Murder for Hire

Murder for Hire
Author: Jack Ballentine
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2009-06-09
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1429968850

Jack Ballentine became a Phoenix police officer in 1978 and quickly rose to the top as one of the world's most successful undercover operatives. His specialty: posing as an undercover hit man. None of the people who hired him had any inkling that he was actually a cop, and his work led to a perfect rate of twenty-four convictions out of twenty-four indictments on murder conspiracy charges. Murder for Hire is Ballentine's story. He worked with criminals of all sorts, from vengeful spouses and partners to the criminally insane, all who had one thing in common: the desire to have someone killed. Ballentine could change his character at the drop of a hat, often imitating characters and "bad guys" from television and movies. In assuming an alternate identity and developing a reputation among the Phoenix underground---bikers, strippers, junkies, and thugs---he developed an intricate network of sources who fed him work and kept him extremely busy. All the while, the author strove for the semblance of a normal life and balanced his rough-and-tumble career with a new wife and stepson. His story is a unique look at how law enforcement delves into the heart of the criminal world.

Murder for Hire

Murder for Hire
Author: Yvonne Park
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 9781481217453

Murder for Hire (My Brother's Story) - a true story involving a love triangle leading to a contract murder for hire as a 32 year old, (Ronald L. Fisher, known as "Big Ron"), young and full of life man just starting his life. "On that (fateful) morning he was riding his motorcycle, when, from behind him - he was shot and killed from a blast of a shotgun". The story tells from beginning to end how this investigation unfolds - little evidence to begin with, the many hours spent interrogating witnesses, the arrests, the trials, the appeals and the ups and downs the family had to endure trying to find closure - years and years before this ever happened.

Murder Ink

Murder Ink
Author: Betty Hechtman
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2021-01-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1448304725

Writer for Hire Veronica Blackstone is asked to write a celebration of life book for a former client's funeral, but was the death as straightforward as was reported? Veronica Blackstone is a writer for hire. Be it love letters, biographies, resumes or wedding vows, Veronica has you covered. Her latest assignment is writing a celebration of life book for the funeral of one-time client Rachel Ross who tragically died one year after her wedding. While researching Rachel's life, Veronica finds the information surrounding the circumstances of her death to be shrouded in mystery. No one quite knows what happened and her prominent family are more concerned with their image than the truth. Was Rachel's life as perfect as it seemed or was there something dark going on? Was her fall an accident, deliberate or something else? In celebrating the life of Rachel, Veronica is determined to get to the bottom of her death.

Hitmen for Hire

Hitmen for Hire
Author: Mark Shaw
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2017-07-10
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1868427129

Hitmen for Hire takes the reader on a journey like no other, navigating a world of paid hitmen, informers, rogue policemen, criminal taxi bosses, gang leaders, and crooked politicians and businessmen. Criminologist Mark Shaw examines a society in which contract killings have become commonplace, looking at who arranges hits, where to find a hitman, and even what it is like to operate as a hitman – or woman. Since 1994, South Africa has seen a worrying increase in the commercialisation of murder – and has been rocked by several high-profile contract killings. Drawing on his research of over a thousand incidents of hired assassinations, from 2000 to 2016, Shaw reveals how these murders are used to exert a mafia-type control over the country's legal and illegal economic activity. Contracted assassinations, and the organised criminal activity behind them, contain sinister linkages with the upperworld, most visibly in relation to disputes over tenders and access to government resources. State security actors increasingly mediate relations between the under and upper worlds, with serious implications for the long-term success of the post-apartheid democratic project.

A Plus One for Murder

A Plus One for Murder
Author: Laura Bradford
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021-12-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593334760

Entrepreneur Emma Westlake discovers that friendship can be murder in this exciting new mystery series from USA Today bestselling author Laura Bradford. Emma Westlake has always wanted to be her own boss. But after sinking all her cash into a business that went belly-up, Emma finds herself in a penniless pickle. Dottie Adler, Emma’s elderly teatime companion, suggests she try to get paid for doing something she’s really good at—being a friend. Emma thinks it’s a crazy idea until requests start pouring in. Big Max, an eccentric local, wants her to act as his wingwoman at the local senior center’s upcoming dance, nurse practitioner Stephanie needs a workout partner, and writer Brian Hill asks Emma to be his cheering section at an open mic night. Brian will be reading from his latest work and wants to know someone will clap for him when he’s done. He tells Emma that the room will be filled with people he’s invited—four of whom would like to kill him. Emma is confident he’s joking, but when Brian steps up to the mic and promptly drops dead, she’s not so sure anymore. As one of the last people to see him alive, Emma finds herself on a handsome cop’s radar. Now she’ll have to cozy up to a killer to save her skin and her brand-new career.

Hit Man

Hit Man
Author: Rex Feral
Publisher:
Total Pages: 130
Release: 1983
Genre: Criminal methods
ISBN: 9780873642767

Rex Feral kills for hire. Some consider him a criminal. Others think him a hero. In truth, he is a lethal weapon aimed at those he hunts. He is a last recourse in these times when laws are so twisted that justice goes unserved. He is a man who feels no twinge of guilt at doing his job. He is a professional killer. Learn how a pro gets assignments, creates a false identity, maizes a disposable silencer, leaves the scene without a trace, watches his mark unobserved and more. Feral reveals how to get in, do the job and get out without getting caught.

Disaster for Hire

Disaster for Hire
Author: Franklin W. Dixon
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Total Pages: 164
Release: 1989
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780671646868

Frank and Joe go to Seattle to help their father who is accused of murder.

Doctor Dealer

Doctor Dealer
Author: George Anastasia
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021-10-26
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0593197623

Dr. James Kauffman and his wife, April, were the perfect couple: a respected endocrinologist and a beautiful radio host. But under the surface lurked a world of drugs, sex, and biker gangs. A world Dr. Kauffman would kill to keep secret. In May 2012, April Kauffman, a well-known local radio personality and staunch advocate of military veterans rights, was found shot to death in the bedroom of the home she shared with her husband, Dr. James Kauffman. Six years later, in the fall of 2018, Freddy Augello, a leader of the notorious motorcycle gang the Pagans, went on trial for drug dealing and murder. He was charged with arranging the death of April Kauffman in exchange for $50,000 from her husband, who, in addition to practicing medicine, was one of the area’s most prolific drug traffickers. Told by two accomplished reporters and authors with exclusive insights and details provided by two principal players, this is the story about one man's descent into evil and the people he took with him. It's a story about a doctor who helped flood the streets with opioids, about a husband who hid dark secrets from his wives, and about a man so consumed with greed and arrogance that he thought he could get away with murder.

The Doctor, the Hitman, and the Motorcycle Gang

The Doctor, the Hitman, and the Motorcycle Gang
Author: Annie McCormick
Publisher: Camino Books
Total Pages: 15
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 9781680980295

"A prominent New Jersey doctor and members of a notorious outlaw motorcycle gang The Pagans transform the doctor's office into a drug ring pumping thousands of highly addictive opioid pain pills onto the streets in exchange for cash. Everything was going smoothly until one person discovered their plan: the doctor's wife. When she threatened to divorce him, the doctor's unholy alliance with his partners in crime turned deadly and the doctor hired a hitman to kill her. The Doctor, The Hitman and The Motorcycle Gang is the true story of the murder of April Kauffman, a beloved and vivacious local radio personality and veterans' advocate who was found shot to death in her suburban New Jersey home in May of 2012. In the months leading up to her death, she had uncovered a tangled web of deceit surrounding her husband. She feared he was trying to kill her and that he may harm her family. Nearly six years later, authorities charged her husband, Dr. James Kauffman, with her murder. Just this week, a jury convicted a former leader of the Pagans Motorcycle Club with helping to carry out the murder. McCormick includes never before seen or heard details from the investigation through her years of covering the case and she documents the relentless search for justice by April's family, friends, and her daughter"--

I Walked on My Own Grave

I Walked on My Own Grave
Author: Ramon Sosa
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2019-05-24
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0578217651

Ramon Sosa, a successful businessman and former pro-boxer, thought he had found the perfect woman. The devoted father of three, committed to rebuilding his life after his first divorce, met Maria De Lourdes Sosa (aka Lulu) while out dancing at a salsa club in Houston, Texas. She took his breath away. They began a whirlwind romance and married a year later. Shortly after the wedding Lulu, a once doting and loving wife began to change. She was now a U.S. citizen with her grandiose sights set on the American Dream for her and her children. Those plans no longer included Ramon. She wanted it all; the house, the business and the money and she would do everything in her power to get it, including having Ramon murdered. “I Walked On My Own Grave” tells the harrowing story of how Lulu, after trying to destroy Ramon’s life for months, plotted with two “hitmen” to have her husband killed. Her carefully orchestrated plan would have been successful, were it not for the quick thinking of a brave young man who Ramon had once mentored. Little did he know one day his protégé would return the favor by saving his life.