House Of Mystery True Crime History

Conspiracy theories are a part of the human condition. Everyone believes at least one, but given the number of conspiracy theories, it is more likely that everyone believes a few. Some people have a worldview defined by them. Conspiracy theories are just another reminder that people disagree about many things, including truth. These disagreements have always existed and always will. We have to live with conspiracy theories and with the people who believe them. The only way to do this is have compassion and tolerance for others, and to hold our own beliefs to high standards. This book introduces students to the research into conspiracy theories and the people who propagate and believe them. In doing so, it addresses the psychological, sociological, and political sources of conspiracy theorizingUscinski rigorously analyzes the most current arguments and evidence while providing numerous real-world examples so students can contextualize the current debates. Each chapter addresses important current questions, pro

In May 2001 Bonny Lee Bakley was shot to death in a car parked on a dark Hollywood side street. Eleven months later Robert Blake—her husband, the father of her child, and the star of the classic film In Cold Blood and the popular 1970s TV detective series Baretta—was arrested for murder, conspiracy, and solicitation. Did Blake kill his wife? Did he hire someone to do the job for him? Award-winning journalist Dennis McDougal and entertainment-media expert Mary Murphy recount a real-life crime story more shocking and bizarre than any movie, chronicling the parallel worlds of Blake and Bakley, from their troubled youths to their sham of a marriage. By the late 1990s Blake was coasting on his past success. Bakley was a con artist who concocted online sex scams and victimized unsuspecting men, netting big money and dangerous enemies. In true noir style, McDougal and Murphy lay bare the stories of two violent people whose lives collided in a tragic tangle of abuse, betrayal, and love gone horribly wrong. Suppo

Drawing on the voices of atomic bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and the aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices, detonated over Japan, changed life on Earth forever.To Hell and Back offers readers a stunning, “you are there” time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino’s scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written.At the narrative’s core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand—the Japanese civilians on the ground. As the first city targeted, Hiroshima is the focus of most histories. Pellegrino gives equal weight to the bombing of Nagasaki, symbolized by the thirty people who are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki—where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of both cataclysms withi

As a young man, Jack Goldsmith revered his stepfather, longtime Jimmy Hoffa associate Chuckie O’Brien. But as he grew older and pursued a career in law and government, he came to doubt and distance himself from the man long suspected by the FBI of perpetrating Hoffa’s disappearance on behalf of the mob. It was only years later, when Goldsmith was serving as assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and questioning its misuse of surveillance and other powers, that he began to reconsider his stepfather, and to understand Hoffa’s true legacy.In Hoffa’s Shadow tells the moving story of how Goldsmith reunited with the stepfather he’d disowned and then set out to unravel one of the twentieth century’s most persistent mysteries and Chuckie’s role in it. Along the way, Goldsmith explores Hoffa’s rise and fall and why the golden age of blue-collar America came to an end, while also casting new light on the century-old surveillance state, the architects of Hoffa’s disappearance, and the heartrendi

He was the billionaire financier and close confidant of presidents, prime ministers, movie stars and British royalty, the mysterious self-made man who rose from blue-collar Brooklyn to the heights of luxury. But while he was flying around the world on his private jet and hosting lavish parties at his private island in the Caribbean, he also was secretly masterminding an international child sex ring—one that may have involved the richest and most influential men in the world.The conspiracy of corruption was an open secret for decades. And then this summer, it all came crashing down. After his arrest on sex trafficking charges in July, it seemed Epstein’s darkest secrets would finally see the light. But hopes for true justice were shattered on August 10 this year, when he was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York. The verdict: suicide. The timing: convenient, to say the least.   Now, Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales delivers bombshell new revelations, u

Teri Jendusa never dreamed she would marry a violent, malignant narcissist like David Larsen. But she did. Why? Simple. Larsen cleverly concealed his true nature until the marriage vows were final. David, an eventual church council president and model citizen, rapidly began to morph into a monster and sociopath, telling Teri on their wedding day, “Now, I own you.”Beaten and Left For Dead is a book about extreme marital violence, dominant control and psychological torment through the mind of the out-of-control David Larsen. It's also about survival, faith and a mother’s will to live for her children’s sake...as she faces death, face to face.This is an ideal book for women’s studies and book clubs as it looks inside a large women’s shelter, giving the reader a glimpse of a support network. The author also interviews a counselor who works with violent men with surprising results.Teri Jendusa-Nicolai continues to crusade for women’s issues to this day and currently works with a Wisconsin commission on domestic vi

Jesus might love you, but does his cult following? John Verner, a trained preacher and former church leader, thoroughly accuses evangelical leaders in the United States of committing cult-like crimes. In this personal, yet insightful, commentary, Verner demonstrates his quirky writing style in a deeply critical manner. Things like prayer, sermons, persecution, hell, apologetics, and other behaviors, are flipped on their head, in an attempt to show how church leaders are exploiting such things for their own power. You'll want to evaluate you own allegiances, no matter your faith, after reading.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A successful entertainment executive making $2 million a year. His former beauty queen wife. Their two sons on the fast track to success. But it was all a façade. The Menendez saga has captivated the American public since 1989. The killing of José and Kitty Menendez on a quiet Sunday evening in Beverly Hills didn’t make the cover of People magazine until the arrest of their sons seven months later, and the case developed an intense cult following. When the first Menendez trial began in July 1993, the public was convinced that Lyle and Erik were a pair of greedy rich kids who had killed loving, devoted parents. But the real story remained buried beneath years of dark secrets. Until now. Journalist Robert Rand, who originally reported on the case for the Miami Herald and Playboy, has followed the Menendez murders from the beginning and has continued investigating and interviewing key sources for 28 years. Rand is the only reporter who covered the

On September 12, 2001, Michele Harris went missing from a small town in upstate New York. She has never been found, and the mystery surrounding her disappearance remains. Four years after she went missing, her wealthy husband, Cal Harris, was arrested and charged with her murder.With neither a body nor a murder weapon, Cal was shockingly tried and convicted of her murder. Then new evidence surfaced. His conviction was overturned, and a new trial granted. But once again, he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. That conviction, too, was overturned on appeal. The saga continued as Cal went on trial for the third time. This one ended in a mistrial.By the time Cal went on trial the fourth time, Michele had been missing for nearly 15 years.Defense investigator, David M. Beers, worked on the Cal Harris case from start-to-finish. His account, “Reign of Injustice,” walks you through the details and events of the case never before revealed. It provides a inside view of the scandalous case facts yo

Ken Rex McElroy terrorized the residents of several counties in northwestern Missouri for a score of years. He raped young girls and brutalized them after they went to live with him or even married him; he shot at least two men; he stole cattle and hogs, and burned down the houses of some who interfered with his criminal activities. Thanks to the expert efforts of his lawyer and the pro-defendant bias of state laws, he served no more than a few days in jail, the author shows. In 1981, sentenced for the shooting of a popular grocer and free on bail, he was killed by the men of Skidmore, the center of his felonies; they closed ranks against all attempts to identify those who had pulled the triggers. Written by a first-time author, this is an engrossing, credible examination of the way vigilante action can take over when the law appears to be powerless. BOMC and QPBC alternatesSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark E. Safarik was a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s elite Behavioral Analysis Unit. He established himself as an internationally recognized expert in the analysis of violent criminal behavior. Safarik’s law enforcement career spans over 30 years. He served 23 years with the FBI, the last 12, as a criminal profiler. He has lectured around the world, sharing his expertise in the analysis of homicide and complex crime scene behavior with over 20,000 personnel from police chiefs to violent crime investigators, prosecutors, medical examiners and other professionals. He currently consults with law enforcement, attorneys, universities, writers, television producers, and foreign government entities. Safarik has a graduate degree from Boston University and is adjunct faculty at Boston College. He has conducted internationally renowned research on the sexual assault and homicide of elder females and received the prestigious Jefferson Medal from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the highly

The apocalyptic group The Family and their guru, Anne Hamilton-Byrne — one of very few female cult leaders in history — captured international headlines throughout the 1980s and 1990s.Hamilton-Byrne, who some followers believed was Jesus Christ, was glamorous and charismatic — and, many allege, very dangerous. From her base in a quiet suburb, she recruited wealthy professionals to join her cult, including doctors, lawyers, nurses, architects, and scientists. She acquired children and raised them as her own, bleaching their hair blonde to make them look like siblings, and her group became surrounded by rumours of LSD use, child abuse, and strange spiritual rituals.In 1987, police swooped on The Family’s lakeside compound and rescued children who claimed they were part of Anne’s future master race. The children recounted terrible stories of near starvation, emotional manipulation, and physical abuse. But Anne could not be found, sparking an international police hunt that involved Scotland Yard, Interpol, and th

As featured in Geoffrey Wansell's UPCOMING TRUE CRIME TV series, Murder By The Sea on CBS Reality . . . A fascinating exposé of the country's most violent murderers and their horrifying crimes, based on years of original research and intimate interviews.Pure Evil takes a close look at the country's deadliest criminals, from those who horrified the nation to those less famous but equally brutal; they are all serving life sentences behind bars, but what made them do it?Delving deeper into the stories of lifers such as Jeremy Bamber, Joanna Dennehy and Ian Huntley, Pure Evil asks whether they are just that...or something more complex.In this shocking, chilling and powerful book Geoffrey Wansell exposes killers' motivations and remorse, but also seeks out an answer to the vital question: should life always mean life?Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did you know?• Freemasonry's first American lodge included a young Benjamin Franklin among its members.• The Knights Templar began as impoverished warrior monks then evolved into bankers.• Groom Lake, Dreamland, Homey Airport, Paradise Ranch, The Farm, Watertown Strip, Red Square, “The Box,” are all names for Area 51.An indispensable guide, Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies connects the dots and sets the record straight on a host of greedy gurus and murderous messiahs, crepuscular cabals and suspicious coincidences. Some topics are familiar—the Kennedy assassinations, the Bilderberg Group, the Illuminati, the People's Temple and Heaven's Gate—and some surprising, like Oulipo, a select group of intellectuals who created wild formulas for creating literary masterpieces, and the Chauffeurs, an eighteenth-century society of French home invaders, who set fire to their victims' feet.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spree Killers:Practical Classifications for Law Enforcement and Criminologyis the only exhaustive, up-to-date analytical book on spree killers, standing apart from those dedicated to mass murderers and serial killers.Multicides have traditionally been categorized as double, triple, mass, serial and spree—while, mass and serial have been further divided into subcategories. Spree killing, which involves the killing of at least three persons at two or more locations due to a precipitating incident that fuels the urge to kill, remains a poorly defined concept.　In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) eliminated this term from its multicide nomenclature in 2005, but the authors examination of 359 cases involving 419 spree killers from 43 countries shows that not only is there enough diversity among spree killers to form classifications—similar to those devised for mass and serial—but also that subtypes offer distinct utility for identification, tracking, and warning potential targets.Spree K

Nigel Cawthorne is a prolific writer. Four of his publishers tell him that he is the most published living author in the UK. This is difficult to verify as he works under five different names and assumes other writers do too.He was born in Wolverhampton – though Wikipedia says it was Chicago – and was brought up in what was then rural Surrey, now commuter belt. His first job was milking cows. Though the feel of a warm udder has its attractions for an adolescent boy, most of the job consisted of shovelling cow shit… But let’s not go further down the route.He came to London to study physics at University College London and is, consequently, one of the Godless of Gower Street. To support himself, he became a printer’s message. Awaiting proofs at IPC Business Press one evening, he spotted a wanted ad on the notice board for a features writer on Nuclear Engineering International. He applied immediately. The vacancy had already been filled, but they offered him a job on a weekly tabloid for

From teenage gang member to $40 million star of the New England Patriots, from All-American college player to drug addict, murderer, dead by suicide in his jail cell at age twenty-seven . . . you think you know the Aaron Hernandez story? You don’t. For the first time, Aaron Hernandez’s Killing Fields will reveal the real, hitherto unknown motive for the killing of Odin Lloyd—the only crime for which Hernandez was ever convicted and a revelation so shocking it will shake the foundations of the NFL itself. It will also unpick a pattern of violence and brutality stretching back to his time as a teenager at the University of Florida, revealing further shooting victims, evidence of his involvement in the double murder of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado in 2012, and, in a world exclusive, a compelling case for a fourth murder victim, shot just eleven days before the slaying of Odin Lloyd. Featuring new interviews with serving police investigators, prosecutors, psychologists, attorneys—as well as key wit

Nearly 100 years since his death, Bat Masterson still holds great influence. Remembered by many for his adventures in America’s Old West - buffalo hunter, scout, gunfighter, and even lawman as Dodge City sheriff. in 20th Century New York City he became a sportswriter. However, Masterson left a legacy that is much more intricate.Masterson always stood up for the underdog. And his real legacy was how he fought for them. After the days of the Old West were over, he laid down his gun and picked up his pen. So great was his writing that he was vastly respected for his opinions on many topics of the day including, crime, politics, and war.But Bat Masterson had a secret. One that he kept well-hidden his entire life. For if known, he and all those he cared about would be ruined. His reputation and all that he worked for in his life would be in tatters.In “Bat Masterson: The First Dreamer,” Fred Rosen reveals that secret for the first time ever, and at a pivotal time in America. A time when dangerous government-driven

A jaw-dropping insider look into the world of the so-called "Hollywood Sex Cult" NXIVM chronicling the rise of enigmatic cult leader, Keith Raniere, from its "Patient Zero," his former girlfriend and test subject for his coercive control techniques.Many have heard of NXIVM and its creator, Keith Raniere, the unassuming Albany man now prosecuted for ensnaring tens of thousands of people in the US, Mexico, Canada and elsewhere, to do his bidding and pay millions of dollars to participate in his self-improvement methodology. But where did Keith Raniere begin?Enter Toni Natalie, Keith's Patient Zero, the first one indoctrinated into Raniere's methodology and the first one to escape. THE PROGRAM begins with the origin story of NXIVM, follows its rise to international prominence, and takes the reader into the downfall of Raniere through Toni's eyes. During this time she bore witness to the evolution of his methodology, including his use of sex, blackmail, and employment of psychological tools such as neuro-linguist

The shocking true crime story of a beloved Hollywood star gone too soon—told by the captain of the boat on which Natalie Wood spent her last night.  Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour is the long‑awaited, detailed account of events that led to the mysterious death of Hollywood legend Natalie Wood off the coast of Catalina Island on November 28, 1981. It is a story told by a haunted witness to that fateful evening: Dennis Davern, the young captain of Splendour, the yacht belonging to Wood and husband Robert Wagner. Davern initially backed up Wagner’s version of that evening’s events through a signed statement prepared by attorneys. But Davern’s guilt over failing Natalie tormented him.  Davern reached out to his old friend Marti Rulli, and little by little, at his own emotional pace, he revealed the details of his years in Wood’s employ, of the fateful weekend that Natalie died, and of the events following her death that prevented him from telling the whole story—until now.Support this show