Why do they call Adelaide, Australia the "City of Corpses"? How many people did Agatha Christie kill with her pen? What was Jack the Ripper's supposed occupation? There's nothing like a little murder to challenge the dark side of your brain. This dastardly little volume is organized by the seven deadly sins, giving you all the gumshoes, guns, and gore you need to explore the sinister side of human nature, including: The worst villains of all time—from Hannibal Lecter to Charles Manson The bloody truth about forensics Weaponry to die for Private dicks, dangerous dames, and dubious characters The most puzzling unsolved mysteries Who's really gotten away with murder From amateur sleuths to serial killers, this murderous miscellany of crime—both real and imagined—is just the thing for a dark and stormy night.

Why do they call Adelaide, Australia the "City of Corpses"? How many people did Agatha Christie kill with her pen? What was Jack the Ripper's supposed occupation? There's nothing like a little murder to challenge the dark side of your brain. This dastardly little volume is organized by the seven deadly sins, giving you all the gumshoes, guns, and gore you need to explore the sinister side of human nature, including: The worst villains of all time—from Hannibal Lecter to Charles Manson The bloody truth about forensics Weaponry to die for Private dicks, dangerous dames, and dubious characters The most puzzling unsolved mysteries Who's really gotten away with murder From amateur sleuths to serial killers, this murderous miscellany of crime—both real and imagined—is just the thing for a dark and stormy night.

Outrageous acts of villainy have slowly drifted out of the national limelight and into the dustbin of Texas history. Consider the uproar over the 1879 shooting of actor Maurice Barrymore in Marshall and the 1949 murder of oil field legend Tex Thornton in Amarillo. The 1909 Coryell County Courthouse massacre committed by a sixteen-year-old girl remains just as shocking today. For the long-suffering associates of repeat offenders like Fort Worth's Flapper Bandit or Temple's International Man of Mystery, notoriety couldn't fade quickly enough. From the lawless days of the frontier to the rise of organized crime, Clay Coppedge sifts through eighteen obscure case files to chart the evolution of crime and punishment in the state.

The Gory Stories Behind The Murder Ballads Cheerfully vulgar, revelling in gore, and always with an eye on the main chance, murder ballads are tabloid newspapers set to music, carrying word of the latest ‘orrible murders to an insatiable public. Victims are bludgeoned, stabbed or shot in every verse and killers often hanged, but the songs themselves never die. Instead, they mutate – morphing to suit local place names as they criss cross the Atlantic and continue to fascinate each generation’s biggest musical stars. Paul Slade traces this fascinating genre’s history through eight of its greatest songs. Stagger Lee’s “biographers” alone include Duke Ellington, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Dr John, The Clash and Nick Cave. No two tell his story in quite the same way. Covering eight classic murder ballads, including “Knoxville Girl”, “Tom Dooley” and “Frankie & Johnny”, Slade investigates the real-life murder which inspired each song and traces its musical development down the decades. Billy Bragg, The Bad Seeds’ Mick Harvey, Laura Cantrell, Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family and a host of other leading musicians add their own insights.

Now available in paperback, Allen Foster returns with the gruesome tales of some of Ireland's most infamous and lesser-known murders in history - a murder miscellany, you might say.

Murder is the most vile crime known to man. It can be triggered by love or money or sex. Those are the three big ticket items for homicide. But people are strange. They will kill for the most obscure and ridiculous of reasons. In 30 years covering murder, I have discovered each one has its own flavour. Cops and friends can be stunned by the evil lurking within a seemingly ordinary man or woman. In this collection of some of the most memorable cases I've reported on, there are serial killers, rich kid monsters, football stars and wives in pursuit of hormone-charged hijinks... The very rich and the very poor. Successful lawyers and hotel executives. Southern belles who could melt butter with a come hither wink and a sexy drawl. Daddy’s girls with gleaming smiles, good marks and possessed by the devil. These are stories of American crimes and they stretch from coast to coast. You will find cheating husbands and wives so desperate for love that they’ll kill for it. When the mob kills, it’s never personal. It’s strictly business. With the murderers in Cold Blooded Murder, it’s ALWAYS personal.

This arresting miscellany is jam-packed with intriguing and enlightening stories, facts, and trivia about all manner of murderers, miscreants, and malcontents. The book reveals incredible tales about criminal gangs around the world, such as the Japanese Yakuza, the L.A. Crips and Bloods, and the Italian Camorra. Plus, there are extensive lists of criminal slang throughout the centuries; an exploration of Russian prison tattoos; a confidence trickster's lexicon; insights into the world's most audacious crimes-like the the ft of the Mona Lisa-and quotes from the criminals themselves, and the cops who chased them. Inside are gritty black-and-white illustrations and revealing portraits of some of society's scariest criminals.