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A true-crime writer begins a new book project, centered on a grisly 1986 double murder in southern California, that leads him to question the ethics of his trade and to delve into the paradoxes of storytelling itself. [more inside]
posted by FrauMaschine on Feb 14, 2022 - 8 comments

In the early nineteenth century, a series of murders took place in and around London which shocked the whole of England. The appalling nature of the crimes―a brutal slaying in the gambling netherworld, the slaughter of two entire households, and the first of the modern lust-murders―was magnified not only by the lurid atmosphere of an age in which candlelight gave way to gaslight, but also by the efforts of some of the keenest minds of the period to uncover the gruesomest details of the killings. [more inside]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis on May 26, 2019 - 3 comments

In this fascinating exploration of murder in the nineteenth century, Judith Flanders examines some of the most gripping cases that captivated the Victorians and gave rise to the first detective fiction Murder in Britain in the nineteenth century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous, transformed into novels, into broadsides and ballads, into theatre and melodrama and opera―even into puppet shows and performing dog-acts. Detective fiction and England's new police force developed in parallel, each imitating the other―the pioneers of Scotland Yard gave rise to Dickens's Inspector Bucket, the first fictional police detective, who in turn influenced Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, even P.D. James and Patricia Cornwell. [more inside]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis on Apr 2, 2019 - 3 comments

On October 12, 2005, a massive fire broke out in the Wines Central wine warehouse in Vallejo, California. Within hours, the flames had destroyed 4.5 million bottles of California's finest wine worth more than $250 million, making it the largest destruction of wine in history. The fire had been deliberately set by a passionate oenophile named Mark Anderson, a skilled con man and thief with storage space at the warehouse who needed to cover his tracks. [more inside]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis on Mar 16, 2019 - 2 comments

2:28pm. August 28, 2003. A man walks into a bank with a bomb locked around his neck. This is a true story. The extraordinary story of the "pizza bomber heist" and the FBI's investigation into a bizarre collection of suspects.
posted by catch as catch can on May 31, 2018 - 7 comments

“Rule number one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.” [more inside]
posted by roger ackroyd on Mar 5, 2018 - 5 comments

When Steven Avery is freed after serving 18 years from a wrongful conviction, his search for justice raises questions about the authorities who put him behind bars. [more inside]
posted by TenaciousB on Dec 20, 2015 - 16 comments