In a newspaper career spanning decades, Jimmy Breslin covered the stories that he knew mattered most: the human stories beyond the front page. From the JFK assassination, to the Son of Sam killings, mafia heists, the Crown Heights riots, and the Occupy movement, Breslin's influential columns captured the lifebeat of the second half of the 20th century. A quintessential New Yorker, Breslin rubbed shoulders with world leaders and neighborhood arsonists, profiled JFK's gravedigger, and elicited letters from the Son of Sam killer during his reign of terror, all recounted in columns that were personal, blunt, and the truth--at least Jimmy's version of it.

Jimmy Breslin: The Man Who Told the Truth is the first biography of the legendary writer, vividly portrayed by Richard Esposito, a former colleague of the Big Man. From Breslin's humble beginnings as a copy boy, to winning the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, the writer's life was as fascinating as any of his subjects. With the full cooperation of Breslin's family and interviews with countless of his former coworkers, friends, and enemies, Esposito has crafted a meticulous and revealing portrait of a complex man who bared his soul to the world in column inches.

In March 1993, sixteen-year-old Rayna Rison was abducted outside the La Porte, Indiana, veterinary hospital where she worked. A month later, her body was found submerged under tree limbs in a rural pond. Police targeted her brother-in-law, Ray McCarty, as the prime suspect. Although a grand jury indicted him for the murder in 1998, prosecutors later dropped the charges. Then in 2013, county officers arrested Jason Tibbs, Rayna's middle-school boyfriend, convicted him, and sentenced him to forty years in prison.

After a two-year investigation, drawing on dozens of interviews and more than a thousand pages of police files, author Hillel Levin completes the case against McCarty, following clues and leads that detectives overlooked. In the process, he reveals startling new information about the killer's murder weapon and accomplices, and uncovers the politics and misconduct that enabled the prosecutor to convict Jason Tibbs. Although cold cases are celebrated in popular culture, Jason's trial shows the perils they can pose for innocent defendants.

At the heart of Submerged is the tragic story of Rayna Rison, an exceptional young woman with a promising future whose family and justice system failed to keep her from harm. Ironically, the person now held accountable for her murder is the friend she most saw as her protector.

Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. was only fourteen when he first became entangled with serial rapist and murderer Dean Corll in 1971. Fellow Houston, Texas, teenager David Brooks had already been ensnared by the charming older man, bribed with cash to help lure boys to Corll's home. When Henley unwittingly entered the trap, Corll evidently sensed he'd be of more use as a second accomplice than another victim. He baited Henley with the same deal he'd given Brooks: $200 for each boy they could bring him.

Henley didn't understand the full extent of what he had signed up for at first. But once he started, Corll convinced him that he had crossed the line of no return and had to not only procure boys but help kill them and dispose of the bodies, as well. When Henley first took a life, he lost his moral base. He felt doomed. By the time he was seventeen, he'd helped with multiple murders and believed he'd be killed, too. But on August 8, 1973, he picked up a gun and shot Corll. When he turned himself in, Henley showed police where he and Brooks had buried Corll's victims in mass graves. Twenty-eight bodies were recovered--most of them boys from Henley's neighborhood--making this the worst case of serial murder in America at the time. The case reveals gross failures in the way cops handled parents' pleas to look for their missing sons and how law enforcement possibly protected a larger conspiracy.

The Serial Killer's Apprentice tells the story of Corll and his accomplices in its fullest form to date. It also explores the concept of mur-dar (the predator's instinct for exploitable kids), current neuroscience about adolescent brain vulnerabilities, the role of compartmentalization, the dynamic of a murder apprenticeship, and how tales like Henley's can aid with early intervention. Despite his youth and cooperation, Henley went to trial and received six life sentences. He's now sixty-five and has a sense of perspective about how adult predators can turn formerly good kids into criminals. Unexpectedly, he's willing to talk. This book is his warning and the story of the unspeakable evil and sorrow that befell Houston in the early 1970s.

Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. was only fourteen when he first became entangled with serial rapist and murderer Dean Corll in 1971. Fellow Houston, Texas, teenager David Brooks had already been ensnared by the charming older man, bribed with cash to help lure boys to Corll's home. When Henley unwittingly entered the trap, Corll evidently sensed he'd be of more use as a second accomplice than another victim. He baited Henley with the same deal he'd given Brooks: $200 for each boy they could bring him.

Henley didn't understand the full extent of what he had signed up for at first. But once he started, Corll convinced him that he had crossed the line of no return and had to not only procure boys but help kill them and dispose of the bodies, as well. When Henley first took a life, he lost his moral base. He felt doomed. By the time he was seventeen, he'd helped with multiple murders and believed he'd be killed, too. But on August 8, 1973, he picked up a gun and shot Corll. When he turned himself in, Henley showed police where he and Brooks had buried Corll's victims in mass graves. Twenty-eight bodies were recovered--most of them boys from Henley's neighborhood--making this the worst case of serial murder in America at the time. The case reveals gross failures in the way cops handled parents' pleas to look for their missing sons and how law enforcement possibly protected a larger conspiracy.

The Serial Killer's Apprentice tells the story of Corll and his accomplices in its fullest form to date. It also explores the concept of mur-dar (the predator's instinct for exploitable kids), current neuroscience about adolescent brain vulnerabilities, the role of compartmentalization, the dynamic of a murder apprenticeship, and how tales like Henley's can aid with early intervention. Despite his youth and cooperation, Henley went to trial and received six life sentences. He's now sixty-five and has a sense of perspective about how adult predators can turn formerly good kids into criminals. Unexpectedly, he's willing to talk. This book is his warning and the story of the unspeakable evil and sorrow that befell Houston in the early 1970s.

In 2018, police announced that they had finally arrested the Golden State Killer, a man responsible for over 140 burglaries, 50 rapes and at least 13 murders committed in California throughout the 1970s and '80s. That man turned out to be a former California police officer, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr.

Just two months earlier, the publication of I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara had rocked the world of true crime. Published two years after her death, the book charts McNamara's obsessive search for the prolific criminal who had been known over the years as the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker, and the Visalia Ransacker, among other epithets. McNamara is credited with coining the Golden State Killer moniker and heightening public awareness of the--at the time--still unsolved case.

William Thorp dives into the investigation, exploring the dark side of sunny California, the advances in forensic innovation that made solving this case possible, and the story inside the story--one of an amateur sleuth who dedicated the last years of her life to understanding how one of the country's worst criminals could have spent so many decades undetected.

50 States of Crime: France's leading true crime journalists investigate America's most notorious cases, one for every state in the Union, offering up fresh perspectives on famously storied crimes and reflecting, in the process, a dark national legacy that leads from coast to coast.

One hot summer, two young children disappeared from their first-floor apartment in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, New York. Their mother, Alice Crimmins, reported them missing to the police. Later that day, the body of four-year-old Missy was found in a vacant lot, showing signs of having been strangled. The body of five-year-old Eddie, Jr., was found several days later.

Police were immediately suspicious of the mother. Recently divorced, with teased red hair and heavy makeup, Alice Crimmins did not fit the maternal ideal held by the predominantly Catholic police detectives on the case. Her every action was scrutinized: Was she behaving like an appropriately grief-stricken mother or like a cold-hearted killer? After three years of police surveillance, Alice was charged with the murder of her children in 1968 in a highly publicized trial. Ultimately found guilty of manslaughter, Alice spent a decade in prison before being released on parole in 1977.

But was she truly guilty, or just the victim of police bias and misogynistic judgment? Journalist Anaïs Renevier revisits the case, exploring one of the most famous and divisive trials in recent American history.

50 States of Crime: France's leading true crime journalists investigate America's most notorious cases, one for every state in the Union, offering up fresh perspectives on famously storied crimes and reflecting, in the process, a dark national legacy that leads from coast to coast.

In July 2002, the Eastlake police discovered a decomposed body in a modest studio apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. It appeared to be a suicide by firearm. The man was Joseph Newton Chandler III, a retiree whom neighbors and former colleagues described as quiet, secretive, and strange. But as the investigation progressed, less and less about Joseph's life and identity made sense.

In 2018, thanks to scientific advances in DNA, the man's true identity was finally discovered: Robert Ivan Nichols. A veteran with a wife and three sons, Nichols eventually left his family, telling his wife One day you will know why. A few years later, in 1965, his family reported him missing. By 1978, he had stolen the identity of Joseph Newton Chandler III, who had been killed in a car accident at eight years old. But who was this man and why did he change his name? What secret was he trying to hide?

Thibault Raisse examines the case, exploring the many theories that have emerged, from the craziest to the most credible. Among these theories is a possible connection to the Zodiac Killer, whose murders date back to 1968 and 1969 in California.

50 States of Crime: France's leading true crime journalists investigate America's most notorious cases, one for every state in the Union, offering up fresh perspectives on famously storied crimes and reflecting, in the process, a dark national legacy that leads from coast to coast.

At the end of August 1955, the lifeless and disfigured body of a teenager was fished out of the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi. The body was that of Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old Black boy from Chicago who had come to spend the vacations with his mother's family. A few days earlier, he had been seen in conversation with Carolyn Bryant, a young white shopkeeper, to whom, according to some witnesses, he had made advances. Roy Bryant, her husband, and J.W. Milam, her brother-in-law, picked up Till in the middle of the night at his uncle's house. He was never seen alive again.

The two men were quickly arrested and brought to trial. A month later, a jury of twelve white men acquitted them after an hour-long deliberation. Seventy years later, the Till case has become a milestone in American civil rights history. But the criminal case is still not entirely solved as new elements continue to emerge. The Till case will weigh heavily on American history for many years to come.

50 States of Crime: France's leading true crime journalists investigate America's most notorious cases, one for every state in the Union, offering up fresh perspectives on famously storied crimes and reflecting, in the process, a dark national legacy that leads from coast to coast.

On May 1, 2001, Chandra Levy, a young intern working at the Federal Bureau of Prisons disappeared. At first, police were unconcerned about the alleged disappearance of an adult in the nation's busy capital. But Chandra had been having an affair with Democratic Representative from California Gary Condit. As this element of the case became known, journalists rushed to cover the story and the American public became outraged. The police investigation was riddled with errors and mistakes, as if someone might be trying to cover up the truth.

The disappearance of Chandra Levy had everything to raise the interest of the public: the exposure of the intimate lives of public people and a rich, young, white victim. The investigation gave way to a number of outlandish theories. Was the government involved? Was there a cover-up? What would that mean for American politics?

Hélène Coutard went to Washington and explored police reports, searching for the truth among many incoherencies and the intricacies of the investigation. This unlikely case has yet to reveal all of its secrets.

50 States of Crime: France's leading true crime journalists investigate America's most notorious cases, one for every state in the Union, offering up fresh perspectives on famously storied crimes and reflecting, in the process, a dark national legacy that leads from coast to coast.

This inaugural edition of what will be a yearly collection offers a fascinating variety of essays and crime reporting, taken from regional, national, and international publications. The stories range from reports of homicide at a Toronto massage parlor to blackmail and murder-for-hire in Austin, Texas to an unusual murder weapon in rural Minnesota. Other stories examine controversial rehabilitation techniques for sexual criminals and explore the phenomenon of victims' relatives appearing as guests at true crime conventions.

A must-read for anyone interested in true crime, The Best True Crime Stories of the Year 2025 takes the pulse of this increasingly popular genre.

This inaugural edition of what will be a yearly collection offers a fascinating variety of essays and crime reporting, taken from regional, national, and international publications. The stories range from reports of homicide at a Toronto massage parlor to blackmail and murder-for-hire in Austin, Texas to an unusual murder weapon in rural Minnesota. Other stories examine controversial rehabilitation techniques for sexual criminals and explore the phenomenon of victims' relatives appearing as guests at true crime conventions.

A must-read for anyone interested in true crime, The Best True Crime Stories of the Year 2025 takes the pulse of this increasingly popular genre.

Alex Murdaugh, who comes from a long line of lawyers and prosecutors, stands before a jury for the first time at the Colleton Courthouse. He is accused of having murdered both his wife Maggie and his son Paul on the evening of June 7, 2021.

This trial marks the end of a fascinating story that gripped the United States for months. An unusual case involving financial crimes, drug abuse, corruption, attempted suicide disguised as murder, and other mysterious deaths in 2015, 2018, and 2019.

But more than anything else, this story explores America's perception of itself: the notion of family, success, power, violence. . . . The tale of a declining dynasty in a declining country.
Arthur Cerf lived in Colleton County, South Carolina, for eight weeks to write about this high-profile trial, which he brilliantly recounts as one powerful family's fall from grace.

50 States of Crime: France's leading true crime journalists investigate America's most notorious cases, one for every state in the Union, offering up fresh perspectives on famously storied crimes and reflecting, in the process, a dark national legacy that leads from coast to coast.