Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Jon Krakauer · 399 pages

Jon Krakauer's literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they receive

The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion

Ed Sanders · 415 pages

"Ed Sanders gained access to every material witness to the Tate-LaBianca murders. He corresponded with Manson and visited the family many times in their quarters at the Spahn Ranch, and in Inyo County and Death Valley, their desert hideaways. He interviewed members of motorcycle gangs whose paths crossed that of Manson and his family. He covered the trial for the Los Angeles Free Press and develo

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry · 676 pages

Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? H

A Thousand Lives

Julia Scheeres · 321 pages

In 1954, a pastor named Jim Jones opened a church in Indianapolis called Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church. He was a charismatic preacher with idealistic beliefs, and he quickly filled his pews with an audience eager to hear his sermons on social justice. As Jones's behavior became erratic and his message more ominous, his followers leaned on each other to recapture the sense of equality that had

Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple

Deborah Layton · 309 pages

From Waco to Heaven's Gate, the past decade has seen its share of cult tragedies. But none has been quite so dramatic or compelling as the Jonestown massacre, in which the Reverend Jim Jones and 913 of his disciples of the Peoples Temple perished. In Seductive Poison, Deborah Layton writes about the Peoples Temple as it has never been written about before: with the keen hindsight and insider persp

Pilgrim's Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier

Tom Kizzia · 322 pages

Documents the story of Robert "Papa Pilgrim" Hale and the antiestablishment family settlement in remote Alaska that was exposed as a cult-like prison where Hale brutalized and isolated his wife and fifteen children.

Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints

Sam Brower · 323 pages

From the private investigator who cracked open the case that led to the arrest of Warren Jeffs, the maniacal prophet of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), comes the page-turning, horrifying story of how a rogue sect used sex, money, and power disguised under a fac Œade of religion to further criminal activities and a madman's vision.

Columbine

Dave Cullen · 417 pages

On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma-City style, and to leave "a lasting impression on the world." Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence-irrevocably branding every subsequent shooting "another Columbine." When we think of Columbine, we think of the Trench Coat

The Ultimate Evil : The Truth about the Cult Murders: Son of Sam and Beyond

Maury Terry · 526 pages

On August 10, 1977, the NYPD arrested David Berkowitz for the "Son of Sam" murders that had terrorized New York City for more than thirteen months. Berkowitz eagerly confessed to being a lone marauder—one who had carried out eight senseless shootings with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver. The case was officially closed. Journalist Maury Terry was suspicious of Berkowitz's confession. He has spent t

Remembering Satan: Recovered Memory and the Shattering of a Family

Lawrence Wright · 205 pages

Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw

Mark Bowden · 384 pages

Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw is a book by Mark Bowden that details the efforts by the governments of the United States and Colombia, their respective military and intelligence forces, and Los Pepes to stop illegal activities committed by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his subordinates. It relates how Escobar was killed and his cartel dismantled. Bowden originally

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed

Patricia Cornwell · 387 pages

"Between August and November 1888, at least seven women were murdered in London's Whitechapel area. The gruesome nature of their deaths caused panic and fear in the East End for months, and gave rise to the sobriquet that was to become shorthand for a serial killer - Jack the Ripper.". "For over a hundred years the murders have remained among the world's greatest unsolved crimes, and a wealth o

Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Mysterious Death of an Icon

Ian Halperin, Max Wallace · 256 pages

The Missing Cryptoqueen: The Billion Dollar Cryptocurrency Con and the Woman Who Got Away with It

Jamie Bartlett · 320 pages

The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking

Brendan I. Koerner · 327 pages

In an America torn apart by the Vietnam War and the demise of sixties idealism, airplane hijackings were astonishingly routine. Over a five-year period starting in 1968, the desperate and disillusioned seized commercial jets nearly once a week. Some hijackers wished to escape to foreign lands; others aimed to swap hostages for sacks of cash. The longest-distance hijacking in American history took

Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion

Janet Reitman · 464 pages

Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion, is based on confidential documents, more than 100 interviews with current and former Scientologists, and five years of research. This book confirms the astonishing truth within the controversial religion. Scientology conjures images of its celebrity believers, its notably aggressive response to criticism or its attacks on psychiat

Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three

Mara Leveritt · 432 pages

Based on a true story, this edition of Devil's Knot will tie-in to a major motion picture starring Academy Award winners Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth. This riveting portrait of a small Arkansas town recounts the all-too-true story of a brutal triple murder and the eighteen-year imprisonment of three innocent teenagers. For weeks in 1993, after the grisly murders of three eight-year-old boys,

All God's Children

Fox Butterfield · 389 pages

A startling examination of an American heritage of violence - a legacy from the pre-Revolutionary white rural South to today's urban America - that helps answer the question of how America became so violent. The tradition is reflected in the experiences of one black family, the Boskets, from the days of slavery to the present. This tragic family history culminates in the twentieth century with th

The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime

Miles Harvey · 405 pages

"The Island of Lost Maps is the story of a curious crime spree: the theft of scores of valuable centuries-old maps from some of the most prominent research libraries in the United States and Canada. The perpetrator was the Al Capone of cartography, a man with the unlikely name of Gilbert Bland, Jr., an enigmatic antiques dealer from south Florida whose cross-country slash-and-dash operation went v

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee

Casey Cep · 314 pages

The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge

T.J. English · 474 pages

The safest big city in America? That would be the question a certain generation of New Yorkers would ask someone who praises New York for it's safety and prosperity. A generation that has experienced living in this city at a time that could only be described as a nightmare.

The Monster of Florence

Douglas Preston, Mario Spezi · 345 pages

Marshal Guarnaccia feels out of his league when he is assigned to help track down a serial killer, especially when he assigned to work under Simonetti, a man so dedicated to achieving a conviction that he is blinded to the consequences.

Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family

John H. Davis · 544 pages

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

Peter Matthiessen · 646 pages

An investigative account of the fatal shootout between FBI agents and American Indians in 1975. On a hot June morning in 1975, a desperate shoot-out between FBI agents and Native Americans near Wounded Knee, South Dakota, left an Indian and two federal agents dead. Four members of the American Indian Movement were indicted on murder charges, and one, Leonard Peltier, was convicted and is now serv