Rumors, witchcraft, and murder in this true crime account of one of New Jersey's most notorious cold cases—from two Weird N.J. magazine contributors.As Springfield residents decorated for Halloween in September 1972, the crime rate in the affluent New Jersey township was at its lowest in years. That mood was shattered when the body of sixteen-year-old Jeannette DePalma was discovered in the woods, allegedly surrounded by strange objects. Some feared witchc...

Less than five kilometres from Australia's most northern islands in the Torres Strait lies the southern coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The people living on the PNG side of the border along the South Fly coast live in abject poverty, with a near total absence of services and infrastructure. The disparity in income, housing and health outcomes when compared with their nearby neighbours and relatives in the Torres Strait Islands, is extreme. The border is the focus of a range of interventio...

How does Indigenous policy signed off in Canberra work-or not-when implemented in remote Aboriginal communities? Mark Moran, Alyson Wright and Paul Memmott have extensive on-the-ground experience in this area of ongoing challenge. What, they ask, is the right balance between respecting local traditions and making significant improvement in the areas of alcohol consumption, home ownership and revitalising cultural practices?Moran, Wright and Memmott have spent years dealing with the...

Prepare to be scared! This fully illustrated, award-winning collection of ghost stories will send shivers down your spine.If you're fascinated by haunted houses, ghostly graveyards, historic haunts, institutional apparitions, or spirited saloons, this spooky and spine-tingling collection of supernatural stories from across the US will tantalize your paranormal palate. Some of these hot spots are open to the public (and we include their address and website informati...

As Springfield residents decorated for Halloween in September 1972, the crime rate in the quiet, affluent township was at its lowest in years. That mood was shattered when the body of sixteen-year-old Jeannette DePalma was discovered in the local woods, allegedly surrounded by strange objects. Some feared witchcraft was to blame, while others believed a serial killer was on the loose. Rumors of a police coverup ran rampant, and the case went unsolved along with the murders of several other...

One brutal murder. Two possible suspects. And a "fascinating . . . puzzling case" that divided a Michigan community ( Lansing State Journal).In the summer of 1982, the body of twenty-year-old Maggie Hume was found under a pile of blankets in the closet of her apartment. A Catholic school girl and daughter of a local football coach, Maggie had been raped and strangled. It was the only active murder investigation in Battle Creek, Michigan, suggesting the cas...

The twelve-year rampage of "Missoula Mauler" Wayne Nance—and the shocking end to his murder spreeTo his neighbors, Wayne Nance, a furniture mover from Missoula, Montana, appeared to be an affable, considerate, and trustworthy guy. No one knew that Nance was the "Missoula Mauler," a psychopath responsible for a series of sadistic sex slayings that rocked the idyllic town between 1974 and 1986.Nance's only requirement for murder was accessibility—a preacher's ...

A troubled Los Angeles socialite is both terrorized and tempted by a killer in this "brilliantly written" true story by the author of A Death in Canaan (Ann Rule).Hope Masters lived in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Beverly Hills—but was entitled to food stamps. Pretty, petite, and privileged, she was recovering from two failed marriages and a string of poor decisions. But when Hope met and fell in love with a handsome advertising executive, she...

Edgar Award Finalist: The true story of a serial killer who terrorized a midwestern town in the era of free love—by the coauthor of The French Connection.In 1967, during the time of peace, free love, and hitchhiking, nineteen-year-old Mary Terese Fleszar was last seen alive walking home to her apartment in Ypsilanti, Michigan. One month later, her naked body—stabbed over thirty times and missing both feet and a forearm—was discovered, partially buried, on a...

Winner of the Edgar Award: The gripping account of a gruesome mass murder in gritty 1980s New York and the relentless hunt for a coldblooded killer.On a warm spring evening in 1982, thirty-seven-year-old accountant Margaret Barbera left work in New York City and walked to the West Side parking lot where she kept her BMW. Finding the lock on the driver's side door jammed, she went to the passenger's side and inserted her key. A man leaned through the open window of ...

When Stacey arrived at Bill Bateman's for her 5 year class reunion, she had no idea how a memory from her past would alter her future. In one innocent moment, a simple cordial act leads one on a path of jealous rage and another fighting for their life. Tempers flare, threats are exchanged, blood is shed, and the services of the homicide detectives are soon requested.In his second release, former homicide detective and award-winning author, Ken Lang, unveils the inner workings of a ...

The bestselling true crime author of Under Cover of the Night recounts Laura Ackerson’s disappearance and murder in North Carolina, the discovery of her remains in Texas, and the aftermath…On July 13, 2011, Laura Jean Ackerson of Kinston, North Carolina, went to pick up her two toddler sons. It would be the last time she was seen alive...Two weeks later, detectives searching for the missing mother made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Oyster Creek near...