National Network for Equitable Library Service

Charles Cullen, RN, was one of the most accomplished serial killers in recent history. For sixteen years, working in multiple hospitals, he had a hand in the deaths of as many as three hundred patients. Though colleagues knew--or had reason to know--what was going on, no one stopped him.

The art of the con has a long and venerable tradition, and its female practitioners are some of the best, or worst in history. But what about today? Spoiler alert: these "artists" are still conning.

As American women began to reject Victorian propriety, authorities feared that "oversexed" women could destroy civilization if allowed to reproduce and pass on their defects. In 1934, aided by a eugenics law, socialite Maryon Cooper Hewitt had her "promiscuous" daughter declared feebleminded and sterilized. This was to deprive Ann of millions of dollars from her father's estate, which contained a child-bearing stipulation. A sensational court case ensued, captivating the public and eugenicists, who saw a chance to restrict reproductive rights in America.

Journalist Julie K. Brown recounts her uncompromising and risky investigation of Jeffrey Epstein's underage sex-trafficking operation and the explosive reporting for the Miami Herald that finally brought him to justice, while exposing the powerful people and broken system that protected him.

Here is a look into the creation of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit and the evolution of criminal profiling, written by the forensic nurse who transformed the way the FBI studies, profiles, and catches serial killers.

In January 1923, twenty-year-old Fritzie Mann left home for a remote cottage by the sea to meet a man whose identity she had revealed to no one. The next morning, the barely clad body of the beautiful and bewitching interpretive dancer washed up on Torrey Pines beach. The investigation revealed a scandalous secret and, possibly, a powerful motive for murder. After a suspect was arrested and charged, an ambitious district attorney battled a high-profile LA private counsel in the most sensational trial in San Diego's history, which was followed avidly across the nation.

Lizzette Martinez and Keelin MacGregor share a no-holds-barred look at Martinez's relationship with Kelly, her efforts to break free and pursue her dreams, and her courage to seek justice.

In the 1960s, Edgar Smith, in prison and sentenced to death for the murder of teenager Victoria Zielinski, struck up a correspondence with William F. Buckley, the founder of National Review. Buckley, who refused to believe that a man who supported the neoconservative movement could have committed such a heinous crime, began to advocate not only for Smith's life to be spared, but also for his sentence to be overturned.

The story of Clarence Henderson, a Black sharecropper convicted and sentenced to death three times for a murder he didn't commit, and of Thurgood Marshall's battle against racism and the Communist Party to save him.

In 1913, two Catholic priests set out to the Canadian Arctic to convert isolated Inuit's. Three days after reaching their destination, the two men were murdered. It took years for Western justice to investigate.