True Crime Memoir

Despite what Scarface might lead one to believe, violence was not the dominant characteristic of the cocaine business. It was corruption: the dirty cops, agents, lawyers, judges, and politicians who made the drug world go round. And no one managed that carousel of dangerous players better than Willy Falcon.

This compilation of 36 stories across three True Crime books contains deeply disturbing content. Unlike typical news reports or TV shows that often sanitize the details of heinous acts, these accounts present an unflinching look at the darkest corners of human behavior. In this collection, you'll find 36 True Crime stories from the last several decades. Many of which you may never have heard of.

Buckle up for the ride of your life as Fifty Shades of True Crime sets into motion a bizarre trajectory of next-level carnal knowledge. You'll never look at your neighbor the same way, you'll wonder about your best friend, and you'll imagine what your coworker does behind closed doors. Deviant sexual behavior is part of our human psyche, and as offensive as it may seem to some people, it happens in your community. Usually, the private world of people's lives remains undisclosed, but those secrets will come alive as you explore these real-life events.

During his nearly fifteen-year reign of terror, Ronald Lloyd Bailey’s depraved obsession with sexual sadism held communities across southeast Michigan in a shroud of fear. From the early 1970’s to the mid-1980’s, the former patient at one of Michigan’s foremost psychiatric hospitals, abducted as many as fifteen teens and over time became a sadistic serial killer.

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

For almost three decades, renowned baby-seller Georgia Tann ran a children's home in Memphis, Tennessee—selling her charges to wealthy clients nationwide, Joan Crawford among them. Part social history, part detective story, part expose, The Baby Thief is a riveting investigative narrative that explores themes that continue to reverberate today.

Serial killers: Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer are often the first names that spring to mind. Many people assume serial killers are primarily an American phenomenon that came about in the latter part of the 20th century. But such assumptions are far from the truth. Serial killers have been around for a very long time and can be found in every corner of the globe - and they're not just limited to the male gender either. Some of these predators have been caught and brought to justice whereas others have never been found, let alone identified.

"Maníaco do Parque—Um Serial Killer Entre Nós" é um Original Audible de true crime que mergulha na sombria história de Francisco de Assis Pereira, um dos serial killers mais notórios do Brasil. Ambientado nos anos 90, na Grande São Paulo, a áudio série explora o caso que chocou o país, destacando como o machismo da época permitiu que Pereira agisse impunemente por mais de uma década.

The acclaimed author of American Dirt reveals the devastating effects of a shocking tragedy in this landmark true-crime work - the first ever to look intimately at the experiences of both the victims and their families. A Rip in Heaven is Jeanine Cummins’ story of a night in April, 1991, when her two cousins Julie and Robin Kerry, and her brother, Tom, were assaulted on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River just outside of St. Louis.

Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities. At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith.

In this fascinating account, Ann Rule delivers a tour de force: a whirlwind of misguided love, denial, guilt, and passions out of control; a series of brilliantly manipulated crimes; the bizarre and horrifying tale of two families brought to ruin; and, at the center of it all, the heartless, supremely selfish sociopath whose evil hid behind soft words and gentle manners, but who destroyed—without mercy—those who loved her.

A surfer kid from Redondo Beach, California, Owen Hanson was still in his twenties when he found himself the leader of a multi-million-dollar criminal empire. What began as an attempt to fit in with the rich kids at the University of Southern California soon grew into gambling and loan sharking, which then opened the door to drug trafficking and money laundering. Hanson wasn't just involved in this stuff—he excelled at it. Living the fast-paced lifestyle of the rich and famous, Hanson felt he was finally making his father proud, never mind the questionable ethics and obvious danger of it all.

Audible Originals presents After the Fall, the incredible true story of the FBI’s groundbreaking investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The series also marks the 20th anniversary of the deadliest crime in modern US history.

Born on a dying farm and soon abandoned by his father, Carl Panzram's life was bleak from the start. While other children played and went to school, he toiled away on his family's land, the threat of brutal punishment always looming over his head. Yet, instead of shaping him into the meek, obedient boy his family wanted, Panzram grew meaner with each passing year. His first arrest happened before he had even turned 10.

1969: the height of counterculture and the year universities would seek to curb the unruly spectacle of student protest; the winter that Harvard University would begin the tumultuous process of merging with Radcliffe, its all-female sister school; and the year that Jane Britton, an ambitious 23-year-old graduate student in Harvard's Anthropology Department and daughter of Radcliffe Vice President J. Boyd Britton, would be found bludgeoned to death in her Cambridge, Massachusetts apartment.

In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device, which performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.5 billion.

Volume eight contains some of Green’s most intriguing accounts of violence, abuse, deception and murder.

If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6.

Ruth Markel is the mother of the late Dan Markel, a noted law professor who was murdered in Tallahassee, Florida, in 2014. In The Unveiling, she describes her experiences since the day of Dan's death from several distinct perspectives.

United States of True Crime is an anthology series with books devoted to the most disturbing cases in each of the 50 states. This book focuses on 10 of the most chilling crimes in Alabama history. True crime junkies may recognize some of the highly publicized cases, but I’ve made sure to include lesser-known, equally unsettling crimes. If you’re a true crime enthusiast who enjoys hearing about some of the most depraved monsters in our country, you will love United States of True Crime.