The Suicide Bride by Tanya Bretherton

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

From the author of the acclaimed THE SUITCASE BABY - shortlisted for the Ned Kelly and Nib awards - comes the chilling story of a charlatan, a murder-suicide, and a family tree so twisted that it sprouts monsters. Whenever society produces a depraved criminal, we wonder: is it nature or is it nurture? W hen the charlatan Alicks Sly murdered his wife, Ellie, and killed himself with a cut-throat razor in a house in Sydney's Newtown in early 1904, he set off a chain of events that could answer that question. He also left behind mysteries that might never be solved. Sociologist Dr Tanya Bretherton traces the brutal story of Ellie, one of many suicide brides in turn-of-the-century Sydney; of her husband, Alicks, and his family; and their three orphaned sons, adrift in the world. From the author of the acclaimed THE SUITCASE BABY - shortlisted for the 2018 Ned Kelly Award, Danger Prize and Waverley Library 'Nib' Award - comes another riveting true-crime case from Australia's dark past. THE SUICIDE BRIDE is a masterful exploration of criminality, insanity, violence and bloody family ties in bleak, post-Victorian Sydney. ...Show more

History of Boggo Road Gaol (Jail) - Escape Volume 2 by Jack Sim

$34.95 AUD

Category: True Crime

A look into the history of the notorious Boggo Road.

WHO KILLED BETTY SHANKS by BLANCH

$24.95 AUD

Category: True Crime

Bowraville by Dan Box

$34.99 AUD

Category: True Crime | Reading Level: 2 Crime

A true crime story cannot often be believed, at least at the beginning. In Bowraville, all three of the victims were Aboriginal. All three were killed within five months, between 1990 and 1991. The same white man was linked to each, but nobody was convicted. More than two decades later, homicide detect ive Gary Jubelin contacted Dan Box, asking him to pursue this serial killing. At that time, few others in the justice system seemed to know – or care – about the murders in Bowraville. Dan spoke to the families of the victims, Colleen Walker-Craig, Evelyn Greenup and Clinton Speedy-Duroux, as well as the lawyers, police officers and even the suspect involved in what had happened. His investigation, as well as the families’ own determined campaigning, forced the authorities to reconsider the killings. This account asks painful questions about what ‘justice’ means and how it is delivered, as well as describing Dan’s own shifting, uncomfortable realisation that he was a reporter who crossed the line. Praise for the Bowraville podcast- 'It is a gripping true crime tale and an essay on racism; a challenge to the lies Australia tells itself about its treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people told through the voices of three Aboriginal families who have been indisputably let down ... The podcast has galvanised the public in a way that two decades of print and television reporting on the Bowraville murders have not.' The Guardian 'A masterful example of crime reporting which forensically details the worst of human nature, inexplicably compounded by the gross negligence of the only people who could provide justice. It's stirred thousands, including the prime suspect, to re-engage with the case after trusting the journalist to take them to dark places.' Walkley judges' comments 'Outstanding.' Leigh Sales 'Moving, brilliant.' Annabel Crabb 'If you haven't listened to Bowraville by Dan Box, then you should.' David Campbell ...Show more

Horse Tracks and Stirrup Irons - Death Comes to Ebenezer by Caroline Stevenson; Jack Sim (Editor-In-Chief)

$24.95 AUD

Category: True Crime | Series: Murder Trails Ser.

Mandatory Murder by Steven Schubert

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

A compelling true story of homicide and injustice in an outback town At first it looked like a swag, said the grader driver who found the body just off the road outside the outback town of Katherine. Police identify the dead man as Ray Nicefero, who'd recently appeared in court for aggravated assault a nd breaching a domestic violence order. Three days later, the constabulary rounds up three young local suspects: Christopher Malyschko, 24, Darren 'Spider' Halfpenny, 22, and 19-year-old Zak Grieve, who happens to be Indigenous. A month later, Bronwyn Buttery, Ray's former partner and Christopher's mother, is arrested. Eventually Darren Halfpenny agrees to testify against his co-accused. But when the accused face court in the rough justice system of the Northern Territory, it soon becomes apparent there are few certain, provable facts to be had. Depending on who's talking, a loving friend can become an abusive monster, a battered wife a conniving temptress. And a joke between mates about the best way to dispose of a body becomes a conspiracy to murder. The outcome of the case is no less murky, thanks to the NT's mandatory sentencing laws, which, the judge says himself, 'brings about injustice'. What is indisputable is that the only man that the judge believed to have not been at the scene of the crime receives the longest sentence. Mandatory Murder is the compelling true story of a murder in an outback town in 21st century Australia and the extraordinary aftermath. Author Steven Schubert was living in Katherine when the murder took place, and his account is rich with the kind of detail only an eye-witness can provide. The book raises important questions, including how a man who didn't attend a murder can go to jail for 20 years. ...Show more

The Central Park Five by Sarah Burns

$22.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

On April 20th, 1989, two passersby discovered the body of the "Central Park jogger" crumpled in a ravine. She'd been raped and severely beaten. Within days five black and Latino teenagers were apprehended, all five confessing to the crime. The staggering torrent of media coverage that ensued, coupled w ith fierce public outcry, exposed the deep-seated race and class divisions in New York City at the time. The minors were tried and convicted as adults despite no evidence linking them to the victim. Over a decade later, when DNA tests connected serial rapist Matias Reyes to the crime, the government, law enforcement, social institutions and media of New York were exposed as having undermined the individuals they were designed to protect. Here, Sarah Burns recounts this historic case for the first time since the young men's convictions were overturned, telling, at last, the full story of one of New York's most legendary crimes. The events surrounding the Central Park Five are soon to be dramatised in When They See Us - a Netflix series directed by Ava Duvernay. ...Show more

The Last Stone by Mark Bowden

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

The true story of a cold case, a compulsive liar, and five determined detectives, from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author and "master journalist" (The Wall Street Journal).   On March 29, 1975, sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyons, ages ten and twelve, vanished from a shopping mall in suburban Washington, DC As shock spread, then grief, a massive police effort found nothing. The investigation was shelved, and the mystery endured.   Then, in 2013, a cold case squad detective found something he and a generation of detectives had missed. It pointed them toward a man named Lloyd Welch, then serving time for child molestation in Delaware.   The acclaimed author of Black Hawk Down and Hue 1968 had been a cub reporter for a Baltimore newspaper at the time of the original disappearance, and covered the frantic first weeks of the story. In The Last Stone, he returns to write its ending. Over months of intense questioning and extensive investigation of Welch's sprawling, sinister Appalachian clan, five skilled detectives learned to sift truth from determined lies. How do you get a compulsive liar with every reason in the world to lie to tell the truth? The Last Stone recounts a masterpiece of criminal interrogation, and delivers a chilling and unprecedented look inside a disturbing criminal mind.   "One of our best writers of muscular nonfiction." --The Denver Post   "Deeply unsettling . . . Bowden displays his tenacity as a reporter in his meticulous documentation of the case. But in the story of an unimaginably horrific crime, it's the detectives' unwavering determination to bring Welch to justice that offers a glimmer of hope on a long, dark journey." --Time ...Show more

The Night Dragon by Matthew Condon

$32.95 AUD

Category: True Crime

. . . he is hard to frighten . . . he is very methodical . . . he does not like sunlight because he is very fair-skinned . . . he has the tattoo of St George and the Dragon . . .  - Witness statement given to the Crime Intelligence Unit, Brisbane, 1974. In 2017, Vincent O'Dempsey, along with his accomplice Garry Dubois, were sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murders of Barbara McCulkin and her two young daughters. It took over 40 years to bring them to justice. Feared for decades by criminals and police alike, Vincent O'Dempsey associated with convicted underworld figures behind major crimes such as the deadly Whiskey au Go Go nightclub firebombing and was also linked to a string of haunting cold cases. Award-winning investigative journalist Matthew Condon has interviewed dozens of ex-cons, police and witnesses to put together a compelling picture of the calculating killer who spent his life evading the law before he was finally brought to justice. The Night Dragon shines a light on a chilling chapter of Australia's criminal past and the devastating legacy left in its wake. ...Show more

The Snapshot Killer by Duncan McNab

$32.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

A chilling journey into the life and mind of charming and persuasive predator and serial killer Christopher Wilder, who murdered on two continents and evaded capture for over twenty years Christopher Wilder was about as bad as they get. A serial killer and predator, he first came to the attention of pol ice in Sydney when as a teenager in 1963 he was charged with rape. As a young adult he relocated to Florida, USA. Wilder plied his vile and deadly trade on two continents and did so undetected for more than twenty years. He was a chameleon and a predator with a modus operandi refined over the decades, luring young teenage girls with the promise of a career as a photographic model. His final flourish was a six-week spree of abduction, sexual assault and murder crisscrossing the USA and earning him the top spot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Wilder could have been stopped a few times in his evil career - but he wasn't. In addition to his many crimes in the US, he is now also a prime suspect for the infamous Wanda Beach murders - one of Australia's most notorious unsolved crimes. The Snapshot Killer explores how a monster was able to hide in plain sight and tells the tragic story of the many victims - at least twelve, but likely more - whose lives Wilder destroyed, with consequences that continue to resonate to this day. ...Show more

Death before Dishonour - The Crime that Broke Brisbane's Heart by Alicia Bennett; Jack Sim (Editor-In-Chief)

$24.95 AUD

Category: True Crime

Dirty John and Other True Stories of Outlaws and Outsiders by Christopher Goffard

$24.99 AUD

Category: True Crime

A collection of newspaper stories by award-winning Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Goffard--including "Dirty John," the basis for the hit podcast and the upcoming Bravo scripted series starring Connie Britton and Eric Bana.   Since its release in fall 2017, the "Dirty John" podcast--about a conman who terrorizes a Southern California family--has been downloaded more than 20 million times, and will soon premiere as a scripted drama on Bravo starring Connie Britton and Eric Bana. The story, which also ran as a print series in the Los Angeles Times, wasn't unfamiliar terrain to its writer, Christopher Goffard. Over two decades at newspapers from Florida to California, Goffard has reported probingly on the shadowy, unseen corners of society. This book gathers together for the first time "Dirty John" and the rest of his very best work.   "The $40 Lawyer" provides an inside account of a young public defender's rookie year in the legal trenches. "Framed" offers an unblinking chronicle of suburban mayhem (and is currently being developed by Netflix as a film starring Julia Roberts). A man wrongly imprisoned for rape, train-riding runaways in love, a Syrian mother forced to leave her children in order to save them, a boy who grows up to become a cop as a way of honoring his murdered sister, another boy who struggles with the knowledge that his father is on death row: these stories reveal the complexities of human nature, showing people at both their most courageous and their most flawed.   Goffard shared in the Los Angeles Times' Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2011 and has twice been a Pulitzer finalist for feature writing. This collection--a must-read for fans of both true-crime and first-rate narrative nonfiction--underscores his reputation as one of today's most original journalistic voices. ...Show more