Best true crime books ever

Helter Skelter

Fatal Vision (and its e-book sequel Final Vision)

Columbine.

Bad Blood.

To follow that, I read Columbine in a single sitting. I sat up until about 2AM reading it because I was so engrossed.

Under the Banner of Heaven

That's a long book for a single sitting, R4. Well done.

The Devil in the White City

"Our Father Who Art in Hell." (The Jonestown /Jim Jones horror.)

"Devil in the Orange Grove."

Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son, Gordon Burn's book about the Yorkshire Ripper and the criminal justice system's grotesquely incompetent response to his crimes.

"Executioner's Song," by Norman Mailer

Any of the Gacy books.

Small Sacrifices about Diane Downs, mini-series with Farrah was good but not as good as the book.

"Bag of Toys."

1980s decadent New York, money, an art dealer, a boy toy, hardcore S&M and more.

R7 - Yes! God I love Devil in the White City!

Really Larsen’s best book - non fiction that reads like a thriller! - and how great is the Chicago World’s Fair stuff? Should be compulsory reading for anyone on committees for any Olympics or Expos or other big event projects - they still face the kind of problems that Chicago did back in the 1890s. Nothing new under the sun!

Just reading a British book now that’s trying very hard to be like DITWS - it’s about the serial killer John Christie, set against the background of the toxic London fog crisis of the fifties. They invoke DITWS on the jacket - but it’s not nearly as good! The two different narratives aren’t a good fit, there’s lots of repetition and confused timeline stuff - and the murderer isn’t some super- villain, just a really unappealing schmuck with mental health issues. Really sordid.

Several of the Bundy books are good. Anne Rule volunteered at a crisis hotline with him and wrote one.

One called 'The Only Living Witness' where they got Ted to "speculate" on what the killer of all those women might have done was fascinating.

There's a long, long British series called Notable Trials. Great stuff.

They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper - delightfully angry and profane takedown of Victorian hypocrisy by Bruce Robinson of Withnail and I fame. I buy his theory, but even if you don't it's a fun read.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective

Midnight in Savannah! And you bitches thought Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was gay...

[quote]One called 'The Only Living Witness' where they got Ted to "speculate" on what the killer of all those women might have done was fascinating.

Seconding this recommendation.

Great suggestions above! Read many of them. The book I read just about every year is Into Thin Air.

^hah I just missed the “crime” part...

Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore is good but it’s more about the aftermath of the Gary Gilmore murders.

White Mischief (The Murder of Lord Erroll) by James Fox. Lord Erroll & his bunch were both fascinating & appalling, it would've been surprising if someone DIDN'T murder him.

Midnight in Peking by Paul French

The Devil at Genessee Junction by Michael Benson

Blood and Money by Tommy Thompson

“Lucky,” by Alice Sebold.

Fascinating look at how rape is handled in the criminal justice system, with a truly shocking third-act twist. (No spoilers, just trying to entice people to read it!) It’s not trendy, either, predating #MeToo by about 20 years.

(I haven’t read Sebold’s fiction, but “The Lovely Bones,” later a movie directed by Peter Jackson, covers similar subject matter and is supposed to be quite good as well.)

I was never a fan of the Mailer book. Capote did it first and did it better. Just my opinion.

Party Monster about Michael Alig is a good read.

Straight from the horse's mouth...

r28 for wit and wisdom

Dominick Dunne's true crime stories are worth a look. Another City Not My Own was/is a fascinating take on the OJ Simpson case.

His take on the murder of Alfred Bloomingdale's mistress and his book on Ann Woodward killing her husband are both good. Not scary, just a little murder among the rich and shameless.

His shorter work on his own daughter's murder and some other collected pieces drops the 'fiction' facade and his personal story is heartbreaking.

Never mind your bitching about Nick and his alcoholic, closeted life, I'm not defending it. I'm just saying the gossipy old closet case could write a good murder story.

A Season in Purgatory. Dominick Dunne

Also The Two Mrs. Grenvilles.

Devil in the White City. Erik Larson. Awesome.

They are all masterworks.

In Cold Blood, not so much. Dull.

Blood and Money by Tommy Thompson

Some of these are fiction rather than true crime.

Ron Rosenbaum's early books are wonderful reads. They are really long-form pieces, but many are about fascinating murder/crime cases. Travels with Dr Death & The Secret Parts of Fortune are highly recommended.

Another great book on Jim Jones is Raven.

Do you guys buy them online or read on your iPads (which I hate)? or get at a bookstore/local bookstore/library, or wal-mart (don't even know if they sell books). growing up I went to the military base libraries and not even flinch at getting these kind of books, although very rarely getting them. Now, being 31 I don't want that side eye from the librarians. And I love turning a page to an actual book.

and thanks guys or gals for recommending reads. Not OP

Another vote for Capote's In Cold Blood, McGinniss's Fatal/Final Vision

Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me (the final version with all the updates), The Green River Killer, The I-5 Killer

Anything Ann Rule wrote.

"Serpentine," by Thomas Thompson

Good one, r23, and the movie adaptation was a hoot! White mischief indeed.

Vulgar Favors was a really well written book...It was the source material for the FX Versace series....It was written by Maureen Orth who was married to Meet the Press Tim Russert.....

[quote]Now, being 31 I don't want that side eye from the librarians.

Most libraries have at least one self checkout machine these days. And even if they don't, most librarians don't care what you're checking out anyway.

r41 librarians don't man check outs anymore. They've fled to the back processing room, or up in the management offices to avoid the homeless shelter that libraries have been allowed to become.

The clerks on the desk don't read and have no respect for knowledge/culture. They just want the cheque until they can get a better job. That's usually around 3-6 months, which is how long they last. Any employees who are left are actually social worker types who only care about the abusive addicts and mentally ill. They don't even go near the books and other materials.

Sorry if that sounds harsh. I know we have a few library queens here who are trying.

My local library just dumped their true crime classics and I'm pissed. (I'm the one who recommended the Rosenbaum above.)

Anyway, David Grann is another longform writer who does true crime cases.

Until The Twelfth Of Never .You gotta love Betty Broderick.

Dancing With Death. About the showgirl murderess Marjorie Orbin .

Indecent Exposure: A True Story of Hollywood and Wall Street:

[quote]When the head of Columbia Pictures, David Begelman, got caught forging Cliff Robertson's name on a $10,000 check, it seemed, at first, like a simple case of embezzlement. It wasn't. The incident was the tip of the iceberg, the first hint of a scandal that shook Hollywood and rattled Wall Street.

No one dies, IIRC, but it's one of the most compelling true crime stories I've ever read. Plus it documents how fucking cold it was in NY that winter. How often does that happen?

r45 that reminded me of the Cotton club murder. The book was Bad Company, by Steve Wick.

Another fascinating true crime book was The Ultimate Evil by Maury Terry. It alleges that a high level Satanic group was responsible for a lot of child sex abuse & murder in NYC. I don't buy all of his conclusions, but there is enough smoke to make it interesting, even if you don't see the fire.

r13 Another vote for the Andrew Crispo story (this one's gay, people).

Bad Blood.

r47 I have a vague memory of an alternative magazine writer taking on that story, and implying it went higher up than Crispo. I'm thinking someone like Gary Indiana. Am I crazy?

I've never heard that before, r49. Not to say it couldn't have happened, though.

Gary Indiana did write about about another gay murderer named Andrew C, but the C in that case stands for Cunanan.

r50 Yes, Three Month Fever. That was fiction, but it was a great book. It really straddled the line between fiction/nonfiction.

I still believe that we do not know the true/whole story of Andrew Cunanan.

There's more to it and somebody is lying.

Written in Blood by Diane Fanning

It's about the Peterson case that recently got revived by Netflix. The book covers a lot more than the documentary especially about the early years of Peterson's life. Some of the prose is a bit OTT but if you've watched the documentary or plan to it's a must read.

r52 it was very interesting to me that Orth's book dangled that possibility then didn't investigate it. I thought that was odd.

That's true of most true crime cases. The more I read about them (from good writers/journalists, not crazy internet accounts), the more there are large gaps in the story. The Safra case is another example, as is Jonestown.

Monster of Florence.

Blind Faith by Joe McGinniss, about Robert Marshall murdering his wife at a New Jersey rest stop.

Angel Of Darkness, about the Randy Kraft murders of dozens of young men.

The Man With The Candy, about the horrible Dean Corll murders of at least 33 young boys in the 70s.

R56 second that (BF). Heartless, no shame, the poor sons.

Are there any books about Herb Baumeister, the gay serial killer in the 80-90s?

News of A Kidnapping (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) tells of the kidnappings of several prominent Colombians during the time of Escobar. Riveting in the storytelling. Highly recommend!

Andrew Crispo! I haven’t heard that name for decades. I knew someone who used him as his art dealer. Crispo was still dealing in art while prison, and this guy allegedly was still buying from him during this time. Others were incensed that this guy would stand by Crispo for all that he had done.

Got to agree with Ann Rule’s books (especially The Stranger Beside Me, about Bundy, and Small Sacrifices, about Diane Downs) and Fatal Vision & Blind Faith by Joe McGinnis. There’s also Bitter Blood by Jerry Bledsoe. All were made into TV movies.

For a slightly different type of book, I enjoyed Homicide: Life on the Street By David Simon.

Entering Hades by John Leake about the Austrian serial killer (who killed some victims in the US) Jack Unterweger was very interesting — not as good as the above books, but just such a crazy and unbelievable case.

Years ago, I saw a grand guinol puppet show about Andrew "Crispy" Crespo.

[quote]For a slightly different type of book, I enjoyed Homicide: Life on the Street By David Simon.

The TV show was my favorite of all time.

[quote]Years ago, I saw a grand guinol puppet show about Andrew "Crispy" Crispo.

Was the puppet's dong appropriately sumptous?

Judgment Ridge: The True Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders by Dick Lehr and Mitchell Zuckoff

Murdered Heiress: Living Witness

Murdered Heiress: Living Witness. I first read this harrowing book in the 80s. I have Never read a story like it and doubt I ever will again. This rich woman in Texas was kidnapped and tortured for 7 days and murdered by people who worked for her in the 70s. She didn’t die though. She was electrocuted and a doctor signed her death certificate. She woke up later that same night and escaped from her captors. She took all of them to court and actually lost her court case. Within 6 months of the court case the perps all died in mysterious accidental deaths and so did the presiding judge in the case. Bizarre. It’s all documented.

R17, good inclusion with "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher". Have you read any other true crime books by Summerscale? I haven't; when I've read the reviews, the story has sounded so sordid and depressing that I decide not to read.

I did love "Tinseltown" by William J Mann. The story of William Desmond Taylor's murder, but so much more... Hollywood and its debauchery, bunko schemes, blackmail and more. I love this book, am surprised it hasn't been made into a movie or a multi-part TV series.

My library is staffed by librarians who actually read. It's true that they don't work the checkout desk, but then again that's always been a clerk job.

Not Summerscale, but a Victorian true story: Death at the Priory by James Ruddick.

Savage Grace: The True Story of Fatal Relations in a Rich and Famous American Family by Steven M.L Aronson and, Natalie Robins

A spellbinding tale of money and madness, incest and matricide, Savage Grace is the saga of Brooks and Barbara Baekeland -- beautiful, rich, worldly -- and their handsome, gentle son, Tony. Alternately neglected and smothered by his parents, he was finally driven to destroy the whole family in a violent chain of events.

@ R20 . Yes, 'Into Thin Air' was a great book, and so was Jon Krakauer's next one, 'Into the Wild' although, now that I think of it, neither was really about crime. After that he did a true crime book involving the Mormon community and it was readable and well done but not at the level of the previous two.

I'm also a fan of 'The Executioner's Song' and 'In Cold Blood'. Capote and Mailer are both great writers but other than both being about true crimes, these books had very little in common.

‘And the Sea Will Tell’ by Vincent Bugliosi is a fascinating story. The first 2/3 of the book is gripping, the ending describing the trial, not so much.

Harold Schechter is the king of true crime. Anything by him is usually the best written version of the story.

Sorry, pasted into the wrong field

Dominick Dunne was great at fictionalized true crime stories.

Love Harold Schechter. The Mad Sculptor was great

The only one I read about this crime. Made me hungry for pineapple.

Great, great recs in this thread. I have read SO many of them, but let me throw out a few more. I am a devourer of true crime books.

I didn’t see a mention for Ann Rule’s “Dead by Sunset” (also TV mini series) with Annette O’Toole. One of my faves. Really, Ann is/was the Queen of true crime.

“Victim: The Other Side of Murder” - the story of the Hi-Fi murders in Utah where the focus is on a one of the two survivors of a particularly grisly robbery murder (it took place in the ‘70s I believe). Also a TV movie with Richard Chamberlain

Joseph Wambaugh’s “Echos in the Darkness” about the murder of a mousey little Main Line schoolteacher orchestrated by one of her coworkers who set her up by pretending to love her. Scammed her out of money and killed her and her two small kids too. Also a TV mini series with my personal fave Gary Cole as the cop who cracked the case and Treat Williams as the prosecutor.

R78 I'd love to see sexy ass Gary Cole as the murderer.

R79 just watch the “Fatal Vision” miniseries

I'll throw in this one. A friend was on the (first) jury; the owner of the murder site is a friend of my mother's.

Have you read it, R78?

I read so much true crime but a few stand out.

Trace evidence

Perfect Poison a female serial killer

Butcher, Baker, the true account of an Alaskan Serial Killer.

My Sweet Angel

If you had to pick one of the ones I recommend it would be perfect poison.

I have not R81, altho I recall reading about the murder, maybe in Vanity Fair?? Thanks for the tip, I’ll check it out.

I don't usually read these, but I did pick up one a while back that was rather disturbing. Had to do with a woman in Northwest Missouri murdered a pregnant lady, managed to remove the living fetus, passing the kid off as her own for a short while until they finally caught up with her.

I'd recommend John Bloom and Jim Atkinson's "Evidence of Love," which focuses on a 1980 axe murder in the Dallas area, where Texas Instruments and other tech companies had laid down a "Silicon Prairie." Tightly written and layered, the book represents the story of adultery, repression, and suburban boredom behind the crime. Marriage encounter-groups, church politics, two housewives wrestling over the murder weapon, the audacious and brilliant tactics of the killer's defense team: all of it could've easily come off as tawdry and campy in lesser hands, but the story registers ultimately as what the defendant's lawyer says in his closing argument--"an American tragedy." By the end, we feel empathy for both the killer and the victim, who seem to represent two warring sides of the same archetype. DL fave Jake's dad Stephen Gyllenhaal made a chilling TV movie, based on the book. Called "A Killing in a Small Town," it stars Barbara Hershey, wearing a very unbecoming wig and delivering probably her best performance. It's on YouTube.

1) 83 Hours Till Dawn by Gene Miller & Barbara Jane Mackle is about the 1968 kidnapping of 20 year old Emory University student Barbara Jane Mackle. She was staying in a motel room with her mother trying to get over a bout with the flu, when 2 people burst into the room, took her by force and buried her in a waterproof capsule in the woods in Atlanta. It's one of the most horrifying books I've ever read.

2) Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder by Catherine Pelonero- a book about the famous Kitty Genovese stabbing murder that took place in Kew Gardens, Ny in the early 1960's. This was the famous case where many neighbors heard the murder taking place outside their apartment windows and allegedly did nothing to help the victim.

3) Evidence of Love by John Bloom & Jim Atkinson tells the story of the axe murder of Betty Gore by her friend Candy Montgomery in Texas in the early 1980's. A great tv movie starring Barbara Hershey was made about this case.

[quote]Great suggestions above! Read many of them. The book I read just about every year is Into Thin Air.

The crime was the quality of cappuccino available at Base Camp 2. "Jesus Christ," I remember exclaiming, "find me a Sherpa that can fucking brew!"

Ann Rule was a two-bit hack.

[quote]1) 83 Hours Till Dawn by Gene Miller & Barbara Jane Mackle is about the 1968 kidnapping of 20 year old Emory University student Barbara Jane Mackle. She was staying in a motel room with her mother trying to get over a bout with the flu, when 2 people burst into the room, took her by force and buried her in a waterproof capsule in the woods in Atlanta. It's one of the most horrifying books I've ever read.

[italic]The Longest Night,[/italic] the TV movie based on her story

[italic]Black Widow[/italic] by Robin McDonald: Story of family-poisoner Marie Hilley, who went on the lam, remarried, faked her death, and pretended to be her own twin sister before getting caught and convicted, then skipping out while on furlough from prison and ultimately dying of exposure.

The Hilley story was also made into a deliciously bad TV movie called [italic]Wife, Mother, Murderer,[/italic] starring Miss Judith Light in the title role.

[italic]The Michigan Murders[/italic] by Edward Keyes: Story of serial sex killer John Norman Collins, "The Ypsilanti Ripper"

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara. Many people probably know the book because McNamara was the wife of Patton Oswalt who died tragically before the book was finished. It was a bit chilling in itself when in some parts of the book it is mentioned that McNamara hadn't finished that particular section before dying.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi

Chilling.

I had forgotten about Evidence of Love. Great rec for both book and movie. Read the book and watched the TV movie as a teen. Very disturbing, as the killing was so uncharacteristic of the person who did it. I still remember Hershey's final words to the psychologist in the movie. She was not reassured or comforted, nor were the rest of us.

Bugliosi’s first book - Till Death Do Us Part - was also great. I think it wasn’t published until after Helter Skelter, but it was written before the Manson murders. It’s one of those office romances between womanizer and housefrau that turns into a “I’ll kill your spouse and you kill mine”.

"Bad Boys" is about cops in NY who are crooks themselves. It's a really good read.