New on Our Bookshelf Today:

Murder Files from Scotland Yard and the Black Museum

by R. Michael Gordon

From the files of Scotland Yard’s “Black Museum” (open only to police officers) come true crime stories of some of the most infamous murder cases of the 19th and 20th centuries—the Lambeth Poisoner, “baby farmer” Amelia Elizabeth Dyer, the Gentleman Vampire of Bournemouth, the Brides in the Bath Murders, the Rillington Place murders and many others. Along the way, investigators pass a number of crime-solving milestones, included the first use of fingerprint technology, the early use of photography and the first time “The Yard” enlisted the press to help hunt down a killer.

New on our bookshelf today:

Justice Perverted: The Molestation Mistrial of Richard Charles Haefner

by Derek J. Sherwood

In 1975, Dr. Richard Charles Haefner had it all—a Ph.D. from Penn State University, a prestigious job offer with UCLA and a thriving family business. Then it all came crashing down. Two boys who worked for Haefner accused him of sexual molestation, but allegations of police brutality, prosecutorial misconduct, bribery and corruption soon overshadowed what seemed like an “open-and-shut-case,” ultimately resulting in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s amending state law.

Drawing on interviews and recently discovered documents, the author revisits the case and explores a number of open questions—including whether Haefner was set up by police as he claimed.

Derek Sherwood is the author of 2011’s Who Killed Betsy? Uncovering Penn State University’s Most Notorious Unsolved Crime, which put forth Haefner as the prime suspect. While writing it, he uncovered many expunged documents and as a result he has spent the past decade researching Haefner’s 1976 molestation trial, which ended with a hung jury. The author lives in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

New on our bookshelf today:

The Sadist, the Hitman and the Murder of Jane Bashara

by George Hunter and Lynn Rosenthal

“Big Bob” Bashara put on a respectable face. To his friends in Detroit’s affluent suburb of Grosse Pointe, he was a married father of two, Rotary Club President, church usher and soccer dad who organized charity events with his wife, Jane. To his “slaves,” he was “Master Bob,” a cocaine-snorting slumlord who operated a sex dungeon and had a submissive girlfriend to do his bidding—and he wanted more slaves to serve him. But Bashara knew he couldn’t rule a household of concubines on his income alone. He eyed his wife’s sizable retirement account and formulated a murderous plan. This meticulous account tells the complete story of the crime, the nationally watched investigation and trials, and the lives affected.

The Jane Bashara murder manuscript is here. Looks pretty good, too!  Anticipate seeing this one from authors George Hunter and Lynn Rosenthal during the spring 2018 season.

Jack Sunday and Amy Iler are talk-show hosts with KFGO in Fargo, North Dakota.  Robert M. Dudley, author of Finding Jacob Wetterling: The 27-Year Investigation from Kidnapping to Confession, was interviewed on Tuesday, April 11, 2017.

For the full interview:

http://kfgo.com/podcasts/it-takes-2/955/finding-jacob-wetterling/

 

From The Washington Post March 31, 2017:

On the night that 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a masked gunman while riding his bike with friends in St. Joseph, Minn., Daniel Rassier was home alone, organizing his record collection. It was Oct. 22, 1989.  Rassier, an elementary school music teacher, heard his dog, Smokey, bark as two different cars pulled into his driveway, turned around and drove away.  Later that night, he learned a child had been taken from a site near the end of the driveway of the farm home Rassier shared with his parents. He would spend hours helping authorities search the area and would soon become a key witness…

Further Reading:

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/31/to-them-i-was-a-murderer-wrongly-named-person-of-interest-in-1989-wetterling-abduction-seeks-justice/?utm_term=.be90c0c89bcf
2. Finding Jacob Wetterling: The 27-Year Investigation from Kidnapping to Confession by Robert M. Dudley

Mark Grossman’s collection of historical American true crime stories has landed in editing.  Grossman draws on court transcripts, newspaper coverage and other contemporary sources to chronicle murder cases that became media sensations of their day, making headlines across the country in the decades before radio or television.

• A trunk dripping blood, discovered at a railway station in Stockton in 1906, launches one of the most incredible murder cases in California history—still debated by crime historians.
• The dismembered body of a young pregnant woman, found in the East River in 1913, is traced back to her killer and husband, who remains the only priest ever executed for homicide in the U.S.
• In 1916, a successful dentist, recently married into a prestigious family, poisons his in-laws—first with deadly bacteria, then with arsenic—claiming the real murderer was an Egyptian incubus who took control of his body.

The book is slated for release fall 2017, and we’ll post the final title and other details once they’ve been set…

 

Clayton Delery, the author of The Up Stairs Lounge Arson, has delivered his latest manuscript.  One evening in New Orleans, three Tulane undergrads wanted to beat up a stranger just because he was gay. Fernando Rios fit that bill. He was beaten and robbed in an alleyway, left unconscious on the sidewalk, and died later that day. During January of 1959, his assailants were charged but acquitted under the “gay panic” defense, and the courtroom cheered. Out for Queer Blood: The Murder of Fernando Rios and the Failure of New Orleans Justice, to be released Fall 2017, delves into the connections between anti-Latino prejudices, homophobia, and societal norms in 1950s America.

Robert M. Dudley, author of Finding Jacob Wetterling, loaned his expertise to the Fox Television investigative report “Monster & Mentor.”  The report provides coverage of the man known to be one of the most notorious sex offenders in Minnesota, and the one who likely groomed the man who confessed to kidnapping, assaulting and murdering Jacob Wetterling.  Watch and read the story in its entirety here: http://www.fox9.com/news/investigators/217325178-story

The first title for Exposit Books, Finding Jacob Wetterling: The 27-Year Investigation from Kidnapping to Confession by Robert M. Dudley, is now published!

Exposit has its check copy of Finding Jacob Wetterling.  Printing will start later today!

Pageproofs are ready for Finding Jacob Wetterling.  Not much longer now…