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The true crime bestseller about Fred and Rose West a couple virtually unique in British criminal history - who loved and killed together as husband and wife. During their long relationship the Wests murdered a series of young women, burying the remains of nine victims under their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, including those of their teenage daughter, Heather.
Theodore Bundy was one of the more infamous, and flamboyant, American serial killers on record, and his story is a complex mix of psychopathology, criminal investigation, and the U.S. legal system. This in-depth examination of Bundy's life and his killing spree that totaled dozens of victims is drawn from legal transcripts, correspondence and interviews with detectives and prosecutors. Using these sources, new information on several murders is unveiled.
In 1955, former nightclub manageress Ruth Ellis shot dead her lover, David Blakely. Following a trial that lasted less than two days, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. She became the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and her execution is the most notorious of hangman Albert Pierrepoint's 'duties'. Despite Ruth's infamy, the story of her life has never been fully told. Often wilfully misinterpreted, the reality behind the headlines was buried by an avalanche of hearsay.
Perhaps the most compelling murder case of our day, the death of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey galvanized the nation - and years after it occurred, the mystery still endures. Who killed the young beauty queen and why? Who is covering up for whom, and who is simply lying? In JonBenet, the most authoritative and comprehensive study of the Ramsey murder, a former lead Boulder Police detective, Steve Thomas, explores the case in vivid and fascinating detail.
In 1991, flight attendant Nancy Ludwig checked in to an airport hotel near Detroit. The next morning she was found gagged, raped, and tortured - her throat slit with such rage that she was nearly decapitated. Her husband Arthur never gave up hope that the future would bring enough evidence to close the case. But it was the past that held the clue. In 1985, 55-year-old Margarette Eby, a music professor, met the same grisly death at her cottage in Flint, Michigan. The case went cold - until six years later when the victim's son Mark came upon the story of Nancy Ludwig's slaying.
Throughout his time as a murder squad detective, Trevor Marriott has seen firsthand the wanton slayings and butcheries that have been committed by both men and women who have warped, depraved and sadistic minds. In this fascinating and chilling book, he examines the world's most notorious serial killers and the despicable crimes they committed.
The true crime bestseller about Fred and Rose West a couple virtually unique in British criminal history - who loved and killed together as husband and wife. During their long relationship the Wests murdered a series of young women, burying the remains of nine victims under their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, including those of their teenage daughter, Heather.
Theodore Bundy was one of the more infamous, and flamboyant, American serial killers on record, and his story is a complex mix of psychopathology, criminal investigation, and the U.S. legal system. This in-depth examination of Bundy's life and his killing spree that totaled dozens of victims is drawn from legal transcripts, correspondence and interviews with detectives and prosecutors. Using these sources, new information on several murders is unveiled.
In 1955, former nightclub manageress Ruth Ellis shot dead her lover, David Blakely. Following a trial that lasted less than two days, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. She became the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and her execution is the most notorious of hangman Albert Pierrepoint's 'duties'. Despite Ruth's infamy, the story of her life has never been fully told. Often wilfully misinterpreted, the reality behind the headlines was buried by an avalanche of hearsay.
Perhaps the most compelling murder case of our day, the death of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey galvanized the nation - and years after it occurred, the mystery still endures. Who killed the young beauty queen and why? Who is covering up for whom, and who is simply lying? In JonBenet, the most authoritative and comprehensive study of the Ramsey murder, a former lead Boulder Police detective, Steve Thomas, explores the case in vivid and fascinating detail.
In 1991, flight attendant Nancy Ludwig checked in to an airport hotel near Detroit. The next morning she was found gagged, raped, and tortured - her throat slit with such rage that she was nearly decapitated. Her husband Arthur never gave up hope that the future would bring enough evidence to close the case. But it was the past that held the clue. In 1985, 55-year-old Margarette Eby, a music professor, met the same grisly death at her cottage in Flint, Michigan. The case went cold - until six years later when the victim's son Mark came upon the story of Nancy Ludwig's slaying.
Throughout his time as a murder squad detective, Trevor Marriott has seen firsthand the wanton slayings and butcheries that have been committed by both men and women who have warped, depraved and sadistic minds. In this fascinating and chilling book, he examines the world's most notorious serial killers and the despicable crimes they committed.
Twenty-five years after Richard Ramirez left 13 dead, paralysing the city of Los Angeles, his name is still synonymous with fear, torture, and sadistic murder. Philip Carlo's US best seller The Night Stalker, based on three years of meticulous research and extensive interviews with Ramirez, reveals the killer and his horrifying crimes to be even more chilling than anyone could have imagined.
“Sam, could you do me a favor?” Thus begins a story that has now become part of America's true-crime hall of fame. It is a gory, grotesque tale befitting a Stephen King novel. It is also a David and Goliath saga - the story of a young lawyer fresh from the public defender's office whose first client in private practice turns out to be the worst serial killer in our nation's history. This is a gripping true crime narrative that reenacts the gruesome killings and the famous trial that shocked a nation.
Everyone thinks they know the story of Milly Dowler. Haunting headlines about the missing schoolgirl splashed across front pages. The family's worst fears realised when her body was found months later. The years of waiting for the truth, only to learn that the killer, known to the police, lived just yards from where Milly had vanished. The parents subjected to horrific psychological torture at a trial orchestrated by the murderer.
In 1967, during the time of peace, free love, and hitchhiking, 19-year-old Mary Terese Fleszar was last seen walking home to her apartment in Ypsilanti, Michigan. One month later, her naked body stabbed over 30 times and missing both feet and a forearm was discovered on an abandoned farm. A year later, the body of 20-year-old Joan Schell was found, similarly violated. Over the next two years, five more bodies of female students were uncovered around the area.
In this poignant and disturbing memoir of lost innocence, coercion, survival, and healing, Dianne Lake chronicles her years with Charles Manson, revealing for the first time how she became the youngest member of his Family and offering new insights into one of the 20th century's most notorious criminals and life as one of his 'girls'.
Loni Ann, Cynthia, Lauren, Cheryl, and Sara seemed to have it all - beauty, wealth, children, and a husband who they believed to be this perfect man - Brad Cunningham. He was handsome, charismatic, and mysterious. They adored him and tried to give him all he wanted. But he wanted everything: sex, money, and it seemed, their very lives. How long would it take before he finally got what he deserved?
This incredible story shows how John Douglas tracked and participated in the hunt for one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history. For 31 years a man who called himself BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) terrorized the city of Wichita, Kansas, sexually assaulting and strangling a series of women, taunting the police with frequent communications, and bragging about his crimes to local newspapers and TV stations.
The shocking first true account from one of the young girls who lived through and survived the Rotherham sex abuse scandal. In the summer of 2014, the Rotherham sex abuse scandal sent shockwaves through the nation. A report revealed that since the 1990s, up to 1,400 young girls in the town had been regularly abused by sex gangs, predominantly comprised of Pakistani men.
The terrifying story of the most monstrous serial killers through history. Serial killers are the most notorious and disturbing of all criminals, representing the very darkest side of humanity. Yet they endlessly fascinate and continue to capture the public's attention with their strange charisma and deadly deeds. From Jack the Ripper to Ted Bundy and the Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, these killers transfix us with their ability to commit utterly savage acts of cruelty and depravity.
A truly inspiring and heartbreaking book from the mother of little James Bulger - whose murder by two young boys shocked the world. On 12th February 1993, Denise's life changed forever. As she was running errands at New Strand Shopping Centre, she let go of her two-year-old son's hand to take out her purse. Denise never saw her son again. In this extraordinary and heart-wrenching audiobook comes the unflinching account of that terrible day from James Bulger's mother, Denise.
In The Lost Girls, John Glatt tells the truly amazing story of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight - who were kidnapped, imprisoned, and repeatedly raped and beaten in a Cleveland house for over a decade by Ariel Castro - and their amazing escape in May 2013, which made headlines all over the world.
In the most extraordinary journey Ann Rule has ever undertaken, America's master of true crime has spent more than two decades researching the story of the Green River Killer, who murdered more than 49 young women. Green River, Running Red is a harrowing account of a modern monster, a killer who walked among us undetected. It is also the story of his quarry -- of who these young women were and who they might have become.
'Infamous, I have become disowned, but I am one of your own' - Myra Hindley, from her unpublished autobiography. On 15 November 2002, Myra Hindley, Britain's most notorious murderess, died in prison, one of the rare women whose crimes were deemed so indefensible that 'life' really did mean 'life'. But who was the woman behind the headlines? How could a seemingly normal girl grow up to commit such terrible acts? Her defenders claim she fell under Ian Brady's spell, but is this the truth? Was her insistence that she had changed, that she felt deep remorse and had reverted to the Catholicism of her childhood genuine or a calculating bid to win parole?
One of Your Own explores these questions and many others, drawing on a wide range of resources, including Hindley's own unseen writings, hundreds of recently released prison files, fresh interviews and extensive new research. Compellingly well written, this is the first in-depth study of Hindley and the challenging, definitive biography of Britain's 'most-hated woman'.
The book is a harrowing insight into the life, not just of Hindley, but Brady as well. It's well researched and very interesting.
The author details the futile appeals for parole and Hindley's so called rehabilitation as well as the horrific murders.
All in all a very informative book.
BUT.............
I have never heard such appalling narration! Poor old Maggie Mash seems to think that she has to try and speak in the native dialect of everyone who has been interviewed in the book. So when Hindley's words are being read, we get generic North of England accent. When Brady's words are being read we get Scottish accent with a slightly husky voice. There are some really bad accents on display. There is possibly the worst attempt at an Irish accent I've ever heard!
Unfortunately this, for me at least, detracted terribly from the events in the book lending it an unwitting air of comedy. What on earth possessed the narrator to think this was a good idea is beyond me. It seemed to belittle the very serious and, at times, upsetting subject matter.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful
A disturbing true story well written and investigated by the author. It has some graphic details which can be upsetting though it helps you understand the state of minds of the killers ,evil or not, a chilling account well read.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
What did you like most about One of Your Own?
I liked the attention to detail, even at the start it clearly states that it endeavoured to be an accurate account. I liked how it presented Myra, good and bad.
What about Maggie Mash’s performance did you like?
I think having her do the voices helped to bring the characters alive.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
The story was very compelling and I wanted to know what exactly would happen next. I did listen to this for sometimes more than an hour at a time, but at 18+ hours in one go, I don't think so.
Any additional comments?
I really enjoyed this book, it brought to my attention many facts about the cases that I was not previously aware. I thought it gave a reasonably balanced view of Myra, declaring her neither a beast, nor a feeble woman who was under the spell of a man.
I would recommend this to anyone with a strong stomach, as some of the descriptions of the assaults on the children are quite explicit- There is one section where the narrator reads, in character, a transcript of a tape, made by Myra and Ian during the assault of a victim; this was quite harrowing.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
This is by no means a comfortable read- some of the details, particularly the transcript of the tape of Leslie Ann Downey's suffering, may give sleepless nights. However, the author stays true to her stated aim of giving the victims and their families a strong presence in the narrative and the book is really touching in parts for this reason. Hindley and Brady come across as truly revolting and the author manages to write about them as multi dimensional without ever excusing or justifying their crimes. It works pretty well as social history too though not intrusively. Quotes from the writings of the child killers musings and writings actually made me laugh out loud a couple of times- what a pair of pretentious, faux intellectuals they were- Hindley being offended by Brady's comparison of her prose style to Barbara Cartland is a gem. Narration is excellent- never too ponderous which would have made listening too harrowing...though I could have done without the cod Jamaican accent attributed to the sole black character. Recommended.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
It's certainly a well-researched account and could even be said to suffer from an excess of information. Quotes pepper the text to such a degree that 20 minutes can go by without a full sentence from the author being read. A page of information could have been summarised in a paragraph without any loss of accuracy. That being said it's clear that the background information has been meticulously collected and is presented in a logical narrative.
This brings us to the narration. It appears to suffer from the same striving for authentic detail as the text and as such the narrator attempts to characterise each individual with the appropriate vocal characteristics. Unfortunately she lacks the ability to do this. Every male character speaks with gruff, sinister undertones in the manner of an untrustworthy cartoon dog and the accents are quite unaccountable. One character, Dave, has a stammer which astonishingly the narrator attempts to replicate for all Dave's quotations, some of which span many pages. The result is that the canine growling is delivered in a sort of staccato regurgitation reminiscent of a concussed Dalek. The result is so infuriating it's almost impossible to bear.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, if they were interested in the Moors murder and knew something about it. Plus Myra Hindley's character becomes much clearer as the book progresses. I always thought she must have been vile to commit the crimes she did, but thought that Brady was probably the real villain. I am not so sure now, since her manipulation of so many people (some of whom, one cannot help thinking, should have know better - i.e. Lord Longford and David Astor) showed her for the heartless and self-absorbed creature that she was, without a shred of pity or compassion. Worse, she obviously expected everyone to feel as sorry for her as she was for herself over her prison incarceration.
What was one of the most memorable moments of One of Your Own?
Difficult to say, but was pretty relieved when she died in prison!
Would you be willing to try another one of Maggie Mash’s performances?
Absolutely not. I read other reviews complaining about terrible narration and to begin with I didn't think it was too bad. By half way through the book I had to grit my teeth each time I realised we were about to have another sortie into yet one more dreadful voice and accent.
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It made me very angry. I am about the same age as Myra Hindley so lived through the horror everyone felt at the time when they were caught. However, as I said earlier, I was prepared to allow that she was so taken up with Brady she lost all sight of reality. I now feel, after having heard the book, that she was every bit as evil as she was made out to be. A thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Any additional comments?
I think I would probably have preferred to read the book as it seems exceedingly well-written. The narration detracts from it.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful
Such a sad topic but well worth the listen. Very informative and wonderfully narration.
My views on Myra have remained the same! An evil woman who knew exactly what she was doing. It was good to have a true insight into that woman and hear first hand witness accounts etc. I hope one day they find the missing boy Keith, Myra, I think did know where he was buried. An evil Woman right to the end!!!!
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
How could the performance have been better?
It's an excellent book but why did the narrator feel she had to do *every* accent mentioned in passing? Russian, French, American and some awful Mancunian ones.
There was no need to assume accents when reading the transcript of the killing of Lesley Anne Downes. A bit tasteless really.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
What made the experience of listening to One of Your Own the most enjoyable?
I cant describe it as enjoyable but the story included more detail than the previous book i had read on this awful story.
What did you like best about this story?
The way the reader did the different voices
What about Maggie Mash’s performance did you like?
her way of reading and change of voice for characters
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
no. Far to long .Reccomended
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Not to all as the subject matter would be too horrific for most of my friends to absorb
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
This is not a fairytale. All the events described are real and the story cannot be changed. Nothing could make this book enjoyable it is a study of depravity
What does Maggie Mash bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
The reader makes a very good job of bringing the personalities involved to life
If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
A true horror story
Any additional comments?
It is very difficult to come to terms with the sadness this woman, with her lover, brought to the families of these poor young people. That she hoped for forgiveness is equally unbelieveable.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful