Lady Killers

Author: Tori Telfer
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062433741
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Book Description
In this entertaining compendium, the true crime historian and Jezebel columnist investigates female serial killers through the ages. When it comes to violent crime, women are typically thought of as the victims, not the perpetrators. The bias is so pervasive that in 1998, FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood declared, “There are no female serial killers.” But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, Kate Bender, and the other notorious women profiled here? In Lady Killers, Tori Telfer reveals the shocking true stories of fourteen women who—despite being largely forgotten by history—rival their male counterparts in cunning, cruelty, and appetite for destruction. Each chapter explores the crimes and history of a different serial killer, and then unpacks her legacy and portrayal in the media, as well as the stereotypes and sexist clichés that inevitably surround her. The first book to examine female serial killers through a feminist lens with a witty and dryly humorous tone, Lady Killers dismisses tired tropes (she was a femme fatale, a black widow, a witch) and delves into the complex reality of female aggression and predation. Featuring 14 illustrations from Dame Darcy, it is a bloodcurdling, insightful, and irresistible journey into the heart of darkness.

Female Serial Killers

Author: Peter Vronsky
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780425213902
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 508

Book Description
In this fascinating book, Peter Vronsky exposes and investigates the phenomenon of women who kill—and the political, economic, social and sexual implications buried with each victim. How many of us are even remotely prepared to imagine our mothers, daughters, sisters or grandmothers as fiendish killers? For centuries we have been conditioned to think of serial murderers and psychopathic predators as men—with women registering low on our paranoia radar. Perhaps that’s why so many trusting husbands, lovers, family friends, and children have fallen prey to “the female monster.” From history’s earliest recorded cases of homicidal females to Irma Grese, the Nazi Beast of Belsen, from Britain’s notorious child-slayer Myra Hindley to ‘Honeymoon Killer’ Martha Beck to the sensational cult of Aileen Wournos—the first female serial killer-as-celebrity—to cult killers, homicidal missionaries, and our pop-culture fascination with the sexy femme fatale, Vronsky not only challenges our ordinary standards of good and evil but also defies our basic accepted perceptions of gender role and identity. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

Confident Women

Author: Tori Telfer
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062956043
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Book Description
The true crime author of Lady Killers presents a roundup of history’s most notorious female con artists and their bold, outrageous scams. From Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Delvey to Frank Abagnale and Charles Ponzi, audacious scams and charismatic scammers continue to intrigue us. As Tori Telfer reveals in Confident Women, the art of the con has a long and venerable tradition, and its female practitioners are some of the best—or worst. In 18th century Paris, Jeanne de Saint-Rémy scammed the royal jewelers out of a priceless diamond necklace by pretending to be best friends with Queen Marie Antoinette. In 19th century Rochester, NY, Kate and Maggie Fox accidentally started a religious movement by pretending they could speak to spirits. In the 20th century, a woman named Margaret Lydia Burton embezzled money all over the country—and stole upwards of forty prized show dogs. A few decades later, a teenager named Roxie Ann Rice scammed the entire NFL. Confident Women investigates how these and other notorious women were able to so spectacularly dupe and swindle their victims . . .

America's First Female Serial Killer

Author: Mary Kay McBrayer
Publisher: Mango Media Inc.
ISBN: 1642502081
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 179

Book Description
This is Capote’s In Cold Blood for serial killer enthusiasts: meticulously researched, superbly written, and incredibly vivid. Don’t miss it.” —Gabino Iglesias, author of Coyote Songs America’s First Female Serial Killer novelizes the true story of first-generation Irish-American nurse Jane Toppan, born as Honora Kelley. Although all the facts are intact, books about her life and her crimes are all facts and no story. Jane Toppan was absolutely a monster, but she did not start out that way. When Jane was a young child, her father abandoned her and her sister to the Boston Female Asylum. From there, Jane was indentured to a wealthy family who changed her name, never adopted her, wrote her out of the will, and essentially taught her how to hate herself. Jilted at the altar, Jane became a nurse and took control of her life—and the lives of her victims. “A thoughtful and inspired take on one of the greatest poisoners in history. America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster seethes with rage, compulsion, and a righteous condemnation of the servitude of the underclass. A chilling and sobering read.” —Robert Levy, author of The Glittering World “McBrayer offers us a complex—and terrifying—portrait of a killer who seemed almost doomed from birth.” —Kate Winkler Dawson, author of American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI “Brings the horrifying true story of Jane Toppan to lurid, novelistic life, and forces the reader face-to-face with the thoughtlessness and cruelty that helped turn a gifted, damaged child into one of America’s most legendary killers.” —Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters

Ugly Prey

Author: Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1613736991
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Book Description
Ugly Prey tells the riveting story of poor Italian immigrant Sabella Nitti, the first woman ever sentenced to hang in Chicago, in 1923, for the alleged murder of her husband. Journalist Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi leads readers through the case, showing how, with no evidence and no witnesses, Nitti was the target of an obsessed deputy sheriff and the victim of a faulty legal system. She was also—to the men who convicted her and reporters fixated on her—ugly. For that unforgiveable crime, the media painted her as a hideous, dirty, and unpredictable immigrant, almost an animal. Featuring two other fascinating women—the ambitious and ruthless journalist who helped demonize Sabella through her reports and the brilliant, beautiful, 23-year-old lawyer who helped humanize her with a jailhouse makeover—Ugly Prey is not just a page-turning courtroom drama but also a thought-provoking look at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and class within the American justice system.

Dangerous Ground

Author: M. William Phelps
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
ISBN: 0786040858
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 435

Book Description
The bestselling author of Targeted shares the identity of the serial killer who co-starred with him on Dark Minds and the story of their intriguing bond. In September 2011, M. William Phelps made a decision that would change reality-based television—and his own life. He asked a convicted serial killer to act as a consultant for his TV series. Under the code name “Raven,” the murderer shared his insights into the minds of other killers and helped analyze their crimes. As the series became an international sensation, Raven became Phelps's unlikely confidante, ally—and friend. In this deeply personal account, Phelps traces his own family's dark history, and takes us into the heart and soul of a serial murderer. He also chronicles the complex relationship he developed with Raven. From questions about morality to Raven's thoughts on the still-unsolved, brutal murder of Phelps's sister-in-law, the author found himself grappling with an unwanted, unexpected, unsettling connection with a cold-blooded killer. Drawing on over seven thousand pages of letters, dozens of hours of recorded conversations, personal and Skype visits, and a friendship five years in the making, Phelps sheds new light on Raven's bloody history, including details of an unknown victim, the location of a still-buried body—and a jaw-dropping admission. All this makes for an unforgettable journey into the mind of a charming, manipulative psychopath that few would dare to know—and the determined journalist who did just that. Praise for New York Times bestselling author M. William Phelps “Anything by Phelps is an eye-opening experience.” —Suspense Magazine “Phelps is the king of true crime.” —Lynda Hirsch, Creators Syndicate columnist

In the Garden of Spite

Author: Camilla Bruce
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593102576
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Book Description
“Riveting! Camilla, high-five! Amazing work!”—Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, #1 New York Times bestselling authors of Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered An audacious novel of feminine rage about one of the most prolific female serial killers in American history--and the men who drove her to it. They whisper about her in Chicago. Men come to her with their hopes, their dreams--their fortunes. But no one sees them leave. No one sees them at all after they come to call on the Widow of La Porte. The good people of Indiana may have their suspicions, but if those fools knew what she'd given up, what was taken from her, how she'd suffered, surely they'd understand. Belle Gunness learned a long time ago that a woman has to make her own way in this world. That's all it is. A bloody means to an end. A glorious enterprise meant to raise her from the bleak, colorless drudgery of her childhood to the life she deserves. After all, vermin always survive.

Murder Most Rare

Author: Michael D. Kelleher
Publisher: Dell
ISBN: 9780440234739
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
Marie Besnard, the "Queen of Poisoners". Nanny Hazel Doss, killer of four husbands, three children, two sisters, and her mother--all to turn a profit. These are just two of the dozens of deadly and determined women who have been overlooked in the popular annals of serial crime--until now. More difficult to apprehend and motivated by more complex issues, female serial killers may be even more lethal and cunning than their male counterparts.

Printer's Error

Author: J. P. Romney
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062412337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
A funny and entertaining history of printed books as told through absurd moments in the lives of authors and printers, collected by television’s favorite rare-book expert from HISTORY’s hit series Pawn Stars. Since the Gutenberg Bible first went on sale in 1455, printing has been viewed as one of the highest achievements of human innovation. But the march of progress hasn’t been smooth; downright bizarre is more like it. Printer’s Error chronicles some of the strangest and most humorous episodes in the history of Western printing, and makes clear that we’ve succeeded despite ourselves. Rare-book expert Rebecca Romney and author J. P. Romney take us from monasteries and museums to auction houses and libraries to introduce curious episodes in the history of print that have had a profound impact on our world. Take, for example, the Gutenberg Bible. While the book is regarded as the first printed work in the Western world, Gutenberg’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on it. Today, Johannes Gutenberg is recognized as the father of Western printing. But for the first few hundred years after the invention of the printing press, no one knew who printed the first book. This long-standing mystery took researchers down a labyrinth of ancient archives and libraries, and unearthed surprising details, such as the fact that Gutenberg’s financier sued him, repossessed his printing equipment, and started his own printing business afterward. Eventually the first printed book was tracked to the library of Cardinal Mazarin in France, and Gutenberg’s forty-two-line Bible was finally credited to him, thus ensuring Gutenberg’s name would be remembered by middle-school students worldwide. Like the works of Sarah Vowell, John Hodgman, and Ken Jennings, Printer’s Error is a rollicking ride through the annals of time and the printed word.

America's Femme Fatale

Author: Jane Simon Ammeson
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 1684351618
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 207

Book Description
How does a Norwegian farm girl become an infamous American serial killer, responsible for upward of 40 murders? Born in rural Norway in 1859, "Belle" Storset Sorenson Gunness was constantly dealt bad hands in life—so she decided to take life into her own hands. In America's Femme Fatale: The Story of Serial Killer Belle Gunness, Jane Simon Ammeson traces Gunness's path from a poor teenager rejected by a wealthy lover; to a new wife in Chicago, desperate to escape the poverty of her childhood and impatient for a child to love; to an ambitious, widowed landowner in La Porte, Indiana. Ammeson's careful research reveals how the young immigrant slowly turned into one of America's most dangerous serial killers, allegedly murdering husbands, lovers, and children, and, for a price, disposing of inconvenient corpses for others. Ammeson brings this shocking story to life, detailing the suspicious neighbors who were cowed into silence by Belle's intimidating personality, the culture of orphanages trafficking children and matrimonial agencies, the carnival atmosphere that exploded around the pile of bones found on Gunness's farm, and the sensational reporting that filled newspapers for months. Perfect for true crime fans fascinated by the creation of a sociopathic serial killer, America's Femme Fatale will leave you entertained and looking over your shoulder.