True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History

KILLING TIME WITH JOHN WAYNE GACY-Karen Conti

John Wayne Gacy raped, tortured, and murdered 33 boys and young men, burying most of them in the crawlspace under his Chicago home. Karen Conti was in high school at the time watching the bodies being removed on the television news.Fourteen years pass. Through a twist of fate, Conti, now a young and inexperienced attorney, is called upon to handle Gacy’s final death row appeals. The serial killer soon becomes her most famous, difficult, and haunting client.Thirty years after Gacy’s execution, Conti looks back through the eyes of a seasoned professional on the legal and media circus that ensued—and her countless hours of detailed conversation with the killer clown. We hear for the first time about Gacy’s gruesome “Body Book.” Were there more victims? Conspirators involved in the murders? What secrets were buried with him?If one were to ask Conti, “How could you represent such a monster?” she would respond, “What you really want to know is, ‘What was he like?’” This book answers that question. KILLING TIME WITH JOHN WAYNE GACY: Defending America's Most Evil Serial Killer on Death Row-Karen Conti

DARK TIDE: Growing Up With Ted Bundy

Edna's world turned upside down when her close cousin, Ted Bundy, was linked to the gruesome murders that had plagued her hometown of Seattle. Both devastating and dangerous, she reveals her journey of discovering the truth about her cousin who was more like a sibling, a man she loved, admired, and thought she knew so well. Edna delves into the unbelievable and chilling episodes she experienced, from confronting Ted and discovering a side of him she never suspected to waking to the FBI at her door after he escaped jail.Whether searching memories for signs she’d missed or detailing scenes of life under the radar in a world still fixated on her cousin, Edna’s account tells the Ted Bundy story from a critical, new perspective: someone who called him family.Including never-before-seen photos and handwritten letters from Bundy, Dark Tide’s message is as gut-wrenching as it is clear, asking the question: how well do we know those we trust most? DARK TIDE: Growing Up With Ted Bundy-Edna Cowell Martin and Megan Atkinson

DIG ME A GRAVE— Dick Harpootlian

The definitive true “Southern Gothic” account of the life, crimes, conviction, and execution of Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins, the charismatic, brutal, well-liked, remorseless South Carolina serial killer who was dubbed the Charles Manson of the South—written by the prosecutor who brought him to justice.Of the hundreds of murder cases that noted South Carolina attorney Dick Harpootlian has prosecuted, one in particular haunts him. Donald “Pee Wee” Gaskins was a serial killer and rapist, a master manipulator who claimed to have killed over 100 people and is known to have murdered over a dozen, including a toddler, and his own teenage niece. Yet it was on Death Row that he pulled off his most audacious murder—killing another inmate with a military grade explosive.As personable as he was ruthless, Pee Wee defied easy categories. He killed to avenge minor slights as well as for pleasure, using any convenient method—including stabbing, shooting, poison, suffocation, and drowning. Evidence suggested he forced at least one victim to dig his own grave, stand in it, and be shot.With escalating callousness, Pee Wee murdered acquaintances, friends, family members, and strangers. Yet within his North Charleston community he was well-liked—a family man who took neighborhood kids to the beach and hosted cookouts. Ice-cold within but outwardly charming, he joked with judges, reporters, and Harpootlian himself, but didn’t hesitate to hatch a plot to kidnap the prosecutor’s daughter in order to extort an escape.Dig Me a Grave is a haunting look at a prolific, remorseless killer, as well as a provocative exploration of justice and the death penalty. DIG ME A GRAVE: The Inside Story of the Serial Killer Who Seduced the South—Dick Harpootlian

EMPIRE CITY UNDER SIEGE—Craig McGuire

Empire City Under Siege shares true stories of an FBI Special Agent spanning three tumultuous decades in New York City, beginning in the gritty 1970s when law enforcement refused to let their city be consumed by corruption and violence. Starting as an undercover operative investigating Mafia hijackers in Red Hook, Anthony John Nelson offers a gripping insider’s look at the bureau’s largest field office during one of its most transformative eras.From international manhunts, celebrity kidnappings, and late-night surveillance of Mafia hotspots with NYPD legend Kenneth “Kenny” McCabe, Nelson recounts his involvement in some of the most impactful and infamous cases of the pre-Internet age—pulling back the curtain on the dangers, strategies, and sacrifices behind the headlines.Featuring first-hand accounts from agents, officers, and prosecutors, this book honors the courage and commitment of all those like Anthony John Nelson who fought to restore order, protect the innocent, and reclaim a city once on the brink. EMPIRE CITY UNDER SIEGE Three Decades of New York FBI Field Office Manhunts, Murders, and Mafia Wars—Craig McGuire

SISTERS IN DEATH—Who Killed The Black Dahlia?—Eli Frankel

Who killed the Black Dahlia? In this eye-opening shocker,  award-winning producer, true-crime researcher, and Hollywood insider Eli Frankel finally solves the greatest-and most gruesome-murder mystery of the twentieth century just before its 80th anniversary.In January 1947, the bisected body of Elizabeth Short, completely drained of blood, was discovered in an undeveloped lot in Los Angeles. Its gruesome mutilations led to a firestorm of publicity, city-wide panic, and an unprecedented number of investigative paths led by the LAPD—all dead ends. The Black Dahlia murder remained an unsolved mystery for over seventy years.Six years earlier and sixteen hundred miles away, another woman’s life had ended in a similarly horrific manner. Leila Welsh was an ambitious, educated, popular, and socially connected beauty. Though raised modestly on a prairie farm, she was heiress to her Kansas City family’s status and wealth. On a winter morning in 1941, Leila’s butchered body was found in her bedroom bearing the marks of unspeakable trauma.One victim faded into obscurity. The other became notorious. Both had in common a killer whose sadistic mind was a labyrinth of dark secrets.Eli Frankel reveals for the first time a key fact about the Black Dahlia crime scene, never before shared with the public, that leads inexorably to the stunning identification of a criminal who was at the same time amateurish and fiendish, skilled and lucky, sophisticated and brutish. Drawing on newly discovered documents, law enforcement files, interviews with the last surviving participants, the victims’ own letters, trial transcripts, military records, and more, this epic true-crime saga puts together the missing pieces of a legendary puzzle.In Sisters in Death, the Black Dahlia cold case is finally closed. SISTERS IN DEATH: The Black Dahlia, the Prairie Heiress, and Their Hunter—Eli Frankel