If you're a fan of true crime cable channels, then you KNOW how bizarre the circumstances of true crime stories are! Tales can be shocking and bizarre, with tragic consequences. Yet, each story is comprised of fascinating twists and turns that keep our attention.

Below is a select list of titles from our true crime collection. (Caution: Most stories may be disturbing, to say the least. Read at your own discretion.)

The Paradiso Files: Boston's Unknown Serial Killer
By Timothy M. Burke

Author Timothy M. Burke exposes another sadistic figure, Leonard "The Quahog" Paradiso, who prowled Boston's streets. In a suspenseful account offered by the former prosecutor who sent Paradiso to prison for the 1979 slaying of Marie Lanuzzi, Burke builds a convincing case that the Revere, Massachusetts fish peddler was a cunning sexual predator who got away with many more slayings.

Hello Charlie: Letters from a Serial Killer
By Charlie Hess

In this chilling account, retired FBI agent Hess details his years of correspondence with serial killer Robert Browne, as he tried to coax out details of Browne's alleged 49 murders.

Inside the Mind of BTK: the True Story Behind Thirty Years of Hunting for the Wichita Serial Killer
By John E. Douglas

Legendary profiler and bestselling author Douglas (wrote Mindhunter), who pioneered the FBI's systematic study of serial killers, offers his insights into one of this country's most chilling killers - Dennis Rader, a seemingly innocuous family man and municipal employee, whose brutal murders terrorized Wichita, Kansas for three decades.

Thrill Killers: a True Story of Innocence and Murder Without Conscience
By Raymond Pingitore

This riveting tale of true crime and justice grips the reader from start to finish. In 2000, in Providence, Rhode Island, two college students were approached by a group of men, who forced the girls into their car. They were murdered when one of the perpetrators realized the students had seen his face. Long after the initial crime, Detective Raymond Pingitore, Jr. and both families started a relentless journey to bring the killers to justice.

Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy
By Donald B. Kraybill

When a gunman killed five Amish children and injured five others in a Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, schoolhouse, the media - and the world - were astounded by the extraodinary forgiveness demonstrated by the Amish community. The author presents a compelling study of Amish grace, which is grounded in the New Testament teachings that forgiveness is not an option.

If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer
By O.J. Simpson with exclusive commentary "He did it" by the Goldman family; Prologue by Pable F. Fenjves; Afterword by Dominick Dunne

In 2006, Harper Collins announced the publication of a book in which O.J. Simpson told how he hypothetically would have committed the 1994 murders of his wife, Nicole Brown, and Ron Goldman. In response to public outrage that Simpson stood to profit from these crimes, Harper Collins canceled the book. A Florida bankruptcy court awarded the rights to the Goldmans in August 2007 to partially satisfy the unpaid civil judgment, which has risen, with interest, to over $38 million. The Goldman family views this book as his confession.

Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters
By Peter Vronsky

In this fascinating book, Peter Vronsky exposes and investigates the phenomenon of women who kill - and the political, economic, social and sexual implications. He also highlights shocking stories of women serial killers throughout history.

Too Late to Say Goodbye: a True Story of Murder and Betrayal
By Ann Rule

Jenn Corbin appeared to have it all: two dear little boys, a posh home in an upscale suburb of Atlanta, expensive cars, a plush houseboat, and a husband - Dr. Bart Corbin, a successful dentist - who was tall, handsome and brilliant. Then Jenn was found dead with a bullet in her head, a revolver beside her. From the position of the body her death appeared to be a suicide. But the detective was not totally convinced, nor was Jenn's family.

Redbone: Money, Malice, and Murder in Atlanta
By Ron Stodghill
In August 1996, Lance Herndon, founder and CEO of the largest African-American computer consulting firm in the Southeast, was found dead, wrapped in a sheet on his waterbed with his head bashed in. His brutal murder rocked Atlanta's young black jet set, particularly when the sordid details of his personal life came to light.

The Daughters of Juarez: a True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border
By Teresa Rodriguez

The book is shocker in regard to details of the cases of over 300 murders since 1995 of mostly young women who were either students or maquiladora ("border factory") workers in and near Ciudad Juarez.

Relentless Pursuit: a True Story of Family, Murder, and the Prosecutor Who Wouldn't Quit
By Kevin Flynn

In 1993, Diane Hawkins was to appear in court to sue her husband for child support. On the court date, she and her daughter were savagely murdered. Outraged at the brutality of the murder, Flynn, a prosecutor in the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office, resolved to get the killer. As he recounts what happened, we learn about the importance of getting out and talking to people and of seeing the scene firsthand.

Final Analysis: the Untold Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case
By Catherine Crier

Catherine Crier, author, attorny, legal analyst, and host of Court TV's "Catherine Crier Live," unravels a shocking story of spousal murder. This book is about the nationally known Susan Polk-Felix case. In October 2002, Susan Polk brutally murdered Felix Polk, her ex-husband. She claimed it was self defense, because he had been physically, sexually and mentally abusing her for years.

Trail of Blood: a Father, a Son, and a Telltale Crime Scene Investigation
By Wanda Webb Evans

One bedroom, showing blood that could not be washed away, provides most of the forensic evidence and forms an indelible image of horror in this gripping true-crime suspense story. In 1991, Scott Dunn, a 24-year old Lubbock, Texas man, disappeared. Neither a body, nor a weapon was found. However, using a forensic test chemical, Luminol, investigators found Scott's blood all over the walls, ceiling, floor and the doornknobs in his bedroom. Journalist Evans meshes the story of the young man's murder with the story of his father, James, whose love for his son propels him to push the investigation forward for the following six years.

The Missing Girls: A Shocking True Story of Abduction and Murder
By Linda O'Neal

More than just the facts of the case, this is the shocking, true story of two kidnapped girls and their neighbor who held a deadly secret about their disappearance in Oregon in 2002.

Lethal Embrace
By Robert Mladinich

The sensational true story of Lee Ann Riedel of Long Island, who in 2000 along with her mob-connected lover, Ralph "Rocco" Salierno, plotted to murder her husband and wound up killing the wrong man.

'Till Death Do Us Part: Love, Marriage, and the Mind of the Killer Spouse
By Robi Ludwig

From Scott Peterson to Rabbi Fred Neulander, this book chronicles the psychological profiles of spouses who kill, told by a renowned psychotherapist who specializes in spousal behavior and the criminal mind.

Murder by the Bay: Historic Homicide In and About the City of San Francisco
By Charles F. Adams

San Francisco has had more than its share of truly fascinating and historic homicides. Each of these crimes illustrates an historic importance; each has impacted its times - either in the course or application of the law or in the manner in which the affair revealed a shortcoming in society.

Witness for the Prosecution of Scott Peterson
By Amber Frey

This is the story of how Amber Frey became ensnared in Scott Peterson's web of lies, and then risked everything to seek justice for Laci Peterson and her unborn child, Conner. It is also a story of forgiveness and faith, and one woman's struggle to live with an open and honest heart.

American Taboo: a Murder in the Peace Corps
By Philip Weiss

In 1975, a new group of Peace Corps volunteers landed on the island nation of Tonga. Among them was Deborah Gardner - a beautiful 23-year old who, in the following year, would be stabbed twenty-two times and left for dead inside her hut. Another volunteer turned himself in to the Tongan police, and many of the other Americans were sure he had committed the crime. But with the aid of the State Department, he returned home a free man. Although the story was kept quiet in the United States, Deb Gardner's death and the outlandish aftermath took on legendary proportions in Tonga.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
By Erik Larson

Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson's spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of the two men - the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America's place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.

Pointing from the Grave: a True Story of Murder and DNA
By Samantha Weinberg

This is the remarkable and gripping true story of a murderer and his victim, and the tiny molecule that linked their fates. It is both the history of a science overlaid with human drama, and a human tragedy inextricably entwined with science. It is about two lives made and destroyed by DNA - and by each other.

Compiled by Joan Jackson, April 2008.

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