crónica negra española. Aquel crimen se transformó en un drama humano cuya investigación, repleta de errores policiales y judiciales, estuvo acompañada de vergonzosos ejemplos de periodismo basura.

Grand Junction, Colorado, 2001: When Michael Blagg's adoring wife, Jennifer, and his six year-old-daughter, Abby, disappeared from their home, Michael led the charge to find them, even going so far as to make a nationwide appeal on Good Morning America for information. But seven months later, investigators found Jennifer's remains in a Mesa County landfill, and things took a darker turn. While Michael, a respected prayer-group leader, played the part of grieving survivor, authorities became increasingly suspicious.

Astrid Holleeder's brother Willem Holleeder, best known for his involvement in the 1983 kidnapping of the CEO and chairman of Heineken brewing company, is one of the most notorious criminals in contemporary history. For decades, Wim ruled over his family mafia style, threatening death if any of them betrayed him. Now, she's turning the tables on him. Charged for his involvement in multiple assassinations, including that of his former partner and brother-in-law, Holleeder is finally on trial for murder, all due to the shocking testimony of his own family.

With over 55,000 disappearances annually in Australia, each story is a heart-wrenching account of unanswered questions and shattered lives. The narrative spans decades, from the 1980s to present-day mysteries, including the puzzling case of a gentle Greenpeace worker vanishing amidst inner-city Melbourne, the suspicious disappearance of a 21-year-old, and the grim discovery of scattered remains in Queensland, unravelling a harrowing tale of violence and tragedy. And then there is the perplexing case of a man who went missing over and over again.

"Nous étions six – cinq garçons et une fille – insouciants, frivoles, joyeux, dans un été de tous les possibles. Pourquoi a-t-il fallu que l'un d'entre nous disparaisse ?" S'inspirant d'une histoire vécue, Philippe Besson retrace un drame de sa jeunesse, survenu dans l'île de Ré, un soir de juillet, au milieu des années 80.

Raised an aristocrat in Colombia and educated in European schools, Pilar transfixes everyone with her charm and her guile. She also falls for dangerous men and finds herself drawn into the highest levels of the cocaine trade. After two failed marriages and a harrowing escape from the drug life, she settles down to a quiet existence in Florida with her children - until her second husband tries to cut short his prison term by giving her name over to members of a new task force being formed by the DEA.

The house was like something out of a Jane Austen novel, but the truth of what lay in the shadows was more terrifying than any fictional imagining. Shane Dunphy recalls the experience of his darkest nightmares: a young girl describing missing children as playthings at house parties, but no one was listening; a malevolent, threatening presence looming in the residence they called the Bad Place, and Shane was forced to flee. And now, 20 years later, a mother pleads with him to find her son who vanished at age five.

Revolution's End fully explains the most famous kidnapping in US history, detailing Patty Hearst's relationship with Donald DeFreeze, known as Cinque, the head of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Not only did the heiress have a sexual relationship with DeFreeze while he was imprisoned, she didn't know he was an informant and a victim of prison behavior modification.

One hot summer, two young children disappeared from their first-floor apartment in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, New York. Their mother, Alice Crimmins, reported them missing to the police. Later that day, the body of four-year-old Missy was found in a vacant lot, showing signs of having been strangled. The body of five-year-old Eddie, Jr., was found several days later.

The year is 1888, and Louis Le Prince is finally testing his “taker” or “receiver” device for his family on the front lawn. The device is meant to capture 10 to 12 images per second on film, creating a reproduction of reality that can be replayed as many times as desired. In an otherwise separate and detached world, occurrences from one end of the globe could now be viewable with only a few days delay on the other side of the world. No human experience—from the most mundane to the most momentous—would need to be lost to history.

Willem Holleeder is one of the most notorious criminals in contemporary history. Best known for his involvement in the 1983 kidnapping of Alfred Heineken, CEO and Chairman of Heineken, and his infamous 2006 trial in which he was convicted of extortion, money laundering and membership in a criminal organization, Willem Holleeder captured the attention of the world.