House of Mystery True Crime History

To all appearances, Dennis Rader was a model citizen in the small town of Park City,Kansas, where he had lived with his family nearly his entire life. He was a localcompliance office, a former Boy Scout leader, the president of his church congregation,and a seemingly ordinary father and husband. But Rader’s average surface beliedthe existence of a dark, sadistic other self: he was the BTK serial killer. BTK had terrorized Wichita for 31 years, not only with his brutal, sexually motivatedcrimes, but also through his taunting, elusive communications with law enforcement.In 1974, BTK committed his first murders — torturing and strangling four membersof the Otero family — then writing the police an audacious letter and labelinghimself as BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill). He stalked and killed a series of 10 victimsbut then apparently stopped in 1991. Law enforcement remained confounded until 2004,when BTK began writing another string of letters that would finally lead to hisarrest.

This second edition of Boxes: The Secret Life of Howard Hughes continues the history-changing story of Eva McLelland and her reclusive life married to a mystery man she discovered was Howard Hughes. New witnesses have come forward with personal stories, additional evidence, and photographs. Hughes’s links to the murder of mobster Bugsy Siegel and the killers of President John F. Kennedy are revealed as well as the real identity of the long-haired crazy man that Hughes placed in the Desert Inn Hotel to distract the world while he escaped. Eva McLelland kept her secret for thirty-one stressful years as she lived a nomadic existence with a man who refused to unpack his belongings for fear he would be discovered and have to flee. Only her husband’s death finally released her to tell the story that had been burning inside her for decades.

In this groundbreaking book, bestselling author Jesse Ventura lays out his philosophy on marijuana, and why he’s always been in favor of legalization. Now, more than ever before, our country needs to see full legalization of medical/recreational marijuana and hemp. Any way you look at it, for whoever is using it, marijuana is a medicinal plant, in abundant supply. Every month and every year that goes by, we find out more positive things about it. Medicinal marijuana has been demonized through the years but obviously this plant has a great deal of positive attributes, and it’s also a renewable resource. Being a cash crop, marijuana is bad for the pharmaceutical industry. Is Big Pharma pressuring the government to continue to deny sick people access? If so, that’s truly a crime against American citizens. And as Ventura writes: “Our government won’t do the right thing and legalize marijuana unless we the people demand it, because there are so many people within our government on the payroll, all thanks to the War on Drugs." Jesse Ventura’s Marijuana Manifesto calls for an end to the War on Drugs. Just because something is illegal, that doesn’t mean it goes away, it just means that criminals run it. Legalizing marijuana and marijuana dispensaries will serve to rejuvenate our pathetic economy, and just might make people a little happier. Ventura’s book will show us all how we can take our country back.

In the case of TRAVIS, this new documentary, you’ll see plenty of archived plus new footage that we’ve dug, fought and paid for. You’ll meet the men who worked alongside Travis Walton in the logging crew, who today reluctantly come together to talk about the day that turned their lives upside down. The UFO experience was well documented originating from reliable polygraph experts, police, family members, psychologists, and UFO researchers at the time.”I never intended to make a documentary about Travis,” she insists. Instead, she started planning a 40th anniversary conference commemorating the UFO incident in the Sitgreaves Forest. Her plans gelled when she met Travis Walton in 2010. UFO experts explain why this story continues to astound investigators, astrophysicists and journalists as they investigate for reliable evidence of other worlds, other beings, and more advanced technologies.

The New York Police Department is an iconic symbol of one of the world’s most famous cities. The blue uniforms of the men and women who serve on the force have long stood for integrity and heroism in the work to serve and protect the city’s residents. And yet, as in any large public organization, the NYPD has also suffered its share of corruption, political shenanigans, and questionable leadership. In The NYPD’s First Fifty Years Bernard Whalen, himself a long-serving NYPD lieutenant, and his father, Jon, consider the men and women who have contributed to the department’s past, both positively and less so. Starting with the official formation of the NYPD in 1898, they examine the commissioners, politicians, and patrolmen who during the next fifty years left a lasting mark on history and on one another. In the process, they also explore the backroom dealings, the hidden history, and the relationships that set the scene for the modern NYPD that so proudly serves the city today

The first definitive account of this legendary fighting force and its extraordinary leader, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Lee Gardner’s Rough Riders is narrative nonfiction at its most invigorating and compulsively readable. Its dramatic unfolding of a familiar, yet not-fully-known story will remind readers of James Swanson’s Manhunt. Two months after the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in February 1898, Congress authorized President McKinley to recruit a volunteer army to drive the Spaniards from Cuba. From this army emerged the legendary “Rough Riders,” a mounted regiment drawn from America’s western territories and led by the indomitable Theodore Roosevelt. Its ranks included not only cowboys and other westerners, but several Ivy Leaguers and clubmen, many of them friends of “TR.” Roosevelt and his men quickly came to symbolize American ruggedness, daring, and individualism. He led them to victory in the famed Battle at San Juan Hill, which made TR a national hero and cemented the Rough Riders’ place in history. Now, Mark Lee Gardner synthesizes previously unknown primary accounts as well as period newspaper articles, letters, and diaries from public and private archives in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Boston, and Washington, DC, to produce this authoritative chronicle. He breathes fresh life into the Rough Riders and pays tribute to their daring feats and indomitable leader. Gardner also explores lesser-known aspects of the story, including their relationship with the African-American “Buffalo Soldiers, with whom they fought side by side at San Juan Hill. Rich with action, violence, camaraderie, and courage, Rough Riders sheds new light on the Theodore Roosevelt saga—and on one of the most thrilling chapters in American history.

Award-winning investigative reporter Robert Kolker delivers a haunting and humanizing account of the true-life search for a serial killer still at large on Long Island, in a compelling tale of unsolved murder and Internet prostitution. One late spring evening in 2010, Shannan Gilbert, after running through the oceanfront community of Oak Beach screaming for her life, went missing. No one who had heard of her disappearance thought much about what had happened to the twenty-four-year-old: she was a Craigslist prostitute who had been fleeing a scene—of what, no one could be sure. The Suffolk County Police, too, seemed to have paid little attention—until seven months later, when an unexpected discovery in a bramble alongside a nearby highway turned up four bodies, all evenly spaced, all wrapped in burlap. But none of them Shannan's. There was Maureen Brainard-Barnes, last seen at Penn Station in Manhattan three years earlier, and Melissa Barthelemy, last seen in the Bronx in 2009. There was Megan Waterman, last seen leaving a hotel in Hauppage, Long Island, just a month after Shannan's disappearance in 2010, and Amber Lynn Costello, last seen leaving a house in West Babylon a few months later that same year. Like Shannan, all four women were petite and in their twenties, they all came from out of town to work as escorts, and they all advertised on Craigslist and its competitor, Backpage. In a triumph of reporting—and in a riveting narrative—Robert Kolker presents the first detailed look at the shadow world of escorts in the Internet age, where making a living is easier than ever and the dangers remain all too real. He has talked exhaustively with the friends and family of each woman to reveal the three-dimensional truths about their lives, the struggling towns they came from, and the dreams they chased. And he has gained unique access to the Oak Beach neighborhood that has found itself the focus of national media scrutiny—where the police have flailed, the body count has risen, and the neighbors have begun pointing fingers at one another. There, in a remote community, out of sight of the beaches and marinas scattered along the South Shore barrier islands, the women's stories come together in death and dark mystery. Lost Girls is a portrait not just of five women, but of unsolved murder in an idyllic part of America, of the underside of the Internet, and of the secrets we keep without admitting to ourselves that we keep them

Everybody loves a good scare at Halloween, but visitors to most “haunted houses” know the most frightening things are just actors in monster makeup and spooky special effects. Deep down, we all know that the ghostly inhabitants are fake... ...except at Asylum 49. This unassuming former medical facility outside Salt Lake City stands next to a graveyard and is home to a full-contact Halloween haunt with a difference: the ghosts are all too real, and they are very willing to interact with the living. Hundreds of staff members, customers, and ghost hunters have encountered them firsthand over the years. Join paranormal investigator Richard Estep and Asylum 49 owner Cami Andersen for a behind-the-scenes insider tour of one of the world’s most haunted hospitals. Meet the ghostly children who like to tease unsuspecting visitors and the angry ER doctor who insists on things being done his way...or else. Explore the maze, home to a malicious dark entity named “The Guardian,” and meet Jeremy, who died of severe burns and whose appearances are heralded by the smell of lingering smoke. These and the many other restless spirits have their own stories to tell, their own reasons for continuing to haunt the darkened rooms and shadowy hallways.

Which Song is the Best and Why? Read it and see! Organized by rank, from 1 to 100, this illustrated celebration of the best songs by the boys who revolutionized rock-and-roll includes expert commentary, historical context, interview material, and lots of great sidebars (including "best" lists from some of today's pop music powerhouses.) Like all "best of" lists, the book's opinionated stance generates animated discussion. Here, There, and Everywhere is profusely illustrated with photos of the band at work and play, and all of the unforgettable album-cover art. Appendices include a complete song list, discography, videography, and bibliography, making it a one-stop source of Beatles facts and figures.

As a Former American Prosecutor now living in Germany, Ann Marie Ackermann JD is uniquely positioned to research one of Germany's most unusual historic crimes. In a 150 year old diary of German Forester, she discovered the case of a 19th century German assassin. the Murderer fled to America, where he has a fatal encounter with Robert E. Lee

The Polka Dot File on the Robert F. Kennedy Killing describes the day-to-day chase for the mystery woman in the polka-dot dress. The book comments on but does not dwell on the police investigation, and reads like a detective thriller instead of an academic analysis of the investigation. It incorporates actual tapes made by an important witness, and introduces the testimony of witnesses not covered in other books and it is a new take on the assassination and the motives for it introduces a new theory for the reasons behind the assassination. Original and highly personal, it reaches a startling and different conclusion not exposed by other books.

by Bernard Whalen, Philip Messing, Robert Mladinich More than 175 years of true crimes culled from the city's police blotter, told through startling, rarely seen images and insightful text by two NYPD officers and a NYC crime reporter. From atrocities that occurred before the establishment of New York's police force in 1845 through the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 to the present day, this visual history is an insider's look at more than 80 real-life crimes that shocked the nation, from arson to gangland murders, robberies, serial killers, bombings, and kidnappings, including: •Architect Stanford White's fatal shooting at Madison Square Garden over his deflowering of a teenage chorus girl. •The anarchist bombing of Wall Street in 1920, which killed 39 people and injured hundreds more with flying shrapnel. •The 1928 hit at the Park Sheraton Hotel on mobster Arnold Rothstein, who died refusing to name his shooter. •Kitty Genovese's 1964 senseless stabbing, famously witnessed by dozen of bystanders who did not intervene. •Son of Sam, a serial killer who eluded police for months while terrorizing the city, was finally apprehended through a simple parking ticket.

Shortly after being elected president of the United States, James Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau. But contrary to what is written in most history books, Garfield didn’t linger and die. He survived. Alexander Graham Bell raced against time to invent the world’s first metal detector to locate the bullet in Garfield’s body so that doctors could safely operate. Despite Bell’s efforts to save Garfield, however, and as never before fully revealed, the interventions of Garfield’s friend and doctor, Dr. D. W. Bliss, brought about the demise of the nation’s twentieth president.   But why would a medical doctor engage in such monstrous behavior? Did politics, petty jealousy, or failed aspirations spark the fire inside Bliss that led him down the path of homicide? Rosen proves how depraved indifference to human life—second-degree murder—rather than ineptitude led to Garfield’s drawn-out and painful death. Now, more than one hundred years later, historian and homicide investigator Fred Rosen reveals through newly accessed documents and Bell’s own correspondence & the long list of Bliss’s criminal acts and malevolent motives that led to his murder of the president

JT Townsend is a True Crime Historian, freelance writer and lifelong resident of Cincinnati. Formerly with Snitch Magazine, JT’s work has appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati Magazine, Word Magazine, and Clews. In addition, JT appeared in the 2008 British documentary, Conversations With a Serial Killer. JT’s first book, Queen City Gothic, was a regional best-seller showcasing 13 of Cincinnati’s most gripping, unsolved cold cases. His new book, Queen City Notorious, features Cincinnati’s most scandalous gothic murders. on this episode we discuss everything from the lizzy Borden Case to Jack the Ripper!

Polka Dot File on the Robert F. Kennedy Killing-The Polka Dot File on the Robert F. Kennedy Killing describes the day-to-day chase for the mystery woman in the polka-dot dress. The book comments on but does not dwell on the police investigation, and reads like a detective thriller instead of an academic analysis of the investigation. It incorporates actual tapes made by an important witness, and introduces the testimony of witnesses not covered in other books and it is a new take on the assassination and the motives for it introduces a new theory for the reasons behind the assassination. Original and highly personal, it reaches a startling and different conclusion not exposed by other books