Four Shocking True Crime Tales

Book excerpt: Four bizarre true crime stories about serial killers, murder sprees, sideshows, and church pulpits in one sensational volume. These grisly true crime books by a former New York Times columnist chronicle four shocking and disturbing cases. Body Dump: Few people in Poughkeepsie, New York, paid mind when prostitutes started vanishing off the streets. Nor did anyone have hard evidence to link the disappearances to suspect Kendall Francois, a slovenly middle school hall monitor nicknamed Stinky. Then, one woman escaped his house of horrors and led authorities to the ghastly secrets hidden in Francois’s attic. Flesh Collectors: When social misfit Jeremiah Rodgers and racist devil-worshipper Jonathan Lawrence met in a Florida penal system mental hospital, they discovered a mutual lust for sadism. Then, they were released. What followed was a thrill-killing spree of murder, rape, and cannibalism—the makings of an “unforgettable . . . true crime classic” (Dan Zupansky, host of Blog Talk Radio’s True Murder). Lobster Boy: With his lobster-claw hands and stunted legs, Grady Stiles Jr. traveled the carnival circuit as Lobster Boy. He was also a violently dangerous husband and father who had been convicted once before of murder. After years of abuse, his wife—a sideshow wonder known as the Electrified Girl—fought back with a murder-for-hire. Deacon of Death: By day, Sam Smithers, deacon of the Baptist church in Plant City, Florida, was a family man beyond reproach. By night, he was a sex-addicted killer who trolled for prostitutes. When the decomposed bodies of two women were found off a rural road in Tampa, no one suspected the clergyman. Then one day, a local woman saw sweet Mr. Smithers cleaning his bloody axe.