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Deborah Frethem

Cynthia Schreiner Smith

“The St. Paul of the gangster era springs vividly to life again … A captivating glimpse into a shadowy era in the city’s history. ” —Community Reporter

From their home base in Minnesota, the Karpis-Barker Gang cut a swath of crime and terror across the Midwest in the early 1930s. They kidnapped two important businessmen and held them for exorbitant ransoms. They stole payrolls and robbed banks as the bullets flew. Corrupt police and wily crime bosses helped Alvin Karpis and the Barker brothers Freddie and Doc every step of the way. 

Who were these men and women? What made them into killers and kidnappers? How did their reckless lifestyles lead to their downfall? From Ma Barker to Volney Davis to Edna Murray the Kissing Bandit, authors Deborah Frethem and Cynthia Schreiner Smith delve into the crimes, personalities and motivations of one of the most successful and infamous gangs in American history.

The History Press

True Crime

Alvin Karpis and the Barker Gang in Minnesota

Steven C. Drielak

A new look at the 1937 abduction of a wealthy wife and mother, based on previously classified FBI documents—includes photos.

When she was kidnapped from Long Meadow Farm in Stony Brook, New York, in 1937, Alice McDonell Parsons was the heir to a vast fortune among Long Island’s wealthy elite. The crime shocked the nation and was front-page news for several months.

J. Edgar Hoover personally assigned his best FBI agents to the case, and within a short time, Parsons’s husband and their live-in housekeeper, Anna Kupryanova, had become prime suspects. Botched ransom attempts, clashes between authorities, and romantic intrigue kept the investigation mired in drama. The crime remained unsolved. Now, in this book, former Suffolk County detective Steven C. Drielak reveals previously classified FBI documents—and pieces together the mystery of the Alice Parsons kidnapping.

Long Island's Vanished Heiress: The Unsolved Alice Parsons Kidnapping

Richard R. Heppner

A local historian uncovers a racially charged murder trial in upstate New York in this examination of prejudice and punishment in the early twentieth century.

In 1905, the quiet rural community of Woodstock, New York, was shocked by the murder of Oscar Harrison, a member of a prominent local family. A suspect, Cornell Van Gaasbeek, was quickly identified. As a black man accused of killing a white man, Van Gaasbeek knew that he was doomed. Amid racist animus in the press, he fled across two counties before being apprehended by a vigilante and charged.

Local reformer and politician Augustus H. Van Buren stood up to community pressure and defended the accused pro bono. It took three years and multiple trials to overcome racial inequalities in the justice system. Local historian Richard Heppner documents the crime, arrest and trials that revealed racial tensions in upstate New York at the turn of the century.

Woodstock's Infamous Murder Trial: Early Racial Injustice in Upstate New York

Cloyd Steiger

“An in-depth look at the 1971 trial of a serial killer who’s been mostly forgotten—except to those who were forever impacted” (The Seattle Times).

In 1969, the body of a young woman was discovered in the woods of Renton, Washington, rocking the communities along Puget Sound. Three more brutal murders followed, drawing the attention of multiple police agencies as they tried to piece together the meagre clues left behind. The seemingly unrelated cases challenged detectives, who struggled to realize they were all connected to one man: Gary Gene Grant. Before the term “serial killer” was even coined, Grant stalked his prey, destroying lives and families while walking unseen among the masses. Decades later, his crimes have all but been forgotten.

Join author and homicide investigator Cloyd Steiger as he uncovers the story of the murderer who slipped through the cracks of history.

Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer: Gary Gene Grant

Josh S. Cutler

Winner of the 2020 Baltimore History Prize, this is a gripping account of how a Federalist editor risked his life to defend his anti-war views.

With a bitterly divided nation plunged into the War of 1812, Alexander Hanson penned an anti-war editorial that provoked a violent standoff that crippled the city of Baltimore and left Hanson beaten within an inch of his life. This little-known episode in American history—complete with a midnight jailbreak, bloodthirsty mobs and unspeakable acts of torture—helped shape the course of war, the Federalist Party and the nation’s very notion of the freedom of the press. Josh Cutler’s history of the Mobtown Massacre offers a lesson in liberty that reverberates today.

“A compelling story that’s as timely today as it was two centuries ago. ” —Congressman William R. Keating

“A remarkably vivid, engaging and very readable account of a brief but major event in Baltimore history … which reflected the sharp political divisiveness of the time at the start of the War of 1812, and had important implications for freedom of the press and the war itself. ”—Charles Markell, board member, Baltimore City Historical Society

“A timely and scholarly examination of one man’s struggle for freedom of the press. ”—Fred Dorsey, Howard County, MD historian

“Cutler’s book tells not only of politics of that era and the controversy of a war that ultimately led to the burning of the White House and the writing of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ by Francis Scott Key, but also how it challenged America’s devotion to a free press. ” —The Baltimore Sun

Mobtown Massacre: Alexander Hanson and the Baltimore Newspaper War of 1812

J. Francis Watson

William E. Watson

The shocking murder of railroad laborers in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania—and the centuries-long coverup that followed—is revealed in this true crime history.

In June 1832, railroad contractor Philip Duffy hired fifty-seven Irish immigrant laborers to work on Pennsylvania's Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. They were sent to a stretch of track in rural Chester County known as Duffy's Cut. Six weeks later, all of them were dead.

For more than 180 years, the railroad maintained that cholera was to blame and kept the historical record under lock and key. In a harrowing modern-day excavation of their mass grave, a group of academics and volunteers found evidence some of the laborers were murdered. Authors and research leaders Dr. William E. Watson and Dr. J. Francis Watson reveal the tragedy, mystery, and discovery of what really happened at Duffy's Cut.

Massacre at Duffy's Cut: Tragedy & Conspiracy on the Pennsylvania Railroad

Frank Gustavus

His true identity has never been revealed.
His victims faced the abyss of human insanity.
His name is Jack the Ripper.

London, 1888. In the poor district of Whitechapel, women are found dead, their bodies brutally disfigured. The victims' ripped throats are proof of a bestiality and cruelty, which has never been seen before. The investigation of the police leads to no satisfying results. Soon, the public calls the culprit "Jack the Ripper" - a serial killer who stalks the streets of Whitechapel at night and viciously kills …

In this Audio Movie, Jack the Ripper and his story come alive.

Discover the dark world of London in the year 1888 and be part of the breathtaking and heart-pounding manhunt for one of the most notorious and feared criminals in British history. Enthralling cinema for your ears with none other than the famous actor Neil Dudgeon (Midsomer Murders, Life of Riley) as Jack the Ripper!

True Crime - The book series

True Crime - The book series

True Crime books in order

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