True Crime Serial Murders

When Chris Bryson was discovered nude and severely beaten stumbling down Charlotte Street in Kansas City in 1988, police had no idea they were about to discover the den of one of the most sadistic American serial killers in recent history. This is the true story of Robert Berdella, nicknamed by the media the Kansas City Butcher, who from between 1984 and 1988 brutally raped, tortured, and ultimately dismembered six young male prostitutes in his unassuming home on a quiet street in Kansas City.

After Jack the Ripper and before Son of Sam there was only one name their equal in terror: the deadly, elusive, and mysterious Zodiac. Beginning in 1968 the hooded mass murderer terrified the city of San Francisco and the Bay Area with a string of brutal killings. A sexual sadist, his pleasure was torture and murder.

In early 2000, Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life plus thirty years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, a high school senior in Baltimore, Maryland. Syed has maintained his innocence, and Rabia Chaudry, a family friend, has always believed him. By 2013, after almost all appeals had been exhausted, Rabia contacted Sarah Koenig, a producer at This American Life, in hopes of finding a journalist who could shed light on Adnan’s story. In 2014, Koenig's investigation turned into Serial, a Peabody Award-winning podcast with more than 500 million international listeners.

Step into the shadows of history’s most disturbing unsolved serial murders, where bloodstained clues, cryptic messages, and forensic failures leave investigators—and the world—grasping for answers. In this gripping true crime audiobook, bestselling author Alexander X. Drake unveils the most chilling, baffling, and haunting cases of serial killers who were never caught.

In 1985, Charles Ng and Leonard Lake were spotted shoplifting. Ng escaped, but Lake's capture led police to a concrete bunker in the Sierra Nevada foothills, where they discovered the grisly evidence of an orgy of sex crimes, torture, and murder that claimed at least 16 victims. Lake committed suicide: Ng fled to Canada, where he was tracked down and extradited to California. This 14-year, $10 million legal case was the costliest and longest criminal prosecution in California history.

Talking with Psychopaths: Letters from Serial Killers is the unique study of criminals in their own words based on bestselling true crime author and criminologist Christopher Berry-Dee's extensive interviews with convicted serial murderers. Step inside the mind of The Genesee River Killer, The Death Row Teddy, The Ice Queen, The Want-ad Killer, The Moors Murderer, The Amityville Horror, The I-95 Killer, and more. This rare collection has Berry-Dee at his steeliest best, exploring the downright creepy correspondence with murderers, serial killers, and psychopaths.

The prostitutes working New York City's Times Square were more than a little bit nervous. A deranged serial killer who apparently melted into the crowd was picking up hookers and sadistically torturing them, leaving some girls wondering if there was a real-life Dr. Frankenstein out there attempting to create his own personal plaything from pieces of his dismembered victims.

Providing a chilling glimpse into the twisted psychology of the infamous serial killer Carl Panzram, this disturbing true-crime book offers an unparalleled look at what makes a murderer. Expertly recounting Panzram’s gruesome killing spree and the cruel ideas that drove his grisly murders, this story sheds light on his tragic upbringing and adolescence, his frequent clashes with the law, and the daring escape attempts he made in countless prisons.

This incredible story shows how John Douglas tracked and participated in the hunt for one of the most notorious serial killers in US history. For 31 years a man who called himself BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) terrorized the city of Wichita, Kansas, sexually assaulting and strangling a series of women, taunting the police with frequent communications, and bragging about his crimes to local newspapers and TV stations.

For 25 years, John E. Douglas worked for the FBI, where had a brilliant and terrifying career getting inside the minds of notorious killers. Written with Mark Olshaker, Law and Disorder is Douglas’ most provocative and personal book yet. In it, he addresses every law enforcement professional’s worst nightmare: those cases where, for one reason or another, justice was delayed - or denied.

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that "the Ripper" preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, but it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told.

Jillian Lauren had no idea what she was getting into when she wrote her first letter to prolific serial killer Samuel Little. All she knew was her research had led her to believe he was good for far more murders than the three for which he had been convicted. While the two exchanged dozens of letters and embarked on hundreds of hours of interviews, Lauren gained the trust of a monster. After maintaining his innocence for decades, Little confessed to the murders of ninety-three women, often drawing his victims in haunting detail as he spoke.

Dark True Crime Stories: Serial Killers Exposed is a chilling and comprehensive deep dive into the sinister world of humanity's most infamous criminals.

Born on a dying farm and soon abandoned by his father, Carl Panzram's life was bleak from the start. While other children played and went to school, he toiled away on his family's land, the threat of brutal punishment always looming over his head. Yet, instead of shaping him into the meek, obedient boy his family wanted, Panzram grew meaner with each passing year. His first arrest happened before he had even turned 10.

It started with a college course assignment, then escalated into a dangerous obsession. Eighteen-year-old honor student Jason Moss wrote to men whose body counts had made criminal history: men named Dahmer, Manson, Ramirez, and Gacy. Posing as their ideal victim, Jason seduced them with his words. One by one they wrote him back, showering him with their madness and violent fantasies. Then the game spun out of control. John Wayne Gacy revealed all to Jason - and invited his pen pal to visit him in prison.... It was an offer Jason couldn't turn down. Even if it made him....

As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all; he was a star athlete with good looks and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.

Rookie cop Carrie Santero has always been fascinated by serial killers. As a teenager, she wrote a letter to Charles Manson in prison - and received a chilling reply. Then she came face to face with a child murderer in her small Pennsylvania town, an encounter that haunts her to this day. Now, as a detective in training, she finally has her chance to make a difference; to hunt down a psychopathic sadist who embodies the very nature of evil itself.

Serial Killer Couples: Bonded by Sexual Depravity, Abduction, and Murder chronicles the true crimes of sexually motivated serial killers who are intimates. In this latest true crime book from award-winning, best-selling criminologist R. Barri Flowers, nine gripping tales examine killer couples from America, England, and Canada whose murderous reigns of terror knows no end till they were brought to justice.

Mike DeBardeleben was known as the Mall Passer for the way he passed off fake money at local shopping centers. But when US Secret Service agents finally arrested him, they were met with more than just phony bills. They found that their counterfeiter led a shocking double life.... DeBardeleben's home was littered with drugs, bondage gear, and a collection of audio tapes in which he recorded the abuse of his countless victims.

Two brave journalists dare to expose the music industry's darkest secret; that country music legend, Garth Brooks, may very well be, a blood-thirsty serial killer. Through a combination of interviews with federal law enforcement, criminologists, and music insiders, as well as exhaustive research into Garth’s connection to hundreds of unsolved homicides and missing persons, the authors piece together their satirical case.