Four Shocking True Crime Tales Body Dump, Flesh Collectors, Lobster Boy, and Deacon of Death

Four bizarre true crime stories about serial killers, murder sprees, sideshows, and church pulpits in one sensational volume. These grisly true crime books by a former New York Times columnist chronicle four shocking and disturbing cases. Body Dump: Few people in Poughkeepsie, New York, paid mind when prostitutes started vanishing off the streets. Nor did anyone have hard evidence to link the disappearances to suspect Kendall Francois, a slovenly middle school hall monitor nicknamed Stinky. Then, one woman escaped his house of horrors and led authorities to the ghastly secrets hidden in Francois’s attic. Flesh Collectors: When social misfit Jeremiah Rodgers and racist devil-worshipper Jonathan Lawrence met in a Florida penal system mental hospital, they discovered a mutual lust for sadism. Then, they were released. What followed was a thrill-killing spree of murder, rape, and cannibalism—the makings of an “unforgettable . . . true crime classic” (Dan Zupansky, host of Blog Talk Radio’s True Murder). Lobster Boy: With his lobster-claw hands and stunted legs, Grady Stiles Jr. traveled the carnival circuit as Lobster Boy. He was also a violently dangerous husband and father who had been convicted once before of murder. After years of abuse, his wife—a sideshow wonder known as the Electrified Girl—fought back with a murder-for-hire. Deacon of Death: By day, Sam Smithers, deacon of the Baptist church in Plant City, Florida, was a family man beyond reproach. By night, he was a sex-addicted killer who trolled for prostitutes. When the decomposed bodies of two women were found off a rural road in Tampa, no one suspected the clergyman. Then one day, a local woman saw sweet Mr. Smithers cleaning his bloody axe.