Musings from Cassandra: Could the West Have Anticipated this Crisis? Joseph Stalin is quoted as saying, “The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions is a statistic.” Today he might say, “The death of one Iranian General sucks up the headlines, leaving millions to suffer the consequences in anonymity.” Continuing aggressive […]
Category Archives: True Crime
AMERICA’S FIRST CELEBRITY SPY
Spy Sites of New York; A Guide to the Region’s Secret History by H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace with Henry Schlesinger chronicles espionage history in America’s leading city. During the Revolutionary War battles between the British and the Patriots for control of New York created stories about spy master George Washington, spy hunter John […]
THE SPY NEXT DOOR — WHO KNEW?
In their newly released book, Spy Sites of New York; A Guide to the Region’s Secret History, intelligence historians H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace with Hnry Schlesinger document the tradecraft used by Anna Chapman and other Russian spies to create identities and covers that enable them blend seamlessly into the U.S. urban environment. These […]
Shake the branches of family trees—you never what you might find…
Shake the branches of family trees—you never what you might find… When writing about crime and serial killers, I usually delve into the characters’ family, upbringing and environment to discover the root of their evil. In my books, I like to have a link to their past. I’m fascinated by heritage and family tree’s and […]
The Anatomy of a Serial Killer
The Anatomy of a Serial Killer (Author Katherine Ramsland took some time out of her busy schedule to talk to us about the anatomy, the behaviors and the pathology of serial killers) TSM: When did you first get interested in this subject? KR: My initial interest came from a serial killer operating in my hometown […]
Frederick Porter Wensley, Jack the Ripper, and Why You Never Want to be Second on the Stair Tower
Frederick Porter Wensley, Jack the Ripper, and Why You Never Want to be Second on the Stair Tower One of my favorite books on criminal investigations is nearly a century old. 40 YEARS OF SCOTLAND YARD was published in 1931 by Chief Constable Frederick Porter Wensley. I found an original hardcover in the back […]
Writing Serial Killer Thrillers
Writing Serial Killer Thrillers In this blog, thriller writer Rick Reed discusses writing serial killer novels. In the next blog he will discuss the various categories of serial killers, motivation, mobility, profiling value, importance of body count. In future blogs he will discuss the international aspects to serial killers. Rick was a homicide detective […]
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO POISONING
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO POISONING Growing up, I always knew that one day I’d kill someone with poison. That was partly because I was fascinated by Agatha Christie novels, in which poison often plays a prominent role. Alfred Hitchcock used it to wonderful effect in his films — think of how Ingrid Bergman […]
Just The Facts: The Attempted Murder of Theodore Roosevelt
Just The Facts: The Attempted Murder of Theodore Roosevelt I’m basically a nonfiction guy, a journalist by trade. I believe in facts. I feel comforted by facts. Also inspired and served by them, as I shall explain. At the same time, I love fiction—to read and to write—because it takes me inside the facts, to […]
Is True Crime Good for You?
Is True Crime Good for You? I never gave much thought to true crime until I began working on my new true crime anthology series. Suddenly it occurred to me that I’d been a consumer of true crime since my teens, though at the time I wasn’t conscious of the fact that all those […]
Ten American Pirates You’d Best Have Avoided When They Were in Their Prime
Ten American Pirates You’d Best Have Avoided When They Were in Their Prime Most of us think of 17th Century pirates as swashbuckling outlaws that wore eyepatches, drank grog and buried their treasure on desert islands. And while some pirates probably did lose an eye and most definitely drank watered-down rum, outlaws they were […]
The Mystery of Elizabeth Canning
The Mystery of Elizabeth Canning Elizabeth Canning was an eighteen-year-old maidservant who disappeared on January 1, 1753, returning to her mother’s house, emaciated and in a deplorable state, one month later. She told authorities of being kidnapped. Several arrests were made and Henry Fielding took her side. The accused were convicted, but the trial judge […]