Books for the Armchair Detective in Your Life

Inside some of the mildest people we know is a penchant for reading dark stories of small-town murders, or chilling serial killers. Why not arm the armchair detective in your life with true crime books from every dark corner of the American dream? Here are fascinating stories of unsolved cases, organized crime, historical murders, detective memoirs, epic manhunts, and everyday small-town murder. For the true crime fan in your life, we offer these gripping cases served hot, cold, strange, and straight – so go ahead, throw the book at them!
7 products
Leavenworth Seven
Leavenworth Seven
U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth
U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth
Haunted Atchison
Haunted Atchison
Frontier Kansas Jails
Frontier Kansas Jails
Lansing Correctional Facility
Lansing Correctional Facility
Notorious Kansas Bank Heists
Notorious Kansas Bank Heists
Wicked Wichita
Wicked Wichita

Leavenworth Seven

9781467140409

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On December 11, 1931, chaos erupted behind Leavenworth's limestone penitentiary walls as seven desperate men put months of planning into action. Aided by notorious gangsters Frank Nash, George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Thomas James Holden, they blazed a path to freedom with stolen cars and terrorized hostages. Anyone who could carry a gun and knew the terrain quickly picked up the pursuit. Kenneth LaMaster wades into the flying bullets of first-person accounts, news reports and official FBI files for the full story of the frenzied prison break.
Leavenworth Seven

U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth

9780738550916

$24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
On July 1, 1895, under the direction of warden James French, the first federal prison was born. That same year, St. Louis architects Eames and Young went to work drawing up plans for an institution that would house the most notorious offenders in the nation's history. At sunrise on March 1, 1897, 300 inmates and 30 guards marched three miles to the construction site located on the southwest corner of the military reservation. From sunup to sundown seven days a week in the hot Kansas summer to the harsh prairie winters, inmates labored building their new home. Leavenworth's rich history as a gateway to the Old West is second to none. Name a famous figure such as George Armstrong Custer, John Joseph Pershing, Dwight D. Eisenhower, or Colin Powell. They have all graced the streets of this historic community. Equally pick a name of the most notorious criminals. George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Robert F. Stroud, Frank Nash, Frank "the Enforcer" Nitti, and George "Buggs" Moran--they all stopped by to "spend time in Leavenworth."
U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth

Haunted Atchison

9781467155656

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The Most Haunted City in Kansas

Atchison is a town where the migration West started and proudly calls itself the "most haunted city in Kansas." Many former residents are still present longing to be heard and seen. Hannah Jo Cusack leaves pennies for the living to make her presence known. Another woman is perhaps still looking for her ride home walking the woods in the shadows of night. In the Sallie House, something seems to dislike the men visiting, while a ghost named Goldie still sits in her rocking chair scowling at all those who enter the home, but especially the women. Join Brooke Montoya as she shares the incredible stories and harrowing hauntings in Atchison.

Haunted Atchison

Frontier Kansas Jails

9781467137768

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Gunslingers, gamblers and outlaws vastly outnumbered sheriffs and marshals in the cattle towns of the Kansas frontier. Famous lawmen, such as Charlie Bassett, Wild Bill Hickok and Tom Smith, kept the peace by sheer force of personality and the integrity of the local lockup. The story of the state's settlement can be tracked in the fascinating development of these bastions of prairie justice. Makeshift jails of earlier times were replaced by limestone, brick and concrete structures with iron cells and elaborate locking systems. From the squirrel cage of Wichita to the iron jail of Lawrence City, tour these early Kansas prisons with author Gerald Bayens.
Frontier Kansas Jails

Lansing Correctional Facility

9781467112468

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Since 1868, the Lansing Correctional Facility (formerly the Kansas State Penitentiary) has stood watch over what would become the city of Lansing. Designed by Erasmus Carr, architect of the Kansas State Capitol, the prison is the oldest in Kansas. In the beginning, it housed male and female inmates from Kansas and Oklahoma, as well as inmates serving federal sentences. Today, the facility's population of minimum, medium, maximum, and special management custody offenders is approximately 2,400. Leavenworth County has also seen the addition of the United States Disciplinary Barracks, United States Penitentiary-Leavenworth, and Corrections Corporation of America-Leavenworth, making it the only county in the country to host a state, military, federal, and private prison. Images of America: Lansing Correctional Facility features photographs of the early days, when inmates were on the "silent system" and could not speak to one another, to more modern times when rehabilitation has become an important component of prison life.
Lansing Correctional Facility

Notorious Kansas Bank Heists

9781626198357

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Bank robbers wreaked havoc in the Sunflower State. After robbing the Chautauqua State Bank in 1911, outlaw Elmer McCurdy was killed by lawmen but wasn't buried for sixty-six years. His afterlife can be described only as bizarre. Belle Starr's nephew Henry Starr claimed to have robbed twenty-one banks. The Dalton gang failed in their attempt to rob two banks simultaneously, but others accomplished this in Waterville in 1911. Nearly four thousand known vigilantes patrolled the Sunflower State during the 1920s and 1930s to combat the criminal menace. One group even had an airplane with a .50-caliber machine gun. Join author Rod Beemer for a wild ride into Kansas's tumultuous bank heist history.
Notorious Kansas Bank Heists

Wicked Wichita

9781467139106

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Early Wichita earned a wicked reputation from newspapers across Kansas thanks to a bevy of madams and murderers, bootleggers and bank robbers, con men and crooked cops. Gambler and saloonkeeper "Rowdy Joe" Lowe was the toast of the town before shooting down his rival, "Red" Beard, and skipping town. Robber and cop killer "Clever Eddie" Adams spread a wave of terror until the police evened the score. Dixie Lee ran the city's classiest brothel with little interference from authorities. Notorious quack "Professor" H. Samuels made a fortune selling worthless eye drops. And county attorney Willard Boone was chased out of town when he was caught with his hand in the bootlegger's cookie jar. Local author Joe Stumpe tells the real stories of the city's best-known and least-known criminals and misfits.
Wicked Wichita