Featuring five famous trials, this book examines the way our right to a fair trial can be threatened, when people are tempted to abandon their principles in the name of safety. Trials included are the Salem Witch Trials, the Haymarket Affair Trial, the Scopes "Monkey" Trial, the trial of Alger Hiss, and the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui--the latter not yet covered extensively in any book.
An account of scandal, sex, jealousy, and murder in New York high society at the turn of the century profiles the debonair Roland Molineux, one of New York's most eligible bachelors, and possible killer who used poison to eliminate romantic and profession
The true story that is the basis for The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It opening in theaters June 4, 2021. It began with the lust of demons and the corruption of a young boy named David Glatzel. It ended with a murder trial that made headlines across the country--the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, accused of brutally knifing a friend to death. Johnson's defense startled the nation: not guilty, by reason of demonic possession. Here is the horrifying true story of what happened on terrible summer in the sleepy town of Brookfield, Connecticut. How the Glatzels, an average suburban family, came under a terrifying demonic attack that changed their lives. How their eleven-year-old son, David, suffered monstrous visitations by an entity he could only identify as "the Beast." How a close friend, Arne Cheyenne Johnson, became the tragic victim of forces beyond anyone's control...and how the Glatzels' ordeal has still not ended.
The remarkable true story of a turn-of-the-19th century murder and the trial that ensued—a showdown in which iconic political rivals Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr joined forces to make sure justice was served—from bestselling author of the Edgar finalist, Murder of the Century. In the closing days of 1799, the United States was still a young republic. Waging a fierce battle for its uncertain future were two political parties: the well-moneyed Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the populist Republicans, led by Aaron Burr. The two finest lawyers in New York, Burr and Hamilton were bitter rivals both in and out of the courtroom, and as the next election approached, their animosity reached a crescendo. But everything changed when a young Quaker woman, Elma Sands, was found dead in Burr's newly constructed Manhattan Well. The horrific crime quickly gripped the nation, and before long accusations settled on one of Elma’s suitors: a handsome young carpenter named Levi Weeks. As the enraged city demanded a noose be draped around his neck, Week's only hope was to hire a legal dream team. And thus it was that New York’s most bitter political rivals and greatest attorneys did the unthinkable—they teamed up. Our nation’s longest running cold case, Duel with the Devil delivers the first substantial break in the case in over 200 years. At once an absorbing legal thriller and an expertly crafted portrait of the United States in the time of the Founding Fathers, Duel with the Devil is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.
THE STORY: Jabez Stone, young farmer, has just been married, and the guests are dancing at his wedding. But Jabez carries a burden, for he knows that, having sold his soul to the Devil, he must, on the stroke of midnight, deliver it up to him. Shortly before twelve Mr. Scratch, lawyer, enters and the company is thunderstruck. Jabez bids his guests begone; he has made his bargain and will pay the price. His bride, however, stands by him, and so will Daniel Webster, who has come for the festivities. Webster takes the case. But Scratch is a lawyer himself and out-argues the statesman. Webster demands a jury of real Americans, living or dead. Very well, agrees the Devil, he shall have them, and ghosts appear. Webster thunders, but to no avail, and at last realizing Scratch can better him on technical grounds, he changes his tactics and appeals to the ghostly jury, men who have retained some love of country. Rising to the height of his powers, Webster performs the miracle of winning a verdict of Not Guilty.
“A brilliant account” of the controversial 2005 legal battle between evolution and creationism in public education “by a first-rate journalist” (Howard Zinn). In 2004, the School Board of Dover, Pennsylvania, decided to require its ninth-grade biology students to learn intelligent design—a pseudoscientific theory positing evidence of an intelligent creator. In a case that recalled the infamous 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial, eleven parents sued the school board. When the case wound up in federal court before a President George W. Bush–appointed judge, local journalist Lauri Lebo had a front-row seat. Destined to become required reading for a generation of journalists, scientists, and science teachers, as well as for anyone concerned about the separation of church and state, The Devil in Dover is Lebo’s acclaimed account of religious intolerance, First Amendment violations, and an assault on American science education. Lebo skillfully probes the background of the case, introducing the plaintiffs, the defendants, the lawyers, and a parade of witnesses, along with Judge John E. Jones III, who would eventually condemn the school board’s decision as one of “breathtaking inanity.” With the antievolution battle having moved to the state level—and the recent passage of state legislation that protects the right of schools to teach alternatives to evolution—Lebo’s work is more necessary than ever. “Lebo courageously exhibits the highest standards in intellectual honesty and journalistic ethos.” —Daily Kos “An unapologetic indictment of intelligent design, fundamentalist Christianity, and American journalism’s insistence on objectivity in the face of clear untruths.” —Columbia Journalism Review
The award-winning investigative journalist takes readers deep inside the 1993 slayings of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, revealing the overzealous prosecution that may have improperly convicted three teenagers.
County Antrim, Ireland, 1711: Eight women were put on trial accused of bewitching and demonically possessing young Mary Dunbar, amid an attack by evil spirits on the local community and after the supernatural murder of a clergyman's wife. Mary Dunbar was the star witness in this trial, and the women were, by the standards of the time, believable witches – they dabbled in magic, they smoked, they drank, they had disabilities. A second trial targeted a final male 'witch' and head of the Sellor 'witch family'. With echoes of the Salem witch-hunt, this is a story of murder, of a community in crisis and of how the witchhunts that claimed over 50,000 lives in Europe played out on Irish shores. It plunges the reader into a world where magic was real and the power of the Devil felt, with disastrous consequences.
Margaret Hosseini-Browder was born into a home ruled by an Iranian sadist father, dubbed "Chuckie" by his children after the cinematic horror icon. Eventually escaping the terrors of her youth, Margaret found solace in family life and her Christian faith. She built a successful tax preparation business, becoming a popular advocate for taxpayers, and responsible animal ownership.Her world came crashing down on the day that the IRS decided that taxpayers should not have an advocate, and she learned that the DOJ will destroy the lives of everyday Americans without a second thought, and unimpeded by the laws that are supposed to protect citizens from government persecution.Margaret has joined the other #MeToo group; those who have been unfairly attacked by unscrupulous government prosecutors who forced friends and associates into the Devil's Bargain.Over and over the government is forcing people to choose between their own lives or the lives of their friends and associates. This is the Devil's Bargain. Truth and justice are no longer a consideration to government actors who abuse their power.Follow Margaret as she seeks justice for herself, and the many others who have no voice. This is what her book is about.
From the terrifying case file that inspired the film The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. From this New York Times bestselling author comes a shocking case of demonic possession, exorcism, and murder starring the legendary demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, who battled the Amityville Horror and whose real-life case files inspired The Conjuring Universe, which includes The Conjuring, Annabelle, and The Nun films. It was one of the most sensational murder trials of the 1980s. When Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabbed an acquaintance to death with a five-inch folding knife, Johnson presented one of the most shocking legal defenses in history: not guilty by virtue of demonic possession. As the press put it, “the Devil made me do it.” Johnson’s shocking story began months earlier, when his girlfriend’s eleven-year-old brother, David, encountered a spectral figure looming at the foot of the bed and then started showing telltale signs of demonic possession. David suddenly spoke in Latin, levitated, and suffered beatings at the hands of an invisible demon. After a team of Catholic priests failed to drive the demon out, the case was taken up by Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens had fought demons across the globe, but the Connecticut Devil would be one of their greatest challenges, and perhaps their most deadly. Now includes an 8-page photo insert documenting the possession with images from the Glatzel family and the Ed and Lorraine Warren collection.
