True Crime

[Kumabjorn]

I've just recently found Ann Rule. Are there any other good writers in the same genre?

[bfisher]

Joseph Wambaugh - "Lines and Shadows", "Echoes in the Dark", "The Onion Field", "The Blooding"

Truman Capote "In Cold Blood"

[jgaiser]

Vincent Bugliosi - Helter Skelter (The Manson Murders) Mr. Bugliosi was the prosecutor of Charles Manson trial. Brutal and bizarre crime.

[SteveEisenberg]

David King, Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris

Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

Jeff Guinn, Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde

Michael Capuzzo, The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases

P.S. And Larson's Thunderstruck, on the case that seems to have started the genre.

[Catlady]

Two that I read and enjoyed last year are:

• Kate Summerscale, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, about the Road Hill House murder in Victorian England
• James Neff, The Wrong Man, about the Sam Sheppard case

And don't forget Truman Capote's classic, In Cold Blood, about the murder of the Clutter family in Kansas.

[joehunt]

I've just finished The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh and it is one of the best books I've read in any genre.

You might also want to look at Kathryn Casey, who writes very much in the same vein as Ann Rule.

[LucyLu]

Jack Olsen - his most popular works investigated the life histories of violent career criminals

Some titles:

• I: The creation of a serial killer
• The man with candy
• Doc: The rape of the town of Lovell

John E. Douglas (former special agent with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), he is one of the first criminal profilers, and criminal psychology author)

Some titles:

• The cases that haunt us
• Journey into darkness

[Critteranne]

M. William Phelps is popular. Through Crime Rant, he is also putting out ebook versions of some articles, books, etc. (by himself and other true crime authors):
http://www.crimerant.com/

Some true crime writers (and law enforcement professionals) have launched Woman in Crime, and there are links to some author sites:
http://womenincrimeink.blogspot.com/


Check out the True Crime Book Reviews blog for in-depth reviews and recommendations:
http://truecrimebookreviews.com/

I'm not sure if the author is still updating the site. However, the author also launched True Crime Zine:
http://truecrimezine.com/

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, about the Road Hill House murder in Victorian England

Read on your recommendation. Most of the way through I thought there was too much attention given to novels that ripped their plots out of Road Hill House murder newspaper stories, and not enough given to the real people involved.

This seemed to me to be a story of a truly bad person transformed into a reasonably good one by, of all things, the Church of England. Author Kate Summerscale lets us see this embarrassing blow against her nasty-Victorian-society theme, while shying away from the implications.

As often happens, the author does wins me over in the last few chapters.

And don't forget Truman Capote's classic, In Cold Blood, about the murder of the Clutter family in Kansas.

I guess I should read this one of these years, but isn't that untrue crime? According to Wikipedia, Capote interviewed people without tape recorder or taking notes. Then he produced copious direct quotations, in the book, that the subjects understandably deny having said.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Read on your recommendation. Most of the way through I thought there was too much attention given to novels that ripped their plots out of Road Hill House murder newspaper stories, and not enough given to the real people involved.

I thought it was fascinating that the case had captured the popular imagination so much that it did become fodder for novels. My original intention was to read the novels, but I ended up reading only one, which was a disappointment (Norah Lofts, Out of the Dark--I already owned it in paperback).

I guess I should read this one of these years, but isn't that untrue crime? According to Wikipedia, Capote interviewed people without tape recorder or taking notes. Then he produced copious direct quotations, in the book, that the subjects understandably deny having said.

I didn't know this--but I think I don't really care. It's a powerful and beautifully written book, and it certainly feels true in its essence.

(Why should I believe the subjects' denials? Presumably they didn't have tape recorders either!)

[rooster3888]

Here are a few recommendations for books.. not sure that all these authors have other true crime novels, but some excellent books nonetheless:

- Harold Schechter. I read The Devil's Gentleman, which was very good. He has many other books, though I haven't read any others.
- For the Thrill of It by Simon Baatz, about the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder.
- Satan's Circus by Mike Dash. It probaby doesn't fit the traditional "true crime" genre, but it is pretty close.
- The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr.
- The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins

I will say, I tend to enjoy the late 19th / early 20th century as a time period, so most of the above books are from crimes around that era. Sort of real life gothic / victorian crimes.

[Santos]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Vincent Bugliosi - Helter Skelter (The Manson Murders) Mr. Bugliosi was the prosecutor of Charles Manson trial. Brutal and bizarre crime.

Awesome awesome book. If you never read or know anything about Manson, you should deff check it out. Esp if you are into that sorta thing.

[joehunt]

Vincent Bugliosi is also the co-author of And the Sea Will Tell (available as an ebook), which is about 4 people on a deserted tropical island, with only 2 ultimately surviving.

This book consists of 2 parts: the first part (probably written by his co-author) detailing the story is absolutely brilliant. The second part (written by Bugliosi) relating to the trial is a slog to get through, but this is a really good true crime read none the less.

[Santos]

Originally Posted by joehunt

Vincent Bugliosi is also the co-author of And the Sea Will Tell (available as an ebook), which is about 4 people on a deserted tropical island, with only 2 ultimately surviving.

This book consists of 2 parts: the first part (probably written by his co-author) detailing the story is absolutely brilliant. The second part (written by Bugliosi) relating to the trial is a slog to get through, but this is a really good true crime read none the less.

Sounds pretty interesting. I might have to check that title out.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by LucyLu

Jack Olsen - his most popular works investigated the life histories of violent career criminals

Some titles:

• I: The creation of a serial killer
• The man with candy
• Doc: The rape of the town of Lovell

About a decade before he died, I was able to befriend Jack Olsen and talk to him about his methods. It all started when I wrote him a note saying I'd just read Son: A Psychopath and His Victims and wanted to know how he was able to capture not only the voice of the psychopath but even those of minor witnesses. Delighted, Jack shot back that voices were incredibly important to him -- that he interviewed everyone involved at least three times, getting them to tell the same stories again and again, until he could hear their voices in his head and write in them even when he wasn't quoting them directly.

After that, we spoke on the phone numerous times and talked about his career.

The year before, I'd studied with a writer named Dennis Cooper, who often mentioned The Man with the Candy, which I'd also read and liked. I asked Olsen whether he was aware that his book had shaped the culture permanently. Many writers had quoted it, but more surprisingly, it had become de rigeur reading for '70s punks. Quotes from Jack's book had appeared on an entire line of T-shirts by Vivienne Westwood in the heyday of Le Sex Shoppe, and one of them was worn frequently by Johnny Lydon during documented performances with the Sex Pistols. In the '90s, Venetian Snares quoted the book again on the album Doll Doll Doll, and my former teacher published Jerk, which sourced Jack's book almost exclusively.

Jack hadn't been aware of any of that, nor did he know that anyone had ever liked the book. All he knew was that his publisher had complained there wasn't enough sex and violence in it, and Jack assumed critics had ignored it for that same reason. "You deserve compensation!" I told him.

"I really do," he said.

One day, he called me up, upset that someone had been slandering him on the internet (keep in mind this was 1998). He was all set to launch a series of counter-attacks, one of which involved law enforcement, when I advised him to ignore the attacks and let other people defend him. I found it endearing that a man who was able to communicate with psychopaths for decades without making any dangerous missteps had nearly left himself open to the echo chamber of flames.

I'd add Charmer to your list -- not only for Jack's rendering of people's voices, but for the evocation of how that decade and place (Mercer Island, which I found as banal in real life as in the book) felt to the various people involved.

Besides which, Charmer is about the sort of SK who tends only to exist in movies: Obsessed with aesthetics, so that he posed his victims and the objects around them as if the crime scene were an art installation. After seeing the idea executed badly in films for many years, it was a pleasure to read someone who got it right at last. I'm surprised there hasn't been an adaptation.