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Thirtieth Anniversary Edition of the first book to expose the Titanic cover-up. Over 500 pages, illustrated, thoroughly indexed, with a full color hardcover option, this is the book TITANIC aficionados have been waiting to own for 30 years. In over 100 years there have been literally thousands of books written on the catastrophic maiden voyage of the RMS TITANIC. And yet, questions, myths, and lies still persist about that fateful night. Why was the TITANIC on a route that put her in the most perilous of ice-congested sea lanes? Why did TITANIC choose not to launch regulation distress rockets in her effort to summon help? Why did TITANIC turn away a German ship in favor of a British rescuer? How did a fire in the ship’s forward bunkers impact the structural integrity of the ship? Above all, how did an impending World War and the deteriorating relationships between Britain, Germany, and the United States—largely over the merchant domination of the world’s shipping lanes—set forth an unbreakable chain of events that put the TITANIC two and a half miles beneath the surface of the North Atlantic, taking her captain, her logbook, and the truth with her? As TITANIC: Sinking the Myths meticulously demonstrates, the real root cause of the disaster was greed, multiplied by an imperative schedule, and wrapped up in a conspiracy to cover up White Star’s policy to put profits over the lives of the passengers. Thirty years ago, in this book’s first edition, Diana Bristow unraveled the myths to give the original, no-stone-unturned account of the events that led up to—and followed—the sinking of the TITANIC. Bristow goes right to the heart and source of the campaign of deception that served only one purpose, to protect J.P. Morgan, the White Star Line, and all their investors from astronomical liability and financial ruin if the captain, crew, or management were found negligent in the events that led to the sinking of the TITANIC. Never before had any researcher ever so deeply studied the rules, laws, regulations, and economic and political factors that ultimately led to the deaths of 1,500 people. Bristow’s long-sought-after book, out of print for thirty years, is now presented here in an updated edition. Once you’ve read TITANIC: Sinking the Myths, you will understand why it’s the first—and last—book you ever need to read about the most infamous maritime disaster in peacetime history.

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David Dean

Tomorrow's Dead $15.50

In this new collection, David Dean—Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’s longtime favorite author—brings you the Edgar Award nominated “Tomorrow’s Dead,” along with ten other short stories of crime and suspense. This master of short fiction has entertained readers for decades with his suspenseful stories, and for the first time ever you can read them back-to-back. Tomorrow’s Dead and Other Stories of Crime and Suspense takes the reader through mysterious misdeeds that will bring you to the edge of your seat… or have you hiding under your covers. In these arresting short stories, David Dean’s characters find themselves in sticky, often illegal, situations that shift at every turn. From the chief of police being blamed for a series of murders to long lost siblings on quests for revenge, these stories will leave you wanting more. Luckily, the next Collection is on its way soon!

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Leya Booth

True Crime Activity Book $9.99 $11.99

Are you entertained by Sudoku and serial killers? Crosswords and crime? Then play detective and solve these entertaining puzzles! Alongside some of your favorite brain teasers are facts about infamous true crime cases. From word searches and encrypted messages to coloring Ted Bundy in court, the True Crime Activity Book will test your puzzle-solving skills and feed your need for true crime. In line with Genius Books' philosophy, this book honors the victims and celebrates the heroes who fight for them.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Untitled</title> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"/> <style> /* ePub CSS */ h1 {padding-top: 15%;} .indent {text-indent: 5%;} .center {text-align: center;} .right {text-align: right;} .margin {margin: 0 5%;} .margin-indent {margin: 0 5%; text-indent: 5%;} .bigmargin {margin: 0 5% 0 10%;} .bigmargin-indent {margin: 0 5% 0 10%; text-indent: 5%;} .hugemargin {margin: 0 5% 0 15%;} .hugemargin-indent {margin: 0 5% 0 15%; text-indent: 5%;} img {max-width: 94%;} body {margin: 0 3%; text-align: justify;} .spacer {padding-bottom: 1em;} </style> </head> <body> <h1 id="c1">Case Briefing</h1> <div class="spacer"></div> <div>Welcome to the incident room. This is your case briefing.</div> <div class="indent">“Congratulations on your promotion to homicide detective,” the Detective Major tells you. “You and your partner will be assigned to our major cases. As a team, you will uncover evidence, interview suspects and witnesses, and, if there’s enough conclusive evidence, send the case to the DA. Good luck, we’re all counting on you.”</div> <div class="indent">As a reader in the role of a member of the somewhat fictionalized investigative team, you will face several challenges. You will uncover the evidence based upon historical crimes as an actual investigator would—as they present themselves in the course of the investigation. The crimes are real, and the evidence comes from the actual case files. Your partners are fictional characters based on a composite of real detectives and others who investigated these crimes. All the evidence that is uncovered is based on police reports, interviews, court transcripts, and contemporary news reports.</div> <div class="indent">These cases are truly a collaboration between you, the reader, and the rest of the investigative team at the crime scenes. At the conclusion of each case, you will provide an assessment of the evidence and decide for yourself where the evidence leads you.</div> <div class="indent">As you work your way through these crimes, keep in mind there was a diligent endeavor to maintain important interviews and the evidence for these real cases as accurate as possible. Most of the conversations of the individuals involved were taken from actual interviews and transcripts of the cases. The conversations between you and the fictional detectives are, of course, invented to propel the story forward.</div> <div class="indent">The evidence discovered is based on diligent research. Some of the specifics may surprise you, as they have not been highly publicized, such as new suspects or a new approach to analyzing the evidence.</div> <div class="indent">The stories have been adapted to allow you, as the main character, to uncover pertinent evidence. All other aspects of the real cases have been maintained for accuracy.</div> <div class="indent">As you read through the case and follow the evidence, remember that each step in a criminal investigation is a conscious choice. What is the evidence telling you? Would you have proceeded as these detectives did? Does the totality and circumstances of the case warrant the steps taken by these detectives? Are there any bits of evidence that you would have given more weight to than these detectives did?</div> <div class="indent">In these stories, you are also challenged to consider some new approaches that have not been previously presented before. See if you agree with the conclusions of the detectives you are “partnered” with.</div> <div class="indent">You are also challenged to test your knowledge of true crime and use the evidence, locations, and crime scenes to name the actual cases behind the re-creations. The names have been changed but, again, the evidence from these true crimes reflects the actual evidence.</div> <div class="indent">In many true crime cases, there can be a definitive turning point in the investigation that alters the judgment of the investigating detective. A piece of evidence that changes the trajectory of the case. It flips the switch on the case, it is the ignition point. It changes the case from questionable to convincing in the mind of the detective, and clearly points to the one perpetrator. Since you are the detective in all the cases that are contained in this book, an additional challenge is for you to find that ignition point that will help you solve each of these cases.</div> <div class="indent">As you become more experienced as an investigator, your partners, first starting out as your trainer, gradually gives you more freedom to explore the evidence on your own. As your expertise grows, your partner more frequently asks your advice about the evidence and the suspects you will encounter. You will learn the value of not jumping to conclusions. Even if you are familiar with the suspects, you only go where the evidence takes you. You often contribute suggestions during the investigation but, like every great investigator who has come before you, you always wait until all the evidence has been tested and the investigation concludes to render your opinion on the case.</div> <div class="indent">You are not required to agree with your team. You are encouraged to take notes along the way and come to your own conclusions about which suspect, if any, should be sent to the DA for prosecution.</div> <div class="indent">Now get to work.</div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="spacer"></div> </body> </html>

Steve Scarborough

True Crime in Real Time $15.50

“Welcome to the Incident Room. This is your Case Briefing.”Congratulations on your first day as a police detective. You have been partnered with an experienced detective who will walk you through some of the toughest and most infamous crimes in American history. You will visit the crime scene, review the evidence, search for clues, interview witnesses, read the news reports, and decide with your partner who’s the most likely culprit and send the case off to the DA’s office. This is true crime in real time.As you gain experience, you will be given more autonomy in investigating the cases. Your partner will be there to guide and observe you, but it will be up to you to not only decide who to prosecute, but also name the famous case based on the facts and circumstances. Your investigative skills will be challenged, and so will your knowledge of historical cases throughout the decades, from the late 19th century to the present.Follow the evidence wherever it takes you, don’t jump to conclusions, and use the experience you gain through these investigations to make your case. Even if you recognize the case and think you know the answers, think again. These cases were selected to challenge and surprise you.Now get to work.

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Slade Templeton

Truth of the Shadows $16.50 $17.95

A DARKNESS IS IN ALL OF US Cottage Grove Oregon is a sleepy little town, but in the surrounding forests, an ancient nightmare is growing stronger. Dr. Joseph Hoffman, head psychiatrist at Cottage Grove Hospital, wants to believe he has all the answers to his patients’ problems, but there is a darkness within him that always lurks beneath the thin veneer of his competence. That veneer is about to crack. In his Victorian home at the edge of the forest, his troubled memories hide in untouched rooms under a thick blanket of dust. He thinks he has them under his control, but as he delves into his patients’ twisted stories, the shadows of their insanity begin to follow him home. In order to see what is happening to him, Joseph must turn everything he knows about his past, and his reality, upside down. As he gets closer to discovering the source of the malevolence that surrounds him, he feels his sanity slipping away. Joseph must uncover the truth before it consumes him. Something terrible is taking over, and he may be the only one who can figure out why. “The author’s rich and dark psychological landscape shows a suspenseful tale of evil iconography, while providing room to create a mysterious world. The decisive intensity of the characters comes from the narrative’s beyond world experiences - A book well worth picking up!” —Brian Perera, CEO of Cleopatra Records / Cleopatra Entertainment

Kimberly Croft

Unbroken $15.50

Scarlett Fergusson’s life is anything but perfect. Working as a waitress in a small town, she lives with her addicted father, his girlfriend, and her toddler. Scarlett dreams of a better life. When wealthy Hugh Cruz sweeps her off her feet, she’s ready to believe that her life has turned around. And when Hugh proposes, her fairytale ending suddenly seems possible. But Hugh isn’t the man she thinks he is. Cruel, controlling, and violent, he turns her fairytale into a nightmare. Scarlett can’t believe the woman she’s become. Just when things can’t get any worse for Scarlett, the unthinkable happens. Is it the end, or a new beginning? Unbroken is the tale of a woman’s fight for survival, and her quest to discover her own strength.

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Billy The Liquor Guy

Under Too Long from $17.95

In 2007, agents of the New York State Petroleum, Alcohol, and Tobacco Bureau (PATB) seized over half a million dollars in untaxed alcohol, drugs, and guns. This takedown, the largest in New York history, led to 87 arrests, the recovery of an unprecedented quantity of cocaine, crack, and marijuana, and captured the attention of law enforcement agencies all around the world. Under Too Long is the story of the PATB undercover team that led this investigation, as seen through the eyes of “Billy the Liquor Guy.” Billy’s twelve-year odyssey into the world of undercover operations led him to dine in the homes of the “bad guys, ” buy bombs from a man in Yonkers, travel to Tunisia to find an informant, and be hired as a hit man. But his undercover life took an enormous toll on Billy and his family, almost destroying them both. The only thing he could rely upon to get him through were his confidence, his sense of humor, and his team. This story combines true life investigation, graphic behind-the-scenes scenarios, and a personal tale about what happens psychologically to an agent when he’s undercover too long. Under too Long is available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook editions. Paperback, 5.5x8.5, 311 pages ISBN: 978-1-947521-17-9

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Monique Patterson

United in Grief $12.00 $16.00

Stephanie Scott had never been happier. She was about to marry the man of her dreams and celebrate with all her family and friends. She had worked for hours to add personal touches to the special day. When her fiancé asked her to head out of town for a party she told him she had a few more things to tick off her to-do list. One was to head into Leeton High School, where she was a teacher, to finalise plans for her replacement while she was on her honeymoon. No one thought twice when Stephanie told them of her plans. No one could predict what would happen that fateful day. No one ever thought that evil could break the heart of a town and a nation. But a psychopath had been hiding in plain sight all along, waiting to make his move. After finishing university, Stephanie Scott moved to Leeton, New South Wales, to take a position as a teacher at the local high school. She and her fiancé were making plans to spend the rest of their lives in the quiet town. Stephanie was a beloved teacher, a source of encouragement and joy for everyone she met. A week before her wedding, she decided to spend a few hours preparing for her replacement while she was on her upcoming honeymoon. When her fiancé and family couldn’t find her later that day or the days following, no one really believed anything could have happened to their cherished friend and teacher. But someone knew where she was, and he would be the last person to see her alive. United in Grief tells the story of Stephanie Scott’s murder and how the town of Leeton and indeed the entire nation of Australia was affected by her disappearance, and the grief that followed such a tragic loss.

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Eric Garrett

Unprosecuted $13.50 $17.95

“Everybody knows who did it!” In the aftermath of a horrific murder of a mother in front of her four-year-old son, the entire close-knit community knew the murderer could only be one man. Several witnesses—including Eric, the boy left for dead—placed the murderer at the crime scene. But in Muncie, Indiana—also known as Little Chicago for its corruption, gambling, and attraction for criminal enterprise—during the late 1970s, nothing in the criminal justice system was that simple. After the county prosecutor declared the case “open and shut,” some very important people in town became nervous that if the murderer was convicted, he would start naming names and telling stories about the criminal activities in the area. After the prosecutor received a visit from the head of the local Teamsters union, suddenly there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed, and the suspect was set free, never to be prosecuted or held accountable. Forty years have passed, and Paula Garrett’s family, friends, and community have had to live every day knowing that a murderer is walking among them. To this day, the murderer is still being protected. Eric Garrett no longer expects justice. This murder is not unsolved, it is unprosecuted, and probably never will be. But the time has come to stop accepting the status quo. Unprosecuted: My Mother’s Murder and the Search for Accountability is the story of corruption, cover-ups, and a son’s frustration at knowing that the man who brutally murdered his mother and left him for dead may never be made to account for his crimes. "Mr. Garrett's tragic story is yet another reminder why we must demand criminal justice reform." --Tristin Engels, PsyD, Forensic Psychologist

D.J. Palladino

Werewolf, Texas - a Grim Love Tale by D.J. Palladino $18.95

There are no werewolves in Texas... Right? Research wizard John Shaney launches his career as a grad student at University of Texas, Austin planning to investigate how chemistry can transform human lives for the better. One moonlit night downtown, however, Shaney discovers unexpected and more pleasurable mysteries surrounding one Lila May Wulfhardt and her well-heeled, eccentric family while crossing paths with something more ancient than love and money, something that also wants to change the lives of hapless locals. John Shaney’s world is about to become seriously weird and deadly dangerous, yet ultimately transformative. Werewolf, Texas is a gripping and vividly dark story of a blood-thirsty dynasty set on preserving their power. With Palladino’s unique voice, this grim love tale explores the not-so-secret dark world of the Wulfhardt family.

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Jim Dawson and Steve Propes

What Was the First Rock N Roll Record? $17.95

“The blues had a baby and they called it rock ‘n’ roll,” said the great Muddy Waters. But what was the firstborn? What was the first rock ‘n’ roll record? Using this question as their starting point, writer Jim Dawson and DJ Steve Propes nominate 50 recordings for that honor. Beginning with a 1944 Jazz at the Philharmonic recording, “Blues,” and ending with Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel,” What Was the First Rock ‘n’ Roll Record? Profiles some of the most important and influential recordings in rock’s history. For each nominee, Dawson and Propes provide chart positions, labels, recording information, and an explanation as to why it might qualify as the first. Lesser known milestones like “Open the Door, Richard” and “Rocket 88” appear here alongside acknowledged classics like “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” and “Rock Around the Clock,” and many forgotten artists are restored to their rightful place in rock’s pantheon. The result is a provocative and entertaining guide to the earliest days of rock ‘n’ roll. This 30th anniversary updated and revised edition brings to light new and surprising details about the songs, albums, and artists that are vying for the honor of being the first rock ‘n’ roll record.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Untitled</title> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"/> <style> /* ePub CSS */ h1 {padding-top: 15%;} .indent {text-indent: 5%;} .center {text-align: center;} .right {text-align: right;} .margin {margin: 0 5%;} .margin-indent {margin: 0 5%; text-indent: 5%;} .bigmargin {margin: 0 5% 0 10%;} .bigmargin-indent {margin: 0 5% 0 10%; text-indent: 5%;} .hugemargin {margin: 0 5% 0 15%;} .hugemargin-indent {margin: 0 5% 0 15%; text-indent: 5%;} img {max-width: 94%;} body {margin: 0 3%; text-align: justify;} .spacer {padding-bottom: 1em;} s {text-decoration: line-through;} </style> </head> <body> <h1 class="center" id="c2">Prologue</h1> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="indent">Jolo, Sulu Archipelago</div> <div class="indent">The Philippines</div> <div class="indent">The Battle of Bud Bagsak</div> <div class="indent">July 15, 1913</div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="spacer"></div> <h2 class="center sigil_not_in_toc">Day Four</h2> <div class="spacer"></div> <div>It was like being wide awake and being caught in the middle of a nightmare.</div> <div class="indent">How many hours had it been?</div> <div class="indent">He wished he knew. It was as if time itself had stopped.</div> <div class="indent">The sweat poured out of Jim Bishop so copiously that it felt like a steady stream of water being poured over his face. His eyes burned and he had to keep blinking to try and clear his vision, but it was no use. The cloying moisture clung to his eyelids. His lips tasted the constant saltiness. It was their third trip up the mountain that day, and once again, their advance stalled as the crater came alive once more. One moment it was all green bushes, thick shrubbery, and clusters of trees and temporal placidity, and the next instant it gave way to a surging wave of brown men dressed in red loincloths and accompanying red headbands, their veins bulging out in bas-relief along limbs bound tight by constricting ligatures and vines. The Moros, or the <i>pulajans</i> as the Filipino Scouts called them, seemed to rise up from behind every bush, every tree, virtually from the dark earth itself. The surge of humanity descended from the lip of the crater, brandishing their razor-sharp <i>talibongs</i>. The rhythmic chant, “<i>Tac-tac, tac-tac, tac-tac</i>,” sounded in unison like an advancing drumbeat.</div> <div class="indent">Tac-tac, tac-tac, tac-tac—Tagalog for Cut-cut, cut-cut, cut-cut.</div> <div class="indent">And that’s what they did.</div> <div class="indent">Jim stopped and raised the muzzle of his Winchester 1897 shotgun, racking the slide back and then forward to chamber a round.</div> <div class="indent">The man next to him, a young lieutenant who’d just arrived in the country two weeks ago, turned and darted to his right toward the cover of a cluster of trees perhaps ten yards away. From the corner of his eye Jim saw the young officer’s foot snare the elongated vine trigger.</div> <div class="indent">“Sir,” Jim yelled, taking his eye off the enemy for a split second. “Don’t move!”</div> <div class="indent">But his warning was a millisecond too late.</div> <div class="indent">The vine trigger snapped and released a twisted branch in a horizontal arc, sending a row of sharpened spikes into the lieutenant’s body with a sickening thump.</div> <div class="indent">The officer cried out, but the sound was reduced to a pathetic gurgle as he went limp, bouncing off the branch and flopping down onto his back. A trio of gaping holes, already filling with blood, was stitched across the front of his brown uniform shirt. His legs convulsed, like he was still on his feet, still trying to move away, but with each movement more blood and slithering intestines seeped out of his wounds.</div> <div class="indent">Jim ran to the man, but could tell he was dying.</div> <div class="indent">He wanted to offer some comfort, some assurance that it would be all right, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie. A few seconds later, he saw that it didn’t matter anyway. Vacuous eyes, still wide open from the shock, stared directly upward, unflinching under the unbearably bright sun as it shone down.</div> <div class="indent"><i>Dead</i>, Jim thought.</div> <div class="indent">There was no time for sentiment or mendacious words</div> <div class="indent">The ominous mantra continued unabated: “Tac-tac, tac-tac, tac-tac . . .”</div> <div class="indent">The Moros were almost upon them. The sons of bitches were savages, fighting with bows and arrows and spears and traps. They had some guns, but not a lot, and those huge talibong knifes could chop you apart with one solid swing. They gave no quarter, nor did they expect any. Worst yet, they kept the families with them like human shields—old men, women, children. It was sickening.</div> <div class="indent">Shots rang out to Jim’s left.</div> <div class="indent">From his kneeling position by the dead lieutenant, he raised the shotgun, aimed at the nearest advancing <i>pulajan</i>, and pulled the trigger. The double-aught buck load ripped into the Moro’s side, tearing a large swath of skin and a hunk of meat away. The Moro stumbled for two steps as his mouth twisted into a scowl, the talibong still raised above his head.</div> <div class="indent"><i>Damn, these Moros are tough</i>, Jim thought as he worked the slide and chambered another round. The oblong blade caught a glint of sunlight for a moment before descending in an oblique arc.</div> <div class="indent">The shotgun discharged again and this time the pulagam went down, enveloped in a crimson mist.</div> <div class="indent">Jim felt the flecks of blood and body tissue dapple his face as the world suddenly went silent for several seconds.</div> <div class="indent">Another one came at him.</div> <div class="indent">A shotgun boomed off to his left.</div> <div class="indent">Larry Rush was next to Jim now, the trail of smoke trickling upward from his shotgun muzzle as the advancing Moro’s head exploded like a muskmelon struck by an axe handle. The man did an awkward, headless pirouette as he went down. Rush chambered another round and moved next to Jim.</div> <div class="indent">“The lieutenant dead?” Rush asked. He was shouting, but his voice still sounded far away.</div> <div class="indent">Far away . . .</div> <div class="indent">If only they could all be far away.</div> <div class="indent">Jim grunted a response as he sighted in on another rushing Moro and fired.</div> <div class="indent">Three more advanced from the left. Rush swiveled and blasted one, but the second one did a stutter-step, leaned back, and hurled a long bamboo spear. It sailed toward them. The next instant Rush dropped his weapon and grabbed his thigh as the pointed tip of the spear tore through the inner part of his pant leg. He toppled over, his eyes rolling back into his head.</div> <div class="indent">Jim turned and fired. The rounds took down the assailant, but two more were closing in on them. He fired once more. One of the oncoming Moros took the hit in the side, but kept advancing, taking three slack steps before collapsing. Jim racked the slide back and then forward, chambering what he knew was his last remaining round, and fired again. The blast hit the closest man. He jerked forward, then curled into a fetal position as he fell to the ground.</div> <div class="indent"><i>No more ammo</i>, Jim thought, gripping the Winchester’s hot barrel and stock. Despite the overheated metal searing his skin, he managed to bring the rifle up just in time to block the descent of another Moro’s two-foot-long talibong. The solid blade chunked into the wooden slide, splintering it. Jim twisted the rifle free and simultaneously rammed the base of the stock into the Filipino’s face. The man’s jaw jerked out of alignment and he paused just long enough for Jim to kick him in the groin as hard as he could. The Moro grimaced but drew back the large knife, ready to take another deadly swing.</div> <div class="indent">A split-second burst of fire and smoke whipped between them, and the Moro’s head snapped to the side as a shot rang out. Rush had managed to pull out his long-barreled Colt .45 revolver and fire it. Jim dropped the Winchester and drew his own revolver. Cocking back the hammer, he fired at the next group of advancing Moros. A burst of red blossomed on one man’s upper torso, just under his clavicle, but that didn’t stop him. A diagonal constricting loop of twine bisected the man’s chest, limiting the bleeding and enabling him to keep moving. Jim adjusted his aim, lining up the rear, M-shaped sight on the revolver with the single bar of the tip of the barrel.</div> <div class="indent">“Keep them damn sights flat across the top,” his drill sergeant had yelled at him in basic training.</div> <div class="indent">He squeezed the trigger. His next round pierced his adversary’s right eye.</div> <div class="indent">He fired four more times with undetermined results. The short, sweaty bodies kept coming, like a brown tidal wave capped with red. Jim turned to reach for Rush’s gun but saw his was empty, too.</div> <div class="indent"><i>The lieutenant</i>, Jim thought. He sidestepped to the right and knelt beside the fallen officer. His fingers scrambled to undo the dead man’s flap holster before feeling a textured grip. He pulled the weapon out and saw it was one of those new 1911 semiautomatic pistols, something only a few of the officers had. They were supposedly sitting in crates in New York Harbor or someplace, their distribution to the troops in the Philippines delayed by yet another layer of bureaucratic inefficiency. It was rumored that a few, a very few, of the officers had managed to sneak a special shipment in, and that was apparently true. The magazine purportedly held seven rounds, but Jim had never fired one.</div> <div class="indent"><i>No time like the present to learn</i>, he thought as he brought the pistol up, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.</div> <div class="indent">Nothing.</div> <div class="indent">In desperation he cocked back the hammer and tried again.</div> <div class="indent">The next trio of Moros was almost on top of them.</div> <div class="indent">The hammer clacked down and still the weapon didn’t fire.</div> <div class="indent">Was it a dud?</div> <div class="indent"><i>No</i>, he thought. <i>It’s just like a shotgun.</i> <i>There’s no round in the chamber.</i></div> <div class="indent">Gripping the row of vertical lines on the rear of the slide, he racked it back, felt it catch, and then whip forward.</div> <div class="indent">The Moro was raising his talibong over Rush’s supine body when this time the Colt’s round pierced the area just under the pulagam’s left armpit. The Moro fell like a marionette whose strings had been abruptly severed. Jim adjusted his aim and fired two more rounds, putting one into each of the advancing would-be killers. He dropped to one knee and frantically searched the dead lieutenant’s pouch for more magazines.</div> <div class="indent">Suddenly the sound of distant thunder rumbled accompanied by a screaming sound. Another set of rumbles along with more whistles and a burst of explosions echoed further up the ridge, by the mouth of the crater.</div> <div class="indent"><i>Artillery</i>, Jim thought. <i>Blackjack’s got the 40th zeroed in on them</i>.</div> <div class="indent">He felt a surge of hope as the area along the lip of the crater, where he knew the last Moro stronghold was, erupted in more roiling clouds of dust.</div> <div class="indent">The Moro advance suddenly halted, their heads rotating back toward the spiraling dust clouds farther up the hill, their eyes widening in horror.</div> <div class="indent">Jim knew their families, the women, the children, the elderly, were all up there in this last cotta. They had nowhere left to run. Orders were to wipe them all out.</div> <div class="indent">A company of Filipino Scouts, their brown uniforms drenched with sweat, streamed forward from the right flank and the left, their rifles barking fire, their bayonets fixed. They’d taken the brunt of the Moros’ attacks before and now they’d regrouped. From the look on their faces, no quarter would be given.</div> <div class="indent">Nor none expected.</div> <div class="indent"><i>Thank God</i>, he thought. <i>Maybe this nightmare is going to be over with now.</i></div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="center">***</div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="indent"><i>Historical Note</i></div> <div>The final siege then started at seventeen-hundred-oh-five hours. Three hours later it was over.</div> <div class="indent">Or was it?</div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="spacer"></div> </body> </html>

Michael A. Black

Where Legends Lie $17.95

1913. Veteran Jim Bishop takes a job with a motion picture company that is filming a movie based on a famous western gunfight. As the filming proceeds, Jim begins to wonder what really happened in Contention City, Arizona, those thirty-three years ago. 1880. In the actual Contention City, Sheriff Lon Dayton is contacted by the notorious Dutch Bascom regarding the territorial governor’s proclamation of amnesty for Bascom and his gang. Dayton has no choice but to walk the tightrope balancing the alleged intentions of the outlaws against the promises of the unscrupulous politicians and railroad men who claim to be in favor of the outlaw’s surrender. But are they really?

Mercury Media llc

Yes Discography Grid $2.00

These information documents for each of the official Trade Mark of Quality releases includes the known details for each genuine TMQ title. This includes the TMQ catalogue number, artist, record title, track list, musicians, venue, recording date, master tape and record matrix info and the other particulars for each album.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Untitled</title> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"/> <style> h1 {padding-top: 15%;} .indent {text-indent: 5%;} .center {text-align: center;} .right {text-align: right;} .margin {margin: 0 5%;} .margin-indent {margin: 0 5%; text-indent: 5%;} .bigmargin {margin: 0 5% 0 10%;} .bigmargin-indent {margin: 0 5% 0 10%; text-indent: 5%;} .hugemargin {margin: 0 5% 0 15%;} .hugemargin-indent {margin: 0 5% 0 15%; text-indent: 5%;} img {max-width: 94%;} body {margin: 0 3%; text-align: justify;} .spacer {padding-bottom: 1em;} </style> </head> <body> <div class="center"><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0301/3604/1571/files/cover_956e9135-dc74-4170-9f7d-25246355796d.jpg?v=1726351704" alt="You Paid For This by Richard Wickliffe"/></div> <h1 class="center" id="c3">Chapter One: The SIU</h1> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div>Imagine you’re at a neighborhood party. Stan, the nondescript neighbor you never talk to, approaches. Unsure what to say, you attempt, “Hi… Stan. How’s work?”</div> <div class="indent">“My work?” Stan beams. “I got a great insurance story!” He moves into your space to drone on about his days navigating the rigors of risk management.</div> <div class="indent">At that point, you either plan to fake a phone call or pray your significant other shouts, “It’s time to heat your casserole.” Anything but being cornered with insurance stories. Is anything more boring than an insurance person talking about their job? After all, it’s a product that’s only used when you’ve experienced a terrible loss—perhaps a car crash, fire, theft, injury, or death. Who wants to dwell on that?</div> <div class="indent">I’m hoping to change that perception. My decades of combating insurance crimes have revealed a fascinating investigative niche unknown to most of the public. Our cases were filled with creativity, amusement, and sometimes pure evil. And even more significant, the cases financially impacted every one of our lives.</div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="indent">For a quarter century, I investigated insurance fraud, based out of Miami—which, as you may or may not know, has had a small fraud problem.</div> <div class="indent">Former Governor Rick Scott described “Florida’s embarrassing problems” with its insurance system. While describing a $910 million scheme, he coined the term “fraud tax” to describe the financial burden these crimes place on all consumers.<sup><a href="ypft_0054.html#n1-2" id="r1-2">[2]</a></sup></div> <div class="indent">For the first five years, I investigated a broad range of fraudulent property and injury cases. For the following twenty, I managed diverse teams of insurance investigators for the largest property/casualty insurer in the United States, representing over 9 percent of the market, and a global top-ten carrier based on revenue.</div> <div class="indent">Not for one moment was the job boring or routine. What other career could possibly lead to dealing with organized crime rings, art and jewelry theft, staged accidents, human trafficking, and faked deaths? We had to investigate without having a badge, a gun, or any real authority. Law enforcement had no duty to help us, though many times our cases intersected. We were the unsung heroes of the company’s SIU (Special Investigation Unit).</div> <div class="indent">I must pause the swelling orchestra to issue a disclaimer that none of the following statements, narratives, or opinions reflect those of my former company. I will not disclose any confidential or proprietary information or trade secrets or name any specific carrier unless notated, and I have changed the names of parties and companies unless otherwise cited. The described scenarios are all true, and I will discuss how to avoid being a victim of the same crimes in our personal lives.</div> <div class="indent">So, what is an SIU? It is a division within an insurance company that investigates potentially fraudulent insurance cases. SIUs are at the forefront of the ongoing fight against insurance crimes. Their job is to detect, deter, and pursue actions against fraudulent activities. SIU professionals who investigate insurance crimes are also employed by federal, state, or local law enforcement and anti-fraud organizations such as the NICB (National Insurance Crime Bureau).</div> <div class="indent">Insurance fraud is probably as old as the carpenters who inflated repair costs after Noah’s flood, but the first formal SIU was established in Massachusetts by Kemper Insurance in 1976.<sup><a href="ypft_0054.html#n1-3" id="r1-3">[3]</a></sup> The primary concern at the time was auto-related fraud. Next, with larger property losses, arson became the focus of most SIU teams. Then came the shift into injury, medical, healthcare, and even organized crime.</div> <div class="indent">Today, virtually all insurance companies worldwide have established SIU teams to help protect the financial integrity of their businesses. Most states have passed legislation mandating that insurance companies establish SIUs, as well as requiring anti-fraud training, essentially asking the carriers, “So, what are you doing about it?”</div> <div class="indent">For the state in which I was housed, Florida Statute 626.9891, also known as the Fraudulent Insurance Act, mandated every insurer admitted to the state shall create anti-fraud units to investigate and report fraudulent insurance acts, or contract with a third party to investigate possible fraudulent acts. <sup><a href="ypft_0054.html#n1-4" id="r1-4">[4]</a></sup></div> <div class="indent">With the creation of SIU teams, carriers needed to staff them with experienced people trained to investigate, take statements, and knock on doors, sometimes in unsavory areas. Therefore, employees couldn’t be easily intimidated and would have to work professionally with attorneys and law enforcement.</div> <div class="indent">SIU teams also serve as liaisons to law enforcement including local and state police, FBI, fire marshals, Coast Guard, and ATF, as well as attorneys, surveillance experts, forensic analysts, and private investigators. Their relationships with experts in those fields are their greatest assets.</div> <div class="indent">SIU representatives are not any sort of law enforcement. There are no badges, and they can’t make arrests. They are employees with specialized investigative training who represent the carriers. Many times, fraud is committed by people who aren’t the policyholders, such as medical clinics, unscrupulous attorneys, organized crime rings, body shops, dishonest agents, or our newest class of perpetrator: cybercriminals.</div> <div class="indent">Regrettably, there’s job security in the field of fraud investigation—and it’s on the rise. According to 2022 data from the Insurance Information Institute<i>,</i> about 75 percent of insurers stated fraud has increased significantly, with an 11-point increase since 2014. <sup><a href="ypft_0054.html#n1-5" id="r1-5">[5]</a></sup></div> <div class="indent">To keep up, a cottage industry of fraud detection firms has grown at a similar pace. The insurance fraud detection market, an entire industry of fraud analytics, is estimated to be a $912.3 million market in the U.S. alone, expected to grow 13.7 percent from 2019 to 2025.<sup><a href="ypft_0054.html#n1-6" id="r1-6">[6]</a></sup></div> <div class="indent">Here are some facts to enlighten you on the crisis:</div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="margin">Right now, you and every one of your family members are paying over $932 per year in increased premiums just to fund insurance fraud. That’s nearly $3,800 for a family of four.<sup><a href="ypft_0054.html#n1-7" id="r1-7">[7]</a></sup></div> <div class="margin">Fraud occurs in about 10 percent of all property/casualty losses.<sup><a href="ypft_0054.html#n1-8" id="r1-8">[8]</a></sup></div> <div class="margin">Non-medical insurance fraud is estimated at $45 billion per year. <sup><a href="ypft_0054.html#n1-9" id="r1-9">[9]</a></sup></div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="indent">In the following chapters, I’ll describe various cases, categorized by type and escalating in severity. Most are cases that our SIU teams or I investigated; others are from our colleagues in the industry.</div> <div class="indent">I’ll begin with routine burglaries, including “art theft on the high seas.” It’ll escalate into arson for profit, the monstrous acts of some arsonists, and even ritual sacrifices gone wrong. Then we’ll move on to organized crime, including the Russian mob’s varied enterprises. I’ll illustrate boat theft schemes and their use in human trafficking. We’ll shift to the rise of illicit medical clinics. Then we’ll recover sunken cars that contain haunting secrets. I’ll explain how not to fake your death, and I’ll conclude with my team’s role in the terrifying Pain & Gain double murder case (complete with robbery, extortion, and torture). I told you there was never a boring day.</div> <div class="indent">Bottom line: Greed and opportunity continue to increase insurance crimes. Laws and corporate responsibility have hardened the need for SIU investigators as the schemes grow more creative, complex, brazen, and sometimes deadly.</div> <div class="spacer"></div> <div class="spacer"></div> </body> </html>

Richard Wickliffe

You Paid For This $17.95

Embark on a gripping 25-year journey delving into the author's investigation of insurance crimes in Miami, spotlighting Special Investigation Units (SIU) –an investigative world invisible to most, yet one for which we all pay. In YOU PAID FOR THIS, Richard Wickliffe takes the reader from routine burglaries to art theft on the high-seas, arson for profit, and even failed ritual sacrifices. He describes a variety of cases he encountered, including the Russian mob and organized crime, boat thefts linked to unconscionable human trafficking, sunken cars that conceal deadly secrets, and the pitfalls of faking one's death. The book culminates with the SIU's involvement in Miami's harrowing Pain & Gain double murder case, featuring kidnapping, extortion, and mutilation. With an informative yet witty tone, YOU PAID FOR THIS exposes the creative and chilling facets of insurance crimes, cautioning and advising readers on how to protect themselves from potential victimization in their own lives.

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