Books for the Armchair Detective in Your Life

Inside some of the mildest people we know is a penchant for reading dark stories of small-town murders, or chilling serial killers. Why not arm the armchair detective in your life with true crime books from every dark corner of the American dream? Here are fascinating stories of unsolved cases, organized crime, historical murders, detective memoirs, epic manhunts, and everyday small-town murder. For the true crime fan in your life, we offer these gripping cases served hot, cold, strange, and straight – so go ahead, throw the book at them!
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43 products
The Counterfeit Prince of Old Texas: Swindling Slaver Monroe Edwards
The Counterfeit Prince of Old Texas: Swindling Slaver Monroe Edwards
$21.99
New Mexico's Rangers
New Mexico's Rangers
$24.99
Wicked Albuquerque
Wicked Albuquerque
$21.99
Oklahoma Tall Tales Uncovered
Oklahoma Tall Tales Uncovered
$23.99
Rio Grande Sniper Killings, The
Rio Grande Sniper Killings, The
$23.99
New Mexico State Police
New Mexico State Police
$24.99
Murder Most Texan
Murder Most Texan
$23.99
Guy Town by Gaslight:
Guy Town by Gaslight:
$21.99

The Counterfeit Prince of Old Texas: Swindling Slaver Monroe Edwards

9781467117876

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
After Monroe Edwards died in Sing Sing prison in 1847, penny dreadfuls memorialized him as the most celebrated American forger until the turn of the century. With a bizarre biography too complicated for easy history, his critical contributions to Texas settlement, revolution and annexation were inextricably mired in his activities as a slave smuggler and confidence man. Author Lora-Marie Bernard unravels the unbelievable story of one of the most notorious criminal adventurers ever to set foot on the soil of the Lone Star State.
The Counterfeit Prince of Old Texas: Swindling Slaver Monroe Edwards

New Mexico's Rangers

9780738579252

$24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
The New Mexico Mounted Police were forged from a frontier civil crisis and hammered to life upon the anvil of necessity. The Sunshine Territory of New Mexico had become the last outlaw haven in the Southwest. In the tradition of their red-coated namesake, the Northwest Mounted Police of Canada, this small band of range riders used their fists, guns, and brains to restore law and order during the closing years of New Mexico's territorial era. They carried their mission forward into the early days of statehood.
New Mexico's Rangers

Wicked Albuquerque

9781467137980

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Albuquerque's early lawless reputation rivaled that of Dodge City and Tombstone. Its red-light district was known as Hell's Half Acre. Brothel owner Lizzy McGrath once had a local church demolished to build her new bordello. Milt Yarberry, the town's first marshal, was hanged for murder. And the controversial Elfego Baca, who had the gall to face Pancho Villa, survived a thirty-six-hour gunfight unscathed. Author Cody Polston presents the tales of those who slipped through the cracks of morality.
Wicked Albuquerque

Oklahoma Tall Tales Uncovered

9781467153119

$23.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Oklahoma has no shortage of tall tales chock-full of truth, however unlikely it might seem. Puzzle over Geronimo's three skulls. Examine the beer bottle that suckered town leaders on April Fools' Day or join the mad rush of a 100,000-person race. Accompany the governor who went to the White House and boxed the president. Untangle the hideouts and shootouts of notorious outlaws like the Dalton Gang. From Amelia Earhart's arrest to the croquet mallet that foiled Bonnie and Clyde, funeral director Joe M. Cummings retrieves the kind of lore that gets buried with Oklahoma's legends.
Oklahoma Tall Tales Uncovered

Rio Grande Sniper Killings, The

9781467153430

$23.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Untangle the complex conspiracy that led to the tragic deaths of Charlotte Kay Elliott and Kevin Edwin Frase on the banks of the Rio Grande. On the night of July 13, 1980, a hitman fired a high-powered rifle into the crowd at Pepe's On the River, an outdoor bar in Mission, Texas. He missed his target, a witness in the Loop 360 drug case, but killed two young bystanders. While state court prosecutions for capital murder inexplicably faltered, a federal court gave the assassin a life sentence for attempted murder of a grand jury witness. A member of the judge's staff who was present throughout the trial, author John W. Primomo revisits the dramatic twists and turns surrounding this murder on the Rio Grande.
Rio Grande Sniper Killings, The

New Mexico State Police

9781467129992

$24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
The New Mexico State Police traces its beginnings to the New Mexico Mounted Police, a statewide law-enforcement agency that was disbanded in 1921. No state law enforcement existed until the formation of the New Mexico Motor Patrol in 1933. A year and a half later, the governor of the state of New Mexico and the chief of the patrol saw the need to expand their forces to better serve the citizens of New Mexico. The New Mexico State Police formed in 1935, marking the beginning of what has become many years of tradition and service.
New Mexico State Police

Murder Most Texan

9781626197176

$23.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Texas has long boasted its iron fist of the law and strict treatment of its hardest criminals. Nevertheless, scoundrels, fiends and homicidal criminals inevitably slipped through the Lone Star justice system despite the best efforts of even the legendary Texas Rangers. From roadside murder to political assassinations, discover the seedy underbelly of Texas' murderous past. In 1877, Texas saw its first high-profile murder case with the slaying of a woman in Jefferson and the subsequent "Diamond Bessie" trial. Over a century later, state legislator Price Daniel Jr. was shot in cold blood by his wife at their home in Liberty. Texas true crime writer and historian Bartee Haile unburies this collection of sixteen coldblooded killings from Lone Star history and the dirty details that have shocked and bewildered Texans for decades.
Murder Most Texan

Guy Town by Gaslight:

9781626194458

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Crime and vice plagued Austin after the Civil War, and Guy Town was a red-light hub with a most curious legacy. Today's pleasure-seeking visitors to the Warehouse District walk on top of Guy Town--the chic neighborhood of today is built on the most decadent and deadly area of the city's past. With the old county courthouse at its core, the district rose from the Colorado River up to Fifth Street and spanned from Congress Avenue to Shoal Creek, infesting Austin's eclectic First Ward neighborhood. Guy Town was a haven for notorious madams, prostitutes, druggies and drunkards lost to history, as well as names still remembered--Ben Thompson, O. Henry and Johnny Ringo roamed its streets looking for a good time. From murderers to con men, crooked cops and more, meet the cast of characters that gave Guy Town its reputation in author Richard Zelade's lurid account of the Capital City's historic underbelly.
Guy Town by Gaslight: