Tag: true crime
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The Girl on the Velvet Swing by Simon Baatz
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Girl on the Velvet Swing: A whole lotta crazy going on. Quick synopsis: A true crime story from the early 1900s. A famous architect rapes a woman and he is later murdered publicly by the woman’s husband. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Stanford White was a famous architect who…
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Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Ghost Soldiers: You’ll cancel your hibachi reservation after reading this. Quick synopsis: The story of the jailbreak for the survivors of the Bataan Death March. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: What did the U.S. Army do when their soldiers got tired in World War II? Amphetamines! (Club music begins) Fun…
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Random Musing: Serial Killers
What’s this musing about: The cult of the serial killer. When I interviewed one of my favorite authors, Mike Dash, he said something really profound. He mentioned he does not like true crime books and shows because they often obsess about the killer at the expense of the victims. The victims usually end up being…
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American Predator by Maureen Callahan
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for American Predator: Want to get away with murder? Don’t use the ATM card. Quick synopsis: The capture of (and botched interviews of) Israel Keyes. He was a very successful serial killer. And creepy as all hell. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Well not a fun fact but informative. Keyes got…
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Murder Aboard by C. Michael Hiam
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Murder Aboard: Of course, they blamed the minority and not the previously incarcerated crazy dude. Quick synopsis: A true crime story about murders aboard a ship in 1896. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Canadians used to call New England the “Boston States.” I feel like everywhere but Boston would find…
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The Killer Across the Table – J. Douglas/M. Olshaker
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Killer Across the Table: You won’t want to be a criminal profiler after this. You may want to be Dirty Harry, though. Is that reference too old? Ok, you’ll want to be the Punisher. Quick synopsis: John Douglas (the guy who made criminal profiling a “thing”) recounts four scum he…
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Dannemora by Charles Gardner
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Dannemora: This was a hell of a lot more like Shawshank than I expected. Quick synopsis: The prison escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat from New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Seriously, it’s just like Shawshank! The two guys dug out of their…
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The Impeachers by Brenda Wineapple
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Impeachers: Worst. President. Ever. Quick synopsis: The story of the only ever impeachment of a sitting president, Andrew Johnson. Seriously, he sucked. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: By the end of Andrew Johnson’s term, both political parties hated him and wanted him to go away. This may also be…
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Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Bad Blood: How Elizabeth Holmes made very smart people look very dumb. Quick synopsis: A full investigation of the Theranos scam by the reporter who discovered the corruption. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Elizabeth Holmes’ voice is probably fake! Henry Kissinger got pulled into this! Walgreen’s almost went under because…