Book 'Em: The Past is Never Dead
(CBS)
In THE PAST IS NEVER DEAD: The Trial of James Ford Seale and Mississippi's Struggle for Redemption, Harry N. MacLean recounts the gruesome events of May 2, 1964, a day that saw two young black men die at the hands of Seale and his fellow Klansmen. Henry Dee and Charles Moore stood alongside Route 84 in Meadville, Mississippi waiting to hitch a ride back to the neighboring town of Roxie. Instead, they were abducted by six members of the Ku Klux Klan and transported to the isolated Homochitto National Forest. There, they were brutally beaten, interrogated about activities within the black community, and finally tied to engine blocks and drowned in the Mississippi River.
Seale and fellow Klansman Charles Marcus Edwards were arrested for these murders on November 6, 1964. But the case stalled, as the district attorney declared a lack of "sufficient evidence," and the affidavits were dismissed. The reality of the situation had dawned on the D.A. This was Mississippi and there was no way that an all-white jury would ever convict powerful white men for such a crime. Seale and Edwards walked free on January 11, 1965 and it was not until May 2007 that the events of that fateful spring morning caught up with them.
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Book 'Em: The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower
(CBS)
Leigh, who was uncomfortable with the idea of nudity on screen, refused to bare all for the terrifying 1960 shower scene. Instead, Alfred Hitchcock hired self-proclaimed "nudist" Marli Renfo, described by Graysmith: "Robust, energetic, and breezy, the redhead exuded health and wholesomeness. Her carriage was erect, graceful, poised, and as limber and lithe as a cat's." After the filming of Psycho, Renfro went on to star in Francis Ford Coppola's first movie, The Peeper. She became one of the first Playboy bunnies after posing for the front page of Hugh Hefner's revolutionary magazine, before suddenly and inexplicably… she vanished!
Marli Renfro's disappearance led to rumors, lies, and seemingly unsubstantiated reports that she had been murdered. For over forty years Robert Graysmith kept her photos, as obsessed as the detective in Laura who fell in love with a dead woman's picture. But as he wrote the beautiful redhead's story, a nagging doubt entered his mind. What if, like "Laura," she was still alive, and someone else had been murdered in her place? And if she was alive could he find her?
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Book 'Em: Murder Behind the Badge
(CBS)
Yet over time the rigors and emotional strain of dealing with society's worst element can wear on even the most idealistic officers like a sheet of sandpaper, until what used to be a compassionate human being is slowly rubbed away.
A few become corrupted and slip into criminal behavior, directly contradicting their oath to safeguard the public. Even worse, there are some who hide behind their badges to commit the most heinous crimes imaginable.
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Book 'Em: The Infiltrator
(CBS)
His fake identity as a money launderer to the international underworld set the stage for one of the most successful undercover operations in the history of U.S. law enforcement.
In 1987, Bob Musella – aka Robert Mazur -- began infiltrating the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, bankers behind the Medell?n drug cartel. Beneath a brash exterior, "Musella" quietly recorded damning evidence.
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Book 'Em: The Birthday Party
(CBS/GP Putnam's Sons Publishing)
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY begins as Alpert is whisked away in a car full of gun-toting thugs looking to use his ATM card. But when they learn his bank balance, the plan changes. They take him, blindfolded with his own scarf, to a Brooklyn apartment, with the idea of going to a bank the next day and withdrawing most of his money.
But the later it gets, the more the plan changes, again and again, as Alpert's captors alternately hold guns to his head, threaten his family, and even seek his legal advice. In a bizarre twist, when they learn it is his birthday, they offer him sexual favors from their prostitute girlfriends.
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Book 'Em: The Road Out of Hell
( )
Written by acclaimed crime writer Anthony Flacco, with Jerry Clark, Sanford Clark's son, providing a primary resource, The Road Out of Hell reveals the untold story of the Wineville murders that are featured in the Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie film, Changeling.
During the two years that Sanford was held captive at the murder ranch in the late 1920's, he endured psychological and sexual torture and terrible beatings. Kept in a battered and dazed condition, Sanford was forced to participate in the murders of three young boys and to dispose of the other victims' bodies according to Northcott's instructions.
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Book 'Em: It Happens Every Day
(CBS/Prometheus Books)
What really happens when law enforcement decides to prosecute a child sexual assault case? In this frank and informative book, It Happens Every Day: Inside the World of a Sex Crimes D.A., Sax shows readers how the criminal justice system works in terms you rarely hear about on the news. She assesses what's right and what needs to be changed.
Dividing the work into two parts, she begins with "Behind the One-Way Mirror," which deals with the investigation of child sexual assault.
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Book 'Em: Mommy's Little Girl -- Casey Anthony and her Daughter Caylee's Tragic Fate
(CBS/St. Martins True Crime )
It's an account based on thousands of pages of police transcripts and reports, and other official documents, as well as taped interviews and on-site research.
When news broke of Caylee Anthony's disappearance, there was a huge outpouring of sympathy. The search made front-page headlines. But there was one huge question mark hanging over the case: the toddler's mother.
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Book 'Em: Shattered Silence
(CBS/Cedar Fort, Inc.)
Melissa's father, Keith Hunter Jesperson, is known to have committed eight murders. When others were given 'credit' for one of those killings, he got agitated and started writing letters to police and media with clues that only the killer could know. With each new victim, he'd send out another anonymous letter, signed with a smiley face. It earned him an unsettling sobriquet: the "Happy Face Serial Killer."
Jesperson continued his killing spree until March 1995, when he was incarcerated for the murder of his girlfriend, Julie Winningham.
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Book 'Em: The Snakehead
(CBS/Doubleday )
When the Golden Venture ran aground off a New York City beach in 1993 transporting 300 near-starving illegal immigrants, federal officials and the NYPD realized they had a huge criminal operation to unravel. Little did they know it would all lead back to an unassuming middle-aged grandmother known as Sister Ping, running an underground smuggling empire out of her hole-in-the-wall Chinatown noodle shop.
She built a complex -- and often vicious -- global conglomerate, relying heavily on familial ties, and employing one of Chinatown's most violent gangs to protect her power and profits, which grew to $40 million. Sister Ping's ingenuity and drive were awe-inspiring not only to the Chinatown community -- where she was revered as a homegrown Don Corleone -- but also to the law enforcement officials who could never quite catch her.
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