Showing titles in Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions

You can choose your house… but you can't choose your neighbors. This is the haunting true story of how one couple found themselves the targets of a relentless campaign of intimidation, harassment and violence – orchestrated by their unhinged neighbours. Amanda and Richard packed up their...

Nick Stapleton is the presenter on the BBC’s Scam Interceptors and has become a guru in the ways of fraud, theft and con artistry. In this audiobook, the first of its kind, he has put together a fail-safe handbook covering all known scams, including advice on how to protect yourself or vulnerable loved ones, what to do if you think you’ve been scammed and how to go about reclaiming stolen money.

One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century: the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser. In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into...

In The Art of Forgery Noah Charney, celebrated art historian and the world's foremost art-crime specialist, explores the stories behind the most famous art forgeries in the world. Chronicling the adventures and misadventures of master forgers throughout history, the book examines how and why these artful tricksters – often ingenious, skilful, quirky and charming – succeeded in deceiving the art world and how they were eventually caught, through shrewd detective work, scientific examination or a good measure of luck.

From the moment an eccentric woman walked into the Knoedler Gallery with a Mark Rothko painting, everyone was fooled. For the next ten years, she ran an $80 million forgery ring, selling or consigning forty expertly crafted counterfeits claimed to be the works of Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and others. Director of the documentary Made You Look Barry Avrich reveals new information, evidence, and inside stories about how a quixotic art dealer, master forger, and two cunning con artists managed to fool billionaire art collectors, journalists, and esteemed art appraisers.

A mother is supposed to be loving, protective, caring, and kind. She's supposed to nurture and guide her children from infancy into childhood and adolescence. The very thought of murdering a child—much less their own child—is not only bizarre but perhaps the most disturbing thought a parent could have! Exploring the ultimate betrayal of a mother's duty, Killer Moms: True Stories recounts thirty-one harrowing tales of motherhood gone wrong.

In 1988, detectives from the Sacramento Police Department were called to investigate the disappearance of a man at his last known address - a boarding house for the elderly, homeless, and mentally ill. The owner, Dorothea Puente, was an adorable old lady who cared for stray cats and the rest of society’s castaways. She had a strong standing in the community and was celebrated for her selfless charitable work.

"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.

The King of Con is the true story about a smart, streetwise Jersey boy who talked his way to the top and became richer and more successful than his wildest dreams. It offers an unforgettable look into the life of a man who became hooked on living life to thrilling and dangerous excess, rubbing elbows with celebrities and crime bosses, until he was humbled by the FBI, by the US Attorney, and by life itself. Now, Tom Giacomaro is back in his old neighborhood. His mob cronies are calling, his palms are itching to make billions again, and the US Attorney's office is watching.

WHEN ANNE HANSON'S DAD FIRST ASKED her to investigate the secret past of his parents, little did she know what she was getting into. For two decades, despite all her digging, she failed to unearth even the tiniest speck of evidence that the families of her grandparents, Frank and Ida Hanson, had ever existed. If her quest were a detective novel, its title would have been, "The Case of the Missing Ancestors."

In 1971, Go Ask Alice reinvented the young adult genre with a blistering portrayal of sex, psychosis, and teenage self-destruction. The supposed diary of a middle-class addict, Go Ask Alice terrified adults and cemented LSD's fearsome reputation, fueling support for the War on Drugs. Five million copies later, Go Ask Alice remains a divisive bestseller, outraging censors and earning new fans, all of them drawn by the book's mythic premise: A Real Diary, by Anonymous.

A darkly comic foray into the world of men and women who fake their own deaths, the consultants who help them disappear, and the private investigators who’ll stop at nothing to bring them back to life. “A delightful read for anyone tantalized by the prospect of disappearing without a trace...

On the 24th of February 1994, police knocked on the door of an aging house in the English town of Gloucester. They'd come to serve a search warrant in the case of a missing girl - the daughter of the house's inhabitants. What they uncovered would shock the world: decades of child abuse, an underground torture chamber, and a burial ground containing the bodies of the spent victims of the torture - including that of the missing daughter.

Hoax, conspiracy, or secret society? That is the range of responses you might hear when raising the idea of the Priory of Sion. Ostensibly a clandestine order designed to disguise the truth about the children of Jesus Christ, the group have been labeled as either an elaborate concoction or the most powerful secret society in the world. Are they real? What are they hiding? Where did they come from? What impact can they have on the world around us? These are the questions this book will hope to answer.

A Legacy of Betrayal is a blistering exposé of the UK’s most shocking police corruption scandals, charting a harrowing history of misconduct that stretches from the earliest days of the force to the headlines of today. From falsified evidence and secret cover-ups to institutional racism and criminal conspiracies, this book reveals just how deep the rot goes.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The true, unsolved story of D. B. Cooper’s 1971 airplane hijacking, one of the greatest cold cases of the twentieth century, by an author featured in D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?!, now streaming on Netflix “Here is writing and storytelling that is vivid and...

Right under the noses of neighbors, clients, spouses, children, and friends, a secret society, simply called School—a cult of snared Manhattan professionals—has been led by the charismatic, sociopathic, and dangerous leader Sharon Gans for decades. Spencer Schneider was recruited in the eighties, and he stayed for more than twenty-three years as his life disintegrated, his self-esteem eroded, and he lined the pockets of Gans and her cult.

Romance scams and other confidence schemes are among the world's fastest growing types of fraud. This book, written by two women featured in Netflix's The Tinder Swindler, will flip everything you think you know about relationship scams on its head. As everyone becomes increasingly vulnerable to these crimes, it's crucial to understand how to keep yourself and your loved ones safer.

Fifty years after the event that rocked the nation and shook the world, Marrs reveals the facts behind the most audacious cover-up of our time, how it was planned, who executed the conspiracy, who benefited from it, and ultimately why this extremely well-orchestrated assassination could be so cleverly concealed. This extensively researched audiobook includes evidence proving the Warren Commission's report was a cover-up and a smoke screen for the true conspiracy. Learn why Lee Harvey Oswald could not have been a lone gunman, and that multiple shots were fired that fateful day.

In May of 2007, in a small, quiet town in the South Moravia region of the Czech Republic, a technical glitch - a simple, accidental crossing of signals - revealed a terrible case of child abuse, and an entire nation watched transfixed with horror as the grisly extent of the perversion of the maternal instinct was revealed. Two small brothers named Jakub and Ondrej, nine and seven years old respectively, were revealed to have suffered confinement, mutilation, psychological brutality, and cannibalism at the hands of several people.