http://www.laybooks.com/ Lay Books Recently Added True Crime Book Titles en-gb Copyright www.laybooks.com - 2010 http://www.laybooks.com/img/rss_logo.gif http://www.laybooks.com/ http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12810 Hardback. An emergency call shattered the predawn tranquility of rural Washington, North Carolina. Bonnie Von Stein's call to the police on the morning of July 25, 1988 set off a horrifying chain of events that splintered a family and devastated a community. For police would arrive to find Bonnie barely alive and her husband, Lieth, dead, both having been attacked in their sleep by an intruder with a knife and a baseball bat. Bonnie's teenage daughter, asleep down the hall, was unharmed and her son was away at college in Raleigh. Although the Von Stein's were wealthy by local standards, police quickly ruled out burglary as a motive and focused on the family - in particular, on Bonnie's son, Chris Pritchard, and his circle of friends at North Calonina State University. They were a motley trio of boys bound together by an unholy alliance of drugs, fast cars, easy sex, and an obsession with the role-playing game of Dungeons and Dragons. Chris was pampered and directionless, his friend Neal Henderson was a certified genius, and James "Bart" Upchurch, a descendant of North Carolina's legendary "cornbread aristocracy" would do anything for kicks. Three consciuenceless boys drawn together in a malevolent synergy that exploded in deadly violence. Illus. 451pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. in nr. f. dw. A fairly heavy book which may require additional postage. Dutton 7 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12809 Hardback. The story of a chilling murder and the two extraordinary trials that followed it. It begins with the incredibly savage murder of a young married woman in a peaceful Connecticut village, and with the painstaking investigation that seems gradually to point to the guilt of her insane and hostile mother-in-law - an investigation that includes a series of interrogations by the Chief of Detectives of the State Police, Sam Rome, a dedcated but controversial policeman with a burning sense of justice. Then we see the full apparatus of the State turned against a blundering and bewildered young man who has brought suspicion on himself by his own actions. Subjected to lengthy interrogations and lie detector tests by other police officers, Harry Solberg, 20, recently married, is arraigned for murder. His trial is to be, in effect, the test of Sam Rome's judgement. 536pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in vg+ dw. A fairly heavy book which may require additional postage. Cassell 8 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12808 Hardback. Who killed William Desmond Taylor? In 1922 he was a top director at Paramount - responsible for the huge success of the films of one of the great stars of the day, Mary Miles Minter, who was madly in love with him (she was 20, he was 50). But he loved Mabel Normand, a star at the Goldwyn studio, a drug addict who asked his help in fighting her addiction. His murder was a sensation in its day and has remained an unsolved mystery. The author uncovered, and reveals for the first time what probably happened. A book which brings back almost forgotten aspects of the early days of movie-making - the post-World War I drug culture and the boomtown atmosphere, with its mixture of naivete and quasi-sophisticated decadence that so strongly coloured the Hollywood of silent films. Profusely Illus., Appendix, Bibliog. and Index. 275pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With signs of small label removal to fpd o/w Vg+ in vg. pcdw. Knopf 7 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12807 Hardback. The author recreates the lost life of her childhood friend, Lee Snavely, a beautiful and talented young woman who wound up a drug addict, a prostitute and the victim of a serial killer. They grew up together in a small town in Ohio in the 1960s. One young woman became a literature professor at Vassar; the other spiralled downward into a life of poverty and petty crime that led inexorably to a violent death. Years later, in order to understand her friend's fate, the author retraces Lee's steps and must confront taboos in her own family and in her hometown. A chronicle of the life of Lee Snavely and Gary Taylor, the man who murdered her. 261pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in lightly sunned nr. f. dw. Hyperion 7 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12806 Hardback. When the police in Oklahoma arrested her husband, Jimmy on a charge of first degree murder, Jeannie Taylor was certain they had the wrong man. Not only had she and Jimmy been together for 17yrs. but they had 3 children. However, one's past is never far behind, nor can history ever be erased. Deputies from Oregon had his fingerprints, found atop Dead Indian Mountain near Glenn True Clark's dead body. A new police computer had targeted the fugitive. It mattered not that the crime was 21yrs. old. Within days, Jimmy's life is shattered as he is whisked away to stand trial for murder. The chief witness against him will be the girl whose life he swears he saved. He faces a jury who must decide who is telling the truth. What happened on that strange, dark night so many years before, when a pretty hitchhiker was almost raped and killed - and a man died - is told in this thriller about good and evil, truth and falsehood, guilt and innocence. 289pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. New Horizon Press 8 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12805 Softcover. In the middle 1800s what became known as the Whitman Massacre shocked the settlers on the Oregon frontier. Much has been written about the massacre and about the life of Marcus Whitman, but little has been written about the trial of the alleged murderers. That trial occurred at Oregon City in the last week of May 1850. This is an account of the trial and is told by a fictional narrator who revisits the scene to relive the event. The facts narrated are authenticated by a careful research of history. The trial was the Oregon frontier's first attempt to formalise and record judicial proceedings concerning an event of deep and abiding significance to the people of that time. It was a trial that today provides an insight into the difficult beginnings of formal law, the opening struggles of a new judiciary, and the confrontation of civilizations in a place of wilderness. Illus., Appendices, Notes and Sources + Index. 140pp. softcover. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=10897 Hardback. The story of the events of June 17, 1933 in Kansas City, Missouri, when 3 men wielding machine guns (Adam Ritchetti, Vern Miller and Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd) made a murderous attampt to rescue Frank "Jelly" Nash, convicted murderer and prison escapee, from his FBI guards. It left Nash dead + 2 Kansas City law officials and an Oklahoma sheriff. In addition, 2 unarmed agents of the FBI lay on the ground, one mortally wounded, the other writhing in pain with 2 machine-gun bullets lodged at the base of his spine. Never before had Federal agents been so wantonly gunned down in the course of their duties. The murders focused public attention on the gangsterism and lawlessness that seemed to be taking over the country and set in motion the FBI's nationwide war on crime. Illus. 205pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. in vg. pcdw which is sl. sunned and has a faded sp. which has extended onto fr. cover. Bobbs-Merrill. 15 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=1863 Hardback. The sensational story of Hollywood's most scandalou murder - covered up for 60-yrs. and solved at last by the great film director King Vidor. While the author was researching material for his official biography of the famous 20s film director, King Vidor, he came across memo's, diary entries, transcripts of interviews and private letters revealing a unique story of detection, namely the unsolved Hollywood murder of the then famous film director William Taylor. Kirkpatrick put aside the biography, and reconstructed Vidor's investigation. Illus., Notes + Index. 230pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in sl. sunned nr. f. dw. Hutchinson 7 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=5544 Paperback. A riveting account of a small town murder; a terrifying tale of a seemingly ordinary family whose lives and illusions about each other were shattered one hot summer night - July 25, 1988. Newly wealthy Lieth Von Stein was brutally murdered as he lay in bed beside his wife Bonnie. She had also been stabbed and beaten, and apparently left for dead. McGinnis was drawn personally into the centre of this mysterious story. At Bonnie Von Stein's request, he set out on a search for the truth, only to discover a reality that threatened to eclipse even the worst of her fears. With a mother's unqestioning love, Bonnie staunchly defended her 20yr. old son, as suspicion mounted that this North Carolina State college student had arranged the murder in order to inherit his stepfather's wealth. The investigators soon found themselves in an eerie netherworld as new and mystifying leads suggested that the crime could have been a real-life enactment of a strange and sinister Dungeons and Dragons adventure. 488pp. mass market p/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. with no crease mks. Pocket Star 3 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12804 Hardback. Young, blond, handsome Dr. Swango seemed a godsend wherever he was hired to practice medicine. But acclaim would turn to disbelief, dismay, then horror, as the evidence mounted that he could actually be murdering his patients. Then, Dr. Michael Swango would leave that hospital - only to be rehired at another. The FBI believes that Swango may be the most prolific serial killer in American history. With prodigious investigative reporting, the author's account moves from the hospital rooms of the prestigious Ohio State University Hospitals to Illinois, South Dakota, New York and finally to a remote missionary hospital in Zimbabwe. The author brings to riveting life the story of a psychopathic physician and those who protected, trusted, pursued and, in some cases, loved him. Illus., Notes on Sources + Index. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. Simon & Schuster 8 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12803 Hardback. For 7yrs. he committed hideously brutal but wonderfully "perfect" murder. Even in the era of forensic high technology, "The Riverside Prostitute Killer" was careful not to leave evidence that could pinpoint him, and every murder was laid out as a ghastly work of "art". The killer revelled in how he could stump the police and laughed as he seemingly fed them pieces of one victim in his championship chilli. As the body count climbed to more than two dozen, the police resolved to catch the killer regardless of the cost. Unlawful arrests, illegal interrogations, planted evidence - the police did what they had to do to catch the monster in their midst. The author resolved to get at the truth of the case of serial killer Bill Suff, and to publish everything that had been kept meticulously secret and "off the record" before now. But to get at the truth, Lane had to enter the lion's den, and play cat and mouse with the devil himself. Illus. with extremely graphic and explicit material and photographs, which necessitated a warning being printed on the front of the dw. 460pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. A fairly heavy book which may require additional postage. Dove Books 12 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12802 Hardback. An important work of stunning reportage, filled with revelations, high drama, and disturbing "might-have-beens," it is the story of 3 men who, as friends and opponents, made up the distinctive strands of that long-ago time and whose paths tragically converged 10yrs. after the decade was done. Allard Lowenstein, a dean at Stanford as the Sixties began, widely acclaimed for his pivotal role in "Dump Johnson," closed the decade as a congressman who still believed one could work effectively through the system. Along the way, he introduced literally thousands of young men to the politics of social change. Dennis Sweeney was one of those young men: a Lowenstein protoge at Stanford, a heroic figure in the Mississippi civil rights struggle - where he broke with his former mmentor - and a founder, with author David Harris, of the draft resistance against the Vietnam War. By the end of the decade, he was descending into madness, crushed by his inability to find again the high purposes of the past. David Harris was both a onetime protege of Lowenstein's and a friend and compatriot of Sweeney's. He had entered Stanford as an all-American boy from Fresno, became the school's most notorious student body president, and ended the Sixties incarcerated in a federal prison for violation of the Selective Service Act. On March 14, 1980, when both his former friends were fading outlines in Harris's memory and the Sixties were rapidly becoming a cliche, Dennis Sweeney walked into Lowenstein's law office and shot his former mentor to death. This murder provoked Harris to look back across that long dusty plain to the Sixties, to try to remember who they had all been and how it had come to such an end. With Sources. 341pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. St Martin's Marek 8 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12801 Hardback. On a June evening in 1906, Harry K. Thaw, mad from childhood and the playboy heir to $40million, pumped 3 bullets into the face of Stanford White. White was America's foremost architect and a man of extraordinary artistic and sexual energy. Cause of this scandalous murder: Evelyn Nesbit, a stunning artist's model and show girl who had been White's mistress before becoming Thaw's wife. Through the lives and times of these 3 captivating figures, the author recreates the world of emerging 20th century America: the Gilded Age, when the nation was building magnificent monuments to its new wealth and Stanford White was its chosen arbiter of taste. It was White the architect who, with his associates McKim and Mead, created some of the most glorious mansions and churches and pleasure gardens; and it was White the artist who designed or decorated everything from magazine covers and opera openings to Pullman cars and graveyards. He was also a man of prodigious sexual appetites. A frequent backer of Broadway shows, Stanford White entertained show girls in his Manhattan studio, where they soared through the air on a red velvet swing, and where White seduced Evelyn. She was 17. Illus., Sources + Index. 320pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. William Morrow 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12800 Hardback. Featuring one of the most sensational murder trials of the 20th century; plus an extremely vivid picture of the society in which the murder and the trial took place - the society of immense wealth which centred upon New York at the turn of the century. The date of the murder was June 25, 1906, and the place was the roof theatre of the newly opened Madison Square Garden. The murderer was the millionaire playboy Harry Thaw, the son of a railroad magnate of Pittsburgh. The man he killed was Stanford White, an architect comparabale in eminence and influence with Frank Lloyd Wright in the following generation. With fitting irony, he was the designer of Madison Square Garden itself, and it was in his top-floor studio in its 300ft. central tower that he had indulged his well-known interest in pretty young show girls. Among these show girls had been Evelyn Nesbit, one of the famous Gibson girls in 'Floradora'. All the Gibson girls had married into great wealth, and Evelyn had married Harry Thaw - though only after she had been his mistress for 2yrs. ith Index. 270pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg. in nr. vg. patchily faded dw. which has a piece missing from top edge of lower cover. Gollancz 15 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12799 Hardback. An autobiography of the early 1900s, revealing for the first time the real truth about the world-famous murder case of Harry Thaw and Stanford White. Evelyn Nesbit (Mrs Harry Thaw) points out that while at the time is was universally believed that her husband, Harry Thaw, committed the murder while under the influence of a brain-storm, in actual fact it was long premeditated and planned. She breaks the silence of many years with some startling disclosures. Apart from the case, the story provides a complete picture of those days, and of the celebrities of that age - an age when virtue was a racket, and judgement was passed by the double standard. 288pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Foxed edges and eps o/w Vg+ in extremely scarce nr. vg. frayed and chipped dw. Rare John Long 225 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12798 Hardback. In 1978 Gary Tison and his Arizona gang succeeded in a spectacular jail-break, which, during the grim manhunt that ensued, occasioned 7 bloody deaths. Gary Tison, father of 3 of the gang's 5 members, is remembered as one of the most chilling criminals ever to be unleashed on an unwitting public. In a political climate so corrupt that criminals' hit lists carried such names as investigative reporter Don Bolles (murdered in 1976) and crusading attorney general Bruce Babbitt, the laxity in Arizona prisons was notorious. Tison, serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, took advantage of the ineptness of the prison system to wangle himself "model prisoner" privileges. Though the perpetrator of 3 previous escape attempts, he carried a pistol in his boot, he gave interviews to the newspapers, and he was alleged to conduct a thriving drug traffic behind bars. Fully armed and extremely dangerous, Tison walked out of the prison at Florence, Arizona on July 30, 1978, accompanied by serial killer Randy Greenawalt and Gary's 3 sons, who with their mother's support had broken him free. The 5 fugitives gunned across Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico until they were at last stopped in a scene of appalling violence just short of the Mexican border and only a few miles from Tison's Arizona home. Illus. + Map eps, Notes and Index. 320pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. in sl. sunned Vg+ pcdw. Houghton Mifflin 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12797 Hardback. On the night of January 11, 1943, Carlo Tresca was shot to death by Carmine Galante in New York City. Tresca was an internationally known anarchist, Galante a paroled convict carrying out a contract murder. Among those who were said to wish the death of the Italian-born radical were Mussolini, some of his Fascist sympathisers in the United States, an agent of the Comintern, and a high-ranking mafioso. Tresco's dramatic death was of a piece with his life. He came to New York, a fugitive from justice, in 1902 and by 1905 was editing 'Il Proletario,' the organ of the Italian Socialist Federation. By 1912 Tresca's political thinking had evolved from socialism to anarcho-syndicalism and he linked forces with the Industrial Workers of the World at the Lawrence textile strike. Tresca's friendships during this time included Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Emma Goldman and Big Bill Haywood; Max Eastman, John Reed, and the Greenwich Village radicals; later John Dewey, John Dos Passos, Norman Thomas and Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. This first biography of Carlo Tresca re-creates the energy and intensity of the life and times of this courageous, romantic man who was a folk hero in his own time. Life-loving, boastful, womanising, passionate, a political animal above all, Tresca was the stormy centre of a unique era: labour unrest, World War I, the rise of Bolshevism and Fascism, the Sacco and Vanzetti case, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II. The author concludes this biography with an investigation into the murder of Tresca, unraveling some of the political and social intricacies of the anarchist network and its relationship to American and international politics and organised crime. She explores the connections between Fascism and the Mafia, the wartime collaboration of the O.S.S. and Lucky Luciano, and the factional infighting for control of postwar Italy. Illus., Abbreviations, Notes and Index. 321pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. Rutgers Univ. Press 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12796 Hardback. The true story of the Mensa murderer, and the policewoman who risked her life to bring him to justice. In 1988, in Alturas, Florida, George Trepal, an eccentric 39yr. old computer whiz who was a leader in the local chapter of the high-IQ club Mensa, poisoned his next-door neighbours, the Carr family, by inserting the rare poison thallium in their supply of Coca-Cola. The Alturas police appointed agent Susan Goreck to go undercover to catch Trepal in order to gather the evidence needed to convict the dangerous killer. For 17 months, Goreck, as "Sherry Guin", befriended Trepal in an effort to convict the dangerous killer. Her story, as well as the details of the case are retold in a more than intriguing real-life whodunit. As Goreck matched her wits with a brilliant psychopath, she had to cope with sexism in the police force, the expectations of her policeman husband and children at home, and her own drive to excel at both. Goreck did overcome her many obstacles and eventually cracked the case. Illus. 353pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Review copy with loosely inserted slip + book review. F. in f. dw. William Morrow 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12795 Hardback. In 1955 an itinerant music salesman was tried and convicted for the brutal, sexually motivated murder of a 9yr. old boy. The author has carefully reconstructed from newspaper reports, official transcripts, personal interviews, and his own recollections as a University of Iowa law professor who, 17yrs. after the murder, represented Triplett in legal proceedings to challenge his conviction. Initially focused on a single narrow point of procedural law, those proceedings eventually led to an investigation that exposed highly inmproper, even shocking, methods used by state officials to obtain the original "evidence" leading to Triplett's imprisonment. Illus. 154pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. Iowa State Univ. Press 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12794 Hardback. In August 1955, the mutilated body of Emmett Till - a 14yr. old black Chicago youth - was pulled from Mississippi's Tallahatchie River. Abducted, severely beaten, and finally thrown into the river with a weight fastened around his neck with barbed wire, Till, an 8th-grader, was killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The nation was horrified by Till's death - shocked that such a crime could occur in enlightened mid-20th century America, less than 2yrs. after the fateful Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision oulawing school segregation. When the all-white, all-male jury of 9 farmers, 2 carpenters, and an insurance salesman hastily acquitted the 2 white defendants, the outcry reached a frenzied pitch - spurring a fury that would prove critical in the mobilisation of black resistance to white racism in the Deep South and in the subsequent civil rights movement nationwide. In this sensitive inquiry, the author probes Till's death; its ideological roots; the potent myths concerning race, sexuality, and violence; and the incident's enduring effects of American national life. Exploring the rise and decline of lynching in the Deep South, the author reveals how participants in "lynch law" idealised themselves as the protectors of women, dispensers of justice, and guardians of communal values. The widespread view of pure white womanhood in constant peril from the sexually voracious black male had permeated the Southern imagination so deeply, he shows that the menacing image of "the black rapist" lingered in Southern culture though the economic and political underpinnings of white racism were slipping away. As he recreates the trial, its participants, and the social structure of the Delta, the author examines how white rural Mississippians actually tried "two of their own" for the murder of a black. Though they were acquitted, these same defendants were soon being ostracised by their neighbours and within 4 months of Till's death, Southern blacks were staging the historic Montgomery bus boycott - the first major battle in the coming war against racial injustice that would lead to the passage of civil rights legislation a decade later. Illus., Notes, Bibliog. and Index. 193pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. pcdw. Free Press 12 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12793 Hardback. On the evening of Sunday, August 25, 1963, a group of revelers drove into the small town of Lodi, New Jersey, bound for a local tavern called the Angel Lounge. Hours later, bullets ripped through the smoky air of the bar. When the carnage ended, two Lodi police officers were dead. Their killers had escaped. The close-knit community of Lodi, shattered by the crime, would never be the same. Nor would the families of the victims: Sergeant Peter Voto, who left behind a wife and 3 children, and 22yr. old Gary Tedesco, whose career in law enforcement had barely begun when his life was brutally cut short. One of the hoodlums was shot and killed two days after the murders. The other, Thomas Trantino, was imprisoned and sentenced to die for his crimne. But Trantino would not be put to death in New Jersey; nor would he spend the rest of his life in prison. After being incarcerated for almost 40yrs., and earning the distinction of being the longest-serving prisoner in the New Jersey penal system, Thomas Trantino ultimately walked out of prison a free man. The murder of the policemen in the Angel Lounge remains one of the most notorious crimes in New Jersey history, yet there has never been an in-depth examination of the case and its aftermath - until now. Illus. + Index. 228pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. Camino Books 15 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12792 Hardback. The woman believed to be America's first female serial killer came of age in the unlikely setting of rural Idaho. Just as unlikely was the method she devised to dispatch her victims. Even then she could have gone scot-free had it not been for the dogged persistence of the deputy sheriff of Twin Falls, Idaho. Armed with little more than suspicion, he unearthed (literally) the evidence, then set off on a search that included a dozen states, plus Mexico and Hawaii. Her conviction, after a long trial, did not end the story. She escaped from prison by compromising a trusty, and enjoyed a year and a half of freedom, during which time she continues to attract men and marry them. When she was finally returned to prison, her accumulated name was Lyda Trueblood-Dooley-McHaffie-Lewis-Meyer-Southard-Whitlock-Shaw. The newspapers of that day had their own names for her, such as "Lady Bluebeard" and "Lethal Lyda". This is the improbable story of her life and of the dogged efforts of Deputy Sheriff Val Ormsby to dig up the evidence that finally put her in prison. Illus. + Afterword. 183pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. Fred Pruett Books 15 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12791 Hardback. Featuring the Swartz murders. In the early morning of January 17, 1984, police responded to a emergency 911 call at a small tract house on the outskirts of Annapolis, Maryland. The caller was a teenager named Larry Swartz. He was waiting for the police when they arrived, his terrified younger sister in his arms. He appeared to be in shock and told police he had awakened to find his adoptive parents murdered. He pointed to the basement. There the officers discovered a scene of carnage they could never hope to forget - in his office off the family recreation room Bob Swartz lay dead, stabbed 17 times. Outside in the cold lay the corpse of his wife Kay. Larry tried to cast suspicion on his adoptive brother Michael, a troublemaker who had been kicked out of the house, but the police soon focused their attention of Larry himself. The motive remained profoundly puzzling. Why would anyone want to kill Bob and Kay a seemingly wartm, deeply religious couple - least of all one of the 3 children they had struggled for years to adopt? The Swartzes had unusually severe notions about child discipline - notions that may have crossed the boundary into abuse. What began as one more family fight erupted in a moment of sudden fury. It is larry Swartz's defence lawyer, Ron Baradel, who emerges as a hero. Horrified by the crime, yet deeply moved by Larry's tragic past, he undertook a crusade to protect society while salvaging some hope from the ruin of his young client's life. Illus. 384pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in nr. f. dw. St Martin's Press 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=3757 Hardback, 1st US edn. A crime of passion without parallel in American history. For 20yrs. this book was suppressed by the millionaire Thaw Family - a shocking, sensational story of love, lust and murder, as it could only be told - by the man who was tried for this crime. On June 25, 1906, Stanford White, a world-famous architect aged 52, was shot 3 times by Harry Kendall Thaw, the playboy son of a Pittsburgh railroad magnate. White had a reputation as a womanizer. Thaw, aged 34, was just as well known for his gambling. His beautiful wife, Evelyn Nesbit appeared to be the reason for the murder. White had apparently seduced the teenage Evelyn, 4 years before her marriage to Thaw - Thaw's motive - revenge. Thaw was twice tried for murder and was eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity. In 1913 he escaped from an asylum and went to Canada, but was returned to the USA by the Canadian authorities, where, with the aid of family money, won a retrial in 1915 which declared him sane and not guilty. Illus. 277pp. 12mo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With lightly browned eps and edges, Vg+ in vg. foxed dw. with faded sp.. Dorrance. 20 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12790 Hardback. Harold and Shirley Dresbach seemed to be a perfect couple. They had two of everything - 2 boats, 2 Chryslers, 2 handsome teenage boys. Wealthy and influential, they were active in politics and often entertained prominent visitors in their waterfront home on the Chesapeake Bay. So on a quiet January morning in 1961, when their nude bodies, riddled with bullets, were found, people in the affluent suburb of Washington, D.C. were stunned. They were still more stunned and horrified when the Dresbach's 15yr. old son, Wayne, was charged with the killings. The author, a childhood friend of Wayne's, was the first to learn of the tragic events that morning, and from the start he suspected some essential truth had been hidden. This is the account of his frustrating and sometimes frightening investigation into the crime and punishment of his friend. Played out behind a facade of propriety, it is a drama composed of almost entirely of unspeakable acts - black-market adoption, alcoholism, child and wife abuse, sexual experimentation, sadism, incest, and finally murder. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With tape removal mks. to pds o/w Nr. Vg. in vg. sunned pcdw. Doubleday 5 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12789 Hardback. On July 24, 1984, a woman, Brenda Lafferty, and her infant daughter Erica, were murdered by 2 Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who believed they were ordered to kill by God. The roots of their crime lie deep in the history of an American religion practiced by millions. The author constructs a bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, and unyielding faith. In the process, he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America's fastest growing religion, analyzes the abduction of 14yr. old Elizabeth Smart (and her forced "marriage" to her polygamous kidnapper) and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief. Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonism's violent past, the author examines the underbelly of the United States' most successful homegrown faith and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism. With Map eps. Notes, Bibliog. and Index. 372pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. Doubleday 8 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12788 Hardback. The chilling story of ritual murder and Satanism in a small New England town. A violent street culture, 3 brutal slayings, Satanic cults, this is a fascinating story of how a few dedicated police, with the help of modern forensics, solved one of the most bizarre crimes in Massachusetts history. Featuring Carl Drew, Carl Davis, Andy Malais, Willie Smith, Robin Murphy. Illus. + Source Notes. 302pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. in sl. faded Vg+ dw. Edward Burlingame Books 8 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12787 Hardback. Featuring the New York murder trial of Vincent Doon, who allegedly, on the night of April 8, 1940, stabbed to death Edwin Hallett. A novelty item, presented as exact transcript of the trial itself. Illus. 306pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg. in frayed vg. dw. Simon and Schuster 8 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12786 Hardback. A distraught father walks into the newsroom of the 'Boston Herald' asking for help in locating his missing daughter, a beautiful commercial artist named Robin Benedict. The publication of her photograph sets in motion a murder investigation that leads to the arrest of one of her former lovers. But nothing is quite what it seems. Benedict is actually a high-paid prostitute in Boston's Combat Zone. The suspect is the eminent anatomist Dr. William Henry James Douglas who, it is learned, has been embezzling funds from his laboratory at Tufts University to support his costly entanglement with Benedict. The author reconstructs one of the most fascinating murder investigations in years - one which threads its way through many levels of Boston society. Robin Benedict's body was never found. Illus. + Bibliog. 478pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in Vg+ dw. A fairly heavy book which may require additional postage. W.W. Norton 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12785 Hardback. On the night of July 16, 1989, while driving alone in her car in Albuquergue, New Mexico, 18yr. old Kaitlyn Duncan was shot twice in the head. She died the next morning. The police dubbed the shooting "random", but to the Duncan family the circumstances didn't add up to "random", especially after the shocking discovery that Kait had been keeping some very dangerous secrets from them. Faced with the insufficient evidence provided by the police, the author begins her own investigation that took her on a trail from the police to private investigators, from a courageous newspaper reporter to psychics. She was led into the dark underworld of Vietnamese gangs, the remarkable inner world on the psychic, and the frustrating mechanics of police prodedures. Ultimately she uncovers information that proves to her that the death was anything but random. Illus. 291pp. 8vo. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. in lightly sunned Vg+ dw. Delacorte Press 12 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12784 Hardback. He lived in their peaceful town. He went to their church. And he was killing their children. In the town of Belmont, California, everyone knew Jon Dunkle. What they didn't know was that he had killed before, and would kill again. On October 2, 1984, the body of 12yr. old Lance Turner was found in a tunnel of scarlet poison oak - only yards away from where his friends played. Someone had savagely plunged a knife into his chest and twisted it. A frantic police department soon suspected a local misfit named Jon Dunkle, but were unable to tie him to the brutal crime. Until another equally gruesome murder case surfaced. Until a young female police officer had the courage to pose as Dunkle's girlfriend, and begin a harrowing journey into the dark heart of a killer. The explosive story of the boy next door who turned into a psychotic killer - and whose ability to outsmart investigators set him free to kill again. Illus. with 12 pp. of photos. 369pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. in Vg+ dw. Pinnacle 12 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12783 Softcover. When Laura Foster, a young and attractive woman, disappeared from her home in Happy Valley in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina in the spring of 1866, residents of the area assumed that Tom Dula (pronounced Dooley in the hill country), a young Civil War veteran, had something to do with it. He was known to be Laura's lover, as well as the lover of many other young women in the area. Months before Laura's body was found, stabbed through the heart, in a shallow grave near the Yadkin River, Dula was seized and held in jail. His trial inveiled a sordid story of sexual immorality, resentment, jealousy and bitterness, and Dula was convicted and hanged before a huge crowd in Statesville, an event that drew national attention. The story lived on, with time becoming entwined with myth and legend, because it inspired a ballad that was sung throughout the mountains. Nearly a century after the murder that inspired it, that ballad became a major national hit for a popular folksinging group called the Kingston Trio. Illus. with Maps and photographs + Bibliog. 134pp. softcover. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. Down Home Press 25 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12782 Hardback. In this true-crime account of violence, illicit sex, and cold-blooded murder for hire, the author tells the riveting story of the mild-mannered traffic cop who led a sinister double life as a professional killer. Nicknamed "Mild Bill" by his fellow LAPD cops, William Leasure wiled away his career writing traffic tickets and working auto accidents. He was a low-key, unassuming man who had never even used his service revolver in the line of duty. Married to a Los Angeles prosecutor, he was nobody's idea of a criminal mastermind. But behind his bland mask, Bill Leasure was literally getting away with murder - as many as 3 murders, in fact, each carefully and professionally planned. He was also a modern-day pirate, accused of stealing a string of luxury yachts worth $2 million. Stolen cars sat in his garage, insurance frauds filled his diary. Yet, for a decade, he remained above suspicion. Leasure has been called the most corrupt policeman in the scandal-plagued history of LAPD; and yet so effective was his disguise that even when he was caught aboard a stolen boat, hard-bitten cops had trouble believing he was dirty. Bill Leasure continued to deny his guilt, and his own "explanation" of the charges against him are woven throughout this incredible chronicle of deception and betrayal. Illus. + Notes. 454pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg+ in dw. Dutton 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12780 Paperback. On June 13, 1983, in a Houston apartment a man and woman were savagely pickaxed to death. In the weeks that followed, 23yr. old Karla Faye Tucker boasted that she was the pickaxe killer, and that she had been sexually aroused during the murder. At her trial she did not deny her guilt. Her sentence was death. But beyond the shocking headlines was another story waiting to be revealed..a story of mothers and children, loss and redemption, crime and punishment..the true story of Karla Faye Tucker that the author, grappling with the death of her own teenage son, uncovered when she went to meet Karla Faye on Death Row. 291pp. mass market p/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Lightly browned pp. o/w Nr. F. with no creasing to covers. Warner Books 3 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12779 Paperback. Two women. One man. And a shocking true story of sex and drugs, lesbianism and murder. On February 4, 1986, the body of 22yr. old Michael Turpin was found on a Lexington, Kentucky golf course. He had been stabbed 19 times. Six days later, Michael's beautiful 19yr. old wife Elizabeth, her lesbian girlfriend Karen Brown and a man named Keith Bouchard were arrested for the crime. In what became Lexington's most sensational case ever, all 3 were convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison, but what really happened? Illus. 468pp. mass market p/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. Pinnacle Books 7 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12778 Paperback. Featuring a rich lesbian, Regina Hartwell. Her beautiful young girlfriend, Kim Leblanc. And the killer who came between them, Justin Thomas. The story of a triangle from hell: of a yearning for friendship and love that turned into a fatal, vile obsession, and how one Texas jury faced the difficult task of separating innocence - from guilt. With 12pp. of photos. 338pp. mass market p/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. Pinnacle Books 3 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12777 Paperback. The chilling story of a husband who brutally killed his wife and the sensational custody battle for their baby. Featuring Teresa and Dr. Kenneth Taylor, eastern Pennsylvania, USA. Illus. 430pp. mass market p/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. Pocket Books 3 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12776 Paperback. Robert Stroud had been in solitary confinement since 1916, longer than any Federal prisoner in American history. Why? Because he killed a prison warder, because the prison authorities wanted him hanged for it, and when he was reprieved everything was done to make life hell for him. Twice Stroud killed, but by modern opinion perhaps in neither case would he have been treated as a murderer today. He saw his own gallows built - and been saved from them only by his mother's devoted and determined efforts. But Stroud's world fame came because while in solitary confinement he secured some canaries; he studied them and became accepted as a leading authority on bird diseases. Stroud's incredible story passes the bizzarre when he, though still in solitary confinement, married an admirer in an effort to save himself from being transferred to a prison where he would be deprived of his bird friends. 240pp. mass market p/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Browned pp., covers relatively uncreased. Vg. Four Square Book 15 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12668 Softcover. SIGNED. Foreword by Richard Whittington-Egan. 'In this groundbreaking investigation into the unsolved Whitechapel Murder cases of 1888, Tom Slemen and Keith Andrews uncover a shocking possibility - that the Jack the Ripper murders were executed by a military-trained assassin hired by the British Intelligence Service. Revisiting the horrific evidence, intriguing testimonies, and official documents from the time, this shocking expose explores links between the notorious Ripper murders and the relationships each female victim had to an Irish terrorist alliance. Links that reveal a frightening new possibility - that the most infamous murders ever committed can be traced to the most senior ranks at Scotland Yard and to the office of the Prime Minister himself. Exhaustively researched, highly controversial in its conclusions, this compelling account is set to shatter all previous theories about Jack the Ripper and shed light on a truth more disturbing than anyone has - until now - dared consider possible'. Illus. + Index. 381pp. new softcover. SIGNED BY TOM SLEMEN. The Bluecoat Press 9 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12775 Paperback. A series of crime broadcasts given by the author for the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, covering famous crimes from around the world. As well as New Zealand cases, the trials include : Tichborne, Lieut. D. Malcolm, Radek and others, Harry Thaw, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the Farndale Case, the "Running Rein" Ring-in, Rattenbury, Hugh Hamilton, the Duchess of Kingston, Adolph Beck, Lizzie Borden, William Broome, Richard Brinckley, Sextus Roscius, Archer-Shee, Roger Casement, Charles I of England, William Lewes, Reichstag Fire Trial, Socrates, Mareo, T.G. Wainewright etc., etc. 131pp. 12mo. card covers. From the library of true crime writer, wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Browned pp. covers have ragged edges, sunned. G++ Oswald-Sealy (New Zealand) Ltd. 22 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12774 Booklet. A paper read by the author to 'Our Society' on November 2nd, 1976 at the Piccadilly Hotel, London with His Honour Judge the Hon. Ewen Montagu in the Chair. Featuring Elvira Barney and the background, before and after the proceedings of her trial for murder. The author's book, 'The Trial of Elvira Barney' was published shortly after this talk. 27pp. booklet. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg+ Privately Published 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12773 Booklet. Mary Clarkson went to Kirkstall Abbey at night and saw 3 men carrying the body of a local merchant. One of the men was her lover William Bedford, who was subsequently tried for murder and sentenced to death. He committed suicide in prison before the sentence could be carried out. His 2 accomplices were caught a short time after Bedford's trial, and executed in Lancaster. Orignally re-printed from the "Leeds Express" by Fred R. Spark. 32pp. booklet. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg+ Almar Books (orig. pub. Fred R. Spark) 7 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12772 Hardcover. SIGNED. Featuring the murder of 2 gamekeepers by 3 poachers in the village of Aldbury, near Tring in Hertfordshire, in 1891. 9pp. bound-in 12mo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. F. Privately Published 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12771 Paperback. The biography of the criminal known as the "King of the Lags" a late 19th century London thief and murderer, musician and lover of animals, a ferocious killer who preached pacifism, and one of the greatest criminals in history. Respected by day as the pillar of middle-class piety, by night he plundered the homes of the wealthy. Illus. 128pp. p/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. Fredonia Books (Amsterdam) 9 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12770 Paperback. Featuring the brutal murders at Bill's o' Jack's Inn (also known as the Moorcock Inn) of William Bradbury and his son Thomas, both of Greenfield, on the night of Monday April 2, 1832. William was 84 and Thomas 46 years of age. The author's narrative is part-conjecture, part-fact; the conjecture based on the rumours and the theories current at the time among the villagers of Saddleworth, who were much more searching in their examination of the evidence than was the Inquest. An almost incredible feature of these murders is that one of the victims, William Bradbury, when asked as he lay dying if he could name his attackers, was able to answer, but because of dreadfully severe mouth and facial injuries, his words were an almost unintelligible slurred mutter: "Pats", or "Platt", or "Platters", any one of which was - astonishing coincidence - applicable to possible perpetrators of the crimes. Yet the murders remained unsolved, and although a reward of £200 was offered, no semblance of a case could be mounted against anyone. The murders remain unsolved in spite of evidence of a "confession" that turned up 30yrs. late, and which became disclosed to general knowledge nearly 130 years later still. Illus. 84pp. booklet. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with part of his personal b/plate. F. Neil Richardson 8 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12769 Paperback. On April 2, 1832, the morning mist rolled back from the heights of Dick Hill and Ashway Gap at Greenfield to disclose a gruesome murder. This was the "Bill's o'Jack's" Murder (the inn where it occurred was locally known by this name, although it was actually called The Moorcock). The crime - an unsolved one -brought thousands of sightseers into Saddleworth in the following weeks and months (10,000 attended the double funeral). The victims were buried in the old graveyard at Saddleworth Church, Uppermill. The case is treated factually, although the author puts forward several theories of her own in an attempt to shed new light on the subject. She also writes of other murders in the same or surrounding districts - the Buckstones Murder of Clowes Moor; the Manor House Murder, at Standedge; the mysteries of Waterside Farm, Greenfield, as she writes of ghosts and boggarts, the Mad Parson of the Crosskeys Inn, Uppermill, local characters and churchyard stones. Illus. 33pp. booklet. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. V. lightly soiled covers, with a small cut to the back cover, which has penetrated several pages, but without obliterating any text. Nr. Vg. Scarce. privately published 6 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12768 Paperback. The author presents new evidence proving that Winston Silcott, who was still in prison at the time of publication, deserved to be freed. The book traces the case from its origins, drawing on confidential police reports and legal papers. The author researched the Blakelock case more closely than any other journalist and was the only national newspaper correspondent to question the verdicts even as they weere announced. He demonstrates that the murder convictions were only one aspect of a police investigation - the largest in the history of the force - that ran wildly out of control. The author exposes how uncorroborated confessions were extracted under duress, and identified a cancer of racism at the heart of English criminal justice, which the quashing of the Blakelock convictions in 1991 did nothing to excise. Illus, (with 2 of the pp. creased) + Index. 256pp. p/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. V. lightly browned pp., covers crease-free. Vg+ Bloomsbury 4 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12767 Hardback. A factional work vindicating Mary Blandy. It follows Mary from her first meeting with Cranstoun to the day of her execution. The Bibliography and Author's Note at the beginning of the book identify the sources. A sympathetic picture of Mary Blandy as a naive, innocent dupe blinded by love and trust. With Bibliog., Map eps, 287pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Insc. on fep, lightly browned edges and sunned sp., sl. soiled covers o/w Nr. Vg. Scarce. Macdonald 40 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12766 Hardback. With Index and Summaries of Cases and Points argued in the Old Bailey between 1866 and 1906 arranged alphabetically by topic. 356pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Original cloth with moderate shelfwear, small stain to back cover, sl. cocked. Lightly foxed. Vg. A fairly heavy book which may require additional postage. Scarce. Stevens and Sons 40 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=9966 Hardback, 1st edn. Inspector Dew was the first policeman on the scene of the Mary Jane Kelly murder (allegedly) and tells how clue after clue was followed up and how near the police were to "laying their hands on the probable murderer." Dew's other claim to fame of course was the fact that he was the man who caught Hawley Harvey Crippen. He was in charge of the case from the time Belle Elmore disappeared, up to the time of Crippen's arrest and trial. Also includes shorter accounts of many other crimes - fraud, blackmail, coining, burglary etc. A vivid account of Dew's life at Scotland Yard. Illus. 242pp. 8vo. h/back. With tiny name insc. to fpd, o/w pp. clean with no foxing or browning, v.v. sl. sunned sp. Nr. Vg+ A very scarce Ripper associated title. Blackie. 400 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12765 Hardback. At the age of 19 Chicago May stole her family's savings and ran away from her home in rural Ireland to America - first to Nebraska, then to Chicago at the time of the 1893 World's Fair, and then on to the rip-roaring Tenderloin district of New York. In these new American cities, she worked as a confidence trickster, a thief, a showgirl, and, when times were bad, as a prostitute, notorious as much for her violence as for her diamond rings. But the woman the tabloids called 'The Queen of the Underworld' met her nemesis in a handsome, dangerous Irish-American burglar named Eddie Guerin. She was with him in Paris in 1901 when his gang robbed the American Express office, and when the others were caught, she got away - with the money. But May went back to Paris to help him and was arrested and tried with him. She was sentenced to 5yrs. in jail in France. He was sent to Devil's Island for life. Geurin managed to escape and make his way back to London. But the passion they once shared turned to hate. Shots were fired, and May was tried for attempted murder and sent to jail for 10yrs, where she was sustained only by reading, and news of the rebellion in Ireland against British rule. In 1917, May, now middle-aged, ailing and penniless, was deported back to a New York she hardly recognised. She threw herself into a relationship with a cruel and destructive man, and for him returned to prostitution, and when he ran away, she chased him, a gun in her bag, until, derelict, she collapsed on the frozen streets of Detroit. It was there, hospitalised, that she met the legendary police reformer, August Vollmer, who urged her to write her autobiogtaphy as a path to redemption. May's memoirs bear witness to an outlaw experience of a kind rarely recorded by a woman. May was born in post-famine Ireland and died in the world of telephones, sports cars and movies, in 1929, just before the stock market crash. Illus. 307pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. Michael Joseph 6 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12764 Hardback. No one in Cape May Court House, New Jersey, was surprised when Eric Thomas, a popular local doctor, sued the Ford Motor Company for the wrongful death of his pregnant wife, Tracy. After all, the accident they were involved in was minor, and they were driving a big, powerful Explorer, a family vehicle. Nevertheless, Tracy died in the accident, leaving behind not just her husband but also her cherished young daughter, Alix, whom Eric Thomas would have to raise alone, with the help of Tracy's devoted parents, Doris and Donald Rose. Backed by the medical examiner's findings, Dr. Thomas's lawsuit claimed that the Explorer's air bag inflated improperly, causing injuries that resulted in Tracy's suffocation. But what starts out as a simple product-liability case rapidly evolves into something altogether different when, after an exhaustive investigation, Ford alleges that Tracy Thomas died not from a defective air bag, but as the result of manual strangulation. Before long, the defendant, the giant automaker Ford, becomes a de facto prosecutor and plaintiff Eric Thomas, who was a passenger in the Explorer, stands accused of the murder of his wife. The author exposes the tactics used by the attorneys on both sides of this civil suit and uncovers the lie that eventually torpedoes one party's case. Was Tracy Thomas killed in a car accident, or was the accident a cover-up for her murder at the hands of her ambitious young husband? 368pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. V. sl. slanted sp. o/w Vg+ in vg. dw. which has a scorch mk. and tiny tear to fr. cover. HarperCollins 4 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12763 Hardback. One of the most charismatic politicians of his age, Jeremy Thorpe recalls important events and episodes from his life in politics in this fascinating collection of anecdotes and reminiscences. The book is fully illustrated with more than 40 photographs and cartoons, and he speaks candidly about important national events in his personal life and political career. For the first time Jeremy Thorpe speaks of his trial and acquittal in 1979. He puts on record his account of the coalition talks with Edward Heath in 1974 and describes the debilitating effects of Parkinson's Disease from which was suffering. Illus. + Biographical Notes. 234pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Two corners sl. bumped o/w Nr. F. in nr. f. dw. Politico's 5 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12762 Hardback. On June 22, 1979 the jurors in what had been billed as 'The Trial of the Century' filed into Number One Court at the Old Bailey to deliver their verdict on the Rt. Hon Jeremy Thorpe, Privy Counsellor, the former MP for North Devon and ex-leader of the Liberal Party. For 30 days, the nine men and three women of the jury had listened, open-mouthed, like the rest of the country, and many millions abroad, as prosecution lawyers tried to prove that Thorpe and 3 other men had recruited an airline pilot called Andrew Newton to kill Norman Scott, a former male model who claimed that he had once been Thorpe's lover. It had been an extraordinary trial. The star witnesses were Scott, Peter Bessell, a former Liberal MP and failed businessman who had once been Thorpe's confident, and Newton, who had shot Scott's dog, a Great Dane bitch called Rinka, but failed to murder Scott as ordered. Mr. Justice Cantley, the judge, was not impressed with these witnesses and made it clear that, if there was any justice, they should have been in the dock. He was rather more charitable to Thorpe, whom he suggested should have been leading the nation rather than enduring the inconvenience of a trial, and to David Holmes, Thorpe's homosexual friend from his days at Oxford. Cantley indicated to the jury that perhaps Holmes and the others had tried to frighten Scott but said there was no proof that Thorpe was even involved in that limited conspiracy. After 52 hours' discussion they returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty. This book tells for the first time, the true story of how Norman Scott, destroyed Jeremy Thorpe, the charismatic and wise-cracking leader of the Liberal Party, who was a secret homosexual. It is the untold scandal of post-war British politics. But, above all, it is about the revenge of Scott on Thorpe, the man who he could not forgive for abandoning him. With 23 Illus., Source Notes + Index. 408pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Lightly browned pp. Vg+ in vg+ pcdw. Bloomsbury 6 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12761 Hardback. On a cold night in January 2001, the idyllic community of Dartmouth College was shattered by the discovery that 2 professors had been hacked to death in their own home. Investigators searched helplessly for clues linking the victims, Half and Susanne Zantop, to their murderer or murderers. The residents of Hanover, New Hampshire, speculated endlessly - could the killer be a disgruntled student? A spurned lover? while the grisly nature of the crimes themselves destroyed, perhaps forever, the sanctity and invulnerability of their academic arcade. By contrast, the hardscrabble community of nearby Chelsea, Vermont, was relatively unaffected. The big news in Chelsea came when the school's basketball star scored his 1,000th point on a Friday, 3 weeks after the murders. As parents and teenagers streamed into the night to celebrate after the game, a stunning scene stopped them in their tracks. Outside the house of high school senior Robert Tulloch were the flashing lights of a swarm of police cars. His neighbours couldn't imagine what the trouble could be. The town discovered the incomprehensible reality that Tulloch and best friend Jim Parker, two of Chelsea's brightest and most popular sons, were now fugitives, wanted for the murders of Half and Susanne Zantop. The authors provide a vivid explanation of murders that captivated the nation, as well as dramatic revelations about the forces that turned 2 popular teenagers into killers: Could poor parenting, psychological abnormalities, or a community that fails to challenge and engage its young people be blamed? Or was it more complex? A book which conveys a deep appreciation for the lives and the devastating loss of Half and Susanne Zantop, while also providing a clear portrait of the killers, their families, and their community - and, perhaps, a warning to all parents about what evil may lurk in the hearts of boys. Illus., Notes on Sources, + Select Bibliog. 418pp. 8vo. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. A fairly heavy book which may require additional postage. HarperCollins 7 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=11074 Hardback. The author spent 7yrs. tracing the case of Thelma Todd. Her research led her from Los Angeles to Florida, from Chicago to Massachusetts, and to personal interviews with the dead star's friends and colleagues - and a number of mobsters, too. Illus., The Films of Thelma Todd, The Films of Roland West and Index. 304pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With lge insc. to fep, lightly sunned edges o/w Vg. in sunned vg. dw. William Morrow 8 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12759 Hardback. Marilys Wohlenhaus was an animated, energetc 18yr. old girl. Then one afternoon everything changed. She should have been safe working at the town restaurant. She should have been safe in her own home. She should still be alive today. But in May 1979, Marilys became the victim in every parent's most horrific nightmare. At once a gripping story and an in-depth look at the grief of losing a child. This book relates the true account of a serial killer, Joseph Ture Jr. who slipped past the law again and again during a 3yr. long crime spree. It was Ture who brutally murdered Marilys Wohlenhaus in her own home. The author, the husband of Marilys's mother, reconstructs the murder and the 17yr. investigation that led to the capture and conviction of Ture, allowing the reader to explore the horrific, obsession, dediction and finally the peace that he and his wife experienced in the search for and eventual conviction of her daughter's killer. The author recounts how Marilys's case was solved through the efforts of the victim's tenacious family, supportive news media, and persistent investigators, and gives a terrifying sense of the unimaginable grief and despair in the hearts of those who lose a child, yet he also shares his intensely personal exploration of the resilience and power within the human spirit. 193pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. Univ. of Minnesota Press 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12758 Hardback. A strange story of the time. It is a record of the tense, erratic, disturbing 10yrs. Louise Thoresen spent with her husband, William - until she shot him to death in June 1970. William was 20 when they met - bright, handsome, promising, son of a Chicago multi-millionaire. They fell in love and got married. But there was to be no sparkling career, no brilliant future. William was restless; William was interested in doing other things - and getting Louise to do them with him. Like stealing, bombing a radio station, experimenting with drugs - like criss-crossing the nation amassing an illegal arsenal eventually estimated at 70 tons of arms and ammunition. And Louise went along - because she loved him, and because it was exciting: "it gave everybody something to do." She helped him escape from a mental institution, bailed him out of jail; in the course of their exploits together, she was herself arrested "more times than John Dillinger." But it wasn't long before she began to realise William was more than just restless; he was mad. And his interests, she found, extended even as far as murder. And perhaps it was inevitable that the murder that would come to interest him most would be her own. A book that could only come out of that deranged of decades, the 1960s. The book's co-author, E. M. Nathanson, is best known for his best-seller 'The Dirty Dozen.' Illus. 346pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg. in frayed and sl. chipped pcdw. Scarce. M Evans 130 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12757 Softcover. Foreword by Lord Alexander of Weedon QC. Every year a quarter of a million people are selected at random from the electoral register for jury service. They are given no training and are forbidden to discuss their verdicts after the trial. This book is the first for many years to shed light on the experience. The author, a former newspaper editor, served as a juror on a major trial at the Old Bailey. It concerned the kidnap of a Greek shipping magnate in London for a $3,000,000 ransom. The case lasted for 4 months - long enough for the author to form strong impressions about his fellow-jurors, about the strange and sometimes daunting procedures of an English court of law, and about the jury system itself. Casting a wry eye on what went on, Grove not only tells the story of an extraordinary trial held in the world's most famous courthouse, but he also mounts a passionate defence of the jury system, at a time when it is being questioned and derided in many quarters. With Index. 276pp. trade size p/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With loosely inserted newspaper cutting, book review. F. Bloomsbury 6 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=5609 Softcover. Year after year, one after another, the babies of Marybeth Tinning died, 9 of them over a period of 14yrs. The causes were listed variously as natural or undetermined or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. But somehow no-one - not the police, not the coroner, doctors, social workers, or neighbours, not even Mrs Tinning's husband, detected something evil in the strange patterns of death. Illus., Index. 379pp. trade size p/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Lightly browned pp., v. sl. sunned covers, but no creases. Nr. F. Wm. Morrow. 4 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12756 Hardback. A Novel, based on a true case. From the library of true crime wriuter, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. 428pp. 8vo. h/back. Ex-lib. with usual markings, ie rubber stam[ps - no library 'docket' present, still a good copy. Cape 4 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=6145 Hardback, 1st US edn. In 1910, Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen poisoned his wife (known by her stage name Belle Elmore), mutilated and buried her remains in the coal cellar and fled London with his mistress-secretary, Miss Ethel Le Neve. Their capture after a breathtaking chase across the Atlantic, was credited to wireless telegraphy, used for the first time in fighting crime. Illus., Appendix, Notes on Sources. 224pp. 8vo. h/back. F. in vg+ dw. Houghton Mifflin. 5 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=9115 Hardback. Arbitrary verdicts. With the Judge's final injunction, "Consider your verdict" uppermost in their minds, the jury file out. They have heard the evidence, and they have seen the witnesses. Counsel on both sides have used all their persuasive eloquence and the learned Judge has impartially summed up and explained the law. Thus, the task of returning a true and just verdict should be a simple problem. But is it? The annals of crime show, all too clearly, that juries can err. So, too can most people when called upon to make a decision when all the grounds of probability have to be considered. In this book, the author has gathered together a number of famous 'affaires' in which an element of doubt has existed. Inludes amongst others : Captain Casey, Dr. Cross, General Luard, Alfred John Monson etc. Illus. 207pp. small 8vo. With loosely inserted publisher's review slip from W. H. Allen advising of the March 28th, 1946 publication date. V. sl. browned pp., red cloth/gilt lettering covers F. in frayed dw. which has a piece missing from lower cover. Allen. 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12753 Hardback. A book detailing numerous historical murders that took place in the Commonwealth between 1826 and 1937, including the famous Beauchamp-Sharp assassination, the "Ashland Tragedy," and the Lucretia Mundy poisoning. Read about the murder that led to the first electrocution in Kentucky, the shooting of a Berea College cooed, Madison County's Depression-era Cane patch Murder and many others. With Bibliog. 192pp. 8vo. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Pictorial glazed covers. F. McClanahan Publishing House 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12752 Softcover. 12 gripping tales of celebrated murders in New England. Some are well known, : Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler"; Lizzie Borden, Klaus von Bulow, Sacco and Vanzetti, Charles Stuart, and Pamela Smart. Others were just as notorious in their day, but have receded into history: the native American Metacomet, known as King Philip and leader of King Philip's War, was murdered in an ambush; Lydia Sherman poisoned her way through several families and 2 states; Russell Colvin reappeared after his ghost had identified his killers and more. With Bibliog. 210pp. trade size p/back. From the library of true writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. Covered Bridge Press 7 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12751 Softcover. In this intense insider's study of murder in South Carolina, the author leads the reader through dark twists and turns of 12 murder cases that gripped the state during her career as a forensic photographer with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). The author's firsthand experience with forensic evidence of crime scenes and the court system gives her a unique perspective on murder and its horrifying effects on public and private lives. By combining analysis of court transcripts and official statements and confessions from murderers with her own personal interactions with the key players in some of these tragic dramas, the author allows the reader to see into the criminal minds of notorious killers like Pee Wee Gaskins, Rudolph Tyner, Ronald "Rusty" Woomer and Larry Gene Bell. Illus. + Notes and Bibliog. 181pp. 8vo. softcover. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. History Press 10 http://www.laybooks.com/detail.asp?b=12750 Hardback. A history of John Baptiste DuBay, one of the most colourful frontiersmen of the Territorial era in the vast Minnesota-Wisconsin-Michigan wilderness region; including a biographical sketch of his life, based on contemporary documents, and a detailed history of his famous shooting affray at Portage, Wisconsin, together with the narrative of the proceedings of his historic first trial for murder at Madison, in December 1857. Illus. + Map eps and Index. 335pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Fr. hinge just beginning to show o/w Vg. C.C. Nelson Publishing 12