Showing titles in Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions

At 23, William Simon Baekeland was well on his way to becoming the world’s best traveled person. The “billionaire” heir to a great plastics fortune had already visited 163 countries, but his real passion was finding ways to visit the world’s most challenging destinations. He earned rock-star status in the world of extreme travel. But when his story began to unravel, an eccentric group of hyper-well-traveled country collectors were left wondering how they had allowed their obsession to blind them to the warning signs that William Baekeland wasn’t who they thought he was.

Late-1970s Los Angeles was rampant with killers and shady characters, but all the go-getters at Space Matters saw was possibility. Richard Kasparov was handsome and charismatic; his younger associate, Jerry Schneiderman, brilliant and nerdy. When the pair hired a veteran contractor to oversee construction, the space planning firm they operated out of a hip mansion in LA's Miracle Mile district appeared poised to transform the boundless skyline into their jackpot. After the promising team imploded, however, the orderly lines on their blueprints succumbed to treachery and secrets.

This entertaining exposé on how the other half gets in tells the shockingly true story of the Varsity Blues scandal, and all of the crazy parents, privilege, and con men involved. Guilty Admissions weaves together the story of an unscrupulous college counselor named Rick Singer, and how he...

While investigating financial crimes for CNN Money, Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken were intrigued by reports that elderly Americans were giving away thousands of dollars to mail-in schemes. With a little digging, they soon discovered a shocking true story. Victims received personalized letters from a woman who, claiming amazing psychic powers, convinced them to send money in return for riches, good health, and good fortune. The predatory scam has continued unabated for decades, raking in more than $200 million in the United States and Canada alone - with investigators from all over the world unable to stop it.

The spellbinding tale of hustler Edgar Laplante—the king of Jazz Age con artists—who becomes the victim of his own dangerous game. Edgar Laplante was a smalltime grifter, an erstwhile vaudeville performer, and an unabashed charmer. But after years of playing thankless gigs and traveling...

Following a deadly car crash, small-town lawyer Lance Cooper risked everything to battle one of the most powerful auto corporations in the world to get justice for a young woman. A fast-paced, journalistic account of tragedy turned to triumph, despair to hope, Cobalt Cover-Up is an...

Uncover the shocking and brutal truths behind some of the most heinous crimes committed against innocent victims in Killer Case Files, the true crime anthology that takes you on a gripping journey into the minds of depraved murderers. An anthology of 20 stories, Killer Case Files delivers riveting accounts of deviant and horrifying murders. These killers can range from seemingly normal people to psychopaths and serial killers who commit years of murder and mayhem.

King is the story of how Kirkland Gaynes rose to become "Top Pimp" in Chicago's seedy underworld. It's an unapologetic account of what is known as the "Pimp Game". King shows that dreams can come true. But the flip side to a dream is nightmarish.

In the 1990s, when Abdul Kareem Telgi spent more than eighty lakh rupees on a dancer in a dance bar one evening, he came under the target of the police, politicians and the underworld. Sanjay Singh, then a reporter at NDTV, broke the Telgi Scam story in 2003. At an estimated 40,000 crores, it...

Der SPIEGEL-Bestseller, von dem die chinesische Regierung nicht will, dass wir ihn hören: Money, Macht und Willkür in China Wann ist man wirklich mächtig? Wenn auf dem Konto eine Milliarde liegt? Wenn die Ehefrau mit der Frau des Premiers beim Shoppen große Geschäfte macht?Desmond Shum wächst in Shanghai und Hongkong auf. Nach dem Studium in den USA stürzt er sich ins Beijinger Businessleben mit dem Blickwinkel eines Outsiders und den richtigen Connections. Er scheffelt mit Immobilientransaktionen Geld. Ehefrau Whitney pflegt Beziehungen zu Ehefrauen wichtiger politischer Akteure.

In the early hours of a September morning, one of Britain’s most beloved natural landmarks, the iconic Sycamore Gap tree, was deliberately and coldly felled. The world-famous tree, nestled beside Hadrian’s Wall in the heart of Northumberland, had stood for centuries as a symbol of serenity, history, and connection. Its loss sent shockwaves through the public, igniting anger, sorrow, and an urgent call for justice. This book tells the full, unflinching story behind that shocking act.

Carolyn Woods leidt een gelukkig leven in een rustig dorpje in de Cotswolds als er op een dag een aantrekkelijke vreemdeling op haar pad komt. Deze Mark Conway straalt zelfvertrouwen en mysterie uit, waardoor Carolyn zich direct tot hem aangetrokken voelt. Langzaam ontstaan er scheurtjes in Marks verhaal en komt Carolyn achter de afschuwelijke waarheid. Om te beginnen is zijn echte naam Mark Acklom en wordt hij gezocht door Interpol.

The secret history of a trio of gamblers who used homemade technology and their own ingenuity to outplay the house, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars and transforming the way games are played. In the late 1970s, three men declared war on the casino. They arrived in Las Vegas just as the...

Will you be the same after experiencing the mind of a murderous killer? What will happen to your world view and your thought process after learning the WHY behind each horrific act? The disturbing nature of these stories often makes you question everything you thought or believed about humanity. Yet they are engaging and fascinating at the same time. We all had wicked thoughts throughout our lives. What is it that makes us different from those who act upon it? Is it that they have a stronger "why"? Were they born evil?

Murderous Minds: Stories of Real Life Murderers That Escaped the Headlines offers a look into the lives of individuals who committed heinous acts of evil but managed to avoid the media storm that usually accompanies them.

Elisa had made a habit of calling her parents every day and the 29th and 30th were no exception. That was also the day she moved in and was quickly drummed out by the other tenants because she made them "uncomfortable". Her eviction from the shared room to her own private room must have been difficult for a young woman already full of insecurities, neuroses, and esteem issues. January 31, 2013, Elisa Lam's parents, for the first time on Elisa' "West Coast Tour", didn't receive a call from her daughter.

During 51 days in early 1993 one of the most tragic events in American crime history unfolded on the plains outside Waco, Texas. An obscure and heavily armed religious sect called the Branch Davidians was barricaded inside their commune and outside were hundreds of law enforcement angry because the former had killed four ATF agents in a botched raid. Go on an engaging and captivating ride to examine one of the most important true crime stories in recent decades.

Zwischen 1975 und 1978 erpresste ein sich 'Monsieur X' nennender Mann mit ungewöhnlich persönlich begründeten Drohbriefen und gezielten Sabotageakten die Deutsche Bundesbahn, wobei er trotz großer Polizeianstrengungen lange unentdeckt blieb und erst nach der Ausstrahlung eines Aktenzeichen XY-Beitrags durch einen entscheidenden Hinweis identifiziert werden konnte.

A Widow’s Journey Through Online Scammers: A Story of Love, Loss, and Laughter in the Face of Deception. After the devastating loss of her beloved husband and son, Nella found herself navigating the unpredictable and often deceptive world of online dating. What began as a search for companionship quickly turned into an eye-opening journey through romance scams, military scam awareness, and the dark underworld of online relationship fraud.

In The Dumond Affair: How Lies and Politics Freed a Killer, first-time author D.R. Bartlette weaves a story of the political corruption and religious zealotry that gave birth to an anti-Bill Clinton conspiracy theory that led to the deaths of two women and, thirty-six years later, the birth of an insurrection.