True Crime

//True Crime
­
  • In the years between 1860 and 1880, dozens of bushrangers, some bold and famous, some little more than petty thieves, rampaged across the New South Wales and Victorian countryside - looting and murdering, bailing up travellers, harassing police, terrorising settlers. Perhaps the most famous of these in the 1860s was a handsome young man named Ben Hall, the first official outlaw under a new Act, shot dead by police in 1865. Other members of his gang, "Flash" Johnny Gilbert, Johnny Vane, O'Meally and Dunn, were all captured or shot by their pursuers. Also outlawed were Frederick Lowry, the ferocious Daniel Morgan, and Fred Ward, better known throughout New South Wales as "Thunderbolt". Finally, in this second volume of his History of Australian Bushranging, Charles White examines at length the incredible story of the Kelly Gang - Ned, Dan, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.
  • This book promises the truth behind the century's most celebrated murder mystery. On a wintry night in November 1974, Sandra Rivett, nanny to the children of Lord and Lady Lucan, was brutally bludgeoned to death in the basement of their Belgravia home. Lady Lucan was also attacked and identified the attacker as her estranged husband, the 7th Earl of Lucan. That night, Lord Lucan vanished and has never been found, despite numerous sightings all over the world. The author has interviewed many of those involved, including, for the first time, Lord Lucan's wife Veronica. He gained access to the missing Earl's private papers, which yield remarkable new information. He also re-examines the forensic evidence and questions the key witnesses to produce the most likely explanation to date of what really happened on November 7, 1974.  Illustrated with black and white photographs.

  • On January 24, 1941, the body of Josslyn Hay, Earl of Erroll was found lying on the floor of his Buick outside Nairobi - with a bullet in his head. Erroll, at 39, was influential in the Kenyan Happy Valley community, charming, good at bridge and polo and devoted to the seduction of other men's wives - preferably rich ones.  Incredibly ruthless in his hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, he had wrecked many marriages.  Sir Henry 'Jock' Delves Broughton, whose wife Diana was Erroll's current conquest, had the most obvious motive.  He stood trial with implacable calm, was acquitted and emerged unscathed.  No-one has ever been convicted for the murder and the case has become a classic mystery together with the scandalous exposé of the extravagant, sybaritic way of life of the enchanted feudal paradise known since the 1920s as Happy Valley, the community of English aristocrats who subscribed to the three As: altitude, alcohol and adultery.
  • A forensic examination of the global future of organised crime - now being operated on a massive scale by outlaw motorcycle gang -  and the difficulties faced by the Australian police in tackling the burgeoning crime empire that outlaw motorcycle gangs are developing in Australia and wherever else biker gangs flourish. It's a hard and chilling look at the global future of organised crime and reveals that the world's most successful criminal empire is now being operated on a massive scale by outlaw motorcycle gangs - an empire that is growing in power, reach and ruthlessness, far surpassing the threats posed by the Mafia, Russian syndicates, Chinese Triads and Japanese Yakuza. Outlaw motorcycle gangs are now being acknowledged as the greatest current organised crime threat with an international empire that is sophisticated, bloody and brutal. It is also both strategic and opportunistic - where they cannot dominate, they broker alliances.  Here is how it all started: the turf wars that were fought, the deals that were done, and how the sea of cash that was earned is now being legitimised. It also reveals how law enforcement at an international level is losing the battle against the gangs. Using exclusive insider sources on four continents, this is the first contemporary account of one of the biggest criminal stories of our time.
  • Until the release of this book, no-one had ever revealed the truth about the Krays. Gossip and rumour have been rife, fact has blended into fiction. Only one man knew everything about the  fearsome twins, but the law of the streets dictated that he kept it all a secret. Before his death. Charlie Kray revealed everything to his co-writer Colin Fry. He wanted to set the record straight once and for all. He made his deathbed confessions, revealing the in credible truth about the Kray Firm. Mixing their peculiar blend of glamour and terrifying violence, this is the final great story of the Krays - told by the man who knew them best. Illustrated with black and white photographs. https://cosmiccauldronbooks.com.au/p/frances-kray-tragic-bride-jacky-hyams/
  • After fourteen years of marriage, Mel Jacob's life looked as perfect as the roses perched above her white picket fence. The nice house in the suburbs, two great kids, a good husband. Until...her seemingly saintly husband was jailed for two years. This recounts Mel's funny, moving and insightful journey as she navigates single parenthood, prison visitations and nosy neighbours...and tells of the family left behind: the grief, the stigma and the conversational minefields of her husband's whereabouts, as well as the logistical problems of making a baby sibling for her two children, and why it's not appropriate to tell people that Daddy's in jail. 'So why did you marry Dad?' my daughter asked. 'Well, over time I got to know him and he made me laugh, and - and I knew deep down that, that even though we were really different...he was a good person.' Without skipping a beat, she said, 'He's not that good, he's in jail!'.
  • The criminals who ended their days in Strangeways Prison - and the crimes that sent them there.  A collection of murder cases from around Manchester each of which ends in the accused being executed at Strangeways Prison.  Some of the accounts, at the end, feature an author's note in which suggests that perhaps the accused was innocent and should not have been hanged...Many a lot of these crimes are particularly shocking, evil and unmotivated. There is also a first-hand account written by Charles Parton, who was sentenced to death for murder and served 11 years before being found not guilty.
  • Ronald Joseph Ryan was hanged in Melbourne on February 3, 1967, following his conviction for the shooting murder of a prison warder during a daring escape from the maximum-security Pentridge prison thirteen months before. The decision of the Victorian government in December 1966 to proceed with Ryan’s death sentence sparked immediate media condemnation and angry political protests, and put the Liberal premier, Sir Henry Bolte, under siege for the duration of the case. State governments around the country moved to abolish the death penalty in the 1970s and 1980s, and Ronald Ryan became the last man to be hanged in Australia.  But who was Ronald Ryan, and how did he come to be the focus of such dramatic political events? Drawing on previously unpublished documents and personal accounts — including details of Ryan’s childhood and his early turn to crime — this book reveals the truth about Ryan’s guilt. It also goes behind the scenes to tell for the first time of the life-long anguish of the judge who pronounced the death sentence, the inner workings of the secret cabinet meeting that decided Ryan’s fate, and the dramatic political process that resulted in the rejection of eleventh-hour appeals to save Ryan. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
  • The case of Dr. Crippen has passed into folklore as one of the most infamous in criminal history. The year: 1910. The details: a hideously mutilated body in the cola cellar, a dockside arrest in Canada - by the means of the new wireless telegraph - of Crippen and his mistress, disguised as a boy, the trial with legal luminaries and society notables. There was enough sensation to place Crippen in the top ranks of master criminals. Yet Crippen was a quiet, meek little man, a hen-pecked husband who was always gentle with his shrewish wife, a business failure passionately in love with his competent young secretary, a bungler whose one venture into murder went wrong at every step of the way. This study examines the character of the man many believed incapable of murder and reveals the story of a mismatched marriage and a love affair that - out of its context - would have been an inspiration. Illustrated with black and white photographs. Appendix reproduces Crippen's letters to Ethel LeNeve, written from Pentonville Prison.