"Why do we love stories about scammers so much? Journalist Tori Telfer dives into the stories of historical female con women and explains why we are so enamored by their scams"-- The art of the con has a long and venerable tradition, and its female practitioners are some of the best -- or worst. Telfer introduces us to a host of lady swindlers whose scams ranged from the outrageous to the deadly. Among them: In 1700s Paris, Jeanne de Saint-Rémy...

Traces the controversial 1999 case of best friends Raffi Kodikian and David Coughlin, who were found dead days after they became lost in the New Mexico desert along with evidence that Kodikian had murdered Coughlin.

With access to Colombia's cocaine cartels, a journalist offers an account of the journey of one kilo of cocaine, from the farmers who produce it to the killers who protect it, to the drug barons and their lovers made fabulously wealthy by it.

"In 1974, Alice, a desperate young mother in a gritty Wyoming boomtown, kills her husband and dumps his body where it will never be found, she slips away and starts a new life with a new love with Gerald Uden. But when her new man's ex-wife and two kids start demanding more of him, Alice delivers an ultimatum: Fix the problem or lose her forever. With Alice's help, Gerald "fixes" the problem in an extraordinarily ghastly way ... and they live happily...

"It all started when journalist Jillian Lauren asked LAPD Homicide Detective Mitzi Roberts about which case Roberts was most proud of closing. "Samuel Little," Roberts answered. The now 79-year-old Little had murdered approximately 90 women over six decades and repeatedly got away with the murders due to lack of evidence (or jurisdiction); Roberts finally brought him to justice by tying him to the murders of three Los Angeles women. Surprised she...

On May 30, 1899, history was made when Pearl Hart, disguised as a man, held up a stagecoach in Arizona and robbed the passengers at gunpoint. A manhunt ensued as word of her heist spread, and Pearl Hart went on to become a media sensation and the most notorious female outlaw on the Western frontier. Her early life, family and fate after her later release from prison have long remained a mystery to scholars and historians, until now. On May 30, 1899,...

"Steven A. Cohen is a Wall Street legend. Born into a middle class family in a decidedly upper class suburb on Long Island, he was unpopular in high school and unlucky with girls. Then he went off to Wharton, and in 1992 launched the hedge fund SAC Capital, which grew into a $15 billion empire. He cultivated an air of mystery and reclusiveness -- at one point, owned the copyright to almost every picture taken of him -- and also of extreme excess,...

"The shocking true story of one of the twentieth century's most prolific female serial killers." -- book jacket. Belle Gunness engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. Between 1902 and 1908 she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her La Porte, Indiana 'murder farm.' Some were hired hands. Others were well-to-do bachelors. All of them vanished without a trace. When their bodies were dug up,...

"Norco '80 tells the story of how five heavily armed young men--led by an apocalyptic born-again Christian--attempted a bank robbery that turned into one of the most violent criminal events in U.S. history, forever changing the face of American law enforcement. Part action thriller and part courtroom drama, Norco '80 transports the reader back to the Southern California of the 1970s, an era of predatory evangelical gurus, doomsday predictions, megachurches,...

Growing up, Rachel Rear knew the story of Stephanie Kupchynsky's disappearance. The beautiful violinist and teacher had fled an abusive relationship on Martha's Vineyard and made a new start for herself near Rochester, N.Y. She was at the height of her life -- in a relationship with a man she hoped to marry and close to her students and her family. And then, one morning, she was gone. Around Rochester -- a region which has spawned such serial killers...