Serial sexual homicide is a crime that is committed purely for sexual gratification. Well known serial killers such as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and BTK were all motivated by power, sexuality, and brutality. These types of murders often receive widespread publicity, and create a sense of fear due to their nonsensical, motiveless, and random nature. At some point in the killer’s life, their sexual urges and arousal become intertwined with sadism – taking sexual pleasure from their victim’s fear, humiliation, physical, and emotional pain. The obsession often takes root during the ...

The term “serial killer” was first introduced in the 1970s by FBI Agent Robert Ressler. Shortly after joining the FBI in 1970, he was recruited to join the newly developed Behavioral Science Unit where he became fascinated with the psychology behind violent offenders. He wanted to better understand the motive behind a murder – what caused the person to act out in such a way, and what similarities these individuals shared. Ressler recognized that most offenders knew their victims, but there was a certain type of killer that picked their victims at random, and often killed multiple ...

Armin Meiwes, a German computer repair technician, who murdered and cannibalized a lover he met in an online chatroom named The Cannibal Cafe. Driven by a desire for internet pornography involving torture and pain, Armin’s fetish for human flesh led him to post an internet message that said, “I am looking for a young, well-built man aged 18 to 30 to slaughter.” Interestingly, the last man to respond to the message would become Armin’s first victim, Bernd-Jürgen Brandes. Brandes, a bisexual engineer, under the username “cator99” agreed to be mutilated and eaten. The shocking ...

Four shocking crimes. Four lives lost. Countless lives shattered. Four shocking tales of young lives cut brutally short that will make you want to hug your daughter and never let her go.

Not every woman is meant to be a mother. In The Murder of Jennyann: A Shocking True Crime Story, Rod Kackley unravels the harrowing true story of Martha Ann Johnson—a woman whose desperate attempts to keep her husband, Earl, from leaving her took a devastating toll on her innocent children. Each time Earl strayed, Ann’s fury grew darker, and tragedy struck. She called it bad luck. But Earl and his best friend, Stanley, suspected something far more sinister, even as their suspicions fell on deaf ears. Despite their pleas, law enforcement, medical professionals, and social services ...

In Sworn to Silence, award-winning reporter Jim Tracy tells the lawyers' story within the framework of a true crime narrative. He uncovers a criminal who police and the public never learned was an American serial killer. Tracy does so while taking the listener back briefly to American life in the early 1970s.

In August of 1975, Hampton, NH Police Officer Robert McLaughlin arrested Robert Cushing Sr. for disorderly conduct. The following month, McLaughlin arrested Cushing's neighbor Gladys Ring. As a result, Robert Cushing and his son Renny, attempted to get McLaughlin and another officer fired for their "heavy handed tactics." The officers were cleared of any wrongdoing but McLaughlin didn't forget and blamed Robert Cushing for his lack of advancement in the police department over the years. The resentment simmered and built while McLaughlin's stress level from previous life events and the job ...

No body means no crime, which makes this the perfect murder, Doug Stewart hopes. Doug even has an ironclad alibi. He’s been seen hundreds of miles away when his lovely wife, Venus, vanishes. What better plan could any murderer hope for? But Doug’s forgotten one thing: the power of a mother’s love. Venus’ mother believes her daughter’s husband lured Venus outside and killed her. Now, Venus’ mom wants her daughter back, dead or alive. Never Forgive, Never Forget: A Shocking True Crime Story by Rod Kackley tells the story of a woman whose fear of her husband was justified. It’s ...

This award-winning work of narrative nonfiction is a raw and haunting account of one girl’s journey through madness, loss, and a broken child welfare system in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Seven-year-old Leslie has a serious problem. Someone is trying to kill her. Her mother Roberta suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, and she writes rambling manifestos and forces her children to live on the run to evade capture by the Russian spies she believes are after them. With every psychotic break, Leslie and her younger brother face terrifying circumstances despite the fact that Roberta’s only wish...

Battle Creek, Michigan, is famous as the birthplace of breakfast cereal, and the nearby suburb of Marshall is as wholesome as shredded wheat. Well-known for its colorful Victorian mansions, this stately slice of 19th-century Americana became infamous on a frigid night in February of 1991. Newscaster Diane Newton King was stepping out of her car, her children strapped into the backseat, when a sniper's bullet cut her down.

Stacy was shot in the face – twice – and left to die. The first time the killer thought he had succeeded, and he left Stacy bleeding in her bed. But a few minutes later he must have heard her moaning and returned to her upstairs bedroom. This time he approached the bed, pointed a .22 caliber rifle at her young face, and pulled the trigger again. Then he left.Later that morning, Memorial Day, May 25, 2005, the Logan County Sheriff would declare it a rampage. According to Sheriff Henry, 18-year-old Scott Moody lived on a family farm with his mother and sister; his grandparents lived ...

Greg DeVillers was a top biotech executive, and Kristin Rossum was embarking on a career in toxicology at the San Diego Medical Examiner's office. They seemed to be happily married, living the American dream. But only months shy of their second anniversary, Kristin found her handsome husband dead from a drug overdose - his corpse sprinkled with rose petals. By his side was their wedding photo. Authorities deemed it a suicide. Until they discovered that the rare poison found in Greg's body was the same poison missing from Kristin's office.

Cherry Walker was a devoted, trusting, uncommonly innocent young woman who loved caring for a neighbor's little boy. But when she was asked to testify in court against his abusive mother, Cherry never got the chance. She couldn't lie if her life depended on it - and it did. Cherry's body was found on the side of a Texas road, after being doused with lighter fluid and set aflame. Attractive, manipulative, and violent, mother of four Kim Cargill had a wealth of dirty secrets she'd do anything to keep hidden.

Every one of us fears the things that go bump in the night. We’re told tales of happenings when evil is conjured or footsteps are heard while alone in a dark house. But those are just stories, right? What would we do if those fears became an intense reality we could not escape? On the night of November 17, 2018, Danielle Leukam went to bed as a newly single mother and nurse from Minnesota. On the morning of November 18, 2018, she awoke to a sinister world that would never be the same for her again. A home invasion gone awry, Danielle was held at gunpoint and raped repeatedly for five ...

This book explores thirteen bizarre “murder” stories that have taken place in Tennessee over the past two centuries. The first story related here takes place around 1798 and the last takes place in 1998. These stories span the breadth of Tennessee from the Smoky Mountains, to the Mississippi River and most points between. Some of these stories are about famous persons and others are about powerful persons. Some are about persons that are unknown to all but a few. One story is about an abused animal.