True Kidnapping

Although the 1932 kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby was a worldwide sensation, it was only one of an estimated 3,000 ransom kidnappings that occurred in the United States that year. The epidemic hit America during the Great Depression and the last days of Prohibition as criminal gangs turned kidnapping into the highly lucrative “snatch racket". Wealthy families and celebrities purchased kidnap insurance, hired armed chauffeurs and bodyguards, and carried loaded handguns. Some sent their children to school or summer camp in Europe to get them out of harm’s way.

In 1935, nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser, heir to one of the wealthiest families in America, is snatched off the streets two blocks from his home. The boy is kept manacled in a pit, chained to a tree, and locked in a closet. The perps - a career bank robber, a petty thief, and his 19-year-old never-been-in-trouble Mormon wife - quickly become the targets of the biggest manhunt in Northwest history. The caper plays out like a Hollywood thriller with countless twists and improbable developments. Perhaps the most astonishing thing of all, though, is how it all ends.

An Unexplained Death is an obsessive investigation into a mysterious death at the Belvedere - a once-grand hotel - and a poignant, gripping meditation on suicide and voyeurism.

Revelatory investigation into the police handling of the Yorkshire Ripper Case which spanned over 14 years. For the first time, the files have been opened, the detectives are talking and the victims are reliving the nightmare. For almost 20 years the dark secrets of the biggest criminal manhunt in British history have remained a closed book.

Brainstorm is an amazing five-year probe into the mysterious death of beloved movie star Natalie Wood by a real-life criminal law authority who determinedly pursued the truth in the face of Los Angeles County officials hell-bent on keeping it buried forever. Brainstorm: An Investigation of the Mysterious Death of Film Star Natalie Wood is the first-person account of Sam Perroni’s probing investigation of the actress’s death.

There is perhaps no crime more disturbing than the abuse of a child—and no court cases as upsetting as those in which juveniles who have faced abuse are tried for fighting back. In this gripping memoir Sara Kruzan, a survivor of childhood abuse and sex trafficking, tells the honest, disturbing, and ultimately empowering story of her journey from abuse to incarceration without parole for killing her abuser to finally gaining her liberation.

They’re here one second, and then they’re gone. Without rhyme or reason, people going about their mundane day-to-day affairs vanish without a trace. Sure, missing person cases may be a dime a dozen, but some are just a little stranger than others. Because there are disappearances—and then there are mind-bogglingly mysterious disappearances.

Unearth the chilling truth behind a small town's secrets as a mother battles against time to save her abducted son. In the chilling aftermath of seven-year-old Derek's inexplicable disappearance, a distraught yet fiercely determined mother, Katie, refuses to stand by idly. Fueled by an unyielding love and aided by her resilient best friend Sophia, she delves into a harrowing race against the clock, plunging into a whirlpool of town secrets and personal demons that threaten to engulf her. As a looming winter storm threatens and the kidnapper skillfully covers their tracks, time is fast ...

In 1974, Alice, a desperate young mother in a gritty Wyoming boomtown, kills her husband and dumps his body where it will never be found, then slips away and starts a new life. But when her new man's ex-wife and two kids start demanding more of him, Alice delivers an ultimatum: fix the problem or lose her forever. With Alice's help, Gerald fixes the problem in an extraordinarily ghastly way...and they live happily ever after...that is, until 2013, almost 40 years later, when somebody finds a dead man's skeleton in a place where Alice thought he'd never be found.

What exactly is this controversy about Netaji’s ‘disappearance’? Efforts by the authors led to the declassification of more than 1,300 secret files on Bose. Does new material offer new evidence on Bose’s reported death in 1945? The Bose Deception: Declassified opens a window to this and much more.

Lydia's life spirals into chaos when her son is abducted, forcing her to confront dangerous secrets from her past and battle her manipulative ex-husband in a race against time.In this gripping psychological thriller, Lydia’s world is shattered when her son, Lance, vanishes from a crowded restaurant in a chilling kidnapping. Battling her ruthless ex-husband and his manipulative family, she’s thrust into a twisted murder mystery where every clue leads deeper into danger. As secrets from her past collide with the present, Lydia must unravel the truth before time runs out.

Sixteen-year-old Patricia Columbo began working for pharmacist Frank DeLuca, a married father of five, in the 1970s, and the two soon entered into a sexual relationship. Against her father's wishes, Patricia and Frank moved in together. Then, in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, Patricia's father was brutally murdered, along with her mother and 13-year-old brother. Police were suspicious of Patricia's strange behavior after the bodies were discovered, and following their investigation, they arrested both Patricia and Frank.

Oskar's school teacher raises the alarm. Oskar's mother is abroad, and he has been left in the care of friends, but has been arriving in school hungry, unkempt and with bruises on his arms, legs and body. Experienced foster carer Cathy Glass is asked to look after him, but as the weeks pass, her concerns deepen. Oskar is far too quiet for a child of six and is clearly scared of something or someone.

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.

He was a trusted neighbor, a respected businessman, and a smiling clown who entertained children. But beneath the floorboards of his quiet suburban home, a nightmare festered. When police entered 8213 Summerdale Avenue in 1978, they expected answers about a missing teenage boy. What they found was a house of horrors. One body. Then another. Then another. By the end of the excavation, the remains of twenty-six young men and boys had been pulled from the crawl space.

In this meticulous and authoritative account of the trial and the times of the Lindbergh kidnapping, Robert Zorn clears away decades of ungrounded speculation surrounding the case. Inspired by his father's relationship with the actual accomplices—including the mastermind—he presents the clearest ever picture of a criminal partnership that would shake every class and culture of American society.

The spirit of an ancient witch haunts the woods outside Millsboro, Delaware. For two hundred years children have heard warnings about the old woman who would steal you away if you roamed her woods. What if the stories are true? What if she's still out there? Gifted child psychic Maggie Mumford is sure she is and is determined to stop her. But what would you do if you lost your child? It's a terrible question to even consider. Mollie Kehonk had to face a furture without her daughters in it. When the opportunity to snatch them back from the cold hand of death requires her to turn her back on ...

In Hoffa’s Shadow tells the moving story of how Goldsmith reunited with the stepfather he’d disowned and then set out to unravel one of the 20th century’s most persistent mysteries and Chuckie’s role in it. Along the way, Goldsmith explores Hoffa’s rise and fall and why the golden age of blue-collar America came to an end, while also casting new light on the century-old surveillance state, the architects of Hoffa’s disappearance, and the heartrending complexities of love and loyalty.

Fifty years ago, a serial killer prowled the quiet city of London, Ontario, marking it as his hunting grounds. As young women and boys were abducted, raped, and murdered, residents of the area held their loved ones closer and closer, terrified of the monster - or monsters - stalking the streets. Homicide detective Dennis Alsop began hunting the killer in the 1960s, and he didn’t stop searching until his death 40 years later.

Updated 5th Anniversary Edition Including Exclusive Interview with Steve AveryIn 2016-17, while working for the USA TODAY NETWORK's Wisconsin Investigative Team, author John Ferak wrote dozens of articles examining the murder case against Steven Avery, who had already beaten one wrongful conviction only to be charged again with the murder of Teresa Halbach in 2005. This case captured global attention through the Netflix documentary "Making A Murderer."