A passion for True Crime meets gift book appeal, in a collection of lurid tales, survivor stories, notable quotes, and crime trivia to satisfy any true crime fan.
"Perfect for newcomers and hardened crime junkies alike, The True Crime File is an impulse gift book designed to deliver the mixed pleasures of true crime across more than 200 stories of mayhem, madness, and survival. Adapted from the perennially popular A Year of True Crime Page-A-Day® Calendar, here is a full celebration of the genre, more than 400 pages packed with tales of slashers and serial killers, grifters and con men, dogged investigators and miraculous survivors, and of course the story behind the immortal New York Post headline "Headless Body in Topless Bar," and so very much more. Compulsively readable, illustrated throughout, and animated with the frisson that comes with discovering there are real monsters under the bed, The True Crime File is a little book that delivers big to true crime fans of all stripes"-- excerpted from publisher blurb.
Table of Contents
Introduction xii
KILLERS
Charles Manson and His "Family": To Helter Skelter and Back
1 (8)
Dee Dee Blanchard: Munchausen to Murder
9 (11)
A Bombing in Birmingham
20 (1)
Ted Bundy: Escapee (and Serial Killer)
21 (18)
The Murder of Stanford White
39 (6)
Jeffrey Dahmer: The Milwaukee Cannibal
45 (25)
The Women of Juarez: Missing and Murdered
70 (1)
Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker
71 (6)
Belle Gunness: Mistress of Murder Farm
77 (5)
The Bitch of Buchenwald
82 (14)
Joseph DeAngelo: The Golden State Killer
96 (9)
Ed Kemper: Matricidal Monster
105 (5)
John List and the Annihilation of the List Family
110 (4)
Terri Hoffman: Conscious Development's Trail of Death
114 (6)
John Wayne Gacy: The Killer Clown
120 (4)
The Real Amityville Horror Murders
124 (5)
David Berkowitz: Son of Sam
129 (4)
Tillie Klimek: The Psychic Serial Killer
133 (8)
H. H. Holmes and the Murder Castle
141 (5)
Dean Corll: The Houston Candy Man
146 (7)
Michael and Suzan Bear Carson: The San Francisco Witch Killers
153 (9)
Gary Ridgway: The Green River Killer
162 (10)
Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield
172 (4)
Nannie Doss: The Giggling Granny
176 (8)
Pedro Alonso Lopez: The Monster of the Andes
184 (4)
John Hinckley Jr.: Gunning for the Gipper
188 (3)
The Bear Brook Murders
191 (3)
Betty Broderick: Love Triangle Turned Deadly
194 (6)
The Zodiac Killer
200 (10)
Roch Theriault: The Ant Hill Kids Cult
210 (9)
Alexander Pichushkin: The Chessboard Killer
219 (6)
The Poisonous Blanche Taylor Moore
225 (3)
The Murder of Tupac Shakur
228 (4)
The Murder of Lana Clarkson
232 (5)
Robert Chambers: The Preppy Murderer
237 (4)
The Real Hannibal Lector
241 (2)
The Murder of Kim Wall
243 (7)
The Drowning of Natalie Wood
250 (3)
Martin Bryant: The Port Arthur Massacre
253 (6)
Leopold and Loeb: The Ubermensch Murderers
259 (6)
The Sydney River McDonald's Murders
265 (4)
Albert DeSalvo: The Boston Strangler and the Green Man
269 (9)
Andreas Lubitz: Murder by Pilot
278 (11)
Charles Starkweather: Mick and Maybe Mallory
289 (14)
Stella Nickell: The Excedrin Murders
303 (5)
Daytime Drama: The Murder of Scott Amedure
308 (6)
Oscar Pistorius and the Murder of Reeva Steenkamp
314 (16)
Philip Markoff: The Craigslist Killer
330 (9)
Gordon Cummins: The Blackout Ripper
339 (1)
Edward Joseph Leonski: The Brownout Strangler
340 (1)
Who Killed Jon Benet?
341 (12)
Betty Lou Beets
353 (3)
Heavenly Creatures: The Parker-Hulme Murders
356 (20)
Adam Walsh and America's Most Wanted
376
SURVIVORS
Jaycee Lee Dugard
12 (20)
The Abductions of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee
32 (12)
Erica Pratt: Super Seven-Year-Old
44 (6)
Patty Hearst and the SLA
50 (24)
Mary Vincent Has Her Day in Court
74 (21)
Jackie Nink Pflug: Super Survivor
95 (9)
El Fusilado and the Firing Squad
104 (41)
Baby Bump-Off: An Attempted Womb Snatching
145 (30)
Kelly Herron: "Not Today, Motherfucker!"
175 (47)
Jennifer Morey and the False Sense of Security
222 (24)
Melissa Dohme: Happily Ever After
246 (27)
Elizabeth Shoaf and the Forest Bunker
273 (11)
Colleen Stan: The Girl in the Box
284 (13)
Corazon Amurao Atienza
297 (10)
Terry Jo Duperrault and the Sinking of Bluebelle
307 (10)
Escaping the Toy-Box Killer
317 (17)
Natascha Kampusch
334 (21)
Elizabeth Smart
355 (9)
The Slender Man Attack
364 (18)
The Vampire Attack
382
BIZARRE BRUTALITY
Kitty Genovese and the Bystander Effect
29 (51)
"Headless Body in Topless Bar"
80 (9)
Forced Sterilization
89 (43)
The Black Dahlia Murder
132 (20)
The Astronaut Love Triangle
152 (41)
Senior Center: The Note Before the Blaze
193 (23)
The Mysterious Death of Keith Warren
216 (32)
Truly Crazy Love
248 (7)
More Than a Punch Line: The Lorena Bobbitt Story
255 (9)
A True Halloween Monster
264 (18)
Fourteen Feet in the Salish Sea
282 (16)
The Greyhound Bus Murder
298 (23)
The Tattoo Confession
321 (24)
The Man at the ATM
345 (18)
Wrestling with Murder
363 (9)
The Soap Maker of Correggio
372 (1)
The Bennington Triangle
373
CON ARTISTS
Dead Man Walking... and Walking
65 (62)
Mummy Issues: The Case of the Persian Princess
127 (56)
The Lost Carnegie
183 (92)
Anna Delvey: The Ersatz Heiress
275 (16)
Linda Taylor: The "Welfare Queen"
291 (67)
The Rockefeller Ringer
358
THIEVES
The Great Feather Heist
28 (26)
Waddling Off with Dirk the Penguin
54 (39)
The Bank Robber and the Bail Law
93 (26)
Spumoni Gardens and the Secret Sauce
119 (17)
Danger Dad: The Israeli Motorcycle Bandit
136 (34)
Rusik, the Caviar-Sniffing Cat
170 (9)
Mr. Rogers's Car
179 (35)
The Veggie Holdup
214 (21)
The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist
235 (1)
Food Fight: Culinary Crooks
236 (76)
Operation Broken Glass
312 (25)
The Theft of the Mona Lisa
337
ANTICS & ACCIDENTS
Escape from Alcatraz
43 (21)
The Pill-Toting Pigeon
64 (36)
Gender Reveal Gone Wrong: The Sawmill Fire
100 (13)
Assault with a Deadly Gator
113 (74)
Knit, Purl, Spy
187 (43)
The Watcher House
230 (12)
The Mad Gasser of Mattoon
242 (10)
The Flight Attendant Freakout
252 (16)
The Hermit of North Pond
268 (32)
The Hollow Nickel Case
300 (6)
A Deadly Kiss
306 (9)
Ming of Harlem
315 (53)
The Bizarre Body Snatching of Gram Parsons
368 (3)
"The Unrepentant Necrophile"
371 (8)
The Morris Worm
379 (1)
The Dognapping of Kid Boots Ace
380
CRIME THROUGH TIME
The Resurrection of Anne Greene
36 (19)
The Lindbergh Baby: A Questionable Kidnapping
55 (21)
The Murder of Emmett Till
76 (7)
Chappaquiddick: Kennedy, Kopechne, and a Car Crash
83 (18)
Jolly Jane and the Death Rattle
101 (16)
The Stonewall Uprising
117 (20)
Johnny Gosch, Milk Cartons, and the Amber Alert
137 (13)
The Murder of Dominique Dunne
150 (8)
Clark County John Doe
158 (8)
The Corpsewood Manor Murders
166 (14)
The Murder of Marvin Gaye
180 (18)
Whiskey and Cannibalism
198 (1)
The Cooper Do-nuts Uprising
199 (25)
The LaLaurie Mansion
224 (15)
Firsts: Isabella Goodwin, NYPD Detective
239 (47)
The Suspicious Death of Marsha P. Johnson
286 (16)
The Chicago Tylenol Murders
302 (20)
The Osage Indian Murders
322 (4)
The Bloody Benders
326 (5)
The Lana Turner Affair
331 (23)
Crime and Punishment: The Demise of Captain Cook
354 (12)
Body Snatching
366
FORENSIC FACTS
DNA Profiling
17 (43)
GINA and the Devious Defecator
60 (27)
Body Farms
87 (21)
A Purr-fect Match
108 (49)
Familial DNA and Genetic Genealogy
157 (2)
The DNA Doe Project
159 (6)
What Body Part Helps Identify More Than 93 Percent of Remains?
165 (38)
Forensic Fingerprinting
203 (117)
Tattoo Analysis
320 (26)
How Scientific Is Forensic Science?
346 (4)
By the Numbers: DNA Exonerations in the US
350 (1)
The CSI Effect
351
LEGAL CONCEPTS
Pro Se Representation
26 (37)
The "Mr. Big" Technique
63 (29)
Bail
92 (117)
Sunshine Laws
209 (20)
Operation Flagship
229 (59)
The Wandering Cop
288 (22)
Banning the Panic Defense
310 (26)
Women Believe Women
336 (16)
Community Supervision
352 (8)
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
360 (21)
McGruff the Crime Dog
381
QUICK FACTS
The Psychopath Test
8 (41)
Most Crimes Are Not Reported (And Many That Are Will Not Be Solved)
49 (13)
True Crime Terms: Drug Lingo
62 (19)
Unbelievable but True Crime Headlines
81 (5)
Crime on Wheels
86 (8)
By the Numbers: Incarceration
94 (46)
Gladys Ricart and the Brides' March
140 (100)
Sex in the City: Public Parks
240 (36)
Courtroom Couture: How to Dress to Impress
276 (7)
Famous Footwear
283 (12)
By the Numbers: Prison Labor
295 (88)
Crime Rates Have Fallen-But People Don't Think They Have
383
RECS
True Crime by the Book
37 (38)
Ripped from the Headlines
75 (28)
Survivors on Screen
103 (15)
Thrilling Reads
118 (26)
Look But Don't Touch: Murder Museums
144 (17)
Portraying Darkness: Serial Killer Movies
161 (84)
Death on Screen: Fact and Fictionalized
245 (26)
True Crime Memoirs
271 (30)
Drug-Fueled Documentaries
301 (32)
Forensic Forays
333 (26)
True Crime Classics
359
QUIZZES
Behind the Headlines
31 (38)
Killer Mistakes
69 (22)
Does the Sentence Match the Crime?
91 (108)
Forensic Databases
199
Where Did They Hide?
128 (21)
Don't Follow the (Cult) Leader
149 (22)
Serial Killer Trophies
171 (28)
Crimes Around the World
199 (16)
Celebrities in the Slammer
215 (79)
Criminal Crooners
294
Till Death Do Us Part
249 (10)
In Their Defense
259 (32)
Dead-End Jobs
291 (8)
Latin Crime Terms
299 (14)
Sports Edition
313 (16)
Killers, Come on Down!
329 (15)
Holiday Horrors
344 (13)
Political Instincts
357
Photo Credits 334 (1)
Acknowledgments 335 (61)
Author Bio