True Crime

America's foremost expert on criminal profiling provides a gripping analysis of seven of the most notorious murder cases in the history of crime. Taking a fresh and penetrating look at each case, the authors re-examine and reinterpret accepted facts and victimology using modern profiling and criminal analysis - with fascinating and haunting results. more...

Price: $7.50

Hundreds of thousands of the inmates who populate the nation’s jails and prison systems today are identified as mentally ill. Many experts point to the deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals in the 1960s, which led to more patients living on their own, as the reason for this high rate of incarceration. But this explanation does not justify why our society has chosen to treat these people with punitive measures. In Crime, Punishment, and Mental Illness, Patricia E. Erickson and Steven K. Erickson explore how societal beliefs about free will and moral responsibility have shaped current policies and they identify the differences among the goals, ethos, and actions of the legal and health care systems. Drawing on high-profile cases, the authors provide a critical analysis of topics, including legal standards for competency, insanity versus mental illness, sex offenders, psychologically disturbed juveniles, the injury and death rates of mentally ill prisoners due to the inappropriate use of force, the high level of suicide, and the release of mentally ill individuals from jails and prisons who have received little or no treatment. more...

Price: $20.00

When attorney Cheryl Keeton's body was found in her van on an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was a suspect. But there was no solid evidence to link him to the crime. Here is the gripping account of the murder and trial - uncovering multiple marriages, infidelities, financial manipulations, and monstrous acts of harassment and revenge. more...

Price: $7.99

Bright, attractive, and both from good families, University of Texas college student Colton Pitonyak and vibrant redhead Jennifer Cave had the world at their beckoning. Cave, an ex-cheerleader, had just landed an exciting new job, while a big-money scholarship to UT's prestigious business school lured Pitonyak to Austin. Yet the former altar boy had a dark, unpredictable streak, one that ensnared him in the perilous underworld of drugs and guns. When Jennifer failed to show up for work on August 18, 2005, her mother became frightened. Sharon Cave's search led to Colton's West Campus apartment, where Jennifer's family discovered a scene worthy of the grisliest horror movie. Meanwhile, Colton Pitonyak was nowhere to be found. A Descent Into Hell is the gripping true story of one of the most brutal slayings in UT history—and the wild "Bonnie and Clyde-like" flight from justice of a cold-blooded young killer and his would-be girlfriend, who claimed that her unquestioning allegiance to Pitonyak was "just the way I roll.". more...

Price: $14.99

The true story of conspiracy, extortion, and murder in the name of God. In the summer of 2000, Taylor Helzer was convinced he was chosen to usher in the second coming of Jesus Christ-by any means necessary. This is the story of his unholy reign of terror and how the police took the self-proclaimed prophet down. Includes photographs. more...

Price: $7.99