True Crime Stories You Won't Believe: A Cavalcade of Chaotic Justice

by Romeo Vitelli

Here is a collection of true crime stories from different countries and time periods that defy simple description. They These stories, and more, are all featured here making this book a must for any connoisseur of true crime and bizarre justice.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

183 pages, Paperback

Published April 6, 2022

About the author

I am a psychologist in private practice in Toronto. My latest book, True Crime Stories You Won't Believe, Volume Three has just been released.

Interests: true crime, law, websurfing, archaeology, travelling and a whole list of other things i can't recall at the moment., gay/lesbian/bisexal/transgender issues, political arguments

Reviews

[LIsa Noell "Rocking the chutzpah!" · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to Books Go Social, Romeo Vitelli and Netgalley. I enjoyed this one! I read about many cases that I'd never heard of before...which left me scrambling to read more about what the author was writing about. I've found that the true crime stories I like the most can send me into a computer frenzy! I'll spend as much time reading the rest of the story, as I did reading the original!

[CYIReadBooks (Claire) · Rating 4 out of 5]

True Crime Stories You Won’t Believe is the first book in a series of planned short story collections. This book contains a collection of 32 short true crime stories dating back to the late 1800’s. Most of the stories are pretty obscure and the only one that was familiar to me was the story of Ed Gein.

While I enjoyed most of the stories in the book, I would have preferred more stories from modern times. But it still was an interesting read, nonetheless.

Some readers may find the stories disturbing. I didn’t think they were and I actually wanted more graphic details. In comparison to other true crime novels, True Crime Stories is not at all gruesome and in my opinion, very mild in grisly elements.

Overall, True Crime Stories is a noteworthy read for true crime aficionados. Four stars.

I received a digital copy of the book from Books Go Social. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

[Kirsty Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is a collection of true crime stories from different countries and time periods that defy simple description. They include: a psychotic geisha who severed her lover’s genitals to carry as a token of her love and who inspired a cult following; a 19th century serial killer who earned the title of “the worst woman in the world” by killing a series of husbands for profit and George Stinney, the fourteen-year-old child who died in the electric chair for a crime he didn’t commit. These stories, and more make this book a must for any connoisseur of true crime and bizarre justice.

I am a great lover of true crime and devour it in any way I can, though reading books, online blogs, watching documentaries or dramatised renditions so I was really looking forward to reading this after reading the blurb. However, I just felt that the collection fell short to what it stated it would deliver “stories you won’t believe” and quite frankly just felt like another rather generic collection of crimes that could have happened anywhere to anyone with nothing overly special or unique about them. Added to that that the book was riddled with spelling and grammar errors it made the reading a bit of a slog.

Nevertheless, there were a few intriguing stories included that didn’t make the whole read completely boring.

[Valerity (Val) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, interesting look at some true crime stories. Most are a bit obscure and less well known. A few are more common to true crime fans. I read quite a few stories here that I saw for the first time. But a couple of the more ‘rare’ ones I had already read about as well. Worth a read if the subject interests you. I received a review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Kay Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy crap. This was written by a forensic psychologist and I very much appreciated that in both account and writing. I got the shocking, juicy bits, the why, and the aftermath without any purple prose getting in the way which is exactly how I like my bizarre true crime history. As a voyeur of these twisted tales I do wish images had been added of the killers to each chapter. I googled them at the end of every story.

[Gem ~ZeroShelfControl~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher, in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 2*
Writing : 2*
Subject matter : 2*
Factual content : 2*
Uniqueness: 1*

Wow this was boring. I cannot remember any of the 32 uninteresting and bland stories in this book. Bare in mind this is only 180 pages in length, putting each story at about 5 pages long. Not nearly enough words to get gripped by any of them. The stories were all a bit odd and highly unbelievable, I wish I hadn't requested this one but on paper it looked like something to satisfy my true-crime wants. How wrong was I?!

[Laura Jevtich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is part of a series, the first one and I do not know how many books will be in the series. However, if you want to have chills and listen to the bumps in the night with abject fear, then this is the book for you. What follows is basically what Vitelli took from his blog back in 2007 to present day, and made into a book or three. He must have had a huge blog to take this on, with a bunch of research to back up his theories.

Each of the 32 chapters has a new story, from anywhere in the world and at any time. These stories are the lesser-known ones about true crime, from all walks of life and different time periods. The author is a forensic psychologist who worked with many an offender and so true crimes are his passion. He goes with the more obscure ones, and dissects them in interesting and sometimes fascinating ways.

Each chapter is no more than five or six pages long, or eight to ten flips on a Kindle They are perfect for reading between doing other things, or right before going to bed at night, thinking about the lives of these people who committed these crimes. Sometimes there were happy endings, but most found either death for their crimes committed or people hounding them after jail time because they could not believe they were out of jail or the crime they committed did not have a longer sentence.

This book is definitely a keeper, and when I cannot remember the stories, I will read them again, at night, under a blanket, in a spooky sounding voice to my family. Five stars

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

As a True Crime fan I looked forward to reading this one. This gives an overview of a collection of cases, some well known but most are not really heard of, at least unheard of from me. I found this to be well written and it kept my attention all the way through. If you are a fan of the True Crime genre then I'd suggest maybe picking this up as it makes for an interesting read.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years ago there was an app on google that everyday would give a different story about a crime, serial killer or of the sorts, and there were different narrators, some more embezzled, some more scientific etc., and the way the stories were told were the right way for me, like a talk with a friend or in late night, this book had just enough about the stories, if there was rape, only rape was mentioned, nothing of the sick details, so it was kind of easy to read through, each story was only a couple of pages short, and as the author tells us, the stories in this book are mostly old ones, the details here are the ones that survived in journals, it was like a compilation of blog news stories.

I read mostly sci-fi, but sometimes I get tired and one way of relax of it, is reading something that has nothing to do with it, and true crime kind of fits the bill, but I must confess sometimes reality is weirder than fiction, while mostly of the stories were unknown for me, I did know a couple of these, I highly recommend this book it reminded me as well of the book lady killers, but in here you have stories from women, men, children, trans people etc., a bit of everything, and the author is promising to continue in other volumes I must say I want to read more of this tales…

Thank you NetGalley for the free ARC and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Lozzi Counsell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I already knew of a few of these cases, but most were completely new to me. As someone who reads true crime, I found this to be one of the best books out there. Each crime wasn’t very many pages long but I preferred this. The author has clearly done their research and covered all aspects people need to know and want to know about each case. The details stuck with me more than in some books with larger coverage, as each section was to the point, no filler. If you read about true crime, I would definitely recommend this.

Thank you to Romeo Vitelli, Providentia Books and Travelling Pages for this DRC in exchange for an honest review.

[Fishface]

An enjoyable, interesting read. Some of the cases were very familiar but others were totally new to me. As promised, every one of the cases was loopy in some way. I look forward to the second volume. My only quibbles with the writing are that some of the names are misspelled and the author needs to master the use of the past-perfect tense. That's spectacular praise for a book that appears to have been self-published.

[Fen Koeswanto (ProseandPlate) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Vitelli worked as a psychologist at a maximum-security prison for fifteen years before entering private practice in 2003. He's been an avid blogger since 2007. He compiled everything in his blog and turned it into a series of true crime storybooks. This book is the first one of the series.

To be honest, I chose this nonfiction book because I was curious after reading the description. A tale of psychotic geisha who severed her lover's genital as a token of her love; A father who sacrificed his daughter to prove his faith in God and believed that his daughter would be raised on the third day; and a story about a small town murder who inspired the movie "Psycho". And I'm glad to report that I enjoyed reading this book.

Each story is only four to five pages long. The writing is clear and to the point. But what I liked most about this book is that author Vitelli also told readers about the aftermath of the case and what happened to these people after being prosecuted.

If you are a fan of true crime stories, this book is a must-have to complete your library. Thank you @travelling.pages.tours for my copy.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pre-reading:
Trying to reset my brain from smooth brain material with some murder.

Thick of it:
Author’s an actual forensic psychologist. Nice! Love being told to bear with an author, before the stories even start.

Opening with a dick chopping geisha. I like it. Let’s call them clients, not lovers, bestie. Let’s stop choking each other. It always ends badly. This does read like a Wikipedia entry rather than an entertaining blog post or a compilation of essays. What magazine though? A judge admits he’s sexually aroused and not objective and that doesn’t generate a mistrial? Okay. Ah murder tourism. What a time to be alive. How was it displayed? How do you preserve something like that? Is it just like in a jar of fluid? Only six years for murdering someone that’s crazy. JK only 4 wow. No, we’re not calling her a pioneer, sorry. Cool motive still murder. But honestly not even a cool motive. Just sad. Woman sexually abused her whole life commits a murder due to mental instability. Shocker.

Lady says no to man, man shoots lady. Man is punished for one year. That sounds fair. Have we done genetic testing on any of these old preserved murderers yet? I think that be fascinating to look into.

Oh geez, old lady on old lady murder. Or I guess middle-aged lady on old lady murder. I was like man, a murder by hammer really would take some doing, but this other lady is almost 70, so one good whack on the head. Further update middle-aged man on old lady murder. Mr. author shouldn’t you maybe be using masculine pronouns then if that’s how they identified? By your own admission. Oh, they were definitely in love then. It would take a long time for these attitudes to change and you’re not helping by continuing to refer to him as her. Do better.

Caporegime should’ve been defined for the reader. I feel like this would make a good Netflix series. It’s got the name for it for sure. The odd father. I don’t like how this author is ending all these articles? chapters? as if these are admirable people. They’re criminals who commited awful crimes.

A nine year old is not a wife. That is a predator. Were painful periods seriously used as a court defense? That’s wild, but honestly should be valid. 80 and 40 yikes.

Orlibar is a name. Other people weighed in on the case and proposed theories but you don’t tell us any of the theories. Annoying.

Oh, Ed Gein. I still don’t understand how a shoebox of vaginas happens or what it looks like. I need to watch Psycho already.

The podcast Rotten Mango does a great episode about Leonarda. None of these cases are in-depth. It’s so disappointing. He’s giving us the most cursory information. She’s also a crazy good baker and one of her recipes is still the standard for cookies I think.

Rotten does an episode on this case too! The pictures online are awful. She was so pretty the poor girl. Feel like you should’ve defined enteritis for us, but maybe I’m just dumb. Bestie, how are you gonna cover this case and not talk about his weird vampire hands? You’re not gonna cover how sickos have paid him to be in porn and it was literally an assault on another girl because she didn’t know who he was? If you’re going to cover a case, cover the case.

I feel like this man is just a rotten Mango listener. But also Stephanie is so good about doing cases every week, so it’s not surprising that there’s a lot of overlap. I wonder if colonics will ever be debunked and outlawed. I was gonna say peritonitis should’ve been defined, and then I realized. Yuck.

You only had to be 10 years old to get executed. That’s wild. Poor boy. How could anyone even in 2014 oppose his exoneration? What is wrong with people? I’ll have to watch the movie 83 days. How bad institutional racism was back then, honey, it’s still around.

I’m sorry how have I never learned about this man? He bombed the capital??? Hold on the JP Morgan died by a bomb guy, or at the very least got shot. How did we not learn about this?

Ayyy a local crime. You convinced your wife to let you kill your child in the name of religion. Fuck. No one‘s responsible, bud, it was you. The mom is calling her child an it? Wtf.

Wow-what a quote. Oh man, I’ve heard the story. I think again rotten Mango did a podcast on it, and there’s like dark tourism out there. Nobody ever found out he escaped from jail? But you know now? How could they not know? Do you mean no one knows how he escaped? That would make more sense. Cannibalism is only explicitly illegal in Idaho. That’s wild. I just learned about the Donners in another book. That short story collection was so good. I love the word corpulent. They buried him in Littleton. Yeah, I feel like a murderer is a bad mascot to have.

How hot is Lizzie that she’s finding all these rich husbands? You’re not gonna tell us her motive or early life? What psychosexual motivations? You can’t just say that and not tell us what they were.

Just because someone shouldn’t have been convicted of a sentence that way doesn’t mean that a certain sentence shouldn’t exist.

Ayy more locals. Linnaean should’ve been defined or given context. That’s what’s odd to me about this book. All the information is so bare-bones, but then he throws in words that no layperson is ever going to know. You’re going to know the words if you do a deep dive on the case, but this isn’t a deep dive on the case so it’s confusing who the intended audience is. Because serious true crime fans are going to recognize that so much information is missing and casual readers are going to have to continuously pause to look up a word. So like Dr. Frankenstein shit. Cool. Why those spots, yikes. You say it was a success, but you didn’t tell us what he was trying to accomplish. The lack of details is getting very frustrating. It’s always the richest people who are the stingiest. Buy the horse, you fuck. The last name Littlefield is cute. Someone should do a twee rom-com with it. Where did he get that chemical from to even attempt suicide? Wouldn’t they have searched him? Oh my gosh imagine someone identifying you because you’re a hairy bastard.

I keep reading Josh Peck by mistake.

Very much sounds like he was innocent and just mentally ill.

That guy was 100% corpse fucking.

I do not think he was the ripper.

Brenda Spencer should absolutely be talked about during school shootings.

I’m sorry where’s the HBO show about the CIA pimping out Hollywood actresses to foreign dignitaries?

They always say people dress strangely, but never go on as to how it was strange. Was he walking around in a clown costume or like just a guy wearing pink? There are degrees here.

Post-reading:
This book doesn’t have enough detail for me. I think some of the language should be changed to be more respectful of the victims. You really need to use someone’s correct pronouns. I think a lot of the little ending asides can be removed since they feel like they were thrown in without much thought. They come across as a patronizing cute. That’s not really the tone you want when you’re talking about murder. I think it’s a little boring considering it’s just a cursory overview of all these cases. It kind of reads like a listicle rather than a book. Overall it’s fine, but it’s nothing I would recommend anyone read.

Who should read this:
People who like true crime

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* American Predator by Maureen Callahan

[Kevin Halter · Rating 4 out of 5]

True Crime Stories You Won't Believe by Romeo Vitelli is a collection of True Crime vignettes that sparks interest in some of the lesser known criminal cases from a broad swath of time.

Others have noted that the stories aren't long enough and I would have to disagree I think the length is right and works as a lead in for people to do more research on cases that intrigue them. And there are a plethora to choose from running from once famous but largely forgotten now to the truly bizarre and others that were groundbreaking.

Romeo Vitelli does a great job of shining light on some of the darker and more strange cases--if you are a fan of Mr. Ballen or other true crime case presenters Mr Vitelli's book is a great read.

Thanks to #BookSirens and #ProvidentiaBooks for the ARC of #TrueCrimeSoriesYouWontBelieve.

[pawsreadrepeat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVE crime stories and probably spend way too much time watching tv shows about them. Because of this, I jumped at the chance to read and review this book. This is an exceptional collection of some of the most intriguing crimes committed over the past 200 years or so.

The stories in this book kept me engaged from start to finish because I wanted to know how the case ended. I also delighted in the gruesome details because I find myself wondering, “what kind of a person does this?” Some of these cases are well known while others were new to me. Some handled well, others not so much. The author did a good job of balancing the facts while telling the stories. I look forward to more from this author!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you Romeo Vitelli and Travelling Pages. I'm excited to be a part of this tour.

[Babs | babs_reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you a true crime junkie? If so, this one is for you!

Sometimes I will hear about a true crime case and I will end up in a rabbit hole online searching out any information I can find. Then, suddenly someone comments randomly, 'you should check out ...' and off I go diving into another hole. This book IS that hole; only the research has been done for me and it's all neatly collected for me to just consume.

The stories in this book were not only wild some of them hold the most bizarre outcomes. It doesn't hold back on the details, so if it was gruesome you will read about it. Some of the cases were handled in the worst kind of way and I kept trying to think, how would this be handled now?

I'm looking forward to the next volume of collected true crime stories from Romeo Vitelli!

[Bibliophileverse · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book sharing some grueling crime stories back from time. It is my first time reading a crime non fiction. The stories are so interesting with a very detailed description about the court trials and the accused. The author has done a wonderful job. A real treat for true crime fans and also for crime or thriller beginners. The stories have been kept concise and only necessary details have been shared.

I would like to give the book 5 stars. Thanks to Travelling Pages Tours for providing me an opportunity to read and review the book.

Read more on https://bibliophileverse.blogspot.com...

[Priya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find true crime very intriguing and these crimes were really something else! Truly, nothing in fiction matches reality!

I thought the cases were presented in just the right way and it was an interesting read.I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Natalie Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you may know, I am a huge fan of true crime and this book did not disappoint! Full of interesting cases, some of which I had come across before and some I hadn't, the author did a good job of explaining the cases in a simple, but interesting way.

Most of the stories contained are from the 18 and early 1900's and I am looking forward to future books in this series and possibly some more modern crimes. True crime fans will definitely enjoy and if you want to dip your toe in, this is a great book to do so as the cases are covered in just enough detail, but aren't overly gory or grisly.

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

True Crime Stories You Won’t Believe by Romeo Vatellie is a great book for any true crime fans library. In a world of true crime books were copy and paste is the usual. It was so refreshing to not only read stories I hadn’t heard, but to say proof in every story that that was great research done and an effort to make this book worth reading. They have so many different stories with follow up on the aftermath of the victims in the accused. It is a rare day that you get a true crime book written with such care for detail and I can’t say how much I recommend this to other true crime fans. From a Cornell professor who resorting to violence to try and stop America joining World War I, to a 16-year-old African-American put to death in the electric chair in South Carolina for a crime that was barely investigated and a trial that was over much too soon. They have so many stories in this book and I could give little quotes about each, but I want anyone who read this book to be as pleasantly surprised as I was. I love historical true crime and this book has it all from cannibals to husband killers and as I said it’s a book I highly recommend. I was given this book by Net Gally and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Please forgive any grammar or punctuation errors as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This needed lots more editing, but there were several cases I had never heard of before, and it made for a fast read.

[Marina Garrido · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a great read, although I was already familiar with a few of the cases presented in the book, the overwhelming majority were unknown to me. The author handled the subject well: he was respectful of the victims and didn’t glorify the killers. Due to it being relatively short (less than 200 pages) and featuring so many cases, don’t expect a thorough coverage of every single story. The writing was clear and to the point, the chapters (each one containing a case) were roughly the same length, which made the reading flow nicely. There were no inaccuracies that I could find and, even though the coverage wasn’t detailed, the author made sure to include all relevant events.

The only issue I had with this read was the lack of organization regarding the order in which the cases were presented. They were from different and different time periods, two things that could have been used to group the stories and give a better structure to the book. Furthermore, the author gave no reason as to why he didn’t organize the stories in a proper manner.

Overall, I recommend this to anyone interested in true crime. I’m eager for the release of the future volumes of this collection and will be sure to read all of them.

[Jade Reads Books · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate dnfing arcs but not respecting pronouns is a hard no for me.

Thanks to netgalley and the author/publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can find my review over on my blog: https://allthebookblognamesaretaken.b...

[Matt McAvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was once a big fan of true crime, which of course went with the vocation, but as I get a little older, not so much, as life becomes a little more serious and less fascinating generally. That said, though, I really looked forward to reading Romeo Vitelli’s True Crime Stories You Won’t Believe for a change, and I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed. Romeo is a very good non-fiction writer, and he has done a tremendous job of curating true crime stories over the last two centuries or so. He has a very engaging prose, and is professional and personable as an author. The stories themselves are mainly murders, of course, some well known, others not so, and overall perhaps a little America-centric, although there are a few tales from around the world, and because of the research Romeo has put into learning about them, are arguably amongst the more engrossing. The title would suggest that all are unbelievable, and while this isn’t necessarily the case they are all definitely engaging enough to grip your interest. Ranging from miscarriages of justice, to very atypical victims and killers, through organized crime to the outright bizarre, there is also clearly a lot of mental illness apparent in the case studies, in the days before the law recognized them as such. Some are absolutely fascinating, such as the opener about a Japanese murderess who undoubtedly influenced countless contemporary horror movies, and Leonarda Cianciulla, “The Woman Who Made Soap”, not to mention “The Celebrity Cannibal”, which is just downright incredible. It is true to say that Romeo’s collection is a wonderful read.

One thing which perhaps I felt fell a short, and would have personally liked to see more of, is the criminological and psychological evaluation of each tale, and I only say this given Romeo’s profession; I just feel he was credible enough a commentator and well placed to attempt to offer more insight into the crimes and the perpetrators themselves. As it is, he really just reproduces the stories and collates them from his various sources (though obviously not verbatim). This small, subjective gripe aside, I don’t doubt that this is as engrossing and entertaining a collection of true crime cases as you are ever likely to read. If you are a fan of true crime, and particularly less well publicized and unusual murders, I highly recommend giving this book a read. I would be very interested to see what Romeo writes next.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

True Crime Stories You Won't Believe is a fascinating collection of tales about actual crimes that have been committed throughout the last 200 or so years. Some may be known (like Ed Gein), while most of these may be new even to true crime buffs. I'll admit, as a teenager, I was OBSESSED with serial killers and true crime stories. I've always been a bit morbid and intrigued by macabre things, but to be fair to my teenage self, I had plans to become a criminal profiler/psychologist at the time, hence my reading material. While that career path was something I lost interest in closer to adulthood, my love of true crime never really died. And this collection of stories really satisfied my interest in such things.
There are tales that seem almost unbelievable in how they played out (like the Phantom Cannibal one). There are tales that are a bit sad/disappointing (mainly because of how they played out), but they're also not surprising considering how sucky the justice system is in a lot of countries (and for the time period). And some of the tales are absolutely astonishing (in terms of the actual crime committed).
I think the one that upset me the most was the story about the Drain sisters. As the parent of a special needs child who, mentally, is younger than his actual age, the punishment for this crime seemed a bit harsh. Especially because the "criminal" in question was innocent and had mental incapacities. I felt both sadness and anger while reading about that case.
I also noticed that one of the stories (which I think is one of the slightly more well-known ones) reminded me a bit of Stephen King's The Green Mile.
Overall, I found this to be a fascinating, eye-opening read, and my husband, good sport that he is, listened to me ramble on about many of the stories because I just needed someone to talk to about them.
If you're a fan of true crime, definitely give this book a whirl. You won't be disappointed.
5 stars!

[Raghav · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sort of dilly-dallied between four and five stars when it came to rating the book. On the one hand, it is well-written, concise, and includes a range of true crime incidents from the past century. I like that the author gives the basic facts and somehow manages to give a holistic picture of the incident and what happened to the culprits within a few pages. It is also nice that the stories are short, which keeps the book interesting.

The flip side of the same coin is that the stories lack depth. It’s factual and well-researched, so that’s another positive. However, a part of me would have been happy with fewer but longer stories in the book. I also like the diversity of the stories. While mainly from the US, they do include some international incidents. The one about the Japanese cannibal was the only one I knew about, and I could tell that the author covered it well within the limited space.

Fascinating, macabre, shocking, and all-around informative, True Crime Stories You Won’t Believe is a must-read for all true crime fans.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Tawny Molina · Rating 5 out of 5]

True Crime Stories You Won’t Believe Volume 1 is exactly what it sounds like! This short but exciting book by Romeo Vitelli is filled with some of the most surprising true crime stories you are going to find. And that is saying a lot when it is so easy to find tons of information about crimes with the power of the internet. With 32 short but informative chapters giving all the information the author could find on these rarely known true crime tales, it is a fairly quick read, but also entertaining. The crimes read about in the book take place in the 1800 and 1900s though a few make mentions of people who died in the early 2000s.

As a fan of true crime content of all types, I was excited to pick up this book. I was even more excited when I started reading and realized that out of the 32 cases mentioned in this book I only knew two of them! That is right, despite my constant true crime intake I was only familiar with two of these cases. I would imagine that most true crime fans will probably be in a similar boat and that is why I am heavily suggesting this read for anyone who enjoys digging into the darker parts of humanity.

[Kathleen Riggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well Researched, With Plenty Of Variety
A collection of short true crime stories that gives you the right amount of information. This book contains a collection of 32 short true crime stories dating back to the late 1800’s. Some of the story’s I was very familiar with and others I had never heard or read about. I found each story to be interesting and this book kept my full attention. Plus, I googled some to learn more.
Romeo Vatellie has done a great job researching this book for any true crime fan as he has so many different stories witch; he then gives follow up on the aftermath of the victims by the accused at the end of each story. It is a rare that you get a true crime book written with such care for detail and I can’t not say how much I recommend this book to other true crime fans.
I received an advance review copy for free from BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may have heard of a few of the names but most I have never heard of any of these cases featured in this book. Although, that is to be expected as they took place long before I was born dating back to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

While each case featured is only about two or three pages long, there was enough information about each case. In fact, I would say that this collection of short stories gave me more details than some full-length true crime novels I have read.

There were many times where I found myself stopping to interrupt my husband to read to him about the case. Some of the cases happened in my home state of Colorado. There is one that has a famous memorial location of where the heinous crimes happened, that I see a road trip in my future. One of the cases was the inspiration for Psycho. Yes, the famous movie by Hitchcock. So, if you are a true crime fan you need to pick up a copy of this book.