True Crime / Life Books

[Qoass]

I'm going to have to check that out.  I actually know somebody who lost a family member in that tragedy and it troubles me because he is one of the most horrible people I know and yet does not deserve what happened.  Nobody does.  I'll be very curious how he is portrayed in the book.

[MargeGunderson]

I'm in the Boston area and remember both the fire and the Dederian brother who was a reporter on Channel 7. A friend (not at the time, met her just a few years ago) was actually at the club that night but went outside for a smoke before the fire broke out. She lost several friends in the fire. Just an incredibly sad story.

I recently re-read Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer. It's about fundamentalist Mormons (FLDS; not to be confused with the non-fundamentalist Mormons like Mitt Romney) and the murder of a woman and her baby in the 1980s. It focuses on the religion and how the 2 brothers who committed the crimes felt that they were guided by God to do so. Very interesting and has inspired me to look up a few other books on FDLS - quite a few crimes committed in the name of FLDS.

[MargeGunderson]

I recently ran across an interesting true crime article in Texas Monthly and went down a rabbit hole of lots of true crime goodness! Here's a link: http://www.texasmonthly.com/?s=true+crime   I especially like the ones by Skip Hollandsworth.

Edited June 27, 2016 by MargeGunderson

[NewDigs]

On June 27, 2016 at 4:47 PM, MargeGunderson said:

I recently ran across an interesting true crime article in Texas Monthly and went down a rabbit hole of lots of true crime goodness! Here's a link: http://www.texasmonthly.com/?s=true+crime   I especially like the ones by Skip Hollandsworth.

Thanks! I've been on a bit of true-crime binge and there are too many mediocre authors (I'm looking at you, M. William Phelps) so appreciate some recommendations.

Michigan Murders by Edward Keyes was really well written. It chronicles the 1960s co-ed murders in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area. 

And just finished Burl Barer's Murder in the Family. A 2016 update to his book written about a late 1980s Alaskan psychopath. There are kids involved so if that's a deal-breaker beware but it's a well-told page-turner. I was really impressed with how well the Anchorage police secured and worked the crime scene. That's not always the case in the even more current crimes.

Both titles read as though they could happen today. Chilling.

[Princess Sparkle]

On 6/27/2016 at 3:47 PM, MargeGunderson said:

I recently ran across an interesting true crime article in Texas Monthly and went down a rabbit hole of lots of true crime goodness! Here's a link: http://www.texasmonthly.com/?s=true+crime   I especially like the ones by Skip Hollandsworth.

Pamela Collof does some great reporting there as well.  Some of my favorites of her are The Innocent Man and the oral histories of the University of Texas at Austin shooting and Selena's murder.  

[Sharpie66]

I can highly recommend To Sleep with the Angels, about the 1958 fire at Our Lady of the Angels school in Chicago, which killed 92 children and three nuns. The authors really set the school in its neighborhood and time, and show how the fire ended up tearing the neighborhood apart. They also track down a very legitimate suspect as the cause of this unsolved arson, a student they don't name but describe in great detail. 

[Epeolatrix]

One of the authors of To Sleep with the Angels ended up becoming an arsonist, which I found interesting. Other good books on the same subject:

Remembrances of the Angels: 50th Anniversary Reminiscences of the Fire No One Can Forget by John Kuenster, which is as might be suspected, people thinking back on their experiences during the fire as students, firefighters, nuns, and family members of victims.

The Fire That Will Not Die by Michele McBride. This is the personal story of one woman who was an 8th grade survivor of the fire who had suffered not only from the fire, but from the way she was treated afterward. It's a very bitter and angry book, but not without justification.

No Disposable Kids by Larry Brendtro and others. Overall it's about a treatment facility for troubled youth, but one of the youth (called "Tony" for the book) is the boy suspected of starting the OLA fire.

[Bunty]

Seeing the recent fire theme in this thread reminded me of an older title I read awhile back that really made an impression.

The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy Paperback – June 12, 2001 by Stewart O'Nan

PW review

Quote

On July 6, 1944, the big top of the Ringling Bros. circus caught fire during an afternoon performance in Hartford, Conn., and quickly burned to the ground. One hundred and sixty-seven people were killed most of them women and children and hundreds more wounded. When acclaimed novelist O'Nan (A Prayer for the Dying, etc.) moved to Hartford 50 years later, he discovered that the town was still haunted by the tragedy. His history of the event is lyrical, gruesome and heartbreaking. At the heart of the narrative is O'Nan's harrowing, minute-by-minute account of the actual burning, during which nearly 9,000 people scrambled to escape through just seven exits. One boy saved himself (and hundreds of others) by cutting a hole in the tent wall with his fishing knife. Another man literally threw children to safety before losing his footing and perishing in the blaze. Above them, the tent canvas, which had been waterproofed with gasoline and paraffin, "rained down like napalm" on the necks and shoulders of the fleeing crowd. By the end, O'Nan reports, the heat was so intense that people died not from smoke inhalation, as in most fires, but by being cooked alive. O'Nan goes on to describe the bleak days after the disaster, when local families set about the morbid task of identifying loved ones, often possible only by using dental records. He also chronicles the four decades of detective work that led to the identification (in error, O'Nan believes) of a little girl whose body originally went unclaimed. This moving elegy does tribute both to the terrible tragedy and to O'Nan's talent as a writer. B&w photos. (June)

[Sharpie66]

Wow, I did not know the arsonist thing about Cowan! I have a few of his other books, as well as one of his wife's, whom I met at a book signing at the Waldenbooks I worked at. 

[Epeolatrix]

The Circus Fire is also a really good book. I found it because I also read morbid websites (big surprise, I'm sure) and came across one of those "on this day in history" articles. The article said, "If you read one book about the fire, read this one." So I did and all the praise was justified.

[smittykins]

Trivia tidbit:  Match Game's Charles Nelson Reilly survived the Hartford Circus Fire.

[auntjess]

I forgot about this topic, but post this list to the True crime genre file.
http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2016/10/crime-faction-fiction-based-on-real.html

[AuntiePam]

auntjess, thanks for sharing that list.  I had no idea that The Room was based in part on an actual case.

I'm reading Ghettoside by Jill Leovy.  So far, the focus is on one of many hundreds of murders of young black men in Los Angeles -- the teenage son of a detective.  Leovy gives us a social/cultural history of "black on black" crime.  It's an eye-opener, very thoughtful, and a book that I wish those in charge of law enforcement policies would read and take to heart. 

[Epeolatrix]

One really good novel based on a true crime is "Boy A" by Jonathan Trigell. The novel is about a young man in his early 20s just after he has been released from juvenile custody with a new identity after having committed / helped commit one of the most shocking murders in recent English history. Based on the murder of toddler James Bulger by two ten-year-old boys, and the post-crime media hysteria, the book is largely about the young man's struggle to deal with his past, his attempt to make a future, and the extreme difficulty of surviving the ongoing efforts of the media to out him. It was also made into a 2007 movie by the same name starring Andrew Garfield.

[glowlights]

On 11/7/2016 at 9:45 AM, AuntiePam said:

auntjess, thanks for sharing that list.  I had no idea that The Room was based in part on an actual case.

I'm reading Ghettoside by Jill Leovy.  So far, the focus is on one of many hundreds of murders of young black men in Los Angeles -- the teenage son of a detective.  Leovy gives us a social/cultural history of "black on black" crime.  It's an eye-opener, very thoughtful, and a book that I wish those in charge of law enforcement policies would read and take to heart. 

If you enjoyed Ghettoside, you may like No Matter How Loud I Shout by Edward Humes. This book won the PEN award in 1997. It is heartbreaking, infuriating... and I'm afraid not much has changed since the 90s. :( 

In an age when violence and crime by young people is again on the rise, No Matter How Loud I Shout offers a rare look inside the juvenile court system that deals with these children and the impact decisions made in the courts had on the rest of their lives. Granted unprecedented access to the Los Angeles Juvenile Court, including the judges, the probation officers, and the children themselves, Edward Humes creates an unforgettable portrait of a chaotic system that is neither saving our children in danger nor protecting us from adolescent violence. Yet he shows us there is also hope in the handful of courageous individuals working tirelessly to triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds.
 

[Epeolatrix]

Just finished Dahmer Detective: The Interrogation and Investigation That Shocked The World by Patrick Kennedy and Robyn Maharaj. Kennedy is the detective that got Dahmer's confession and later appeared in the documentary The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (currently on Netflix, I believe). After being interviewed for the film, he was encouraged to write a book about his experience. Sadly, he died before he was able to get it published. His co-author cleaned up his manuscript a bit, attached her own article at the end, and self-published the book with his widow's permission.

I liked that it's informative and detailed. I did not like that there was very little in the way of editing. There's a fair amount of repetition that could have been cleaned up. Cases are mentioned with very few victims' names appearing when it really would have been appropriate. There's not even a list at the end! Yes, that info is online, but this book could be so much more authoritative with such a tiny bit of extra work. It reads rather like someone sat next to him and said, "And then what happened? Then what?" and just typed what he said until they got to the place he felt was the end.

That said, I did enjoy the content and the insight into detective work, so for that I can still recommend it.

[Epeolatrix]

I just finished Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day by Joel Selvin. I really liked it for its scene-setting and attention to detail. I knew the very basics of the primary incident (black man murdered at a Rolling Stones concert by a member of the Hell's Angels, who'd been hired to provide security), but wow there was so much else going on.

[MargeGunderson]

@Violet Impulse, I just finished Altamont too. I thought it was interesting (I didn't know about the Grateful Dead connection) but didn't really agree with his conclusion about the culpability of The Rolling Stones. I thought he laid too much on them when really it was a bunch of stuff that was badly planned/went wrong/bad decision. Plenty of blame to go around. 

[Calvada]

I enjoy reading true crime, but really have to do so in small doses, or I'll start having strange dreams.  The first one I ever read is 83 Hours Til Dawn, which is about the 1968 kidnapping of a 20 year college student, the daughter of a wealthy Florida land developer.  She was buried alive in this box the kidnapper built, and was there for over 80 hours (thus the title of the book) until she was found by the FBI.  After the ransom drop, the sicko who did this contacted the FBI to give directions to where she was buried.  The book was written by the victim and a Miami reporter.  This young woman was pretty amazing, keeping sane during an experience that many people would not be able to survive. 

[Mystery]

I saw a TV movie in 1972, when I was twelve, called The Longest Night, about Barbara Mackle's kidnapping. I googled it to make sure, and I see that because of litigation, that movie was show only that one time. It scared me to death because I have severe claustrophobia. 

I don't read a lot of true crime, but I did read Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, an interesting book not just because of its subject but because it raises the question of how close a reporter/author should get to his subjects (I read it in a college journalism class). 

Edited April 10, 2017 by Mystery

[starri]

Aside from my favorites that have already been mentioned, I need to throw up Deborah Blum's The Poisoner's Handbook.  It's about the way the New York City Medical Examiner's Office was founded after wrestling control of the corrupt system of the coroner's office from the hands of Tammany Hall. 

The book has EVERYTHING.  Chemistry.  Prohibition.  Corrupt New York politics.  Pretty exhaustive biographies of the city's first Chief Medical Examiner, Charles Norris, a guy who grew up incredibly rich who was none-the-less completely dedicated to public service (because the Tammany-controlled mayors wouldn't give him any money, a lot of the budget came out of his own pocket).  And probably best of all, Alexander Gettler, an utter genius who was hired as the city's first toxicologist.

[Mabinogia]

That sounds right up my alley. Adding The Poisoner's Handbook to the reading list now. Thanks.

[callie lee 29]

I just got the book Gomorrah, anyone read it? It is listed as a personal journey into the most violent empire of Naples organized crime.

[NutMeg]

9 hours ago, callie lee 29 said:

I just got the book Gomorrah, anyone read it? It is listed as a personal journey into the most violent empire of Naples organized crime.

I have and I found it a fascinating read. I read it quite some years ago. What struck me first was the elegance of the style, which at first glance made it look more like literature than investigative journalism. It reads like a collection of short stories, and really brings you into a universe that feels like fiction, and I almost had to remind myself that it was not fiction. I didn't read it in one go,  I took breaks between chapters (each "short story", if you wish) that I filled with lighter reads. 

[MargeGunderson]

Recently listened to a podcast on the Monster of Florence (serial killer in the 70s/80s) which prompted me to re-Read the book of the same name by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi. Very interesting, especially the info about the local police which is just wacko. 

[Yokosmom]

Quote

Recently listened to a podcast on the Monster of Florence (serial killer in the 70s/80s) which prompted me to re-Read the book of the same name by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi. Very interesting, especially the info about the local police which is just wacko. 

The prosecutor in that book came off as malicious and incompetent.  And surprise!  He's the same prosecutor in the Amanda Knox case.

[Singingflutist]

I'm currently reading The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber. It's about the nurse Charles Cullen who was arrested in 2003. He  murdered hundreds of patients over his 16 year career as a nurse.  I will write more whem finished.

[Cherry Cola]

I just finished  Helter Skelter. 

Wow.  Absolutely horrifying.  I had bad dreams from it! Obviously we all know some about the Tate La Bianca murders, but reading the details was so sad and scary.  Good book, but the last court part was quite drawn out and I was getting bored.  

I am also a Beatles fan, so everytime I would look at the book I would get the song stuck in my head! 

Edited September 5, 2018 by Cherry Cola

[Epeolatrix]

I just started "The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter", the new book by Mark Olshaker & John Douglas. It's about the specifics of the interview and profiling process, with an in-depth focus on four cases (Joseph McGowan, Joseph Kondro, Donald Harvey, and Todd Kohlhepp). I'm finding it interesting so far in large part because these cases don't get talked about very much.

[Dr.OO7]

Anything by Ann Rule, especially The Stranger Beside Me. I appreciate that she did so much to flesh out Bundy's victims and let the reader know what kind of wonderful people the world was robbed of because of this sicko.

[festivus]

11 hours ago, Camille said:

Anything by Ann Rule, especially The Stranger Beside Me. I appreciate that she did so much to flesh out Bundy's victims and let the reader know what kind of wonderful people the world was robbed of because of this sicko.

I still own this book, I haven't read it since the 80s though. I was just thinking about reading it again since I just watched that Zac Effron Netflix movie yesterday. I used to really be into true crime back then and I had a bunch of her books but the Ted Bundy book is the only one I still have. I do remember that she worked with him at a crisis hotline so that made the book more personal than any of her others.

[catlover79]

On 10/11/2016 at 8:45 PM, Sharpie66 said:

I can highly recommend To Sleep with the Angels, about the 1958 fire at Our Lady of the Angels school in Chicago, which killed 92 children and three nuns. The authors really set the school in its neighborhood and time, and show how the fire ended up tearing the neighborhood apart. They also track down a very legitimate suspect as the cause of this unsolved arson, a student they don't name but describe in great detail. 

One of the students of the school and survivors is none other than Jonathan Cain - yes, the musician from Journey. He goes into the tragedy in great deal in his own book:

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned Joe Kenda's book. I heard that he has another book in the works.

[smittykins]

I remember reading about Jonathan Cain being a student at the time(he escaped safely).

[Dr.OO7]

On 6/3/2019 at 2:09 AM, catlover79 said:

One of the students of the school and survivors is none other than Jonathan Cain - yes, the musician from Journey. He goes into the tragedy in great deal in his own book:

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned Joe Kenda's book. I heard that he has another book in the works.

I read it. It's excellent

[smittykins]

I just ordered To Sleep With The Angels on Amazon.

[Epeolatrix]

On 6/6/2019 at 7:48 AM, smittykins said:

I just ordered To Sleep With The Angels on Amazon.

There's also a follow-up called "Remembrances of the Angels: 50th Anniversary Reminiscences of the Fire No One Can Forget" by John Kuenster and a memoir of a girl who'd survived with horrible burns called "The Fire That Will Not Die" by Michele McBride. Lastly, if you are interested in the boy that set the fire, there's a book that has discussion of his case called "No Disposable Kids" by Larry Brendtro. All of these are well worth reading.

I was working on a LARP character background, so I went on a research binge...

Edited June 7, 2019 by Violet Impulse
Added info

[MargeGunderson]

From the New York Times: 50 States of True Crime. A list of true crime books featuring infamous murders in all 50 states. 

[Annber03]

Ooooh. That list sounds very interesting indeed. Thanks for the link!

[peacheslatour]

I remember that so well. At the time a woman I worked with had a son in Great White.

[Minivanessa]

I'm glad I found this topic. I'm almost finished with my first re-reading of Helter Skelter since the 1970's. Because, I stumbled across a documentary about Manson's women cultists on Oxygen, and discussed it over on the General True Crime topic. 

Bugliosi wrote a very thorough afterword for the 1994 edition, with updates on the people who appeared in the book. Of course, I skipped to the back and read that first. 

I have mad respect for Bugliosi, as a prosecutor and an author. (He had the good sense to work with a professional writer, Curt Gentry, as his co-author on Helter Skelter.) I wish he'd lived longer (he died in 2015 at age 80). I'd love to hear him being interviewed these days, and cutting through so much of the crap that circulates about Manson, his followers, and their crimes, especially at this 50-year mark after the Tate-LaBianca murders. 

Of course, I'd forgotten a *lot* of the content of the book over the years. Bugliosi literally lived with the case after being assigned to prosecute it as a deputy DA on November 18, 1969, and for a long time thereafter. It was fascinating to read how the investigation and trial preparation went down. 

Bugliosi was a bright, energetic, curious, and dedicated prosector whose handling of the complex Tate-LaBianca murder case(s) truly was a textbook example of leaving no stone un-turned. In the book he's brutally frank about how badly (and that's an understatement!) the LAPD handled the Tate investigation, and generous with credit to the much more effective police detectives on the LaBianca case and other law enforcement agencies and personnel who really stepped up and did good jobs. 

Because of his smarts and months/years of work on these cases, I give a lot of credence to Bugliosi's views about Manson and his henchwomen and henchmen. This post is already too long so I'll leave it at that. I'm glad I re-read the book although TBH I skipped over a lot of the gory details this time. 

[festivus]

I still have my copy from the 80s from when I was obsessed with this case. I think it's time for a re-read.

[dubbel zout]

I have a copy in my TBR pile, but I can't quite work up the nerve to start it. I remember when the book first came out. I was in junior high and we passed it around to look at the pictures, which were horrible even though the worst parts were whited out.

[starri]

It might honestly be a little stuffy these days, given that we've been spoiled with excellent narrative-driven storytelling in the years since it was first published.  Helter Skelter is an engrossing read, but it is VERY procedural.

[MargeGunderson]

It’s been years since I read Helter Skelter - seems like a good time for a re-read! 

I recently finished Bitter Blood and While the City Slept. Bitter Blood was a little hard to get in to, but it picked up and was a good read overall. I have mixed feelings about While the City Slept. It was as much about the state of mental health services as the crime, to the point that it seemed like the crime was secondary. Really well written and I would recommend.

Edited September 1, 2019 by MargeGunderson

[proserpina65]

On ‎08‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 5:43 PM, MargeGunderson said:

From the New York Times: 50 States of True Crime. A list of true crime books featuring infamous murders in all 50 states. 

Jeez, Maryland doesn't have anything more infamous than random drug crimes in Baltimore?  Hasn't anyone written a book about the Annapolis newspaper shootings?  There is a whole state outside of Baltimore.

[Ceindreadh]

Just finished re-reading "Collision on Tenerife: The How and Why of the World's Worst Aviation Disaster" by John Ziomek and Caroline Hopkins.

I'd seen a few documentaries about the Tenerife disaster but this goes into so much more detail.  Caroline Hopkins survived along with her husband and as as result this book focuses a lot on the human side of the incident with stories from the survivors.  But there's also a good bit of technical background too and a whole list of all the various little things that individually wouldn't have caused an issue but combined in a way to make the disaster inevitable.

There's also chapters about the psychology of the incident and how many people may have died as a result of 'negative panic' i.e. they weren't injured in the initial impact but simply didn't react to the seriousness of the situation and never made it out of the plane.  Worth the read.

[Serrah Miles]

Recommendation on crime fiction? Something that the teens would love to read. 

[Tdoc72]

On 8/31/2019 at 10:02 AM, Jeeves said:

I'm glad I found this topic. I'm almost finished with my first re-reading of Helter Skelter since the 1970's. Because, I stumbled across a documentary about Manson's women cultists on Oxygen, and discussed it over on the General True Crime topic. 

Bugliosi wrote a very thorough afterword for the 1994 edition, with updates on the people who appeared in the book. Of course, I skipped to the back and read that first. 

I have mad respect for Bugliosi, as a prosecutor and an author. (He had the good sense to work with a professional writer, Curt Gentry, as his co-author on Helter Skelter.) I wish he'd lived longer (he died in 2015 at age 80). I'd love to hear him being interviewed these days, and cutting through so much of the crap that circulates about Manson, his followers, and their crimes, especially at this 50-year mark after the Tate-LaBianca murders. 

Of course, I'd forgotten a *lot* of the content of the book over the years. Bugliosi literally lived with the case after being assigned to prosecute it as a deputy DA on November 18, 1969, and for a long time thereafter. It was fascinating to read how the investigation and trial preparation went down. 

Bugliosi was a bright, energetic, curious, and dedicated prosector whose handling of the complex Tate-LaBianca murder case(s) truly was a textbook example of leaving no stone un-turned. In the book he's brutally frank about how badly (and that's an understatement!) the LAPD handled the Tate investigation, and generous with credit to the much more effective police detectives on the LaBianca case and other law enforcement agencies and personnel who really stepped up and did good jobs. 

Because of his smarts and months/years of work on these cases, I give a lot of credence to Bugliosi's views about Manson and his henchwomen and henchmen. This post is already too long so I'll leave it at that. I'm glad I re-read the book although TBH I skipped over a lot of the gory details this time. 

If you enjoyed the style of Helter Skelter (both the crime and the courtroom stuff), I would recommend And The Sea Will Tell, also by Bugliosi. Before he passed, he was always my number 1 “if you could have dinner with someone famous” answer. 

[peacheslatour]

I liked Dominick Dunne's The Two Mrs. Grenvilles. It's the somewhat fictionalized story of the famous Bill Woodward murder. It reminds me a little of Truman Capote's Answered Prayers, the story that got him blackballed from High Society forever.

[Epeolatrix]

I just finished "Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession" by Rachel Monroe. It's not true crime itself so much as the author's musings about the relationship of women to true crime and what drives that. She writes about Frances Glessner Lee of the Nutshell Studies of Death, talks to a member of Sharon Tate's family about what it's like to become a victim's advocate (and some weird side drama that came out of that), and then to the wife of Damien Echols of the West Memphis Three about how she came to get involved with him and his case. Lastly she writes about a young woman who was part of Tumblr subcultures of serial killer groupies and Columbiners (mostly girls who write and make memes about how much they love the Columbine killers) and her edgelord ass goes to jail for conspiring online to commit a mass shooting.

It was interesting reading, it didn't retread the same ground as every other article I've read on the topic, and I recommend it.