Books for the Armchair Detective in Your Life

Author Dale Richard Perelman tells the tragic story of the 1978 murders and the mystery surrounding them.

In the summer of 1978, a mother and her four-year-old were stabbed to death in the quiet town of New Castle. Police suspected the husband, Lou Kadunce, but were unable to find either a weapon or a motive. Sitting in a Lawrence County jail in 1981, convicted serial killer Michael Atkinson accused Frank Costal - a carny, petty thief and Satanist - of having an affair with the Kadunce husband and participating in the murder. A series of intense trials ensued as Costal was convicted of the homicides and a jury found the husband not guilty. Questions surrounding the case gripped the region and grabbed headlines in the Pittsburgh Press.

Caryl Hopson and Susan R. Perkins collect historic narratives of murder and mayhem in Herkimer County.

Herkimer County is steeped in history, from the settlement of the Mohawk Valley by Palatine German settlers to the flood of western migration with the opening of the Erie Canal. But the region also boasts an infamous history of high-profile homicides and crimes. Roxalana Druse murdered her abusive husband and became the last woman to be hanged in New York in 1887. The death of Grace Brown on scenic Big Moose Lake became one of the most famous cases in the country in 1906, inspiring author Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy. Psychological tests of intelligence were admitted into court for the first time in an acquittal of sixteen-year-old Jean Gianini in 1914.

This is the horrifying tale of the random crime spree that shocked residents of southwestern Pennsylvania in 1979.

During the winter of 1979, southwestern Pennsylvania was rocked by a series of sensational murders, sparking a thirty-year criminal justice saga. A week of brutal, seemingly random killings culminated in the provocation and fatal shooting of Patrolman Leonard Miller, an officer new to the town of Apollo's police force and only twenty one years old. Little more than a year later, two men were convicted of the rash of homicides and sentenced to death-- yet both are alive today. Incorporating details of the central characters' personal lives as well as the state's court system, criminologist Michael W. Sheetz here relays the awful story of the so-called ""kill for thrill"" crime spree with the drama of a novelist and the insight of an officer of the law.

Explore the fasciniating history of Prohibition in one of the places where it was most defied-- Baltimore, Maryland.

There was perhaps no region more opposed to Prohibition than Baltimore and Maryland. The Free State was defiant in its protest from thoroughly wet Governor Albert Ritchie to esteemed Catholic Cardinal James Gibbons. Maryland was the only state to not pass a "baby" Volstead enforcement act. Speakeasies emerged at Frostburg's Gunter Hotel and at Baltimore's famed Belvedere Hotel, whose famous owls' blinking eyes would notify its patrons if it was safe to indulge in bootleg liquor. Rumrunners were frequent on the Chesapeake Bay as bootleggers populated the city streets. Journalist H.L. Mencken, known as the "Sage of Baltimore," drew national attention criticizing the new law. Author Michael T. Walsh presents this colorful history.

Chronicles of a Rochester Major Crimes Detective details the detective work of Patrick Crough.

Patrick Crough served more than twenty years as a Monroe County Major Crimes detective, where he investigated some of the region's most tragic crimes. They include horrifying acts, like that of a Valentine's Day killing rampage that left four people dead, as well as the case against Ed Laraby, the serial rapist who terrorized women in Rochester and Monroe County. But they are also stories of heroism and bravery--strangers coming to the aid of those in peril, parents who laid down their lives to save their children and the team of people who put violent criminals behind bars. In these pages, Crough details four of his most memorable cases in which he was forced to confront evil and chose to pursue truth.

Images of America: Delaware State Police illustrates the storied past of the Delaware State Police from 1920 to 1985.

April 28, 1923, marks the birth of the Delaware State Police. Discussions occurred as early as 1906 for a statewide police organization to cope with speeding automobiles, roving bands of troublemakers, and the ever-present bootleggers. Prohibition and the 18th Amendment brought the discussion to the forefront. With the hiring of Charles J. McGarigle and Joseph A. McVey, the Delaware Highway Police Department came to fruition on January 1, 1920. Using many never-before-published photographs from the Delaware State Police Museum archive,

Historian Thomas Keels tells many ribald stories in his book, ""Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Brotherly Love,"" including various methods of body snatching and murder. --Marty Moss-Coane, WHYY-FM

Prim and proper Philadelphia has been rocked by the clash between excessive vice and social virtue since its citizens burned the city's biggest brothel in 1800. With tales of grave robbers in South Philadelphia and harlots in Franklin Square, Wicked Philadelphia reveals the shocking underbelly of the City of Brotherly Love. In one notorious scam, a washerwoman masqueraded as the fictional Spanish countess Anita de Bettencourt for two decades, bilking millions from victims and even fooling the government of Spain. From the 1843 media frenzy that ensued after an aristocrat abducted a young girl to a churchyard transformed into a brothel (complete with a carousel), local author Thomas H. Keels unearths Philadelphia's most scintillating scandals and corrupt characters in this rollicking history.

Uncover Ulster County's hidden history of unsavory characters and stories of its wicked past.

Situated in the scenic Hudson Valley, Ulster County is a lovely location to make a home and raise a family, but it wasn't always so pleasant. Unsavory characters and immoral events have sullied its name. In the 1870s, the Shawangunk Mountains inspired fear rather than awe, as groups like the Lyman Freer and Shawangunk gangs robbed and terrorized locals, descending from the protection of the wooded peaks. Kingston was torched, arson blazed in Kerhonkson and even the Mohonk Mountain House was threatened by flames. In 1909, the Ashokan Slasher's bloody crimes and sensational trial captured headlines across the country. Discover these and other salacious stories buried in Ulster County's history.

When Henry Debosnys arrived in Essex, New York, the sleepy town was unprepared for the string of dark events that trailed the exotic European stranger. Within weeks of his appearance, he had romanced wealthy widow Betsey Wells, charming her friends and children and presenting the picture of an ideal new family at their spur-of-the-moment wedding. Yet when authorities discovered Betsey's mangled body in a nearby forest, Debosnys's image as a caring family man began to unravel. During his incarceration, Debosnys slowly revealed himself to be a genius fluent in six languages, a master cryptographer and the murderer of at least two previous wives. As the scrutiny on Debosnys intensified, he began producing coded messages, allegedly confessions to a lifetime of villainy. Author Cheri Farnsworth reveals never-before-seen evidence of this Upstate tragedy, including reproductions of the legendary, unsolved Debosnys cryptograms, in an effort to finally uncover the truth about this depraved con man. The only question that remains is who will be the first to crack the "Debosnys Code"?