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Operation Biting was one of the most thrilling British commando raids of World War II, and probably the most successful. In February 1942 RAF intelligence was baffled by a newly-identified radar network on the coast of Nazi-occupied Europe, codenamed Würzburg. The brilliant scientist Dr RV Jones proposed an assault to capture key components. The nearest accessible enemy set stood upon a steep cliff at Bruneval in Normandy. Winston Churchill enthused, as did Lord Louis Mountbatten, chief of Combined Operations. A company of the newly-formed Airborne Forces was committed to the operation, which took place on the night of 27/28 February. Amid heavy snow 120 men landed, some of whom were misdropped almost two miles from their objective. They nonetheless launched the assault, dismantled the German radar, and after three nail-biting hours in France and a fierce battle with Wehrmacht defenders, escaped in the nick of time by landing-craft across stormy seas to Portsmouth. Max Hastings recounts this cliffhanging tale in a wealth of previously unchronicled detail. He portrays its remarkable personalities: the 'boffin' RV Jones; the peacock Mountbatten; the troubled husband of Daphne Du Maurier, Gen. 'Boy' Browning, who commanded the Airborne Division; 'Colonel Remy', the French secret agent whose men reconnoitered Bruneval at mortal risk; Major John Frost, who led the paras into action; Charlie Cox, the little RAF technician who stripped the Würzburg and became an unexpected hero; Wing-Commander Charles Pickard, a legendary bomber pilot who led the drop squadron. Seldom have so many fascinating personalities been brought together to fulfil a mission that became a front-page triumph in a season of British defeats. Recounted in Hastings' familiar best-selling blend of top-down and bottom-up action detail, Operation Biting tells a story that has become almost forgotten yet deserves to rank among the epic tales of courage and daring that took place in the greatest conflict in history.
"A fast-paced, compelling narrative that goes far beyond the headlines." -KEVIN DONOVAN, author of The Billionaire Murders For Joey Philion, surviving the fire was only the beginning. On the morning of March 10th, 1988, in Orillia, Ontario, a house fire engulfed fourteen-year-old Joey Philion in flames. He suffered third degree burns on ninety-five percent of his body. Doctors didn't think he would make it through the night. After the Flames is about one of the world's most famous burn victims: his incredible survival, his nightmarish path to recovery that helped revolutionize medical treatment for burn victims worldwide, the fame thrust upon him after he was declared a hero from the media, and the tumultuous years that followed, most of which were spent under the microscope of an unforgiving public eye. The story also follows Joey's family, including his mother Linda, stepfather Mike, and younger brother Danny, all of whom endured their own tremendous hardships in the wake of a fire that changed their lives forever.
John Wayne Gacy raped, tortured, and murdered 33 boys and young men, burying most of them in the crawlspace under his Chicago home. Karen Conti was in high school at the time watching the bodies being removed on the television news. Fourteen years pass. Through a twist of fate, Conti, now a young and inexperienced attorney, is called upon to handle Gacy's final death row appeals. The serial killer soon becomes her most famous, difficult, and haunting client. Thirty years after Gacy's execution, Conti looks back through the eyes of a seasoned professional on the legal and media circus that ensued—and her countless hours of detailed conversation with the killer clown. We hear for the first time about Gacy's gruesome "Body Book." Were there more victims? Conspirators involved in the murders? What secrets were buried with him? If one were to ask Conti "How could you represent such a monster?," she would respond "What you really want to know is, 'What was he like?'" This book answers that question.
In May of 2005, Beth Holloway received the worst phone call a parent can imagine. Her beautiful daughter, Natalee, had vanished without a trace in Aruba during her high school senior class trip. Four years later, Beth Holloway steps forward to tell the story of her daughter's disappearance and her own harrowing ordeal—and her never-ending belief in the power of faith that gave her hope against all odds. When Natalee went missing, her photograph was splashed across newspaper front pages and television screens from coast to coast. Desperate for clues to the whereabouts of the lost eighteen-year-old, Beth searched relentlessly with the help of a dedicated army of volunteers, encountering roadblocks, obstacles, and misinformation at every step—and unbearable questions that had no answers. Loving Natalee is a shocking, tragic, yet poignant chronicle of an unthinkable event and its aftermath—and the inspiring true story of a mother's strength, courage, devotion, and unwavering love.
How To Start a War is unlike any audiobook you've ever listened to ... This new and expanded edition includes the complete story arc of How To Start a War, unabridged and with significant new material, as the author originally intended. Adapted from the popular podcast miniseries of the same name, Michael Trapani immerses listeners in the dramatic events that led to the crime of the century—World War II and the Holocaust—documenting the actions of the criminals who carried it out. Listeners will feel like they are in the room as some of history's most villainous characters plot to overthrow democracy, impose tyranny, and outmaneuver those who had the power to stop them. Importantly, How To Start a War is a story from the past that can help us understand our world today, with each chapter connecting lessons from history to domestic and geopolitical events of the present day. This presentation includes an exclusive chapter not available in the original series: entitled "Risk," it describes Germany's first gambles on the world stage and the resulting international fallout. It pinpoints the very moment that the world realized it could not trust Hitler. A gripping blend of narrative storytelling and dramatized scenes and characters, How To Start A War feels like a Golden Age radio drama. Far from a dry history lesson, How To Start a War is a resonant and compelling story about what happens when good people do nothing to stop the worst evils while they still can.
As a string of high-profile jewel thefts went unsolved during the Swinging Sixties, the press dubbed the elusive thief the King of Diamonds. Like Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, the King was so bold that he tip-toed into the homes of millionaires while they were home, hiding in their closets and daring to smoke while they were sleeping. Rena Pederson, then a young reporter with UPI, started following the elusive thief while she managed the night desk. With gymnastic skill, he climbed trees and crawled across rooftops to take jewels from heiresses, oil kings, corporate CEOs—some of the richest people of their time. Scotland Yard and Interpol were on the look-out, but the thief was never caught nor the jewels recovered. To follow the tracks of the thief, Rena has interviewed more than two hundred people, from cops to strippers. She went to pawn shops, Las Vegas casinos, and a Mafia hangout—and discovered that beneath the glittering façade of Dallas debutante parties was a world of sex trafficking, illegal gambling, and political graft. When one of the leading suspects was found dead in highly unusual circumstances, the story darkened. High society crashed head-first into Mickey Spillane. The odd psychological aspects of the The King of Diamonds give us a different kind of crime story. Detectives were stumped: Why did the thief break into houses when his targets were inside, increasing the risk of being captured? As one socialite put it, "It was a very peculiar business."
The remarkable true story of a family forced into hiding after leaking Russian secrets What started out as a great adventure turned into a terrifying nightmare when Nick Stride and his family were forced to flee for their lives from one of the richest, most powerful men in the world. Nick moved to Russia in 1998 to help build the British Embassy in Moscow, but ended up on the run with his wife and two children after leaking secrets from Vladimir Putin's one-time deputy. Hiding off grid on Australia's final frontier – remote beaches on the Dampier Peninsula on the far north Kimberley coast – the family faced crocodiles, sharks, snakes, raging bushfires and the devastating Cyclone Yvette, and survived only by catching fish and crabs and learning how to kill wild animals. It was a life-or-death move, but Nick felt he had no choice. Now, emerging from isolation, the family are finally ready to share their incredible story.
The harrowing true story of a cold-blooded murder and the campaign to bring justice to a suffering Midwestern town On a November night in 1990, Cathy Robertson is murdered in her home outside Chillicothe, Missouri. After law enforcement conduct a haphazard investigation, the sheriff’s office puts the case in the hands of a Kansas City private eye with his own agenda. In a close-knit town still reeling from the aftereffects of the farming crisis, friends and neighbors abruptly fracture into opposing camps. Mark Woodworth, a Robertson family neighbor, eventually receives four life sentences for a crime that a growing group of local supporters believe he didn’t commit. In a surprising, dramatic narrative that spans decades, Mark’s family turns to Robert Ramsey, an attorney willing to take on a corrupt political machine suppressing the truth. But the community’s way of life is irrevocably damaged by the parallel tragedies of the farming crisis and Cathy’s unsolved murder, in a gripping story about the fault-lines of a fracturing America that continue to cut across the farm belt today.
Goodfellas meets the Irish mob in The Devil to Pay, the incredible true story of one man's unconventional upbringing in the criminal gangs of Boston and his eventual road to redemption. Growing up in South Boston, Sean Scott Hicks was running jobs for the Irish mob before his voice changed. Mistreated by his drug-addled mother, Hicks found sanctuary with his adoptive family of felonious uncles—known to law enforcement officials as the Winter Hill Gang. These crooks knew where all the bodies were buried—because they'd done the burying—but they also looked out for young Sean. Even the notorious gangster known worldwide as Whitey Bulger was simply "Uncle Jim" to him. After such an upbringing, a life of crime was a given. In this unprecedented memoir, Hicks talks about everything from his experience running illegal goods up and down the coast of Massachusetts to his theory about what really happened the night three hundred million dollars' worth of art went missing from Boston's Isabella Gardner Museum. Terms like money laundering and assault insufficiently describe his daily tasks, a brash existence that alternated with stints behind bars. This knuckles-close look at mobster life chronicles the greed and avarice, tenderness and brutality, and the reckoning all gangsters must eventually face. Hicks tells a story of blood and vengeance but also—surprisingly—of hope. The Devil to Pay: A Mobster's Road to Perdition is an extraordinary memoir that illuminates the reality of what it's really like in the dark, dangerous, and insidious places of the world, and what it takes to bring a person there and back again.
'Stand by for fireworks as it hits the shelves' SUNDAY TIMES 'If Orwell were with us today, he'd be writing books like this' PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE 'Breath-taking and jaw-dropping' PETER FRANKOPAN 'A true-life thriller' ANNE APPLEBAUM From the bestselling author of Kleptopia comes a true story about Cuckooland – a world where the rich can buy everything – including the truth. Everywhere, the powerful are making a renewed claim to the greatest prize of all: to own the truth. The power to choose what you want reality to be and impose that reality on the world. For three years, Tom Burgis followed a lead that took him deeper and deeper into Cuckooland – the place where the rich own the truth. The trail snaked from the Kremlin to Kathmandu, Stockholm to the Steppe, from a blood-soaked town square in Uzbekistan to a royal retreat in Scotland. Burgis hunted down oligarchs, developed secret sources and traced vast sums of money flowing between multinational corporations, ex-Soviet dictators and the west's ruling elites. And he found one man who wanted the power to bend reality to his will. This book tells an astonishing story: a tale of secrets and lies that reveals how fragile that truth can be. Whether it's in Kazakh torture chambers or the UK's High Court, the lords of Cuckooland are seizing control of the truth. They decree what stories may be told about war and money and power, what we are permitted to know – and more importantly, what we are not. From the bestselling author of Kleptopia, Cuckooland is a deeply reported work of non-fiction that reads like a thriller. It is a story of how globalisation and technological revolution have combined to imperil the foundation of free societies: that the truth belongs to the many, not the few.
Like sharks to blood in the water, the mob arrived in Hollywood greedy and ready to tear away huge chunks of cash. Opportunistic mobsters saw labor unions as the means for muscling into the movie industry and extorting millions of dollars from studio bosses. Control the unions to which projectionists, art directors, cinematographers, electricians, scene designers, stagehands, extras belong, and you control the whole industry. Painting colorful portraits of numerous mobsters, producers, actors, and directors, Tinseltown Gangsters tells the gripping, fast-paced, true story of corruption and greed in Hollywood throughout much of the twentieth century.
"Death, drugs, and the occult meet in grisly inquiry at the Mexican border" in this true crime account of a mass murder by a serial killing cult leader (The New York Times). When Mark Kilroy vanished while on spring break in Matamoros, Mexico, the search for the missing pre-med student led to a gruesome discovery on a lonely stretch of land called Rancho Santa Elena: a mass grave containing Mark's mutilated corpse along with the remains of thirteen other people. The investigation uncovered how the victims were brutally killed at the hands of drug trafficker and cult leader Adolpho Constanzo, known by his followers as El Padrino, or The Godfather. Constanzo was a serial killer who, along with his followers, tortured and cannibalized innocent people in the barbaric religious ritual of human sacrifice. Written by critically acclaimed journalist Jim Schutze, Cauldron of Blood is a must-listen for true-crime fans. Contains mature themes.
A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read for March 2024 * A Bustle Best New Book of Spring 2024 Peabody and Emmy Award–winning journalist Jane Marie expands on her popular podcast The Dream to expose the scourge of multilevel marketing schemes and how they have profited off the evisceration of the American working class. We've all heard of Amway, Mary Kay, Tupperware, and LuLaRoe, but few know the nefarious way they and countless other multilevel marketing (MLM) companies prey on desperate Americans struggling to make ends meet. When factories close, stalwart industries shutter, and blue-collar opportunities evaporate, MLMs are there, ready to pounce on the crumbling American Dream. MLMs thrive in rural areas and on military bases, targeting women with promises of being their own boss and millions of dollars in easy income—even at the risk of their entire life savings. But the vast majority—99.7%—of those who join an MLM make no money or lose money, and wind up stuck with inventory they can't sell to recoup their losses. Featuring in-depth reporting and intimate research, Selling the Dream reveals how these companies—often owned by political and corporate elites, such as the Devos and the Van Andels families—have made a windfall in profit off of the desperation of the American working class.
The dramatic story of an unlikely search and recovery duo who help law enforcement and grieving families with their uncanny knack for locating bodies underwater A powerful debut for fans of deeply reported stories that follow real people with obsessional passions, and of authors like Tracy Kidder, Sebastian Junger, and Patrick Radden Keefe When the police and FBI exhaust their abilities and options, and when grieving families run out of resources, their last best hope has been an Idaho couple who have spent their retirement years pursuing lost causes — and have located 130 victims from lakes and rivers across the United States and Canada. Gene and Sandy Ralston, a married Idaho couple in their mid 70s, are self-taught underwater search-and-recovery specialists who volunteer their time and equipment. And yet the Ralstons are counted among the best in the world. The Ralstons have an uncanny knack for finding bodies in deep water and can regularly find a missing person within hours, sometimes even minutes, of launching their boat. Law enforcement and emergency response agencies seek out their peculiar expertise, but when the Ralstons' home phone rings it's usually a family member of a missing person. Someone reaching out after the local police and volunteer groups have called off the official search. Someone who heard from a friend of a friend about a couple from Idaho who will travel thousands of miles at the drop of a hat — charging only their travel costs — to help complete strangers.
A must-listen real-life psychological thriller Jon Fontaine's teenage years are shaped by his motivation to run a lucrative drug-selling enterprise. Despite the many tricks up his sleeve, the law catches up with him time after time. To escape a lengthy prison sentence, Jon bails out of jail and fakes his own death. He throws his jacket off a gorge, the pinnacle of a meticulously staged suicide. Police find the jacket and declare him dead, only to capture him later as a fugitive from justice. Seven years after the ruse, Jon meets Susan, who is unaware of his criminal past. And he's keeping a secret: he's stolen a treasure of ancient gold and silver coins. He will never give away its location. Jon sends Susan on a roller-coaster of love and fear, and exploits the weaknesses in the criminal justice system to work his biggest cons yet, ending in a trail of victims-and death. A Jacket Off the Gorge peels back the layers of the criminal mind, revealing a fascinating look at one man's struggles within himself and with others. Jon's story raises questions about incarceration versus rehabilitation, lack of mental health treatment for offenders, and abuses by those we entrust to uphold the law.
Suicides, hangings, shootings, car accidents, drownings, cliff falls, electrocutions ... Detective Peter Seymour has seen every type of death imaginable in his time in the NSW Coroner's Court and, after many years in law enforcement, the tragedies are beginning to take their toll. Dealing with death day in day out becomes too much for Seymour and this seasoned veteran starts to grapple with overwhelming feelings of fear and doubt. He decides to return to the police force hoping the operational work might offer some reprieve. Fate would have it otherwise as he is thrust straight back into an intense murder investigation. One Friday night in the year 2000, Nick Hanes is heading home after a night out with his mates. Barely two-hundred and fifty metres from his home, he is set upon by two men. Bashed, beaten then murdered, Hanes dies after a senseless and random attack. Seymour is called to the St Mary's crime scene. He examines the body and discovers that there a very few clues and no leads, no witnesses. As the case unravels it takes every bit of his experience, tenacity and determination to not only discover the identity of the perpetrators but to also deal with his own demons that are beginning to spiral out of control. Bashed and Beaten tells the true story of two men embarking on dangerous paths. One man finds himself the victim of a violent crime, the other searching for justice for the dead man's family as he struggles with his own battle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the result of a life spent give his all for others. Both paths are intertwined, and there is no turning back.
Groomed. Gaslighted. Ghosted. They thought they'd found their soulmate. They had no idea he was spying on them. These five motivated, independent women each thought they'd met their perfect partner - someone who shared their values, ambitions and goals. But after a while, in some cases years later, the men started to behave strangely. They disappeared for weeks at a time, saying they needed to go away to clear their heads. Small details about their lives didn't quite fit. Then they vanished, leaving a note saying that the relationship was over. These men were undercover police officers, who had targeted the women for their links to activist groups. They took the identities of dead children and carried fake passports and driving licences. They were all married, some with children. They had been working from a set of guidelines and were all using the same manipulative techniques. This is the story of five women whose lives were stolen by state-sponsored spies, and who, one by one, uncovered the shocking truth.
Vivian Gordon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat. Her body turned up the next morning in a desolate Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names—businessmen, socialites, gangsters. And something else—a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Led by the imperious Judge Samuel Seabury, the commission had uncovered a police conspiracy to frame women as prostitutes. Had Vivian Gordon been executed to bury her secrets? As FDR pressed the police to solve her murder, Judge Seabury pursued the trail of corruption to the top of Gotham's powerful political machine—the infamous Tammany Hall.
A firsthand look at a notorious Internet stalking campaign that the FBI described as a case "in a category by itself"-in the words of the victim herself. After her father died in 2003, Susan Fensten turned to a genealogy message board to search for surviving relatives. Days later, she was delighted to receive an email from someone claiming to be a distant cousin. In fact, Susan had just been ensnared by a relentless sociopath. She soon became the target of an elaborate cyber-hoax involving dozens of frightening characters, including known sex offenders, who made threats of kidnapping, murder, rape, torture, and cannibalism. Remarkable in its complexity, this story of Internet stalking is also a harrowing tale of courage in the face of madness. This is a story about the search for family, the Internet Age, and a journey into the underbelly of American crime. Beyond raising questions about safety online, it forces us to question our perceptions of reality. Contains mature themes.
In the spirit of Ben Macintyre's greatest spy nonfiction, the truly unbelievable and untold story of Frederick Rutland—a debonair British WWI hero, flying ace, fixture of Los Angeles society, and friend of Golden Age Hollywood stars—who flipped to become a spy for Japan in the lead-up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Frederick Rutland was an accomplished aviator, British WWI war hero, and real-life James Bond. He was the first pilot to take off and land a plane on a ship, a decorated warrior for his feats of bravery and rescue, was trusted by the admirals of the Royal Navy, had a succession of aeronautical inventions, and designed the first modern aircraft carrier. He was perhaps the most famous early twentieth-century naval aviator. Despite all of this, and due mostly to class politics, Rutland was not promoted in the new Royal Air Force in the wake of WWI. This ignominy led the disgruntled Rutland to become a spy for the Japanese navy. Plied with riches and given a salary ten times the highest-paid admiral, shuttled between Los Angeles and Tokyo where he lived in large mansions in both Beverly Hills and Yokohama, and insinuating himself into both LA high society and Japan's high command, Rutland would go on to contribute to the Japanese navy with both strategic and technical intelligence. This included scouting trips to Pearl Harbor, investigations of military preparedness, and aircraft technology. All this while living a double life, frequenting private California clubs and hosting lavish affairs for Hollywood stars and military dignitaries in his mansion on the Los Angeles Bird Streets. Supported by recently declassified FBI files and by incorporating unique and rare research through MI5 and Japanese Naval archives that few English speakers have access to, author Ronald Drabkin pieces together to completion, for the first time, this stranger-than-fiction story of one of the most fascinating and enigmatic characters of espionage history. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.