Judith A. Yates

A teenage girl’s suicide raises questions of culpability for internet bullies in this investigation by the criminologist and true crime author. On September 5, 2015, in a public park in LaVergne, Tennessee, fourteen-year-old Sherokee Harriman drove a kitchen knife into her stomach as other teens watched in horror. The coroner ruled it a “suicide.” But was it? Or was it a crime perpetuated by other teens who had bullied her? Sherokee’s tragic death created a media frenzy focused more on sensationalism than finding the truth. Meanwhile the community of LaVerge sought answers to questions about who, if anyone, should be held criminally responsible for bullying. Criminologist Judith A. Yates peels back the distorting layers of social media and news coverage to examine a timely question with far-reaching implications: was Sherokee Harriman bullied to death?

A Story of Bullying, Social Media, and the Suicide of Sherokee Harriman

Bullied to Death?

THE GOLDEN PEOPLE

Drawing on media reports, interviews and court records, this book recounts the stories of women bank robbers in the United States, from the time of the Revolutionary War to the present. Ranging from sensational to poignant to comical, the heists of frontier outlaws, gun molls, insurrectionists, housewives, grandmas and young mothers "literally robbing for Pampers" are narrated as part of the social history of women in America.

A History of Female Bank Robbers

Put the Money in My Purse!

WINNER OF THE 2014 KILLER NASHVILLE SILVER FALCHION AWARD for TRUE CRIME! On a foggy night on March 10, 1990, in Westport, Indiana, twelve-year-old Brad Maddux strolled over to a pickup truck to chat with his twenty-eight-year-old cousin, Douglas Sims. Brad was never seen again. It was the following night that Brad's family and friends noted his disappearance. As the small community searched frantically for Brad, officers questioned Douglas Sims several times. It was not until Sims was interviewed, using tactics by a seasoned investigator, did they learn the horrific truth: Sims had murdered Brad in a horrifying way, and buried his body in a place of symbolism and fear. Douglas Sims spoke of his crime as if it were of no concern. It changed the way an entire community behaved: people began to lock their doors and guard their children, even when the devil was locked away in prison. It was called "the worst crime Decatur County had ever seen" but this was not the end of the horror. Douglas Sims received a sentence the community felt was "a joke," as one investigator believed. As the truth came out, mild-mannered and friendly neighbor Douglas Sims, who never even raised his voice, was exposed as a predator, a pedophile that preyed on the community children right before their parent's eyes. Years later, he derided the dead boy in a shocking display before the parole board that left hardened officers stunned. This is the heartbreaking true story of the crime and punishment of a monster that preyed on the most vulnerable victims of all, a little boy who trusted, a community that refused to believe evil lurked among them, and of the law enforcement officers who brought a child killer to justice. A portion of proceeds of this book will be donated to a nonprofit organization in the victim's name.

The Crime They Said Could Not Happen Here

The Devil You Know

Lee Mellor

 Kevin M. Sullivan

 Karen D. Scioscia

Dane Ladwig

 Joan Swart

With nearly 200 victims between them, the seven compulsive killers in Serial Killer Quarterly’s special Christmas 2014 issue, “Body Harvest: Prolific American Serial Killers,” not only destroyed countless lives and families, but Thanksgivings, Christmases, and New Year’s. Author and criminologist Judith A. Yates attributes a minimum of 20 victims to America’s first serial killers, Micajah & Wiley Harpe, who rather than bringing “peace on earth and good will to all men,” sought to exterminate the entire human race. Similarly, whenever Ted Bundy went “walking in a winter wonderland” it was in the snowy mountains of Washington or Colorado – landscapes strewn with the ravaged corpses of his 30+ female victims. Kevin M. Sullivan – author, Bundy researcher, and retired preacher – looks at arguably the most infamous serial slayer in American history, and his victims – known and potential. In her true crime debut, forensic psychologist Joan Swart goes above and beyond to tell us the tale of America’s most prolific homosexual sadist. With possibly a higher body count than Bundy and the Harpes combined, Randy Kraft may have actually rung in the New Year by torturing, killing, and mutilating several of the over 60 young men whose lives he appears to have extinguished. Lee Mellor, author, criminologist, and SKQ editor-in-chief, writes of the 22 strangulation-slayings and post-mortem rapes perpetrated across the USA and in Canada by “Gorilla Murderer” Earle Leonard Nelson during the mid-1920s, as well as 10+ cold-blooded murders linked to “Coin-Shop Killer” Charles T. Sinclair throughout the Eighties. Spokane prostitute killer Robert Lee Yates – another necrophile – has admitted to shooting 16 victims and defiling their bodies, but author and journalist Karen D. Scioscia asks: were there more? Are you full of holiday cheer yet? Well, at least we know that Christmas was truly a time for family in the Bender household – even if their feasts were purchased with the money they stole from the people rotting under their floorboards. Dane Ladwig looks at the more than 20 hammer murders believed to have been committed by The Bloody Benders in the mid-nineteenth century. Cuddle up with a nice piping mug of hot chocolate, because after reading “Body Harvest” there isn’t a blanket in the world that will stop you from getting the chills. ‘Tis the Season to be Grinning.

Judith A. Yates

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