Two brothers live parallel lives on either side of the US-Mexico border. This is the dramatic true story of how their worlds collided in a major criminal conspiracy.
A KIRKUS REVIEWS NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S PICK
José Treviño was raised in Nuevo Laredo, a Mexican border town and major smuggling gateway. He grew up loving the sprawling countryside and its tough, fast quarter horses, but in search of opportunity he crossed the border into Texas.
While José built a modest living laying bricks, his younger brother Miguel ascended to the top of the infamously bloody Los Zetas cartel. As José settled down with a wife and kids, his brother was said to be burning rivals alive, eating victims' hearts and launching grenades at the US consulate.
Then one day José showed up at a quarter-horse auction and bid close to a million dollars for a horse. The bricklayer suddenly became a major player on the scene, catching the attention of FBI agent Scott Lawson. Lawson enlisted Tyler Graham, the young American rancher breeding José's champion horse - nicknamed Huesos, or Bones - to infiltrate what he suspected was a major money laundering operation.The goal: capture Miguel Treviño.
Set against the high-stakes world of horseracing, Bones takes you deep into a violent drug cartel, the perilous lives of American ranchers and the Sisyphean work of drug cops, revealing how greed and fear mingle with race, class and violence along the vast Southwest border. At its heart, this riveting crime drama is a gripping story of brotherhood, family loyalty and the tragic cost of a failed drug war.
In partnership with Texas Monthly, Francesca Mari's "The Talented Mr. Khater" 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.
The layered story of "The Talented Mr. Khater" begins with Callie Quinn, who upon graduating college, fulfilled her desire to live and work in Chile. Among the friends she met and lived with there was Youssef Khater, a man she initially found to be arrogant but would eventually come to befriend and trust. Unfortunately for Callie, that trust led to her being conned, attacked, and buried alive by this seemingly generous, charming man. Although she survived and he was briefly imprisoned, Youssef's story did not end with Callie's.
In "The Talented Mr. Khater," Francesca Mari traces international con artist and psychopath Youssef Khater as he tricks sports enthusiasts, prideful Palestinians, and adoring women out of their money and into tragic circumstances.
In partnership with Texas Monthly, the following articles spotlighting true crime are now available in a bundle as an audio download:
* "A Kiss Before Dying" by Pamela Colloff
* "The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob" by Skip Hollandsworth
* "Just Desserts" by Katy Vine
* "The Cheerleader Murder Plot" by Mimi Swartz
* "The Talented Mr. Khater" by Francesca Mari<
"A Kiss Before Dying" by Pamela Colloff revisits the case of Betty Williams, a high school student who begged her ex to kill her.
"The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob" by Skip Hollandsworth profiles the mysterious Peggy Jo Tallas who, disguised as a man, robbed banks and confounded police for years.
"Just Desserts" by Katy Vine is the story of a man who turned "keeping up with the Joneses" into the perfect crime.
"The Cheerleader Murder Plot" by Mimi Swartz features a woman who went to extreme, murderous lengths to ensure her daughter's spot on the cheerleading squad.
"The Talented Mr. Khater" by Francesca Mari investigates the ongoing exploits of international con artist and psychopath Youssef Khater.
In partnership with Texas Monthly, Elliott Woods's "Shell Shocked" 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.
Who's to blame when the violence of war comes home? "Shell Shocked" is the story of a man from El Paso who returned from his service in Afghanistan with PTSD.
The Mafia in the United States might be a shadow of its former self, but in the New York/New Jersey metro area, there are still wiseguys and wannabes working scams, extorting businesses, running gambling, selling drugs, and branching out into white collar crimes. And they are continuing a tradition that's over 100 years old. Some of the most powerful mobsters on a national level were from New Jersey, and they spread their tentacles down to Florida, across the Atlantic, and out to California. And many of the stories have never been told. Deitche weaves his narrative through significant, as well as some lesser-known, mob figures who were vital components in the underworld machine. New Jersey's organized crime history has been one of the most colorful in the country, serving as the home of some of the most powerful, as well as below-the-radar, mobsters in the Country. And though overshadowed by the emphasis on New York City, the mob and New Jersey have, over the years, become synonymous, in both pop culture and in law enforcement.
A revelatory look at what happens when political Islam collides with the secular West Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam is a masterpiece of investigative journalism, a book with the intimacy and narrative control of a crime novel and the analytical brilliance for which Buruma is renowned. On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that "insulted the prophet Mohammed." The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Ian Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.
The night she was attacked in her Florida home, Karen Gregory let out a scream so piercing that it carried for several blocks. More than a dozen neighbors heard her, but none called the police. By the time her body was discovered, thirty one hours later, the trail was already cold. The detective assigned to solve the murder ran down one blind alley after another, eliminating one suspect after another, until finally the evidence led him to the front door of one of his best friends - a friend whose wedding ceremony he had officiated over just a few months before. At first the detective didn't want to believe it. But as the mystery deepened, he found himself studying his friend's hands, trying to tell if they were the same size as the bloody handprints left on Karen's leg.
He was a model citizen. A hospital volunteer. And one of the most sadistic serial killers of all time. But few people could see the cruel monster beneath the colorful clown makeup that John Gacy wore to entertain children in his Chicago suburb. Few could imagine what lay buried beneath his house of horrors-until a teenage boy disappeared before Christmas in 1978, leading prosecutor Terry Sullivan on the greatest manhunt of his career. Reconstructing the investigation-from records of violence in Gacy's past, to the gruesome discovery of twenty-nine corpses of abused boys in Gacy's crawlspace and four others found in the nearby river-Sullivan's shocking eyewitness account takes you where few true crime books ever go: inside the heart of a serial murder investigation and trial.
When Laci Peterson-8 months pregnant-disappeared in December of 2002, friends, family, and neighbors swept the area for her, by helicopter, by foot, and everything in between. It would be 4 months before her body and the body of her unborn child was found.
While initially looking the part of the grieving widower, Scott Peterson's behavior began to look more and more suspicious as the police-and the media-turned distrustful eyes in his direction. He'd had multiple affairs. His alibi didn't quite hold up. He altered his appearance and got defensive with the press.
But does the evidence hold up or is it merely circumstantial? Michael Fleeman examines the complexities of the crime in this fast-paced exploration.
Those close to the Blagg family had nothing but positive things to say about the young couple and their six-year-old daughter. A fairy-tale couple. Friendly, open, and very much in love.
When Jennifer and daughter Abby disappeared in November 2001, leaving a bloody scene in the master bedroom, the community gathered around Michael, an involved member and prayer-group leader at the couples' church.
But as the investigation unfolded, the police found blood in the family van and began to suspect that the scene had been staged. Could Michael have been hiding a darkness under his family-man exterior?
A promising young attorney and a dedicated family man, Michael Fletcher seemed to have it all. But in the summer of 2000, Michael found himself standing trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, Leann. The verdict-guilty of second-degree murder-would leave friends, family, and the public at large scrambling to make sense of a twisted and frightening series of events that ended in the brutal killing of Leann Fletcher. What could possibly have led Michael Fletcher to commit such a gruesome act?As a college student, Michael Fletcher married the girl of his dreams after a three-year courtship. It seems like a fairy-tale romance come true: a match made in heaven. So why would a man with no history of domestic violence murder his devoted wife right after he told her how much he loved her? Why would Michael shoot Leann in the back of the head, not only killing her but also the child that she was carrying inside her? According to prosecutors, Fletcher has been involved in an extramarital affair with a beautiful judge for two years. Was his relationship with respected District Judge Susan Chrzanowski enough cause for him to murder his wife in cold blood? Raising even more troubling questions, the startling discovery colored Leann's already shocking murder with shadings of sex, political scandal, and deadly betrayal.
"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.
