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The Last Outlaws: The Desperate Final Days of the Dalton Gang
Par Tom Clavin. 2023
The definitive account of the Dalton Gang and the most brazen bank heist in history, by the multiple New York…
Times bestselling author. The Last Outlaws is the thrilling true story of the last of one of the greatest outlaw gang. The dreaded Dalton Gang consisted of three brothers and their rotating cast of colorful accomplices who saw themselves as descended from the legendary James brothers. They soon became legends themselves, beginning their career as common horse thieves before graduating to robbing banks and trains. On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang attempted their boldest and bloodiest raid yet: robbing two banks in broad daylight in Coffeyville, Kansas, simultaneously. As Grat, Bob, and Emmett Dalton and Bill Power and Dick Broadwell crossed the plaza to enter the two buildings, the outlaws were recognized by townspeople, who raised the alarm. Citizens armed themselves with shotguns and six-shooters from nearby hardware stores and were locked and loaded when the thieves emerged from the banks. The ensuing gun battle was a lead-filled firefight of epic proportions. As the smoke cleared, eight men lay dead––including four of the five members of the doomed Dalton Gang. For the first time ever, the full story of the Dalton Gang's life of crime, culminating in one of the Wild West’s most violent events, are chronicled in detail––a last gruesome gasp of the age of gunfights.To Be a U.S. Secret Service Agent
Par Henry Holden. 2010
A look inside the renowned law enforcement agency—its history, its recruiting and training process, and tips for those seeking a…
Secret Service career.The Secret Service was established after the Civil War by the Treasury Department, originally to protect American currency against counterfeiters. It was only after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901 that Congress directed the Secret Service to protect the President of the United States. Today, protection remains the primary mission of the United States Secret Service.It takes a special type of individual to be a U.S. Secret Service agent, one willing to “take a bullet” to preserve the ideals on which the United States was founded. To Be a U.S. Secret Service Agent lifts the curtain for a look inside this law enforcement agency, including the highly selective recruiting, the intense training, and the specialized weapons and equipment used to protect current and past presidents, vice presidents, their families, and visiting heads of state.Includes photosWho were the world’s most successful pirates, and why? “Interesting and very readable . . . Little clearly knows his subject well.” —International…
Journal of Naval HistoryMore than just simple retellings of tried-and-true stories of buccaneers on the high seas, this book focuses on pirating tactics of the 1500s through the 1800s to give an in-depth view of how pirates functioned through history. Stories of the thirteen most famous pirates as they raid major ships and pillage coastal villages reveal how the pirates approached such invasions—and how they managed to elude authorities and sometimes whole navies. In addition, vivid firsthand descriptions recreate the excitement, fear, and fury of the most famous raids by these outlaws of the ocean. Delving deep to show piracy’s profound impact on trade, politics, military strategy, culture, and individual lives, the book sifts truth from myth, carefully reconstructs the geopolitical context of each story, and analyzes the tactics that brought the pirates glory, or led to their downfall. Also included are archival images gathered from around the world by the author, a former Navy SEAL and consultant on maritime security.Firebrand: A Tobacco Lawyer's Journey
Par Joshua Knelman. 2022
"You&’ll inhale this tell-all book about the tobacco industry and never look at a No Smoking sign the same way…
again!"—Margaret Atwood, via TwitterMad Men meets Bad Blood in this addictive, behind-the-scenes globe-trotting narrative of moral ambiguity, law, public policy, and big tobacco.&“Given everything the lawyer knew up to that point about smoking, as far as he could tell, cigarettes shouldn&’t even have been available as a mass market product...&”It&’s the start of the new millennium and a young lawyer is recruited to work for an unnamed multinational company. It isn&’t until his second interview that the product the company produces is revealed to him: cigarettes. Possibly the most controversial consumer product in human history: seductive, addictive, and deadly—yet completely legal. Over the next decade, he travels the world as he works as legal counsel to help successfully market cigarettes in dozens of countries. Firebrand ventures into the heart of the tobacco industry and the icy paradoxes of capitalism, each chapter a counterintuitive lesson on how cigarette companies—the target of increasingly intense anti-smoking campaigns and government regulations, including the 1964 Surgeon General&’s Report and 200-billion-dollar debt of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement—continue to pivot and thrive in the 21st century, inhaling profits from their one billion smokers worldwide. As Mad Men did for the alcohol-fueled, oversexed, corrupt world of New York advertising, Firebrand does for the even more despised world of big tobacco, in an addictive, behind-the-scenes piece of storytelling. The lawyer&’s work takes him from manufacturing factories to hocking &“sticks&” at UK corner store counters; from tacky resorts in Spain and pirate city-states to luxury hotels and Grand Prix events across European and Asian cities. A contemporary tale of our ambiguous times, told with character-based drive and dry humour, Firebrand is a grand tour of the compelling paradoxes of globalization and corporate culture, shrink-wrapped in an engrossing narrative of a morally dubious yet completely legal enterprise.&“This is storytelling at its best. Wry observation, compelling narrative, fascinating characters, page-turning writing, and an age-old question driving it all...&”—Joel Bakan, author of The New Corporation: How &‘Good&’ Corporations are Bad for DemocracyCon/Artist: The Life and Crimes of the World's Greatest Art Forger
Par Tony Tetro, Giampiero Ambrosi. 2022
The world&’s most renowned art forger reveals the secrets behind his decades of painting like the masters—exposing an art world…
that is far more corrupt than we ever knew while providing an art history lesson wrapped in sex, drugs, and Caravaggio. The art world is a much dirtier, nastier business than you might expect. Tony Tetro, one of the most renowned art forgers in history, will make you question every masterpiece you&’ve ever seen in a museum, gallery, or private collection. Tetro&’s &“Rembrandts,&” &“Caravaggios,&” &“Miros,&” and hundreds of other works now hang on walls around the globe. In 2019, it was revealed that Prince Charles received into his collection a Picasso, Dali, Monet, and Chagall, insuring them for over 200 million pounds, only to later discover that they&’re actually &“Tetros.&” And the kicker? In Tony&’s words: &“Even if some tycoon finds out his Rembrandt is a fake, what&’s he going to do, turn it in? Now his Rembrandt just became motel art. Better to keep quiet and pass it on to the next guy. It&’s the way things work for guys like me.&” The Prince Charles scandal is the subject of a forthcoming feature documentary with Academy Award nominee Kief Davidson and coauthor Giampiero Ambrosi, in cooperation with Tetro. Throughout Tetro&’s career, his inimitable talent has been coupled with a reckless penchant for drugs, fast cars, and sleeping with other con artists. He was busted in 1989 and spent four years in court and one in prison. His voice—rough, wry, deeply authentic—is nothing like the high society he swanned around in, driving his Lamborghini or Ferrari, hobnobbing with aristocrats by day, and diving into debauchery when the lights went out. He&’s a former furniture store clerk who can walk around in Caravaggio&’s shoes, become Picasso or Monet, with an encyclopedic understanding of their paint, their canvases, their vision. For years, he hid it all in an unassuming California townhouse with a secret art room behind a full-length mirror. (Press #* on his phone and the mirror pops open.) Pairing up with coauthor Ambrosi, one of the investigative journalists who uncovered the 2019 scandal, Tetro unveils the art world in an epic, alluring, at times unbelievable, but all-true narrative.The Missing Cryptoqueen: The Billion Dollar Cryptocurrency Con and the Woman Who Got Away with It
Par Jamie Bartlett. 2022
175 countries, four billion dollars, one scam: the thrilling rise and fall of the biggest cryptocurrency con in history and…
the woman behind it allIn 2016, on stage at Wembley Arena in front of thousands of adoring fans, Dr. Ruja Ignatova promised her followers a financial revolution. The future, she said, belonged to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. And the Oxford-educated, self-styled cryptoqueen vowed that she had invented the Bitcoin Killer. OneCoin would not only earn its investors untold fortunes; it would change the world. By March 2017, more than $4 billion had been invested in OneCoin in countries all around the world. But by October 2017, Ruja Ignatova had disappeared, and it slowly became clear that her revolutionary cryptocurrency was not all it seemed. Fortune was left asking, &“Is OneCoin the biggest financial fraud in history?&”In The Missing Cryptoqueen, acclaimed tech journalist Jamie Bartlett tells the story he began in his smash hit BBC podcast, entering the murky worlds of little-regulated cryptocurrencies and multilevel marketing schemes. Through a globe-crossing investigation into the criminal underworlds, corrupt governments, and the super-rich, he reveals a very modern tale of intrigue, techno-hype and herd madness that allowed OneCoin to become a million-person pyramid scheme—where, at the top, investors were making millions and, at the bottom, people were putting their livelihoods at risk. It&’s the inside story of the smartest and biggest scam of the 21st Century—and the genius behind it, who is still on the run.Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency
Par Andy Greenberg. 2022
From the award-winning author of Sandworm comes the propulsive story of a new breed of investigators who have cracked the Bitcoin…
blockchain, exposing once-anonymous realms of money, drugs, and violence. &“I love the book… It reads like a thriller… These stories are amazing.&” (Michael Lewis)Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money.But what if the centerpiece of this dark economy held a secret, fatal flaw? What if their currency wasn&’t so cryptic after all? An investigator using the right mixture of technical wizardry, financial forensics, and old-fashioned persistence could uncover an entire world of wrongdoing.Tracers in the Dark is a story of crime and pursuit unlike any other. With unprecedented access to the major players in federal law enforcement and private industry, veteran cybersecurity reporter Andy Greenberg tells an astonishing saga of criminal empires built and destroyed. He introduces an IRS agent with a defiant streak, a Bitcoin-tracing Danish entrepreneur, and a colorful ensemble of hardboiled agents and prosecutors as they delve deep into the crypto-underworld. The result is a thrilling, globe-spanning story of dirty cops, drug bazaars, trafficking rings, and the biggest takedown of an online narcotics market in the history of the Internet.Utterly of our time, Tracers in the Dark is a cat-and-mouse story and a tale of a technological one-upmanship. Filled with canny maneuvering and shocking twists, it answers a provocative question: How would some of the world&’s most brazen criminals behave if they were sure they could never get caught?My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers
Par Helen Morrison, Harold Goldberg. 2004
In this memoir, a forensic psychiatrist chronicles her work with more than 80 serial killers and her thoughts on what…
compels them.Judging by appearances, Dr. Helen Morrison has an ordinary life in the suburbs of a major city. She has a physician husband, two children, and a thriving psychiatric clinic. But her life is more than that. She is one of the world’s leading experts on serial killers, and has spent as many as four hundred hours alone in rooms with depraved murderers, digging deep into killers’ psyches in ways no profiler ever has before.In My Life among the Serial Killers, Dr. Morrison relates how she profiled the Mad Biter, Richard Otto Macek, who chewed on his victims’ body parts, stalked Dr. Morrison, then believed she was his wife. She did the last interview with Ed Gein, who was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. John Wayne Gacy, the clown-obsessed killer of young men, sent her crazed Christmas cards and gave her his paintings as presents. Then there was Atlanta child killer Wayne Williams; rapist turned murderer Bobby Joe Long; Fred and Rosemary West, who killed girls and women in their Gloucester “House of Horrors”; and Brazil’s deadliest killer of children, Marcelo Costa de Andrade.Dr. Morrison has received hundreds of letters from killers, read their diaries and journals, evaluated crime scenes, testified at their trials, and studied photos of the gruesome carnage. She has interviewed the families of the victims—and the spouses and parents of the killers—to gain a deeper understanding of the killer’s environment and the public persona they adopt. She has also studied serial killers throughout history and shows how this is not a recent phenomenon with psychological autopsies of the fifteenth-century French war hero Gilles de Rais, the sixteenth-century Hungarian Countess Bathory, H.H. Holmes of the late nineteenth-century, and Albert Fish of the Roaring Twenties.Through it all, Dr. Morrison’s goal has been to discover the reasons serial killers are compelled to murder, how they choose their victims, and what we can do to prevent their crimes in the future. Her provocative conclusions will stun you.Praise for My Life Among the Serial Killers“A scary piece of work, with even scarier implications.” —Kirkus Reviews“A profoundly enlightening book. Morrison provides startling insights into what factors breed serial killers, and she avoids the broad generalizations that make other books of the topic seem slick and superficial. . . . This is an absorbing, disturbing book that makes it clear just how much we have yet to learn.” —BooklistBrooke at the Bar: Inside Our Legal System (Timberline Books)
Par Brooke Wunnicke. 2023
Brooke at the Bar is a candid, lively, and sometimes humorous autobiography by Brooke Wunnicke, the first woman to be…
a trial and appellate attorney in Wyoming and who went on to become a legal legend in Colorado. In conversational writing, Brooke provides insights from a lawyer, mentor, and educator. She advocates that, while not perfect, the United States has the world’s best legal system and that all citizens need to understand and protect their rights, freedoms, and responsibilities. Brooke shares vignettes of her early life—California in the Great Depression, college at Stanford, law school in Colorado during World War II, and the 1946 opening of her Cheyenne law office, a precedent for women in law. She vividly describes memorable and amusing experiences with clients, witnesses, lawyers, juries, and judges and explains some significant cases. She recounts important and dynamic events from her twelve years as Denver’s chief appellate deputy district attorney, an era during which she was an inestimable mentor to many young lawyers who became prominent in the private and public sectors. Brooke passionately believed “the law has been and will continue to be civilization’s hope.” In her book’s final part, she demystifies many legal terms and procedures and describes the parts of a civil jury trial—including information for jurors and witnesses—and provides an enthusiastic and clear refresher on the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. Brooke at the Bar is a unique and historically important contribution that will be of interest to general readers, scholars, and students interested in US law, political science, government, women’s history, twentieth-century western history, civil rights, and legal communities, including those in Wyoming and Colorado, where Brooke was “at the Bar.”Guns of Outlaws: Weapons of the American Bad Man
Par Gerry Souter, Janet Souter. 2014
“Chronicles the misdeeds of many of America’s worst miscreants, with special emphasis on the tools of the outlaw trade.” —American…
RiflemanFrom colonial-era rifles carried on the “Owlhoot Trail” to John Dillinger’s Colt pistols, the history of the American outlaw is told in guns—weapons that became each man’s personal signature. Authors Gerry and Janet Souter peer into these criminals’ choices of derringers, revolvers, shotguns, rifles, machine guns, and curious hybrids, giving us a glimpse into the minds behind the trigger fingers. With over 200 illustrations, Guns of Outlaws gives a unique look at the lives and the hardware of the most infamous outlaws in American history, and of the law enforcement officers who hunted them.As settlers moved further west, away from authority and soft city life into the Great Plains, the push for survival through the endless prairies and jagged isolating mountain ranges bred ruthless men. Most outlaws were technology freaks who seized upon the latest weapon innovations developed in the industrious East to provide an edge in the life-and-death cosmos of the Wild West. By the late 1930s and early 1940s, outlaws on horseback had given way to marauding bank robbers. Using fast cars and faster guns, they became folk heroes of the Great Depression, even as the law was hard on their tails.“Historians Gerry and Janet Souter take the reader back to a time between 1840 and 1940 when . . . outlaws and man hunters lived bold and died hard . . . [The] book show[s] actual tools of the trade wielded during a violent century, bound up in a mix of hard truths and mythology.” —Ammoland.comThe Krays' London: A History and Guide
Par Caroline Allen. 2019
A true crime travel guide to the haunts and hangouts of the most notorious gangsters of London&’s East End. …
There are many conflicting stories about who Ronnie and Reggie Kray were. Films depicting their lives have made the public vilify them, adore them and even admire them. This guidebook will dig a little deeper into the places they spent their time. Many of the places are renowned as the stomping grounds of the devious duo, but there are one or two exclusives that are not yet covered anywhere else, including the untold story of their lifelong hairdresser. Chapter by chapter, a map of their lives will reveal itself, making this the perfect read for anybody around the world interested in London&’s gangster scene. &“I remember going home from a cinema visit to London in the early 1960s with police sirens all over the place as we went through the East End. I remember the newspaper reports of the time, and wondering how the police could allow such people to control the East End to such an extent, and to apparently countenance the horrors this evil gang inflicted on their own and their enemies. It was a horrendous time to be alive in the East End of London, and Caroline&’s superb book brings it all back to life.&” —Books MonthlyThe Hate Next Door: Undercover within the New Face of White Supremacy
Par Matson Browning. 2023
The changing face of hate is on your doorstep…Matt Browning, an undercover detective in Arizona, thought he knew what hate…
looked like; that is, until he got a front row seat to White supremacy. What followed was a career of hardship and danger, and what he uncovered can no longer go left untold.For more than twenty-five years, Browning has been infiltrating, documenting, and disrupting white supremacy movements from the inside, gaining an intimate vantage point to the KKK, skinheads, border militias, Proud Boys, and other White Power groups, as they organized and grew, their ranks alarmingly including police force and military veterans. Together with his intrepid wife, Tawni, he adopted fake IDs and ideologies, seeking the arrest of its participants—none more so than J.T. Ready, a neo-Nazi who took "hunting trips" for border migrants while gaining mainstream acceptance as a political candidate—and terrorizing Browning's family. What others dismissed as fringe groups, Browning quickly recognized as large and interconnecting organizations permeating into every facet of American society, effectively spreading their dangerous and repugnant rhetoric at unprecedented speeds. Today, after the violent storming of the Capitol on January 6th, the threat posed by these toxic organizations can no longer be ignored by the public at large.In this imperative and gripping narrative, Browning gives readers the inside story of modern-day White supremacy in America in all of its ugly variation. Following his dramatic, high-stakes attempts to take down powerful White supremacists, the torment he faced whilst working undercover, and his eventual creation of the international Skinhead Intelligence Network, The Hate Next Door is a riveting, enlightening, and essential look at the what, where, when, and why of white supremacist groups, how to identify them, and why we must all do everything in our power to fight against them.The Last Vermeer: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren
Par Jonathan Lopez. 2008
“A grand yarn of twisty deceit, involving prestigious dupes and scads of money, with a sensational trial at the finish.”…
—The New YorkerIt’s a story that made Dutch painter Han van Meegeren world-famous when it broke at the end of World War II: A lifetime of disappointment drove him to forge Vermeers, one of which he sold to Hermann Goering in mockery of the Nazis. And it’s a story that’s been believed ever since. Too bad it isn't true.Jonathan Lopez has drawn on never-before-seen documents from dozens of archives for this long-overdue unvarnishing of Van Meegeren’s legend. Neither unappreciated artist nor antifascist hero, Van Meegeren emerges as an ingenious, dyed-in-the-wool crook. Lopez explores a network of illicit commerce that operated across Europe: Not only was Van Meegeren a key player in that high-stakes game in the 1920s and ’30s, landing fakes with famous collectors such as Andrew Mellon, but he and his associates later cashed in on the Nazi occupation.Nominated for an Edgar Award and made into a film starring Guy Pearce, The Last Vermeer is a revelatory biography of the world’s most famous forger—a talented Mr. Ripley armed with a paintbrush—and a deliciously detailed story of deceit in the art world.Includes photographs“His pioneering research on van Meegeren’s early life gives us further insight into what motivates deception, a subject that will never cease to fascinate as long as art is bought and sold.” —ARTNews“Brings hard light to van Meegeren’s machinations and (very bad) character.” —The New Yorker“Fascinating . . . Lopez’s writing is witty, crisp and vigorous, his research scrupulous and his pacing dynamic.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“A terrific read.” —Houston Chronicle“It’s hard to imagine improving on Lopez’s gem of a tale.” —Los Angeles TimesPreviously published as The Man Who Made VermeersTalking with Serial Killers: The World's Most Evil Killers Tell Their Stories (Talking with Serial Killers)
Par Christopher Berry-Dee. 2023
A deep dive into the murders and minds of John Wayne Gacy, Kenneth Bianchi, William Heirens, John Cannan, and Patricia…
Wright from the bestselling author.In Talking with Serial Killers: World’s Most Evil, bestselling author and criminologist Christopher Berry-Dee delves deeper into the gloomy underworld of killers and their crimes. He examines, with shocking detail and clarity, the lives and lies of people who have killed and shines a light on the motives behind their horrific crimes. Through interviews with the killers, the police, and key members of the prosecution, alongside careful analysis of the cases themselves, the reader is given unprecedented insight into the most diabolical minds that humanity has to offer. Extending from lonesome outsiders to upstanding members of the community, Talking with Serial Killers: World’s Most Evil shows that the world’s most monstrous killers may be far closer than you think.**Longlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize in Nonfiction (2023)** **An Amazon EDITOR'S PICK for BEST BOOKS OF 2023…
SO FAR in BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR and HISTORY** **An Amazon EDITOR'S PICK for BEST BOOKS OF THE MONTH (March 2023)** **A Bookshop.Org EDITOR'S PICK (March 2023)** &“This is the story of one of the boldest women in American history: self-made millionaire, a celebrity in her era, a woman beloved by her patients and despised by the men who wanted to control them.&” An industrious immigrant who built her business from the ground up, Madame Restell was a self-taught surgeon on the cutting edge of healthcare in pre-Gilded Age New York, and her bustling &“boarding house&” provided birth control, abortions, and medical assistance to thousands of women—rich and poor alike. As her practice expanded, her notoriety swelled, and Restell established her-self as a prime target for tabloids, threats, and lawsuits galore. But far from fading into the background, she defiantly flaunted her wealth, parading across the city in designer clothes, expensive jewelry, and bejeweled carriages, rubbing her success in the faces of the many politicians, publishers, fellow physicians, and religious figures determined to bring her down. Unfortunately for Madame Restell, her rise to the top of her field coincided with &“the greatest scam you&’ve never heard about&”—the campaign to curtail women&’s power by restricting their access to both healthcare and careers of their own. Powerful, secular men—threatened by women&’s burgeoning independence—were eager to declare abortion sinful, a position endorsed by newly-minted male MDs who longed to edge out their feminine competition and turn medicine into a standardized, male-only practice. By unraveling the misogynistic and misleading lies that put women&’s lives in jeopardy, Wright simultaneously restores Restell to her rightful place in history and obliterates the faulty reasoning underlying the very foundation of what has since been dubbed the &“pro-life&” movement. Thought-provoking, character-driven, boldly written, and feminist as hell, Madame Restell is required reading for anyone and everyone who believes that when it comes to women&’s rights, women&’s bodies, and women&’s history, women should have the last word.Geronimo (The Lamar Series in Western History)
Par Robert M. Utley. 2012
This &“meticulous and finely researched&” biography tracks the Apache raider&’s life from infamous renegade to permanent prisoner of war (Publishers…
Weekly). Notorious for his ferocity in battle and uncanny ability to elude capture, the Apache fighter Geronimo became a legend in his own time and remains an iconic figure of the nineteenth century American West. In Geronimo, renowned historian Robert M. Utley digs beneath the myths and rumors to produce an authentic and thoroughly researched portrait of the man whose unique talents and human shortcomings swept him into the fierce storms of history. Utley draws on an array of newly available sources, including firsthand accounts and military reports, as well as his geographical expertise and deep knowledge of the conflicts between whites and Native Americans. This highly accurate and vivid narrative unfolds through the alternating perspectives of whites and Apaches, arriving at a more nuanced understanding of Geronimo&’s character and motivation than ever before. What was it like to be an Apache fighter-in-training? Why was Geronimo feared by whites and Apaches alike? Why did he finally surrender after remaining free for so long? The answers to these and many other questions fill the pages of this authoritative volume.John Brown's Spy: The Adventurous Life and Tragic Confession of John E. Cook
Par Steven Lubet. 2012
A &“compulsively readable&” account of the fugitive who betrayed John Brown after the bloody abolitionist raid on Harper&’s Ferry (Booklist,…
starred review).John Brown&’s Spy tells the nearly unknown story of John E. Cook, the person John Brown trusted most with the details of his plans to capture the Harper&’s Ferry armory in 1859. Cook was a poet, a marksman, a boaster, a dandy, a fighter, and a womanizer—as well as a spy. In a life of only thirty years, he studied law in Connecticut, fought border ruffians in Kansas, served as an abolitionist mole in Virginia, took white hostages during the Harper&’s Ferry raid, and almost escaped to freedom. For ten days after the infamous raid, he was the most hunted man in America with a staggering one-thousand dollar bounty on his head.Tracking down the unexplored circumstances of John Cook&’s life and disastrous end, Steven Lubet is the first to uncover the full extent of Cook&’s contributions to Brown&’s scheme. Without Cook&’s participation, the author contends, Brown might never have been able to launch the insurrection that foreshadowed the Civil War. Had Cook remained true to the cause, history would have remembered him as a hero. Instead, when Cook was captured and brought to trial, he betrayed John Brown and named fellow abolitionists in a full confession that earned him a place in history&’s tragic pantheon of disgraced turncoats.&“Lubet is especially effective at capturing the courtroom drama . . . A crisply told tale fleshing out one of American history&’s more intriguing footnotes.&” —Kirkus Reviews&“Take[s] readers on a ride through the frantic days surrounding Brown&’s raid that will make them &‘feel&’ the moment as much as understand it.&” —Library Journal (starred review)Turncoat: Benedict Arnold and the Crisis of American Liberty
Par Stephen Brumwell. 2018
A historian examines how a once-ardent hero of the American Revolutionary cause became its most dishonored traitor. General Benedict Arnold&’s…
failed attempt to betray the fortress of West Point to the British in 1780 stands as one of the most infamous episodes in American history. In the light of a shining record of bravery and unquestioned commitment to the Revolution, Arnold&’s defection came as an appalling shock. Contemporaries believed he had been corrupted by greed; historians have theorized that he had come to resent the lack of recognition for his merits and sacrifices. In this provocative book Stephen Brumwell challenges such interpretations and draws on unexplored archives to reveal other crucial factors that illuminate Arnold&’s abandonment of the revolutionary cause he once championed. This work traces Arnold&’s journey from enthusiastic support of American independence to his spectacularly traitorous acts and narrow escape. Brumwell&’s research leads to an unexpected conclusion: Arnold&’s mystifying betrayal was driven by a staunch conviction that America&’s best interests would be served by halting the bloodshed and reuniting the fractured British Empire. &“Gripping… In a time when charges of treason and disloyalty intrude into our daily politics, Turncoat is essential reading.&”—R. R. B. Bernstein, City College of New York &“The most balanced and insightful assessment of Benedict Arnold to date. Utilizing fresh manuscript sources, Brumwell reasserts the crucial importance of human agency in history.&”—Edward G. Lengel, author of General George Washington &“An incisive study of the war and the very meaning of the American Revolution itself…. The defining portrait of Arnold for the twenty-first century.&”—Francis D. Cogliano, author of Revolutionary AmericaIndefensible: The Missing Truth about Steven Avery, Teresa Halbach, and Making a Murderer
Par Michael Griesbach. 2016
An insider exposes the shocking facts left out of the hit Netflix series Making a Murderer—proving that Avery was guilty…
of murder—in this true crime book.After serving eighteen years for a crime he didn't commit, Steven Avery was freed—and filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. But before the suit could be settled, Avery was arrested again—this time for the murder of Teresa Halbach. In that now-famous trial, he was convicted once more.When Making a Murderer became a runaway hit, prosecutor Michael Griesbach was targeted on social media—and plagued by doubt. Now he re-examines all the evidence, offering the most complete account of the case available. Griesbach reviews allegations of tampering and planted evidence, the confession by Avery's nephew, and statements by his former girlfriend. He also examines previously sealed documents deemed inadmissible at the trial—as well as a plausible alternate suspect.Through it all, Griesbach shows how the filmmakers' agenda, the accused man's dramatic backstory, and sensational media coverage have clouded the truth about Steven Avery.Includes sixteen pages of photosVictorian Convicts: 100 Criminal Lives
Par Helen Johnston, Barry Godfrey, David J. Cox. 2016
&“An interesting introduction to Victorian crimes, the people who committed them, and how effective rehabilitation may have been.&” —Ripperologist Magazine…
What was life like in the Victorian underworld—who were the criminals, what crimes did they commit, how did they come to a criminal career, and what happened to them after they were released from prison? Victorian Convicts, by telling the stories of a hundred criminal men and women, gives the reader an insight into their families and social background, the conditions in which they lived, their relationships and working lives, and their offences. They reveal how these individuals were treated by the justice and penal system of 150 years ago, and how they were regarded by the wider world around them. Such a rare and authentic insight into life in and out of prison will be fascinating reading for anyone who is interested in the history of crime and criminals, in legal and prison history and in British society in the nineteenth century. &“A fascinating, informative and educational read providing the history of these one hundred individuals who lived so long ago but who can teach us today the practices of the Victorian penal system and the struggles of the era.&” —Crime Traveller &“It is intriguing and very readable opening a window into lives of so many unfortunates. If you have an interest in police history this work, particularly details of numerous convictions and what followed after the court case was concluded, will be of interest.&” —Surrey Constabulary History Journal