Winner of the Edgar Award: The gripping account of a gruesome mass murder in gritty 1980s New York and the relentless hunt for a coldblooded killer. On a warm spring evening in 1982, thirty-seven-year-old accountant Margaret Barbera left work in New York City and walked to the West Side parking lot where she kept her BMW. Finding the lock on the driver’s side door jammed, she went to the passenger’s side and inserted her key. A man leaned through the open window of a van parked in the next spot, pressed a silenced pistol to the back of Margaret’s head, and fired. She was dead before she hit the pavement. It was a professional hit, meticulously planned—but the killer didn’t expect three employees of the nearby CBS television studios to stumble onto the scene of the crime. “You didn’t see nothin’, did you?” he demanded, before shooting the first eyewitness in the head. After chasing down and executing the other two men, the murderer sped out of the parking lot with Margaret’s lifeless body in the back of his van. Thirty minutes later, the first detectives arrived on the scene. Veterans of Midtown North, a sprawling precinct stretching from the exclusive shops of Fifth Avenue to the flophouses of Hell’s Kitchen, they thought they’d seen it all. But a bloodbath in the heart of Manhattan was a shocking new level of depravity, and the investigation would unfold under intense media coverage. Setting out on the trail of an assassin, the NYPD uncovered one of the most diabolical criminal conspiracies in the city’s history. Richard Hammer’s blow-by-blow account of “the CBS Murders” is a thrilling tale of greed, violence, and betrayal, and a fascinating portrait of how a big-city police department solved the toughest of cases.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A fascinating account of a double tragedy: one physical, the other psychological.”—Truman Capote This is the frighteningly true story of two young cops and two young robbers whose separate destinies fatally cross one March night in a bizarre execution in a deserted Los Angeles field. “A complex story of tragic proportions . . . more ambitious than In Cold Blood and equally compelling!”—The New York Times “Once the action begins it is difficult to put the book down. . . . Wambaugh’s compelling account of this true story is destined for the bestseller lists.”—Library Journal

Donna Marie Gentile was an informant for the San Diego Police Dept. Larry Avrech, who was a young officer at the time, stumbled across Donna and the information about her 'sugar daddy' within the department. Recognizing the telltale signs of possible corruption, he befriended the prostitute to dig deeper. It would turn out to be the biggest mistake of his career. Eight months later, Avrech was terminated. His police brothers had chosen to believe a prostitute over a trusted officer "because it fit the specific needs of the department at that particular time". His integrity cost everything dear to him-his career, his home, and later his children. After his termination, the vindictive department continued to threaten him; doing everything they could to preserve their coverup and destroy Larry. Only six weeks after Donna testified against Avrech, her lifeless nude body turned up making Larry an instant murder suspect. In a twist of fate, Avrech got a call from a high-ranking Deputy District Attorney who said he could prove Larry was set up. But the question remained, "Who Killed Donna Marie Gentile?" Larry would work tirelessly for the next seven years to uncover a serial murder and eventually reveal the details in this comprehensive book about what happened behind the sensational headlines.

Draws on firsthand testimonies and recovered court transcripts to present a scholarly account of the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till and its role in launching the civil rights movement.