Carlton Smith

Tomas Guillen

Now updated with new material on the capture and conviction of Gary Ridgeway, who confessed to murdering more than 49 women as the Green River Killer, this edition chronicles the complete story of the case and includes 16 pp. of chilling photos. Reissue.

The Search for the Green River Killer

Providing a look at the Green River Killer, who has so far claimed the lives of forty-nine women in Washington State, this account of the frustrating investigation provides a glimpse into the mind of a mass murderer

Tomás Guillén

New York Times Bestseller: From the journalists who covered the story, the shocking crimes of Gary Ridgway, America’s most prolific serial murderer. In the 1980s and 1990s, forty-nine women in the Seattle area were brutally murdered, their bodies dumped along the Green River and Pacific Highway South in Washington State. Despite an exhaustive investigation—even serial killer Ted Bundy was consulted to assist with psychological profiling—the sadistic killer continued to elude authorities for nearly twenty years. Then, in 2001, after mounting suspicion and with DNA evidence finally in hand, King County police charged a fifty-two-year-old truck painter, Gary Ridgway, with the murders. His confession and the horrific details of his crimes only added fuel to the notoriety of the Green River Killer. Journalists Carlton Smith and Tomas Guillen covered the murders for the Seattle Times from day one, receiving a Pulitzer Prize nomination for their work. They wrote the first edition of this book before the police had their man. Revised after Ridgway’s conviction and featuring chilling photographs from the case, The Search for the Green River Killer is the ultimate authoritative account of the Pacific Northwest killing spree that held a nation spellbound—and continues to horrify and fascinate, spawning dramatizations and documentaries of a demented killer who seemed unstoppable for decades.

The True Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer

A New York Times–bestselling journalist traces a string of unsolved murders—and the botched investigation that let the New Bedford Highway Killer walk away. Over the course of seven months in 1988, eleven women disappeared off the streets of New Bedford, Massachusetts, a gloomy, drug-addled coastal town that was once the whaling capital of the world. Nine turned up dead. Two were never found. And the perpetrator remains unknown to this day. How could such a thing happen? How, in what was once one of America’s richest cities, could the authorities let their most vulnerable citizens down this badly? As Carlton Smith, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of the Green River Killer case, demonstrates in this riveting account, it was the inability of police officers and politicians alike to set aside their personal agendas that let a psychopath off the hook. In Killing Season, Smith takes readers into a close-knit community of working-class men and women, an underworld of prostitution and drug abuse, and the halls of New England law enforcement to tell the story of an epic failure of justice.

The Unsolved Case of New England's Deadliest Serial Killer

Killing Season

The shocking story of the Yosemite killer, who made headlines with the triple murder of a woman, her teenage daughter, and her friend, has been featured in every major newspaper, including The New York Times, People, Time, and on television shows such as "Dateline NBC."

Murder at Yosemite

Was he his brother's keeper? Robert and Doris Angleton seemed to have the perfect life. Until she was coldly murdered in her own home, shot thirteen times in the head, chest, and abdomen... Suddenly the ideal husband seemed anything but perfect: he was jailed, accused of hiring his older brother, Roger, to kill his wife for money-- possibly as much as $2 million. However, without the crucial eyewitness testimony of Roger-- who soon committed suicide in a Houston jail cell-- the case against Robert rested entirely on circumstantial evidence. But the facts raise more questions than answers... * Doris Angleton-- deeply involved in a secret love affair-- had asked her husband for a divorce, which might have exposed him as a tax-skipping millionaire bookie and favored police informant... * Extensive handwritten and typewritten notes, coupled with a secretly taped conversation between Roger and another man outlining the murder, were found in a briefcase Roger Angleton was carrying when he was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, it was later concluded that the second voice on the tape was not Robert's... * Also in Roger's briefcase: $64,000 in cash, along with a money wrapper with Robert's fingerprint on it... * Ultimately Roger confessed to the murder in his suicide note, exonerating his brother of any guilt... A Texas jury came to one conclusion. Read this fascinating true-crime account of greed, deception, and cold-blooded murder-- and decide for yourself. With eight pages of shocking photos!

A True Story of Marriage, Money, and Murder

Death in Texas

***Please note: This ebook edition does not contain the photos found in the print edition.*** Kathleen Savio was married to Drew Peterson for eleven years before filing for divorce in 2003. The next year, she was found dead in her bathtub. Her drowning appeared to be an accident—and for years, no one had reason to question it. But when Peterson's next wife, Stacy—thirty years younger—went missing, the tough-talking and wise-cracking former Illinois cop came under suspicion.... With Stacy Peterson missing—and presumed dead—authorities exhumed Kathleen Savio's body, looking for answers. A new autopsy pointed to homicide, and a 2002 letter was revealed in which Savio wrote that Drew, "knows how to manipulate the system, and his next step is to take my children away. Or kill me instead." He was arrested for Kathleen's murder, and is a prime suspect in Stacy's disappearance, Peterson continues to protest his innocence. New York Times bestselling author Carlton Smith digs deep into the mystery behind the two Peterson wives—and sheds some light on one of the most complex crime cases in modern American history.

A True Story of Murder, Disappearance, and the Multiple Lives of Drew Peterson

Cold as Ice

Claiming he'd been sent by God to confess, truck driver Wayne Adam Ford walked into the Humbolt County Sheriff's Office and admitted to them that he was a serial killer. After police found a gruesome piece of evidence in Ford's pocket, he told them that he had to be stopped before he killed again, before he murderer his ex-wife, and made his beloved three-year-old son an orphan. Authorities arrested the long-haul trucker and listened in horror to his startling confession... Ford was a long-distance trucker who had traveled fourteen western states. Prowling the highways in his big rig tractor-trailer, he picked up young, vulnerable women and then raped, killed, and dismembered them. He scattered some of their bodies in waterways along the road. He parts of others for over a year in the freezer of his trailer home. Learn the shocking truth in this chilling account of madness, depravity, and murder...

Long-haul Trucker Wayne Adam Ford and His Grisly Trail of Rape, Dismemberment, and Murder

Shadows of Evil

From the bestselling author of The Search for the Green River Killer: The account of the family tragedy that became one of California’s most shocking murder cases. On a picturesque street in Sacramento County, California, three healthy saplings stand side by side. But what they symbolize are the deaths of three innocent people—two of them children. The man who took their lives, then planted trees in their honor, was their own husband and father. Hearts went out to Jack Barron when his wife, Irene, died mysteriously in her sleep. Soon after, his two young children were also found dead in their beds. Barron claimed they suffered from the same rare genetic disorder as their mother. But when his fifty-two-year-old mother died, also of asphyxiation in her sleep, law enforcement officials finally took action: The fatal pattern was impossible to ignore. Was this “devoted” father really a heartless murderer? Did he suffer from a bizarre syndrome known as Munchausen by proxy, whereby a parent kills a child to gain sympathy? With firsthand interviews and exclusive inside information, author Carlton Smith paints a chilling portrait of a man driven to commit the most unspeakable of acts.

The True Story of a Family's Worst Nightmare

Dying for Daddy

Four chilling, true stories of murder from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and coauthor of New York Times bestseller, The Search for the Green River Killer. As an investigative journalist for the Seattle Times, Carlton Smith covered the Green River Killer case for over a decade. Smith, along with his coauthor, fellow reporter Tomas Guillen, were named Pulitzer Prize finalists for their New York Times bestseller, The Search for the Green River Killer, which was published ten years before Gary Ridgway was finally arrested for his crimes. Gathered here in this volume are four of Smith’s most engrossing accounts of serial killers, pathological liars, and shockingly cold-blooded murderers. Fatal Charm: When handsome, charming Randy Roth’s fourth wife drowned in a speedboating accident just weeks after their first anniversary, authorities began to look at a pattern of suspicious behavior, uncovering the lies of a serial wife killer. Dying for Daddy: Jack Barron’s wife died mysteriously in her sleep. Soon after, his two young children were also found dead in their beds. But only when his fifty-two-year-old mother died, also of asphyxiation in her sleep, did law enforcement officials finally take action against a man driven to commit the most unspeakable of acts. Cold-Blooded: When lawyer Larry McNabney disappeared, his wife claimed he joined a cult. By the time his body was found in a shallow grave three months later, Elisa McNabney was speeding toward a new life in Florida—and a brand-new identity. Beautiful, seductive, and ruthless, she had thirty-eight aliases and a rap sheet a mile long, but her run was about to end. Killing Season: Over the course of seven months in 1988, eleven women disappeared off the streets of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Nine turned up dead. Two were never found. And the perpetrator remains unknown. Smith provides a riveting account of the unsolved murders—and the botched investigation that let the New Bedford Highway Killer walk away.

Fatal Charm, Dying for Daddy, Cold-Blooded, and Killing Season

The Carlton Smith True Crime Collection

Mark Prothero

Unraveling the Mind of the Green River Killer

Defending Gary

Amidst the breathtaking natural beauty of Yosemite National Park, four terrifying killings took place. For months, law enforcement officials were stumped by the deaths of three tourists: Carole Sund, her teenaged daughter Juli, and a family friend, Silvina Pelosso. But when they found the decapitated body and head of 26-year-old naturalist Joie Ruth Armstrong, they were led to one man: 37-year-old handyman Cary Stayner. Stayner was arrested at a California nudist colony and soon admitted to all four killings, claiming he'd had urges to kill women for thirty years. And Cary's twisted impulses were not the only tragedy of the Stayner family. At the age of seven, his younger brother Steven was abducted by a pedophile and forced to live with the man for seven years, until he escaped. His story was told in a TV movie called "I Know My First Name is Steven." Steven would ultimately die in a motorcycle crash at twenty-four. What are the odds of one family suffering such astounding tragedies? What would compel a seemingly pleasant, clean-cut man to brutally attack and gruesomely kill four innocent women? Did he act alone? Or was his a false confession? Bestselling true crime author Carlton Smith searches for the shocking answers in Murder at Yosemite, this fascinating account of murder and madness.

The Stunning True Story of a Horrific Handyman and the Brutal Murders of Four Nature-Lovers

Murder At Yosemite

A Fairy Tale Beginning Six-year-old beauty JonBenet Ramsey was a dream child--smart, talented and blessed. Her mother, a former Miss America contestant, had entered her in every child beauty pageant possible. Wearing lipstick, heavy makeup, and provocative costumes that cost thousands of dollars, with her hair bleached and teased, JonBenet flirtatiously paraded down runways, exuding a sophistication beyond her years. A Nightmare Ending But that dazzling future of crows and titles was brutally cut short the day after Christmas when her mother discovered a random note on the stairs of their luxurious Boulder, Colorado home. Hours later JonBenet's distraught father, millionaire businessman John Ramsey, found his beloved daughter's lifeless body, gagged and strangled in a windowless room in the basement of their million-dollar mansion. An Unspeakable Crime As detectives worked to uncover what happened Christmas night in the darkened mansion, the nation grieved for the innocent little girl whose life was cruelly snuffed out. Carlton Smith's Death of a Little Princess is the tragic true story of a murder that shocked the country.

The Tragic Story of the Murder of Jonbenet Ramsey

Death of a Little Princess

Smith, a prize-winning reporter for The Seattle Times, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for his coverage of the Green River Killer case. Now he reveals the shocking true story of serial wife killer Randy Roth, the alluring, handsome man who was caught after his fourth wife "accidentally" drowned. Photos.

The Shocking True Story of Serial Wife Killer Randy Roth

Fatal Charm

On Easter Sunday, multimillionaire Dale Ewell, his wife, and 24-year-old daughter were gunned down one by one as they returned home from their beach house. The stone-cold killer waited on a sheet of plastic to avoid leaving clues and calmly retrieved all the bullet casings before leaving the house of blood. The Ewells' tony Fresno community was shocked by the grisly murder of the socially prominent family. Only the son, handsome 21 year-old Dana, seemed strangely unaffected except for his outrage at not receiving his slaughtered family's entire multimillion-dollar fortune immediately. Although the father Dale Ewell, was a ruthless businessman with a score of enemies, Detective John Souza immediately suspected the spoiled son with the new airplane and the Armani suits. But the brilliant college student sneered at the veteran investiagtor's efforts and appeared to have an airtight alibi. But Souza knew there had to be a hole and when he found it he would bring a cold-blooded killer to justice. Seeds of Evil is a terrifying true story of murder and money in California.

A True Story of Murder and Money in California

Seeds of Evil

From 1974 to 1991, someone in the midwestern city of Wichita was leaving behind slain tortured bodies and anonymously proclaiming himself to police and reporters as "BTK" for "Bind, Torture, Kill." Then, for the next 14 years, BTK was silent. But when he began sending letters again, investigators would not miss their chance... Stunningly, police arrested Dennis Rader, the president of his church board and the father of two. As a shocked community watched, evidence began to pile up. Then Rader coldly described how he went about "his projects" as the families of his victims relived the horrific scenes this supposed pillar of the community had unleashed on their loved ones. From the tricks he used to enter his victims' homes to the puzzles he sent the media and the key role his own daughter may have played in his arrest, The BTK Murders is the definitive story of the BTK killer. He was, as one victim's family member called him, "a black hole inside the shell of a human being"—and the worst American serial killer since Ted Bundy.

Inside the "Bind Torture Kill" Case that Terrified America's Heartland

The BTK Murders

Revisits the brutal murders of much-loved pastor Robert L. Pelley, his wife, and daughters, by the pastor's son Jeff, who was always suspected of the crime, but, due to lack of evidence, was not convicted until more than a decade later. Original.

A Devoted American Family, Their Troubled Son, and a Ghastly Crime

The Prom Night Murders

He Looked like the Perfect Dad... Shortly before Christmas of 2001, the bodies of Mary Jane Longo and her three young children, Zachary, Sadie Ann, and Madison were discovered. They'd been murdered and dumped off the Oregon coast in Yaquina and Alsea Bay. The youngest victim was only two years old. Their father, Christian Longo, was missing. And Became One of America's Most Wanted Within days, the twenty-seven-year-old all-American dad was added to the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted fugitives. As law enforcement officials scoured northern California in pursuit of the suspected family-killer, Longo was already looking for a new job-and a new life-under a new name. Believed to be skilled in identity theft, Christian Longo was on the run. Now investigative reporter Carlton Smith takes a journey into the heart of darkness-from Longo's masquerade as a devoted family man and finally to his capture at a beach camp in Mexico-to uncover the unfathomable trail of a deadly master of deception.

The True Story of Accused Con Man and Family Killer Christian Longo

Love, Daddy

In 1989, a shocking tragedy shattered an otherwise peaceful small Indiana community. Much-admired pastor Robert L. Pelley was found slain in his home. In his basement were the huddled, blood-soaked bodies of his wife and daughters, executed by shotgun at close range. The doors to the house were locked, and there were no signs of forced entry. Meanwhile, the pastor's son, Jeff, was nowhere to be found... Police had a hunch that Jeff was responsible for the massacre, but they didn't have enough evidence to convict. The case went cold...until, more than a decade later, when law officials resolved to finally try to unravel the truth about Jeff and to establish a motive—that he was angry toward his father for grounding him on prom night. Then it would be up to prosecutors to prove that Jeff was responsible for THE PROM NIGHT MURDERS

A Devoted American Family, their Troubled Son, and a Ghastly Crime

From the bestselling author of The Search for the Green River Killer: A chilling true account of the dream husband who was every woman’s nightmare. Randy Roth was handsome, hardworking, kind, and in top physical shape. But for all his charm and good looks, he was seemingly cursed with the ladies. His first marriage ended in divorce before the couple’s fifth anniversary; his second wife plunged to her death during a hike; and his third wife left him after less than five months. But when Roth’s fourth wife, Cynthia, drowned in an apparent speedboating accident in Washington State’s Lake Sammamish just weeks after their first anniversary, a pattern of suspicious behavior finally caught up to him. As Roth set about collecting on a hefty insurance payout, the authorities were on to his game. Roth had been careful—and so close to getting away with it. But, as chronicled by Seattle Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist Carlton Smith, his lies were about to come crashing down around him.

Carlton Smith

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