True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History and the Authors That Have Written About Them

From the cornfields of Nebraska to the top rung as a rising star of the adult industry, Timothy John Boham had everything a young man could ask for; including a beautiful young daughter. The fall from the top of the ladder to the depths of prison was short and steep as in one rash moment with one wrong decision, Boham lost it all. Seasoned true crime writer Donna Thomas spent countless hours with the subject Timothy John Boham. Thomas also worked for a period of time for the deceased victim John Paul Kelso. As only a gifted author such as Thomas can, she takes the readers on this sometimes very perilous-but fascinating and entertaining-journey of adult film star Timothy J. Boham AKA Marcus Allen as his thirst and hunger for fame and adulation explodes into chaos, love, loss and murder! INTENDED FOR MATURE AUDIENCES-The Rise and Deadly Spiral of Adult Star Timothy J. Boham-Donna Thomas                  

On May 18, 1927, the small town of Bath, Michigan, was forever changed when Andrew Kehoe set off a cache of explosives concealed in the basement of the local school. Thirty-eight children and six adults were dead, among them Kehoe, who had literally blown himself to bits by setting off a dynamite charge in his car. The next day, on Kehoe's farm, what was left of his wife---burned beyond recognition after Kehoe set his property and buildings ablaze---was found tied to a handcart, her skull crushed. With seemingly endless stories of school violence and suicide bombers filling today's headlines, Bath Massacre serves as a reminder that terrorism and large-scale murder are nothing new.  "A chilling and historic character study of the unfathomable suffering that desperation and fury, once unleashed inside a twisted mind, can wreak on a small town. Contemporary mass murderers Timothy McVeigh, Columbine's Dylan Klebold, and Virginia Tech's Seung-Hui Cho can each trace their horrific genealogy of terror to one man: Bath school bomber Andrew Kehoe. BATH MASSACRE-America's First School Bombing-Arnie Bernstein      

On August 16, 1982, an unidentified attacker brutalized and strangled Maggie Hume at her apartment in Battle Creek, Michigan. The daughter of a beloved local football coach, her seemingly senseless murder sparked intense scrutiny that lingers today. Award-winning author Blaine Pardoe and his daughter, Victoria Hester, crack open three decades of material on this mysterious tragedy, exposing dark secrets and political in-fighting that tore at the Battle Creek legal system for years. Compiled from documents, videos and interviews, this book presents the facts and clues of the case to the public for the first time. THE MURDER OF MAGGIE HUME-Cold Case in Battle Creek-Victoria Hester and Blaine Pardoe    

After his December 2003 arrest, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed "The Angel of Death" by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. He was a favorite son, husband, beloved father, best friend, and celebrated caregiver. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history. Cullen's murderous career in the world's most trusted profession spanned sixteen years and nine hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. When, in March of 2006, Charles Cullen was marched from his final sentencing in an Allentown, Pennsylvania, courthouse into a waiting police van, it seemed certain that the chilling secrets of his life, career, and capture would disappear with him. Now, in a riveting piece of investigative journalism nearly ten years in the making, journalist Charles Graeber presents the whole story for the first time. Based on hundreds of pages of previously unseen police records, interviews, wire-tap recordings and videotapes, as well as exclusive jailhouse conversations with Cullen himself and the confidential informant who helped bring him down, THE GOOD NURSE weaves an urgent, terrifying tale of murder, friendship, and betrayal. Were it not for the hardboiled, unrelenting work of two former Newark homicide detectives racing to put together the pieces of Cullen's professional past, and a fellow nurse willing to put everything at risk, including her job and the safety of her children, there's no telling how many more lives could have been lost. THE GOOD NURSE-A True Story of Medicine, Madness and Murder-Charles Graeber          

On an October night in 1993, at one of the campgrounds dotting Florida's Gulf Coast, ex-con Eddie Lee Sexton told his daughter Pixie to silence her crying baby. Incredibly, the young mother smothered the helpless infant, stuffed it's tiny corpse into a gym bag, and then buried it in a shallow grave, less than a month later. Eddie Lee ordered his son Willie to strangle the baby's bereaved father during a family picnic. Sexton was priming his third victim when the FBI and Florida Cops finally caught up with him. Authorities soon learned that these killings were the final heinous acts of a sadistic, incestuous monster whose reign of psychological and sexual violence had began back in Ohio. For years, Eddie Lee whipped his children daily, raped his daughters, abused his sons and even fathered three inbred Sexton babies. But in early 1992, after teenaged Machelle Sexton's courageous flight to authorities, the walls of silence surrounding this house of horrors crumbled. With terrifying detail, Lowell Cauffel takes us into a shocking world of abuse, incest and family murder-a world ruled by a psychopath whose ability to manipulate his children produced one of the most sensational cases in true crime history. HOUSE OF SECRETS-Lowell Cauffiel      

John Crutchley seemed to be living the American Dream. Good-looking and blessed with a genius level IQ, he had a prestigious, white-collar job at a prominent government defense contractor, where he held top secret security clearance and handled projects for NASA and the Pentagon. To all outward appearances, he was a hard-working, successful family man with a lavish new house, a devoted wife, and a healthy young son. But, he concealed a hidden side of his personality, a dark secret tied to a hunger for blood and the overriding need to kill. As one of the most prolific serial killers in American history, Crutchley committed at least twelve murders, and possibly nearly three dozen. His IQ elipsed that of Ted Bundy, and his body count may have as well. While he stalked the streets hunting his unsuspecting victims, the residents of a quiet Florida town slept soundly, oblivious to the dark creature in their midst, unaware of the vampire next door. THE VAMPIRE NEXT DOOR-The True story of the Vampire Rapist-J.T. Hunter and Detective Robert Leatherow            

It was planned to look like a suicide. But even in the best-laid plans, evidence is left behind… Jocelyn Branham Earnest was found dead on the floor of her living room in Forest, Virginia. By her side was a gun and a suicide note—typed, lacking a signature, and with one fingerprint on it. A fingerprint apparently belonging to Jocelyn’s estranged husband… Wesley Earnest was a respected high school administrator, poised to restart his life in a new community. Parents entrusted their children to his care and believed he was above reproach. But the investigation into the life the couple once shared would reveal adultery, troubled finances, and shattered dreams—enough for one man with murder on his mind to travel hundreds of miles…UNDER COVER OF THE NIGHT-A True Story of Sex, Greed and Murder-Diane Fanning      

1982: Oregon businessman Phil Champagne, age 52, dies in a tragic boating accident off Lopez Island. He is survived by one ex-wife, four adult children, an octogenarian mother, and two despondent brothers. Phil didn't know he was dead until he read it in the paper. All things considered, he took it rather well. So did Phil's brother, Mitch, the beneficiary of a 1.5 million dollar policy on Phil's life. 1992: Washington restauranteur Harold Stegeman, famous for his thick, juicy steaks, is arrested by the Secret Service for printing counterfeit United States currency in an Idaho shed. In addition to the bogus bills, Stegeman also has a fraudulently obtained passport, a fabricated Cayman Island drivers license, and Phil Champagne's fingerprints. When the uproarious reality of Harold Stegeman's secret identity hit the headlines, the counterfeit resurrection of Phil Champagne became one of the most celebrated and hysterically funny true-crime stories of the twentieth century. And while every supermarket tabloid and television talk show hounded after the untold story, only Edgar Award winner Burl Barer captured Champagne's confidence and received permission to detail Phil's post-mortem career of fraud, deception, trickery, lies, and fine prime rib, bringing to life the exploits of a man his family thought dead over a decade ago. MAN OVERBOARD-The Counterfeit Resurrection of Phil Champagne-Burl Barer

Seventeen-year-old Tyler Hadley posted an invitation on Facebook: party at my crib tonight. But this was no ordinary house party in the Florida suburbs; it was a grisly crime scene. Later that night, Tyler revealed to his best friend, Michael, that he’d bludgeoned his parents to death with a hammer. Michael didn’t believe him…until he entered the master bedroom and saw the bodies of Tyler’s parents on the floor—murdered, beyond the shadow of a doubt. Mary Jo and Blake Hadley had always known their son had a dark side. He would make disturbing jokes about murder on Facebook. He apparently idolized the infamous Menendez brothers, who murdered their parents for money. But how could they have known their son was dead serious? What kind of person could kill his mother and father, throw a party with their bodies in the next room, and brag about it? This riveting account by award-winning journalist Amber Hunt takes you deep inside the mind of a troubled teenager—and behind the scenes of a true American nightmare…SEE HOW MUCH YOU LOVE ME-A Troubled Teen, His Devoted Parents and a Cold Blooded Killing-Amber Hunt

 In August 1982, in Kelowna, British Columbia David Shearing shot grandparents George and Edith Bentley and parents Bob and Jackie Johnson at their campsite in Wells Gray Park. The sole purpose of these murders was to give him access to the two Johnson daughters Janet, age 13 and Karen, age 11 for purposes of rape, molestation and torture. He held the girls captive for almost a week and then murdered them as well. He put the bodies of the girls in the trunk of the family car with the four adults in the back seat, and set the car on fire - leaving the bodies nearly unidentifiable. A hearing was set for September 4, 2014 to give consideration for day  and full parole for Ennis. If day parole were granted, he would be allowed to live in a halfway house. If full parole were granted, he would be allowed to live in the community. Ennis was denied parole in 2008 and in 2012 for numerous issues, including a diagnosis of phychopathy. Tammy Arishenkoff attended school with the young girls and worked with the victim's family to organize an on-line petition drive to deny David Ennis' parole; sending the following to the parole board in Ottawa: We, the undersigned, feel that the release of David Ennis, formerly David Shearing, into the community would jeopardize the safety of all citizens, but more importantly our children. As well, the heinous nature of his crimes should preclude any possibility of release. Tammy Arishenkoff and her followers strongly urged the Parole Board of Canada to once again deny parole to this murderer at the upcoming hearing September 4, 2014. This is what happened. THE PAROLE OF MASS MURDERER DAVID ENNIS-Tammy Arishenkoff

The remote farming community of Murdock, Nebraska, seemed to be the least likely setting for one of the heartland's most ruthless and bloody double murders in decades. In fact, the little town had gone more than a century without a single homicide. But on the night of Easter 2006, Wayne and Sharmon Stock were brutally murdered in their home. The murders garnered sensational frontpage headlines and drew immediate statewide attention. Practically everybody around Murdock was filled with fear, panic, and outrage. Who killed Wayne and Sharmon Stock? What was the motive? The Stocks were the essence of Nebraska's all-American farm family, self-made, God-fearing, and of high moral character. Barely a week into this double murder investigation, two arrests brought a sense of relief to the victims' family and to local residents. The case appeared to fall neatly into place when a tiny speck of murder victim Wayne Stock s blood appeared in the alleged getaway car. Then, an obscure clue left at the crime scene took the investigation down a totally different path, stretching into Iowa, Louisiana, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin. By the time this investigation was over, the charges against the original suspects were dismissed and two new individuals emerged from the shadows. Author John Ferak covered the Stock murders from the very beginning, including all of the trial proceedings. When the criminal prosecution finally ended in 2007, he remained puzzled by one nagging question: Why was the blood of victim Wayne Stock in a car that was ultimately proven to have no connection to the murders? Over the next few years, the astonishing bloody lies were revealed, culminating in a law enforcement scandal that turned the case on its head and destroyed the career of Nebraska's celebrated CSI director, David Kofoed. BLOODY LIES-A CSI Scandal In The Heartland-John Ferak

For years David Elliot Penton stalked elementary schools and playgrounds looking for young girls from low-income neighborhoods to abduct, rape and murder. He thought of them as "throwaway kids"-hardly missed, and soon forgotten, except by those who loved them. He was every parent's worst nightmare. The bogeyman they warned their children about ... the fiend who lurked outside bedroom windows. Christi Meeks disappeared during a game of hide-and-seek outside her mother's Mesquite apartment complex in January 1985 and was found dead less than three months later in Lake Texoma. Christie Proctor's body was found in a south Plano field in April 1988, more than two years after the fourth-grader was last seen walking from her North Dallas apartment to a friend's house. And Roxann Reyes was snatched from an alley while playing outside her Garland apartment in November 1987. This story focuses on the work of a team of police detectives, starting with Garland Police Detective Gary Sweet, who picked up the cases of the three missing girls after they'd gone cold. In 1996, years after the murders, he found the girls' files and information on suspect David Elliot Penton. "For some reason, out of all the stuff that was in those two boxes, I pulled out a file and started reading about him," Sweet said. Penton was in jail in Ohio for killing 9-year-old Nydra Ross. What followed was a series of fateful twists — from reviewing old tips, to conducting new interviews and gathering information shared by Penton's cellmates. By 2003, Sweet and the team had enough to indict Penton. TRUE DETECTIVE-From The Detective's Perspective-Gary Sweet    

The story of one of the nation's most notorious wrongful convictions, that of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who spent eighteen years in prison for a crime he did not commit. But two years after he was exonerated of that crime and poised to reap millions in his wrongful conviction lawsuit, Steven Avery was arrested for the exceptionally brutal murder of Teresa Halbach, a freelance photographer who had gone missing several days earlier. The "Innocent Man" had turned into a cold blooded killer. Or had he? This is narrative non-fiction at its finest. A true crime thriller. THE INNOCENT KILLER-A true story of a Wrongful Conviction and it's Astonishing Aftermath-Michael Griesbach

On a sunny September morning in 1930, six men entered the Lincoln National Bank in Nebraska's capital city armed with revolvers and Thompson submachine guns. In eight minutes they emerged with more than 2.7 million dollars, the largest take of any bank heist in history. A nationwide search for the bandits would lead Nebraska authorities through the rough, gangland streets of Chicago and East St. Louis, and deep into the heart of the Capone organization. The Great Heist not only chronicles the search for the bandits and the trials that followed, but the incredible story of how they got the money back. THE GREAT HEIST-The Story of the Biggest Bank Robbery in History-Jeff McArthur

Charles Lucky Luciano is one of the most researched, discussed and dissected American mobsters of all time. His name has become synonymous with NY City's high drama gangland days of prohibition bootlegging, the information of the infamous five families, and controversy over his alleged Last Testament. However, there exists many fascinating and lurid tales and theories regarding Lucky's rise and fall from the mobs top spot. Some of these stories are known, but still incited debate, such as the origins of his nickname and menacing facial scars. Other legends are not so well known to the general public With information culled from rare news articles, government documents and numerous books written on the subject, this book will give readers a chance to discover Luciano in a way that engages the mystery of his pop culture status, while encouraging further debate over the facts that fallacies that exist about his true role in the history of the American mafia structure. LUCKY LUCIANO-Mysterious Tales of a Gangster Legend-Christian Cipollini