Showing titles in Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions

Dominque Dunne appeared in several films and television series from 1979 to 1982, but was best known for portraying the oldest daughter in the 1982 horror film Poltergeist. She seemed destined for stardom until tragedy struck on October 30, 1982. Dominique was strangled by her ex-boyfriend, John Thomas Sweeney, in the driveway of her West Hollywood home and went into a coma. She never regained consciousness and died five days later. This is her story.

The tragic story of Natalee Holloway still remains a mystery to this day. The events prior to her disappearance are centered on unreliable witnesses, investigators not following proper procedures, and friends who had left her alone with local patrons. To say that a school trip is never supposed to turn out this way is a monumental understatement.

This is the true story a woman swindled out of a fortune by her famous ex-Confederate-general husband, Philip Dale Roddey. You will find this story nowhere else in material about Roddey but it was splashed across the nation in newspapers in 1874 and followed closely by the New York Times.

Everything about Joe seemed perfect, and Alice was the happiest she'd ever been. Then one day Joe saw a message on her phone and discovered something that changed everything. Although it was from an old love, he ignored Alice's explanations and desperate pleas. And soon the violence and abuse began. As she attempted to prove to Joe that he really was her world, Alice gave up everything that mattered to her, including her family, her friends and her job. But still it wasn't enough.

London 1901. The city is in the grip of "monkey man mania". Intrepid explorer Drake Patterson has caused a media storm following his astonishing discovery of a frozen ancient man in the remote Himalayan Mountains. This primal man has been triumphantly transported back to England as proof of the missing link in evolutionary theory. The upcoming auction of the specimen causes a stir amongst academics and the board of the British Museum.

On a bitterly cold afternoon in December 1986, a Michigan State trooper found the frozen body of Jerry Tobias in the bed of his pickup truck. The 31-year-old oil field worker and small-time drug dealer was clad only in jeans, a checkered shirt, and cowboy boots. Inside the cab of the truck was a fresh package of expensive steaks from a local butcher shop, the first lead in a case that would be quickly lost in a thicket of bungled forensics, shady prosecution, and a psychopathic star witness out for revenge.

A rash of burglaries in the small town of Lark Point, California has a domino effect on a group of local residents; eight lives bound together by honor, betrayal and love. Tangled like Music rushes through the small town like a whirlwind and creates changes that none could have anticipated. Love, mystery, deception, murder, and relationships intertwine to tell the story of redemption and the unraveling of life's tangles. It's a recipe for a song.

Hoax, conspiracy, or secret society? That is the range of responses you might hear when raising the idea of the Priory of Sion. Ostensibly a clandestine order designed to disguise the truth about the children of Jesus Christ, the group have been labeled as either an elaborate concoction or the most powerful secret society in the world. Are they real? What are they hiding? Where did they come from? What impact can they have on the world around us? These are the questions this book will hope to answer.

This audiobook explains the scientific tools and techniques that revealed the century's biggest food fraud scams. It looks in detail at the biggest scams in recent times; drawing on the lead author's extensive experience at the forefront of the fight against these fraudsters, it goes on to explore the arms race between scientists and adulterers as better techniques for detection spur more creative and sophisticated means of adulteration.

Scammers are intelligent, professional, and well-trained. They have no heart or compassion. They will take your last penny if they get the chance. They knowingly put your finances, trust, and even your family in jeopardy. Most scammers work in packs, like wolves, and are after you. What is a scam? A scam is when someone takes money from someone else while not providing the promised service or product.

When a beautiful young prom queen becomes the latest victim of a deadly bombing campaign, detectives Marty Sinclair and Al Alvarez must battle to find the killer before he can strike again. But when a rare documents dealer becomes the seriously injured next victim, is he really an innocent victim or something far more deadly?

Gabbi loves her wine almost as much as she loves her men. But being the attention whore that she is, she couldn't hang in there when her marriage needed mending; instead she ran to an old high school sweetheart, making up stories that her husband abused her so all would feel sorry for her. When friends would confront Gabbi with their disbelief of Travis' abusiveness, she would say that he put on a good act. Gabbi got what she wanted - for a while.

Aaron Iturra was just 18 years old when he was found dead in his bedroom in Eugene, Oregon. Soon, the quiet community would be rocked and shocked by who was behind the killing: Mary Louise Thompson, also known as Gang Mom. An anti-gang activist, she was a modern day deadly Fagin, running her own gang of juveniles who preyed on the unsuspecting city.

Marilyn Sheppard, four months pregnant and mother of a toddler son, was bludgeoned to death in her Bay Village, Ohio, home in the early morning of July fourth, 1954. The cause of death was 27 blows to the head with a heavy instrument. Who took her life so brutally has been the subject of much controversy and debate for nearly half a century.

For more than 60 years, Southern Californians entrusted the bodies of their loved ones to the Sconce family's Lamb Funeral Home. But the heirs to the fourth-generation funeral empire betrayed that trust with a series of gruesome crimes against the dead. Featured on ABC-TV's Nightline.

In the heart of Indian country in the American west, clandestine criminals were profiting greatly from the sale of sacred Native American artifacts stolen from tribal lands. These artifacts were so ancient they had been used since the migration of the first Americans into North America some 15,000 years ago. In the year 1998, the illegal trafficking of these artifacts peaked in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Wolf is in Panama waiting for the details of his next assignment. When his handler contacts him, he is immediately distrustful and suspicious of the plan. He sees it as a suicide mission with no way out. Within hours, bodies start to pile up, a double-cross and betrayal are tripped up, and a final showdown that leaves the target alive and Wolf on the run.

Die Geschichte beginnt damit, dass ein mittelloser Kunstmaler sich als cleverer, aber ungebildeter Militaria Händler ausgibt und jahrelang einem reichen, jedoch eher einfältigen Sammler alles mögliche verkauft - und sei es auch noch so absurd. Er treibt das Spiel mit den von ihm gefälschten Kriegs-Devotionalien immer weiter - bis zur verwegenen Idee, ein Tagebuch Adolf Hitlers an den Mann zu bringen. Damit erhält die Geschichte eine unfassbare Wendung - unfassbar listig, unfassbar absurd, unfassbar komisch...

The Ponzi Housing Scheme is the financial crime of the 21st century. It makes Madoff look like an amateur because of scale. The crime was sophisticated in it's plan. This crime violated laws on the books. It violated laws that should be on the books. And it violated the trust that people have with the banking community, and this violation reaches to the highest bankers in the land and off our shores. This crime is complex, but it is not rocket science. The proof of culpability can be known.

John Wilkes Booth murdered Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre and was killed in Garrett's Barn, Virginia by Sergeant Boston Corbett. But what if the body wasn't John Wilkes Booth? Nate Orlowek believes the body in the barn that day may not have been John Wilkes Booth. So who was the man in the barn that day?