A #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen's shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters determined to survive their mother's house of horrors.
After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle's talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.
For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother's dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.
Harrowing and heartrending, If You Tell is a survivor's story of absolute evil--and the freedom and justice that Nikki, Sami, and Tori risked their lives to fight for. Sisters forever, victims no more, they found a light in the darkness that made them the resilient women they are today--loving, loved, and moving on.
This book has been my effort to chronicle the existence of an international child sex trafficking network involved in the dissemination of the pederast ideal, the facilitation of political blackmail beneath it, and the production of sadomasochist child pornography, including snuff films, at its greatest depths. The tendrils of this network are met with throughout the chapters of this book, which cover a continuity of child 'serial killings' and 'political scandals' throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. This is not a pleasant book and I'm very glad to have finished it and moved on to other areas of research.
In the summer of 1969, in Los Angeles, a series of brutal, seemingly random murders captured headlines across America. A famous actress (and her unborn child), an heiress to a coffee fortune, a supermarket owner and his wife were among the seven victims. A thin trail of circumstances eventually tied the Tate-LeBianca murders to Charles Manson, a would-be pop singer of small talent living in the desert with his family of devoted young women and men. What was his hold over them? And what was the motivation behind such savagery? In the public imagination, over time, the case assumed the proportions of myth. The murders marked the end of the sixties and became an immediate symbol of the dark underside of that era.
Vincent Bugliosi was the prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, and this book is his enthralling account of how he built his case from what a defense attorney dismissed as only two fingerprints and Vince Bugliosi. The meticulous detective work with which the story begins, the prosecutor's view of a complex murder trial, the reconstruction of the philosophy Manson inculcated in his fervent followers...these elements make for a true crime classic. Helter Skelter is not merely a spellbinding murder case and courtroom drama but also, in the words of The New Republic, a social document of rare importance.
THE BASIS FOR THE MAJOR 6-PART HBO(R) DOCUMENTARY SERIES
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR:
Washington Post Maureen Corrigan, NPR Paste Seattle Times Entertainment Weekly Esquire Slate Buzzfeed Jezebel Philadelphia Inquirer Publishers Weekly Kirkus Reviews Library Journal Bustle
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Nonfiction Anthony Award Winner SCIBA Book Award Winner Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence
The haunting true story of the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California during the 70s and 80s, and of the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case--which was solved in April 2018.
Introduction by Gillian Flynn - Afterword by Patton Oswalt
A brilliant genre-buster.... Propulsive, can't-stop-now reading. --Stephen King
For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.
Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called the Golden State Killer. Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark--the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death--offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman's obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Utterly original and compelling, it has been hailed as a modern true crime classic--one which fulfilled Michelle's dream: helping unmask the Golden State Killer.
Ken Rex McElroy was an illiterate hog farmer who lived on the outskirts of a small town in Northwest Missouri. For over twenty years he raped, robbed and burned almost at will. Cops were scared to arrest him, prosecutors were scared to prosecute him, judges were scared to judge him, and juries were scared to convict him. Over the years, Skidmore and many other small communities became convinced that the law was incapable of protecting them from McElroy. They watched in awe as he walked away from one crime after another. Ken McElroy was shot to death on the main street of Skidmore in July 1981, in front of 45 witnesses. Despite three grand juries, no one has been indicted for the killing.
A true-crime masterpiece. --Don Winslow
A Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award Finalist (Best Fact Crime)
From the FBI's former assistant director, a shocking journey to the dark side of America's highways, revealing the FBI Highway Serial Killings Initiative's hunt for the long-haul truckers behind an astonishing 850 murders-and counting.
In 2004, the FBI was tipped off to a gruesome pattern of unsolved murders along American roadways. Today at least 850 homicides have been linked to a solitary breed of predators: long-haul truck drivers. They have been given names like the Truck Stop Killer, who rigged a traveling torture chamber in the rear of his truck and is suspected to have killed fifty women, and The Interstate Strangler, who once answered a phone call from his mother while killing one of his dozen victims. The crisis was such that the FBI opened a special unit, the Highway Serial Killings Initiative. In many cases, the victims--often at-risk women--are picked up at truck stops in one jurisdiction, sexually assaulted and murdered in another, and dumped along a highway in a third place. The transient nature of the offenders and multiple jurisdictions involved make these cases incredibly difficult to solve.
Based on his own on-the-ground research and drawing on his twenty-five-year career as an FBI special agent, Frank Figliuzzi investigates the most terrifying cases. He also rides in a big-rig with a long-haul trucker for thousands of miles, gaining an intimate understanding of the life and habits of drivers and their roadside culture. And he interviews the courageous trafficked victims of these crimes, and their inspiring efforts to now help others avoid similar fates.
Long Haul is a gripping exploration of a violent, disordered world hiding in plain sight, and the heroes racing to end the horror. It will forever unsettle how you travel on the road.
In this fascinating & profoundly chilling account, Detective Kim Mager, a real-life version of Clarice Starling, reveals how she closed in on--and broke--one of Ohio's most infamous serial killers.
On September 13, 2016, in the small town of Ashland, Ohio, emergency dispatchers received a 911 call from a terrified woman who claimed to be kidnapped. The man holding her hostage was Shawn Grate, a serial killer whom the press later dubbed The Ladykiller. A key to his conviction and death sentence were Grate's extensive recorded confessions--all extracted by one woman: Detective Kim Mager. As an experienced specialist in sex offenses, Detective Mager was one of the officers assigned to Grate's case upon his arrest. Grate immediately latched onto her, repeatedly demanding to speak to her and presumably convinced that he could somehow exercise his power over her in much the same way that he'd overpowered and controlled his female victims. He was wrong. Over a period of eight days, Mager conducted one interview after another, risking her life by sitting alone in the interview room with a malevolent predator. Using brilliant psychological strategy in a lethal game of wits, Mager successfully elicited his damning confessions to five murders, kidnapping, and multiple sexual assaults of women across Ohio. Deeply personal and shocking, A Hunger to Kill takes readers behind the scenes of one of the most appalling criminal cases in American history from the woman who stopped his murderous rampage in collaboration with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Pulitzer.Was the Chicago Strangler not enough for you? Did the Monster of Florence not send shivers up your spine? Or did you pay no heed to the warnings of the 300 Highway Killers out there on the wide-open roads?
No? Good. Because there are so many more serial killers out there who have yet to pay for their crimes.
Welcome back to Unsolved Serial Killers, the second volume with 10 more frightening cases of serial killers you've never heard of and the victims whose names have long been forgotten. Featuring 10 more of the most shocking and mysterious killers that are still out there. Prepare to take a journey from continent to continent as we unfold these wild unsolved crimes that will keep you turning the pages.
With detailed investigative reports and profiles of the killers who claimed the lives of helpless victims on the fringes of society, these crimes have gone unnoticed and mostly forgotten by the public and even the police. They have scarred the lives of the victims' families who wait patiently for a sense of justice that they may never achieve.
Discover history's most ruthless and vicious killers and the lives they led in Unsolved Serial Killers: Volume 2.
In 1971, while working the late-shift at a Seattle crisis clinic, true-crime writer Ann Rule struck up a friendship with a sensitive, charismatic young coworker: Ted Bundy. Three years later, eight young women disappeared in seven months, and Rule began tracking a brutal mass murderer. But she had no idea that the Ted the police were seeking was the same Ted who had become her close friend and confidant. As she put the evidence together, a terrifying picture emerged of the man she thought she knew--his magnetic power, his bleak compulsion, his double life, and, most of all, his string of helpless victims. Bundy eventually confessed to killing at least thirty-six women across the country.
Forty years after its initial publication, The Stranger Beside Me remains a gripping, intimate, and unforgettable true-crime classic, as dramatic and chilling as a bedroom window shattering at midnight (New York Times).
A #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen's shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters determined to survive their mother's house of horrors.
After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle's talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.
For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother's dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.
Harrowing and heartrending, If You Tell is a survivor's story of absolute evil--and the freedom and justice that Nikki, Sami, and Tori risked their lives to fight for. Sisters forever, victims no more, they found a light in the darkness that made them the resilient women they are today--loving, loved, and moving on.
Are you ready to enter the world of the darkest brand of art? Discover this entirely fresh take on coloring books and tackle anxiety and stress in an incredible new way with The Serial Killer Coloring Book II.
Have you ever wanted to know everything there is to know about serial killers?
Ever pondered the differences between psychopaths and sociopaths?
Want to know exactly why cannibals eat human flesh?
Want to read about the most downright bizarre serial killer motivations of all time?
What jobs attract the most serial killers? How many uncaptured murderers are walking our streets right this second? How do female killers differ from males? What deluded maniac killed people because he thought it would stop earthquakes? What movie franchise has inspired the most copycat murders?
The Ultimate Serial Killer Trivia Book answers all these questions and much, much more!
- Featuring obscure serial killer trivia you'll struggle to find anywhere else.
- Up-to-date information on active serial killers and ongoing murder cases.
- 11 distinct categories, from The Psychopathic Mind to Serial Killing Cannibals to Killers Inspired By Media
- Eerily fascinating trivia pieces regarding famous serial killers and obscure murderers you've never heard of.
- Succinct information on psychopaths, killer kids, occult serial killers, murderous doctors, cannibals, necrophiles and the world's strangest ever murders.
The public's obsession with serial killers and weird murders is growing by the day, with more TV shows, movies and books now detailing the crimes of these human monsters. There's no denying that we're all fascinated by serial murder - it's part of the human experience.
Whether you're fanatical about true crime or brand new to the genre, The Ultimate Serial Killer Trivia Book has something for everyone. Even the most hardened true crime buff will find some new information here!
Are you ready?