Bizarre True Crime

From murder and robberies to arson and blackmail, the 20 stories in this book are some of the most fascinating true crime stories ever recorded. Each of these cases is so bizarre that they confounded the police, baffled investigators and captured the attention of the press all over the world. These short and accessible stories include encyclopaedic information on when and how the crimes were committed, the background of each criminal, and their trials and punishments - for those that were caught.

A gripping collection of stories of human criminality at its most bizarre.

These unusual, sensational murders recall not only gruesome historical crimes, but also touch on shocking and macabre modern murders. Included are details of groundbreaking advances in crime detection, law enforcement, and forensic science. This is the top-secret report on the most grisly, and unusual, criminal activity of our time.

After Jack the Ripper and before Son of Sam there was only one name their equal in terror: the deadly, elusive, and mysterious Zodiac. Beginning in 1968 the hooded mass murderer terrified the city of San Francisco and the Bay Area with a string of brutal killings. A sexual sadist, his pleasure was torture and murder.

When high school sweethearts Karen and Richard Sharpe married, they shared an interest in medicine, a desire for family, and a dream for the future. For Karen, that dream became a nightmare. After years of abuse at the hands of her physician husband, she put an end to their 26-year marriage. Fearing a crushing divorce settlement, Richard ended the marriage first by unloading a .22-caliber rifle into Karen's chest. The murder revealed more about the millionaire doctor - and his double life - than polite Boston society was prepared for.

This is no ordinary true crime book. If you think you've got the stomach for the most blood-curdling, sickening and downright strangest murders you will ever come across, then look no further than these pages. You have been warned...

Hauntings, cults, unsolved mysteries, UFOs, true crime, and bizarre accounts of unexplained phenomena. Warning: This book will give you the creeps! Welcome to the dark side of Japan. Real accounts of strange events, horrifying crimes, dangerous cults, disappearances, and more!

As Frank Amodeo met with President George W. Bush at the White House to discuss NATO operations in Afghanistan, no one knew that he’d already embezzled nearly $200 million from the federal government - money he intended to use to bankroll his plan to take over the world. The most disturbing part of it all is, had the US government not thwarted his plans, Amodeo might have just pulled it off.

On November 29, 1909, police were called to a ramshackle home in East Orange, New Jersey, where they found the emaciated body of 24-year-old Oceana "Ocey" Snead facedown in the bathtub - dead of an apparent suicide by drowning. There was even a note left behind. But it would not take authorities long to discover that Ocey's death was no suicide. And Ocey's own mother and two aunts were far from the sorrowful caretakers they appeared to be.

"Zodiac Killer" is a deadly, incredibly elusive, and very much mysterious serial killer who had terrified many people with his strings of brutal, inhumane killings in San Francisco City and Bay Area. Who would think that a person is capable of butchering others, sending letters to the authorities, boasting of his killings and explicitly saying he had enjoyed killing people as much as killing games?

He’s a doctor whose patients have a way of dying; a lawyer, who uses his skills to squirm out of criminal convictions. He’s a scholar, but other scholars have no idea what he’s talking about. He’s a family man, but one day, his wife and baby disappear forever. Only two things are clear: Edward Rulloff is a mystery, and everywhere he goes, death and destruction follow. While the criminal justice system has its hands full trying to keep and convict Edward Rulloff, the world will argue whether he’s a genius, a scam artist or a madman. Even Mark Twain has an opinion.

In his account of the sensational life and murder of Grady Stiles Jr., also known as the legendary carnival "freak" Lobster Boy, author Fred Rosen explains how Stiles's death was engineered by his wife, Mary Teresa, the carny known as the Electrified Girl. Rosen describes how Mary Teresa arranged for her husband's murder after years of physical and emotional abuse. The narrative is full of appearances from the couple's colorful acquaintances, including the World's Only Living Half Girl, Midget Man, and the Human Blockhead.

This book is going to look at a variety of cases of missing people. They will have unresolved endings in many of the cases. In some there are conspiracy theories and improbable suggestions for what might have happened. In others, there is every reason to believe in foul play and deeply sinister motives.

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.

Captain Alfred Lowenstein was known as many things during his glamorous and gaudy life. Companion of the Bath, friend of kings, an aviator and sportsman, a maker and loser of fortunes, and most favorably, a multi-millionaire. That is, until his mysterious death. The Man Who Fell from the Sky contains excitement and mystery as Norris researches the business tycoon's life, death, and aftermath of his demise and comes to a conclusion of how Alfred Lowenstein vanished into thin air.

August 8, 2001, Vincennes, Indiana: A small town is shocked and stunned as a young married couple, just sitting back watching TV and following their nightly routine, are suddenly and viciously murdered - by one of their own relation for no apparent reason; May 31, 2000, Bloomington, Indiana: A pretty young woman, popular, happy, and carefree and looking forward to the future suddenly vanishes into thin air, only to be found later dead, a possible victim of murder by jealous classmates.

Listeners who find themselves with this new work from the author of Vampire: The Richard Chase Murders, and The Bundy Murders are in for an excursion into the weird and the bizarre. From a medieval-esque murder in a small town museum to the jilted boyfriend who decided that his former girlfriend needed to die on her 21st birthday. And then there's the demented son who returns home to live with his mother and stepfather, and one night in their beautiful mansion sitting atop a high bluff overlooking the Ohio River, slaughters them. Each case will keep you on the edge of your seat.