45 Murderers: A Collection of True Crime Stories

by Craig Rice, Johnny Heller (Narrator), Jo Anna Perrin (Narrator)

*Running Time => 9hrs. and 17mins.*

From Hollywood’s Black Dahlia to the Arkansas Bluebeard: an anthology of true crime profiles

Whether venturing into a blood-spattered farm in Texas, down a lonely mountain road in Alabama, or into the deceptively sunny Ohio suburbs, acclaimed mystery writer Craig Rice lends her hard-boiled style and a wicked irony to this gallery of real-life murders. Among them . . .

A saintly middle-aged widow bludgeoned to death in her New Jersey home; the headless torsos of two women found floating in the Lake of the Ozarks; a New Year’s fire in Pennsylvania set to cover the traces of a more ghastly crime; a traveling evangelist on a divine mission blown to bits in Berkley; an aspiring starlet tortured, bisected, and dumped in a vacant LA lot; and a New York couple poisoned to death by the mysterious “Veiled Murderess,” a convicted killer who never revealed her motives - or her true identity.


©1952 Craig Rice (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Crime, Short Stories, Classics

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Pseudonym for Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig aka Daphne Sanders and Michael Venning.

Known for her hard-boiled mystery plots combined with screwball comedy, Georgiana 'Craig' Rice was the author of twenty-three novels, six of them posthumous, numerous short stories, and some true crime pieces. In the 1940s she rivaled Agatha Christie in sales and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 1946. However, over the past sixty years she has fallen into relative obscurity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Ri...

Reviews

[Terri]

An excellent book. Ms. Rice has such a great sense of wit and turn of phrase that it is very entertaining to read these accounts. Most crimes I had never heard of and very much in the 30s ish time frame which was nice. Some of the psychological comments were out of date with how much we have learned since she wrote this, but that is to be expected. Well worth the read

[Fishface]

This was a great read, full of intriguing true-life mysteries. Some have been solved and some are being hotly debated to this day. All are well-written in Craig Rice's distinctive hard-boiled style. Don't miss this one.

[Bettye McKee]

Outdated to some, vintage crime to others

All of the true crimes in this book occurred prior to 1952, the year the book was published. While there are a few stories you have read about already, the majority of the crimes have flown below the radar of popularity.

Each story is brief, meaning this is a book in which you can read about a murder or two or three, put the book down and pick it up later. Some of the cases, including The Black Dahlia, are still unsolved and are likely to remain so.

23

[Cindy B.]

Interesting, gory, sometimes eerie tales of murder and mayhem. Narrators are entertaining and get involved. Not a late night read… 😲

[oh-deanna]

The important thing to remember about this book, and something that I continuously had to remind myself of, is that IT WAS WRITTEN IN A DIFFERENT TIME. I have to tell myself that because I kept getting annoyed with certain stereotypes. Like, did you know that ladies can't keep secrets? Also, men and women eat peanuts differently, and that's a FACT.

But seriously though, this was an entertaining example of true crime journalism with stories told in a sometimes tongue in cheek manner that was intriguing and engaging. I don't get why there were two different narrators but either way it was something good to put on in the background while I did things.

Highlight would be the contemporary piece on the Black Dahlia murder. Very interesting to hear the perspective of someone from much closer to the time when it took place. Bit sad that it ended with a very definitive statement about finding the murderer and to this day we still don't know what happened to her.

I'd recommend to anyone interested in historical crime - majority of the stories in here I had never heard of before.

[Randy Jones]

An Entertaining Collection Of True Tales Of Murder

In 45 Murderers, Craig Rice gives us the basic facts in tales of murder that happened between the early 1900s and the late 1940s across the United States. Writing with her usual style and wit, she lays out each case quickly and succinctly, telling us what we need to know but not drowning us in details. It’s a fascinating look at some of the most notorious murders of the 20th century, now mostly forgotten sad to say. It’s a great reminder that murder and murderers have been around forever and each one is as unique in its own strange way. I highly recommend this book to any fan of true crime.

[Dan Way]

Not bad

Some of the stories were pretty good and some of them were crap, especially the last one.
The "Black Delilah", it was poorly researched and was jumping around way too much. There are a lot of material on this murder and the writer should have read up more on it.
Anyway, say "Goodnite"!

[Kay Hudson]

Entertaining collection of true crime stories, mostly from the 1930s and 1940s, famous in their day but largely forgotten now, with the exception of a nearly contemporary write up of the still unsolved Black Dahlia murder.

[Paula Corregan]

Fascinating book!

This book offers interesting accounts of murders which occurred throughout the United States during the early and middle years of the last century. It is a must read for true crime aficionados.

[Shannon Glen]

I’ve found a new author

I enjoyed her quirky style of writing. She drew me in with the facts about the crimes and her sense of humor and how it was like having a conversation with her.

[Dew]

DNF 17%

What was that? Seriously? Dont waste your time and just skip this book. If you're interested in short stories about true murders, you can watch some videos on YouTube instead of reading this confusing book.

[Christian]

I’m not a huge true crime fan but Craig Rice’s prose is so funny and so sharp that it adds an irreverence to the perversity of reading about gruesome death. Love her writing.

[Adri G.M.]

Increíble que un libro de este giro esté aburrido, pero así fue. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Babs M]

All old cases since the book was published in 1952 but still interesting.

[Sparrow .]

I wonder if the author’s name is a pseudonym. Back in ’52, when this book was published (the year before my birth) pseudonyms were more common. But so were names like Craig Rice.

Graphic Publications was the publisher, and the double-title page features a black-and-white map of the USA filled with distorted cartoony skulls. (Other than that, there are no illustrations – despite the publisher’s name.) The price: 35¢.

There’s no introduction, but one gets the sense that Rice is a reporter. He writes in an easy, newspapery style, with a touch of noir:

“But who was Schwartz? Why had he gone to such elaborate lengths to murder the traveling evangelist? And where was he?

“The murder warrant named the missing man as Leon Henry Schwartzhoff, alias Charles Henry Schwartz, alias John Doe Stein.”

That’s from “Murder the Hard Way,” a story that takes place at a small chemical manufacturing plant in Walnut Creek, California, in 1925. Last line:

“He might even have gotten away with his crime – if he hadn’t insisted on doing it the hard way.”

This book is full of grudging respect for murderers.

[Well, I did the research:
Craig Rice (1908–1957); born Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig; was an American author of mystery novels and short stories, sometimes described as "the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction." She was the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time magazine, on January 28, 1946.

Like many of her characters, Rice was an alcoholic and made several suicide attempts. She died of a barbiturate and alcohol overdose aged 49.]

[Melissa]

Tags/Genres - NonFiction / True Crime / Audiobook
Story -⭐⭐⭐.5 / 5
Narration - 🎧🎧🎧🎧/5

Used for Challenge or Prompts
The 52 Book Club's Mystery Challenge Case #47. Collection of true crime mysteries
Read the Numbers Challenge: $45
Read An Author from Every State: Chicago, Illinois

So this is going to seem odd, but there was almost a humorous tone to some of the stories. I liked that the author described the crimes without overly gory details.