Dr. John Yelenic was a successful dentist in a small Pennsylvania town. When he met Michele Kamler, he thought he'd finally found the woman of his dreams. She was beautiful, intelligent, and seemed to want all the same things out of life as he did. Michele married Yelenic in 1997. But by 2002, the relationship fell apart…and what followed was a bitter, three-year-long battle in which Michele made demands for Yelenic's money and even accused him―falsely, it would later be shown―of sexual abuse. Michele began dating Kevin Foley, a Pennsylvania State Trooper. When, in 2006, Yelenic was found murdered―slashed to death in his own home―Foley was the prime suspect. At the time of Yelenic's death, Michele was listed as beneficiary on more than $1 million in insurance benefits. Did Foley believe Michele stood to inherit this money? Or did this well-known hot-head act alone? This is a shocking true story of greed, corruption, and cold-blooded murder.

Dying for Love: The True Story of a Millionaire Dentist, his Unfaithful Wife, and the Affair that Ended in Murder

Biographies & Memoirs

Smith, Carlton

True Crime

St. Martin's True Crime

Kathleen Savio was married to Drew Peterson for eleven years before filing for divorce in 2003. The next year, she was found dead in her bathtub. Her drowning appeared to be an accident―and for years, no one had reason to question it. But when Peterson's next wife, Stacy―thirty years younger―went missing, the tough-talking and wise-cracking former Illinois cop came under suspicion….
With Stacy Peterson missing―and presumed dead―authorities exhumed Kathleen Savio's body, looking for answers. A new autopsy pointed to homicide, and a 2002 letter was revealed in which Savio wrote that Drew, "knows how to manipulate the system, and his next step is to take my children away. Or kill me instead." He was arrested for Kathleen's murder, and is a prime suspect in Stacy's disappearance, Peterson continues to protest his innocence. New York Times bestselling author Carlton Smith digs deep into the mystery behind the two Peterson wives―and sheds some light on one of the most complex crime cases in modern American history.

Cold as Ice: A True Story of Murder, Disappearance, and the Multiple Lives of Drew Peterson

From 1974 to 1991, someone in the midwestern city of Wichita was leaving behind slain tortured bodies and anonymously proclaiming himself to police and reporters as "BTK" for "Bind, Torture, Kill." Then, for the next 14 years, BTK was silent. But when he began sending letters again, investigators would not miss their chance... Stunningly, police arrested Dennis Rader, the president of his church board and the father of two. As a shocked community watched, evidence began to pile up. Then Rader coldly described how he went about "his projects" as the families of his victims relived the horrific scenes this supposed pillar of the community had unleashed on their loved ones. From the tricks he used to enter his victims' homes to the puzzles he sent the media and the key role his own daughter may have played in his arrest, this is the definitive story of the BTK killer. He was, as one victim's family member called him, "a black hole inside the shell of a human being"--and the worst American monster since Ted Bundy.

The BTK Murders: Inside the "Bind Torture Kill" Case that Terrified America's Heartland

In 1989, a shocking tragedy shattered an otherwise peaceful small Indiana community. Much-admired pastor Robert L. Pelley was found slain in his home. In his basement were the huddled, blood-soaked bodies of his wife and daughters, executed by shotgun at close range. The doors to the house were locked, and there were no signs of forced entry. Meanwhile, the pastor's son, Jeff, was nowhere to be found…
Police had a hunch that Jeff was responsible for the massacre, but they didn't have enough evidence to convict. The case went cold…until, more than a decade later, when law officials resolved to finally try to unravel the truth about Jeff and to establish a motive―that he was angry toward his father for grounding him on prom night. Then it would be up to prosecutors to prove that Jeff was responsible for THE PROM NIGHT MURDERS

The Prom Night Murders: A Devoted American Family, their Troubled Son, and a Ghastly Crime

Kathy Augustine was a controversial two-term Nevada State Controller. In 2003, her husband Chuck died of an apparent stroke. Only a month later, she married Chaz Higgs, an ER nurse who, it was later revealed, had attended to her late husband just before his death. 
Three years later, fifty-year-old Kathy died after a heart attack—the result, her family and friends believed, of a stressful political campaign. But when an autopsy of Kathy’s body revealed no signs of heart disease, investigators dug deeper into Kathy’s case…only to find the presence of a powerful, paralyzing emergency-room drug in Kathy’s system. A jury would later charge Nurse Chaz with murder in the first degree. But could Kathy’s first husband alsohave been the victim of Chaz’s treachery? And just how much did Kathy know? This is the shocking true story of a family torn apart by lies, medical crime, and POISONED LOVE.

Poisoned Love: The True Story of ER Nurse Chaz Higgs, his Ambitious Wife, and a Shocking Murder

Nancy Jean Siegel of Maryland became addicted to gambling during her first marriage. Sneaking off to Atlantic City―and sinking deeper and deeper into debt―she began stealing identities, conning family members, and leaving two ex-husbands buried in bills. Then she sold cemetery plots door-to-door and met Jack Watkins, a man thirty years her senior. He not only bought a grave site from the attractive younger woman, he leased a car for her, sold his house and gave her the proceeds. But Nancy wanted more…
Watkins' body was found in a steamer trunk near the Appalachian Trail. Half-naked and strangled, he remained unidentified for more than six years. Meanwhile, Nancy cashed his Social Security checks and opened new lines of credit under his name. By the time the police tracked her down, she had committed bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and more. New York Times bestselling author Carlton Smith takes you inside the greed, the gambling, and one gruesome murder―to question the very nature of evil…

In the Arms of Evil: A True Story of Obsession, Greed, and Murder

The story of an Olympic wrestler allegedly murdered by the wealthy heir to the Du Pont fortune, Blood Money takes readers inside the bizarre owrld of a multi-millionaire, and lays bare the brutal shooting and tense police siege that riveted the nation. Includes eight pages of photos. Available immediately. Original.

Blood Money : The Du Pont Heir and the Murder of an Olympic Athlete

St Martins Pr

On Easter Sunday, multimillionaire Dale Ewell, his wife, and 24-year-old daughter were gunned down one by one as they returned home from their beach house. The stone-cold killer waited on a sheet of plastic to avoid leaving clues and calmly retrieved all the bullet casings before leaving the house of blood. The Ewells' tony Fresno community was shocked by the grisly murder of the socially prominent family. Only the son, handsome 21 year-old Dana, seemed strangely unaffected except for his outrage at not receiving his slaughtered family's entire multimillion-dollar fortune immediately. Although the father Dale Ewell, was a ruthless businessman with a score of enemies, Detective John Souza immediately suspected the spoiled son with the new airplane and the Armani suits. But the brilliant college student sneered at the veteran investiagtor's efforts and appeared to have an airtight alibi. But Souza knew there has to be a hole and when he found it he would bring a cold-blooded killer to justice.

Seeds of Evil (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

St. Martin's True Crime Classics

A Fairy Tale Beginning Six-year-old beauty JonBenet Ramsey was a dream child--smart, talented and blessed. Her mother, a former Miss America contestant, had entered her in every child beauty pageant possible. Wearing lipstick, heavy makeup, and provocative costumes that cost thousands of dollars, with her hair bleached and teased, JonBenet flirtatiously paraded down runways, exuding a sophistication beyond her years. A Nightmare Ending But that dazzling future of crows and titles was brutally cut short the day after Christmas when her mother discovered a random note on the stairs of their luxurious Boulder, Colorado home. Hours later JonBenet's distraught father, millionaire businessman John Ramsey, found his beloved daughter's lifeless body, gagged and strangled in a windowless room in the basement of their million-dollar mansion. An Unspeakable Crime As detectives worked to uncover what happened Christmas night in the darkened mansion, the nation grieved for the innocent little girl whose life was cruelly snuffed out.

Death of a Little Princess : The Tragic Story of the Murder of JonBenet Ramsey

St. Martin's Paperbacks

One By One They Begin To Die On a picturesque street in Sacramento County, California, three healthy saplings stand side by side. But what they symbolize are the deaths of three innocent people-two of them children. And the man who allegedly took their lives, then eerily planted trees in their honor...was their own husband and father. Shockingly, Mysteriously... Hearts went out to Jack Barron when his wife Irene died mysteriously in her sleep. Soon after, when his two young children were also found dead in their beds, suspicions were aroused about Barron. Then, when his fifty-two-year-old mother died, also of asphyxiation in her sleep, the four deaths seemed too coincidental to ignore. Were They All Dying For Daddy? Was this "devoted" husband and father really a cold-blooded murderer who smothered his loved ones while they slept? Was he the victim of a bizarre syndrome, whereby a parent kills a child to gain sympathy and attention? With first-hand interviews and exclusive inside information, bestselling portrait of a man who may have been driven beyond his control to commit the most unspeakable of acts.

Dying For Daddy: A True Story of Family Killer Jack Barron

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