Crime Con

After her father died in 2003, Susan Fensten turned to a genealogy message board to search for surviving relatives. Days later, she was delighted to receive an email from someone claiming to be a distant cousin. In fact, Susan had just been ensnared by a relentless sociopath. She soon became the target of an elaborate cyber-hoax involving dozens of frightening characters, including known sex offenders, who made threats of kidnapping, murder, rape, torture, and cannibalism. Remarkable in its complexity, this story of Internet stalking is also a harrowing tale of courage in the face of madness.

Mikhail Popkov may be the most prolific serial killers in world history. He led a double-life as a family man with a wife and a young daughter. But after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Popkov was able to take advantage of the lack of police authority to get away with his most barbaric fantasies.

The first of a trilogy, this collection features 16 of the world's most outrageous scams and hoaxes. They all really happened and were taken from firsthand accounts, newspaper reports, or historical documents found in public libraries. They date as far back as the late 1800s, but most are more recent. However, you won't find any defrauded widows or orphans in these stories. The victims are institutions or corporations quite capable of defending themselves, and the crooks who match wits with them are just as savvy. You could almost call it a fair fight!

Enfance ou folie? Cette collection d'histoires commence avec un jeune garçon dont l'intelligence, la capacité et la détermination sont plus en accord avec un adulte plutôt qu'avec un enfant de six ans curieux, qui nous est présenté dans la première histoire.La normalité ne fera jamais partie de la vie de Marcel Pontbriand. Orphelin à l'âge tendre de 14 ans et avec seulement quelques centimes à son nom, vous découvrirez comment il s'est rendu sur les routes de glace du Nord du Canada et a fait face à la peur.

It takes just seconds for someone to die. Sometimes questions remain: was it an accident, suicide, or something more sinister?

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE The captivating, deeply reported true story of how one of the most notorious novels ever written—Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom—landed at the heart of one of the biggest scams in modern literary history. “Reading The Curse of the Marquis de Sade...

After bursting onto the scene in 2002, Rudy Kurniawan quickly became the leading purveyor of rare wines to the American elite. But in April 2008, his lots of Domaine Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis red burgundy - dating as far back as 1945 - were abruptly pulled from auction. The problem? The winemaker was certain that this particular burgundy was first produced only in 1982.

Working with thousands of previously unreleased documents and drawing on more than one thousand interviews, with many witnesses speaking out for the first time, Joan Mellen revisits the investigation of New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, the only public official to have indicted, in 1969, a suspect in President John F. Kennedy's murder. Garrison began by exposing the contradictions in the Warren Report, which concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was an unstable pro-Castro Marxist who acted alone in killing Kennedy.

Romance scams and other confidence schemes are among the world's fastest growing types of fraud. This book, written by two women featured in Netflix's The Tinder Swindler, will flip everything you think you know about relationship scams on its head. As everyone becomes increasingly vulnerable to these crimes, it's crucial to understand how to keep yourself and your loved ones safer.

Raised in a world of flimflams, come-ons, and con-jobs, Beano Bates has done so well he's earned a spot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. But his lucky streak vanishes after a card game in which he scams a cool eighty grand from a notorious Mafia don—who retaliates by having Beano nearly beaten to death. For the first time in his legendary career, Beano wants more than a big score—he wants justice.

“Fugitive speeds along well over the posted limit.” —Portland Oregonian “Margolin knows how to pack in the thrills.” —Tess Gerritsen In Fugitive, New York Times bestseller Phillip Margolin brings back his most popular protagonist, attorney Amanda Jaffee, star of Wild Justice, Proof...

Unlock the cultural obsession with high-stakes robberies in Heist, a collection of the world's greatest real-life break-ins. From the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's famous art heist to the disappearance of the Marie Antoinette watch, these 100% true stories will have you on the edge of your...

A boy with a rifle walks into a middle school, intent on carrying out Western-style vigilante justice. A wife and mother of four kisses her twelve-year-old student and forever changes our definition of student-teacher conferences. The world's most famous serial killers put Washington on the map. A bathtub, a handgun, a meat grinder, and a burn barrel play a role in the murder of the captain of a freighter.

Hoax, conspiracy, or secret society? That is the range of responses you might hear when raising the idea of the Priory of Sion. Ostensibly a clandestine order designed to disguise the truth about the children of Jesus Christ, the group have been labeled as either an elaborate concoction or the most powerful secret society in the world. Are they real? What are they hiding? Where did they come from? What impact can they have on the world around us? These are the questions this book will hope to answer.

Born into one of America's most illustrious trading families, Sam Israel was determined to strike out on his own. After apprenticing with one of the greatest traders of the 1980s, he founded his own fast-growing hedge fund, promising investors extraordinary returns. But it was all an elaborate charade.

In 1977, Vera 'Toddie' Hays and Florice 'Beezie' Bessire thought they were about to embark on the trip of a lifetime when Vera's nephew, Vern Todd, offered them a campervan to drive from Germany to India. Little did the women know that Vern and his accomplices would secretly pack two tonnes of hashish into the vehicle along the way. This shocking inside story chronicles Toddie and Beezie's wild ride across continents and oceans to our shores, their arrest by Australian Federal Bureau of Narcotics agents and all that the women faced in the aftermath.

A lack of love in an authoritarian household sparked Andrew’s lifelong search for love and belonging. His AA sponsor introduced him to A Course in Miracles, which Andrew studied deeply for twenty years. Then a celebrated spiritual teacher invited him to edit his first book and join his community. Andrew had been led to believe that he was chosen to find the Love of God. After a heart-rending parting from his family, he moved to Utah and joined the community.

“Banned by 1000 Churches!” And yes, Kingdom's Con Men would indeed be banned if some people had their way. But it's nothing to be afraid of, confused about, angry or offended over. Kingdom’s Con Men strives to be thought-provoking, that’s all. Beyond being a mere crime novel, it takes its time to explore why its two scammers--one an Atheist, the other an ordained minister--decide to take to the road to conduct their cons, specifically targeting corrupt megachurch ministers. In the process, it offers a satirical overview of the current evangelical landscape.

Diciotto passeggeri. Sette fermate. Un delitto. Un grande giallo. È la vigilia di Natale, e un treno diretto da Londra alle Highlands, tra le impervie montagne scozzesi dal paesaggio mozzafiato, deraglia all'improvviso poco dopo Edimburgo, rovinando i piani per le feste delle persone a bordo. Con il convoglio bloccato da una terribile tempesta di neve nel bel mezzo del nulla, un assassino si aggira indisturbato per le carrozze: il mattino seguente uno dei passeggeri viene ritrovato senza vita.

This is the story of an unforgivable con man. Vulnerable families were his prey. His promise was an impossible dream and a lie. Peter Candlewood understood the system. That’s how he could commute prison sentences and reunite hopeless families with incarcerated loved ones. For a price. Except there was no Candlewood. No hope. Just a lowly Texas con artist who bet on the desperate - and won. And he wasn’t working alone. The multimillion-dollar deception cost the betrayed more than their savings.