Describes the fire that destroyed Atlanta's Winecoff Hotel, resulting in considerable loss of life

Perkins was being groomed to replace the late James Dean as a romantic leading man in Hollywood. But his landmark performance as Norman Bates in Hitchcock's Psycho destroyed his chance and off-screen life equally as secretive, conflicted, and fractured. Compelling and surprising, here is the first in-depth look at the double life of one of the world's most recognisable film stars. Insightfully documents the life of Anthony Perkins, who was forced to act the part of ladies' man while struggling with his own homosexuality. 27/10/2005

A blow-by-blow account of the deadliest fire in American history retraces the final days of the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago, a supposedly indestructible building that burned killing more than six hundred people.

The Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, was the preeminent nightclub of the lower Midwest for decades. After struggling financially into the1960s, the club was purchased by new owners in 1969. Over the next several years, the new owners completed numerous improvements, renovations, and additions, creating what they hoped would be the "showplace of the nation." On the evening of May 28, 1977, the lavish club burned to the ground, killing 165 people in the second worst nightclub fire in United States history. Robert Lawson's meticulous study makes clear that the tragedy flowed from the fact that the building had become over time a true firetrap. The renovations and additions completed since 1969 were dominated by multiple fire code violations and very significant design failures for a building that was destined to be occupied by huge crowds of people. Undoubtedly, a more complete compliance with state laws on fire safety would have averted the disaster. No single individual was responsible for the building's shortcomings.The firetrap in the nightclub, which ultimately resulted in the tragic death of 165 people, was clearly created by a combination of personal, professional, and legal failures by owners of the facility, local and state fire officials and inspectors, and others. Looking back, which is always easier than looking forward, it is clear that the real tragedy at Beverly Hills is that very little additional care and caution was needed to prevent some if not all of the deaths that occurred there. Beverly Hills: Anatomy of a Nightclub Fire was intended by the author to be an accurate historical account of the whole tragedy and not a sensational description of the event nor a polemic indictment of responsibility. It lays out in careful and complete detail every incremental step in the creation of the firetrap, describes the start and spread of the fire and evacuation efforts, and concludes with a description of the important legal proceedings that followed the fire.

INTRODUCING PENN CAGE... From the author of Cemetery Road comes the first intelligent, gripping thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling Penn Cage series. Natchez, Mississippi. Jewel of the South. City of old money and older sins. And childhood home of Houston prosecutor Penn Cage. In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, this is where Penn has returned for solitude. This is where he hopes to find peace. What he discovers instead is his own family trapped in a mystery buried for thirty years but never forgotten—the town’s darkest secret, now set to trap and destroy Penn as well.

Can crime make our world safer? Crimes are the worst of humanity’s wrongs but, oddly, they sometimes “trigger” improvement in our lives. Crimes That Changed Our World explores some of the most important trigger cases of the past century, revealing much about how change comes to our modern world. The exact nature of the crime-outrage-reform dynamic can take many forms, and Paul and Sarah Robinson explore those differences in the cases they present. Each case is in some ways unique but there are repeating patterns that can offer important insights about what produces change and how in the future we might best manage it. Sometimes reform comes as a society wrestles with a new and intolerable problem. Sometimes it comes because an old problem from which we have long suffered suddenly has an apparent solution provided by technology or some other social or economic advance. Or, sometimes the engine of reform kicks into gear simply because we decide as a society that we are no longer willing to tolerate a long-standing problem and are now willing to do something about it. As the amazing and often touching stories that the Robinsons present make clear, the path of progress is not just a long series of course corrections; sometimes it is a quick turn or an unexpected lurch. In a flash we can suddenly feel different about present circumstances, seeing a need for change and can often, just as suddenly, do something about it. Every trigger crime that appears in Crimes That Changed Our World highlights a societal problem that America has chosen to deal with, each in a unique way. But what these extraordinary, and sometime unexpected, cases have in common is that all of them describe crimes that changed our world.

The acclaimed author of Emily, Alone and Henry, Himself brings all his narrative gifts to bear on this gripping account of tragedy and heroism—the great Hartford circus fire of 1944. It was a midsummer afternoon, halfway through a Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus performance, when the big top caught fire. The tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of paraffin and gasoline; in seconds it was burning out of control. More than 8,000 people were trapped inside, and the ensuing disaster would eventually take 167 lives. Steward O'Nan brings all his narrative gifts to bear on this gripping account of the great Hartford circus fire of 1944. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of survivors, O'Nan skillfully re-creates the horrific events and illuminates the psychological oddities of human behavior under stress: the mad scramble for the exits; the perilous effort to maneuver animals out of danger; the hero who tossed dozens of children to safety before being trampled to death. Brilliantly constructed and exceptionally moving, The Circus Fire is history at its most compelling.

High-Rise Security and Fire Life Safety servers as an essential took for building architects, building owners and property managers, security and fire safety directors, security consultants, and contract security firms. * Provides the reader with complete coverage of high-rise security and safety issues * Includes comprehensive sample documentation, diagrams, photographs to aid in developing security and fire life safety programs * Serves as an essential tool for building owners and managers, security and fire safety directors, security consultants and contract security firms.

Through firsthand accounts, interviews with survivors and a gripping collection of vintage photographs, author Michael Skidgell attempts to make sense of one of Hartford's worst tragedies. Almost 7,000 fans eagerly packed into the Ringling Brothers big top on July 6, 1944. With a single careless act, an afternoon at the "Greatest Show on Earth" quickly became one of terror and tragedy as the paraffin-coated circus tent caught fire. Panicked crowds rushed for the few exits, but in minutes, the tent collapsed on those still struggling to escape below. A total of 168 lives were lost, many of them children, with many more injured and forever scarred by the events. Hartford and the surrounding communities reeled in the aftermath as investigators searched for the source of the fire and the responsible parties.