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A collection of award-winning short stories concerning the true adventures of California Fish and Game Wardens and the wildlife-destroying outlaws they pursue.

"Killer Queens is a new series of historical fiction books based on true stories. The series explores the world of murder in the gay community, whether the victims or the killers themselves, and sometimes both, are homosexual. While the previous books looked at murders in the gay communities of Germany, England, and the United States, this fourth edition of the series visits Canada-a country that has embraced the gay community overall. But how true-to-life is this statement? Canada has been one of the first countries to make it legal to be gay-even legalizing gay marriages and giving same-sex benefits. Yet, when cold-blooded serial killers target the very community, the country says it supports, and law enforcement is found lacking, we have to question the rightfulness of this claim. This book is based on Toronto's Gay Villiage and the few times serial killers reigned terror upon it. As much as this series wants to point out the negative aspects of murders in the gay community in countries that don't respect gay people, it's also important to reveal its effects in countries that seemingly support gay people."

"Blood from two bullets fired at close range into the head of the man and two bullets into the head of the pretty girl with long, light-brown hair." The Staton Slaughter is one of the saddest true-crime events of the 1980s, told by the best-selling author of Blind Rage.

A fascinating, meticulously researched deep dive into one of Alfred Hitchcock's most underappreciated films, The Wrong Man, and America's shameful history of wrongful convictions leading up to the real-life event upon which the film is based.“Thanks to Jason Isralowitz for finally writing a book about Hitchcock’s most under-appreciated movie.  Isralowitz brilliantly contextualizes the movie and the true-life story of Manny Balestrero, preceded by an eye-opening prologue detailing the justice system’s long history of indicting ‘the wrong man’ (and, in a few cases, ‘the wrong woman’).   A must for both cinephiles and true crime buffs.” Bruce Goldstein,  Repertory Artistic Director, Film Forum, New York.   “Nothing to Fear is a fascinating history, not only for fans of Hitchcock but for anyone interested in how our justice system works (and sometimes doesn't). The story of ‘the wrong man' continues to resonate well into the twenty-first century, and will make you question your assumptions about innocence and guilt.” Dawn Raffel, author of The Strange Case of Dr. Couney, named by NPR as one of 2018’s Great Reads and winner of a 2019 Christopher Award.   Alfred Hitchcock is not often associated with a social justice movement. But in 1956, the world’s most famous director focused his lens on an issue that cuts to the heart of our criminal justice system: the risk of wrongful conviction. The result was The Wrong Man, a wrenching and largely overlooked drama based on the real-life arrest of Queens musician Christopher “Manny” Balestrero for two robberies he did not commit.    With documentary-like authenticity, Hitchcock and his team meticulously re-created Manny’s journey through the corridors of justice and the devastating effect of the arrest on his wife, Rose. In so doing, the director cast a damning light on New York’s history of mistaken identity cases. The Balestreros fell victim to the same rush to judgment and suggestive eyewitness identification procedures that had doomed innocent defendants in earlier cases. Their ordeal is part of a larger story of the state’s failure to reckon with its role in other wrongful prosecutions in the first half of the twentieth century.    Attorney Jason Isralowitz tells this story in a revelatory book that situates both the Balestrero case and its cinematic counterpart in their historical context. Drawing from archival records, Isralowitz delivers a gripping account of Manny’s trial and new insights into an errant prosecution. He then examines how Hitchcock fused striking visual motifs with social realism to create a timeless work of art. The film bears witness to issues that animate the contemporary innocence movement, including the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, the need for police lineup reforms, and the dangers of investigative “tunnel vision.” Given the hundreds of exonerations of the wrongfully convicted in recent years, The Wrong Man remains as timely as ever.

In August 1925, Audrey Jacob shot dead her former fiancé, Cyril Gidley, in full view of hundreds of guests at a charity ball in Perth's Government House. When she was arrested, she still held the gun in her hand. It was a open and shut case of wilful murder--that is until Jacob assigned prosecutor Arthur Haynes to her defence. His ability to play the press and the jury for sympathy would lead to a sensational result. Not only did Jacob escape the gallows, she was found not guilty of Gidley's murder. Straw, the author of a number of books about notable Australian female criminals, tells a story that is rich with first-hand newspaper accounts from the day.

"A thoughtful, compelling reexamination of an intriguing story of fatal obsession and its enduring mysteries."—Kirkus Reviews"Well-researched and a page turner..."—Library JournalThe disappearance of atwenty-one-year-old woman from a Massachusetts suburb became one of the mostdiscussed crimes of the twentieth century. The discussion intensified when thepublic learned that she worked as a prostitute in Boston's notoriousred-light district, the “Combat Zone,” and was linked by a trail of blood to afamous professor from Tufts University.When Robin Benedict vanishedthe investigation and media circus that gripped the city of Boston hadn't been seensince the days of the Boston Strangler case. On a Sunday morning in March 1983,a small-time pimp walked into a police station and claimed his girlfriend wasmissing. He said she had been on her way to visit a client named WilliamDouglas. In the year that followed, the case drew in detectives, statetroopers, scores of journalists, and even psychics. But Robin was never found.Boston Tabloid  reconstructsa grisly murder, and explores one man's bizarre obsession. In revisiting thislegendary crime, Don Stradley consulted journalists involved in the mediafrenzy, prison authorities, arresting officers, and psychiatrists, all in aneffort to unravel a most tangled story. Why was the city, and the nation, sweptup in this sordid tale? It remains a grim and fascinating moment in Boston'shistory.

New York Times bestselling author and Edgar Award-winner Daniel Stashower returns with American Demon, a historical true crime starring legendary lawman Eliot Ness.Boston had its Strangler. California had the Zodiac Killer. And in the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland had the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland's Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed "The Lady of the Lake," was only the first of a butcher's dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive. Terror gripped the city. Amid the growing uproar, Cleveland's besieged mayor turned to his newly-appointed director of public safety: Eliot Ness. Ness had come to Cleveland fresh from his headline-grabbing exploits in Chicago, where he and his band of "Untouchables" led the frontline assault on Al Capone's bootlegging empire. Now he would confront a case that would redefine his storied career. Award-winning author Daniel Stashower shines a fresh light on one of the most notorious puzzles in the annals of crime, and uncovers the gripping story of Ness's hunt for a sadistic killer who was as brilliant as he was cool and composed, a mastermind who was able to hide in plain sight. American Demon reconstructs this ultimate battle of wits between a hero and a madman.

In 1996, six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was tortured and murdered in her family home. Twenty-five years later, Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Paula Woodward revisits the cold case to share new insider information on the heinous murder that gripped the nation.After the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, rumors and misinformation planted by Boulder, Colorado law enforcement sped rapidly around the world. Suspicion immediately fell on the family as police sought to exploit her death in the media. Prosecutors and law enforcement intentionally manipulated existing evidence and ignored inconvenient evidence. Child beauty pageant photos of JonBenét whipped the case into a judgmental frenzy. Paula Woodward was one of the few journalists who reported the family's side of the story. She's still investigating the 25-year conspiracy to convict John and Patsy Ramsey by law enforcement who acted with arrogance, insecurity, incompetence, and benign neglect. In Unsolved, the follow-up to Woodward's award-winning and acclaimed true crime exposé We Have Your Daughter, Woodward explores outstanding questions still swirling around the cold case: Who wrote the baffling ransom note? What was found in the 11 pages of exclusive police report summaries backgrounding the Ramseys? And why has the case languished for years? Included in the book are new, exclusive interviews with John Ramsey, his wife Jan, and his son John Andrew as they look back at the case, 25 years later, and react with stunning candor. New photos and reports from JonBenét's teachers, friends, and family cut through the sensationalized headlines to show who JonBenét really was. Interwoven throughout the book is expert commentary on what the actual evidence shows, and whether the killer might ever be caught. With never-before-released evidence from a now-passive investigation, Unsolved presents the known facts of the killing of JonBenét Ramsey, the bizarre yet intriguing aspects of this ongoing mystery, and gives you rare insight into whether a family member or an intruder savagely murdered JonBenét.

A "true-crime thriller recounting the 1910 murder of ten-year-old Marie Smith, the dawn of modern criminal detection, and the launch of the NAACP"--

In 1832, the captain of the brigantine Catalina ordered Scotsman James Black, dying of typhus, abandoned at Monterey, California. Nursed by J. B. R. Cooper's wife, Black survived to hunt the last of California's sea otters, defend San Francisco from invading Russians under General Vallejo, and drive cattle to feed gold rush miners. Black's ranching and dairy empire, founded on a single Mexican land grant, ultimately encompassed 20,000 Marin County acres. Black, his wife, and daughter enjoyed the privileges of the landed gentry until January 1864 when his cherished wife died in their son-in-law's dental chair. An obsessive resentment, excesses of whisky, and a scheming second wife consumed Black's bereavement. Augustina learned after her father's death that she had been written out of his will. For four years and across two counties, she fought her stepmother for a fair portion of her father's $15,000,000 estate. After multiple notorious trials, Augustina gained a partial victory--but would she receive the land and gold the jury awarded her?

The gripping story of a young woman's murder, unsolved for over two decades, brilliantly investigated and reconstructed by her stepsister.Growing up, Rachel Rear knew the story of Stephanie Kupchynsky's disappearance. The beautiful violinist and teacher had fled an abusive relationship on Martha's Vineyard and made a new start for herself near Rochester, NY. She was at the height of her life-in a relationship with a man she hoped to marry and close to her students and her family. And then, one morning, she was gone.Around Rochester-a region which has spawned such serial killers as Arthur Shawcross and the "Double Initial" killer-Stephanie's disappearance was just a familiar sort of news item. But Rachel had more reason than most to be haunted by this particular story of a missing woman: Rachel's mother had married Stephanie's father after the crime, and Rachel grew up in the shadow of her stepsister's legacy.In Catch the Sparrow, Rachel Rear writes a compulsively readable and unerringly poignant reconstruction of the case's dark and serpentine path across more than two decades. Obsessively cataloging the crime and its costs, drawing intimately closer to the details than any journalist could, she reveals how a dysfunctional justice system laid the groundwork for Stephanie's murder and stymied the investigation for more than twenty years, and what those hard years meant for the lives of Stephanie's family and loved ones. Startling, unputdownable, and deeply moving, Catch the Sparrow is a retelling of a crime like no other.