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Book list
Real Crimes
Last updated: 17 Jan 2003
Addicted to Murder: The True Story of Harold Shipman |
Authors: Mikaela Sitford
Publisher: Manchester Evening News 2000 - ISBN: 0753504456 |
It was one of the most sensational murder trials of modern times. Could Harold Shipman, a well-loved Tameside GP, have murder fifteen women in his care? Had the people of Hyde been treated by Britian's biggest ever serial killer? And how many more did he kill? This gripping, horrifying book covers the whole story, from his birth to his eventual conviction. Sitford asks why Dr Shipman was able to get away with these crimes for so long, and how certain events in his background led to cold-blooded murder. She also gives an inside account of an earlier police investigation that failed to bring Shipman to justice.
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And the Blood Cried Out: A Prosecutor's Spellbinding Account of the Power of DNA |
Authors: Harlan Levy
Publisher: Basic Books; 1996 - ISBN: 0465017045 |
| Harlan Levy served as a District Attorney in the Manhattan DA's office where he worked as a homicide prosecutor. Here he gives a fascinating account of use of DNA evidence in the courtroom. He also shows how, in the OJ Simpson case, the DNA evidence first seemed to prove Simpson's guilt, and how the defence lawyers then exploited this evidence to undermine the prosecution's case. (OUT OF PRINT) |
Blind Justice: Miscarriages of Justice in Twentieth-Century Britain? |
Authors: John J. Eddleston
Publisher: ABO-CLIO Ltd, 2000 - ISBN: 1851093338 |
This fascinating book examines fifty crimes committed in England, Scotland and Wales in the twentieth century. It examines murder cases where the accused was found guilty and either executed, or sentenced to life imprisonment. In each case it is asserted that there was reasonable doubt, either as to the guilt, or the sanity, of the accused. At the same time, the case for the prosecution is described so that the coverage is balanced and informative. In each instance, full details including important dates, facts, names, witnesses and statements are provided. Cases include John Alexander Dickman, Robert William Hoolhouse, the 'Birmingham Six', the 'Bridgewater Four', Derek William Bentley, the 'Guildford Four', James Hanratty, Judith Minna Ward, Stefan Ivan Kiszko and Timothy John Evans.
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Blood Relations: Jeremy Bamber and the White House Farm Murders |
Authors: Roger Wilkes
Publisher: Penguin Books, 1994 - ISBN: 0140242007 |
| In the early hours of 7 August 1985 five members of the Bamber family were shot dead with a .22 calibre Anschutx rifle. Sheila Bamber, known to be psychologically unstable, was at first thought to have murdered her twin sons and adoptive parents, and then to have turned the gun on herself. Forensic evidence, however, told a different story and raised such questions as how Sheila could have received two shots in an act of suicide. A year later it was Jeremy Bamber, the only survivor, who was convicted of the callous murders of his entire family. He is currently serving a life sentence, but continues to protest his innocence. In the first full account of the case, Roger Wilkes bases his story around new forensic research, personal interviews with Jeremy Bamber, and previously undisclosed accounts and witness statements. He reveals an outwardly normal, wealthy farming family, inwardly beset by madness, religious mania, depression, dishonesty, greed and sexual tension. Extraordinary and shocking, it is a story that would defy the imagination of fiction writers. |
Bodies of Evidence: the Fascinating World of Forensic Science and How it Helped Solve More than 100 True Crimes |
Authors: Brian Innes
Publisher: Reader's Digest, 2000 - ISBN: 0762102950 |
With more than 100 true crime studies, this book is packed with case histories taken from around the world, including O.J. Simpson, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, "The Mad Bomber" George Metesky, Tommie Lee Andrews, "The Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, Jack Unterweger, Lee Harvey Oswald, "The Boston Strangler" Albert DeSalvo, Jeffrey MacDonald, the Lockerbie bombing, "The Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski, and many more. This book covers many "firsts", such as the first murder conviction without a body, and the first successful use of DNA analysis to secure a conviction. This book is illustrated throughout with 200 colour and black-and-white photographs, many of them offering rare and fascinating glimpses into police files.
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Catching the Killers: A History of Crime Detection |
Authors: James Morton
Publisher: Ebury Press, London, 2001 - ISBN: 0091874106 |
Catching the Killers is the compelling story of the development, by trial and error, of scientific techniques in the fight against crime during the twentieth century. Criminal detection has been revolutionised by the implementation of groundbreaking techniques such as fingerprinting and DNA sampling. Using previously unpublished sources and interviews with experts, Catching the Killers gives us an exclusive insight into the fascinating cases that have been solved using the latest in scientific technology. By reliving seminal cases in minute detail, James Morton uncovers the secrets of detectives and scientists as they have developed techniques for fighting crime. From the amazing story of Scotland Yard's Ghost Squad, to the Mad Bomber of the United States, this book reveals the detective work behind these and many other seemingly unsolvable crimes. Offender profiling, forensic pathology, informants, surveillance, ballistics, fingerprinting, serology and DNA sampling have all become essential tools in the arsenal of the modern detective. Accompanying the major BBC TV series, Catching the Killers tells the story of these developments in gripping detail.
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Crime Busting: Breakthroughs in Forensic Science |
Authors: Dr Jenny Ward
Publisher: Blandford Press, 1998 - ISBN: 0713726393 |
| This book examines twenty famous cases in forensic science, each one a significant signpost on the route to the scientific solution of crime. Ranging from the bodysnatching case of Burke and Hare in 1828 to the extensive use of scientific data today, her case studies show the fragile interdependence of forensic science, the criminal justice system and human nature. |
Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist |
Authors: William R. Maples and M. Browning
Publisher: Souvenir Press - ISBN: 0285632787 |
Dr Maples works in the Human Identification Laboratory at the University of Florida from where he is called upon to identify long-buried remains. In his book he describes some of the strangest, most interesting and most horrific investigations he has been involved in, from cases of gruesome and baffling dismemberment to double suicides and fire victims. One of his more famous cases involved the identification of fragments found in the makeshift grave of Czar Nicholas II and his family.
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Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers |
Authors: Michael Baden and Marion Roach
Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2001 - ISBN: 0684867583 |
Forensic science used to be a specialised field virtually unknown to the general public. In recent years, news reports of crimes solved through the analysis of DNA evidence have given everyone a glimpse of this astonishing field. But behind the crime scene tape and the doors of the morgue is a world never seen by the public. Now famed pathologists Dr Michael Baden and award-winning writer Marion Roach take readers on a tour of sites otherwise closed to visitors. This book examines cases both famous and little-known to explain why the first hours at a crime scene are crucial. Baden and Roach reveal, for example, how a key clue to the killer of Nicole Brown Simpson was lost when her body was moved to the morgue, and why the JonBenet Ramsey case can never be solved. They show how no clue is too small to be analysed; in one murder case, the imprint of a button on the victim’s skin was overlooked until months later when, while reviewing crime scene photos, Dr Baden spotted it, causing the case to take an astonishing turn. In another case, the presence of insects on a body helped to pinpoint the time of death and discredit the killer’s alibi. Even crimes that took place decades earlier can be re-examined, as in the case of Medgar Evers’s assassination, or the murders of the Romanovs in Russia.
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DNA in the Courtroom: A Trial Watcher's Guide |
Authors: Howard Coleman and Eric Swenson
Publisher: Genelex Press, 1994 - ISBN: 0964450704 |
This book is about the OJ Simpson trial and thousands of DNA cases heard each year. It is a clear, comprehensive and succinct guide to the scientific and legal issues surrounding forensic DNA testing. It also explains the complex technology and testimony of DNA in terms that the layman can understand. It is written by a DNA expert who has been testifying about forensic and paternity DNA testing since 1986.
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Error of Judgement: The Truth about the Birmingham Bombings |
Authors: Chris Mullin
Publisher: Poolbeg; 1997 (4th edition) - ISBN: 1853713651 |
The book says "this is the story of how six innocent men were convicted of the biggest murder in British history". It takes the story from the failure of the second appeal in January 1988 to the release of the Birmingham Six in March 1991. It covers the subsequent abandoning of the case against former Superintendent George Reade and two other police officers on charges of perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. New material includes evidence discovered by the Devon and Cornwall police.
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Fingerprints: Murder and the Race to uncover the Science of Identity |
Authors: Colin Beavan
Publisher: Harper Collins, 2002 - ISBN: 1841157392 |
| In this book, Colin Bevan uses several gripping real-life dramas as the underpinning for an engaging history of the rise of forensic science. He covers the entire history of fingerprinting from the pioneering use of physical evidence by Vidocq at the beginning of the nineteenth century through Herschel's experiments, Faulds' suggestion that fingerprinting be used to identify criminals, Galton's studies into fingerprints as predictors of character, Henry and Haque's system of fingerprint classification to the powerful computers that store and match fingerprints today. Cases include the murder of Thomas and Ann Farrow in Deptford, London in 1905, the mistaken prosecution and sentence of Adolf Beck in 1904 and the conviction of Thomas Jennings for the Clarence Hiller's murder in the US in 1911. The book contains a chronology of fingerprinting, extensive source notes, a bibliography and an index as well as an epilogue relating the science of fingerprinting with that of DNA. |
Forensic Fingerprints: Remarkable Real-Life Murder Cases |
Authors: Hugh Miller
Publisher: Headline; 1998 - ISBN: 0747257981 |
| The book is presented in dramatic detail and reveals the techniques used to solve 16 real-life cases drawn from police files in the UK, America and Europe. The crimes were solved on the basis of forensic investigation when traditional police detection methods failed. Cases presented include: the murders of Billy Semple in Glasgow in 1957; Eddie Hoskins from Barnwell, Cambridgeshire in 1981, poisoned by his housekeeper and the deaths of Pat Eldridge and Steve Prout from Wakefield in 1983. (OUT OF PRINT) |
Hard Evidence |
Authors: David Fisher
Publisher: Dell, 1995 - ISBN: 0440222362 |
The FBI’s sci-crime lab in Washington, D.C. has been called the world’s best forensics department. Using DNA, special photography, video enhancement, chemical analysis, X-rays, and even superglue, it has cracked the baffling cases no one else could. Now this riveting book shows you how it was done. Best-selling author David Fisher, granted unprecedented access to the lab, takes readers behind the scenes for the amazing real-life detective work that helped to catch the most notorious criminals of our time. Told by the agents who actually conducted the investigations, you’ll get the inside story on:
the ongoing hunt for the Unabomber, and the telltale materials used by this elusive serial bomber
the "pristine bullet" in the Kennedy assassination
the thumbnail-size piece of plastics that led to the Pan Am Flight 103 bombers
the mysterious green specks that nabbed the woman putting cyanide in Excedrin… and more. |
Innocents: How Justice Failed Stefan Kiszko and Lesley Molseed |
Authors: Jonathan Rose, Steve Panter and Trevor Wilkinson
Publisher: Fourth Estate, London, 1997 - ISBN: 1857024028 |
| In 1975 eleven-year-old Lesley Molseed was abducted and stabbed to death on a Pennine moor, her killer having ejaculated over her body. Stefan Kiszko confessed to her murder and spent 16 years in jail. At the time no positive forensic evidence was offered. He was released in 1991 when the Law Lords declared he could not have been the killer. Lesley's killer is still at liberty. (OUT OF PRINT) |
Jill Dando: Her Life and Death |
Authors: Brian Cathcart
Publisher: Penguin, London, 2001 - ISBN: 01402944686 |
In a fascinating study of fame and crime, Cathcart charts Dando's rise from gawky schoolgirl to household name and seeks the sources of her huge popularity. Then he dissects the murder, the intensive investigations it prompted and the evidence that led, two years on, to a sensational Old Bailey trial.
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Killer on the Loose. The Inside Story of the Rachel Nickell Murder Investigation |
Authors: Mike Fielder
Publisher: Blake Publishing, 1994 - ISBN: 1857821076 |
| In July 1992 Rachel Nickell was walking with her son and their dog on Wimbledon Common when a maniac savagely murdered then assaulted her. He left her two-year-old child clinging to his mother's blood corpse. Although loner Colin Stagg was acquitted of this crime, the author, a crime reporter for The Sun newspaper for 23 years, has continued to follow the story ever since that fateful day on the Common. He tells why police were certain Stagg was the murderer and how an undercover policewoman became his pen-pal, then girlfriend, to try to prove a factual account of the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the suspect and the problems faced by the police officers investigating the murder. (OUT OF PRINT) |
Landmarks in 20th Century Murder |
Authors: Robin Odell
Publisher: Headline, 1995 - ISBN: 0747243107 |
| This publication looks at sensational murder cases that have made the headlines over the last hundred years. Using individual cases the author reviews the changes that have occurred in forensic science, the law and criminal investigations through the decades. More recent cases discussed include those of The Yorkshire Ripper (Peter Sutcliffe), Denis Nilsen; the Pitchfork Murder - the first case where the DNA technique for mass screening was used on the male population of the village of Narborough; the Jeremy Bamber case, concluding with the (in)famous IRA cases. |
Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder |
Authors: Vincent Bugliosi
Publisher: W.W. Norton and Company, 1996 - ISBN: 039304050X |
Bugliosi believes that in the Simpson case, there was a mountain of incriminating evidence pointing inevitably and absolutely to the defendant’s guilt. In this book, Bugliosi describes the five reasons why OJ Simpson was found not guilty of the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. These reasons are the prior knowledge of the jurors, the change of venue for the trial, Judge Ito’s decision to allow the defence to play the race card, the incompetence of the prosecution and the weak voice of the people. Bugliosi argues that most of the incriminating evidence, including some of the most vital pieces, was never presented to the jury by the prosecutors. There were disastrous gaps in the prosecution’s strategy, which allowed damaging defence testimony to go unchallenged. Prosecutors Clark and Darden failed to stand up to the abuses of Judge Ito, thereby hurting their credibility with the jury. The final summations of the prosecutors were weakly constructed, listlessly argued and, most unforgivably, inadequately prepared.
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Prescription for Murder: The True Story of Mass Murderer Dr Harold Frederick Shipman |
Authors: Brian Whittle and Jean Ritchie
Publisher: Warner Books, 2000 - ISBN: 0751529982 |
Prescription for Murder is a compelling account of the Shipman murders and of the man who committed them, examining Shipman’s early life and the traumatic death of his mother, his home life with his wife and children, and his public front as a caring family doctor. The authors have had unparalleled access to friends, colleagues and patients. Their in-depth and authoritative investigation looks at how he killed, how he was able to get away with it for so long and why he did it.
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Proclaimed in Blood. True Crimes Solved by Forensic Scientists |
Authors: Hugh Miller
Publisher: Headline Book Publishing, 1995 - ISBN: 0747246459 |
| The book covers the forensic aspect of 17 real-life murder cases from around the world. The author shows that forensic scientists, working in partnership with the investigating officer, can often deliver the goods when other forms of investigation are thwarted. |
The Birmingham Six & Other Cases: Victims of Circumstance |
Authors: Sir Louis Blom-Cooper
Publisher: Duckworth; 1997 - ISBN: 0715628135 |
This is another book on the miscarriage of justice. The author, a Queen's Counsel and former chairman of the Howard League for Penal Reform, puts the records straight about the most famous criminal case in recent British legal history - that of the Birmingham Six.
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The Blooding: The True Story of the Narborough Village Murder. |
Authors: Joseph Wambaugh
Publisher: Bantam Press, 1989 - ISBN: 0593017064 |
On 21st November 1983 a young girl was raped and murdered near her home in the Leicestershire village of Narborough. Nearly three years later the case had still not been solved when another young girl was similarly raped and killed near the same village. In the hunt that followed a young kitchen porter, who had been sighted several times near the crime scene, was arrested and he subsequently confessed to the second murder. Convinced that they had found the killer of both girls, the police enlisted the help of a scientific aid that had only just been announced. The technique was known as “genetic fingerprinting”. The police were devastated when the lab report on the tests stated that the kitchen porter was innocent of both the first and second murder. However, the tests did prove conclusively that the crimes were committed by the same person. So began the first “mass screening” of all eligible males in the village that led to the arrest and conviction of the rapist and murderer Colin Pitchfork – the first man to be convicted using DNA evidence.
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The Casebook of Forensic Detection: How Science Solved 100 of the World's Most Baffling Crimes |
Authors: Colin Evans
Publisher: Wiley, 1996 - ISBN: 047128369X |
A true-crime treasury of 100 of the most fascinating cases of all time. More than two centuries in the development of modern forensic procedures come to vivid life as everything from handwriting analysis and voiceprints to ballistics, DNA testing, and psychological profiled reveal whodunit (and, in some startling cases, who didn't do it).
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The Moors Murderers: the Trial of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady |
Authors: Jonathon Goodwin
Publisher: David and Charles, 1973 - ISBN: 0715390643 |
| The notorious crimes of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are still receiving worldwide publicity after more than 20 years. Disturbing new evidence has brought the murderers right back into the public arena but few people really know the truth of what actually happened. Based on the official transcript of the trial, this book (written with the assistance of the Director of Public Prosecutions at the time) presents the evidence of all the witnesses. It also outlines the legal arguments which took place in the absence of the jury; and reveals the astonishing personality and backgrounds of the accused. (OUT OF PRINT) |
The Plots to Rescue the Tsar: The Truth Behind the Disappearance of the Romanovs |
Authors: Shay McNeal
Publisher: HCentury, 2001 - ISBN: 0712680292 |
Shay McNeal's controversial new account challenges the accepted view that the Romanovs were murdered in 1918 in a basement in Ekaterinburg. The author presents convincing new scientific analysis questioning the authenticity of the 'Romanov' bones and uncovers an extraordinary tale of espionage and double dealing that has been kept secret for more than 80 years. Told with the pace of a thriller, this highly readable and vigorously. researched book forces a dramatic reappraisal of one of the most enduring mysteries of the twentieth century.
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