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TRUE CRIMES -1-
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Poison - The Coward's Weapon by David Gee
Large paperback in excellent condition. Whitcoulls NZ (1985). 128pp. NZD: 5.50 / P & P: A Sensational New Zealand Cases. Stealthy, calculating, chillingly indifferent - that is the poisoner. And death - perhaps slow, perhaps agonisingly sudden - is the aim. Whether we read of it as fact or fiction, this subtle form of murder has fascinated and horrified us for centuries. Brought dramatically to life from contemporary newspaper reports, this collection of New Zealand cases, from 1859 onwards, reveals the ingenuity and cold-blooded determination of those who poison. - 'Baby farmer' Minnie Dean - she carried one victim in a tin hatbox. - Eric Mareo - did this bohemian musician really murder his wife? - Henry Stryche - a respectable clerk who tried to bribe a doctor to get rid of his wife. - Phyllis Freeman - was it jealousy that led her to give poisoned sweets to one woman and murder another? - Tom Hall - the dashing young man who poisoned his wife and her father out of sheer greed. Questions remain unanswered in many cases; some are still talked about; all were a sensation in their day. Now you can read about these men and women who resorted to poison - the coward's weapon. 
Crime and the Occult - Paul Tabori
Hardback with d/w in very good condition. David & Charles (First Edition - 2003). 260pp . NZD: 9.50 / P & P: B The author examines the use of ESP and parapsychology in helping detection and solving criminal cases. Paul Tabori was Hungarian-born British novelist, journalist, political writer, scriptwriter, and psychical researcher. Tabori grew up with crime and the occult. His father was the first crime reporter in Hungary and, in the years after World War 1 when occultism became an influence in the West, he also became involved in physical investigation. Some years later, Paul himself became a crime reporter. His mentor was a Budapest police captain who took a special interest in extrasensory and parapsychological methods in detection. Ever since, he has followed such cases in Europe and America and so built up a rich collection of true stories of how the police, albeit not always explicably, have been assisted in this way. The psychological department of the Vienna Police did not hesitate on occasion to exploit hypnosis to solve mysteries, and a Miss Megalis was able to assist them when taken to the scene of suspected murders in the Salzkammergut: when she went into a trance and then asked to tell them precisely what happened at an exact moment of time she was able to describe the events in detail. There are separate chapters on the use of graphology, second sight and the subconscious. Witchcraft also plays its part and investigations of this in America and Europe provided very interesting cases including the one of Charles Manson and his 'family' in California, who were involved in one of the strangest murders of our time. As the author sums up, the borderline between psychology and parapsychology is very often blurred, and one of the pleasures of his book is that, as often as not, the reader is left to reach his own verdict. Everyone of the cases in this book would have fascinated any of the great detectives of fiction from Sherlock Holrnes to Maigret, just as they will capture the imagination of their readers today. 
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale
Large format paperback in excellent condition. Bloomsbury (2009). 374pp. NZD: 5.50 / P & P: A An intriguing real-life whodunit. In June of 1860 three-year-old Saville Kent was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. The crime horrified all England and led to a national obsession with detection, ironically destroying, in the process, the career of perhaps the greatest detective in the land. At the time, the detective was a relatively new invention; there were only eight detectives in all of England and rarely were they called out of London, but this crime was so shocking, as Kate Summerscale relates in her scintillating new book, that Scotland Yard sent its best man to investigate, Inspector Jonathan Whicher. Whicher quickly believed the unbelievable—that someone within the family was responsible for the murder of young Saville Kent. Without sufficient evidence or a confession, though, his case was circumstantial and he returned to London a broken man. Though he would be vindicated five years later, the real legacy of Jonathan Whicher lives on in fiction: the tough, quirky, knowing, and all-seeing detective that we know and love today…from the cryptic Sgt Cuff in Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone to Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a provocative work of nonfiction that reads like a Victorian thriller. 
Mostly Murder - Sir Sydney Smith
Hardback with light green boards in very good+ condition. No d/j. Some wear on the edges of spine, otherwise covers clean. Pages bright and clean and binding tight. Numerous B & W photographs. This an ex-library book (Boots Booklovers Library) which was obviously hardly borrowed or only by extremely careful readers..! It is also a RARE First Edition of a classic criminology book. George G. Harrap (1959). 318pp . NZD: 14.50 / P & P: B Sir Sydney Smith was the doyen of forensic pathology in Edinburgh in the early decades of the twentieth century. This book is about some of the many interesting cases in his career in the first decades of the 20th century. Murder is not funny. Yet this obviously major first book on early forensic science turned out to be a 'snort of laughter' funny book. It's a very wryly written and very wise autobiography, with no backstabbing or self-congratulatory remarks. If anything, Smith was way too modest, in dealing with the many parts of forensic science (which are now dealt with by different departments in police, FBI, etc.). He managed to deal with ballistic forensics, stringing a couple of microscopes together while in Egypt in order to compare bullets and casings. This was way prior to the invention of comparison microscopes that are regularly used even in med school. The stories he tells are usually not well-known, but he had a good reason for sharing the story because it showed a particular means of solving a crime (or not solving it) using what they had available in forensics during the early 1900's. Smith imagination and ability to 'make do' are something that is badly missed in most sciences today. He certainly lived a very productive and valuable life, and obviously his inventions and unique ideas have been built upon in forensic science. I think he would not be surprised, but would have enjoyed the other newer fields in forensics such as entomology. 
Guilty But Insane : Four Trials For Murder by G.W. Keeton
Hardback in very good used condition. Black cloth boards with red lettering on spine. D/w stained on the back and with price neatly clipped. Binding tight. Inside, pages bright and clean with no foxing or inscriptions. Numerous illustrations and B & W photographs. First Edition published by MacDonald & Co. (1961). 208pp. NZD: 12.50 / P & P: C Professor Keeton considers here the use of the insanity plea (successfully and unsuccessfully) in British trials. This fascinating book gives an account of four trials of considerable significance for the development of the concept of medico-legal responsibility in British law. These were the trial of James Hadfield in 1800 for an attempt on the life of George III by firing a pistol at him at the theatre; the trial in 1843 of Daniel McNaughton; the Straffen case and the trial of 1952; and the trial of Gunther Podola in 1959. The medical conditions of the accused in each of these cases were very different. Hadfield had developed a paranoid state on the basis of a very severe brain injury; McNaughton was in all probability a paranoid schizophrenic; Straffen was feeble-minded; and Podola was a psychopath who developed a hysterical or possibly a feigned amnesia. The first two cases brought a re-orientation of the law; the third brought the existing law into disrepute; and the fourth has left matters just where they were, save for a lingering feeling of dissatisfaction in the minds of some legal authorities. Professor Keeton presents a vivid and dramatic account of the trials, shows how each of them fits into a historical picture, and provides an appreciation in the final chapter of how we now stand. He is scrupulously fair to the medical as well as the legal position, but is perhaps less critical of the latter than he might well have been. 
Jack The Ripper: The final Solution -S. Knight
Paperback in very good used condition. Numerous B & W reproductions of documents and photographs. Published by Granada (1983). 288pp. NZD: 5.50 / P & P: A Who really was Jack the Ripper? Was he a solitary assassin lurking in the shadows of gas-lit London? Or was Jack the Ripper three men: two killers and an accomplice? In this work the author investigates all aspects of this strange case shrouded in mystery and misconception. The discovery of the murders is described by the men who were there, and evidence reveals that the hitherto unsolved Ripper murders were in fact a culmination of a full-scale cover-up organized at the highest level of government. Though Stephen Knight's conclusions have been disproved numerous times, the "Royal Conspiracy" theory refuses to die. In fact, Knight's book is still in print after more than three decades, and remains one of the most widely read books on the subject. Though Knight fudged much of his evidence, he did make a number of worthwhile discoveries during his research. 
Solved - Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg
Hardback with d/w, both in excellent / as NEW condition. First Edition published by Carroll & Graf (1991). 296pp. NZD: 10.50 / P & P: C Finally! We have the answers. Here skilled spinners of mysteries crack classic unsolved crimes. Non-fiction accounts can only speculate as to who was behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy, who was Jack the Ripper, and whether Marilyn Monroe's death was murder or suicide. This ingenious collection presents 16 imaginative stories that speculatively "solve" unsolved crimes, shady deaths or historical enigmas. In "The Intransigents," Barry Malzberg spins a chilling scenario of the skulduggery behind the assassination of JFK. In "Closing the Doors," Rick Hautala uncannily convinces the reader that rock star Jim Morrison is actually the first-person narrator divulging the mystery-shrouded circumstances of his faked death. Some pieces are deeply satisfying, like Matthew Costello's "Shadow," about a search for Nazi mass murderer Martin Bormann; others are simply foolish, like "Diesel Dream," Alan Dean Foster's fantasy about Marilyn Monroe's demise. Selections pry into the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, the identity of Jack the Ripper, the explosion of the Challenger spacecraft, Watergate, penetration of British intelligence by Soviet spies and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Janis Joplin's overdose, Jim Morrison's death, Andropov's hospital stay... Imparting vicarious thrills, these entertaining tales enter deeply into the real-world events they attempt to un-riddle. Contributors include John Lutz, William DeAndrea, Barbara Paul, Rex Miller, Barry N. Malzberg, Alan Dean Foster, Nancy A. Collins, Matthew J. Costello, Brian Hodge and Sean Flannery among others. Readers will finally get the satisfaction from actual unsolved cases usually reserved for mystery fiction-the answers. 
The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard : Behind the scenes at Scotland Yard by Martin Fido and Keith Skinner
Large/thick paperback in excellent condition. Virgin Publishing (2000). 586pp. NZD: 8.50 / P & P: B For 170 years Scotland Yard has been the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service. 'The Yard' has become a symbol for law and order in London, and is also recognised around the world as the premier civilian peacekeeping force. This ground-breaking, official encyclopedia produced with the full co-operation of the Metropolitan Police, reveals a wealth of fascinating facts and stories from the Yard's eventful history. Arranged in an accessible A-Z format, over 500 entries and images cover every aspect of the yard, past and present, from A Division to Z Wagon, showing how the methods and nature of policing have evolved dramatically since Sir Robert Peel founded the Metropolitan Police in 1829. Illustrated with many previously unpublished images from the archives of the Metropolitan Police Museum, Appendices, Bibliog. and Index. Far from being a dry and dusty reference work, the book is packed with interesting and entertaining stories from the Yard's colourful history. Martin Fido is a full-time writer & broadcaster, specializing in crime & the author of "The Jack the Ripper A-Z", "Murders after Midnight", "The Crimes Detection & Death of Jack the Ripper, the Murder Guide to London" & "The Krays: Unfinished Business". Keith Skinner is co-author of many successful books, The Jack the Ripper A-Z (1991) and Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell (2001). He lives in Middlesex, England. 
Crime and its Detection - Edited by W. Teignmouth
Large hardback in good used condition with red cloth boards showing signs of wear/fading and some staining but solidly attached and binding very tight and solid. No d/w. Inside, pages bright and clean with no foxing. Numerous illustrations, diagrams, facsimiles and b&w photographs. First Edition by The Gresham Publishing Co. (1931). 256pp inc. Index. NZD: 17.50 / P & P: C A Criminology Reference Book from the days of Al Capone...!! Published in Britain, at a time when across the Atlantic in the USA Al Capone was misbehaving very badly, this book relates to cases solved by British Police. Most of these British cases, however, were also known worldwide at the time. A narrative of several British real cases from the early 20th century illustrating the application of the latest scientific methods of detection which helped solve these crimes of 90 years ago, some cases are still quite famous today. This fascinating book was designed mostly for the use of students in criminology in the 1930's and 1940's. However, 21st century C.S.I. runs along the same lines, with a boosted technology of course...!!! Contents: - The Armstrong case, by F. T. Jesse. - The Newcastle train murder, by Austen Allen. - The Bournemouth murder, by F. C. Betts. - The Gutteridge murder, by W. T. Shore. - Dr Crippen, by L. A. Parry. - The Dougal case, by F. T. Jesse. - The Podmore case, by W. L. Woodland. - The Mahon case, by F. C. Betts. - Yarmouth Beach murder, by Austen Allen. - The Fox case. by F. C. Betts. - Some cases of identification, by W. T. Shore. - Index. 
The Killing of Julia Wallace - Jonathan Goodman
Paperback in excellent used condition. Some age fading of pages edge. Published by Headline (1987). 322pp. NZD: 6.50 / P & P: A Julia Wallace's murder took place in Liverpool in the 1930s. The evidence against her Prudential agent husband William was quite thin, completely circumstantial, and the time frame in which he could have committed the crime was by most peoples' account too constricted for him to have accomplished it. The shenanighans of the police and prosecution team lead by Edward Hemmerde is revealed in detail and shows that at the very least Wallace did not get a fair trial. The defence KC comes in for some criticism too for not being proactive enough in Wallace's defence, and letting the prosecution get away with innuendo masquerading as fact. And how the jury could have convicted him on such paper-thin evidence shakes one's faith in the jury system – fortunately his appeal was successful and he was freed. Goodman interestingly relates the numerous scurrilous stories circulating about Wallace at the time, which were totally without foundation. The book also reveal a significant 'person of interest' Gordon Parry who had a grudge against Wallace (who had reported him to his superiors at the Pru for a financial infringement), was quite friendly with Julia (he took over part of William's round when the latter was ill for a couple of weeks), and who knew where he kept the cash collected from his rounds. Parry who was a minor crook also had access to a car the night of the murder, and had it thoroughly cleaned to remove bloodstains later in the night. His girlfriend at the time gave him an alibi but she retracted it some time later when Wallace was dead. The suspicion remains that the police weren't really interested in alternative suspects like Parry (who was well connected), and looked the other way. There is a final section where he details what became of the major players in the murder – the police, prosecutors, defence, witnesses etc. which makes for a pleasant 'closure' of an unpleasant crime. 
Beyond Belief: The Moors Murderers - Emlyn Williams
A Chronicle of Murder and its Detection. Hardback with black boards in excellent condition. Pictorial d/w in very good condition showing very little signs of wear. Mild fading of edge of pages. Binding tight. No inscriptions. Published by World Books (1968). 352pp . NZD: 9.50 / P & P: C True crime fans, you've never read one quite like this. This is probably one of the most accurate and thorough accounts of the Moors Murders ever, and also one of the best True Crime books ever written. Emlyn Williams' classic account of the notorious Moors Murderers, Ian Brady, a clerk, and Myra Hindley, a typist, who between 1962 and 1965 abducted, brutally abused and murdered five children varying in age from ten to seventeen - Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans - and buried them in shallow graves on Saddleworth Moor, in Lancashire. Williams brings the mid-Sixties of Britain shockingly to life in a startling abundance of mundane, often poignant, daily details. He does take flights of pure imagination in what they actually said and who did what when, but it's completely chilling and completely credible. He takes everything into account about the killers; he knows their backgrounds, their upbringings, the era; he knows how they spent their time, what they read, ate and drank, what they talked about. He's seen (and heard) the evidence of their crimes. What shocks him and the reader the most is the complete banality of these murders. The cruelty in the choice of victim; the almost bad-fairy-tale-like concept of the innocent child beguiled into the gingerbread house, which turns out to be inhabited by witches and monsters. 
Murder in the Heart - Alexandra Artley
A True Life Psychological Thriller . Paperback in excellent condition. Some tanning on edge of pages. Numerous B&W photographs. Penguin Books (1994). 272pp. NZD: 6.50 / P & P: A In the spring of 1988, two sisters, both in their late thirties, took a shotgun from an upstairs room in their terraced house in Preston and murdered their father. Each fired a shot at point-blank range into his chest as he lay in their sitting-room incapacitated by an epileptic fit. They then wandered to where the whisky was kept, and sat drinking and weeping with their mother. Eventually, one of them telephoned the police, and said: ‘Someone has shot my husband in the head and I think he’s dead.’ It wasn’t clear to the police, when they arrived, which of the women had made the call and which was in fact the wife. According to Alexandra Artley, June and Hilda Thompson ‘fully expected to go to prison for the rest of their lives’. They pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter, and received only a token punishment: two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years. The reason was the extraordinary violence and long years of sexual abuse they had suffered at the hands of their father, Tommy. Mr Justice Boreham conceded that the lives of the Thompson women had ‘been a form of torment’ and that they had taken their punishment ‘before the event’. One small indication of how right this was the fact (according to one report) that the days spent on remand had been some of the happiest of their lives, and that among the previously inaccessible freedoms they were now looking forward to were reading magazines like Woman’s Own and having Shredded Wheat for breakfast... Tommy Thompson would not have stood for either. He didn’t allow books into the house and he was the only one permitted to read the newspaper. He had a list of strict house rules... 
Dead Man in Paradise - James MacKinnon
Hardback with pictorial d/w, both in excellent, near new condition. Published by Faber and Faber (2006). 254pp. NZD: 6.50 / P & P: A This book is the winner of the 2006 Charles Taylor Prize, Canada’s award for the best literary non-fiction. It’s a sad, frustrating read if you care about Central and South America, as it clearly shows the damage done through constant interference by the United States. MacKinnon is the nephew of Father James Arthur MacKinnon, a Catholic missionary priest murdered by government soldiers in the Dominican Republic. Father James was shot during the American occupation of the Republic in 1965 because he spoke out against the terror tactics in his parish. Growing up with the story, but not the details, which no one seemed to be able to discover, MacKinnon decided find out for himself. The book explains what happens as he travels in the Republic seeking answers. Was his uncle’s death an “orchestrated assassination,” or was it, as the then government insisted, an accidental shooting? Father James’s story is told in short chapters between MacKinnon’s research and an excellent history of the doomed Republic. In the end MacKinnon arrives at a solution which seems to fit the events as he heard them from everyone and the medical reports of the bullet holes in his uncle’s body. With this he is content. 
Arthur Allan Thomas: The Inside Story - Crewe Murders: New Evidence
by Ian Wishart Large format paperback in excellent condition. With numerous B&W photos. Published by Howling at the Moon Publishing Ltd (2010). 286pp. NZD: 10.50 / P & P: B You won't agree with everything Ian Wishart writes, but you will think about it. Arthur Allan Thomas: The Inside Story is a book two generations of New Zealanders have waited for because, in it, Thomas and his second wife Jenny speak for the first time about his nine-year ordeal in prison for the 1970 murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe, and about his life after he was royally pardoned. Wishart also offers an explosive new theory about who pulled the trigger of the gun that killed the Crewes in their Pukekawa farmhouse and theorises about the mystery woman who fed their infant daughter, Rochelle, for days after the murders. He fingers Detective Sergeant Len Johnston, the man who planted the bullet shell in the Crewes' garden that nailed shut the case against Arthur Thomas. Wishart's evidence is far from irrefutable, but it is plausible. Read it and weep for the innocence New Zealand lost 40 years ago. With his thorough analysis of the evidence and his generous use of first-person accounts it's a stellar piece of journalism. It is not definitive, though. Anyone hoping that this is the slam dunk that solves the murders will be disappointed. Perhaps we'll never know what really happened at the Crewes' house in June 1970 but at worst Wishart's book adds timely and considerable weight to growing calls for police to reopen the case. 
David and Goliath - Joe Karam
Paperback in excellent used condition. Numerous explicit colour photos. Reed Books NZ (1997). 256pp. NZD: 8.50 / P & P: B It was a story that shocked New Zealand. In 1994, five members of the Bain family were shot dead in their Dunedin home. Four days later David Bain, the sole surviving family member, was arrested and charged with their murder. A year later, he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. But the story does not end there. David has always maintained his innocence, and gaps in the evidence used in court, and new evidence which has since come to light, support his claim. Yet he remains imprisoned for a crime he says he did not commit. Convinced that David Bain had been the victim of an enormous injustice, Karam began reading through the police case file and examining the evidence himself. What he discovered makes gripping reading. Debate has raged ever since on the guilt or innocence of David Bain. Was he out on his paper run when the murders occurred, did he return to find his entire family dead or did he plan an alibi by committing the brutal murders and then continuing to deliver papers as normal? Karam presents his argument in 'David and Goliath'. The title gives an indication of the books contents. David against much bigger adversaries being He examines the evidence in the case against David. He suggests alternative scenarios to the facts presented by the Crown. He also looks at the evidence of the secret witness that never got to testify and the behaviour of the police involved in the investigation. He argues it was a murder/suicide with the father as the culprit. He puts forward a motive and supporting evidence for this theory. For those who followed the case it offers an interesting angle. For those with only a recollection of a multiple slaying somewhere in the South Island, it may just make you want to learn more. There is no doubt that Karam believes in David Bain's innocence. However is his argument convincing....? I'll leave that up to you to decide. 
Oklahoma Rescue by Jon Hansen -- The Heroic Untold Story
By the Assistant Fire Chief, Oklahoma City Paperback in excellent, near new condition. Published by Ballantine (1995). 224pp. With 8 pages of photos. NZD: 5.00 / P & P: A "We felt the spirit of America in there--in that building with us. It's one of the things that kept us going." --Jon Hansen The devastating explosion that tore through the Federal Building in Oklahoma City on the morning of April 19, 1995, brought thousands of people rushing to help, hold, and heal. At the forefront of the gallant rescue effort was Assistant Fire Chief Jon Hansen, a career firefighter with twenty-two years' service. Now Hansen tells us the intimate story from the front lines, paying tribute to the men and women who became heroes in the days following the most violent act of terrorism in America's history. In this ultimate behind-the-headlines account, Hansen describes his first-hand experiences, from organizing the massive rescue effort on day one, through the valiant work performed in the harrowing area known as "the pit," to the heroic acts of courage he witnessed in the face of unfathomable loss. Candid, compelling, and inspirational, OKLAHOMA RESCUE is a true testament to bravery. "Chief Hansen has become the face of Oklahoma City, emerging as a symbol of this city's competence and compassion in the aftermath of the nation's worst terrorist attack." --The Dallas Morning News |