New True Crime Books July 2009

Slave Girl

Author: Sarah Forsyth
Country: United Kingdom
Format: Softcover
Publisher: John Blake
ISBN: 9781844546855
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 256

Sarah Forsyth has spent most of her life in fear. Born in Newcastle in 1976, from the age of three, the very people who were meant to be looking after and protecting her were sexually abusing her. Somehow overcoming the hurt and heartbreak of this horrific childhood, Sarah managed to build a new and happy life for herself as a nursery nurse. Then, one day, Sarah spotted a newspaper advert for a job in a creche in Amsterdam. Thrilled by the prospect of a fresh start away from Newcastle and all the memories it held, she eagerly signed up. But within minutes of stepping off the plan in Amsterdam her life began to fall apart. There was no creche and no job: Sarah was a victim of sex-trafficking. That night, at just twenty-one years of age, her life,her real life, her life as Sarah Forsyth ended. Fed cocaine and cannabis, and forced at gunpoint to work as a prostitute in the Red Light District of Amsterdam, Sarah was turned from a young innocent English girl into a desperate and terrified crack whore. Riddled with fear about what her pimps would do to her if they caught her trying to run away, it took Sarah almost a year to find the strength to fight back and escape. But, unlike many of the girls that she was forced to live and work beside, she did get away. Sarah Forsyth is a survivor. This is her heart-rending story.
(amazon link)
Slave Girl


When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back

Author: Stephen Singular
Country: United States of America
Format: Softcover
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 9780312564995
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 320
Illustrations: 8 page b/w photographs

In When Men Become Gods, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Singular casts a light on a dark corner of religious extremism. He reveals a group of fundamentalists operating in the present-day United States, where teenage girls are kept in virtual bondage in the name of upholding the sacred principle of polygamy.
As the leader and self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, a sect of Mormonism based in isolated southern Utah, Warren Jeffs held sway over thousands of followers for nearly a decade. His rule was utterly tyrannical. In addition to coercing young girls into polygamous marriages with older men, Jeffs reputedly took scores of wives, many of whom were his father's widows. Television, radio, and newspapers were shunned, creating a hidden community where polygamy was prized above all else.
But in 2007, after a two-year manhunt that landed him on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, Jeffs's reign was forcefully ended. He was convicted of rape as an accomplice for his role in arranging a marriage between a fourteen-year-old girl and her nineteen-year-old first cousin. (Book Stolen Innocence-review on this blog in July)
In When Men Become Gods, Edgar Award nominee Stephen Singular traces Jeffs's rise to power and the concerted effort that led to his downfall. It was a movement championed by law enforcement, private investigators, the Feds, and perhaps most vocal of all, a group of former polygamous wives seeking to liberate young women from the arranged marriages they'd once endured. The book offers new revelations into a nearly impenetrable enclave,a place of nineteenth-century attire, inbreeding, and eerie seclusion,providing readers with a rare glimpse into a tradition that's almost a century old, but that has only now been exposed
(amazon link)
When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back


Beyond Bars: Rejoining Society After Prison

Author: Jeffrey Ian Ross; Stephen C. C. Richards
Country: United States of America
Format: Softcover
Publisher: Alpha Books
ISBN: 9781592578511
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 240

Can the common criminal get a fresh start?
An essential resource for former convicts and their families post-incarceration.
The United States has the largest prison population in the world, currently at 7 million adult and juvenile men and women. Because they spend enough time in prison to disrupt their connections to their families and their communities, they are not prepared for the difficult and often life-threatening process of reentry. As a result, the percentage of these people who return to a life of crime and additional prison time escalates each year. Beyond Bars is the most current, practical, and comprehensive guide for ex-convicts and their families about managing a successful reentry into the community and includes:
A-Tips on how to prepare for release while still in Prison
A-Ways to deal with family members, especially spouses and children
A-Finding a job
A-Money issues such as budgets, bank accounts, taxes, and debt
A-Avoiding drugs and other illicit activities
A-Free resources to rely on for support
(amazon link)




NYPD Confidential: Power and Corruption in the Country's Greatest Police Force

Author: Leonard Levitt
Country: United States of America
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN: 9780312380328
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 320

For years, the police commissioner and the mayor of New York City have duked it out for publicity, credit, and power. Some have translated their stardom into success after leaving office, while others have been hung out to dry. In the battle for control of the country's most powerful police force, these high-status government officials have often chosen political expediency over public honesty. The result is a legacy of systemic corruption and cover-ups that is nothing less than shocking.

Respected journalist Leonard Levitt has covered the NYPD for New York Newsday, and the New York Post among other papers. His columns have made him persona non grata in police headquarters. In NYPD Confidential, he reveals everything he's discovered throughout his decades-long career. With amazing details of backroom deals and larger-than-life powerbrokers, Levitt lays bare the backstabbing, power-grabs, and chaotic internal investigations that have run the NYPD's reputation into the ground in the past,ad the forces conspiring to do so once again.
(amazon link)
NYPD Confidential: Power and Corruption in the Country's Greatest Police Force


Upon This Chessboard of Nights and Days: Voices from Texas Death Row

Editor: et al; Dana Allen
Country: United States of America
Format: Softcover
Publisher: Texas Review Press
ISBN: 9781933896366
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 200

In this unique book, prisoners on Texas Death Row share their feelings, hopes, fears, and memories with the reader through a series of nonfiction pieces and original art. This book was edited by members of Dr. Paul Ruffin's Fall 2008 graduate editing and publishing practicum at Sam Houston State University - Dana Allen, Paula Khalaf, James Ridgway, Haley Stoner, Daniel Stryker, and Cami Whitehead - and by Texas Review Press intern Regina Bouley.
(amazon link)
Upon this Chessboard of Nights and Days: Voices from Texas Death Row


Human Trafficking

Author: Kathryn Cullen-DuPont; Kathryn Cullen-DuPont
Country: United States of America
Format: Hardcover
Contributor: Jessica Neuwirth; Taina Bien-Aime
Publisher: Facts on File
ISBN: 9780816075454
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 360
Illustrations: maps & charts, index, bibliography, glossary, chronology, tables
Readership: Age: 14 - UP

Despite the fact that the United Nations officially abolished slavery and the slave trade almost 60 years ago, millions of human beings live in slavery today. Human trafficking - the official term for modern-day slavery - consists of buying and selling people with the intent of exploiting them through forced labor or sexual acts. Human Trafficking provides a thorough and much-needed examination of this controversial and timely topic. It describes the suffering caused by human trafficking as well as the financial, cultural, and other conditions that make trafficking within national borders and between far-flung 'origin' and 'destination' countries possible. The efforts of the United Nations, national governments, and non-governmental organizations to combat human trafficking are thoroughly discussed, as are efforts to provide direct aid to the individual victims of human trafficking. This new title examines how human trafficking is conducted in the United States, the Netherlands, Nigeria, India, and Belize. Each case study analyzes the patterns of trade and types of exploitation, the reasons countries have failed to halt human trafficking, and the steps taken by governments and organizations to reduce trafficking.
(amazon link)
Human Trafficking (Global Issues)


Hate Crime: Impact, Causes and Responses

Author: Jon Garland; Neil Chakraborti
Country: United States of America
Format: Softcover
Publisher: Sage Publications (CA)
ISBN: 9781412945684
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 200

This engaging and thought-provoking text provides an accessible introduction to the subject of hate crime. In a world where issues of hatred and prejudice are creating complex challenges for society and for governments, this book provides an articulate and insightful overview of how such issues relate to crime and criminal justice. It offers comprehensive coverage, including topics such as: racist hate crime; religiously motivated hate crime; homophobic crime; gender and violence; and, disablist hate crime. The book considers the challenges involved in policing hate crime, as well as exploring the role of the media. Legislative developments are discussed throughout. Chapter summaries, case studies, a glossary and advice on further reading all help to equip the reader with a clear understanding of this nuanced and controversial subject. Hate Crime is essential reading for students and academics in criminology and criminal justice.
(amazon link)
Hate Crime: Impact, Causes and Responses


The Rise of the Mafia: The Definitive Story of Organised Crime

Author: Martin Short
Country: United Kingdom
Format: Softcover
Publisher: John Blake Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 9781844547791
Publication date: July 2009
Illustrations: Illustrations

Murder, violence and corruption are words synonymous with organised crime. Its long and bloody history influences all our lives whether we know it or not. But what lies behind these shadowy organisations? Where did they come from and how did their influence become so widespread? In this extraordinary book, leading crime investigator Martin Short reveals the shocking truth of how the Mafia and other criminal organisations maintain their strength through public demand, as well as extortion and murder. The Rise of the Mafia traces the roots of modern organised crime. Martin Short has met hundreds of people with first-hand knowledge and has interviewed some of the most powerful mob masters and informers in the business as well as speaking with key police and FBI officers.
(amazon link)
The Rise of the Mafia: The Definitive Story of Organised Crime


Cruel Death by M.William Phelps

Author: M. William Phelps
Country: United States of America
Format: Mass market paperback
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
ISBN: 9780786019328
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 400
Illustrations: Illustrated

Erika Sifrit was once a high school basketball star and an honours student. Then she married Navy SEAL Benjamin Sifrit. Some say Erika was abused by 'B.J.' Some say she pulled his strings. But by the time they reached Ocean City, MD, Erika was packing a gun in her Coach bag and was caught the grips of a new American death ride. In the sun-kissed, sea-swept resort town, a loving couple crossed paths with Erika and B.J. Sifrit. Shortly thereafter, Erika was wearing a bloody wedding ring on her necklace, while what remained of two dismembered holiday makers was buried in a Delaware landfill, and a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde story was being written - a lurid tale of madness, money, sex and murder.
(amazon link)
Cruel Death



Deadly Angel by Fred Rosen

Author:Fred Rosen
Country: United States of America
Format: Mass market paperback
Publisher: Harper
ISBN: 9780061733987
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 240

An astonishing true story of bizarre love and lethal obsession in America's last frontier. Mechele Hughes came to Wasilla, Alaska, looking for a new life and easy money. As an exotic dancer at the Great Alaskan Bush Company in nearby Anchorage, she was soon earning thousands a night,and getting expensive gifts from admiring male clients. Three in particular fell under her spell. Each claimed to be engaged to her,and they all lived with her together in the same house. But in May 1996, the bullet-ridden body of Kent T.T. Leppink, a local fisherman and one of her fiances, was discovered in a wooded area ninety miles away,possibly slain by suitor number two, John Carlin III, at the stripper's urging.
Ten years would elapse before the arrests and trials of Mechele Hughes Linehan and John Carlin III. Was the real Mechele a murderess, a ruthless sexual manipulator as the prosecution claimed, killing for insurance money,or the loving wife and mother she had since become, dedicated to children, animals, and charitable causes?
(Amazon link to buy or see reviews on this book)
Deadly Angel: The Bizarre True Story of Alaska's Killer Stripper


Cannibals: True Stories of the Horrifying Killers Who Feast on Human Flesh

Author: Jimmy Lee Shreeve
Country: United Kingdom
Format: Softcover
Publisher: John Blake Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 9781844547784
Publication date: July 2009
Illustrations: Illustrations

Included in this gruesome book is the shocking case from 1991 of Armin Meiwes, a German man who advertised on a website for 'young, well-built men aged 18-30 to slaughter'. Amazingly, he got a taker: one Bernd-Jurgen Brandes. Meiwes told investigators that he took Brandes back to his home, where his new friend agreed to have his penis cut off and flambeed for the pair of them. Meiwes said he then killed Brandes with his consent and went on to eat 44 pounds of his flesh. This book covers many such grotesque and stomach-churning cases of contemporary cannibalsim, revealing outwardly normal people who have murdered and eaten their own kind. It reveals a terrifying truth...cannibals aren't the stuff of legend, found in far-flung islands; they inhabit our cities and suburbs.
(Amazon link to buy or see reviews on this book)
Cannibals: True Stories of the Horrifying Killers Who Feast on Human Flesh


Operation Kronstadt: The True Story of Honor, Espionage, and the Rescue of Britain's Greatest Spythe Man with a Hundred Faces

Author: Harry Ferguson
Country: United States of America
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Overlook Press
ISBN: 9781590202296
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 368

Part Blackhawk Down, part The Riddle of the Sands, former MI6 officer Harry Ferguson has written an extraordinarily gripping non-fiction thriller.Operation Kronstadt not only reveals the early days of intelligence services but also uncovers a truly dramatic story from the Russian Revolution involving a daring rescue attempt and a mission impossible against the best defended naval target in Russia. By May 1919, when the power struggle between former Tsarists and Bolsheviks hangs in the balance, the only British agent in Russia is trapped and in mortal danger. Mansfield Cumming (alias the first C ) dreams up an audacious-probably suicidal-plan to rescue him, and a young naval officer is sent with a specially selected team into the jaws of the Soviet fleet. This is the remarkable true story of the spy Paul Dukes (the only MI6 officer to be knighted for work in the field) and Gus Agar, whose extraordinary escapade won him the Victoria Cross.
(Amazon link to buy or see reviews on this book)
Operation Kronstadt: The True Story of Honor, Espionage, and the Rescue of Britain's Greatest SpyThe Man with a Hundred Faces


True Crime: Maryland: The State's Most Notorious Criminal Cases

Author: Ed Okonowicz
Country: United States of America
Format: Softcover
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 9780811736039
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 144

From its settlement in 1634 to its important proximity to the nation's capital in the present, Maryland has served as a crossroads of America, influencing critical events, not the least of which have been numerous crimes. This book begins with a general survey of lawbreaking in the state and then focuses on its landmark cases, including the terrifying killing spree of the Beltway Snipers, the mysterious Lover's Lane Murders, the attempted assassination of George Wallace, the still-unsolved disappearance of murderer Bradford Bishop, and the tragic saga of cop killer Terrence Johnson.
(Amazon link to buy or see reviews on this book)
True Crime: Maryland: The State's Most Notorious Criminal Cases


True Crime: Massachusetts: The State's Most Notorious Criminal Cases

Author: Eric Ethier
Country: United States of America
Format: Softcover
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 9780811735636
Publication date: July 2009
Pages: 128

The harsh discipline of Puritan life bred the hard-bitten and hard-working people of Massachusetts, but did it also breed a unique type of criminal? This book explores the headline crimes of the state to find an answer. Included are the cases of the alleged axe-wielding Lizzie Borden, the executed anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, the legendary Brink's robbery, the mysterious Boston Strangler, the Big Dan's spectator rape, the desperate college professor who murdered a young prostitute, and the fur salesman who slaughtered his wife and unborn child in cold blood.
(Amazon link to buy or see reviews on this book)
True Crime: Massachusetts: the State's Most Notorious Criminal Cases