House of Mystery Radio on NBC

A successful entertainment executive making $2 million a year. His former beauty queen wife. Their two sons on the fast track to success. But it was all a façade. The Menendez saga has captivated the American public since 1989. The killing of José and Kitty Menendez on a quiet Sunday evening in Beverly Hills didn’t make the cover of People magazine until the arrest of their sons seven months later, and the case developed an intense cult following. When the first Menendez trial began in July 1993, the public was convinced that Lyle and Erik were a pair of greedy rich kids who had killed loving, devoted parents. But the real story remained buried beneath years of dark secrets. Until now. Journalist Robert Rand, who originally reported on the case for the Miami Herald and Playboy, has followed the Menendez murders from the beginning and has continued investigating and interviewing key sources for 28 years. Rand is the only reporter who covered the original investigation as well as both trials. With unparalleled access to the Menendez family and their history, including interviews with both brothers before and after their arrest, Rand has uncovered extraordinary details that certainly would have changed the fate of the brothers’ first-degree murder conviction and sentencing to life without parole.In The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menedez Family and the Killings That Stunned the Nation, Rand shares these intimate, never-before-revealed findings, including a deeply disturbing history of child abuse and sexual molestation in the Menendez family going back generations, and the shocking admission O.J. Simpson made to one of the Menendez brothers when they were inmates at the L.A. County Men’s Central Jail.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On September 12, 2001, Michele Harris went missing from a small town in upstate New York. She has never been found, and the mystery surrounding her disappearance remains. Four years after she went missing, her wealthy husband, Cal Harris, was arrested and charged with her murder.With neither a body nor a murder weapon, Cal was shockingly tried and convicted of her murder. Then new evidence surfaced. His conviction was overturned, and a new trial granted. But once again, he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. That conviction, too, was overturned on appeal. The saga continued as Cal went on trial for the third time. This one ended in a mistrial.By the time Cal went on trial the fourth time, Michele had been missing for nearly 15 years.Defense investigator, David M. Beers, worked on the Cal Harris case from start-to-finish. His account, “Reign of Injustice,” walks you through the details and events of the case never before revealed. It provides a inside view of the scandalous case facts you will not find elsewhere, including why he considers Cal’s story a reign of injustice.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ken Rex McElroy terrorized the residents of several counties in northwestern Missouri for a score of years. He raped young girls and brutalized them after they went to live with him or even married him; he shot at least two men; he stole cattle and hogs, and burned down the houses of some who interfered with his criminal activities. Thanks to the expert efforts of his lawyer and the pro-defendant bias of state laws, he served no more than a few days in jail, the author shows. In 1981, sentenced for the shooting of a popular grocer and free on bail, he was killed by the men of Skidmore, the center of his felonies; they closed ranks against all attempts to identify those who had pulled the triggers. Written by a first-time author, this is an engrossing, credible examination of the way vigilante action can take over when the law appears to be powerless. BOMC and QPBC alternatesSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark E. Safarik was a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s elite Behavioral Analysis Unit. He established himself as an internationally recognized expert in the analysis of violent criminal behavior. Safarik’s law enforcement career spans over 30 years. He served 23 years with the FBI, the last 12, as a criminal profiler. He has lectured around the world, sharing his expertise in the analysis of homicide and complex crime scene behavior with over 20,000 personnel from police chiefs to violent crime investigators, prosecutors, medical examiners and other professionals. He currently consults with law enforcement, attorneys, universities, writers, television producers, and foreign government entities. Safarik has a graduate degree from Boston University and is adjunct faculty at Boston College. He has conducted internationally renowned research on the sexual assault and homicide of elder females and received the prestigious Jefferson Medal from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the highly respected Vidocq Society. He has published articles, and book chapters on his research and work. He has appeared on numerous television programs to discuss his cases and analyses. He has three cold case television series both in the US and Europe. He has been a consultant for the television series CSI: Las Vegas, Bones, and The Blacklist.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The apocalyptic group The Family and their guru, Anne Hamilton-Byrne — one of very few female cult leaders in history — captured international headlines throughout the 1980s and 1990s.Hamilton-Byrne, who some followers believed was Jesus Christ, was glamorous and charismatic — and, many allege, very dangerous. From her base in a quiet suburb, she recruited wealthy professionals to join her cult, including doctors, lawyers, nurses, architects, and scientists. She acquired children and raised them as her own, bleaching their hair blonde to make them look like siblings, and her group became surrounded by rumours of LSD use, child abuse, and strange spiritual rituals.In 1987, police swooped on The Family’s lakeside compound and rescued children who claimed they were part of Anne’s future master race. The children recounted terrible stories of near starvation, emotional manipulation, and physical abuse. But Anne could not be found, sparking an international police hunt that involved Scotland Yard, Interpol, and the FBI. Could they bring Anne to justice?Today, the elderly Anne has an estate estimated to be worth millions, with only one minor criminal conviction to her name. Her few remaining followers attend her nursing-home bedside.How did such a notorious group come to flourish? How did Anne maintain a hold over her followers? And why was she never fully brought to justice?Drawing on revelatory new research, including interviews with survivors, The Family tells for the first time in full the strange and shocking story of one of the most bizarre cults in modern history.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As featured in Geoffrey Wansell's UPCOMING TRUE CRIME TV series, Murder By The Sea on CBS Reality . . . A fascinating exposé of the country's most violent murderers and their horrifying crimes, based on years of original research and intimate interviews.Pure Evil takes a close look at the country's deadliest criminals, from those who horrified the nation to those less famous but equally brutal; they are all serving life sentences behind bars, but what made them do it?Delving deeper into the stories of lifers such as Jeremy Bamber, Joanna Dennehy and Ian Huntley, Pure Evil asks whether they are just that...or something more complex.In this shocking, chilling and powerful book Geoffrey Wansell exposes killers' motivations and remorse, but also seeks out an answer to the vital question: should life always mean life?Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did you know?• Freemasonry's first American lodge included a young Benjamin Franklin among its members.• The Knights Templar began as impoverished warrior monks then evolved into bankers.• Groom Lake, Dreamland, Homey Airport, Paradise Ranch, The Farm, Watertown Strip, Red Square, “The Box,” are all names for Area 51.An indispensable guide, Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies connects the dots and sets the record straight on a host of greedy gurus and murderous messiahs, crepuscular cabals and suspicious coincidences. Some topics are familiar—the Kennedy assassinations, the Bilderberg Group, the Illuminati, the People's Temple and Heaven's Gate—and some surprising, like Oulipo, a select group of intellectuals who created wild formulas for creating literary masterpieces, and the Chauffeurs, an eighteenth-century society of French home invaders, who set fire to their victims' feet.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spree Killers:Practical Classifications for Law Enforcement and Criminologyis the only exhaustive, up-to-date analytical book on spree killers, standing apart from those dedicated to mass murderers and serial killers.Multicides have traditionally been categorized as double, triple, mass, serial and spree—while, mass and serial have been further divided into subcategories. Spree killing, which involves the killing of at least three persons at two or more locations due to a precipitating incident that fuels the urge to kill, remains a poorly defined concept.　In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) eliminated this term from its multicide nomenclature in 2005, but the authors examination of 359 cases involving 419 spree killers from 43 countries shows that not only is there enough diversity among spree killers to form classifications—similar to those devised for mass and serial—but also that subtypes offer distinct utility for identification, tracking, and warning potential targets.Spree Killers　outline the designation of spree killer specifically and thoroughly. In addition to looking at existing literature, specific cases, and the behavioral patterns, it offers a fully worked up profile for the typology. The behaviors and motives for spree killers align in six categories, which are detailed in full. The book provides unique insight for police, forensic, and investigative personnel into what to look for to respond to, and—in some cases identify and stopping—certain types of spree killings.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nigel Cawthorne is a prolific writer. Four of his publishers tell him that he is the most published living author in the UK. This is difficult to verify as he works under five different names and assumes other writers do too.He was born in Wolverhampton – though Wikipedia says it was Chicago – and was brought up in what was then rural Surrey, now commuter belt. His first job was milking cows. Though the feel of a warm udder has its attractions for an adolescent boy, most of the job consisted of shovelling cow shit… But let’s not go further down the route.He came to London to study physics at University College London and is, consequently, one of the Godless of Gower Street. To support himself, he became a printer’s message. Awaiting proofs at IPC Business Press one evening, he spotted a wanted ad on the notice board for a features writer on Nuclear Engineering International. He applied immediately. The vacancy had already been filled, but they offered him a job on a weekly tabloid for the white goods trade called the Electrical and Electronic Trader, where he learnt the craft of Grub Street.He had an affair with the wife of a gangster and fled to New York where he worked on a building site in Bed-Sty. He began writing for pornographic magazines. Then a new newspaper called The New York Trib started. Still an illegal immigrant, he began writing for it. When it failed, he was employed by the Financial Times, then went freelance.He went to see the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Hanoi researching The Bamboo Cage, showing that US service men held prisoner in southeast Asia after the Vietnam war. Though the book was not published in the US, he was called to testify to the US Senate. He followed up with The Iron Cage, showing 31,000 British prisoners of war disappeared into the gulags in 1945. Questions were asked in both houses of Parliament. His flat was broken into and documents taken.A nine-year-old boy turned up on his doorstep, his son with the women he had married in New York to get his Green Card. So he had to give up journalism to write books full time, so he could stay home and bring him up. He started full-time authorship with Takin’ Back – The Confessions of Ike Turner and went on to write the twelve-volume Sex Lives… series, beginning with Sex Lives of the Popes, which was a bestseller in Brazil. Sex Lives of the US Presidents came out just when Bill Clinton got caught with Monica Lewinsky. That got him on The Joan Rivers Show…He has now published 175 books as Nigel Cawthorne, Al Cimino, Alexander Macdonald, Gordon Bowers and Karl Streisand.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From teenage gang member to $40 million star of the New England Patriots, from All-American college player to drug addict, murderer, dead by suicide in his jail cell at age twenty-seven . . . you think you know the Aaron Hernandez story? You don’t. For the first time, Aaron Hernandez’s Killing Fields will reveal the real, hitherto unknown motive for the killing of Odin Lloyd—the only crime for which Hernandez was ever convicted and a revelation so shocking it will shake the foundations of the NFL itself. It will also unpick a pattern of violence and brutality stretching back to his time as a teenager at the University of Florida, revealing further shooting victims, evidence of his involvement in the double murder of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado in 2012, and, in a world exclusive, a compelling case for a fourth murder victim, shot just eleven days before the slaying of Odin Lloyd. Featuring new interviews with serving police investigators, prosecutors, psychologists, attorneys—as well as key witnesses including Hernandez’s drug dealer, a male stripper he hired days before the killing of Lloyd—plus extensive testimony from relatives of Hernandez’s victims, Killing Fields is the exhaustive, definitive account of the rise and fall of a man undone by his own appetite for violence, gangsterism, power, drugs, and self-destruction. This is the real Aaron Hernandez story—and perhaps just the beginning of a whole new murder investigation.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.