On September 14, 1991,in Anchorage, Alaska,  a very pregnant Peggy Barnett along with her 9-year old daughter drove to the post office to deliver a package to an associate, George Kerr in Chugiak, fifteen miles outside of Anchorage. George's father David Kerr picked up the package three days later and brought it home. He and his wife Michelle were in the kitchen when David opened the package. The explosion was so intense, neighbours feared there had been an earthquake. David died instantly but Michelle survived. 

Michelle told U.S postal inspectors that Doug Gustafson was involved. It was no secret that Douglas Gustafson and his cohort, Raymond Cheely, despised George Kerr, had knowledge of explosives, and liked to blow things up. However they had perfect alibis. They were already in prison for murder.

An investigative task force was formed led by U.S Postal Inspection Service, with assistance from the Anchorage Police Department and the US department of the Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to solve this case. THE ALASKA MAIL-BOMB CONSPIRACY-Burl Barer

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From 1910 to 1919, New Orleans suffered at the hands of its very own Jack the Ripper–style killer. The story has been the subject of websites, short stories, novels, a graphic novel, and most recently the FX television series American Horror Story. But the full story of gruesome murders, sympathetic victims, accused innocents, public panic, the New Orleans Mafia, and a mysterious killer has never been written. Until now. 


The Axeman repeatedly broke into the homes of Italian grocers in the dead of night, leaving his victims in a pool of blood. Iorlando Jordano, an innocent Italian grocer, and his teenaged son Frank were wrongly accused of one of those murders; corrupt officials convicted them with coerced testimony. Miriam C. Davis here expertly tells the story of the search for the Axeman and of the eventual exoneration of the innocent Jordanos. She proves that the person mostly widely suspected of being the Axeman was not the killer. She also shows what few have suspected—that the Axeman continued killing after leaving New Orleans in 1919.


Only thirty years after Jack the Ripper stalked the streets of Whitechapel, the Axeman of New Orleans held an American city hostage. This book tells that story. THE AXEMAN OF NEW ORLEANS: The True Storey-Miriam Davis

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J. Reuben Appelman cracks open one of America’s most notorious murder sprees while simultaneously banging the gavel on his own history with violence. A deftly-crafted true crime story with grit, set amid the decaying sprawl of Detroit and its outliers.


With a foreword by Catherine Broad, sister of victim Timothy King.


Four children were abducted and murdered outside of Detroit during the winters of 1976 and 1977, their bodies eventually dumped in snow banks around the city. J. Reuben Appelman was six years old at the time the murders began and had evaded an abduction attempt during that same period, fueling a lifelong obsession with what became known as the Oakland County Child Killings.


Autopsies showed the victims to have been fed while in captivity, reportedly held with care. And yet, with equal care, their bodies had allegedly been groomed post-mortem, scrubbed-free of evidence that might link to a killer. There were few credible leads, and equally few credible suspects. That’s what the cops had passed down to the press, and that’s what the city of Detroit, and J. Reuben Appelman, had come to believe.


When the abductions mysteriously stopped, a task force operating on one of the largest manhunt budgets in history shut down without an arrest. Although no more murders occurred, Detroit and its environs remained haunted. The killer had, presumably, not been caught.


Eerily overlaid upon the author’s own decades-old history with violence, The Kill Jar tells the gripping story of J. Reuben Appelman’s ten-year investigation into buried leads, apparent police cover-ups of evidence, con-men, child ography rings, and high-level corruption saturating Detroit’s most notorious serial killer case. THE KILL JAR: Obsession, Descent, and a Hunt for Detroit's Most Notorious Serial Killer-J. Reuben Appelman

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From the author of Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters comes an in-depth examination of sexual serial killers throughout human history, how they evolved, and why we are drawn to their horrifying crimes.


Before the term was coined in 1981, there were no "serial killers." There were only "monsters"--killers society first understood as werewolves, vampires, ghouls and witches or, later, Hitchcockian psychos.


In Sons of Cain--a book that fills the gap between dry academic studies and sensationalized true crime--investigative historian Peter Vronsky examines our understanding of serial killing from its prehistoric anthropological evolutionary dimensions in the pre-civilization era (c. 15,000 BC) to today. Delving further back into human history and deeper into the human psyche than Serial Killers--Vronsky's 2004 book, which has been called the definitive history of serial murder--he focuses strictly on sexual serial killers: thrill killers who engage in murder, rape, torture, cannibalism and necrophilia, as opposed to for-profit serial killers, including hit men, or "political" serial killers, like terrorists or genocidal murderers.


These sexual serial killers differ from all other serial killers in their motives and their foundations. They are uniquely human and--as popular culture has demonstrated--uniquely fascinating. SONS OF CAIN: A HISTORY OF SERIAL KILLERS FROM THE STONE AGE TO THE PRESENT-PETER VRONSKY

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The gripping story of one of the the most fascinating cold cases of the 20th century - Was eight-year-old Ann Marie Burr serial killer Ted Bundy's first victim? She disappeared from their Tacoma, Washington neighborhood early on a summer morning in 1961. Her body was never found, there were no clues, no ransom demand and no arrest. Was Bundy telling the truth when he told a hypothetical story about killing Ann and dumping her into a muddy pit? With new information about Ted Bundy’s childhood, interviews with those who knew him best, and the memories of the Burr family, "Ted and Ann – The Mystery of a Missing Child and Her Neighbor Ted Bundy," has been called "an astonishing achievement" (Gregg Olsen) and "fascinating" (Ann Rule). TED AND ANN: The Mystery of a Missing Child and Her Neighbor Ted Bundy-Rebecca Morris

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Baptist deacon, family man, pillar of his Florida community . . . and serial killer of prostitutes: chilling true crime from the author ofLobster Boy.


By day, Sam Smithers was the deacon of his Baptist church in Plant City, Florida, a respected neighbor to many, and a devoted husband and father. But after the sun set, he became something else: a violent attacker—and killer—of prostitutes.


Smithers’s twisted double life came to light when a local woman who had hired him to take care of her property found him in her garage, cleaning an ax—and then discovered a puddle of blood. Through exclusive interviews with Smithers’s wife, who described her spouse as nothing but a doting husband and father, author Fred Rosen learned why this man of God, raised in an intensely religious Tennessee home, was the last person anyone would suspect of committing these savage crimes. Rosen reveals the details behind the deaths of Christy Cowan and Denise Roach after Smithers picked them up in Tampa—and the fate of a man who seemed holier than thou, but was actually guilty as sin. DEACON OF DEATH: Sam Smithers, the Serial Killer Next Door-Fred Rosen

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In the late summer of 1969, the nation was transfixed by a series of gruesome murders in the hills of Los Angeles. Newspapers and television programs detailed the brutal slayings of a beautiful actress--twenty six years old and eight months pregnant with her first child--as well as a hair stylist, an heiress, a businessman, and other victims. The City of Angels was plunged into a nightmare of fear and dread. In the weeks and months that followed, law enforcement faced intense pressure to solve crimes that seemed to have no connection.

Finally, after months of dead-ends, false leads, and near-misses, Charles Manson and members of his "family" were arrested. The bewildering trials that followed once again captured the nation and forever secured Manson as a byword for the evil that men do.

Drawing upon deep archival research and exclusive personal interviews--including unique access to Manson Family parole hearings--former federal prosecutor and former Fox News legal analyst Lis Wiehl, along with co-author New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother has written a propulsive, page-turning historical thriller of the crimes and manhunt that mesmerized the nation. And in the process, she reveals how the social and political context that gave rise to Manson is eerily similar to our own. HUNTING CHARLES MANSON:The Quest for Justice in the Days of Helter Skelter-Caitlin Rother

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The Calabrian Mafia—known as the ’Ndrangheta—is one of the richest and most ruthless crime syndicates in the world, with branches stretching from America to Australia. It controls seventy percent of the cocaine and heroin supply in Europe, manages billion-dollar extortion rackets, brokers illegal arms deals—supplying weapons to criminals and terrorists—and plunders the treasuries of both Italy and the European Union.

The ’Ndrangheta’s power derives from a macho mix of violence and silence—omertà. Yet it endures because of family ties: you are born into the syndicate, or you marry in. Loyalty is absolute. Bloodshed is revered. You go to prison or your grave and kill your own father, brother, sister, or mother in cold blood before you betray The Family. Accompanying the ’Ndrangheta’s reverence for tradition and history is a violent misogyny among its men. Women are viewed as chattel, bargaining chips for building and maintaining clan alliances and beatings—and worse—are routine.

In 2009, after one abused ’Ndrangheta wife was murdered for turning state’s evidence, prosecutor Alessandra Cerreti considered a tantalizing possibility: that the ’Ndrangheta’s sexism might be its greatest flaw—and her most effective weapon. Approaching two more mafia wives, Alessandra persuaded them to testify in return for a new future for themselves and their children.

A feminist saga of true crime and justice. Caught in the middle are three women fighting for their children and their lives. Not all will survive. THE GOOD MOTHERS: The True Story of the Women Who Took on the World's Most Powerful Mafia-Alex Perry

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"You want to know what happened? Ask Anne."—serial killer William Devin Howell A monster was on a killing spree. In just nine months, seven people went missing; all of their bodies eventually discovered in a wooded lot behind a suburban strip mall. But the investigation that led law enforcement to their suspect, William Devin Howell, is only part of the story behind HIS GARDEN: Conversations With A Serial Killer. A practicing attorney, author Anne K. Howard first contacted Howell while he was serving a fifteen-year sentence for the murder of one of his seven victims. He was about to be charged for the remaining six murders. A unique and disturbing friendship between the two began, comprised of written correspondence, face-to-face prison visits and recorded phone calls. Howell, who had been unwilling to speak to any members of the media, came to trust Howard. In the years that follow, the suspect shared his troubled history with Howard but refused to discuss the charges against him, promising only to tell her everything when the case was over. That time has come. HIS GARDEN probes the complicated and conflicted mind of William Devin Howell--Connecticut’s most prolific serial killer. Both sacred and profane in its narrative style, the story on these pages explores the eternal question of human evil and its impact on others, including the woman he chose to hear his horrific confession. HIS GARDEN: Conversations With A Serial Killer-Anne K. Howard

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On a fall evening in Corvallis, Oregon in 1967, 17-year-old Dick Kitchel, a senior at the high school, disappeared after attending a party. Ten days later, his body was spotted by two children as it floated down the Willamette River. He had been beaten and strangled. The investigation into his murder played out during one of the most dramatic years in America. Life in Corvallis, a college town, had offered a protective, idyllic life to many. But in 1967-68, Viet Nam, a presidential campaign, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and the murder of Dick Kitchel changed that. His friends thought his death was ignored because Dick was from the wrong side of the tracks. Police and the District Attorney thought that they knew who had murdered the boy but never made an arrest. Decades later, a cold case detective believed he, too, had solved the case. However, once again, justice was elusive. Now nearly 50 years later, a classmate, New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Morris returns to her hometown to write about how the murder changed the town and the lives of Dick Kitchel’s friends. Rebecca Morris is the New York Times bestselling author of If I Can’t Have You – Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance and the Murder of Her Children, A Killing in Amish Country, Ted and Ann, and other books. A MURDER IN MY HOMETOWN-Rebecca Morris

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