501 Most Notorious Crimes

Crime is an endlessly fascinating subject - crime novels sell in their millions each year; detectives - amateur and professional - have been a staple in the cinema and on television ever since the media were invented. Readers and viewers thrill to their exploits as they solve seemingly baffing crimes, apprehend the baddies and bring them to justice.

However, as this fascinating survey of 501 Most Notorious Crimes by best-selling author and crime historian Paul Donnelley shows, true crime is often more bizarre than its fictional counterpart.

Beginning in Biblical times and ending in the 21st centuty, Donnelley recounts the most horrific, gruesome, frightening, unusual, chilling and blood-curdling crimes of all time, from all over the world; from the mansions of Beverly Hills to the back streets of India.

Divided into ten chapters are tales of grave robbers, unsolved crimes, crimes passionels, serial killers, child killers and child killings, kidnappings, spies, prison escapes, terrorism, witchcraft, necrophilia, miscarriages of justice and just about every criminal activity you can imagine.

As well as recounting the detail of each crime, Donnelley tell you what happened afterwards - what happened to the participants and often the criminals and their victims speak for themselves, revealing their reasoning behind their actions. The traitor George Blake said "I did what I did for ideological reasons, never money." Samantha Gailey, the 13-year-old with whom Roman Polanski had sex said, "I don't think he needs to be locked up forever and no one has ever come out ever - besides me - and accused him of anything. It was thirty years ago now. It's an unpleasant memory... [but] I can live with it." The pirate Blackbeard justified executing errant crew members: "If I don't shoot one or two crewmen now and then, they'd forget who I am."

501 Most Notorious Crimes is far more riveting than any crime novel!