Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion

As True Crime contains a lot of biographical information and some of us here are also in the True Crime group here on GoodReads, I am going to start a new Discussion for True Crime books.

Eye Of The Beholder by Lowell Cauffiel
2 stars

I've read other books by this author that were very good but this one was just too long for the amount of information (over 500 pages) and ended up being very repetitive. It was almost surprising at the number of people the author found that said how wonderful the victim was and how bizarre the husband was. I think it would have been a much better book if it was about half the size. This book is about the murder of Diane Newton by her husband in 1991.

All right!

Winter of Frozen Dreams by Karl Harter
3 stars

The murder takes place in 1977. The book was written in 1990. The murderer is Barbara Hoffman, a message parlor therapist who murders two of her clients. While the book is based on a true story, at times it reads like fiction and at times it seems more like erotica. There is a lot of detail to the story that seems embellished, such as thoughts of the murdered man and at times he will preface a sentence by saying 'they must have been thinking …. It was interesting to learn about the seamy side of the massage therapy business.

Fatal Charm: The Shocking True Story of Serial Wife Killer Randy Roth by Carlton Smith
3 stars

This guy almost got away with murder and would have if someone hadn't discovered that this was the second time a wife of his died in a horrible accident after he had taken out a huge life insurance policy. He is a bizarre human being and a mean you know what. Interesting case.

All you people who read a lot of true crime books...just wondering what the appeal is about this genre.

Do you read from the criminals point of view or the victims. Or the people solving the case, the detectives? Is it mostly the detail about murders, or the trial, or what. Or is it the mystery of it. Although many crimes there is no mystery at all and the killer doesnt bother to cover up their crime. Some just want to livestream it on facebook for people to watch, as was the case with the mass shootings in christchurch. The guy is going to trial soon.

Would there be any you recommend, for someone who doesnt read much of this, that stood out for you as yes you must read this one, even if you didnt know anything about the crime beforehand.

I read true crime because I am fascinated by what drives people to do something terrible. The books have a little of everything -- science, history, social criticism, local color, religion, legal lore, politics, lots of psychology of course, and tons of what William Golding might call the "good parts version" of detective work. I am equally interested in the criminal's, victims', attorneys' and police points of view so I like to read multiple books on the same case if I can.

And gore. I love gore. Not gonna lie.

Some of the very best books I've read that fall under true crime:

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Winged Obsession: The Pursuit of the World's Most Notorious Butterfly Smuggler
The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple
In Cold Blood (this one is a bit fictionalized; the author called it a 'nonfiction novel,' not true crime)
Not Lost Forever: My Story of Survival
Silent Witness: The Karla Brown Murder Case
Fatal Vision
Buried Secrets: A True Story of Drug Running, Black Magic, and Human Sacrifice
Echoes in the Darkness (also significantly fictionalized)
Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde


There are so many others but every one of these is super excellent.

Bear in mind also that Tonya Harding's life story would not still be on our minds if not for the bizarre streak of true crime running through it!

Selina wrote: "All you people who read a lot of true crime books...just wondering what the appeal is about this genre.

Do you read from the criminals point of view or the victims. Or the people solving the case..."

Have you ever heard the saying 'You can't make this stuff up'? That's why I like True Crime. When I read fictional crime it just doesn't have the same impact as knowing something actually happened.

The author that got me into True Crime and realizing that it was a genre is Ann Rule. She has many books and should be easy to find. She died a few years ago and I still miss her.

If You Only Knew by M. William Phelps


When I started this book I thought it was going to be the usual wife-kills-husband-for-the-money story, but this story has many twists and turns, the biggest one being the transgender angle. The author does an excellent job of getting inside the head of the criminal, VonLee Titlow. In case the following is a spoiler I'll scroll down a bit....




One thing I found interesting and never considered, does a transgender male living life as a woman go to a men's prison or a woman's? There are problems with either choice.

Another problem to consider, if someone is an accomplice but the main murderer goes to trial second and gets off, should the accomplice be convicted?

I've read In Cold Blood but I dont know if I was that impressed with it. I just thought it was a bit run of the mill about someone killing someone for revenge for something or other.

And I have heard of Bonnie and Clyde and saw the movie once. but it didnt stick in my brain. Plus I dont tend to read any fictional crime either.

Maybe I just dont like gore. Sometimes people kill people for a reason, but you often dont know if the victim is innocent or guilty of some other crime. Not everyone who gets killed is innocent victim.

But then theres this one.. maybe I ought to read Jesus: The Cold Case

gospels are very detailed about the crucifixtion and the events leading up to it, so, I suppose you couldnt make that stuff up. I mean killing Jesus, why would you do that? But people did. He wasnt even gulity of anything...Judas got away but ended up hanging himself. And the thing was, Barabass was let go, even thougn he was guilty and Jesus ended up being condemned. And the two on the cross with Jesus one was a thief who repented and the other we dont know what his crime was.

Were the Jews guilty or was Jesus actually guilty and deserved to die? Its complicated...

If In Cold Blood seems run of the mill, that's undoubtedly because every true-crime writer since that book came out in the mid-1960s has flagrantly copied Capote's writing. But it's not any kind of revenge story. Could you be thinking of a different book?

Fishface wrote: "If In Cold Blood seems run of the mill, that's undoubtedly because every true-crime writer since that book came out in the mid-1960s has flagrantly copied Capote's writing. But it's not..."
Oh maybe but am just thinking that trying to make sense of a senseless murder is run of the mill for true crime writers, and theres so many sensless murders these days. People think they can solve their own problems by killing other people. Well it doesnt work, and its tragic for the ones that are killed and their families. Their lives are cut short, and the killers are put in jail. And most of these killers who are put in jail dont care. Why write a book about their crime when it ought to be why not try to stop these things from happening in the first place. I think why not write to get justice. Rather than glorify the crime.

Well, In Cold Blood was about a home invasion gone haywire. They thought they could solve their problems by robbing the rich, not by killing anyone! And Capote focused on understanding Perry Smith because, unlike his partner in crime, Dick Hickock, he had a strong sense of right and wrong and yet he was the guy who pulled the trigger...

I Am Cain: A Harrowing True Story of Murder, Compulsion and Unrepentant Evil, Gera-Lind Kolarik and WAYNE Klatt
3 stars

This was a good read about a very unusual crime, one so obvious that the police almost couldn't solve it. How it got cleared up -- and why it happened in the first place -- is what this story is about. There was a whole lot of information on the killer's psychology in here -- straight from the killer, not a bunch of speculation! -- and that really helped the situation make sense. My only issue with the writing is that it was hard to keep names straight because the characters were hardly described at all. There was a lot of description of people's clothing but the actual person would be described only as short or balding. The killer was described as "almost handsome." What does that even mean? His girlfriend was described as wearing "a black outfit over a red sweater." Wouldn't it have to be the other way around? This was a very good read anyway. Well worth your time.

I was listening to another Books and Beyond podcast and the topic was crime novels. One aficianado said the reason they read crime novels is because many have a great sense of place. Aside from the 'whodunnit' mystery and the likeable protaganist (usually a private investigator, detective, crime solver)

But I suppose true crime doesn't have that to the same extent? And the person writing it, would they be actually BE the private investigator? Are any crime novels written that aren't about the personal life of the crime solver and how they go about discovering clues and more focused on the case itself.

Sense of place, they explained it by if you read a crime novel like the slew of ones set in Nordic countries that have become popular, you get to know the countries and the culture. I guess more so than if you read say a Nordic romance?

Fishface wrote: "Well, In Cold Blood was about a home invasion gone haywire. They thought they could solve their problems by robbing the rich, not by killing anyone! And Capote focused on understanding ..."

Maybe its just poor impulse control, and thats the thing with guns. If you let weapons loose on people that don't know the dangers of using them they could just shoot anyone. And because people get licesnses and think they have the right to use them and are free to use them.

Its like people who drive cars too fast. And kill people. Just really bad drivers...but they take someones life in the process.

Sorry to post again but after reading the book about David Bain I did get to know him and his family a bit more.
And also the case, the police views, the lawyers, and other witnesses.
The things I didnt like about it was of course...the gore...the book had graphic pictures of the crime scene and two of the dead..actual photographs of them (father and daughter) shot. I had to turn away. It was pretty gory. And bloodstains. But I suppose that shows evidence. I wouldnt like to be a police photographer.

And also the author did repeat himself a lot but I guess he was trying to hammer the point home. He believed the accused was innocent so went over every detail of what the crown used as evidence.

There were transcripts of witness statements and thing like was David home at the time the computer was turned on? So it was really detailed on that.

The other interesting thing was Davids dad Robin was reading an Agatha Christie crime novel at the time of the murders, he was half way through it. Called Death Comes as the End and it was about a family murder. You wonder why he was reading that, and whether he got ideas from it.

As for it being true and not made up, well yea this really happened and it affected the whole nation, at the time and has got repercussions for our police and justice system. If justice isnt served then do we need to see if people are actually doing their jobs properly.

Selina wrote: "I was listening to another Books and Beyond podcast and the topic was crime novels. One aficianado said the reason they read crime novels is because many have a great sense of place. Aside from the..."

Oh, true crime is written from a lot of different perpectives. Dark Secret: The Complete Story: The True Account of What Happened to Little Alex Suleski is written by an eyewitness to a crime who reported it to the police. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders is by the prosecutor on the Manson case. A House to Remember: 10 Rillington Place is by someone who lived near a house where someone committed crimes before she was born. Where Hope Begins: One Family's Journey Out of Tragedy-and the Reporter Who Helped Them Make It is from the perspective of a journalist who became personally entangled in a lurid crime case. Burden of Proof: The Case of Juan Corona is written by the defense attorney on a serial-murder case, and Jury is about nothing but the jury deliberations in that same case. Then there's Final Truth: The Autobiography of Mass Murderer/Serial Killer Donald "Pee Wee" Gaskins, written by a man on Death Row who wanted to set the record straight about who he really was before he walked that last mile. And Not Lost Forever: My Story of Survival is the autobiography of one of the few survivors of a family massacre and how her life went from there. Then there are books like Dark Legend: A Study In Murder, written by the defendant's psychiatrist.

Fishface wrote: "Selina wrote: "I was listening to another Books and Beyond podcast and the topic was crime novels. One aficianado said the reason they read crime novels is because many have a great sense of place...."

Are they all american the ones you mention?
Of all the true crime you read, any particular place or setting that seems to be a magnet for criminals?

Selina wrote: "Fishface wrote: "Selina wrote: "I was listening to another Books and Beyond podcast and the topic was crime novels. One aficianado said the reason they read crime novels is because many have a grea..."

There are a lot of books that take place in the Seattle Washington area or maybe its because several authors live in that area and they tend to write about crimes close to them.

Selina wrote: "Are they all american the ones you mention?
Of all the true crime you read, any particular place or setting that seems to be a magnet for criminals?"

Yes, all of those are American cases. I have read that California and Florida have a disproportionate number of serial killers and bizarro religious cults, and the epicenter of the opioid epidemic seems to be Cleveland, Ohio, but in general I see no rhyme or reason to which areas produce the most true crime reading. Detroit, with its horrible reputation for crime, is not a great source of TC reading, for instance. New York City is only so-so. Texas -- an enormous state -- has plenty of interesting crimes and also a selection of great writers churning out books about those crimes, like Kathryn Casey and Carlton Stowers. There are a few authors like Fred Rosen, who seem to go anywhere for a story.

And then there are compilations, like the "best American Crime Reporting" series (an example is The Best American Crime Reporting 2008), or the standard encyclopedia-format resource Bloodletters and Badmen, that collect stories from all over.

The Riverside Killer, Christine Keers
4 stars!

A very good read, co-authored by one of the case investigators. In this true story we see the police's point of view first, as they find one mutilated body after another in a small area in California. Then we backtrack through the killer's entire life, taking us through crimes the Riverside investigators didn't know about until much later, then go back through the women's murders in order, seeing them in terms of what was going on in the killer's head. Despite being told the whole story twice I never saw the book as repetitive. The authors treat the victims with a lot more respect than the killer was capable of. I did long to hear more from the killer's family of origin and his ex-wives. Not to mention his defense counsel. What did they see going on with this guy? I highly recommend this book. Be warned that the crime-scene photos are truly hideous.

I was chatting with a guy on a discussion forum and he said they need a whole security team at church... I'm like what, you take guns to church?? He thought this was normal. I said where do you live, a warzone? He just said he lives in Florida
But then Florida does seems to have a bad reputation for gangsters and mafia and regular shootings.

Texas...wasn't Kennedy assassinated in Dallas Texas. I'm wondering where the centre of weapons manufacturing is, like where do people get all these guns from.

Gun manufacturing in this country is spread out all over the place. They're like cars: the grips are made in a factory in Florida, the sights in Wisconsin, the firing pins in Kentucky, the barrels in Mississippi and so forth. A lot of parts are customizable or interchangeable so while you can get just a plain-Jane Glock, you can also supe it up with the special extended clip or the redneck glitter paint job and a squirrel tail on the special clamshell holster. I know one guy who works in a bullet factory, and another who works for a different place that makes gun sights within 20 miles of where I am sitting now. Somewhere there must be assembly lines where people put the parts all together.

And of course we fly in AK-47s and Uzis and other fancy-pants guns from exotic foreign lands!

Fun fact: there is only one gun store in all of Mexico, and only the police are allowed to shop there. Almost every single gun used in the drug wars south of the border was bought in a gun shop or a gun show in the USA and driven over there. No law against it!

Coming out May 7, 2019: Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

The stunning story of an Alabama serial killer and the true-crime book that Harper Lee worked on obsessively in the years after To Kill a Mockingbird.

Koren wrote: "Coming out May 7, 2019: Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

The stunning story of an Alabama serial killer and the true-crime book that Harp..."
Interesting!!

Wait, she never published it, did she?

Looking for suggestions for my 15-year-old son who is interested in law enforcement and likes to watch crime videos on Youtube. He needs to read more, and I'm hoping he will find good books for some summer reading.

I just read this; it might hold his interest:

True Crime: Real Girls, Real-Life Stories, by the Editors of Seventeen Magazine
4 stars!

The first story in here was so horrible I thought they were probably tapering down to something uplifting and inspirational. They weren't. All the stories, taken from the pages of Seventeen, involve teens being murdered, killing someone else or doing something else that's pretty unthinkable. The photos are all in full color; most of these stories have clearly never been collected anywhere else. I felt a little as if I'd been punched in the gut when I finished the book. Full of object lessons for the tweens, young adults and teens in your life.

Also try:

In Cold Blood -- the classic
I, a Squealer: The Insider's Account of the "Pied Piper of Tucson" Murders (story of a teenager who broke a huge Tucson murder case for the police)
The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World
I Am Cain: A Harrowing True Story of Murder, Compulsion and Unrepentant Evil (story of a single police investigation)
Byleveld: Dossier of a Serial Sleuth (life of a South African police detective, full of his case histories)
Green River Killer: A True Detective Story (this one is a graphic novel written by the son of one of the detectives on the case)
I first read Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders when I was 12 -- my 12-year-old best friend loaned it to me -- and it hooked me for life on crime stories. But social mores have changed and not all parents would approve of their kids reading this, even though the bodies have been snipped out of the crime-scene photos.
A Lighter Shade of Blue: Weird, Wild, and Wacky Cop Stories
Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime -- written by the undercover officer himself
Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures, a police memoir
The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases (the true story of the Vidocq Society, a group of retired law-enforcement types who solve cold cases)
The Super Cops (the true story of two rookie police officers)

Fishface wrote: "Wait, she never published it, did she?"

Correct!

So I wonder if anything of that story -- maybe even some of the unfinished book -- will be included.

Fishface wrote: "So I wonder if anything of that story -- maybe even some of the unfinished book -- will be included."

I will let you know. Got the book today. Will be a few days before I start it.

Fishface wrote: "I just read this; it might hold his interest:

True Crime: Real Girls, Real-Life Stories, by the Editors of Seventeen Magazine
4 stars!

The first story in here was so horrible I thou..."

Fishface, thank you for this incredible list !

Fishface wrote: "I just read this; it might hold his interest:

True Crime: Real Girls, Real-Life Stories, by the Editors of Seventeen Magazine
4 stars!

The first story in here was so horrible I thou..."
Thank you Fishface ! This is an awesome list. I just ordered "The Murder Room" ... I'll let you know how my son likes it. He starts his summer reading in June.

Negative perspiration Pamela!

Fishface wrote: "

Negative perspiration Pamela!"

Roger that !

The Manson Women and Me: Monsters, Morality, and Murder by Nikki Meredith
2 stars


Even though there were many players involved Charles Manson, the author focuses on just two, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel. The author attempts to get inside their heads to figure out how two normal young girls could commit horrible murders. This could possibly work if the author had a background in psychology, but she is a journalist. She interviews the two subjects, but they are not very forthcoming and so the psychological aspect doesnt really work. She gives a lot of background into the murders, but if you have read anything at all about the murders you aren't going to learn anything new here. This book is more a memoir about the author. I was left scratching my head as to how she tried to compare the murders to her Jewishness, the holocaust and her brother's incarceration. If you want to know more about the Manson murderers there are better books out there

The fact that Manson practically worshipped Adolf Hitler should have given her an easy entrance to her preferred subject matter.

I am disappoint, as the Jeff Dahmer meme says. Patricia Krenwinkel is a particular interest of mine.

Just started Fear No Evil; it is very biographical. A very good read in general, if you like axe murders. ;)

All I Want To Do Is Kill by Dale Hudson
5 stars



The killers are two 15-year-old girls who think they are in love with each other but both of their families have decided they shouldn't hang around with each other and forbid them to see each other. The families know they are taking drugs and do whatever they want, without regard to the rules. Both come from less than ideal backgrounds and one of the girls, Holly, is living with her grandparents because her mother is in prison for drugs. The grandparents are very strict so one of the girls decides the best way out is to kill them. The result is one of the goriest murders I have ever read about.


This was a very well-written true crime book in my opinion. At 577 pages I thought it was going to be overly detailed with a long drawn-out court room scene, but it wasn't. It held my interest from beginning to end.

Koren wrote: "All I Want To Do Is Kill by Dale Hudson
5 stars



The killers are two 15-year-old girls who think they are in love with each other but bo..."

Sounds a bit like the movie Heavenly Creatures, which was based on a true crime story that happened in Christchurch, NZ. Google 1954 Parker-Hulme murders.

I haven't read any book about this yet but there is probably one floating around.

Juiet Hulme became the crime-writer Anne Perry. There's a book called The Search for Anne Perry by Joanne Drayton about it.

Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime, Ron Stallworth
4 stars!

This is the happiest, most positive true-crime story I've come across in ages. Told from the point of view of a very new police officer, the very first black detective Colorado Springs PD ever had, who was working an intelligence detail when he stumbled across an unusual opportunity, and grabbed it and ran with it. He got some genuinely satisfying, and often hilarious, results. Some people are just born to break new ground, but who on this planet expects to be the first-ever black member in good standing of the KKK? This story is simply not to be missed. Well written, too -- I found exactly two (2) typos in the whole book. Not really enough biography in here to suit me but I can live with that. Read this book!!!

This is kind of a random comment, but the best true crime books I think I ever read (judging on literary quality) are Thomas Thompson's Blood and Money and Shana Alexander's Nutcracker.

Pamela wrote: "This is kind of a random comment, but the best true crime books I think I ever read (judging on literary quality) are Thomas Thompson's Blood and Money and Shana Alexander's Nutcracker."

Hey, this site is all about literary quality! My favorites in that department are Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders and To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire.

Fear No Evil, Thomas Henry Jones
4 stars

This was the unusual story of an extraordinarily vicious murder in Huntington, Indiana, committed by someone everyone thought of as an all-American boy, perfect in every way. Still waters certainly run deep in his case. The authors hammered us over and over about what great guys the killer and his main accomplice were. I couldn't help noticing how much more time and less consideration the third guy got, the one who had almost nothing to do with it but who went into the situation with a bad reputation and paid for that for the rest of his life. It's as if the individual's reputation were more important than the acts he committed. R.I.P. Eldon Anson, the murder victim who was almost entirely lost in the sauce. Well-written and more than worth your time if you are interested in social criticism, true crime, psychology, or what makes kids go wrong.

The Last Time We Saw Her by Robert Scott
3 stars


This is about the murder of 19-year-old college student Brooke Willberger by Joel Courtney.

As other reviewers have said, this book was interesting in parts, but it would have been better as a much shorter book. The courtroom scenes are, for the most part, repetition of what we were told during the investigation.

Bones in the Desert: The True Story of a Mother's Murder and a Daughter's Search by Jana Bommersbach
4 stars


Interesting true crime story that centers around the daughter of a woman who was killed by her partner of 18 years and has the theme of elder abuse. I would have liked the book to delve deeper into the murderer's past and I am deducting one star because it was a bit repetitive but aside from that I couldnt put it down and read most of it in one day and finished the next morning.

The Stranger She Loved: A Mormon Doctor, His Beautiful Wife, and an Almost Perfect Murder by Shanna Hogan
5 stars

Amazing true story about a very sketchy doctor who also went to school to be a lawyer,although he never practiced, and was also a Mormon. There are many twists and turns and the author has a knack for keeping us on the edge of our seats. This guy is doing something shady on every page. His wife is a very likeable person and the children are also very interesting. If it wasnt for their tenacity the husband would have very likely gotten away with murder. This book held my attention from beginning to end and the trial is nicely condensed. I was starting to think the classic husband murders wife true crime books were all starting to sound the same, but this one definitely stands out from the pack. This is the third book I have read by this author and I have liked them all.

Ladykiller, Juliet Papa
3 solid stars

This history of the life and crimes of Richie Caputo takes you right up to the moment before his trials for murder begin. I learned a fair amount about his victims and his relationship to them and how he evaded justice for decades. The author speculated on why he finally resurfaced and what if any mental problems he might have, but unfortunately, she was working from the speculations of defense counsel, reporters and the mental health providers who were clearly just chasing their tails. This was a good read that gave me, as a mental health provider myself, a few sad chuckles.