He was a pioneer in modern law enforcement, a trailblazing leader in the hunt for serial killers. But after decades of staring deep into the darkness, he entered a seminary to search for the good... BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL No one gets closer to evil than a criminal profiler, trained to penetrate the hearts and minds of society's most vicious psychopaths. And no one is a more towering figure in the world of criminal profilers than Roger L. Depue. Chief of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit at a time when its innovative work first came to prominence, he headed a renowned team of mind hunters that included John Douglas, Robert Ressler, and Roy Hazelwood. In a subbasement sixty feet under the Academy gun vault in Quantico, he broke new ground with analytical techniques and training programs that are still used today. After retiring from the FBI, he founded an elite forensics group that consulted on high-profile cases, including the Martha Moxley and JonBenet Ramsey murders, and the Columbine school shootings. But coming face-to-face with the darkest deeds human beings are capable of took a horrific toll. After suffering a devastating personal loss, Depue, on the brink of despair, walked away from the outside world and joined a seminary. For three years this was his safe haven, a place where he exorcised personal demons and found a refuge from terrifying memories of real-life monsters. And it was there, while counseling maximum security inmates, that he rediscovered the capacity for goodness in people, and made the decision to return to the world to resume his work. Here is Depue's extraordinary personal account, from growing up as a police officer's son to tracking down some of today's most brutal murderers. With its harrowing descriptions of human depravity and passionate call to fight against evil, BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL is both a riveting dispatch from the front lines of a war against human predators...and the powerful story of one man's journey between darkness and redemption.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.
From bestselling author Michael Shermer, an investigation of the evolution of morality that is "a paragon of popularized science and philosophy" The Sun (Baltimore) A century and a half after Darwin first proposed an "evolutionary ethics," science has begun to tackle the roots of morality. Just as evolutionary biologists study why we are hungry (to motivate us to eat) or why sex is enjoyable (to motivate us to procreate), they are now searching for the very nature of humanity. In The Science of Good and Evil, science historian Michael Shermer explores how humans evolved from social primates to moral primates; how and why morality motivates the human animal; and how the foundation of moral principles can be built upon empirical evidence. Along the way he explains the implications of scientific findings for fate and free will, the existence of pure good and pure evil, and the development of early moral sentiments among the first humans. As he closes the divide between science and morality, Shermer draws on stories from the Yanamamö, infamously known as the "fierce people" of the tropical rain forest, to the Stanford studies on jailers' behavior in prisons. The Science of Good and Evil is ultimately a profound look at the moral animal, belief, and the scientific pursuit of truth.
"Between Good and Evil" is a comedy stage play script about heroes and aliens for 7 to 42 actors. The play includes the following monologues and scripts: "Monologue from Another World" (page 1), "Touched by an Alien" (page 2), "Protecto" (page 9), "Stung" (page 10), "Blinded by the Knight" (page 16), "Man of Metropolis" (page 32), "Mugged in Metropolis" (page 38), "Princess from Another Planet" (page 42), "Growing Up is Hard to Do" (page 50), "A Werewolf in my Bed" (page 51), "Dreaming of Dragons" (page 60), "Chocolate and Kisses" (page 60), "Superhero Support Group" (page 66), and "Super Dead Man" (page 89). Cover art by Shiela Larson
The war is over, the good guys have triumphed, and, everything is Happily Ever After.... and boring as hell. An assassin, a thief, a sorceress, a dark knight and a druid set forth to ruin everything, in this tongue-in-cheek twist on the traditional fantasy tale.
Striking toward peace and harmony the human being is ceasely torn apart in personal, social, national life by wars, feuds, inequities and intimate personal conflicts for which there seems to be no respite. Does the human condition in interaction with others imply a constant adversity? Or, is this conflict owing to an interior or external factor of evil governing our attitudes and conduct toward the other person? To what criteria should I refer for appreciation, judgment, direction concerning my attitudes and my actions as they bear on the well-being of others? At the roots of these questions lies human experience which ought to be appropriately clarified before entering into speculative abstractions of the ethical theories and precepts. Literature, which in its very gist, dwells upon disentangling in multiple perspective the peripeteia of our life-experience offers us a unique field of source-material for moral and ethical investigations. Literature brings preeminently to light the Moral Sentiment which pervades our life with others -- our existence tout court. Being modulated through the course of our experiences the Moral Sentiment sustains the very sense of literature and of personal human life (Tymieniecka).
Excerpts from the book I saw the main entrance getting a sharp shock. That moment only in the cow house I saw the cow jumping. All the doors from the main gate to the storeroom were pushed one by one by some invisible power. In the end the storeroom door got a big shock. A wave of air entered the storeroom. The cow had given birth to a calf a few days ago. That calf was tied in the storeroom only. The calf was sleeping. But as the wind entered the room, the calf woke up and started bouncing. We brother and sister got scared. Then only I felt the breeze rotating around my neck with some pressure. I got scared if Guru Akhandanand wants to strangle me? ** * She screamed, ‘I can’t leave A.P.! A.P. is mine only! A.P. is mine! A.P….’ I said, ‘Say this to that lady!’ She said fearfully, ‘No! She is scary!’ I asked, ‘Does she have long teeth or scary face?’ She said ‘No! She is beautiful. But I am feeling fear from her.’ I asked ‘How old is that lady?’ She said ‘About 25 years. She is asking me to leave A.P. Call A.P. I have to go to my A.P.’ ** * Then she looked at me and gave me a crooked and mysterious smile. Her face expressions were not of her. It was strange, cold and scary. Doesn’t know why I felt a wave of fear running down my spine. I controlled myself and asked to her, ‘What happened? Su? (I used to call her Su, short form of Sunita).’ She smiled in a way like she was making fun of me. Then she said in a friendly but stone hard, ice cold way, ‘You won’t be able to save her. I will kill your SU drop by drop like this only.’ ** * It was Tuesday night. I was practicing meditation by sitting in Padmasana posture. Suddenly I heard anklet’s sound around me, like some female came and was walking around me. Without getting scared I kept practicing meditation in the same posture. But after some time anklet’s sound came closer to me as if she had stepped on my meditation carpet. Means she had come too near to me. Yet I kept meditating. Then only doesn’t know from where a gust of breeze entered the room despite closed door and windows and began to hug me. The touch of the breeze was very ecstatic and it was giving me very deep pleasure. I found myself unable to keep the breeze away from me. ** * Again I felt myself laid in the jungle. Then only I saw an angry wolf stepping towards me, towards my head from 10 feet distance. Wolf’s stepping on the dry leaves was producing rattling sound. That wolf came near my left ear and growled fiercely. A chilled vibe ran through my whole body. The wolf started entering my body through my left ear hole. ** * That night in my half-waken sleep and half-waken dream, suddenly I felt weightlessness. A strange beautiful girl whose colour was unfair and skin was glowing, came in my dream. Her presence was not unfamiliar at all. She took my hand in her hand with love and flown off holding my hand and took me on a high branch of a tree in an unknown place. In my dream, I was realizing that she was a ghost. But yet I had no feeling of fear. I was totally fearless and I was feeling oneness with her. She poured a lot of love on me through her silent presence. When I woke up in the morning, I was feeling deeply contented and light. ** * He stepped on the road. As he reached the middle of the road, he became hundreds of feet tall. He was moving towards the field in his front. That field ended to some localities. Just in three steps he crossed the long field, entered some locality and got out of my eyes. ** * Life is the most precious gift which the God has given us just for free. We should value it. I was lucky that I was saved despite taking in 78 sleeping pills. But if I was not saved, how could I enjoy my life after the end of those dark days. We should always remember – good days always come and bad days always go. ** * Namaskar! I am Anurag Pandey (since 1978). I am writer, author, poet, lyricist and computer programmer. My poems have been published in national newspapers and magazines of India like Navbharat Times, Kadambini etc. I have written Story/ Dialogues/ Screenplay for various TV Shows like Lady Inspector, Shaka Laka Boom Boom, Indonesian TV shows etc. At present I live in Bhubaneswar, India. Meditation, yoga, mystery, paranormal, supernatural, love, relationships are some of my favorite topics to read and write. I hope you would enjoy reading this book. Your invaluable reviews requested.
A key theme in the anthropology of beliefs is the relationship between socio-economic change and changes in the belief system. It has been widely argued that rapid economic change, particularly the introduction of capitalism, leads to an increase in beliefs in, and representations of, evil and the devil. These beliefs, it is argued, constitute forms of resistance to, or rejection of, "modernity." This volume builds on these arguments, suggesting that rather than an indigenous resistance to capitalism, such representations signal a profound moral ambivalence towards the socio-economic process inherent in capitalist economy. Using a range of examples, from Surinamese zombies to American horror films, it demonstrates the extent to which evil imagery is linked to a fear of excess, particularly in situations where people find themselves, or perceive themselves, to be peripheral to the centers of political, economic, and cultural power.
