Showing titles in Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions

Young, handsome Colin Whelan was a magnet for women, who always fell for his seductive charms. Little did they know that underneath his cool exterior lay a twisted desire to kill. Behind the facade of normality lay a psychopathic mind struggling to control its homicidal urges. Having seduced and married his sweetheart Mary Gough, Whelan immediately began planning her brutal murder.

Are you fascinated by true crime stories? Then this riveting true crime anthology series is an essential addition to your true crime library. Discover the dark and twisted world of true crime with this incredible real-life anthology series featuring vivid details and realistic portrayals of true crime stories.

The case of D. B. Cooper is a modern legend that has obsessed and cursed his pursuers for generations with everything from bankruptcy to suicidal despair. Now, with Skyjack, Geoffrey Gray obtains a first-ever look at the FBI’s confidential Cooper file, uncovering new leads in the infamous case.

The mysterious is all around us.... UFOs, extraterrestrial encounters, baffling disappearances - Mysteries Uncovered investigates, without prejudice, some of the most notorious, disturbing and enduring mysteries ever recorded. For every instance rationalised away, there is another that defies explanation. Emily G. Thompson has several years experience as an investigative reporter. She has her own popular true crime website and podcast, Morbidology, and is the co-author of DK's Unsolved Murders and Cults Uncovered.

Millions in stolen property, revolting sex crimes, and murder-for-hire were all in the mix for a Las Vegas police detective, as he toiled to take Sin City's most prolific criminal off the streets for good. Detective Bradley Nickell brings you the inside scoop on the investigation, arrest, and conviction of the most prolific repeat offender Las Vegas has ever known.

Napoleon famously observed that "history is a set of lies agreed upon", and Edward Steers Jr. investigates six of the most amazing frauds ever to gain wide acceptance in this engrossing book. The controversies that Steers presents show that there are two major factors involved in the success of a hoax or forgery - greed and the desire to believe.

Great Yarmouth, September 1900: A young woman is found dead on the beach, a bootlace tied tightly around her neck. Despite her death attracting national attention in the press, nobody claims her. Detective Inspector Robert Lingwood of the Great Yarmouth police force declares he will not rest until the mystery of the young woman's death is solved. But it's only once the case has been referred to Scotland Yard that the layers of mystery start to peel away.

FINLAND TRUE CRIME - TRUE CRIMES - REAL CRIME CASES. n this sixth volume of his True Crime series, Germany's bestselling True Crime author Adrian Langenscheid once again unleashes heart-pounding, addictive reading. This breathtaking and deeply harrowing portrait of the human abyss arouses powerful emotions due to its cool, factually neutral descriptions. Free of any sensationalism, sixteen True Crime short stories retell some of the most spectacular Finnish criminal cases in recent decades.

Right under the noses of neighbors, clients, spouses, children, and friends, a secret society, simply called School—a cult of snared Manhattan professionals—has been led by the charismatic, sociopathic, and dangerous leader Sharon Gans for decades. Spencer Schneider was recruited in the eighties, and he stayed for more than twenty-three years as his life disintegrated, his self-esteem eroded, and he lined the pockets of Gans and her cult.

In The Murder of Marilyn Monroe: Case Closed, renowned MM expert Jay Margolis and New York Times best-selling author Richard Buskin finally lay to rest more than 50 years of wild speculation and misguided assertions by actually naming the screen goddess's killer. At the same time, they use the testimony of eyewitnesses to describe exactly what took place inside her house on Fifth Helena Drive in Los Angeles's Brentwood neighborhood.

Ted Bundy was a handsome, charming, and ambitious man who carried his hatred deeper and more hidden than any other murderers do. He was able to lead a life that included normal friendships and relationships, and he even got far as both a student and a politician. But the hatred was there.... It was always there.... Bundy ended the lives of more than 30 young women, ensuring their final moments were ugly and violent. His torture methods were cruel, and there was no mercy shown to each female as he bludgeoned, strangled, or cut them.

This book details the 20 top conspiracy theories. The book describes the history, the beliefs surrounding the theories, and the reasons for the conspiracy theories. You will learn that some people believe that the government is releasing toxic chemicals into the air and the water. There are also numerous theories about the government and their knowledge of aliens and UFOs.

It takes just seconds for someone to die. Sometimes questions remain: was it an accident, suicide, or something more sinister?

Serial killers are not simple monsters, as many believe. They are human beings just like us: men and women who have made the wrong choices or been turned into ugly creatures by their upbringing. Some seek to cause pain and shock - others just wish to scratch an itch that they have in their mind. All of them bring darkness in their own way.

Cannibal. Necrophiliac. Kidnapper. Killer. The stories of serial killers often begin with terrible upbringings and sad events of trauma, but not all have such unfortunate beginnings. Some simply develop their evil on their own and become tainted without anyone realizing it. Jeffrey Dahmer was a man described by his own father as the result of a child becoming lost in the maelstrom while nobody paid attention, a child who was strange and apathetic but whom nobody bothered to ask why.

Minnie was just 16 when she stood trial for the wrongful death of her first husband, a successful businessman and politician almost 40 years her senior. Despite overwhelming witness testimony that the Creole beauty from New Orleans had purchased the arsenic that killed him, Minnie's own testimony brought the entire courtroom to tears. She was acquitted. Minnie returned to New Orleans with James Walkup's fortune, but she still didn't have enough cash for her liking, so she successfully targeted, seduced, and murdered two more wealthy older men while evading justice in the courtroom.

Edgar Laplante was a small-time grifter, an erstwhile vaudeville performer, and an unabashed charmer. But after years of playing thankless gigs and traveling with medicine shows, he decided to undertake the most demanding and bravura performance of his life. In the fall of 1917, Laplante reinvented himself as Chief White Elk: war hero, sports star, civil rights campaigner, Cherokee nation leader - and total fraud.

Everyone got married in the 1950s, then started to produce the soon-to-be-famous baby boom. For Americans who had survived the Great Depression and World War II, prosperous married life was a triumph. The unwed were objects of pity, scorn, even suspicion. Women over twenty-three were consider old maids. But Eva Eldridge— who’d left the farm for a job in a wartime shipyard where she made a hasty and disastrous marriage—finds herself left out. Now in her thirties and marginally employed, she is the perfect target for handsome Vick, who promises everything.

By the time she was in her teens, Diamond had lived dozens of lives and lies, but as she grew older, love and trust turned to fear and violence, and her family—the only people she had in the world—began to unravel. She started to realize that her life itself might be a big con, and the people she loved, the most dangerous of all. With no way out and her identity burned so often that she had no proof she even existed, all that was left was a girl from nowhere.

The first of a trilogy, this collection features 16 of the world's most outrageous scams and hoaxes. They all really happened and were taken from firsthand accounts, newspaper reports, or historical documents found in public libraries. They date as far back as the late 1800s, but most are more recent. However, you won't find any defrauded widows or orphans in these stories. The victims are institutions or corporations quite capable of defending themselves, and the crooks who match wits with them are just as savvy. You could almost call it a fair fight!