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Bizarre True Crime Volume 15: 20 Twisted Tales from the Fringes of Reality
You Know the Drill. The World is Weird. The Stories are Real.
'Too many WTF moments!'
For fifteen volumes, the Bizarre True Crime series has been the gold standard for historical oddities and unsettling non-fiction. Now, Ben Oakley returns with a fresh slate of true stories guaranteed to astonish, disturb, and entertain.
This is a museum of the macabre, a grab bag of gripping anomalies pulled from the darkest corners of the past. From cunning criminals whose schemes defy belief to bizarre events that have never been fully explained, this collection delivers the unfiltered, hard-hitting weirdness you crave.
A glimpse into the
The Baby in the ‘Bag for Life’: From a life of royal connections to a fugitive in a flimsy tent, the story of Constance Marten is one of staggering decline. A nationwide hunt exposes a history of chaos, ending in the most tragic of discoveries.
The Impossible Murder: An insurance agent is sent on a bizarre wild goose chase by a phantom client. When he returns home, his wife is dead in a locked room, sparking a perfect mystery that would baffle crime writers for a century.
Satanic Implants: He was a trusted lawman who confessed to horrific crimes he couldn't remember. His story is not one of recovered sins, but of implanted memories that turned an innocent man into a monster in his own mind.
Stealing Mona Lisa's Smile: Without a clumsy theft by an unknown Italian decorator, the world's most famous painting might have remained just another masterpiece. This is the bizarre story of how a crime of baffling simplicity created a global icon.
The Monster of Rillington Place: In a squalid Notting Hill flat, a quiet, bespectacled clerk concealed a garden of bones and a wallpapered tomb. His respectable facade hid a decade of depravity that sent an innocent man to the gallows and exposed the dark heart of a London slum.
The YOGTZE Enigma: A paranoid man’s final hours are marked by a cryptic message, a wild drive across Germany, and a mysterious death. For decades, the case of Günther Stoll remained an unsolvable riddle, a chilling tale of fear and a puzzling clue.
The W*** Worm: In 1989, just days before a controversial NASA launch, scientists were met with a bizarre, taunting message that paralysed their computer networks. This is the story of the W*** worm, the world's first major hacktivist attack, which ushered in a new era of crime.
The Barber of Potenza: A cold-blooded killer with a bizarre hair fetish left a trail of grief and confusion across Europe, his victims linked by a macabre ritual and an investigation spanning two decades.
Tomb in the Vatican: In 1983, a 15-year-old Vatican citizen disappeared in Rome, igniting a decades-long mystery involving terrorists, the mafia, and the Catholic Church, where the cover-up may be more shocking than the crime itself.
Orchard of Secrets: A vibrant teenager vanishes from her beauty school, her car found abandoned miles away. When her body is discovered, the brutal nature of her death unleashes the biggest investigation her town has ever seen, a case mired in false leads, bizarre characters, and a killer hiding in plain sight.
+ more unbelievable
Ghosts of the Springfield Three
The Swann Street Silence
Thirty-Six Wounds to Suicide
Manipulation and Murder with Pam
The Children Eater
The Concrete Tomb Murder
Chatroom to the Grave
'Too many WTF moments!'
For fifteen volumes, the Bizarre True Crime series has been the gold standard for historical oddities and unsettling non-fiction. Now, Ben Oakley returns with a fresh slate of true stories guaranteed to astonish, disturb, and entertain.
This is a museum of the macabre, a grab bag of gripping anomalies pulled from the darkest corners of the past. From cunning criminals whose schemes defy belief to bizarre events that have never been fully explained, this collection delivers the unfiltered, hard-hitting weirdness you crave.
A glimpse into the
The Baby in the ‘Bag for Life’: From a life of royal connections to a fugitive in a flimsy tent, the story of Constance Marten is one of staggering decline. A nationwide hunt exposes a history of chaos, ending in the most tragic of discoveries.
The Impossible Murder: An insurance agent is sent on a bizarre wild goose chase by a phantom client. When he returns home, his wife is dead in a locked room, sparking a perfect mystery that would baffle crime writers for a century.
Satanic Implants: He was a trusted lawman who confessed to horrific crimes he couldn't remember. His story is not one of recovered sins, but of implanted memories that turned an innocent man into a monster in his own mind.
Stealing Mona Lisa's Smile: Without a clumsy theft by an unknown Italian decorator, the world's most famous painting might have remained just another masterpiece. This is the bizarre story of how a crime of baffling simplicity created a global icon.
The Monster of Rillington Place: In a squalid Notting Hill flat, a quiet, bespectacled clerk concealed a garden of bones and a wallpapered tomb. His respectable facade hid a decade of depravity that sent an innocent man to the gallows and exposed the dark heart of a London slum.
The YOGTZE Enigma: A paranoid man’s final hours are marked by a cryptic message, a wild drive across Germany, and a mysterious death. For decades, the case of Günther Stoll remained an unsolvable riddle, a chilling tale of fear and a puzzling clue.
The W*** Worm: In 1989, just days before a controversial NASA launch, scientists were met with a bizarre, taunting message that paralysed their computer networks. This is the story of the W*** worm, the world's first major hacktivist attack, which ushered in a new era of crime.
The Barber of Potenza: A cold-blooded killer with a bizarre hair fetish left a trail of grief and confusion across Europe, his victims linked by a macabre ritual and an investigation spanning two decades.
Tomb in the Vatican: In 1983, a 15-year-old Vatican citizen disappeared in Rome, igniting a decades-long mystery involving terrorists, the mafia, and the Catholic Church, where the cover-up may be more shocking than the crime itself.
Orchard of Secrets: A vibrant teenager vanishes from her beauty school, her car found abandoned miles away. When her body is discovered, the brutal nature of her death unleashes the biggest investigation her town has ever seen, a case mired in false leads, bizarre characters, and a killer hiding in plain sight.
+ more unbelievable
Ghosts of the Springfield Three
The Swann Street Silence
Thirty-Six Wounds to Suicide
Manipulation and Murder with Pam
The Children Eater
The Concrete Tomb Murder
Chatroom to the Grave
172 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 22, 2025
About the author
Ben Oakley
127 books20 followersBen Oakley is a bestselling true crime author, researcher, publisher, blogger, and mental health advocate from Camden, England.
When not writing, he dedicates his time to the prevention of male self-harm and suicide, along with victim support and awareness.
Fitness fanatic, DVD collector, and wannabe astronaut at all other times. Usually found on Twitter or in the bars and parks of Camden.
Agathokakological is his favourite word!
When not writing, he dedicates his time to the prevention of male self-harm and suicide, along with victim support and awareness.
Fitness fanatic, DVD collector, and wannabe astronaut at all other times. Usually found on Twitter or in the bars and parks of Camden.
Agathokakological is his favourite word!
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