12 of the Most Fascinating True Crimes You’ve Never Heard Of

When Edvard Munch’s "The Scream" was effortlessly stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo, the Norwegian police were humiliated. Enter Charley Hill, a brilliant and colorful Scotland Yard investigator who uncovers this larger-than-life heist and takes readers on a fascinating and rollicking ride through the art underworld.

With breathless pacing and intense suspense, MANHUNT is as gripping as your favorite fictional thrillers. Discover the little-known story of the painful days after Lincoln’s assassination when John Wilkes Booth made a fraught journey into the Confederacy with a broken leg and the Union cavalry on his heels.

Jon Krakauer, author of Into The Wild and Into Thin Air, has staked his literary reputation on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. He now shifts his focus from extreme physical adventure to the extremes of religious belief within America’s own borders, taking readers inside an isolated community of Mormon fundamentalists who insist they received a command from God to kill an innocent woman and her baby girl. Krakauer’s multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of polygamy and unyielding faith raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

In 1937, Peking was thick with tension. A heady mix of privilege and opulence—Japanese troops had occupied nearby Manchuria and were encircling the ancient city walls, One night, the mutilated body of Pamela Werner, the daughter of a former British consul to China, is discovered, and even as the Japanese tighten their noose around the city, her murder transfixes Peking. Based on seven years of research, historian and China expert Paul French at last uncovers the truth behind this notorious murder and offers a rare glimpse of the last days of colonial China.

I AM MURDERED depicts the scandalous case of the suspected poisoning of Declaration of Independence signer and beloved public figure George Wythe. Who committed this dastardly crime, and what did the subsequent trial reveal about class and racial tensions, justice, and slavery in the Virginia of the nineteenth century?

Pirates have long been romanticized by Hollywood and revered as folk heroes. So it’s easy to forget that these swashbucklers were dangerous criminals. In this authoritative text, David Cordingly analyzes the truths behind the myths and investigates the realities of infamous pirates like Sir Francis Drake and Captain Kidd.

From a master mystery writer comes a startling investigation into a brutal series of murders committed within two weeks in 1811 England. Explore the dark alleys of Regency-era London and attempt to determine just who bludgeoned two seemingly random families to death.

Travel to a tiny hamlet in 1600s Germany, where a local woman was accused of murder—and witchcraft. In the ensuing investigation, panic, paranoia, and superstition reigned supreme. In vivid detail, Thomas Robisheaux uses contemporary records and correspondence to craft a horrifying tale of witchery.

An engrossing tale of quackery and greed, STARVATION HEIGHTS is a crime tale unlike any other. In the woods of the Pacific Northwest, Linda Hazzard promoted her miracle “fasting treatment” to lose weight. Her victims did not know that her sanatorium was a front for her to isolate, rob, and eventually dispose of them.

Bestselling author Jeff Guinn combines exhaustive research with surprising, newly discovered material to tell the real tale of two kids from a filthy Dallas slum who fell in love and then willingly traded their lives for a brief interlude of excitement and, more important, fame. Go Down Together has it all—true romance, rebellion against authority, bullets flying, cars crashing, and, in the end, a dramatic death at the hands of a celebrity lawman. This is the real story of Bonnie and Clyde and their troubled times, delivered with cinematic sweep by a masterful storyteller.

In 1897, a human torso was discovered in the Lower East Side. In Harlem, neatly severed limbs were found in an overgrown ditch. Clues turned up all over New York, but with no witnesses, no motives, and no suspects. This horrifying and baffling murder mystery of the Gilded Age is the perfect follow-up for fans of The Devil in the White City.

Behind the jazz and speakeasies of 1920s Detroit, racial tensions boiled. When a black doctor moved into a white neighborhood, a mob arrived on his doorstep, and a shooting and panic ensued. What follows is a controversial courtroom drama that includes the famous Clarence Darrow and one man struggling to overcome racism.