Sande fortællinger: seriemordere og drabsmænd

In the first chapters, Mr. Altick examines the Victorian delight in murder as a social phenomenon. The remainder of the book is constructed around classic murder cases that afford a vivid perspective on the way people lived--and died--in the Age of Victoria.From the beginning of the age, homicide was a national entertainment. Penny broadsheets hawked in the streets highlighted the most gruesome features of crimes; newspapers recounted the most minute details, from the discovery of the body to the execution of the criminal. Real-life murders were quickly adapted for the gaslight melodrama and the bestselling novels of the "Newgate" and "sensation" schools. Murder scenes and celebrities were the most popular exhibits at Madame Tussaud's waxworks and in the touring peepshows and marionette entertainments.Murder, in fact, was a crimson thread running through the whole fabric of Victorian life. By tracing this thread in "not too solemn a spirit," Mr. Altick has written a book that will delight and inform all who are interested in social history, as well as that great number who relish true murder stories.

Her Murder was Brutal and Savage, and the Nicaraguan People want Someone to Pay! In 2005, Eric Volz moved to Nicaragua to pursue his dreams. By 2006, he was living the worst nightmare of his life. Twenty-five year old Eric Volz moved to Nicaragua in 2005 in pursuit of paradise. Drawn by its pristine beaches, scenic mountains, lush rainforests, and economic potential, he quickly fell in love with the country. And when his start-up publication, EP Magazine, found success on an international level, Eric's life was taking off like a dream. Then, on November 21, 2006, Eric's ex-girlfriend, beautiful Nicaraguan Doris Ivania Jimenez, was found brutally murdered inside her clothing boutique in the Pacific coastal town of San Juan del Sur. The day he helped lay Doris to rest, Eric was arrested for her murder. His paradise quickly became his prison. Haunting and powerful, this is The Eric Volz Story.

On April 19, 1995, terrorism struck the heartland of America: A cataclysmic explosion destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building, took the lives of 168 people, and injured more than 500 others. It was not the work of a secret foreign cabal or a maniacal suicide bomber. Instead, death drove a rented truck, and behind the wheel was a young white American male with the barest of knowledge at his fingertips--a driver's license to rent a van and a recipe for mixing farm fertilizer and fuel oil to make a bomb. Timothy McVeigh--son of the working class, an army hero, the kid next door--was about to become the worst mass-murderer in American history. Richard Serrano, a Los Angeles Times reporter, arrived in Oklahoma City with the fire engines still racing to the blast site, and he has never left the story. On the basis of hundreds of interviews, including an in-depth exclusive with McVeigh himself, Serrano takes us along on that wild ride crisscrossing America, as the bomb components are collected and a seemingly normal young man hardens his resolve to save the country he loves at the expense of the government he hates.

Sleeping with a monsterAt first, Linda Bergstrom's marriage to her husband James was idyllic. They were young and in love; he was about to enter the Navy and she was eager to start a family. But it wasn't long before the dream exploded. James became abusive and violent, prone to sudden bursts of anger, long silences, and unexplained disappearances. But Linda vowed to hold on, despite the pain and fear . . . and her disturbing suspicions about her husband's secret life.Then, not long after their move to Houston, Texas, she made a terrifying discovery: James's hidden cache containing duct tape, a ski mask, and handcuffs. No longer could Linda Bergstrom deny the hideous truth.The man she lived with, the man she married for love, was a dangerous psychopath. And there was no escape and nowhere to run. Because no one?not her friends, the Navy, or the police?would believe her.

Tennessee Williams meets "In Cold Blood" in this reissue of the national bestseller--soon to be a motion picture starring Julianne Moore--which tells the story of the Bakelite plastics heir who slept with and then murdered his mother.

Bright, attractive, and both from good families, University of Texas college student Colton Pitonyak and vibrant redhead Jennifer Cave had the world at their beckoning. Cave, an ex-cheerleader, had just landed an exciting new job, while a big-money scholarship to UT's prestigious business school lured Pitonyak to Austin. Yet the former altar boy had a dark, unpredictable streak, one that ensnared him in the perilous underworld of drugs and guns. When Jennifer failed to show up for work on August 18, 2005, her mother became frightened. Sharon Cave's search led to Colton's West Campus apartment, where Jennifer's family discovered a scene worthy of the grisliest horror movie. Meanwhile, Colton Pitonyak was nowhere to be found.A Descent Into Hell is the gripping true story of one of the most brutal slayings in UT history?and the wild "Bonnie and Clyde-like" flight from justice of a cold-blooded young killer and his would-be girlfriend, who claimed that her unquestioning allegiance to Pitonyak was "just the way I roll."

When a young railway depot master was shot dead, everyone suspected his business rival. However, strange circumstances led many to suspect his widow. Her ensuing arrest and trial proved to be one of the most famous criminal cases in Virginia history.

The day before Halloween 2004 was the last day on Earth for respected, well-liked college professor Fred Jablin. That morning, a neighbor discovered his body lying in a pool of blood in the driveway of Jablin's Virginia home. Police immediately turned their attentions to the victim's ex-wife, Piper, a petite, pretty Texas lawyer who had lost a bitter custody battle and would do anything to get her kids back. But Piper was in Houston, one thousand miles away, at the time of the slaying and couldn't possibly have been the killer . . . could she?So began an investigation into one of the most bizarre cases Virginia and Texas law enforcement agencies had ever encountered: a twisted conspiracy of lies, rage, paranoia, manipulation, and savage murder that would ensnare an entire family?including two lethally close look-alike sisters?and reveal the shocking depravities possible when a dangerously disordered mind slips into madness.

"Riveting. . . reads like a novel. . . . A worthy sequel to The Perfect Storm." --New York Times Book ReviewIn the most intriguing and original crime story since In Cold Blood, New York Times bestselling author Sebastian Junger examines the fatal collision of three lives during the infamous Boston Strangler serial murder caseIn the spring of 1963, the quiet suburb of Belmont, Massachusetts, is rocked by a shocking murder that fits the pattern of the infamous Boston Strangler, still at large. Hoping for a break in the case, the police arrest Roy Smith, a Black ex-con whom the victim hired to clean her house. Smith is hastily convicted of the murder, but the Strangler's terror continues. And through it all, one man escapes the scrutiny of the police: a carpenter working at the time at the Belmont home of young Sebastian Junger and his parents--a man named Albert.A tale of race and justice, murder and memory, this powerful true story is sure to rank besides such classics as Helter Skelter, and The Executioner's Song.

From the "New York Times" bestselling true-crime writer comes the tenth shocking collection of true stories from her personal crime files. Rule expertly analyzes these headline-making cases, unmasking the deadly motives behind the appalling crimes. Original.

Sharon Marshall was a brilliant and beautiful student whose future was filled with promise-until her murderous, fugitive father drew her into a lifetime of deception that became one of the most baffling cases in the annals of American true crime.A student at Forest Park High School near Atlanta, Georgia, popular blonde-haired Sharon Marshall was at the top of her class. Serving as a Lt. Colonel in the ROTC, she earned a full scholarship to Georgia Tech University to study aerospace engineering. She was the ultimate girl next door, sweet, generous, and well-adjusted. But Sharon had disturbing secrets so shocking and unique, they took more than a decade to unravel...This is the horrifying true story of a mysterious young woman caught in the violent web of the murderous fugitive she called her father-and a heartrending testament to the profound courage and perseverance of one woman trapped in the grip of extreme evil.

In 1975, a new group of Peace Corps volunteers landed on the island nation of Tonga. Among them was Deborah Gardner -- a beautiful twenty-three-year-old who, in the following year, would be stabbed twenty-two times and left for dead inside her hut.Another volunteer turned himself in to the Tongan police, and many of the other Americans were sure he had committed the crime. But with the aid of the State Department, he returned home a free man. Although the story was kept quiet in the United States, Deb Gardner's death and the outlandish aftermath took on legendary proportions in Tonga.Now journalist Philip Weiss "shines daylight on the facts of this ugly case with the fervor of an avenging angel" (Chicago Tribune), exposing a gripping tale of love, violence, and clashing ideals. With bravura reporting and vivid, novelistic prose, Weiss transforms a Polynesian legend into a singular artifact of American history and a profoundly moving human story.

Trophy wife Celeste Beard wasn't satisfied with a luxurious lifestyle and her rich Austin media mogul husband's devotion -- so she took his life! The wife:She wanted everything, but her husband stood in the way. The lesbian lover:A love-struck, middle-aged woman with a history of mental illness, she would do anything to set Celeste free. The beauty salon receptionist:Celeste hired her to tie up the loose ends ... in a second conspiracy to commit murder.

On an October evening in South Pasadena, a horrifying wave of flame swept through a large home improvement center, snuffing out the lives of four innocent people, including a two-year-old boy. Firefighters rushed to the scene, even as a pair of equally suspicious fires broke out in two nearby stores. Silently watching the raging inferno in the midst of the heat, smoke, and chaos was a man respected as one of California's foremost arson investigators, a captain in the Glendale Fire Department ...From Joseph Wambaugh, the critically acclaimed,nationally bestselling author of The Onion Field, comes the astonishing true story of a nightmarish obsession -- and the hunt for a brilliant psychopath who lived a double life filled with professional tributes and terrifying secrets.

Neurologist Dr. Jonathan Pincus personally examined and probed into the family and medical history of numerous serial killers and other violent criminals to analyze what creates and triggers the violent instinct. He discovered that virtually all suffered severe abuse as children, as well as brain damage and mental illness. In these gripping, terrifying stories, Pincus concludes that violent criminal behavior is the catastrophic product of a dysfunctional brain coupled with an abusive environment. Focusing on these critical factors, how can we prevent the development of potentially violent persons from a young age before the damage becomes irrevocable? And how do we evaluate chances of rehabilitation? "[A] rigorous, troubling, and profoundly humane book."-Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic "An urgent wake-up call for the nation...a must-read for every professional engaged in the administration of criminal justice."-Samuel Dash, Georgetown University Law Center