True Crime Audiobooks | Mystery, Thriller & Horror

The Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden: The History of 19th Century America's Most Famous Murder Case

Today, cases are often referred to as the trial of the century, but few could lay claim in the 19th century like Lizzie Borden’s in the wake of her parents’ murders. After all, the story included the grisly axe murders of wealthy socialites and a young daughter as the prime suspect. As Trey Wyatt, author of The Life, Legend, and Mystery of Lizzie Borden, put it, “Women were held to strict standards and genteel women were pampered, while at the same time they were expected to behave within a strict code of conduct. In 1892, Fall River, Massachusetts wealthy society ladies were not guilty of murder, and if they did kill someone, it would not be with an axe.” When questioned, Lizzie gave contradictory accounts to the police, which ultimately helped lead to her arrest and trial, but supporters claimed it may have been the effects of morphine that she had a prescription to take. Much like subsequent famous murder cases, such as the O.J. Simpson case or Leopold & Loeb, Lizzie Borden’s trial garnered national attention unlike just about anything that had come before. The case sparked Americans’ interest in legal proceedings, and as with Simpson, even an acquittal didn’t take the spotlight off the Borden case, which has been depicted in all forms of media ever since. Lizzie became a pariah among contemporaries who believed she’d escaped justice, and she remains the prime suspect, but the unsolved nature of the case has allowed other writers to advance other theories and point at other suspects. The Life and Trial of Lizzie Borden: The History of 19th Century America’s Most Famous Murder Case looks at the personal background of the Borden family and the shocking true crime that captivated America at the end of the 19th century.

Charles River Editors (Author), William Crockett (Narrator)

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On the Brinks

"Security guards told the police that they were surprised by assailants who had somehow evaded the sophisticated security system. They could not say how many robbers there were. It appears to be one of the biggest robberies in U.S. history."- The New York Times, front page In 1993, $7.4 million was stolen from the Brink's Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York, the fifth largest robbery in US history. Sam Millar was a member of the IRA gang who carried out the robbery. He was caught, found guilty, and incarcerated, before being set free by Bill Clinton as an essential part of the Northern Ireland Peace Process. This remarkable book is Sam's story, from his childhood in Belfast, membership in the IRA, time spent in Long Kesh internment camps, and the Brinks heist and aftermath.

Sam Millar (Author), John Keating (Narrator)

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Then No One Can Have Her

She thought she had married her soulmate. But when Carol Kennedy could no longer tolerate her husband's reckless womanizing and out-of-control spending, the artist, therapist and mother of two had to let him go. Just weeks after their divorce, Carol was found in her Arizona ranch home-bludgeoned to death with a golf club. Her ex, Steven DeMocker, was the prime suspect. Yet it took the authorities months to arrest him-and years to convict...

Caitlin Rother (Author), Callie Beaulieu (Narrator)

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Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws: My Infiltration of America's Deadliest Biker Gangs

Despite lacking any experience with motorcycle gangs, Charles Falco infiltrated three of America's deadliest biker gangs: the Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws. In separate investigations that spanned years and coasts, Falco risked his life, suffering a fractured neck and a severely torn shoulder, working deep under cover to bring violent sociopaths to justice. His dedication was profound; Falco spent almost three years infiltrating the Vagos gang and rose to second in command of the Victorville, California chapter. He even served time in San Bernardino's Murder Unit and endured solitary confinement to protect his cover and the investigations. Falco recorded confessions of gangland-style killings and nearly became a target himself before he sought refuge in the Witness Protection Program. But discontent to remain on the sidelines and motivated by a strong sense of duty, Falco eventually left the Program and volunteer his talents again to infiltrate the Mongols and Outlaws, rising in rank to Vice President of the Petersburg, Virginia Outlaws chapter. His efforts culminated in sixty two arrests of members for various crimes, including assault and murder. Executing one of this country's most successful RICO prosecutions and effectively crippling the criminal enterprise, Falco's engrossing narrative of the dangers of the biker underworld harkens back to Hunter S. Thompson's classic Hell's Angels, vividly recounting a life undercover.

Charles Falco, Kerrie Droban (Author), Jeffrey Kafer (Narrator)

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Blood Will Tell

Kristine Fitzhugh was a brilliant elementary school music teacher. She had a husband and two sons, a perfect family with a perfect middle class life. Until she was found in a pool of her own blood. Her husband, Kenneth Fitzhugh, claimed her shoes were the cause of this fatal accident. However, that is not what the Palo Alto Police Department, the paramedics, or the coroner concluded. After all, tripping down stairs could not account for blood hastily wiped up in the kitchen, seven blows to the back of her head, and bloody running shoes found in the family car. As the hunt for Kristine's killer unfolded, secrets that surrounded the family were exposed, uncovering more than one possible motive for her murder. A motive that pointed to her husband of 33 years. What lengths did Kenneth Fitzhugh take to keep those secrets hidden in the shadows?

Carlton Smith (Author), Donna Postel (Narrator)

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Death in Texas: A True Story of Marriage, Money, and Murder

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. Listen to this fascinating true-crime account of greed, deception, and cold-blooded murder-and decide for yourself.

Carlton Smith (Author), Donna Postel (Narrator)

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Vanished at Sea: The True Story of a Child TV Actor and Double Murder

Thomas and Jackie Hawks had big plans. The couple wanted to sell their retirement home--a hard earned 55-foot yacht named Well Deserved --and move onto land to spend more time with family. So when a baby-faced buyer, Skylar Deleon, wanted to test drive the yacht, the Hawks were overjoyed. However, Skylar-- with his troubled past as a flamed-out childhood actor, a dishonorably discharged Marine and a suspect in the mysterious death of his former friend, Jon Jarvi --had an even more troubling future planned. But as the Hawks set sail with Skylar and two of his friends, not everyone will return. A compelling true crime, Vanished at Sea, is a murder mystery that starts as a missing persons' case and quickly evolves into homicide. In chilling detail, the book recounts Tom and Jackie's deadly voyage, when they begged for their lives before coldly being chained to an anchor and kicked overboard, to their deaths. Authorities are left to figure out how this much-loved retired couple simply disappeared. Could the ship's new owner, Skylar Deleon, be responsible? And is his young, pregnant wife, Jennifer, involved? With little physical evidence to go on, the police, prosecutor, and Hawks family struggle to find out the truth. It's a heart-stopping, page-turning account of the Hawks family's search for justice. This updated edition includes new details on the crime, convictions -- and surprising new evidence on the perverted sexual motivation that may have been behind it all.

Tina Dirmann (Author), Tanya Eby (Narrator)

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Made Men: The True Rise-and-Fall Story of a New Jersey Mob Family

For years, the DeCavalcantes, the most powerful Mob family in Jersey, labored in the shadows of the more famous families in New York—the likes of the Gambinos and the Columbos. Dismissed by the big-city capos, the DeCavalcantes finally came into their own when they found their lives mirrored in the television hit, The Sopranos. Overnight it legitimized the made men of the Garden State. Now they were a familia to be reckoned with. Unfortunately with high profile came high risk. As member turned against member, as trusted friend turned terrified informant, the FBI put the brakes on the DeCavalcante’s explosive ride into infamy, hastening a fall from honor that would become as infamous as their notorious ascension into the annals of organized crime.Based on more than 1,000 hours of secretly recorded conversations, Made Men delivers, for the first time, the unprecedented and completely uncensored behind-the-scenes truth of a historically clandestine world—of violent life and sudden death inside and outside the mob, told by the very men who made it.

Greg B. Smith (Author), Peter Berkrot (Narrator)

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Hunting El Chapo: Taking down the world's most-wanted drug-lord

This is the untold story of the American federal agent who captured the world's most-wanted drug-lord. Every generation has its larger-than-life criminal legend living beyond the reach of the law: Billy the Kid, Al Capone, Ronnie Biggs, Pablo Escobar. But for every one of these criminals, there's a Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett or Slipper of the Yard. For Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán-Loera a.k.a. 'El Chapo' - the 21st century's most notorious criminal - that man is D.E.A. Special Agent Andrew Hogan. This is the incredible story of Hogan's seven-year-long chase to capture El Chapo, a multibillionaire drug-lord and escape-artist posing as a Mexican Robin Hood, who in reality was a brutal sociopath responsible for the murders of thousands. His greedy campaign to take over his rivals' territories resulted in an unprecedented war with a body count of over 100,000. We follow Hogan on his quest to achieve the seemingly impossible: to cross the border into Mexico and arrest El Chapo, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, a billionaire and Public Enemy No. 1, who had been evading capture for more than a decade and had earned a reputation for being utterly untouchable. This intimate thriller tells how Hogan single-mindedly and methodically climbed the ladder within the hierarchy of the Sinaloa Cartel - the world's wealthiest and most powerful drug-trafficking organization - by creating one of the most sophisticated undercover operations in the history of the D.E.A. From infiltrating Chapo's inner circle to leading a white-knuckle manhunt with an elite brigade of Mexican Marines, Hogan left no stone unturned in his hunt for the world's most powerful drug kingpin.

Andrew Hogan, Douglas Century (Author), Robert Fass (Narrator)

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Dead In The Water

In July 1978, two bodies were discovered in the sea off Guatemala. They were found to be the remains of Chris Farmer and his girlfriend Peta Frampton, two young British graduates. Having been beaten and tortured, then thrown, still alive, into the sea, their bodies had been weighted down and dumped from the yacht on which they had been crewing. For nearly forty years, no one was charged with these brutal murders. This is the shocking and compelling story of how Chris's sister, Penny, and her family tracked down his and Peta's killer. For decades they painstakingly gathered evidence against Silas Boston, the yacht's American owner, working alongside police in the UK and the USA, as well as the FBI, until he was finally arrested and charged with two counts of murder in 2016. Astonishingly, Penny was able to track down Boston's son, whose bravery in testifying against his own father was the key to bringing down Chris and Peta's killer after so many years. Dead In The Water is the story of a murder almost unimaginable in its cruelty and one ordinary woman's unwavering determination to find justice for her brother.

Penny Farmer (Author), Ian Porter, Tessa Gallagher (Narrator)

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Strangeways

Neil 'Sam' Samworth spent eleven years working as a prison officer in HMP Manchester, aka Strangeways. A tough Yorkshireman with a soft heart, Sam had to deal with it all - gangsters and gangbangers, terrorists and psychopaths, addicts and the mentally ill. Men who should not be locked up and men who should never be let out. Strangeways is a shocking and at times darkly funny account of life in a high security prison. Sam tackles cell fires and self-harmers, and goes head to head with some of the most dangerous men in the country. He averts a Christmas Day riot after turkey is taken off the menu and replaced by fish curry, and stands up to officers who abuse their position. He describes being attacked by prisoners, and reveals the problems caused by radicalization and the drugs flooding our prisons. As staffing cuts saw Britain's prison system descend into crisis, the stress of the job - the suicides, the inhumanity of the system, and one assault too many - left Sam suffering from PTSD. This raw, searingly honest memoir is a testament to the men and women of the prison service and the incredibly difficult job we ask them to do.

Neil Samworth (Author), Jonthan Keeble (Narrator)

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A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer

In 1964, Mary Pinchot Meyer, the beautiful, rebellious, and intelligent ex-wife of a top CIA official, was killed on a quiet Georgetown towpath near her home. Mary Meyer was a secret mistress of President John F. Kennedy, whom she had known since private school days, and after her death, reports that she had kept a diary set off a tense search by her brother-in-law, newsman Ben Bradlee, and CIA spymaster James Jesus Angleton. But the only suspect in her murder was acquitted, and today her life and death are still a source of intense speculation, as Nina Burleigh reveals in her widely praised book, the first to examine this haunting story.

Nina Burleigh (Author), Siiri Scott (Narrator)

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True Crime Audiobooks in Mystery, Thriller & Horror