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Sleep In Heavenly Peace
The New York Times–bestselling journalist and serial killer expert recounts a tragic case of infanticide—including an exclusive interview with the killer.It started with a horrifying discovery in an Arizona self-storage facility: the abandoned bodies of three infants wrapped in plastic. Dianne O’Dell, a mother of eight children, admitted the babies were hers. She claimed they’d died of natural causes; that she’d been impregnated by her father when young; that her own mother had forced her into teen prostitution. O’Dells life story ran a horrifying thread from tranquil Kauneonga Lake, New York, to the mountains of the Southwest. But would it lead a jury to grant her mercy? Or would she pay the price for committing the worst crime a mother can commit?
Kiss of the She-Devil
The true-crime story of a cheating husband, the other woman, and her plot to kill the wife, by the bestselling author of Murder, New England.When librarian Martha Gail Fulton was gunned down in a Michigan parking lot on a quiet evening, there were two obvious suspects—Gail's husband George, a former military officer . . . and George's mistress, the flashy businesswoman Donna Kay Trapani. Police were baffled to find that both had ironclad alibis. Yet evidence showed the shooter, a male, had an accomplice—a mystery woman. Now, M. William Phelps recounts the compelling real-life drama of a twisted love triangle that ended in bloody murder, and the riveting investigation that brought to light a master manipulator's trail of deadly deceit.Praise for New York Times bestselling author M. William Phelps“One of our most engaging crime journalists.” —Katherine Ramsland, New York Times – bestselling author of Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer“Phelps creates a vivid portrait.” —Publishers Weekly“One of America's finest true-crime writers.” —Vincent Bugliosi, New York Times bestselling author of Helter SkelterIncludes sixteen pages of dramatic photos
Every Move You Make
A New York State investigator matches wits with a devious serial killer in the New York Times bestselling author’s true crime thriller.Gary C. Evans was master of disguise and career criminal who had once befriended David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz. In 1989, he started weaving a web of deadly lies in Upstate New York, telling a female friend that the father of her child had deserted her. In fact, Evans had killed the man—just before striking up a ten-year romance with the woman.Evans first met Investigator James Horton in 1985 when Evans snitched on a childhood friend and crime partner—failing to mention that he'd murdered him. Then, two local jewelry dealers were killed. In 1997, another old friend of Evans, went missing. Was Evans responsible? Horton launched a nationwide manhunt to uncover the truth.For more than a decade, Evans and Horton maintained an odd relationship—part friendship, part manipulation—with Evans serving as a snitch while the tenacious investigator searched for the answers that would put him away. After Horton used Evans to obtain a confession from a local killer, Evans led Horton in a final game of cat-and-mouse that would culminate in the most shocking death of all . . .Sixteen pages of revealing photos!
Where Monsters Hide
An unexplained disappearance spirals into an unrelenting murder mystery. In October 2014, local Michigan police chief Laura Frizzo faced a perplexing missing-person case. It was not like Chris Regan, a devoted father and dependable employee, to take off without explanation. When Frizzo learned Chris was having an affair with Kelly Cochran, a married co-worker, suspicion fell on Kelly’s hulking husband, Jason. Soon after that the Cochrans abruptly moved to Indiana. Sixteen months later, Jason Cochran died from a drug overdose. Friends and family rallied around the grieving Kelly. But when the coroner ruled Jason’s death a homicide, no one reacted more bizarrely than his widow. Detectives tried to put Kelly’s past into focus. But the horrific truth was hidden under a near-perfect patchwork of lies. Veteran investigative journalist M. William Phelps expertly reveals Kelly Cochran’s staggering saga of murder, revenge, and payback. “Anything by Phelps is an eye-opening experience.” —Suspense Magazine “Phelps knows how to work it.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review “Master of true crime.” —Real Crime magazine
Never See Them Again
The star of Investigation Discovery’s Dark Minds—“the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers”—takes readers inside a crime that shocked the nation (Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author). In the summer of 2003, the Houston suburb of Clear Lake, Texas, was devastated when four young residents were viciously slain. The two female victims, Tiffany Rowell and Rachael Koloroutis, were just eighteen years old—popular and beloved. But when a killer came knocking, it turned out to be someone they knew all too well. Seventeen-year-old Christine Paolilla was an awkward outsider until the girls befriended her. In this gripping true story, complete with 16 pages of dramatic photos, award-winning investigative journalist M. William Phelps delves into the heart of a baffling mystery to get to the truth of an act so brutal it could not be understood—until now. Praise for M. William Phelps “The best true-crime writer to come along in years.”—Gregg Olsen, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Phelps ratchets up the dramatic tension.”—Stephen Singular, New York Times bestselling author “One of America’s finest true-crime writers.”—Vincent Bugliosi, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Phelps creates a vivid portrait.”—Publishers Weekly “One of our most engaging crime journalists.”—Katherine Ramsland, PhD, author of Confessions of a Serial Killer
Death Trap
The true-crime story of a bitter divorcée and the murder of her ex and his new wife, by the New York Times bestselling author of Cruel Death.It started when Alan Bates and his new wife arrived at his ex's house to pick up his two daughters for a weekend visit. Then two charred bodies were found in a burned-out car on a lonely Georgia road . . . and investigators pieced together a shattering story of a vicious divorce, a spurned woman's bitter rage, and a thirst for revenge that led to cruel, unflinching murder. Updating this gripping true-life thriller with shocking new details, M. William Phelps uncovers the cold heart of an unthinkable crime.Praise for Death Trap“A chilling tale of a sociopathic wife and mother willing to sacrifice all those around her to satisfy her boundless narcissism . . . A compelling journey . . . . Fair warning: for three days I did little else but read this book.” —Harry N. MacLean, New York Times bestselling author of In Broad DaylightPerfect for readers of Anne Rule and Kathryn CaseyIncludes sixteen pages of dramatic photos
Perfect Poison: A Female Serial Killer's Deadly Medicine
The true-crime story of a Massachusetts nurse with a dark secret, by the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Left Behind.At the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northampton, Massachusetts, Kristen Gilbert was known as a hardworking, dedicated nurse. Yet so many emergencies and sudden deaths occurred under Kristen's watch that others jokingly called her the “Angel of Death.” No one suspected the horrifying truth: that over the course of six months, Gilbert had caused the deaths of as many as forty patients. With new insight into the sociopathic mindset of nurses who kill, and the latest details on Gilbert's ongoing prison sentence, M. William Phelps exposes how one person's good intentions went so chillingly, killingly wrong . . .Praise for Perfect Poison“True crime at its best—compelling, gripping, an edge-of-the-seat thriller. Phelps packs wallops of delight with his skillful ability to narrate a suspenseful story.” —Harvey Rachlin, award-winning author of Song and System“A compelling account of terror . . . the author dedicates himself to unmasking the psychopath with facts, insight, and the other proven methods of journalistic leg work.” —Lowell Cauffiel, New York Times bestselling author of House of SecretsIncludes sixteen pages of dramatic photos
Devil's Right Hand
The Devil's Right Hand chroniclesthe legacy of death and destruction in the gunmaking Colt family during the nineteenth century, a legacy largely remembered for a lurid murder case that inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Oblong Box”—but one that encompassed much more. . . New York Times and nationally bestselling author M. William Phelps reveals an unfathomable pattern surrounding repeating arms inventor Samuel Colt—from the death of all his children, including Sam’s sea captain son’s mysterious demise aboard his yacht, to the eccentric life of his widow. But the tip of this iceberg was the 1841-42 murder case of brother John C. Colt, one of New York’s most sensational scandals. Printer Samuel Adams went to collect a debt from bookkeeper and author John Colt and was never seen alive again. Shocking revelations followed: Did John shoot Adams with one of his brother’s Colt firearms before hacking him up and packing him in an oblong box? Did Sam Colt invent the revolving pistol, or steal the idea? Part historical true-crime, part family biography and cultural history, The Devil’s Right Hand is a stirring narrative about a darkly cursed American dynasty.
Devil's Rooming House
The gripping tale of a legendary, century-old murder spree***A silent, simmering killer terrorized New England in1911. As a terrible heat wave killed more than 2,000 people, another silent killer began her own murderous spree. That year a reporter for the Hartford Courant noticed a sharp rise in the number of obituaries for residents of a rooming house in Windsor, Connecticut, and began to suspect who was responsible: Amy Archer-Gilligan, who’d opened the Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids four years earlier. “Sister Amy” would be accused of murdering both of her husbands and up to sixty-six of her patients with cocktails of lemonade and arsenic; her story inspired the Broadway hit Arsenic and Old Lace. The Devil’s Rooming House is the first book about the life, times, and crimes of America’s most prolific female serial killer. In telling this fascinating story, M. William Phelps also paints a vivid portrait of early-twentieth-century New England.
Beautifully Cruel
The New York Times bestselling true crime author investigates a shocking case of a wife, mother, and murder in the Iowa suburbs. Iowa housewife Tracey Pittman Roberts seemed to have it all: natural beauty, three loving children, and a fairy tale second marriage to a wealthy businessman. But beneath the happy façade was a woman who used lies, manipulation, sex, ugly allegations, blackmail—and even murder—to serve her own selfish ends. On December 13, 2001, police rushed to Tracey’s home after a shooting left her young neighbor dead. Tracey claimed it was an act of self-defense. Nine gunshot wounds—and a decades-long trail of extortion, fabrication, fraud, and intimidation—said otherwise. Ten years after the crime, Tracey’s case finally went to trial in an explosive courtroom showdown. In a searing exploration of the criminal mind, acclaimed investigative journalist M. William Phelps traces the saga of a psychopath who hid in plain sight—until her wicked ways caught up with her. “Phelps is one of America’s finest true-crime authors.” —Vincent Bugliosi “Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers.” —Allison Brennan
Murder, New England
Bestselling true-crime author M. William Phelps, star of the new investigative television series “Dark Minds,” takes readers to his own backyard in these eight bloodcurdling murder cases. Think New England is all bucolic landscapes and Robert Frost poems? Think again. In Murder, New England, Phelps explores different motives, themes, and community reactions to horrific crimes: ** Murder by Blood: The Strange Death of Rebecca Cornwell (1673, Narragansset Bay, RI). A 73-year-old widow burned to death in front of her bedroom fireplace…** William Beadle: Husband, Father, Murderer (1782, Wethersfield, CT). A man murders his wife and kids before taking his own life... ** The Angry Man: Murder in Manchester (1821, Manchester, NH). A poor widow killed in her home by a “ruffian” looking for food and drink...** Better Off in Heaven: John Kemmler Kills His Three Children (1879, Holyoke, MA). After losing his mill job, a man kills his daughters because he fears they will become prostitutes... ** Birth of the “Big Seven”: Gaspare Messina’s Mafioso (1917, Boston). An ol’ fashioned Mafia murder tale...** Electronic Kill Machine: “Forensic Files” Murder (2001, Somerville, MA). Teenage slackers, the show “Forensic Files,” and the murder of a grandmother blamed on TV, youth, drugs, sex, money, and rock-n-roll...** Sings of Life (2006, Lanesborough, MA). A woman employs the help of her cocaine-snorting daughter and Goth son to help her get rid of their step-father.** Sesame Street Murder: Death on Big Bird’s Estate (2008, Woodstock, CT). A young woman out for a jog murdered by the groundskeeper of an estate owned by the puppeteer who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. [Page Two of spread] A chilling scene unfolds on the Woodstock, Connecticut, estate of the Sesame Street puppeteer who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch:Near the end of the access road was a picnic area with a large pagoda-like structure topped by an A-framed roof. Two paddle boats were stored under the ceiling of the open-air building. The pagoda had that sacred, spiritual look one would expect of a place to relax and meditate. Here was a haven separated from the main living space where one could retreat and disconnect from the world. What upset the serenity of the scene was the trail of blood. It lead from the roadway directly to the pagoda—and yet stopped in the center of the ground under the ceiling. The paddle boats, investigators noticed, had blood spatter and smudge marks on them. But what did it mean that the trail of blood just stopped? As they continued to search, troopers looked above them and spied a set of pull-down stairs. There was a storage area or attic within the pagoda’s A-frame. The blood trail had stopped directly beneath the pull-down stairs.
We Thought We Knew You
In this chilling true crime thriller by New York Times bestselling journalist M. William Phelps, a woman’s mysterious death in upstate New York plunges her family into a nightmare of accusations and vengeance. In July 2015, Mary Yoder fell ill in the chiropractic center she operated with her husband, Bill. Doctors in the ER and ICU were baffled—and unable to save her life. Weeks later, her family received startling news from the medical examiner: Mary had been deliberately poisoned. Another shock followed when the local sheriff received a claim that Adam Yoder had poisoned his mother. But Adam was not the only person of interest . . . Kaitlyn Conley, Adam’s ex-girlfriend, worked at the Yoders’ clinic and was at Mary’s bedside during her last hours. Still, some spoke of her history of rage-fueled behavior. Had Kaitlyn and Adam conspired to kill Mary? Yet another suspect emerged when accusations were hurled at grieving husband Bill Yoder . . . M. William Phelps unravels a twisting trail of evidence to reveal the heartless scheme that tore a family apart, divided a community, and culminated in two gripping, high-profile trials. “Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers.”—Allison Brennan“Phelps knows how to work it.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review“Anything by Phelps is an eye-opening experience.”—Suspense Magazine