In Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, The Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City (Hachette Books, 2018), Kate Winkler Dawson draws attention to two killers that gripped the attention of London and the world in the early 1950s. In February 1952, King George VI died at the age of …
Author: jessleonamae
Boys Enter the House by David Nelson
In David Nelson’s 2021 book Boys Enter the House: The Victims of John Wayne Gacy and the Lives they Left Behind (Chicago Review Press) the text begins with an illuminating author’s note, one wherein Nelson explains the terms he uses throughout the book, the way the interviews were conducted and complied, and most importantly, what his intentions …
Catch the Sparrow by Rachel Rear
Rachel Rear’s Catch the Sparrow: A Search for a Sister and the Truth of her Murder (Bloomsbury, 2022) tells the complex and devastating story of Stephanie Kupchynsky’s 1991 disappearance and murder. Rear grew up in Greece, New York, and was fourteen when Stephanie went missing. She remembers the case well and spends many poignant passages in the book discussing …
Slonim Woods 9 by Daniel Barban Levin
Daniel Barban Levin’s Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir (Penguin Random House, 2021) tells the story about his experience in the so-called “Sarah Lawrence Cult.” Levin’s experience in this cult began when he was attending Sarah Lawrence College his housemate’s father—Larry Ray, who had just gotten out of prison—moved in with Levin and the rest of his housemates. Ray proved …
Rachel’s Top Five True Crime Texts of 2021
This week, we finish up our top five series with Rachel's top texts of 2021. Check them out below! 1) When She Was Bad by Patricia Pearson (Penguin Random House, 2021) Pearson’s text, as a reprint of the same 1997 edition with a new chapter, is shockingly still relevant. I loved this book’s meditation on the way …
Jesyka’s Top Five True Crime Texts of 2021
As we near the end of 2021, all of us at True Crime Index have been looking back on a year of excellent books. We wanted to share these favourites with you in hopes that you too will give them a read. Up first is Jesyka's Top Five: Empire of Pain: The Secret History of …
The Beatle Bandit by Nate Hendley
Nate Hendley’s The Beatle Bandit: A Serial Bank Robber’s Deadly Heist, A Cross Country Manhunt, and the Insanity Plea that Shook the Nation (Dundurn Press, 2021) is a sad and shocking tale about Matthew Kerry Smith, a twenty-four year old man who robbed a bank in North York, Ontario in 1964 while wearing a Beatle wig. During …
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Even though it has been a few weeks since I finished Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (Penguin Random House, 2021), the book does not feel over for me. The book has not left me. Part of the reason why I still feel very much in the middle of this …
The Donnellys: Powder Keg (Vol. 1) by John Little
In The Donnellys: Powder Keg, 1840-1880, Vol. 1 (ECW Press, 2021), author John Little delves into the history of the infamous Irish-Canadian family known as the ‘Black’ Donnellys. The notoriety of the Donnelly family has lived on within the popular imagination of many Canadians, their crimes and escapades often being recounted by academic historians and writers of popular history …
Continue reading The Donnellys: Powder Keg (Vol. 1) by John Little
The Uninnocent by Katherine Blake
Katherine Blake’s The Uninnocent: Notes on Violence and Mercy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021) is one of the best non-fiction books I have read in recent memory. I purposefully do not call this book true crime because although it has many true crime elements—a violent murder and the search for the reasons why that crime was committed—Blake’s …
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