Showing titles in Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions

A rash of burglaries in the small town of Lark Point, California has a domino effect on a group of local residents; eight lives bound together by honor, betrayal and love. Tangled like Music rushes through the small town like a whirlwind and creates changes that none could have anticipated. Love, mystery, deception, murder, and relationships intertwine to tell the story of redemption and the unraveling of life's tangles. It's a recipe for a song.

Gabbi loves her wine almost as much as she loves her men. But being the attention whore that she is, she couldn't hang in there when her marriage needed mending; instead she ran to an old high school sweetheart, making up stories that her husband abused her so all would feel sorry for her. When friends would confront Gabbi with their disbelief of Travis' abusiveness, she would say that he put on a good act. Gabbi got what she wanted - for a while.

Aaron Iturra was just 18 years old when he was found dead in his bedroom in Eugene, Oregon. Soon, the quiet community would be rocked and shocked by who was behind the killing: Mary Louise Thompson, also known as Gang Mom. An anti-gang activist, she was a modern day deadly Fagin, running her own gang of juveniles who preyed on the unsuspecting city.

When Adam Parfrey tracked down Walter Keane - the credited artist of the weepy waifs - for a San Diego Reader cover story in 1992, he discovered some shocking facts. Decades of lawsuits and countersuits revealed the reality that Keane was more of a conman than an artist and that he forced his wife, Margaret, to sign his name to her own paintings. As a result those weepy waifs may not have been as capricious an invention as they seemed.

In the heart of Indian country in the American west, clandestine criminals were profiting greatly from the sale of sacred Native American artifacts stolen from tribal lands. These artifacts were so ancient they had been used since the migration of the first Americans into North America some 15,000 years ago. In the year 1998, the illegal trafficking of these artifacts peaked in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Wolf is in Panama waiting for the details of his next assignment. When his handler contacts him, he is immediately distrustful and suspicious of the plan. He sees it as a suicide mission with no way out. Within hours, bodies start to pile up, a double-cross and betrayal are tripped up, and a final showdown that leaves the target alive and Wolf on the run.

Die Geschichte beginnt damit, dass ein mittelloser Kunstmaler sich als cleverer, aber ungebildeter Militaria Händler ausgibt und jahrelang einem reichen, jedoch eher einfältigen Sammler alles mögliche verkauft - und sei es auch noch so absurd. Er treibt das Spiel mit den von ihm gefälschten Kriegs-Devotionalien immer weiter - bis zur verwegenen Idee, ein Tagebuch Adolf Hitlers an den Mann zu bringen. Damit erhält die Geschichte eine unfassbare Wendung - unfassbar listig, unfassbar absurd, unfassbar komisch...

John Wilkes Booth murdered Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre and was killed in Garrett's Barn, Virginia by Sergeant Boston Corbett. But what if the body wasn't John Wilkes Booth? Nate Orlowek believes the body in the barn that day may not have been John Wilkes Booth. So who was the man in the barn that day?

Wie gelang dem "Ausbrecherkönig" Carl August Lorentzen seine legendäre Flucht aus dem Staatsgefängnis im dänischen Horsens kurz vor Weihnachten 1949? Mit dieser Frage beschäftigt sich Niels Ole Frederiksen, der als Dreijähriger als Sohn des damaligen Vize-Inspektors diese spektakulärste Flucht aller Zeiten aus einem dänischen Gefängnis quasi hautnah miterlebte. Ein hochspannender True Crime-Fall aus Dänemark!

Diego Armando Maradona diceva: "Chi ruba a un ladro ha cent'anni di perdono". È davvero così? In modo sprezzante e semplicistico la si chiama truffa. Spesso però si tratta di prodotti di ingegno, colpi di genio, macchinazioni da grande attore, manipolazioni da ipnotista. In una sola parola: opere d'arte. Alcuni studi scientifici hanno rilevato un aumento esponenziale delle truffe nei Paesi occidentali in concomitanza con periodi di crisi economica. Questo, quindi, è il momento giusto per ogni truffatore di talento.

A possible genius, a smidgen of madness, a twist of science, and an invention that very nearly changed the world - all collide in a giddy, unbelievably true mystery set in turn-of-the-century Paris.

This is the story of an unforgivable con man. Vulnerable families were his prey. His promise was an impossible dream and a lie. Peter Candlewood understood the system. That’s how he could commute prison sentences and reunite hopeless families with incarcerated loved ones. For a price. Except there was no Candlewood. No hope. Just a lowly Texas con artist who bet on the desperate - and won. And he wasn’t working alone. The multimillion-dollar deception cost the betrayed more than their savings.

At 23, William Simon Baekeland was well on his way to becoming the world’s best traveled person. The “billionaire” heir to a great plastics fortune had already visited 163 countries, but his real passion was finding ways to visit the world’s most challenging destinations. He earned rock-star status in the world of extreme travel. But when his story began to unravel, an eccentric group of hyper-well-traveled country collectors were left wondering how they had allowed their obsession to blind them to the warning signs that William Baekeland wasn’t who they thought he was. 

Late-1970s Los Angeles was rampant with killers and shady characters, but all the go-getters at Space Matters saw was possibility. Richard Kasparov was handsome and charismatic; his younger associate, Jerry Schneiderman, brilliant and nerdy. When the pair hired a veteran contractor to oversee construction, the space planning firm they operated out of a hip mansion in LA's Miracle Mile district appeared poised to transform the boundless skyline into their jackpot. After the promising team imploded, however, the orderly lines on their blueprints succumbed to treachery and secrets. 

John R. Brinkley (July 8, 1885 - May 26, 1942) became nationally known as the "goat gland doctor" for his controversial medical practice that promised virility for his male patients. He was a pioneer in radio broadcasting and advertising, as he promoted his services to his large listening audience. Despite detractors and critics in the medical community thoroughly discrediting his methods, Brinkley operated clinics and hospitals in several states for two decades.

From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author comes the gripping true story of a sensational religious forgery and the scandal that shook Harvard. In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a star religion professor at Harvard, announced a breathtaking discovery just steps from the Vatican: she’d...

True Crime-Erfolgsautor Adrian Langenscheid entfacht erneut mit seinen schockierenden Kurzgeschichten über wahre Verbrechen aus der Schweiz herzklopfendes Lesevergnügen. Es ist ein atemberaubendes, zutiefst erschütterndes Portrait menschlicher Abgründe, das gerade wegen seiner kühlen, sachlich-neutralen Schilderung gewaltige Emotionen weckt. Eiskalte Serienmörder, verhängnisvolle Familiendramen, tragische Entführungen, niederträchtige Folter und skrupelloser Missbrauch: dreizehn schockierende True Crime-Kurzgeschichten zu wahren Kriminalfällen aus der Schweiz erwarten Sie.

In 1973, Frances Vieta, an Italian American journalist living in Rome, is incensed to learn that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has purchased a priceless Greek vase, the Euphronios Krater, for $1 million. Ms. Vieta suspects the antiquity was illegally looted from Italy and smuggled out of the country. She sets out to investigate the acquisition, teaming up with Rodolfo Siviero, an Italian minister and art recovery expert, and the Carabinieri Art Squad, a special unit of the Italian army dedicated to protecting cultural heritage.

Dive into the story of Larry Gene Bell, one of the first killers who used phones to terrorize people. Uncover the origins of this local monster as we peel back the layers of his past. Discover the complexities of his twisted personality that led to national attention. Step by step, follow the details of Bell's heinous, cunning acts, from victim selection to killing methods. You will see why it took innovative investigative techniques to get Bell behind bars.

Not all unknown forces are amiable to us humans, and some may be quite worth the fear that we instinctively feel when it comes to these forces. The idea of being confronted with a paranormal phenomenon of any kind is enough to flabbergast most people. But what if that paranormal phenomenon is coupled with a crime? Seeing a Bigfoot in the wilderness would be stunning enough, but imagine one grabbing your wallet and running off with it!