Acquisitions 2022-25 -- New Reads? Movies? Whatevers? > Likes and Comments

This is for anything you are reading or buying or watching, doesn't have to be True Crime.

Lady ♥ Belleza wrote: "This is for anything you are reading or buying or watching, doesn't have to be True Crime."

I posted on the "Chit Chat" thread, on 15 December, about two docudramas/TV series I want to recommend. Both on BritBox.
1) "Pembrokeshire Murders, and
2) "In Plain Sight"
Both very absorbing, lots of forensics and just great detective work.
Not sure anyone found the post; I expected comments.

Hari wrote: "Lady ♥ Belleza wrote: "This is for anything you are reading or buying or watching, doesn't have to be True Crime."

I posted on the "Chit Chat" thread, on 15 December, about two docudramas/TV seri..."

I keep vowing to look into more podcasts and totally not getting around to any of them. And I haven't watched TV since 2001, so...

Fishface wrote: "Hari wrote: "Lady ♥ Belleza wrote: "This is for anything you are reading or buying or watching, doesn't have to be True Crime."

I posted on the "Chit Chat" thread, on 15 December, about two docud..."

Well, Fishface,
I haven't even had a TV in the house since... 1990?
I watch these TV series on streaming platforms exclusively.
I hear what you're saying, though. Too much media, too little time...

Lady ♥ Belleza wrote: "This is for anything you are reading or buying or watching, doesn't have to be True Crime."

Thanks Belleza, wishing you and everyone here a healthy and Happy New Year!!!

Cheers,
Rita

Hari wrote: "Well, Fishface,
I haven't even had a TV in the house since... 1990?
I watch these TV series on streaming platforms exclusively..."

Well I would count that as watching TV lol.

Finally reading Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table.

Fishface wrote: "Hari wrote: "Well, Fishface,
I haven't even had a TV in the house since... 1990?
I watch these TV series on streaming platforms exclusively..."

Well I would count that as watching TV lol."

Fishface wrote: "Hari wrote: "Well, Fishface,
I haven't even had a TV in the house since... 1990?
I watch these TV series on streaming platforms exclusively..."

Well I would count that as watching TV lol."
Technically, but I have much more choice of what to watch, and when, and (usually) no advertisements.

Had a long weekend, so I went used book hunting.

Found a lot of great stuff for great prices! One particular title is extremely rare and I almost screamed when I saw it on the shelf for $3.95!

I even found a signed hardcover of a book (by the author) that still had the flyer advertising the signing in-store (which has long since closed).

The Anatomy of Motive: The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals

The Bone Garden

Cold Storage

The Crime of the Century

Crossing the Line: The True Story of Long Island Serial Killer Joel Rifkin

Devil's Disciples

Disturbed Ground

The Eyeball Killer

Freed to Kill: The True Story of Larry Eyler

The Massie Case

Perfect Victim: The True Story of "The Girl in the Box" by the D.A. Who Prosecuted Her Captor

Slow Death

Smoldering Embers

Not sure why books (at least the good ones) on David Parker Ray are so expensive, outside them being obviously out of print.

I now own two of them, which I only paid about $8-10 (total) for.

Previous to this weekend, I also recently picked up:

The Black Panther: The Trials and Abductions of Donald Neilson

Boys Enter the House: The Victims of John Wayne Gacy and the Lives They Left Behind

Cries in the Desert

Cult Following

A Father's Story

Hunting the Devil: The Pursuit, Capture and Confession of the Most Savage Serial Killer in History

Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer

The Killer's Shadow: The FBI's Hunt for a White Supremacist Serial Killer

The Lost Girls: The True Story of the Cleveland Abductions and the Incredible Rescue of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus

The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation

A Monster Of All Time: The True Story of Danny Rolling, The Gainesville Ripper

One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway

Just finished Reasonable Doubt: A Shocking Story of Lust and Murder in the American Heartland. Author is a journalist - keeps your attention the whole time. I did a little research and murder still unsolved. Worth adding to your library!

Francis wrote: "Not sure why books (at least the good ones) on David Parker Ray are so expensive, outside them being obviously out of print."

The desk lady at the paperback-swap bookstore I frequent -- where you trade in the old ones to get half off on the new ones -- says that people almost never bring back any of the true crime they buy. My own observation is that the less gruesome ones are more likely to come back to the store. And Ray is such a sicko, I'm not surprised those are harder to come by in general. Are those the ones you described as rare?

Fishface wrote: "Francis wrote: "Not sure why books (at least the good ones) on David Parker Ray are so expensive, outside them being obviously out of print."

The desk lady at the paperback-swap bookstore I freque..."

That makes sense! Thank you for sharing that.

During my Book Hunt last week, I noticed that depending on the bookstore, you'd see more non-gruesome/mainstream books on the used shelves and at other stores the lesser known or more gruesome books. Some stores I went to had both.

Yup! Cries in the Desert & Slow Death are the sought after books on David Parker Ray. If you get lucky, you can find a copy for $20 or less randomly but its also normal to see them both at $40-80+ for a copy of either.

Recently received a few books in the mail:

Waste Land: The Savage Odyssey of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate

Bad Blood

Blood Brothers: The Inside Story of the Menendez Murders

That puts me over 200+ books in my True Crime Collection! I know that pales in comparison to a lot of collections but I'm so happy to have that many!

Brent wrote: "just started "confession of a serial killer by Katherine Ramsland" about btk, pretty good and in depth so far."

Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer

Replying to add link.

Francis wrote: "Recently received a few books in the mail:

Waste Land: The Savage Odyssey of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate

Bad Blood

[book:Blood Brothers: The Inside Stor..."

That's impressive! Thank you for posting.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw, by Stephen Graham Jones

5 stars!

It took me a little effort to get into this story but pretty soon I was off and running. Jade is the heroine this country needs right now. She is a true scholar with the right wisdom at the right time, who uses her knowledge to put her world straight again. There is so much going on in here at once that trying to summarize the story would be a fool's errand. Just read it.

Currently reading Child Possessed, about the true case of Lurancy Vennum; Feast, about a restaurant critic who tries to get a meal at a private dining club where -- so I'm told, I'm not that far into the story yet -- the diners eat themselves; and How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, a memoir by the astronomer who discovered Eris, our 10th planet.

I just added How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming to the TC shelves because -- as with so many of the non-crime books I read -- this turned out to be TC after all. I mean, this is a book on astronomy, are you digging me?

Currently reading 2 TCs:

May God Have Mercy: A True Story of Crime and Punishment, about Wanda McCoy, and They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper. The former is great lunch-hour reading and the latter is rough going indeed.

Walter Sickert: A Life, by Matthew Sturgis

4 stars

I liked this very much, even though I got it from the library and had to skip around quite a bit before the due date. Well-written and very deeply researched; luckily Mr. Sickert left a great deal of his life behind in the form of not only paintings, but letters, friendships, relatives and reminiscences. The author even spent the last chapter debunking him as a Ripper suspect, especially the risible work of Patricia Cornwell. Sickert himself quipped: "It is said that we are a great literary nation but we don't really care about literature...We like a good murder." Sickert, always intrigued by the Ripper case and a TC man through and through, would have been so flattered to be called a suspect. I hope that, wherever he is now, he knows about that loopy honor.

Woo Hoo! Scored the newest Ron Franscell book from the library!

Shadowman: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling

The Outsider by Stephen King

5 stars!

This is the most satisfying SK I've read in a long time. It starts out as a murder mystery but then suddenly you're in totally unfamiliar territory, in a very Stephen Kingish way. Full of utterly normal situations and decent people, punctuated by mayhem and horror. I really recommend this one.

Just got a copy of BONEJANGLES in the mail. A whole Reggie Bannister movie I never heard of before! There's nothing not to like about Reggie Bannister...Also eagerly awaiting copies of THEY CAME FROM WITHIN and RATTLERS.

Francis wrote: "Recently received a few books in the mail:

Waste Land: The Savage Odyssey of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate

Bad Blood

[book:Blood Brothers: The Inside Stor..."

It's a solid number, especially if the books are good enough to stand up to re-reading.

Started reading a brand-new copy of The Wells of Hell, a book I loved when I first read it 30 years ago. Happily revisiting and it's better than ever.

The Facemaker: One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsay Whatserface Fitzharris. (I keep forgetting her dang name for some reason. the old brain is giving out...) I'm almost halfway in. Not as many individual stories of the soldiers as I was hoping for, but a very interesting read.

Where the Crawdads Sing

Death in Ten Minutes: Kitty Marion: Activist. Arsonist. Suffragette.

I just got Helltown: The Untold Story of Serial Murder on Cape Cod in the mail. I have zero memory of sending for it. The jacket does not reveal who it's about but I strongly suspect it's about Tony Costa.

Really enjoying Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House. It's very quotable. For instance:

"The vice presidency of Spiro T. Agnew marked the birth of the bruising, know-nothing confrontational conservatism that has been eating the lunch of seemly, Kiwanis Club Republicanism ever since." (page 27 of the hardcover edition)

Not sure how to post a new message here!

I'm reading Buried Secrets by Edward Humes - he's one of my favorite writers. I'm familiar with the overall case, but some of the gory details are really.....almost too gory for my strong true crime stomach. Has anyone else read it? Published 2016. Also familiar with Palo Mayombre a bit, but dang, didn't realize some of those stomach-wrenching details either!

Sheryl wrote: "Not sure how to post a new message here!

I'm reading Buried Secrets by Edward Humes - he's one of my favorite writers. I'm familiar with the overall case, but some of the gory details are really....."

I've read this one. I remember from the book that Constanzo definitely had his own unique spin on palo mayombe...

Fishface -- Yes, very well said. "Unique spin" to be sure. I'm fairly confident that human sacrifice is not a part of traditional Palo Mayombe practice -- at least what I've learned about it!

Sheryl wrote: "Fishface -- Yes, very well said. "Unique spin" to be sure. I'm fairly confident that human sacrifice is not a part of traditional Palo Mayombe practice -- at least what I've learned about it!"

Or Santeria, his other home religion...

Sheryl wrote: "Not sure how to post a new message here!

I'm reading Buried Secrets by Edward Humes - he's one of my favorite writers. I'm familiar with the overall case, but some of the gory details are really....."

Buried Secrets: A True Story of Drug Running, Black Magic, and Human Sacrifice
Replying to add link.

Currently reading The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America.

Slow going because, well, I know how it ends. :'(

I really loved The Deadly Percheron; it's a short noir mystery kind of read, a true New York Gothic, with so many twists and unexpected changes of direction that you hardly know what to believe until the last page.

Started re-reading Say You Love Satan. So much better than I remembered!

Started watching "Murder Maps" on Acorn. It's about murders in London around 1900 or so.

They have the Brides in the Bath, Dr. Crippen, John Christie and some others I had never heard of.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5075360/

Lady ♥ Belleza wrote: "Started watching "Murder Maps" on Acorn. It's about murders in London around 1900 or so.

They have the Brides in the Bath, Dr. Crippen, John Christie and some others I had never heard of.

https..."


Cool!

Just went to the post office, to find that The Family Next Door: The Heartbreaking Imprisonment of the Thirteen Turpin Siblings and Their Extraordinary Rescue and Who Killed Christopher Goodman? Based on a True Crime had arrived.

Just started (re?) reading Freed to Kill: The True Story of Larry Eyler. I'm now doubting that I ever even looked inside the book when I originally owned it. I don't remember a scrap of this information, just Eyler's face. I'm genuinely upset that the guy was a social worker. Why are so many of these maniacs social workers?

I'm reading The Best American Crime Reporting 2007 with astonishment. There's a chapter in here about Gary Krist, who buried Barbara Jane Mackle alive back in the day. He got out of prison, went to med school and convinced everyone he was redeemable. I added the book to the Barbara Jane Mackle shelf.

I just got my copy of Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness That Ended the Sixties in the mail. It's enormous! Almost as big as my nearly-600-page-long short version of The January 6th Report: Thompson & Cheney Opening Statements at Select Committee Hearing.

I never know what's appropriate to post here because all of you have prob read all of the true crime I'm reading nowadays. I enjoy older cases before everything was solved by DNA and everything was so much more dramatic. But I'll give it a shot. I'm on my phone so bare with me.

So... so far this year I have read

Little Lindy is kidnapped by Thomas doherty

Judgement before Nuremberg by Greg Dawson

The crime of the century (because obviously a century can have more than one) by Dennis Breo. This one is about the nursing students and Speck. It was actually very informative to me. I had never read anything about it.

Absolute madness by Catherine pelonero

Dying for love by Carlton smith (I like him)

The crate by Deborah vadas Levi's on which by the way I could not stand this one
With the devil's help by neal Wooten

Deadly goals by wilt browning which has by far been the best I've red this year
The devil's cinema by Steve lillebuen
Oh that's it!
I've been listening to small town murder and just found out last night at work that there are three of us that listen to it. So that was a hilarious conversation
And now I'm listening the dateline

Fishface wrote: "I just got my copy of Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness That Ended the Sixties in the mail. It's enormous! Almost as big as my..."

Excellent addition to Helter Skelter and The Family.

BAM the enigma wrote: "I never know what's appropriate to post here because all of you have prob read all of the true crime I'm reading nowadays. I enjoy older cases before everything was solved by DNA and everything was..."

ANY true crime, or not true crime, is appropriate in this discussion! Some of these are new to me and I look forward to hearing what you think of them all!

Thanks FF! I read several books at a time so ill attempt to keep updated. I forgot that I'm currently reading about Lord Lucan. I think it's called a different class of murder or something like that. It's a slightly different twist to true crime mostly because the book tells all about his ancestry and just how badly Bingham jacked up his life by becoming a gambler. Mostly takes place in London.

BAM the enigma wrote: "Thanks FF! I read several books at a time so ill attempt to keep updated. I forgot that I'm currently reading about Lord Lucan. I think it's called a different class of murder or something like tha..."

What a coincidence! I just read about him in Trail of Havoc: In the Steps of Lord Lucan!

BAM the enigma wrote: "I never know what's appropriate to post here because all of you have prob read all of the true crime I'm reading nowadays. I enjoy older cases before everything was solved by DNA and everything was..."

Replying to add links.

Little Lindy Is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century by Thomas Doherty

Judgment before Nuremberg: The Holocaust in the Ukraine and the First Nazi War Crimes Trial by Greg Dawson

The Crime of the Century by Dennis L. Breo

Absolute Madness: A True Story of a Serial Killer, Race, and a City Divided by Catherine Pelonero

Dying for Love: The True Story of a Millionaire Dentist, his Unfaithful Wife, and the Affair that Ended in Murder by Carlton Smith

The Crate: A Story Of War, A Murder, And Justice by Deborah Vadas Levison

With the Devil's Help: A True Story of Poverty, Mental Illness, and Murder by Neal Wooten

Deadly Goals: The True Story of an All-American Football Hero Who Stalked and Murdered by Wilt Browning

The Devil's Cinema: The Untold Story Behind Mark Twitchell's Kill Room by Steve Lillebuen

I have two books about Speck. I think the book you mentioned is in my library.