Are inscriptions on lead crosses found on the banks of the Santa Cruz River remnants of Freemasons or a hoax? How did famous evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson arrive in Douglas weeks after she went missing in Los Angeles and was presumed dead? Did the Lost Dutchman's treasure spell the end for Adolph Ruth, whose skull was found nearly a mile away from his body in the Superstition Mountains? Author Jane Eppinga details thirteen stories of disappearances, murders and unsolved cases from the annals of Arizona history.

If you believe in ghosts, you're in good company. Haunted Histories brings America's most ghostly locales to life, illuminating their role in shaping U.S. history and detailing how they became the nation's most feared places. Haunted Histories takes readers on a state-by-state journey across the United States, exploring the nation's most feared places. Along the way, the text introduces readers to new ghostly tales and takes a fresh look at familiar stories and locations, with an eye to history. From well-known spooky spots like Salem, Massachusetts, to such lesser-known ones as the Shanghai Tunnels of Portland, Oregon, where spirits are supposedly trapped, readers will discover not only where America's most haunted places are but also why they are said to be haunted. The ghosts of the doomed Donner Party allow readers to experience the arduous and often deadly journey of America's westward wagon trains, while different kinds of "spirits" haunting old distilleries allow readers to discover how whiskey almost derailed the new American nation before it was born. This book can be studied for academic purposes as a historical reference, used as a source for classroom assignments, or simply read for the pleasure of a great story.

Mysteries and Legends of Arizona explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in Arizona’s history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in Arizona history.

Bring your love of true crime into the kitchen with meals ranging from the bizarre (a single unpitted black olive) to the gluttonous (a dozen deep-fried shrimp, a bucket of fried chicken, French fries, and a pound of strawberries), inspired by Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and other notorious death row inmates. The perfect gift for murderinos and true crime fans, The Serial Killer Cookbook: Last Meals pairs serial killer trivia with the recipes of the meals these killers ate during their final hours. With full-color photos, chilling true crime facts, and easy-to-follow steps, you’ll be cooking up killer meals in no time. This collection of recipes is both delicious and surprising, and spans breakfast staples to indulgent desserts, including: Seared Steak, Hash Browns, Toast, and Fried Eggs (given to but not eaten by Ted Bundy, serial killer) Chicken Parmesan and Alfredo Pasta (eaten by Ruth Snyder, murderer) Justice, Equality, and World Peace (eaten by Odell Barnes, murderer) Mac and Cheese (eaten by Gustavo Julian Garcia, murderer) And much more!

Somebody got away with murder on Christmas Eve of 1900 in Savannah, Missouri. Frank Richardson, a wealthy merchant who had repented of his wayward past and was determined to make the most of the second chance he was given, was shot dead in his home. His killer had vanished, but investigators were determined to find and punish the murderer. The evidence they discovered exposed Frank's secret life to the world and scandalized the residents of Savannah. Of all the clues they found, none was more fascinating than Frank's enigmatic last words, uttered the moment before he was shot: "Has it come to this?" Suspicion fell at once on Frank's former paramour, Goldie Whitehead; his charming wife, Addie; and Stewart Fife, the suave young clerk of whom he was known to be insanely jealous. All the clues and evidence in this unsolved true crime are assembled here for readers to unravel the truth behind who killed Frank Richardson.

Even though the Newtown, Connecticut, police listed Helle Crafts' disappearance as a routine missing person case, Keith Mayo, a private investigator, knew the Danish-born mother of three hadn't skipped town nine days before Thanksgiving.. Rita Buonanno remembers the words exactly: "If anything happens to me don't think it was an accident." Helle Crafts was last seen on November 18, 1986. In the style of a brilliant detective novel, Arthur Herzog skillfully re-creates the hour-by-hour circumstantial details that inform this grisly true-crime narrative. We observe dispassionate Richard Crafts as he buys a truck with a pintle hook for towing heavy equipment, promised for delivery before November 18. A day later he reserves a Badger Brush Bandit woodchipper.

From Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen, the untold USA Today bestselling story of the CIA's secret paramilitary units. Surprise . . . your target. Kill . . . your enemy. Vanish . . . without a trace. When diplomacy fails, and war is unwise, the president calls on the CIA's Special Activities Division, a highly-classified branch of the CIA and the most effective, black operations force in the world. Originally known as the president's guerrilla warfare corps, SAD conducts risky and ruthless operations that have evolved over time to defend America from its enemies. Almost every American president since World War II has asked the CIA to conduct sabotage, subversion and, yes, assassination. With unprecedented access to forty-two men and women who proudly and secretly worked on CIA covert operations from the dawn of the Cold War to the present day, along with declassified documents and deep historical research, Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen unveils -- like never before -- a complex world of individuals working in treacherous environments populated with killers, connivers, and saboteurs. Despite Hollywood notions of off-book operations and external secret hires, covert action is actually one piece in a colossal foreign policy machine. Written with the pacing of a thriller, Surprise, Kill, Vanish brings to vivid life the sheer pandemonium and chaos, as well as the unforgettable human will to survive and the intellectual challenge of not giving up hope that define paramilitary and intelligence work. Jacobsen's exclusive interviews -- with members of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service (equivalent to the Pentagon's generals), its counterterrorism chiefs, targeting officers, and Special Activities Division's Ground Branch operators who conduct today's close-quarters killing operations around the world -- reveal, for the first time, the enormity of this shocking, controversial, and morally complex terrain. Is the CIA's paramilitary army America's weaponized strength, or a liability to its principled standing in the world? Every operation reported in this book, however unsettling, is legal.

Residents of the idyllic villages scattered throughout the Upper Peninsula's richly forested paradise live in quiet comfort for the most part, believing that murder rarely happens in their secluded sanctuary3/4but it does, and more often than they realize. This collection of twenty-four legendary murders spans 160 years of Upper Michigan's history and dispels the notion that murder in the Upper Peninsula is an anomaly. From the bank robber who killed the warden and deputy warden of the Marquette Branch Prison to the unknown assailant who gunned down James Schoolcraft in Sault Ste. Marie, Sonny Longtine explores the tragic events that turned peaceful communities into fear-ridden crime scenes..

FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE * Named a Best Mystery and Thriller Book of all Time by Time A haunting epic following a Native American government official who investigates the murder of Grace Blanket: an Osage woman who was once the richest person in her territory until the greed of white men led to her death and a future of uncertainty for her family. When rivers of oil are discovered beneath the land belonging to the Osage tribe during the Oklahoma oil boom, Grace Blanket becomes the wealthiest person in the territory. Tragically, she is murdered at the hands of greedy men, leaving her daughter Nola orphaned. After the Graycloud family takes Nola in, they too begin dying mysteriously. Though they send letters to Washington DC begging for help, the family continues to slowly disappear until Native American government official Stace Red Hawk ventures west to investigate the terrors plaguing the Osage tribe. Stace is not only able to uncover the rampant fraud, intimidation, and murder that led to the deaths of Grace Blanket and the Greycloud family, but also finds something truly extraordinary—a realization of his deepest self and an abundance of love and appreciation for his native people and their brave past.

Professor and amateur sleuth Henry Spearman uses economics to try to solve a murder while on a Caribbean vacation Cinnamon Bay seems like the ideal Caribbean getaway. But for Harvard economist and amateur detective Henry Spearman it offers an unexpected and decidedly different diversion: murder. With the police at a loss, Spearman investigates on his own, following a rather different set of laws—those of economics. Theorizing and hypothesizing, Spearman sets himself on the killer’s trail as it winds from the perfect beaches and manicured lawns of a resort to the bustling old port of Charlotte Amalie to the perilous hiking trails of a dense forest. Can Spearman crack the case using economics—and before it’s too late?