True Thrills
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By Sarah Weinman
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The chilling true story behind what inspired Nabokov’s classic Lolita – the abduction of 11-year-old Sally Horner. Drawing on investigations, public records, and interviews, Weinman uncovers how much Nabokov knew of the case. Weinman dives deep and restores Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel’s creation.
By David Grann
976.60049 Gran, Q 976.60049 Gran, CD 976.60049 Gran, Play 976.60049 Gran
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In the 1920s the Osage Indian nation had some of the richest people per capita due to the oil found beneath their land. But then, one by one, they were killed off. As the death toll climbed, the FBI took up the case. It was one of their first major homicide investigations and they badly bungled the case. In desperation, Director Hoover sent former Texas Ranger Tom White to unravel one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
By Erik Larson
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Read this shockingly true tale of two men present at the United States World Fair in Chicago, 1893. One was the fair’s director architect Daniel Burham and the other was a murderer, Henry Holmes. Burnham overcomes obstacles to transform the park into The White City, and Holmes uses the attraction to lure young women to their deaths.
By Ron Stallworth
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Now an Oscar-winning movie, you can read the true events in Stallworth’s own words here. Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in Colorado Springs, answers a Ku Klux Klan advertisement and quickly becomes more embroiled than he could have ever thought. He goes undercover using his partner Chuck and exposes the white supremacists in all walks of life.
By John Barr & Dan Murphy
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For decades, physician Larry Nassar built a reputation as a doctor for America’s Olympians while exploiting and sexually assaulting hundreds of young girls under the guise of medical treatment. Read as his crimes are exposed and the organization elect to protect their reputation over the well-being of young people.
By Kate Winkler Dawson
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Known as the “American Sherlock Holmes”, Edward Oscar Heinrich was one of America’s greatest – and first – forensic scientists. His work, although not without flaws, changed the course of criminal investigation and solved at least two thousand cases during his career.
By Deborah Blum
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In early twentieth-century New York, poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. However, chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler would change the poison game forever with their trailblazing scientific detective work. You can also enjoy the movie for streaming on Hoopla with your library card.
By Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
364.1523 Marz, Q 364.1523 Marz
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Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich was staunchly against the death penalty until she nears convicted murdered Ricky Langley speak of his crimes. As she delves into the case and her own feelings, she finds herself thrust into the narrative of Ricky’s childhood. In turn, she is forced to face her own story and long-buried family secrets.
By Monica Hesse
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The arsons started in November and didn’t stop for months. The people of Accomack County regard each other first with compassion, and then suspicion. Monica Hesse spent years investigating the story, and she eventually tells the tale of the couple arsonists and also a community decimated first by the punishing economy and then by crime and suspicion.
By Karen Abbott
OverDrive: eBook
Dive into this stranger-than-fiction story of a rags-to-riches bootlegger, a corrupt justice department, and the female prosecutor determined to get a man behind bars.
By John Carreyou
338.76817 Carr, Q 338.76817 Carr, CD 338.76817 Carr
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Here you’ll find one of the biggest cases of corporate fraud since Enron. Theranos was founded in 2014 by Elizabeth Holmes who was seen as the new Steve Jobs. The company was valued at nearly $10 billion dollars before the truth came to light: the technology it was selling didn’t work.
By Hallie Rubenhold
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These five women – Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane – are all famous for the way they died: at the hands of Jack the Ripper. For more than a century it was widely believed that these women were all prostitutes. Historian Rubenhold reveals that this is untrue, and that their first great misfortune was to be born women.
By Maureen Callahan
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Israel Keyes is not as well known a name as Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer, but he is nonetheless one of the most ambitious and terrifying serial killers in modern history. Keyes buried “kill kits” across the country and over the course of fourteen years would drive thousands of miles to use them and then return home to his quiet life with his daughter. Callahan reveals this chilling tale and how the FBI ultimately brought him to justice.
By Patrick Radden Keefe
364.1523 Keef, Q 364.1523 Keef
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In December 1972, Jean McConville was dragged from her home in front of her children and never seen alive again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious in the episodes of vicious conflicts known as The Troubles. Keefe’s mesmerizing book takes you deep into the Northern Island Conflict and its bloody aftermath.
By Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr
hoopla: eAudiobook
Jane Whaley, a fiery southern preacher, expanded her following to thousands since she began in 1979. In the eyes of her followers, she is a prophet and to disobey her can mean dire punishment. To obey her means she controls every aspect of your life. Broken Faith tells the harrowing story of on family who escaped and their winding journey back to the light.
By Michelle McNamara
364.1532 McNa, Q 364.1532 McNa, CD 364.1532 McNa, PLAY 364.1532 McNa
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The Golden State Killer committed his spree of violent sexual assaults for ten years before appearing to fall off the face of the earth. Three decades later, McNamara worked tirelessly to try and uncover his identity until her untimely death before this book’s publication. A modern true crime classic; cold case work after its publication unmasked the Joseph DeAngelo and placed him behind bars for his crimes.
By John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker
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While not the tale of a true crime, this book is just as chilling. Douglas takes you behind the scenes of his twenty-five-year career at the FBI where he used psychological profiling to delve into the minds of the country’s most notorious serial killers and criminals. Now a Netflix original series.