Crime Analysis

This is a summary with key takeaways and analysis of Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, television star Trevor Noah's memoir about growing up as a mixed-race child.

Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime (2016) recounts the comedian’s childhood in South Africa during and after apartheid, focusing in particular on his relationship with his mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, whose own independence and character shaped Noah’s perceptions and choices. When Patricia was 22, she decided to leave her family’s home in the black township of Soweto to move to Johannesburg and work as a secretary, even though black people were not allowed to live in the city. (Disclaimer: This is NOT the original book.)

Michael R. Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi's 1990 work, A General Theory of Crime, assessed contemporary work in criminology, while also introducing a new, comprehensive theory of crime. At the time, researchers tended to focus on environmental factors that led to crime, not on the criminals themselves. Additionally, crime researchers came from different disciplines and inclined towards thinking about crime only from their particular perspective. This meant ideas about what caused crime, and how to prevent it, were often in conflict.

In October 2002, Susan Polk was arrested for the murder of her husband, Felix, kicking off what would become one of the most captivating murder trials in recent memory. Now, former judge and current Court TV host Catherine Crier turns an analytical eye to Susan's story, delving into her past and examining how over twenty years of marriage culminated in murder. Dark, psychological, and terrifying, Final Analysis is a harrowing look at the recesses of the human mind and the trauma that reveals them.

It's a sunny morning in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and also Dr. Kay Scarpetta's birthday. She's about to head to Miami for a vacation with Benton Wesley, her FBI profiler husband, when she notices seven pennies on a wall behind their home. Is this a kids' game? And if so, why are all of the coins dated 1981 and so shiny they could be newly minted? Her cellphone rings, and Detective Pete Marino tells her there's been a homicide five minutes away. A high school music teacher has been shot with uncanny precision as he unloaded groceries from his car. Yet no one has heard or seen a thing.

Groundbreaking scientific analysis that breaks the JFK assassination wide open! Did a shot from the "grassy knoll" kill President Kennedy? If so, was Oswald part of a conspiracy or an innocent patsy? Why have scientific experts who examined the evidence failed to put such questions to rest? In 2001, scientist Dr. Donald Byron Thomas published a peer-reviewed article that revived the debate over the finding by the House Select Committee on Assassinations that there had indeed been a shot from the grassy knoll, caught on a police dictabelt recording.

The Devil in the White City is a book by Erik Larson that takes a close look at the World's Columbian Exposition, the world fair that Chicago hosted in 1893 in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America. The fair was tainted by deaths, a serial killer, and an assassination. The lead architect, Daniel Burnham, and the serial killer, Henry Howard Holmes, play pivotal roles in the events that unfolded before, during, and after the fair.

FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at 16. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her 11 years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation...but his games are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to play along. 

Studies in Forensic Psychiatry is the product of extensive research into the psychological motivations for criminal behavior. Bernard Glueck draws his conclusions from a huge wealth of experience with the criminally insane and with the public health care systems. He recognized the need for criminology to be expanded to reflect a deeper understanding of motive and inclination on the part of the criminal, rather than being considered solely in terms of the criminal act itself.

This is the audio analysis of Sheelah Kolhatkar's Black Edge, a nonfiction legal thriller about the US government's attempt to take down billionaire hedge fund manager Steve A. Cohen for insider trading, as well as, a look at the ways much of Wall Street evades the law. For decades, hedge funds in the United States followed a fairly careful investment strategy: Funds would estimate which public companies would do well in the future and invest in those companies. This in-depth analysis examines that and more.

A former US naval intelligence worker, Milton William Cooper published his manifesto Behold a Pale Horse in 1991. Since then it has gone on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies, becoming the number-one best seller in the American prison system. According to Behold a Pale Horse, JFK was assassinated - because he was about to reveal that extraterrestrials were about to take over the earth - by his driver, an alien himself; AIDS is a government conspiracy; and much more.

In December of 1968, a serial killer began orchestrating a campaign of terror in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not satisfied with the simple act of murder, he taunted law enforcement and the public by writing letters to local newspapers. Through often cryptic and bizarre content - including four ciphers, three of which have never been solved - the psychopath played a twisted game. 

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder is a unique story that blends biography, entrepreneurial business narrative, history, true crime, and a human rights crusade all into one book.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer (2018) describes author Michelle McNamara’s quest to identify a California serial killer who committed a rash of rapes and murders during the 1970s and 1980s. The book examines both the serial killer’s crimes and the efforts made by law enforcement and amateur detectives to identify him. (Disclaimer: This is NOT the original book. If you’re looking for the original book, it is available from Amazon and Audible.)  

Drawing on declassified documents, interviews with intelligence veterans and policymakers, and other sources, The Image of the Enemy examines how seven countries analyzed and used intelligence to understand their main adversary. The cases in the book include the Soviet Union's analysis of the United States (and vice versa), East Germany's analysis of West Germany (and vice versa), British intelligence in the early years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Israeli intelligence about the Palestinians, and more.

In 1936, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was executed for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. Almost all of America believed Hauptmann guilty; only a few magazines and tabloids published articles questioning his conviction. In the ensuing decades, many books about the Lindbergh case have been published. Some have declared Hauptmann the victim of a police conspiracy and frame-up, and one posited that Lindbergh actually killed his own son and fabricated the entire kidnapping to mask the deed.

Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue is a detailed account of an extraordinary conspiracy led by Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire with a vendetta against a website that intruded on his personal life. Working with a clandestine legal team, Thiel spent nearly a decade developing a plan to take Gawker down and ultimately used Hogan, a washed-up wrestler who sued Gawker over a sex tape, as an instrument of revenge.... (Disclaimer: This is NOT the original book. If you’re looking for the original book, it is available from Amazon and Audible.)

Killers of the Flower Moon (2017) narrates a series of murders on the Osage reservation in Oklahoma. In the 1920s, members of the Osage tribe were killed as part of a plot to deprive them of their oil wealth. Purchase this in-depth analysis to learn more.

Wildlife is an important and even vital asset for both intrinsic and economic reasons. Yet it is illegally exploited on a massive scale to the point where some species now risk extinction. Exploiting the Wilderness provides a concise overview of this shameful business, describing some of the main species being exploited and examining select wildlife whose survival is imperiled due to heavy pressure from poachers to meet consumer demand. Greg Warchol draws on his firsthand experience and research in Africa to examine the structure and operation of the illegal trade in wildlife.

While the City Slept by Eli Sanders is a journalistic work portraying the series of events that led up to a sexual assault and homicide in an outlying neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The victims were Teresa Butz and Jennifer Hopper, who lived in a peripheral neighborhood called South Park. Isaiah Kalebu was convicted for the murder.