The brutal murder of Betsy Faria on December 27, 2011 set off a maelstrom of events that resulted in an innocent man's imprisonment and another man's death. It would take a decade to unravel all the misdirection in the Faria murder case, the misconduct of the prosecution team, and the insidious mind of a murderer that St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar called "The Worst of the Worst!" Betsy Faria was stabbed over 55 times. The murder scene was staged in an effort to frame the victim's husband Russell Faria. Through an investigative trial filled with perjury, tainted evidence, and misdirection, Russell was found guilty and spent 3 1/2 years in prison before his tenacious lawyer won him a second chance. It was during that second trial that the shadows fell away and the real murderer was revealed. But, before they could bring her to justice, several people would be stalked as potential victims, and one man would eventually lose his life in her effort to deflect suspicion from herself. Along the way, her mother mysteriously plunged from her third-floor balcony and died. Pam Hupp benefited from the insurance in both her mother's and Betsy Faria's deaths. Ripped from the headlines, this incredible case has spawned multiple podcasts, including Dateline NBC's most-popular podcast to date: The Thing About Pam. It will air February 22, 2022 as an NBC mini-series starring Renee Zellweger as Pam Hupp. The story will also appear as a People Magazine Investigates documentary. At this printing, a Preliminary Hearing and Death Penalty Murder Trial are in the works against Ms. Hupp. At their conclusion, there will be a follow-up book in the Countdown to Murder: Pam Hupp series by Rebecca F. Pittman. Rumors of other victims are also being looked into at this time. The book is packed with crime scene photos supplied to Ms. Pittman by the prosecuting attorneys and their law enforcement agencies. Exclusive interviews with family, police, media, and prosecutors are included. Ms. Pittman was also given access to the detectives and PA's involved in the two murder cases and enjoyed sharing details of the evidence provided. Female serial killers are rare, representing only five to seven percent of the population. Accused of three murders, and with rumors of possible other victims, Pam Hupp falls within that five to seven percent. She filled the dark hours will plots so nefarious and unbelievable that it boggles the mind. It is chilling to think of what other plans she was composing when she was finally apprehended. There is still much to unveil. It is a story that will continue to rank as one of the most diabolical in True Crime history. The ripple effects of her actions have so far torn apart the lives of three victims and their families. Pam Hupp is in prison for the murder of Louis Gumpenberger and is currently going to trial for the murder of Betsy Faria where Prosecuting Mike Wood will be seeking the Death Penalty. A Preliminary Hearing is set for Spring of 2022, with the trial probably falling in early 2023.

THE TRUE STORY BEHIND NBC’S MARQUEE MINI-SERIES "THE THING ABOUT PAM" STARRING RENEE ZELLWEGER AS PAM HUPP AND JOSH DUHAMEL AS JOEL SCHWARTZ, PREMIERING FEBRUARY 2022. The explosive, first-ever insider’s account of the case that’s captivated millions – the murder of Betsy Faria and the wrongful conviction of her husband – told by Joel J. Schwartz, the defense attorney who fought for justice on behalf of Russel Faria, and New York Times bestselling author Charles Bosworth Jr. Goodreads Top Nonfiction of 2022 On December 27th, 2011, Russell Faria returned to his Troy, Missouri, home after his weekly game night with friends to an unthinkable, grisly scene: His wife, Betsy, lay dead, a knife still lodged in her neck. She’d been stabbed fifty-five times. First responders concluded that Betsy was dead for hours when Russ discovered her. No blood was found implicating Russ, and surveillance video, receipts, and friends’ testimony all supported his alibi. Yet incredibly, police and the prosecuting attorney ignored the evidence. In their minds, Russ was guilty. But prominent defense attorney Joel J. Schwartz quickly recognized the real killer. The motive was clear. Days before her murder, the terminally ill Betsy replaced her husband with her friend, Pamela Hupp, as her life insurance beneficiary. Still, despite the prosecution’s flimsy case and Hupp’s transparent lies, Russ was convicted—leaving Hupp free to kill again. Bone Deep takes readers through the perfect storm of miscalculations and missteps that led to an innocent man’s conviction—and recounts Schwartz’s successful battle to have that conviction overturned. Written with Russ Faria’s cooperation, and filled with chilling new revelations and previously undisclosed evidence, this is the story of what can happen when police, prosecutor, judge, and jury all fail in their duty to protect the innocent—and let a killer get away with murder. “Fans of Dateline will be interested in this work, which will likely only grow in popularity when the miniseries The Thing About Pam, starring Renée Zellweger, premieres in March 2022.” –Library Journal “Filled with chilling new revelations and previously undisclosed evidence, this is the story of what can happen when police, prosecutor, judge, and jury all fail in their duty to protect the innocent—and let a killer get away with murder. This book is an explosive, insider’s account of a case that continues to fascinate the public. We highly recommend it.” –Mystery Tribune “An engaging true-crime book that exposes failures in the American criminal justice system while putting a human face on those involved and is recommended to those that enjoy well-researched books.” –Mystery and Suspense “If you are interested in justice, in criminal profiling, in trial procedures, the dynamics between the judge, the defense, and the prosecution, this book is for you.” –Defrosting Cold Cases

By 1966, Hot Springs, Arkansas wasn’t your typical sleepy little Southern town. Once a favorite destination for mobsters like Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, illegal activities continued to lure out-of-state gamblers, flim-flam men, and high rollers to its racetracks, clubs, and bordellos. Still, the town was shaken to its core after a girl was found dead on a nearby ranch. The ranch owner claimed it was an accident. Then the rancher was found to be the killer of another woman – his fourth wife. The story begins when 13-year-old Cathie Ward was found dead after horseback riding at Blacksnake Ranch on the outskirts of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Frank Davis, the owner of the ranch, tells authorities Cathie’s death is an accident. He claims her foot caught in a stirrup and she was dragged to her death despite his pursuit of the runaway horse. People who know the 42-year-old skilled horseman don’t believe his story, and soon rumors of her rape and murder begin swirling around town. The rumors reach a crescendo after Davis viciously guns down his fourth wife and mother-in-law in broad daylight outside of a laundromat. Davis is arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Soon after, Hot Springs authorities re-open the investigation into Cathie Ward’s death. Snake Eyes is the first book to examine this decades-old murder and cover-up, and the only in-depth account of the man who would become the town’s most notorious villain. Featuring personal interviews, crime scene records, court documents, and Davis’ own prison files, author and lifelong Hot Springs resident Bitty Martin reveals the true story for the first time.

Abducted as a teenager, a woman must now confront her past and untangle the truth of what really happened to her in this dark thriller from the author of The Wolf Wants In. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Self • “Compulsively, propulsively readable.”—Laura Lippman, bestselling author of Lady in the Lake Seventeen-year-old Sarabeth has become increasingly rebellious since her parents found God and moved their family to a remote Arkansas farmstead where she’s forced to wear long dresses, follow strict rules, and grow her hair down to her waist. She’s all but given up on escaping the farm when a masked man appears one stifling summer morning and snatches her out of the cornfield. A week after her abduction, she’s found alongside a highway in a bloodstained dress—alive—but her family treats her like she’s tainted, and there’s little hope of finding her captor, who kept Sarabeth blindfolded in the dark the entire time, never uttering a word. One good thing arises from the horrific ordeal: a chance to leave the Ozarks and start a new life. Five years later, Sarabeth is struggling to keep her past buried when investigator Nick Farrow calls. Convinced that her case is connected to the strikingly similar disappearance of another young girl, Farrow wants Sarabeth’s help, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it, even if that means dragging her back to the last place she wants to go—the hills and hollers of home, to face her estranged family and all her deepest fears. In this riveting novel from Laura McHugh, blood ties and buried secrets draw a young woman back into the nightmare of her past to save a missing girl, unaware of what awaits her in the darkness.

As seen on Investigation Discovery: “A true crime murder mystery that will leave you gasping for breath.” —Steve Jackson, New York Times–bestselling author of No Stone Unturned Frank Rodriguez, a much-loved counselor of troubled teens, lies dead on the bedroom floor. His wife and stepdaughter are in shock, and so is the medical examiner when he performs the autopsy. Aside from being dead, Frank is in perfect health. Demanding to know the cause of her husband’s death, Angie Rodriguez badgers the police, insisting that Frank was murdered. The cops attribute her assertions to overwhelming grief, but soon they too believe that Frank didn’t die of natural causes. When the police enlist their number one suspect to help in the investigation, things spiral out of control until law enforcement is dealing with a daring plot to murder Angie’s best friend, and allegations of another homicide so evil and perverse that even seasoned LA County Detectives are shocked beyond belief . . . New York Times–bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author “Burl Barer, with co-author Frank Giradot, has hit yet another home run with this crime story. A smart and well-written who-dunnit tale” (Cathy Scott, Los Angeles Times–bestselling author of The Killing of Tupac Shakur). “A doozy of a murder.” —Suzy Spencer, New York Times–bestselling author of Breaking Point

Finalist, ABA Silver Gavel Award for Books The New York Times bestseller that has cemented Elie Mystal’s reputation as one of our sharpest and most acerbic legal minds “After reading Allow Me to Retort, I want Elie Mystal to explain everything I don’t understand—quantum astrophysics, the infield fly rule, why people think Bob Dylan is a good singer . . .” —Michael Harriot, The Root Allow Me to Retort is an easily digestible argument about what rights we have, what rights Republicans are trying to take away, and how to stop them. Mystal explains how to protect the rights of women and people of color instead of cowering to the absolutism of gun owners and bigots. He explains the legal way to stop everything from police brutality to political gerrymandering, just by changing a few judges and justices. He strips out all of the fancy jargon conservatives like to hide behind and lays bare the truth of their project to keep America forever tethered to its slaveholding past. Mystal brings his trademark humor, expertise, and rhetorical flair to explain concepts like substantive due process and the right for the LGBTQ community to buy a cake, and to arm readers with the knowledge to defend themselves against conservatives who want everybody to live under the yoke of eighteenth-century white men. The same tactics Mystal uses to defend the idea of a fair and equal society on MSNBC and CNN are in this book, for anybody who wants to deploy them on social media. You don’t need to be a legal scholar to understand your own rights. You don’t need to accept the “whites only” theory of equality pushed by conservative judges. You can read this book to understand that the Constitution is trash, but doesn’t have to be.