True Crime

The True Crime American history book series dispels the shadows surrounding the insidious true crime stories that have gripped local communities. Cut through the myths and mistakes that plagued Brenda Joyce Holland’s murder case. Join the excavation of the mass grave of fifty-five railroad workers at Duffy’s Cut. Meet the infamous gangsters of Buffalo, New York, the outlaws of Western Pennsylvania, and the morally bankrupt moguls of Cleveland’s Millionaires’ Row. Featuring evidence from law enforcement, newspaper archives, and eyewitness accounts, these true crime books will force readers to look at their towns in a new light. [View all True Crime books]
Filter
44 products
Silas Jayne:
Silas Jayne:
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Shotgun Justice:
Shotgun Justice:
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Bald Knobbers:
Bald Knobbers:
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Wicked Conduct:
Wicked Conduct:
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Guy Town by Gaslight:
Guy Town by Gaslight:
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Coatesville and the Lynching of Zachariah Walker:
Coatesville and the Lynching of Zachariah Walker:
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Mystery on the Vineyard:
Mystery on the Vineyard:
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Murder, Inc.:
Murder, Inc.:
$19.99 $13.99 Save 30%
Murder in Carlisle's East End:
Murder in Carlisle's East End:
$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Silas Jayne:

9781596299689

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
His name might not have the same notoriety that belonged to Al Capone or John Wayne Gacy, but Silas Jayne's life carved a similarly brutal arc through the Windy City's history. Even the mob was reluctant to compete with a man who burned his own horses alive for insurance money and ordered the assassination of his own brother in the same unhesitating fashion that he reportedly axed a flock of geese when he was six. Protected by bribery and intimidation, Jayne preyed on the innocence of the girls who took riding lessons in his stables and remained perversely untouched in the background of infamous Chicago crimes like the Schuessler-Peterson murders and the disappearance of candy heiress Helen Brach.
Silas Jayne:

Shotgun Justice:

9781609497477

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
When Crandal Mackey was elected commonwealth's attorney in 1903, he set his sights on the illegal bars, bordellos and casinos of Alexandria County. The Virginia county--now Arlington County and parts of Alexandria--was plagued by crime in the streets and corruption at City Hall. Armed with a shotgun and accompanied by an axe-wielding posse, Mackey embarked on a crusade, busting up saloons and conducting raids throughout the county. When the dust settled, Mackey had shut down an infamous racetrack in Del Ray and politicians on the take in Alexandria County's political machine. Yet, in 1915 he mysteriously withdrew his bid for another term. Author Michael Lee Pope uncovers the little-known story of one man's battle to rid Alexandria and Arlington of sinister vice and violent crime.
Shotgun Justice:

Bald Knobbers:

9781626192010

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
At the close of the nineteenth century in the Ozark Plateau, lawlessness ruled. Lawmakers, in bed with moonshiners and bootleggers, fueled local crime and turned a blind eye to egregious wrongdoing. In response, a vigilante force emerged from the Ozark hills: the Bald Knobbers. They formed their own laws and alliances; local ministers donned the Knobber mask and brought justice" to the hills, lynching suspected bootleggers. As community support and interest grew, reporters wrote curious articles about Knobber exploits. Join Vincent S. Anderson as he uncovers these peculiar reports including trials, lovers' spats ending in coldblooded murder and Ozark vigilante history that inspired a folk legend."
Bald Knobbers:

Wicked Conduct:

9781596298026

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
This scribbled note belonged to Sarah M. Cornell, written the day her body was found hanged in a rural pasture in Tiverton, Rhode Island. An unmarried young woman of limited means, Sarah was four months pregnant, and a married Methodist minister stood accused as the father. Local authorities grew skeptical of Sarah's apparent suicide as Reverend Avery's conduct appeared increasingly suspect, and eventually the extensive evidence of their tortured relationship set off a groundswell of public interest and media attention never before seen in 1830s New England. This tragic crime left the nation clamoring for justice and became one of early America's most sensational murder trials.
Wicked Conduct:

Guy Town by Gaslight:

9781626194458

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
Crime and vice plagued Austin after the Civil War, and Guy Town was a red-light hub with a most curious legacy. Today's pleasure-seeking visitors to the Warehouse District walk on top of Guy Town--the chic neighborhood of today is built on the most decadent and deadly area of the city's past. With the old county courthouse at its core, the district rose from the Colorado River up to Fifth Street and spanned from Congress Avenue to Shoal Creek, infesting Austin's eclectic First Ward neighborhood. Guy Town was a haven for notorious madams, prostitutes, druggies and drunkards lost to history, as well as names still remembered--Ben Thompson, O. Henry and Johnny Ringo roamed its streets looking for a good time. From murderers to con men, crooked cops and more, meet the cast of characters that gave Guy Town its reputation in author Richard Zelade's lurid account of the Capital City's historic underbelly.
Guy Town by Gaslight:

Coatesville and the Lynching of Zachariah Walker:

9781609492809

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
On a warm August night in 1911, Zachariah Walker was lynched--burned alive--by an angry mob on the outskirts of Coatesville, a prosperous Pennsylvania steel town. At the time of his very public murder, Walker, an African American millworker, was under arrest for the shooting and killing of a respected local police officer. Investigated by the NAACP, the horrific incident garnered national and international attention. Despite this scrutiny, a conspiracy of silence shrouded the events, and the accused men and boys were found not guilty at trial. On the 100th anniversary of the lynching and the 20th anniversary of the book's original release as No Crooked Death, authors Dennis B. Downey and Raymond M. Hyser bring new insight to events that rocked a community.
Coatesville and the Lynching of Zachariah Walker:

Mystery on the Vineyard:

9781596294233

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
In the pre, World War II innocence of small-town America, a dapper off-Islander impresses the locals. Drawn to the prettiest girl, he is upset when an elderly woman tries to break off their romance. In a drunken stupor he murders the troublesome woman. Through an amazing confluence of circumstances, he avoids prosecution. The reclusive, paranoid teacher of the victim attracts the attention of a distracted district attorney who is eager for a sensational trial to promote himself in an impending election. The teacher is arrested and charged with the murder. The looming shadows of war on the international stage capture the people of Martha's Vineyard, and the local murder fades into the murky memoirs of history.
Mystery on the Vineyard:

Murder, Inc.:

9781609491352

$19.99 $13.99 Save 30%
Beginning in the 1920s, an all-star team of goons, gunmen and garrotters transformed America's criminal landscape. Its membership was diverse; the mob recruited men from all ethnicities and religious backgrounds. Most were natives of the Big Apple, handpicked from the city's toughest neighborhoods: Brownsville, Ocean Hill, Flushing. So prolific were their exploits that the media soon dubbed this bevy of hired hands Murder, Incorporated. The brainchild of aging mob bosses, including Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel, this ruthless hit squad quickly captured America's attention, making headlines coast to coast for over two decades. As for who these men were and how their partnership came to be, join author Graham Bell as he sheds light on this dark history of the Mafia's most notorious crime syndicate.
Murder, Inc.:

Murder in Carlisle's East End:

9781626195158

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%
On July 12, 1926, Frances Bowermaster McBride, a forty-year-old divorcee, called off her affair with twenty-seven-year-old Norman Morrison. Driven into a rage, Morrison tracked Frances to her home in Carlisle's East End, where she sat on the porch with her three-year-old daughter, Georgia, on her lap. Morrison shot and killed Frances before turning the pistol on himself. Morrison lived but was blinded. Young Georgia fell to the pavement unharmed. Eventually standing trial, Morrison was convicted of first-degree murder. Historian Paul D. Hoch goes beyond the conviction as he traces the later lives of Morrison and Georgia McBride as she came of age in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Hoch spins a tale of murder, perseverance and, ultimately, redemption.
Murder in Carlisle's East End: