True crime

In his first work of nonfiction since The Innocent Man, #1 bestselling author John Grisham and Centurion Ministries Founder Jim McCloskey share ten harrowing true stories of wrongful convictions. Impeccably researched and grippingly told, Framed offers an inside look at the injustice faced by the victims of the United States criminal justice system. A fundamental principle of our legal system is a presumption of innocence, but once someone has been found guilty there is very little room to prove doubt. Framed shares ten true stories of men who were innocent but found guilty and forced to sacrifice friends, families, wives, and decades of their lives to prison while the guilty parties remained free. In each of the stories, John Grisham and Jim McCloskey recount the dramatic hard-fought battles for exoneration. They take a close look at what leads to wrongful convictions in the first place, and the racism, misconduct, flawed testimony, and the corrupt court system that can make them so hard to reverse. Told with page-turning suspense as only John Grisham can deliver, Framed is the story of overcoming adversity when the battle already seems lost, and the deck is stacked against you.

In this thrilling memoir, Suburban Bigamy: Six Miles Between Truth and Deceit, author Michael S. Zimmerman chronicles the painful story of two families built on one lie, forever linked through betrayal, infidelity, and bigamy. Then, after hitting rock bottom, Mike becomes a father of his own, and soon discovers something more powerful than the lie: a story of resilience, recovery, and hope."A frightening story intelligently told, one that exposes the frailty of even people's most pedestrian certainties. An engrossing work about the explosiveness of secrets exposed."

This is a true story of a child, the youngest of three kids. School was not challenging enough. Travelled all over North America, Canada, The Arctic Circle 9 times and managed to stay alive.

Excitement filled the air in Alma, Arkansas on the night of June 9, 1995. A crowd of nearly three hundred surrounded the baseball pitch to watch a little league game on a warm summer night. Cheering could be heard echoing around the town, reaching far from the stadium. In what appeared to be a perfect summer's evening, spirits were high, with adults chatting jovially and children playing together, making new friends. But for one mother, the midsummer evening would become a living nightmare in an incident she would describe in an interview for Fox News as "pure childhood innocence and such evil that met in [the] same moment." Her six-year-old daughter disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again.

Gary Hilton will not walk free again. One way or another, he is going to die in prison. If the gurney does not get him, then old age will. Currently, he sits in his cell paying penance for the deaths of four people including that of Cheryl Dunlap, whom he murdered in the Apalachicola National Forest, which lies in the north of Florida. He received the death penalty for that homicide.'He will most likely die in prison and most certainly never see the light of day again, ' the Hall County District Attorney in Georgia had said in 2008 after Hilton was convicted just a month after he killed Meredith Emerson on New Year's Day of that year. That was before he was sentenced for the killing of three other victims in a spree which lasted from the end of 2005. It is widely believed that Hilton also murdered several others, but either their bodies are yet to be found, or they were too decomposed to be tied definitively to him...How many people did Gary Hilton kill?

As Bobby lifted his 'gooney stick' axe handle above his head and swung it down with brute force for the third time, he licked his lips as the weapon smashed again into the limp head of his train boxcar companion. He savoured the moment as he watched the frantic eyes of his victim stammer to a halt and slowly drain of life. Bobby had become exceptionally good at taking lives - the lives of those who would not be missed. This is the true story of an extremely brutal and extraordinary serial killer who plagued the United States' busy freight train tracks for some fifteen years. Over the decade and a half between 1981 and 1996, Robert Joseph Silveria Junior's horrific and truly terrifying killing spree led him to ultimately take the lives of some 28 fellow travellers until being finally apprehended.

In August 1994, two farmers working in a field stumbled upon the skeletal remains of Clinton Trezise. Unfortunately, there was no evidence present on the remains or the grave that could help police identify the victim. There was evidence of dyed hair and previously broken bones, which gave forensic experts hope that they would be able to identify the victim, but nobody came forth to claim the victim, not even after a $100,000 reward was offered. Trezise's family finally filed a missing person report in October 1995, but authorities still couldn't make the connection. Photos of Trezise were sent to forensic experts to compare against the skull, and they concluded that they were not a match - twice. Trezise was an openly gay man. Soon there would be numerous bodies of gay men found dead or missing in the area. A man or group of men were targeting them. Thus began the story of the Snowtown Murders...

On Wednesday May 6, 2020, investigators arrived at Clark Perry Baldwin's home in Waterloo, Iowa, and placed him under arrest for multiple murders. Brent Cooper, the district attorney general of the 22nd Judicial District in Tennessee announced the arrest later that day, revealing that Baldwin was the main suspect in three cold cases, one in Spring Hill Tennessee, and two in Wyoming. Baldwin is suspected of the 1991 murder of Pamela Rose Aldridge McCall and her unborn baby, and the 1992 murders of Bitter Creek Betty and the I-90 Jane Doe and her unborn baby. He was charged in Tennessee with two counts of murder in the case of McCall and her unborn baby. Two murder charges were also brought against him in Wyoming for the murder of the two Jane Does, Bitter Creek Betty and the I-90 Jane Doe, who had been discovered 400 miles apart in 1992. Baldwin, who grew up in Nashua, Iowa, graduated from Nashua-Plainfield High School in 1979. As an adult, he was a resident of a few different towns, including Nashua, Missouri, Waterloo, Virginia, Newport News, and Springfield. He worked as a long-haul trucker for Marten Transport for a number of years, spanning the times and locations of the murders.Baldwin's arrest came as a surprise to friends and neighbors, many of whom described him as a quiet person, with one person going as far as stating that he was a "gentle giant."What possessed Baldwin to commit the atrocities he did?

Debra Lynn Baker seemed to have scored the perfect job. She had no skills to speak of but called herself a "fast learner" when she interviewed for the position of bookkeeper for millionaire Jerry Sternadel. A close friend of his wife, the two allegedly began embezzling money from Sternadel's business, causing numerous checks to bounce. Sternadel caught wind of the embezzlement and threatened legal action. He died under mysterious circumstances weeks later with the money still outstanding. Who stole the money and why have they not been prosecuted?

Female serial killers are incredibly rare because the women, in general, are not prone to murdering more than one person. Even if they do, they usually use poison or kill their victims in a non-violent way. Brutality is not common, and it is more prominent when the authorities are dealing with a male killer. However, Irina Viktorovna Gaidamachuk does not match the standard description of a serial murderer. She didn't kill because she thought it was fun or felt an urge to take someone's life. Instead, Irina did it because she needed money to feed her ever-growing alcohol addiction which did fit into the profile because she killed in order to gain wealth.

Yeardey Love and George Huguely seemed like the average college couple...dating then drifting apart. It seemed as though, in the beginning, this was something that both sides accepted. Young people change more quickly than older ones, and long college relationships are rare. When a couple had so little time to be together, the process of breaking up becomes easier and more likely. But as their final college days approached, Huguely became less and less able to accept the end of their relationship. Graduation was just three weeks away when, on May 3rd 2010, friends arrived in the early hours at Yeardley's apartment. There, they found their buddy lying on the floor. It was clear that she was dead...What they didn't know was that she was murdered...

As the title implies, two women who took their bitchiness to a whole other level in the form of murder. Judith Neeley was a homicidal psychotic who kidnapped and murdered women with the help of her equally crazy husband. Judith had a kindred soul in Catherine Birnie, who teamed up with her husband to become one of the most notorious serial killers in the history of Australia.

Sarah Vercauteren moved out of her fiance's home in order to get clean for the sake of her two-years-old son Skylar. She could always count on her mother so Sarah returned to her hometown, seeking a non-toxic environment in which she could rebuild her life and become a better mother. In the beginning, Sarah was down with the plan, following the rules and staying out of trouble. However, things became complicated when her mother discovered that Sarah was still using weed to help her out with the withdrawal. As soon as the weed became unavailable to her, Sarah's cravings for heroin returned which had a deadly outcome that shocked this small town.

On July 29, 1962, four of Joe Strupp's relatives were found shot to death in their South Dakota home.The killer: Joe's great-uncle, John Bowman.The victims: Bowman, his wife, and their two teen-age sons.The result: a shocking tale of simmering tensions, mixed motives, and deadly outcomes that still harbors a mystery-why did it happen?When Joe first heard about the tragedy 20 years ago, he began a long and intense investigation into the family secret that revealed a tangled history of mental illness, alcoholism, and still-unanswered questions as to why this horrific crime occurred.Why did a quiet, frustrated father with no history of violence kill his family in cold blood and then take his own life, leaving no note of explanation?Why did the priest who administered last rites leave the church soon after?Why was the killer allowed to leave a mental hospital after years of troubling incidents?And why did Joe's family keep it secret for 40 years?

Did the State of Kentucky convict an innocent man? Moments before boarding a passenger flight on 11 May 2019 as the first officer, pilot Christian "Kit" Martin, a former army ranger, was arrested by a swarm of heavily armed officers for the murders of three of his neighbors. The arrest captured global attention as Martin's mugshot, clad in a pilot's uniform, spread across the internet, sparking a media firestorm with headlines such as "Monster in the Cockpit." A combat helicopter pilot, Kit Martin had seen his life unravel after seeking a divorce. His wife's threatening words, "If you leave me, I will ruin your life ...," overheard by his daughter, seemed to have become a grim reality, escalating to a court-martial and culminating in a high-stakes murder trial at which he was convicted. I WILL RUIN YOU!: The Twisted Truth Behind the Kit Martin Murder Trial delves into the complex circumstances behind Martin's story. It looks beyond the sensational headlines and legal turmoil into the heart of this controversial case. With an investigative journalist's eye, author Emilio Corsetti III presents the facts of the crime that led to the arrest and the extraordinary lengths used to secure a conviction in this unforgettable true crime page-turner.

In the Wyoming Territory in the 1800's there was little law. People took what they wanted. Lynchings, called Texas Cakewalk, happened. This is a true account of the motives and aftermath of the lynchings. What were the motives of six men to lynch people? Did they get away with it?Texas Cakewalk is about true and infamous lynchings. The story is of eight people from different backgrounds with different ambitions and attitudes. The eight characters clash tragically in 1848 in the Prairie of Wyoming Territory.

The thrilling true story of the rise and fall of a kickboxing legend in the notorious 1980s Miami crime scene . . . and the shocking end that that led him to a new life. From 1982 to 1987, Thaddeus J. "Ted" Pryor was the middleweight kickboxing champion of the world. But behind the scenes, he was a key player in the biggest marijuana trafficking operation in American history. As a renowned athlete, TV model, and bodyguard to stars like Elvis Presley, he drew the attention of the head of the Miami mafia. When the kingpin wanted protection--and some flash--he made Ted his personal intimidator, keeping the peace in the celebrity-drenched nightclub scene and beyond. But when the gangster blocked him from getting in on the big money of the smuggling business, Ted started his own. Three-Time World Champ tells the electric story of how Ted became the master of the run-and-gun smuggling business around the Caribbean islands, hustling in hundreds of millions of dollars in weed under the noses of cops and coast guard patrols--until a dubious traffic stop began the unraveling of everything. What began as easy money became a ringside seat to kidnapping, murder, police double-crosses, and a harrowing turn in prison. Three-Time World Champ brings readers directly into the action of neon-soaked, 1980s Miami, chronicling the rise and fall--and rise again--of an amazing man: a world champ of kickboxing and a world champ of smuggling who, in a wholly unexpected turn, becomes world champ of a business completely removed from everything that came before. It's harrowing, it's thrilling, and it happened just like this: the wild life of a Three-Time World Champ.

A jogger running in a field near the perimeter of the African Lion Safari theme park in southern Ontario stumbles across a near-mummified skeleton. The remains are studied at a hospital morgue by a forensic pathologist, a forensic anthropologist and a forensic entomologist (known as "the bug lady"). They discover that the victim was female, non-Caucasian. But who was she? Award-winning journalist and author Jon Wells delivers a gripping, CSI-style story that was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for best crime non-fiction. Post-Mortem shows how Hamilton, Ontario, homicide investigator Paul Lahaie and his team chase a case in which the first challenge is finding the victim. One of the forensic detectives hits upon the secret to cracking the identity of the dead woman: rehydrating the hardened skin on her fingertips and rolling it for prints. A match is found to Yvette Budram, a woman from Guyana who immigrated to Canada and married a man named Mohan Ramkissoon. The police soon discover the first of many twists in the case-Yvette's prints are in the Canadian Police Information Centre system because she has a criminal record for uttering death threats against her husband. Mohan denies doing anything wrong. A blood-spatter expert is brought in-but what can the police now prove in this cold case?

In 1989, the Little Rascals Day Care in Edenton, North Carolina, was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight. One day, the owner's husband disciplined a boy at naptime, and soon an angry mother suggested that it was more than just a slap. Rumors quickly morphed into charges of unimaginable crimes against dozens of little children. Panic consumed the town, as the police, therapists, and parents relentlessly pressured the children who attended the day care to name their teachers responsible for multiple allegations of abuse. The Edenton Seven were caught up in the accusations, including nineteen-year-old teacher Robin Boles Byrum. She spent nearly a year in jail under an enormous bond meant to pressure her to "tell the truth" while she had a new baby at home. Eerily reminiscent of the hysteria that gripped Salem, Massachusetts, during the witch trials of the seventeenth century, the Little Rascals case ultimately became the longest and most expensive criminal trial in North Carolina history. Three decades later, Betsy Hester met Robin Byrum Couto and together, they joined forces to tell the truth. In this book, Betsy shares insights from legal and medical experts and reveals the facts from twenty-one boxes and bound testimonies from the courtroom long since buried away. Intertwined with the case history is Robin's never-before-told story of her harrowing journey through the court system. Finally, this book serves as a modern-day warning about the danger of mass hysteria and the consequences of a judicial system that blindly refused to hear and seek the truth.

On Easter Sunday 1975, James Urban Ruppert shot and killed his 11 closest relatives in what was then the largest family mass murder in the United States. The killings, which took the lives of eight children ages 4 to 17, sent shock waves through Ruppert's hometown of Hamilton, Ohio. Ruppert claimed that his insanity and belief in a conspiracy against him, coupled with his brother's off-hand comment, "How's your Volkswagen running, Jim?," sent him into an uncontrollable, murderous rage. John F. Holcomb, the tough-as-nails Butler County Prosecuting Attorney, had a different theory. He believed Ruppert masterminded the bloodbath to inherit his family's money. The Easter Sunday Massacre provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Ruppert case, straight from the prosecutor's diary and from those closest to the tragedy.

A True Crime anthology centering around women who used poison to kill their victims...Holly McFeeture was sent to prison for slowly poisoning her fiancee by giving him daily doses of antifreeze into his beverages. But did she do it? Wrongful convictions in the United States seem like such a rare occurrence. One might think that if a case has gone to trial, and a jury has made a decision, then the person must be guilty. In a perfect world, the jury would have all the evidence they needed to make a decision beyond a reasonable doubt. However, in 2015, in the United States, a record number of 149 people were exonerated of crimes that they didn't commit. While the number may seem low in comparison to the number of rightful convictions, it was higher than any other year.

When Girly Chew met Diazien Hossencofft while on vacation in the United States, she was instantly swept off her feet. It was the early 1990s, and the Malaysian-born Chew was exploring SeaWorld when she bumped into Hossencofft, a thoracic surgeon with multiple degrees from prestigious universities...By 1993, after a brief courtship conducted through correspondence by mail, the couple had gotten married and were living together in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And by 1999, Chew would be missing - presumed dead - and Hossencofft would be convicted with her murder.

Edmund Lopes was as charming as they come. He could befriend any man or woman on the street with his "golden tongue". Known to tell a tall tale or two, he led a normal life until he abandoned his first wife and his children. From there, he would remarry, kill his second wife, try to kill his girlfriend and murder another woman. Eventually tried and convicted, he would be released on parole after only twelve years. Ordered not to leave the state, Lopes defied the authorities and fled to Nebraska to marry his "pen pal" that had been writing him in prison. The two then moved to rural Washington where Lopes reinvented himself as "Pastor Ed". He regaled his parishioners with his own personal story of being the Prodigal Son, the bad man gone astray who came back into the fold of the Lord. Problem was, none of his stories were true.

Lisa and Rob Whedbee seemed to have it all. He ran a successful insurance business; she was the former high school cheerleader whose pretty looks, blonde hair and bouncy personality made her the centre of social gatherings.Indeed, their romance was like something out of one of those middle-class Disney movies the company poured out in the seventies. Rob was the football team captain; the jock with brains as well as brawn; the guy who got the girl about which every beta male dreamed. Lisa was his catch; one he'd never look to throw back.The couple were even labelled Ken and Barbie. Those squeaky-clean Mattel dolls engineered youngsters into the look to which they should aspire; he muscle bound and square jawed, she a woman of her time; courageous, entrepreneurial, intelligent but never forgetting her first job - to look beautiful.But in the same way as the Barbie theme offers just a thin veneer to cover the realities of life, so this Ken and Barbie couple presented a blistering coat of varnish to the outside world. Under the surface, their relationship was rotting away. It would end in a vicious attempt on Rob's life, one which involved a weak and inept lover and a bungled legal case littered with unproven assertions that flew like indiscriminate pellets from a child's toy gun.The cartoon character perfection of the early years of their relationship fell into soap opera tragedy; one that held the attention of the nation.

On July 15, Gianni Versace left his house in Miami Beach, Casa Casuarina, at around 8:30 a.m., and headed to News Café to pick up his morning coffee and a bunch of magazines. He walked home, and as he was opening the gate to his mansion at around 8:55 a.m., witnesses stated that they saw a man rushing over to Versace, and shot him twice in the back. In the ensuing commotion after the shots rang out, the man ran away from the scene, and a number of people saw him enter a parking garage. Police were called to the scene, and found Versace lying on the steps, bleeding from two bullet wounds, one in the back of the head, and one in the left cheek. One witness ran after the assailant, but was unable to catch him. Versace was rushed over to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:21 a.m. News of the shooting spread like wildfire, and in a few hours, news stations were on the scene, their vans and trucks blocking the roads as they delivered the breaking news. Miami Police quickly locked down the city, and began tracing the gunman's steps, following the witness reports. In the parking garage, officers found Reese's red truck parked, with clothes dropped on the ground next to the truck. The clothes matched witness descriptions of what the shooter was wearing. According to witnesses, a man had rushed out of the parking garage and hailed a cab.Who killed Gianni Versace and why?

Laura lived in room 518 in Hill Hall dormitory, a single room at Eastern Michigan University. When she walked into her door after the secret Santa Christmas party, she called her boyfriend Travis Scott, who worked at an engineering firm, Covanta Energy, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Scott was working late, and the two spoke for a few minutes before Laura stated that she was turning in for the night. Laura had exams the next day, and when she failed to show up, her friends increasingly grew concerned. They began frantically calling her phone, but she was not picking up. In Hastings, Michigan, Robert and Debra Dickinson, Laura's parents, were also growing concerned. They were a tight-knit family, and the phone calls were frequent. Laura always picked up her phone, and in the rare occasions that she didn't, she always returned the calls soon after. They reached out to Scott, who was having the same problems. By December 15, 2006, two days after anyone last heard from Laura, Robert and Scott began making plans to drive down to the school. After discussing the plan, Scott decided that he would take the day off work and check on Laura, promising to call back with news as soon as he found out what was going on...What happened to Laura Dickinson?

Robert Charles Browne, a 68-year old Louisiana native, who serves a double-life sentence at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility may just be one of the most prolific murderers in American history. However, some of the self-professed serial killer's uncorroborated claims leaves plenty of room for speculation about the cold cases that remain unsolved in the wake of his imprisonment...How many of Browne's purported kills are real? Considering his 140 IQ, is he lying to deflect some of his more atrocious crimes? Read about the most intelligent serial killers in recent memory.

Joe Shones was having a heart attack on the road. He quickly jumped out of the car and headed toward the oncoming vehicle, screaming for help and waving his arms. But no one paid him any attention - later, he said he watched as a group of men, a single woman, and a little baby walked right by. It must have been hours later, he remembered, when he thought he saw flashlights in the trees. He tried calling out again, but - again - got no response...By the time his car ran out of gas, the excruciating pain in Shones' chest had receded enough that he felt he could handle the eight mile walk down the snowy road to a lodge he knew would be occupied. On the way, he recalled, he spotted a 1969 Mercury Montego on the side of the road - complete empty. He assumed the vehicle belonged to the people he'd seen passing by hours before...In that moment, Shones wasn't too worried about the strange group of people he'd encountered - he was focused on handling an emergency of his own. Later, though, authorities pieced together that it wasn't Shones' near-death experience that was the strangest thing to happen that night. Instead, it was the fact that Joe Shones had - in all likelihood - been the last person to see Bill Sterling, Ted Weiher, Jack Madruga, Jack Huett, and Gary Mathias alive.

Murder is rarely simple. But the complex strands of criminality that surround the almost certain death of Susan Powell serve to obscure the reality of a very tragic situation. Through a series of related causes, a mother, a father, a grandfather, an uncle and - worst of all - two young children have died prematurely. In some of those cases, the circumstances of the victims' deaths have been truly horrific. It is approaching a decade now since Susan, the first of the extended family to lose her life, disappeared, presumed dead. But the causes of her demise reach back much further in time. The principle actors in this morbid drama are Susan, her husband Josh, his father Steven and brother Michael. The two youngest victims are Charles Powell, who was seven at the time and his brother Brad, just five years old when he died in appalling circumstances.