A beautiful, sensuous and rich widow is brutally murdered in the most questionable of circumstances. The last person to see her alive is her brother-in-law and lover—a man later found guilty on circumstantial evidence. Not until the condemned man appealed did a witness come forward and admit that he had given false evidence. How did she die? Who was the other mysterious lover to whom she constantly penned saucy letters? Why did the witness lie?
Dan Rhodes, sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, is called to the Beauty Shack, where the young and pretty Lynn Ashton has been found dead, bashed over the head with a hairdryer. The owner said Lynn had gone to the salon late to meet an unknown client. There was a lot of gossip going on about Lynn before her death, but no one seems to really know much about her, or they're not telling Rhodes. Lynn was known to flirt, and it's possible an angry wife or jilted lover had something to do with her death. The salon owner suspects two outsiders who have been staying in an abandoned building across the street. While he investigates the murder, Rhodes must also deal with the theft of copper and car batteries, not to mention a pregnant nanny goat that is terrorizing the town. Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen is a wonderful entry in this always delightful series by award-winning author Bill Crider.
Twenty years ago, the unsolved murder of 6-year-old JonBen�t Ramsey created endless headlines around the globe. Now, her mysterious death is being reexamined in this fact filled book: The Death of a Beauty Queen.More than 140 suspects and 1,400 pieces of evidence have been reviewed in JonBen�t's murder, one of America's most talked-about cold cases. Burke and JonBen�t's parents, John and Patsy (who died in 2006 after a battle with ovarian cancer), were the primary suspects for more than a decade until police cleared them of any wrongdoing in 2008. For many the case is just a fading headline in their memories. But for others, it's a daily goal to find the killer of JonBen�t Ramsey. We will look at the facts and the details surrounding the evidence and hopefully uncover the answer to who killed JonBen�t Ramsey.
A brutal murder that shocked residents of Missouri—and a killer it took 25 years to bring to justice... On June 17, 1985, twenty-year-old beauty pageant winner Jackie Johns's car was found abandoned, the interior drenched in blood. Four days later, her bludgeoned, nude body was found floating in a nearby lake. Sheriff Dwight McNiel vowed to catch Jackie's killer, however long it took. His prime suspect: local rich kid Gerald Carnahan. But despite suspicions, the evidence never managed to add up, and Carnahan slipped away again and again. Throughout the next two decades, multiple other women went missing, some murdered, some never found. Fearful residents believed that a murderous bogeyman was connected to all these crimes. Carnahan's conviction on the attempted kidnapping charge of another young woman brought his name into the mix over and over again--but all of the cases remained unsolved for decades, until a highway patrol sergeant sent DNA from the Jackie Johns's murder for testing and came up with a quadrillions-to-one match to Carnahan. This is the true account of a murderer who thought he was beyond punishment, and the lawmen who would not relent until justice was finally done.
Of all the many psychopaths and sociopaths that have hunted for human victims throughout history, few have been more disturbing or mysterious than Christopher Bernard Wilder - the beauty queen killer. From the middle of the 1960s until 1984, Wilder sexually assaulted countless women and murdered at least nine in Australia and the United States. The beauty queen killer was not only a true psychopath, but also a hunter as he carefully chose attractive girls and young women to victimize. But Wilder was no creepy looking killer; he was an attractive, articulate man who used a camera and offers of a modelling career to get his unsuspecting, naive victims to remote locations where he would then rape, torture, and ultimately kill them. Among serial killer biographies, Wilder's is a cautionary tale. First as a juvenile and later as a young man, Wilder was arrested on numerous occasions for sexual assaults in both Australia and United States; but he never served any time behind bars due to technicalities, witnesses refusing to testify, or the judges showing sympathy towards the beauty queen killer. When one considers some of the better known American crime stories from history, many red-flags are apparent that point towards the future criminal potential of an individual: for Wilder, the flags were bright, crimson, quite large, and difficult to avoid, yet were ignored by his friends, family, and the authorities. Christopher Wilder's saga is therefore not just a true crime murder story, but also an unfortunate example of how the system can fail to protect the public from a known sexual sadist. Open the pages of this intriguing book and read the story of an American serial killer who had it all: looks, money, and beautiful women. But as this captivating true crime story will reveal, nothing was ever enough for the beauty queen killer as he killed his way across the United States in order to satisfy his sadistic lust. Aspects of the Christopher Bernard Wilder story will disturb you, but at the same time you will find it difficult to put this serial killer biography down because you will be drawn in by the FBI's hunt to capture the elusive criminal."
This Student Edition of Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane features expert and helpful annotation, including a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well a list of suggested reading and questions for further study and a review of performance history. Set in the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, The Beauty Queen of Leenane tells the darkly comic tale of Maureen Folan, a plain and lonely spinster in her early forties, and Mag her devilishly manipulative ageing mother whose interference in Maureen's first and potentially last loving relationship sets in motion a train of events that is as gothically funny as it is horrific. Maureen might long for the romance that will spirit her away, but if she goes, who will stir the lumps out of Mag's Complan? The Beauty Queen of Leenane was first presented as a Druid Theatre/Royal Court Theatre co-production in January 1996. An instant classic from its first performance, The Beauty Queen of Leenane established Martin McDonagh as the natural successor to Oscar Wilde and Joe Orton. The Oscar and Bafta-winning writer's other films and plays include In Bruges and The Pillowman.
Murder for Beauty describes the horrific murders by a serial killer planning to take over the cosmetics and perfume industry by killing off top executives of rival companies. Sleuth Happy Harrow, a Kentucky-born woman jockey married to a British race horse trainer based in Epsom, has a supernatural clairvoyant talent to find killers. Happy is drawn into these serial killings by a neighbor who is a Queen in the cosmetics and perfume business heading the WOW!Me Empire. Happy takes the case to save the Queens under threat. Travelling to Italy, Monaco, and Turkey, she stalks the killer in France.
Stephen Killigan has been cold since the day he came to Cambridge as a senior lecturer. Something about the seven hundred years of history staining the stones of the university has given him a chill he can't shake. When he stumbles across the body of a missing beauty queen, he thinks he's found the reason. But when the police go to retrieve the body and find no trace, Killigan has found a problem - and a killer - that is the very opposite of reason.
From bestselling, Printz Award-winning author Libba Bray, the story of a plane of beauty pageant contestants that crashes on a desert island.Teen beauty queens. A "Lost"-like island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to emall. And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives underground in girls, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Oh, the horror, the horror! Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count.
