This new Van Dine kidnap-murder case deals with two of the most unusual crimes in the whole record of Philo Vance's criminological researches. Kasper Kenting, a playboy and ne'er-do-well, disappears from his ancestral home, the 'Purple House,' in West 86th Street, with all the indications pointing to a kidnapping. Both District Attorney John F.-X, Markham and Sergeant Ernest Heath of the Homicide Bureau participate, with Philo Vance, in the exciting investigation. In The Kidnap Murder Case Philo Vance runs into the gravest personal danger, and it is through the accuracy of his aim, at the crucial moment, that he saves Sergeant Heath's life as well as his own. The locale of this amazing crime shifts from one of the most fascinating residential landmarks in mid-town Manhattan to a sordid and obscure hovel on the upper east side.

Drawn from fascinating historical records--including trial transcripts from the century's first insanity defense--this is the gripping account of the gruesome kidnap and murder of a 12-year-old girl in 1927. Following a nationwide manhunt, no one was prepared for the awful truth that a sadistic monster dwelled within an unlikely suspect.

When a playboy is abducted, the highly educated detective “reveals himself as a gun-fighter who can pump hot lead with the best of them” (The New York Times). Recently returned from a refreshing sojourn in Egypt and on his way out the door to enjoy a dog show, Philo Vance is stopped in his tracks by a visit from the New York district attorney. Notorious gambler and ne’er-do-well Kaspar Kenting has been kidnapped from his uptown home, and the culprits are demanding that the fifty-thousand-dollar ransom be left inside a hollow tree at midnight. But things don’t go well—and the sophisticated and aristocratic detective is about to pick up a pistol and get down in the muck with some very unpleasant characters in this witty, suspenseful Golden Age mystery classic. “Mr. Van Dine’s amateur detective is the most gentlemanly, and probably the most scholarly snooper in literature.” —Chicago Daily Tribune

The kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. and the subsequent arrest, trial, and execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann have intrigued true crime buffs for decades. New Jersey's Lindbergh Kidnapping and Trial tells the story of the case that never dies through vintage photographs. Rare photographs, many not seen since the 1930s, will allow the reader to experience the massive police investigation led by New Jersey State Police superintendent H. Norman Schwarzkopf and the circus-like trial and execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann.

In 1924, fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks was abducted while walking home from school, killed by a chisel blow to his head, and later found stuffed in a culvert in a marshy wasteland at the Illinois-Indiana state line. Acid had been poured over his naked body. Evil Summer examines the shocking kidnapping and murder of Franks by two University of Chicago students, Nathan “Babe” Leopold and Richard “Dickie” Loeb, both from families of privilege. In this new examination of the crime, author John Theodore takes readers into the minds of the two criminals as he focuses on three months in 1924. Theodore covers the killing, the confessions, the defense, and the sentencing surrounding the horrific murder, placing the killers’ actions and Clarence Darrow’s historic defense into the context of 1920s Chicago. Theodore deftly investigates the psychological dimensions of the crime, revealing the murderers’ fantasies, relationships, sexuality, and motives. The author examines the killers’ past, outlining Loeb’s obsession with detective fiction and crime and his editorial on random killing—written at age nine—and Leopold’s nightly master-slave fantasies and fascination with Nietzsche. Evil Summer, which includes twenty-three illustrations, meticulously traces the murder from inception to confession, including such details as the special-delivery ransom letter sent to Jacob Franks and the discovery of Leopold’s horn-rimmed eyeglasses lying on a railroad embankment near Bobby’s dead body. Theodore re-creates such scenes as the convergence of hundreds of people in front of the Franks home, Bobby’s body lying in a small white casket in the library, and Loeb being voyeuristically drawn to the home while Bobby’s classmates carry the casket to the hearse. Worldwide press coverage reflected the public fascination with the case in what was then called “the trial of the century.” The story became a media circus: Chicago’s six daily newspapers battled vigorously for readers, two Daily News cub reporters became part of the story, and the Chicago Tribune carried a voting ballot asking readers whether radio station WGN should broadcast the courtroom spectacle. The changing drama was delivered to Chicagoans every morning and evening, and the public feasted on every press run. More than a crime story, Evil Summer illuminates the dark side of American life in the 1920s, including the excesses of privileged youth, the troubled childhoods, the random victimization, the anti-Semitism, and the sexuality.

On December 17, 1927 in Los Angeles, twelve year old Marion Parker, daughter of a prominent banker, was called to the school office where a stranger told her that her father had been in an accident and that she must leave with him right away. Fewer than 48 hours later, she was dead. What started as a tragic, but otherwise ordinary, kidnapping turned out to be a shocking murder by one of the period’s most twisted killers, William Edward Hickman. James L. Neibaur takes a step into history, depicting how this abduction was soon labeled the “crime of the century” and sparked a change in the nation’s attention to such cases. With a media-driven nationwide manhunt, one of the biggest and most wide-ranging in California history, and then a desperate attempt at sparing the killer’s life with the unfamiliar insanity plea, this infamous case left the abduction and murder of Marion Parker to be etched into 1920s pop culture. The murder of Marion Parker brought to light the unthinkable reality of child abduction. Neibaur resourcefully weaves together the events surrounding the crime in the context of the contemporary culture and attitudes of the late 1920s, covering the impact of the media’s first involvement in a criminal justice case, and how the admired notions of the glamorized ‘20s were crushed by this ordinary family’s chilling reality.

Ash Wednesday Beautiful, bubbly, 20-year-old Kim Antonakos was returning to her New York City apartment after a night of clubbing with a friend. A business major with wild black hair, long polished fingernails, and a new Honda her loving father had bought her, Kim took good care of herself and looked forward to a bright future. But on her way home in the early morning darkness of that Ash Wednesday, Kim was abducted-and her mysterious kidnappers would be the last people to see her alive. Scorching Betrayal As Kim's father, wealthy computer executive Tommy Antonakos, launched a widespread, feverish search for his daughter, he had no idea that her abductors were right under his nose. A cold mastermind had ordered had ordered Kim to be bound, gagged and left in the freezing basement of an abandoned house, hoping to extract ransom from her father. When the plans fell through, he and his henchman panicked, returned to the basement and doused a near-frozen Kim with gasoline, setting her on fire. Burned Alive When the fire was extinguished, all that was left of the lovely coed were her charred, lifeless remains. What would drive the kidnappers to commit such a cruel and senseless murder? How did their plans to cover their tracks result in another killing? And how were the murderers finally snared? Read all of the fascinating facts in a startling expose of extortion, murder, and ultimate justice.