Famous Cold Cases
More than 50 major crimes from murders and political assassinations, to kidnappings, robberies and fraud
Published on 1. July 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-78274-864-9 (ISBN)
Description
This exciting true-crime compendium brings together the details of a range of more than 50 challenging criminal cases that were either only recently solved or remain unsolved despite intensive investigations and appeals to the public. Many investigations end up as `cold cases' when files are closed, but DNA advances and other new forensic technologies are causing more and more dormant files to be reopened. DNA has also overturned many guilty verdicts, and each time a prisoner has his or her conviction quashed, another unsolved crime is created.
Famous Cold Cases presents each case in a dossier format that describes the crime and lays out the clues collected by investigators. Each chapter concentrates on a specific criminal activity and has numerous vivid case examples arranged chronologically and boxes highlighting famous cases, techniques used to solve them, why the trails went cold - and how, in some cases, the crime was solved. From murders and assassinations to kidnappings, robberies and fraud, Famous Cold Cases invites the reader to review each case, analyze the evidence and arrive at the most probable solution.
Famous Cold Cases presents each case in a dossier format that describes the crime and lays out the clues collected by investigators. Each chapter concentrates on a specific criminal activity and has numerous vivid case examples arranged chronologically and boxes highlighting famous cases, techniques used to solve them, why the trails went cold - and how, in some cases, the crime was solved. From murders and assassinations to kidnappings, robberies and fraud, Famous Cold Cases invites the reader to review each case, analyze the evidence and arrive at the most probable solution.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Reading Age: From 16 to 99 years, Interest Age: From 16 to 99 years
Product notice
Flexible plastic/vinyl cover
Illustrations
250 artworks and photos; 250 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 171 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78274-864-9 (9781782748649)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
John D. Wright is an American author and editor living in England. He has been a reporter in London for Time and People magazines, covering such subjects as politics and crime. He is the author of several history books, including The Oxford Dictionary of Civil War Quotations and The Routledge Encyclopedia of Civil War Era Biographies. Among his other books are Crime Investigation and Unsolved Crimes. He holds the Ph.D. degree in Communications from the University of Texas and has taught writing at three universities.
Content
Introduction
This summarizes the number of unsolved active and cold cases, how long investigations normally last, methods used to keep them active and what DNA technology has accomplished. An outline of the chapter contents is also given.
1. Murder
The largest chapter deals with homicides. Highly reported unsolved murders include those of Hollywood actor Bob Crane (`Hogan's Heroes') in 1978, US child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey in 1996 and the black London teenager Stephen Lawrence in 2006. Serial killers are also uncaught, like the "Zodiak killer" in California in the late 1960s, a case the San Francisco Police Department labelled inactive in 2004 and reopened in 2007.
Boxes:
Jack the Ripper
The Black Dahlia
2. Political Assassinations
Most assassinations occur in the open and result in rapid arrests, but several public attacks remain unsolved. Among those victims are Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986, two communist defectors living in London -- Georgi Markov in 1978 and Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 - and Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007. Boxes:
Assassination methods
The US Secret Service
3. Kidnapping
Abduction for ransom is a 20th century idea. Famous examples of survivors include the Minneapolis socialite Virginia Piper found chained to a tree in 1972. When ransoms are not demanded, most victims are assumed to be murdered, such as Moroccan independence leader Mehdi Ben Barka in 1965 in Paris, London estate agent Susie Lamplugh in 1986 and the British child Madeleine McCann in 2007. Boxes:
The search for Jimmy Hoffa
Shergar, the kidnapped Irish racehorse
4. Robbery
Amazingly, some of the world's greatest robberies remain unsolved and the money unrecovered. Among these are the GBP22 million robbery of a British Bank in Beirut in 1976, a $6.6 million Securicor ambush in Manchester in 1995 and the $146 million robbery in a Baghdad bank in 2007. Spectacular robbers include D. B. Cooper, who hijacked a Boeing 727 and parachuted with a $200,000 ransom into oblivion in the state of Washington.
Boxes:
D. B. Cooper
The Irish `Crown Jewels'
5. Fraud
This widespread category embraces counterfeiting, forgery, fake products, identity theft, embezzlement, cyber crime, fraud and many other business-related crimes. The EU alone records the loss of billions of Euros a year due to unsolved fraud cases that include the avoidance of tax, VAT and excise duties.
Boxes:
How identities are stolen
Tracing Chinese fakes
Glossary
Index
This summarizes the number of unsolved active and cold cases, how long investigations normally last, methods used to keep them active and what DNA technology has accomplished. An outline of the chapter contents is also given.
1. Murder
The largest chapter deals with homicides. Highly reported unsolved murders include those of Hollywood actor Bob Crane (`Hogan's Heroes') in 1978, US child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey in 1996 and the black London teenager Stephen Lawrence in 2006. Serial killers are also uncaught, like the "Zodiak killer" in California in the late 1960s, a case the San Francisco Police Department labelled inactive in 2004 and reopened in 2007.
Boxes:
Jack the Ripper
The Black Dahlia
2. Political Assassinations
Most assassinations occur in the open and result in rapid arrests, but several public attacks remain unsolved. Among those victims are Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986, two communist defectors living in London -- Georgi Markov in 1978 and Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 - and Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007. Boxes:
Assassination methods
The US Secret Service
3. Kidnapping
Abduction for ransom is a 20th century idea. Famous examples of survivors include the Minneapolis socialite Virginia Piper found chained to a tree in 1972. When ransoms are not demanded, most victims are assumed to be murdered, such as Moroccan independence leader Mehdi Ben Barka in 1965 in Paris, London estate agent Susie Lamplugh in 1986 and the British child Madeleine McCann in 2007. Boxes:
The search for Jimmy Hoffa
Shergar, the kidnapped Irish racehorse
4. Robbery
Amazingly, some of the world's greatest robberies remain unsolved and the money unrecovered. Among these are the GBP22 million robbery of a British Bank in Beirut in 1976, a $6.6 million Securicor ambush in Manchester in 1995 and the $146 million robbery in a Baghdad bank in 2007. Spectacular robbers include D. B. Cooper, who hijacked a Boeing 727 and parachuted with a $200,000 ransom into oblivion in the state of Washington.
Boxes:
D. B. Cooper
The Irish `Crown Jewels'
5. Fraud
This widespread category embraces counterfeiting, forgery, fake products, identity theft, embezzlement, cyber crime, fraud and many other business-related crimes. The EU alone records the loss of billions of Euros a year due to unsolved fraud cases that include the avoidance of tax, VAT and excise duties.
Boxes:
How identities are stolen
Tracing Chinese fakes
Glossary
Index