True Tragedy

Dallas, Texas. November 22, 1963. Shots ring out at Dealey Plaza. The president is struck in the head by a rifle bullet. Confusion reigns. Special Agent Paul Landis is in the follow-up car directly behind JFK’s and is at the president’s limo as soon as it stops at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He is inside Trauma Room #1, where the president is pronounced dead. He is on Air Force One with the president’s casket on the flight back to Washington, DC, an eyewitness to Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office. What he saw is indelibly imprinted upon his psyche.

On a snowy January morning in 1889, a worried servant hacked open a locked door at the remote hunting lodge deep in the Vienna Woods. Inside, he found two bodies sprawled on an ornate bed, blood oozing from their mouths. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary appeared to have shot his 17-year-old mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, as she slept, sat with the corpse for hours, and, when dawn broke, turned the pistol on himself. A century has transformed this bloody scene into romantic tragedy, but Mayerling is also the story of family secrets

From New York Times best-selling author Pete Earley: the strange but true story of a man who suffers a traumatic brain injury and as a result is given the ability to converse with the world's most terrifying criminals.

Adam Cox and Rex Conner, the brother and uncle of Lori Daybell, have had their family torn apart by Lori's lies, which ultimately cost at least four innocent people their lives.

One of the most notorious murders in US history, the 1892 killing of Andrew and Abby Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts, officially remains an unsolved case. Although Lizzie Borden was charged with the axe murders of her father and stepmother, the jury found her not guilty. No one else was ever charged. Edwin H. Porter was a young police reporter for the Fall River Daily Globe who covered the crime. Beginning with the discovery of the bodies, all the way through the investigation, trial, and final verdict, Porter gives a detailed account with first-hand access to the crime scene.

An unexpected journey. An unbreakable spirit. At 26, Non Reyes had it all—a loving family, a promising future, and an adventurous spirit. But in a single instant, everything changed. A devastating accident left him paralyzed from the neck down, forcing him to rebuild his life in ways he never imagined. In An Unexpected Ride, Non shares his deeply personal journey of resilience and rediscovery of purpose after tragedy. With raw honesty and a touch of humor, he reflects on the struggles, triumphs, and everyday victories of life with a disability—offering hope to anyone facing their own ...

On 20 June 1994, a gunman opened fire on the patrons and staff of the Fairchild Air Force Base hospital. Four days later, a B-52 bomber with four souls onboard went down in a fiery crash. Hundreds of ordinary men and women experienced the tragedies...countless others had struggled to prevent them. Everyone who met the would-be gunman thought he was odd, but the disturbed airman struck fear in those who knew him. Doctors had him committed to a military psychiatric ward, only to watch him slip through the cracks of a broken system.

In 1989, the Little Rascals Day Care in Edenton, North Carolina, was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight. One day, the owner's husband disciplined a boy at naptime, and soon an angry mother suggested that it was more than just a slap. Rumors quickly morphed into charges of unimaginable crimes against dozens of little children. Panic consumed the town, as the police, therapists, and parents relentlessly pressured the children who attended the day care to name their teachers responsible for multiple allegations of abuse.

The harrowing story of five men who were sent into a dark, airless, miles-long tunnel, hundreds of feet below the ocean, to do a nearly impossible job - with deadly results.

Set in the remote arctic region of Northern Canada, this book takes listeners on a harrowing canoe voyage that results in tragedy, redemption, and, ultimately, transformation. George Grinnell was one of six young men who set off on the 1955 expedition led by experienced wilderness canoeist Art Moffatt. Poorly planned and executed, the journey seemed doomed from the start. Ignoring the approaching winter, the men became entranced with the peace and beauty of the arctic in autumn.

In September 2011, Erik Weissman and two friends were murdered in a brutal triple homicide in Waltham, Massachusetts. The case went unsolved for months and then years, with no discernible leads. Erik’s friend Susan Zalkind, an investigative journalist, needed closure and knew that finding it would be up to her. As Susan began digging, and as the Boston Marathon bombing exposed startling new leads, the case led her down a tangled and sometimes dangerous path to the truth.

Explore the hidden and often shocking history of cults in the United States in Cults in America: A Deep Dive into the Dark History of U.S. Cults and Their Lasting Impact. From 19th-century utopian experiments to the devastating events at Jonestown and Waco, this comprehensive guide reveals how cults have shaped American society, politics, and culture across the centuries. Discover the psychological tactics that cults use to control followers, the warning signs of recruitment, and the rise of digital-age movements like QAnon and NXIVM. This compelling and informative book balances historical...

Like the biblical Job, John Ramsey had it all - wealth, social position, a loving family. And like Job, Ramsey was destined for great affliction, as many of the most precious things in his life were cruelly taken from him.

Mother of Courage is the inspiring true story of a young woman who loses both arms in a boating accident, yet valiantly finishes dental school, marries, raises two boys, teaches at an historically Black medical college, and becomes a nationally known advocate for people with disabilities. With grace, humor, faith, and a large dose of determination, Margaret Chanin transforms her tragic physical loss into a triumph of the human spirit—and shares her light with everyone she meets.

Even before he was shot dead on the stairway of the tony Grand Central Hotel in 1872, financier James “Jubilee Jim” Fisk, Jr., was a notorious New York City figure. From his audacious attempt to corner the gold market in 1869 to his battle for control of the geographically crucial Erie Railroad, Fisk was a flamboyant exemplar of a new financial era marked by volatile fortunes and unprecedented greed and corruption. But it was his scandalously open affair with a showgirl named Josie Mansfield that ultimately led to his demise.

An intimate exploration of race and inequality in America, Little Brother tells the story of journalist Ben Westhoff's long-time relationship with his mentee Jorell Cleveland through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and investigates Jorell's tragic fatal shooting at the age of nineteen.

Embark on an unforgettable journey through the shadows and spotlights of our contemporary world with Scandal & Tragedy 100 Short Stories That Will Shock & Amaze You. This extraordinary anthology delves deep into the most riveting and controversial episodes in recent history, pulling back the curtains on the untold stories that have left an indelible mark on society. Within these pages, you'll find yourself immersed in a world of astonishing twists, jaw-dropping revelations, and enigmatic figures who have forever altered the course of our collective narrative. From the murky backrooms of ...

On November 29, 1909, police were called to a ramshackle home in East Orange, New Jersey, where they found the emaciated body of 24-year-old Oceana "Ocey" Snead facedown in the bathtub - dead of an apparent suicide by drowning. There was even a note left behind. But it would not take authorities long to discover that Ocey's death was no suicide. And Ocey's own mother and two aunts were far from the sorrowful caretakers they appeared to be.

Part memoir, part manifesto, Soulbbatical is an invitation to become Chief Soul Officer of your own life - and to open up a whole new world of possibility. Former Harley-Davidson executive Shelley Paxton did just that. She walked away at the peak of her 26-year marketing career and embarked on a profoundly personal journey to reconnect with her true purpose and deepest desires. She called it her “Soulbbatical”, and it not only changed her life, it became her calling.

In the later part of the 19th century, Rhoda Derry spent over 40 years in the Adams County Poor Farm, curled in a fetal position in a box bed. She had clawed her own eyes out. She had beaten her front teeth in. Her legs had atrophied to the point where she could no longer stand on her own, or even sit in a wheelchair. She had been committed there by her own family when they could no longer care for her at home. She spent decades locked away from the world.