True Crime Audiobooks | Mystery, Thriller & Horror

A Deal with the Devil: The Dark and Twisted True Story of One of the Biggest Cons in History

While investigating financial crimes for CNN Money, Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken were intrigued by reports that elderly Americans were giving away thousands of dollars to mail-in schemes. With a little digging, they soon discovered a shocking true story. Victims received personalized letters from a woman who, claiming amazing psychic powers, convinced them to send money in return for riches, good health, and good fortune. The predatory scam has continued unabated for decades, raking in more than $200 million in the United States and Canada alone-with investigators from all over the world unable to stop it. And at the center of it all-an elusive French psychic named Maria Duval. Based on the five-part series that originally appeared on CNN's website in 2016 and was seen by more than three million people, A Deal with the Devil picks up where the series left off as Ellis and Hicken reveal more bizarre characters, follow new leads, close in on Maria Duval, and connect the dots in an edge-of-your-seat journey across the U.S. to England and France. A Deal with the Devil is a fascinating, thrilling search for the truth and is long-form investigative journalism at its best.

Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken (Author), Donna Postel (Narrator)

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A Death in Belmont

In 1963, with the city of Boston already terrified by a series of savage crimes known as the Boston Stranglings, a murder occurred in the quiet suburb of Belmont, just a few blocks from the house of Sebastian Junger's family -- a murder that seemed to fit exactly the pattern of the Strangler. Roy Smith, a black man who had cleaned the victim's house that day, was arrested, tried, and convicted, but the terror of the Strangler continued. Two years later, Albert DeSalvo, a handyman who had been working at the Jungers' home on the day of the Belmont murder, and had often spent time there alone with Sebastian and his mother, confessed in lurid detail to being the Boston Strangler. This is the point of entry to Junger's first book-length project since The Perfect Storm: a narrowly averted tragedy for Junger's family opens out into an electrifying exploration of race and justice in America. By turns exciting and subtle, the narrative chronicles three lives that collide -- and are ultimately destroyed -- in the vortex of one of the first and most controversial serial murder cases in America. The power of the story and the brilliance of Junger's reporting place this book on the short shelf of classics beside In Cold Blood and Helter Skelter. Read by Kevin Conway

Sebastian Junger (Author), Kevin Conway, Kevin Conway (Narrator)

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A Dreadful Murder: The Mysterious Death of Caroline Luard

A body is found in the woods . . . Based on the true story of the shocking murder of Mrs Caroline Luard, which took place in Kent in August 1908. Caroline Luard is shot dead in broad daylight in the grounds of a large country estate. With few clues available, her husband soon becomes the suspect . . . But is he guilty? Bringing to life the people involved in this terrible crime, in A Dreadful Murder bestselling author Minette Walters uses modern detective skills to attempt to solve a 100-year-old crime.

Minette Walters (Author), Gordon Griffin (Narrator)

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A Family Cursed: The Kissell Dynasty, a Gilded Fortune, and Two Brutal Murders

As boys, Robert and Andrew Kissel competed and excelled. As men, they made millions—Robert in the Asian markets and Andrew in real estate. But a darkness was chasing the brothers down. In November 2003, Robert was murdered in his posh Hong Kong apartment. Two-and-a-half years later, Andrew was found stabbed to death in his Greenwich, Connecticut mansion. Nancy Kissel was charged with murdering her husband Robert, after serving him a milkshake laced with sedatives and then beating him to death with a blunt object. But what happened to Andrew? His marriage was failing, and he faced prison for real estate fraud. Was his death a murder—or suicide? A Family Cursed tells the riveting true story of the different paths the Kissel brothers took toward the same fate.

Kevin F. Mcmurray (Author), P. J. Ochlan (Narrator)

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A Fever in the Heart

A Fever in the Heart dissects an explosive triangle that led to obsession and murder in a small town in the northwest of America. Ann Rule reveals the story of an alluring wife and the two men desperate for her love; a story with a bizarre and deadly twist that no one could have suspected. In this and several other riveting true-crime cases from her personal files, Ann Rule masterfully probes the delusions of the criminal mind, the fateful circumstances and the unrelenting investigative forces at work in the aftermath of murder.

Ann Rule (Author), Laural Merlington (Narrator)

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A Fever in the Heart

A Fever in the Heart dissects an explosive triangle that led to obsession and murder in a small town in the northwest of America. Ann Rule reveals the story of an alluring wife and the two men desperate for her love; a story with a bizarre and deadly twist that no one could have suspected. In this tale and "Mirror Image," a true-crime story recounting the frighteningly similar methods of two serial murders, Ann Rule masterfully probes the delusions of the criminal mind, the fateful circumstances and the unrelenting investigative forces at work in the aftermath of murder.

Ann Rule (Author), Laural Merlington (Narrator)

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A Gallery of Poisoners: Thirteen Classic Case Histories of Murder by Poisoning

Here are thirteen cases of fatal passions, unfortunate acquaintances, and gruesome endings. The thirteen killings-by-poison revisited in this book were committed by some of the most infamous murderers in British and American history. Presenting infamous cases from 1857-1972, Adrian Vincent recounts their sinister tales and reveals the lure of money, lust, and deviancy that drove them to pure evil. Some of the dark cases covered in this fascinating book include Dorothea Waddingham, better known as the Angel of Death, who ran a nursing home that did more than just care for the elderly, and Tillie Gburek, a so-called psychic who could accurately predict when people would die-because she'd already scheduled their murders. A Gallery of Poisoners is classic true crime at its best-thrilling and disturbing in equal measure. Perfect for any fan of historical true crime!

Adrian Vincent (Author), Shaun Grindell (Narrator)

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A Good Month for Murder: The Inside Story of a Homicide Squad

"Bestselling author Del Quentin Wilber tells the inside story of how a homicide squad---a dedicated, colorful team of detectives-does its almost impossible job Twelve homicides, three police-involved shootings and the furious hunt for an especially brutal killer--February 2013 was a good month for murder in suburban Washington, D.C. After gaining unparalleled access to the homicide unit in Prince George's County, which borders the nation's capital, Del Quentin Wilber begins shadowing the talented, often quirky detectives who get the call when a body falls. After a quiet couple of months, all hell breaks loose: suddenly every detective in the squad is scrambling to solve one shooting and stabbing after another. Meanwhile, the entire unit is obsessed with a stone-cold ""red ball,"" a high-profile case involving a seventeen-year-old honor student attacked by a gunman who kicked down the door to her house and shot her in her bed. Murder is the police investigator's ultimate crucible: to solve a killing, a detective must speak for the dead. More than any recent book, A Good Month for Murder shows what it takes to succeed when the stakes couldn't possibly be higher."

Del Quentin Wilber (Author), Johnny Heller, Scott Sowers (Narrator)

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A Jazz Age Murder in Northwest Indiana: The Tragic Betrayal of Nettie Diamond

Gold digging, adultery, and a slaying on Valentine's Day, 1923, in this 'juicy . . . page-turner' of a true crime story (Chicago Tribune). It was a Roaring Twenties fatal attraction. Nettie Herskovitz was wealthy and widowed when she met Harry Diamond. The attentive, irresistibly sexy twenty-three-year-old suitor would become Nettie's fifth husband. He was also a bootlegger, pimp, and first-class hustler who thought he'd wed a goldmine. What Harry found instead was a fiercely independent older woman who was nobody's fool for long. Then, on February 14, 1923, Harry tried to secure his inheritance by shooting Nettie four times, once at point blank range to the head. He blamed the crime on their teenage African American chauffeur. Harry might have gotten away with it, if not for one little oversight. Nettie wasn't dead. With its combination of sin, sex, high-society scandal, and even the interference of the Ku Klux Klan, the case against the movie-star handsome Harry Diamond moved beyond tabloid fodder to become the most sensational trial of the era.

Jane Simon Ammeson (Author), Alexa Elmy (Narrator)

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A Killer By Design: Murderers, Mindhunters, and My Quest to Decipher the Criminal Mind

A vivid behind-the-scenes look into the creation of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit and the evolution of criminal profiling, written by the pioneering forensic nurse who transformed the way the FBI studies, profiles, and catches serial killers. Lurking beneath the progressive activism and sex positivity in the 1970-80s, a dark undercurrent of violence rippled across the American landscape. With reported cases of sexual assault and homicide on the rise, the FBI created a specialized team-the "Mindhunters" better known as the Behavioral Science Unit-to track down the country's most dangerous criminals. And yet narrowing down a seemingly infinite list of potential suspects seemed daunting at best and impossible at worst-until Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess stepped on the scene. In A Killer By Design, Burgess reveals how her pioneering research on sexual assault and trauma caught the attention of the FBI, and steered her right into the middle of a chilling serial murder investigation in Nebraska. Over the course of the next two decades, she helped the budding unit identify, interview, and track down dozens of notoriously violent offenders, including Ed Kemper ("The Co-Ed Killer"), Dennis Rader ("("BTK"), Henry Wallace ("The Taco Bell Strangler"), Jon Barry Simonis ("The Ski-Mask Rapist"), and many others. As one of the first women trailblazers within the FBI's hallowed halls, Burgess knew many were expecting her to crack under pressure and recoil in horror-but she was determined to protect future victims at any cost. This book pulls us directly into the investigations as she experienced them, interweaving never-before-seen interview transcripts and crime scene drawings alongside her own vivid recollections to provide unprecedented insight into the minds of deranged criminals and the victims they left behind. Along the way, Burgess also paints a revealing portrait of a formidable institution on the brink of a seismic scientific and cultural reckoning-and the men forced to reconsider everything they thought they knew about crime. Haunting, heartfelt, and deeply human, A Killer By Design forces us to confront the age-old question that has long plagued our criminal justice system: "What drives someone to kill, and how can we stop them?"

Ann Wolbert Burgess (Author), Gabra Zackman (Narrator)

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A Killing in Amish Country: Sex, Betrayal, and a Cold-blooded Murder

AN OLD WAY OF LIFE Thirty-year-old Barbara Weaver was content to live as the Amish have for centuries-without modern convenience-but her husband, Eli, wanted a life beyond horses and buggies. Soon he gave in to the temptation of technology and found ways to go online and meet women. When Barbara was found dead, shot in the chest at close range, all eyes were on Eli . . . and his mistress, a Conservative Mennonite named Barb Raber. A NEW KIND OF BETRAYAL-AND DEATH . . . Barb drove Eli to appointments in her car. She gave him everything he asked for: a laptop, rides to his favorite fishing and hunting spots-and sex. Above all, she gave him the cell phone he would use to plan a murder. The Weaver case marked only the third time an Amish man was suspected of killing his wife in more than two hundred years in America. But the investigation raised almost as many questions as it answered: Was Barb Raber the one who fired the fatal shot? Or was Barbara Weaver dead before someone entered the house? What did Eli's friends, family, and church really know about him? And will life among the "Plain People" ever be the same?

Gregg Olsen, Rebecca Morris (Author), Coleen Marlo (Narrator)

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A Kiss Before Dying

In partnership with Texas Monthly, Pamela Colloff's "A Kiss Before Dying" is now available as an audio download, where the length and timeliness of a podcast meets the high-quality production of a full-length audio program. Few stories feel as classic as a well-told ghost story, the kind that makes your hair stand on end or sends chills down your spine even years after its alleged happening. Almost as classic are those stories that take place in high school, starring the jocks, the cheerleaders, and the outsiders; nostalgic for a time that almost certainly never was and yet remains a stalwart of American storytelling. Pamela Colloff's "A Kiss Before Dying" is both kinds of story and what's more, it's all true. Betty Williams was an outsider at a time when conformity was king: Texas in the 1960s. Mack Herring was the quintessential football player, handsome and well-liked by the sweater set-wearing girls Betty scoffed at. When their unlikely relationship came to an end and Betty's life began to spiral, she asked for death and Mack was more than happy to oblige. The resulting trial of Betty Williams's murder would shock no one familiar with the resolutions of today's rape cases. In "A Kiss Before Dying," Pamela Colloff weaves together a story that's part true crime, part high school classic, that feels at once contemporary as it does of another time.

Pamela Colloff (Author), Karissa Vacker, Staci Snell (Narrator)

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True Crime Audiobooks in Mystery, Thriller & Horror