Mammoth Books
3 total works
Nearly all the cases involve one or more acts of murder, and all are left with a question mark hanging over them with real-life whodunits that offer a continuing challenge to all who find fascination in the criminal mind.
Using the latest modern technology available to forensic science, crime scene investigators answer questions others never even thought to ask. Here are over 30 fascinating modern cases of forensic detective work. Genetic fingerprinting, blood splatter analysis, laser ablation, toxicology, ballistics analysis - the whole range of forensic techniques is featured. The investigators trust only the evidence to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves: the victims. The cases featured include: Tommie Lee Andrews, the first person to be convicted as a result of DNA evidence, for raping a woman during a burglary; Jeffrey Gafoor, convicted of murder in 2003 when crime scene evidence collected twelve years previously resulted in a match with his nephew; Richard W. Rogers, convicted of the murder of two of his numerous gay male victims, through vacuum metal deposition, technology which saves fingerprints from plastic bags; Dr. Sam Sheppard, the murder trial based on blood evidence that inspired the TV series "The Fugitive"; Edwin Bush, the first murderer in Britain to be brought to book thanks to an identikit picture; Derrick Todd Lee, the Baton Rouge Serial Killer, only nailed by DNA evidence, after a flawed FBI profile led big-shot investigators astray.
It also includes: The Mormon Forgery Murders, an outstanding case of forensic techniques used to solve a horrifying bombing case; Albert T. Patrick, the Texan attorney tried for the murder of a millionaire businessman and convicted on handwriting evidence. These cases, usually successful - but also sometimes dangerously flawed - offer a remarkable insight into real-life scene-of-crime investigation.
Enter the world of gangland crime. Some men command a respect that few others, even in this violent underworld, can equal. They live by a strict code and to them violence is simply an accepted part of their profession. Here is the fullest ever collection of 'hard man' accounts: over 30 true stories of men living on the very edge of what is 'normal' to the rest of us - the merciless streets of Mafia, Triads, Yardies, Yakuza, Hell's Angels and Chinese Tongs.
They are the faces behind a dozen urban myths, and bywords for toughness. People you just don't want to mess with. Including both recent gangsters and notorious earlier Mafia-age predecessors - from Ned Kelly, Dillinger, Capone and the Krays, to Mad Frank, Lenny 'The Guv'nor' McLean and Sonny Barger - this is the ultimate collection for anyone interested in violent true crime, how 'real' criminals think, and the darker elements of society.