Crime Files: Books on The Criminal Mind and Infamous Criminals

Part of the fascination with criminals and the crimes they commit is trying to understand what brings these people to do things that the 'average' person would not do. The books in this section give some insight into the workings of the criminal mind. Whether you're looking for books on the life and crimes of an individual criminal or a study of particular crimes, we've got a brilliant collection of books for you to browse.

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	Frank and Jesse James: The Story Behind the Legend by Ted P. Yeatman Hardcover: 480 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.53 x 9.20 x 7.08 Publisher: Cumberland House; ISBN: 1581820801; (May 1, 2000)	Click Here for More Jesse James Books
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Book Review This book is a well written, thoroughly researched, and highly readable biography of the James brothers. Mr. Yeatman presents the known and the speculated in the context of Frank and Jesse's life and times, without a noticeable agenda of his own. He is neither apologist nor critic; rather, the facts and fictions are presented as such, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions regarding the heroism or lack thereof of the two outlaws. Unique among biographers, he spends considerable ink on the years following Jesse's death, when a good bit of the history was written and rewritten.

	Education of a Felon: A Memoir by Edward Bunker, William Styron (Introduction) Hardcover: 272 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.08 x 9.58 x 6.45 Publisher: St. Martin's Press; ISBN: 031225315X; (February 9, 2000)
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Book Review Edward Bunkers experiences in California's toughest prisons, on the mean streets of Los Angeles, and in Hollywoods seamy underworld have enabled him to write some of the grittiest and affecting prison novels of our time. Quentin Tarantino called Bunkers Little Boy Blue "the best first-person crime novel I've ever read," while The New York Times said of his novel Dog Eat Dog, "Mr. Bunker has written a raw, unromantic, naturalistic crime drama more lurid than anything the noiresque Chandlers or Hammetts ever dreamed up." Now, for the first time, Bunker, who was sent to San Quentin (for the first time) at the age of seventeen, tells the real stories of his life - there's no fiction here. Whether smoking a joint in a gas chamber chair, leaving fingerprints on a knife connected with a serial killer, or swimming in the Neptune Pool at San Simeon, Bunker delivers the goods. He spent half of his life living the harsh life, and the other half writing about it. Finally his readers have been let into the raw and unexpurgated world of Edward Bunker. It doesn't get any realer than this.

	Manson in His Own Words by Charles Manson, Nuel Emmons (Contributor) Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.63 x 9.21 x 6.04 Publisher: Grove Press; ISBN: 0802130240; (July 1988)	Want Books About Charles Manson? Click Here
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Ingram Distilled from hundreds of hours of interviews, Manson's story reveals an enormous amount of new information about his life and how it led to the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, and provides grim insight into the making of a criminal mind. 16 pages of photos.

	Dillinger: The Untold Story by G. Russell Girardin, William J. Helmer (Contributor) Hardcover: ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.29 x 9.53 x 6.39 Publisher: Indiana University Press; ISBN: 0253325560; (July 1994)	There's a huge range of books about John Dillinger - Click Here to Browse.
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Ingram A remarkable contemporary account of John Dillinger's career as a bank robber and his run-ins with the FBI, this book is based on information supplied by Dillinger's lawyer, Louis Piquett, and is packed with illustrations and new facts about one of history's most notorious criminals. 64 photos. 22 illustrations.

	Chopper 2: How to Shoot Friends and Influence People by Mark Brandon Read Hardcover - 270 pages (15 January, 2002) Blake Publishing Ltd; ISBN: 190340276X	Click Here for Books by one of Australia's Most Infamous Criminals - Chopper Read
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Book Review Mark Brandon Read - Chopper to his friends and enemies - has become a cult figure across the world. Since the success of the movie of his life, and the accompanying book, his exploits have shocked and amused readers in several countries. An underworld executioner and notorious criminal, when Chopper was first released from prison he vowed never to return. He became a bizarre celebrity as his autobiography became a bestseller. Six months later he was back in jail writing the second astonishing instalment of his brilliant memoir: How to Shoot Friends and Influence People.

	I, Willie Sutton by Quentin Reynolds Paperback: 288 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.73 x 8.56 x 5.55 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (Pap); ISBN: 0374527415; (December 1953)
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Reviewer: A reader from Philadelphia, PA I heard of Willie Sutton. The name was mentioned here and there as I grew up, but only spoken in hushed, almost reverent tones. Upon reaching adulthood I found out why. Willie Sutton was a bank robber, like my father. It is alleged he taught my father everything he knew about how to rob a bank. Of course, in adulthood my interest was piqued, so I got the book, more because of research than anything else. Well, I didn't find out anything about my father but ended up finding an extremely interesting, easy-to-read book about a very intelligent man who used his talents in the wrong way. Unfortunately for him, his life didn't amount to much; however you have to admire the fact that in the end he finally came to that realization and wrote the book to try to sway the next generation of potential hoodlums in the way of the straight and narrow. A smart man.. who finally put his intellect to good use. I would definitely put this book on my "things to read" list.

Manhunt: The Pursuit of Harry Tracy
by Bill Gulick
Paperback: 250 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.72 x 8.99 x 6.09
Publisher: Caxton Press; ISBN: 0870043927; (March 1, 1999)

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Book Description
On June 9, 1902, Harry Tracy shot his way out of the Oregon State Penitentiary, killing three guards. The breakout marked the beginning of a two-month, two-state manhunt, unique in Northwest history. Bill Gulick, dean of Northwest history writers, uses the accounts of newspaper reporters who covered the chase to paint a fascinating portrait of Tracy-the first of a new breed of badman that surfaced at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Gulick has chosen to tell the story in an entirely linear manner. The reader knows only what people at the time knew at any given point. This was, after all, the first great manhunt of the new age of "instant" communication, and the story of Tracy's escape and flight held the nation spellbound as it sprawled across newspapers throughout the country.

Newspapers are, in fact, Gulick's primary source for this tale. He makes liberal use of press accounts, and provides just the right number of historical photographs and graphics.

The result is a gripping, exciting and frightening story of a desperate killer and men so determined to bring him down that they became as dangerous as their target. More than a thousand men pursued Tracy through Oregon and Washington. Virtually all of them were armed, including some of the newspaper reporters.

	John Wesley Hardin : Dark Angel of Texas by Leon Claire Metz Paperback: 352 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.81 x 8.97 x 6.05 Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd); ISBN: 0806129956; (March 1998)	Click here for other books about John Wesley Hardin
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Book Review Leon Metz is a prolific writer of western history and characters - Dallas Stoudenmire, John Selman, Pat Garrett to name a few - whose books leave little doubt about the quality of his research. And if you've ever been fortunate enough to see and hear his commentary on western documentaries, you'll know him as an articulate and very knowledgeable gentleman. Dark Angel of Texas is the story of perhaps the deadliest and certainly amongst the most feared of all western gunmen. Of course, everyone, including non-western history buffs, knows all about Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickock and Wyatt Earp, for example. However, I suspect with the passage of time, each of these men has taken on a bigger-than-life aura and it's sometimes difficult to know where fact ends and where the legend begins. Leon Metz's book, however, leaves no doubt that John Wesley Hardin was a stone cold killer in the "purest" sense" and gives us a very good glimpse into the homicidal mind of this man, who is reputed to have killed perhaps as many as 44 people between the years following the end of the civil war and his capture and incarceration. Click To Amazon to Read More..


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