Crime & Punishment

    Death Scenes

    The publication of Death Scenes: A Homicide Detective’s Scrapbook proves there is no such thing as the “good old days.”

    Jack Huddleston, a bona fide detective with the Los Angeles police department, collected together a scrapbook of oddities and gruesome moments from his years working for the force. Huddleston’s scrapbook spans Southern California in its noir heyday, circa 1925–1945, the time when the Black Dahlia killer and Winnie Ruth Judd were perpetrating their savage crimes.

    Assembled into book form by editor and designer Sean Tejaratchi courtesy of collector and filmmaker Nick Bougas, Death Scenes is divided into several sections: “Odditorium and The Living”; “Accidents and Accidental Deaths”; “Suicides”; “Homicides”; and “The Morgue.” Katherine Dunn, whose book Geek Love (Knopf) earned critical acclaim and bestseller status, provides a cogent introduction, tracing the history of the man behind the scrapbook, meditating on the meaning behind the mayhem and madness.

    “If you’ve ever wanted to gaze on crime-scene snaps… then this terrifying, near unbearable compilation is the book for you. Already an underground bestseller, the paradox is that Death Scenes is not so much a reflection of what a violent society it is, as what a safe one. For only in a society like ours, in which death is hidden away, would a book like this be so genuinely shocking.” — GQ Magazine

    $24.95

    DYING FOR THE TRUTH:

    “Mexico’s go-to Web site on information on the country’s drug war.” — MSNBC

    “A gritty, front-row seat to Mexico’s drug war.” — Houston Chronicle

    “Some of the horror it displays makes the 2002 film City of God, charting the drug war on the streets of Brazil’s look like a Disney film.” — The Daily Mail

     

    What is the value of telling the truth? For an independent blog reporter in the midst of the Mexican Drug War, it’s as important as her very life, which is threatened on a daily basis.  The internationally famous Blog Del Narco is an anonymously typed blog that documents a rare insider’s views of the elusive and highly violent drug war in Mexico.

     

    Hidden by veils of Internet privacy due to death threats, this 30-year-old blogger has become a local hero and is documenting Mexico’s decline.  She reveals the horrible savagery of the drug cartels with gruesomely graphic pictures, videos and stories of beheadings, death squads, paramilitary cops in ski masks dragging people off and public humiliation.  Blog Del Narco’s highly viewed site (Alexa rated 50 in Mexico, 5,000 in the US, 128,000+ twitter following) has become an international mecca of information into a world that few have gone, and even fewer have lived to tell about.

    Original handpicked blog entries are formatted to describe an epic and tragic true story that unfolds the savagery of daily life in Mexico.   This book contains both the original Spanish-language posts in addition to their English translations. Truth is risky, and sometimes it’s also harsh.  Dying for the Truth addresses narco-censorship, government corruption, and an ever-rising death toll all driven by American demand for the products controlled by the cartels and their government collaborators.  Blog Del Narco has fought back, and in turn, created hope in its people and an immense cult following for truth.

    The anonymous author is the only person in Mexico daring to write the truth about the violence and corruption of the horrifying drug war in a country that is quickly becoming one of the most dangerous in the world.  Her life has been threatened dozens of times, and her informants have often been killed. It’s a certainty she will be horribly murdered. Both the cartels and the government have searched for her. Her crime: reporting the truth.

     

    “What can happen to one can happen to all.”
    —  Publilius Syrus, 1stcentury B.C.

    $24.95

    I Ate His Heart

    “I ate his heart,” were the first words said to author and psychologist Nathalie von Zelowitz during an interview with a man convicted of killing and cannibalizing another man.

    Between 2011 and 2021, French prison psychologist Nathalie von Zelowitz met regularly with a man who had been sentenced to a high-security psychiatric facility for a homicide and an act of cannibalism. Unlike most defendants in such cases, the man was found mentally sound and legally responsible for his actions and received a criminal sentence.

    I Ate His Heart is a true crime confessional like no other—a darkly philosophical interrogation into the meaning of love, desire, and annihilation. This is not a Hannibal Lecter thriller.

    Von Zelowitz’s work explores the internal logic of the crime from the perpetrator’s perspective. Using firsthand interviews, reconstructed dialogue, and excerpts from the subject’s writing, she presents a detailed account of the psychological, philosophical, and emotional framework that led to the killing. She neither sensationalizes nor excuses. Instead, she allows the subject’s words and justifications to speak for themselves, offering readers a rare view into a case that defied common explanations of psychosis or insanity.

    Originally published in France to critical acclaim, I Ate His Heart arrives in English for the first time—a chilling, cerebral, and elegantly disturbing book that questions whether understanding evil can ever leave you unchanged. Includes a short foreword by cultural historian Jack Sargeant (Deathtripping, 1995).

    Driven by her passion for cinema and crime novels, Nathalie von Zelowitz began studying psychology in the late 1980s, intrigued by topics that were considered marginal at the time: serial killers, sex offenders, sexual perversion, and more. While interning at the Fleury Mrogis Prison in France, she had the opportunity to participate in a national research project on sex offenders after the murder of two young girls by Christian Van Geloven. Virtually nothing had been published on the subject in France prior to Von Zelowitz’s work. She wrote her master’s thesis on rape and her second master’s thesis on pedophilia.

    Translated by Jon von Zelowitz.

    $26.95

    Larceny Games

    The NFL is a $10 billion-a-year business with prominent government and corporate ties—CBS, NBC/GE, Disney/ESPN, and FOX to name a few. As the late broadcaster Howard Cosell wrote in 1985, “The NFL, you see, monitors and collects just about everything that is written about it in newspapers and magazines and said about it on radio and television. . . . Like the CIA and the FBI, the NFL has its own enemies list—and I got the distinct impression that I was at the top of it.”

     

    Although sports gambling is seen as a victimless crime, 99 percent of all sports gambling in the United States is done illegally, its untold billions of dollars directly handed by the mob. It is their top money-maker, followed closely by loan sharking activities that often accompany gamblers who cannot pay their bookies in time. When games are fixed today, the money wagered on rigged contests is trafficked through these mob-backed bookmakers.

     

    Much of the information of this book is taken directly from FBI case files obtained through multiple Freedom of Information Act requests. The FBI held over four hundred files directly related to sports bribery, which is the legal term for game fixing and/or point shaving. These covered everything from horse racing to boxing to college athletic events to the NFL, NBA, and MLB (with a notable exception of the NHL).

     

    “Brian Tuohy examines the connections between big-time sports, big-money gambling and organized crime, digging through previously unreleased FBI case files to pose hard questions and draw disturbing conclusions.” — Patrick Hruby, Sports On Earth

     

    “If you’ve lost money gambling on games, there’s a reason. If you’ve won, read this before you put down your next bet. For his own good, Tuohy probably shouldn’t have written this book.” — Howard Schlossberg, Columbia College ,Chicago

     

    “Once again, Brian shows there’s much more to professional sports than meets the eyes (or ears), He digs so deep that he’ll need a bodyguard!” — Sam Bourquin, Host, WHBC Ohio

     

    $18.95

    Rose City Vice

    Explore the dark underbelly of Portland, Oregon — a city built not just on roses, but rackets, corruption, and buried secrets.

    In Rose City Vice: Expanded Edition, veteran journalist Phil Stanford pulls back the curtain on a Northwest city once teeming with graft, organized crime, and political scandal. From the post–Civil War frontier swindles to the infamous Portland Vice Scandal of 1956–57—which led to Senate hearings and national headlines—this gripping nonfiction narrative details a shocking history of prostitution, drugs, murder, and coverups in the City of Roses.

    This expanded edition includes Stanford’s explosive true crime short story “Wheeler Dealer,” a chilling tale of murder, betrayal, and conspiracy within Portland’s tight-knit criminal underworld. First published in Portland Monthly“Wheeler Dealer” has been praised for its meticulous detail and narrative power—blurring the line between investigative journalism and noir storytelling.

    By the 1970s, as Portland’s reputation slid from clean-cut to corrupt, Rose City Vice reveals a police narcotics squad gone rogue, a city council high on cocaine, and a mayor embroiled in a disturbing underage scandal—all as the local vice squad watched from the shadows. Stanford’s insider knowledge and razor-sharp prose make this one of the most compelling true crime accounts of citywide moral collapse ever written.

    Perfect for fans of David Simon, James Ellroy, and classic noir journalism, this is Portland as you’ve never seen it—raw, dirty, and unforgettable.

    $28.95

    The Gates Of Janus

    “To understand human character, one must first explore the depraved reaches of human consciousness.” – Colin Wilson

    Ian Brady and Myra Hindley’s spree of torture, sexual abuse, and murder of children in the 1960s was one of the most appalling series of crimes ever committed in England, and remains almost daily fixated upon by the British tabloid press. In The Gates of Janus, Ian Brady himself allows us a glimpse into the mind of a murderer as he analyzes a dozen other serial crimes and killers.

    Criminal profiling by a criminal was not invented by the dramatists of Dexter.

    Novelist and true-crime writer Colin Wilson, author of the famous and influential book The Outsider, remarks in his introduction to Brady’s book that one must first explore the depraved reaches of human consciousness to truly understand human character.

    When first released in 2001, The Gates of Janus sparked controversy attended by a huge media splash. The new edition, the first in paperback, provides the reader with a decade and a half of updates, including Brady’s letters to the publisher, both providing information regarding his own demented history along with demands that Feral House remove its unflattering afterword written by author Peter Sotos.

     

    $29.95

    True Vampires

    Some vampires are not fictional creatures. This book examines the real vampires whose crimes have contributed to the fearsome mythos. True Vampires takes you into the minds of real blood-sucking killers from Romania and Russia, France and Wales, Brazil and South Africa, to the hills of Kentucky and the streets of Los Angeles.

    The history of the vampire mythos is traced from Jesus Christ urging his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood, to the legendary exploits of Vlad the Impaler, Countess Bathory, and Sawney Bean. Ancient tales of the accursed undead rising from the grave are given new life when compared with modern accounts of persons approaching burial who suddenly sit up and ask for a drink of water.

    Sondra London, also the co-author of The Making of a Serial Killer, explains how the seductive appeal of the commercialized vampire image acts as a “media virus” and contributes to a widespread desensitization toward a truly horrific level of personal violence.

    The current crop portrayed here includes Rod Ferrell and his Vampire Clan, bloodsucking teens like Virginian Kyle Hulbert and Welshman Matthew Hardman, stoned rapper Big Lurch, boy-eating pedophile Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, vampire rapist John Crutchley, San Francisco Samurai Joshua Rudiger, and the pair of German occultists who hailed Satan in court, Manuela and Daniel Ruda.

    Vivid and detailed histories are given for the earlier generations of flesh-eaters and blood-suckers, including the infamous Peter Kurten, Fritz Haarmann, John Haigh, Richard Trenton Chase, Issei Sagawa, Stanley Dean Baker, Daniel Rakowitz, Ed Gein, Albert Fish, Arthur Shawcross, Andrei Chikatilo, Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas.

    The Ultimate Vampire of contemporary variety is revealed to be Nicolas Claux, otherwise known as “The Vampire of Paris.” This notorious blood-sucking killer is also a talented artist, and as such, Claux has lavishly illustrated this book with a series of striking oil portraits of vampire killers, and his Oath to Satan, inscribed and sworn in his own blood while he was imprisoned for murder.

    “Provocative…eerie… compelling reading.”
    — Mysteries Magazine

    “Creepy as the topic may seem to some, this book is the best overview of the subject to find its way into print to date. London has corresponded with and interviewed several incarcerated murderers, some of whom consider themselves to be vampires, and the book contains numerous illustrations of bloodsucking serial killers rendered (quite artfully, really) by Nicolas Claux, aka “The Vampire of Paris.” …If you crave depictions of severe depravity and mental illness, this book is your ticket to wallow in the bloody mire.”
    — Dennis P. EichhornSCRAM

    “Anyone who cherishes the comforting belief that blood-sucking fiends are simply a figment of the Gothic imagination will never sleep peacefully again after reading Sondra London’s encyclopedic survey of the vampire phenomenon. Covering every aspect of this darkly fascinating subject—from myth and folklore to history and psychology—her book is at its unnerving best in revealing the existence of the monsters among us: those real-life beings possessed by an unslakable thirst for human gore. Even the most widely read true crime aficionado will learn something new and shocking from virtually every page of this astonishing volume. London has produced a classic of the genre.”
    — Harold Schechter, Author, Depraved, Deviant, Deranged

    “If you’ve ever wondered if vampires really exist in human form, Sondra London has written the book for you, and it is an absolutely absorbing read. The current crop of menacing blood drinkers are all here, real life killer vampires lurking in the shadows of cemeteries and prison cells from Florida to Paris, along with such legendary vampires of the distant past as Peter Kurten, the Vampire of Dusseldorf; and Britain’s monstrous John George Haigh. Reading London’s riveting and forceful study of the vampire netherworld is an adventure you shouldn’t miss. But beware: You may never sleep with the light off again.”
    — Clifford Linedecker, Author, Modern Vampires

    “Sondra London knows her vampires – not the fictional ones who spring full-blown from the heads of novelists but the genuine articles, the real vampires who kill and suck blood and leave a scarlet trail of terror in the night. TRUE VAMPIRES isn’t for the squeamish, but connoisseurs of true crime will find it almost too good for the genre. Behind her splashy and sexy facade, Sondra London has always been a superb journalist and writer. This book is her best.”
    — Jack Olsen, author, Misbegotten Son, The Last Man Standing

    “Vampires ought not to exist – that is a statement with which every sensible person will agree. Yet the research of Sondra London has revealed that on this matter, common sense is mistaken. Her account, which is destined to become a classic of the literature, ranges from Hungary in the 17th century to America in our own time, leaving no doubt that vampirism is more than a superstition – more, even, than a rare psychological illness: it is a reality that deserves to be taken into account by all students of paranormal research. The author, best known as a fine criminologist, here reveals herself as a remarkable historian.”
    — Colin Wilson, Author, Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries, The Occult

    “Prodigious research and compelling prose make TRUE VAMPIRES Sondra London’s most impressive work to date. If you believe bloodsuckers dwell only in myths and movies, think again. This is the ultimate insider’s view of a ghastly subculture as real – and as deadly – as it is difficult for “civilized” minds to conceive. London rips the lid off, and you won’t like what you find inside, which makes it all the more imperative to face the grisly truth.”
    — Michael Newton, Author, Encyclopedia of Serial Killers

    “An informative, chilling look deep inside a dangerous psychological subculture most of us wish didn’t exist. In True Vampires, author Sondra London travels a harrowing road many would fear to tread.”
    — Maury Terry, Author, The Ultimate Evil

    “Did a contemporary Cambodian vampire drink his victims’ blood to cure himself of AIDS? Is one of Japan’s foremost writers guilty of once having killed and devoured a college coed in Paris? Was the Russian monster known as “Iron Teeth” fond of human-flesh stews? These are among the myriad of intriguing questions answered in Sondra London’s masterpiece, True Vampires, a genuine work of high scholarship on this sanguinary subject. While her focus is on modern hematophiles, she spans the corridors of time to unearth vampiric themes throughout history, such as Jesus’ admonition to his disciples to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood, the unholy crimes committed in 1400 Scotland by a clan of flesh-ingesting cave dwellers, and the despicable acts of Hungary’s female vampire, Countess Erzsebet Bathory! And, to top it off, London’s index is a most comprehensive guide to the absorbing contents contained within! Accordingly, this book carries my highest commendation!”
    — Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. Host/Producer of the cable TV series, “Mysteries From Beyond The Other Dominion”

    “Vampires exist! They’ve been among us for centuries, and theyâre hiding in plain sight today. Sondra London proves it beyond a reasonable doubt in this incredible work of investigative reporting, historical sleuthing and forensic interpretation. Beginning at the intersection of mythology and the latest headlines, she follows the trail of historyâs most monstrous killers around the world, and finds the connections as few have dared and too many have overlooked. This is a scary stuff! A frightening, fascinating page-turner that drives a stake into the heart of disbelievers, turns true crime into literature and somehow even humanizes the hideous criminals who are driven by a bloodlust they can’t control. With TRUE VAMPIRES, Sondra London has unleashed an unholy Bible that criminologists, journalists and historians will use as a textbook, and she shows the world the talent and courage that many in the journalism field have known about for years.”
    — Burt Kearns, Author, Tabloid Baby, Documentary filmmaker

    “Far from the sensual, seductive image of the vampire made popular in romantic fiction and motion pictures, there lies a dark and dangerous being, monstrously human, rather than preternatural. The real vampires among us are not harmless, role-playing “Goths” with their fake fangs, swirling capes, and whitish, “undead” makeup, who attend nightclubs where every night is Halloween, but individuals who truly thirst for blood and do not hesitate to take human life to satisfy this perverse need. The traits of the real vampire may also include a ghoulish fascination with corpses and even a taste for human flesh. We are fortunate to have such a guide as Sondra London to keep us on a safe passage through a world that is nightmarish, grisly, gruesome, and all the more frightening because this book is not merely the creation of an imaginative author who wants to give us a good scare, but the product of a darn good investigative journalist who warns us that there are, indeed, real vampires.”
    — Brad Steiger, author, The Werewolf Book: An Encyclopedia of Shapeshifting Beings

    $16.95

    White House Call Girl

    Heidi Rikan was an ex-stripper, working for the mob in Washington D.C.  White House Call Girl tells how a call girl operation she was running at the time led to the Watergate break-in, which brought down Tricky Dick Nixon himself. If soft curves and round, plump nipples offend your sense of historical propriety, just take a deep breath and think of this book as documentary evidence – because that’s what it is. Needless to say, this is not part of the Watergate story that has come down to us over the decades. It is also only fair to point out that most of the more conventional Watergate histories — especially the designated official version as propounded by the Washington Post — dismiss this out of hand as dangerous “revisionist” history. If you’re not careful, you might end up being called a “conspiracy theorist.” You can also be called crazy – which is what happened to a young lawyer named Phillip Bailley, one of the principal witnesses to this ignored bit of American history. When he was foolish enough to blow the whistle on Heidi and her call girl ring, he was locked up at St. Elizabeth’s, the District of Columbia’s mental hospital, in the ward for the criminally insane.

    For forty years we’ve only heard the Woodward and Bernstein perspective on Watergate. Finally we get to hear (and see) the other version. We’ve got the photos. What’s more, we’ve got Heidi’s little black book.

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    $19.95

    Zodiactually

    The biggest hoax in American crime is now revealed

    Who was the Zodiac Killer?

    A sadistic murderer who claimed thirty-seven victims? A master manipulator who taunted the police with cryptic letters and mind-bending ciphers? Or a shadowy figure who terrorized California—and the nation—with an almost supernatural ability to evade capture?

    In an era when nearly 80% of homicides were solved, how could this killer escape justice? And more than half a century later, why does his identity remain one of history’s greatest mysteries? What if the shocking truth is this: the Zodiac Killer never existed?

    In Zodiactually, former police officer Eddie McNamara peels back decades of myth and sensationalism to expose the chilling truths behind one of the world’s most infamous cases. Through painstaking research of original police files, interviews, deep dives into newspaper archives, and analysis of thousands of pages of court records, McNamara delivers a groundbreaking revelation: the Zodiac Killer wasn’t a single, unstoppable predator but an urban legend set in motion by an unlikely source and amplified by the media and public imagination.

    Zodiactually unveils the hidden truths and forgotten stories surrounding the murders that captivated the world—and the fear that turned them into legend. This groundbreaking book will challenge everything you think you know about the Zodiac and force you to confront how myth, media, and hysteria shape history.

     

    Eddie McNamara is the author of the crime novel Brooklyn Hardcore, the vegetarian cookbook Toss Your Own Salad, and the short story collection Two Fare Zone. In a former life, he was a New York City Police officer and 9/11 first responder, and a columnist for Penthouse magazine.

    “What if the reason his identity remains a mystery until today is that the Zodiac was a hippie-era media boogeyman and not a real person?” The answer lies in a later question and answer: “But who benefits from a serial killer who can’t be caught? So, so many people.” This is about the assholes who profited. A welcome salve to the true-crime scars wrought by Helter Skelter.
    From the first chapter — “Everything You Know About the Sixties is Bullshit,” McNamara signals we are in for an honest trip through the past. Today, we are fed bullshit from every side; ‘news,’ ‘authorities,’ ‘social media,’ on and on, every one of them with their own ulterior motives, usually following his assessment, “It’s not conspiracy, it’s commerce.” Eddie McNamara tells the story of the ‘Zodiac Killer,’ clears up a whole lot of bullshit, and tells us how we got to this synthetic, mercenary society we find ourselves mired in today.”   — Theodore Van Alst, Jr., author of The El and Never Whistle At Night.

    “Eddie McNamara takes us on a journey back to the 1960’s. He challenges a lot of commonly held beliefs about the Zodiac Killer mystery. Eddie is always skeptical, but it provides some well needed skepticism in one of America’s most famous unsolved mysteries.”  — Ned DeHan, Black Box Online Radio.

    $26.95