The Creation of a Serial Killer (2002) 365 p. Jack Olsen
In the early 1990s, Keith Hunter Jesperson committed a series of murders of women in Oregon, made easier by his job as a long haul truck driver. When the wrong people were arrested for one of the murders, he wrote to the police to claim credit for the crimes as the Happy Face Killer. This study of a serial killer is particularly interesting because the author was able to interview Jesperson extensively, and much of the book is told in his own words.
Audience: Adult
Debbie Darwine, LaGrange Public Library

Last Dance, Last Chance (2003) 463 p. Ann Rule
This collection of four true cases is loosely connected by the subject of liars.The title chapter deals with Dr. Anthony Pignataro, a New York cosmetic surgeon, who fabricated many of his credentials, causing suffering and the death of some of his patients.When his extravagant lifestyle began to catch up with him, he began to slowly poison his wife with arsenic. She survived to bring him to justice.The collection is Vol. 8 in Rule's Crime Files series. Audience: Adult
Debbie Darwine, LaGrange Public Library

Hidden Evidence (2000) 240p. David Owen
Crime detection techniques such as fingerprinting, arson investigation and DNA testing are described using forty cases throughout history as examples. The magazine-style layout and multitude of gory color photos make the book easy to browse. Audience: Adult, YA
Debbie Darwine, LaGrange Public Library

Death at the Priory: Sex, Love, and Murder in Victorian England (2001) 209p. James Ruddick
Young widow Florence Ricardo married handsome Charles Bravo in 1875. After a somewhat scandalous first marriage, and then a love affair with her doctor, Florence was hoping to settle down to a quiet, domestic life. But after moving in to Florence's home, her new husband abused her, fired her servants, and eventually dismissed her longtime companion. Then one night, as he was preparing for bed, Charles collapsed the victim of a particularly nasty poison. Who was responsible? Following both the contemporary investigation and modern leads, the author solves one of the major mysteries from the Victorian era.
Audience: adult and older YA. Nancy Bent, LaGrange Public Library

In Cold Blood (1965) 343p. Truman Capote
In Cold Blood is a "nonfiction novel," a genre created by Truman Capote to tell the story of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas and their 1959 murders. Although fact- based on Capote's painstaking research, the book reads like a mystery novel and explores in depth the personalities of the four victims and the two drifters, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, who murdered them, as well as Alvin Dewey, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation detective who worked the case. By the end of the book we feel we know these people and a host of secondary characters as well.

The story begins on the night of November 13, 1959, and ends more than three years later with the execution of the two killers. In between the reader is drawn into the investigation of what was at the time a shocking case: a prosperous farm family in a serene rural area brutally and mysteriously murdered. We may not be as shocked today by the murders or the brutality, but we are still amazed by Capote's skill in what the New York Review of Books called "The best documentary account of an American crime ever written." Forty years after its publication, that may well still be true.
Melissa Kennedy, River Forest Public Library

Mrs. Paine's Garage and the Murder of John F. Kennedy (2002) 211p. Thomas Mallon
Ruth Hyde Paine, a Quaker housewife in a suburb of Dallas, took in Marina Oswald and her young daughter while her husband, Lee Harvey Oswald, was in and out of work. Ruth was interested in learning Russian, and after meeting Russian-born Marina at a party, offered her a place to stay in return for help with the house and Russian conversation. The Oswalds also stored their possessions in Ruth's garage. Ironically, Ruth also tried to help the family by putting Lee on to a job opening at the Texas School Book Depository. This fascinating book looks at how the life of an innocent, well-intentioned woman was turned upside down by the events of November 22, 1963.
Audience: adult and YA. Nancy Bent, LaGrange Public Library

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003) 303p. Mary Roach
This book does not truly fit into the "true crime" genre, because although we learn about the human decay lab in Tennessee that helps determine times of death for criminal investigations, we discover that cadavers are and have been used in a myriad of other ways over the centuries. Author Mary Roach calls them our superheroes: "They brave fire without flinching, withstand falls from tall building & you can fire a gun at them or run a speedboat over their legs, and it will not faze them."

Roach is a wonderful writer, hilarious in a low key way that is respectful of her subject and subjects. Her descriptions of crash tests and the science of crucifixion are sweetly humorous rather than lurid. Even family funeral arrangements are gently mocked - Roach and her brother, left alone for an hour with their deceased mother by a kind but misguided funeral director, ended up doing the Jumble with her one last time, as they had done most mornings since they were children.

Although we hear about grave robbers and gun testing, Roach also writes poignantly about the respect that med students, once all black humor and toughness, now learn for the cadavers that guide their anatomy studies. Some schools sponsor memorial services for the cadavers in honor of the service they perform.

In spite of its satiric tone, the book is full of fascinating information, and makes us appreciate those who decide to, in Roach's words, "gain a little immortality" by donating their bodies for research.
Melissa Kennedy,River Forest Public Library

The Stranger Beside Me, 20th Anniversary Edition. (2001) 548 p., Ann Rule
Ann Rule's classic has set the standard for true crime books. Her story is fairly well known to fans of the genre. Rule met serial killer Ted Bundy at a Seattle crisis clinic in 1971 and remained in contact with him until his death in Florida's electric chair in 1989. Her story chronicles their friendship and the horror of discovering she hadn't really known the real Bundy. Rule has avoided all of the pitfalls cited by critics of the true crime genre; there are no senseless descriptions of gore and violence. She pays respectful attention to the victims. It is no small compliment that readers will remember the lives lost, as well as the larger than life persona of Bundy. So just what is the appeal after all these years? Bundy looked and seemed normal. An enthusiastic student of law (as well as other challenging subjects), a dedicated political fundraiser, a young man who saved clinic callers from suicide, was also a violent sociopath, repeatedly escaping from prison to kill again and maintaining his innocence until almost the bitter end. (Bundy admitted his crimes only in an attempt to escape the death penalty.) A chilling, yet fascinating, glimpse at a splintered mind. Suitable for YA.
Jennie Milojevic, Riverside Public Library

Once A King, Always A King (2003) 286 p., Reymundo Sanchez
In this gripping sequel to My Bloody Life (2000), Sanchez continues his alarmingly honest account of Chicago gang life. Here, he discusses the massive obstacles to completely leaving the life of a Latin King. Although no longer a member, Sanchez quickly returns to the life, living in the basement apartment of a King, selling drugs, and getting involved with a married woman, plus two other young girls. There is a safety in the familiar, making it easier for him to avoid his emotions and past abuse at the hands of family members. Death threats from competing branches of the Kings, a stint in jail, and more damaged relationships with women line his path to recovery. By book's end, he is still struggling to overcome his past. Recovering from a violent life is an ongoing, unfinished process for him. Brutal honesty, without much preaching, give his voice a credible edge that should have wide appeal for even the most reluctant YA readers. This book is graphic, but necessarily so.
Jennie Milojevic, Riverside Public Library

Zodiac (1996) 337p. Robert Graysmith
From 1968 to 1970, an unknown serial killer calling himself the Zodiac stalked and murdered at least 6 people in California. Through taunting letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, Zodiac claimed a much higher body count as he ridiculed police. Graysmith, an editorial cartoonist for the paper, includes reproductions of the original letters (many containing complex ciphers, which were broken by amateur code breakers). With unprecedented access to the police investigation, evidence, and eyewitnesses, the author has presented an exhaustive record of this unsolved series of murders. Later chapters detail the author's own theory regarding the identity of the killer, including his independent surveillance and investigation. Unsolved to this day, the Zodiac killings are an irresistible mystery for fans of the genre. Graphic but suitable for YA.
Jennie Milojevic, Riverside Public Library