The Schoolgirl Strangler

The Schoolgirl Strangler
Author: Katherine Kovacic
Publisher: Echo
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2021-01-05
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1760686867

November, 1930. One sunny Saturday afternoon, 12-year-old Mena Griffiths was playing in the park when she was lured away by an unknown man. Hours later, her strangled body was found, mouth gagged and hands crossed over her chest, in an abandoned house. Only months later, another girl was murdered; the similarities between the cases undeniable. Crime in Melbourne had taken a shocking new turn: this was the work of a serial killer, a homicidal maniac. Despite their best efforts, police had no experience dealing with this kind of criminal. What followed was years of bungled investigations, falsely accused men - and the tragic deaths of two more girls - before the murderer was finally caught and brought to justice. With all the pace of a thriller, Katherine Kovacic recounts this extraordinary, chilling true story - of failed police enquiries, a killer with a Jekyll and Hyde personality, and the families shattered when four innocent lives were cruelly taken.

The Ken and Barbie Killers

The Ken and Barbie Killers
Author: Peter Vronsky
Publisher: RJ PARKER PUBLISHING, INC.
Total Pages: 161
Release:
Genre: True Crime
ISBN:

"WARNING- This book contains police and court transcripts of audio and descriptions of extremely graphic sexual violence contained in videotapes made by the perpetrators." Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka were so perfectly iconic as a newlywed couple that they were dubbed "Ken and Barbie". But their marriage had a dark side involving sex, death, and videotape. The 'perfect couple' first raped and murdered Karla's little sister and then kidnapped teenage schoolgirls whom they enslaved, raped, tortured and killed while gleefully recording themselves on video doing it. Vronsky will take you on the journey from the Scarborough Rapist (Bernardo) to Bordelais (Homolka's current last name) and her return to Canada in October, 2014 from the island of Gaudeloupe where she lived for several years with her husband and three children. WITH (21) PHOTOS

The Shifting Landscape

The Shifting Landscape
Author: Katherine Kovacic
Publisher: Echo
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2020-03-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1760686484

Art dealer Alex Clayton travels to Victoria's Western District to value the McMillan family's collection. At their historic sheep station, she finds an important and previously unknown colonial painting - and a family fraught with tension. There are arguments about the future of the property and its place in an ancient and highly significant indigenous landscape. When the family patriarch dies under mysterious circumstances and the painting is stolen, Alex decides to leave; then a toddler disappears and Alex's faithful dog Hogarth goes missing. With fears rising for the safety of both child and hound, Alex and her best friend John, who has been drawn into the mystery, join searchers scouring the countryside. But her attempts to unravel the McMillan family secrets have put Alex in danger, and she's not the only one. Will the killer claim another victim? Or will the landscape reveal its mysteries to Alex in time?

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Author: Holly Jackson
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2020-02-04
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1984896385

THE MUST-READ MULTIMILLION BESTSELLING MYSTERY SERIES—COMING SOON TO NETFLIX! • This is the story about an investigation turned obsession, full of twists and turns and with an ending you'll never expect. Everyone in Fairview knows the story. Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town. But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer? Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger. And don't miss the sequel, Good Girl, Bad Blood! "The perfect nail-biting mystery." —Natasha Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Cold North Killers

Cold North Killers
Author: Lee Mellor
Publisher: Dundurn
Total Pages: 475
Release: 2012-03-03
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1459701259

Canada is seen as a peaceful place, but this wake-up call shows us that there have been more than 60 serial killers in our history. Limited time offer. There are more than 60 serial murderers in Canadian history. For too long awareness of serial murder in Canada has been confined toWest Coastbutcher Clifford Olson and the "Schoolgirl Murderers" Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, along with the horrific acts of pig farmer Robert Pickton. Unlike our American neighbours, Canada has been viewed as a nation untouched by the shadow of multiple murder. Then came Colonel Russell Williams and his bizarre homicides and serial home invasions, which were sensational news worldwide on the Internet and television and in scores of newspapers and magazines. The reason for Canada’s serial killer blackout is clear: until now such information has never been compiled and presented in a single concise work. ColdNorth Killers is a wake-up call. This detailed and haunting account of Canada’s worst monsters analyzes their crimes, childhoods, and inevitable downfalls. It is an indispensablecompendium for any true crime lover, criminologist, or law-enforcement officer.

Christopher Wilder

Christopher Wilder
Author: Jack Rosewood
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2016-04-28
Genre:
ISBN: 9781533070302

Of all the many psychopaths and sociopaths that have hunted for human victims throughout history, few have been more disturbing or mysterious than Christopher Bernard Wilder - the beauty queen killer. From the middle of the 1960s until 1984, Wilder sexually assaulted countless women and murdered at least nine in Australia and the United States. The beauty queen killer was not only a true psychopath, but also a hunter as he carefully chose attractive girls and young women to victimize. But Wilder was no creepy looking killer; he was an attractive, articulate man who used a camera and offers of a modelling career to get his unsuspecting, naive victims to remote locations where he would then rape, torture, and ultimately kill them. Among serial killer biographies, Wilder's is a cautionary tale. First as a juvenile and later as a young man, Wilder was arrested on numerous occasions for sexual assaults in both Australia and United States; but he never served any time behind bars due to technicalities, witnesses refusing to testify, or the judges showing sympathy towards the beauty queen killer. When one considers some of the better known American crime stories from history, many red-flags are apparent that point towards the future criminal potential of an individual: for Wilder, the flags were bright, crimson, quite large, and difficult to avoid, yet were ignored by his friends, family, and the authorities. Christopher Wilder's saga is therefore not just a true crime murder story, but also an unfortunate example of how the system can fail to protect the public from a known sexual sadist. Open the pages of this intriguing book and read the story of an American serial killer who had it all: looks, money, and beautiful women. But as this captivating true crime story will reveal, nothing was ever enough for the beauty queen killer as he killed his way across the United States in order to satisfy his sadistic lust. Aspects of the Christopher Bernard Wilder story will disturb you, but at the same time you will find it difficult to put this serial killer biography down because you will be drawn in by the FBI's hunt to capture the elusive criminal."

Murder Down Under

Murder Down Under
Author: Anthony Ferguson
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2021-01-29
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 147664151X

Notorious, numerous and varied, serial murderers from Australia have an eclectic record of crimes, methods and trademarks. Scrutinizing these murderers at length, this book aims to identify characteristics exclusive to Australian serial killers, connecting the crimes with the continent's geography, culture and social structure. Featured are murderers like the "Granny Killer" John Wayne Glover, William "The Sydney Mutilator" McDonald and "Backpacker Killer" Ivan Milat. Also covered are well-known events like the Snowtown Murders and killer couples like David and Catherine Birnie. Unique in the true crime genre, this book studies fictional Australian murderer Mick Taylor to examine how pop culture portrayals develop the distinct psychology of killers from "down under."

Painting in the Shadows

Painting in the Shadows
Author: Katherine Kovacic
Publisher: Echo Publishing
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2019-03-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781760685775

Art dealer Alex Clayton and conservator John Porter are thrilled to be previewing the Melbourne International Museum of Art's (MIMA) newest exhibition, until they witness a museum worker collapse and badly damage a reportedly cursed painting. Belief in the curse is strengthened when MIMA's senior conservator Meredith Buchanan dies less than twenty-four hours later while repairing the work. But Alex and John are convinced there is a decidedly human element at work in the museum. The evidence sets them on the trail of a mysterious painting that could hold a key to Meredith's death, and the stakes are raised higher when Alex is offered her dream job at MIMA. Damaging the museum's reputation will jeopardise her professional future. The friends soon realise they are facing an adversary far more ruthless than they had anticipated, and there is much more at risk than Alex's career.

Heartsick

Heartsick
Author: Chelsea Cain
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2007-09-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429918535

Damaged Portland detective Archie Sheridan spent ten years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful serial killer, but in the end she was the one who caught him. Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for ten days, but instead of killing him, she mysteriously decided to let him go. She turned herself in, and now Gretchen has been locked away for the rest of her life, while Archie is in a prison of another kind---addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days off his mind. Archie's a different person, his estranged wife says, and he knows she's right. He continues to visit Gretchen in prison once a week, saying that only he can get her to confess as to the whereabouts of more of her victims, but even he knows the truth---he can't stay away. When another killer begins snatching teenage girls off the streets of Portland, Archie has to pull himself together enough to lead the new task force investigating the murders. A hungry young newspaper reporter, Susan Ward, begins profiling Archie and the investigation, which sparks a deadly game between Archie, Susan, the new killer, and even Gretchen. They need to catch a killer, and maybe somehow then Archie can free himself from Gretchen, once and for all. Either way, Heartsick makes for one of the most extraordinary suspense debuts in recent memory.

William Bonin: the True Story of the Freeway Killer

William Bonin: the True Story of the Freeway Killer
Author: Jack Rosewood
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2015-11-25
Genre:
ISBN: 9781519631190

In the 1970s and early '80s, southern California was shocked when dead boys began turning up with disturbing regularity alongside some of the picturesque state's most heavily traveled freeways. Victims of sadistic torture, the dead boys and young men had been raped and strangled, and their untimely deaths were eventually attributed to the Freeway Killer, an elusive psychopath whose trail of death would go down in California history as one of the worst true crime stories in the country. While the Freeway Killer ultimately turned out to be three different men, one of them was truck driver William Bonin, one of the most prolific and sadistic among American serial killers. Bonin usually preferred to work with an accomplice, and the lust killer and his cronies brutally raped and tortured his victims - Bonin loved the sounds of their screams - before strangling them and dumping them on the side of the road like garbage. Bonin confessed to committing 21 murders in the span of just a year, although many experts believe he was responsible for the deaths of many more missing young men. He was executed in 1996, and in this detailed serial killer biography, you'll learn the background that might offer some understanding of what makes a man go off the rails and become a deranged lust killer. Of course, spine-tingling story of a man whose youngest victim was a 12-year-old who was waiting for a bus to take him to Disneyland might be one that causes you to sleep with the lights on for weeks after turning the final gruesome page.