From 1573 to 1617, Master Franz Schmidt was the executioner for the towns of Bamberg and Nuremberg. During that span, he personally executed more than 350 people while keeping a journal throughout his career.A Hangman’s Diary is not only a collection of detailed writings by Schmidt about his work, but also an account of criminal procedure in Germany during the Middle Ages. With analysis and explanation, editor Albrecht Keller and translators C. Calvert and A. W. Gruner hav...

Now an esoteric of legal and criminal history, A Hangman's Diary gives a year-by-year breakdown on all of Master Franz Schmidt's executions, which included hangings, beheadings, and other methods, as well as details of each capital crime and the reason for the punishment.From 1573 to 1617, Master Franz Schmidt was the executioner for the towns of Bamberg and Nuremberg. During that span, he personally executed more than 350 people while keeping a journal th...

Using modern biology and history to investigate a series of grisly deaths in the countryside of 18th-century France.Something unimaginable occurred from 1764 to 1767 in the remote highlands of south-central France. For three years, a real-life monster, or monsters, ravaged the region, slaughtering by some accounts more than 100 people, mostly women and children, and inflicting severe injuries upon many others. Alarmed rural communities—and their economies—were virt...

**“For 40 years, justice had gone undone in the brutal murder of four young girls in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church...**Doug Jones said no more. Justice had to be done. Those young girls deserved it. Their families deserved it. The community needed it. It took courage, commitment, and persistence. And—maybe most of all—heart.” — Former Vice President Joe Biden**This program is read by the author.The story of the decades-long fight to bring justice to t...

Here are overlooked or forgotten tales from the world's greatest conflict. These are stories of courage, daring, and stupidity, some of which would challenge the imaginations of Hollywood scriptwriters.Some of the many true tales that author Donald Aines recounts include:● He would never be cast as a dashing war hero, but a cast member of The Addams Family television show volunteered for one of the most dangerous jobs the Army Air Force had to offe...

**This program is read by the author.Decades after this celebrated work of narrative nonfiction won the National Book Award and changed the American conversation about race, Slaves in the Family makes its audio debut, with a new preface by the author.**The Ball family hails from South Carolina—Charleston and thereabouts. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. Between 1698 and 1865, close to four thousand black people ...

“I’ll take my share of the blame. I only ask that he take his.”In Bringing Down the Colonel, journalist Patricia Miller tells the story of Madeline Pollard, an unlikely nineteenth-century women’s rights crusader. After an affair with a prominent politician left her “ruined,” Pollard brought the man—and the hypocrisy of America’s control of women’s sexuality—to trial. And, surprisingly, she won.Pollard and the married Colonel Breckinridge began thei...

“Right out of the gate, the entire game was designed to empty the pockets of those rich, celeb-loving LA suckers.”—Houston CurtisLeonardo DiCaprio. Alex Rodriguez. Tobey Maguire. Affleck. Damon. Cassavetes.What do these people have in common? Not just fame and fortune; all these men are also alumni of the ultra-exclusive, high-stakes poker ring that inspired Aaron Sorkin’s Oscar-nominated film, Molly’s Game.But Houston Curtis, the card shar...

Uncover the theories behind the Master of Horror's macabre tales: It, The Shining, Carrie, Cujo, Misery, Pet Semetary, and so much more!Gothic media moguls Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence, authors of The Science of Monsters and The Science of Women in Horror, and co-hosts of the Horror Rewind podcast called “the best horror film podcast out there” by Film Daddy, present a guide to the Stephen King stories and characters we all know and love. Through interviews, literary and film ana...

National Book Award Finalist: A biologist's "thoroughly enjoyable" account of the expeditions that unearthed the history of life on our planet (Publishers Weekly).Not so long ago, most of our world was an unexplored wilderness. Our sense of its age was vague and vastly off the mark, and much of the knowledge of our own species' history was a set of fantastic myths and fairy tales. But scientists were about to embark on an amazing new era of understanding.

Despite considerable press coverage and a lengthy trial, the full story of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints has remained largely untold. Only one man can reveal the whole, astounding truth: Sam Brower, the private investigator who devoted years of his life to breaking open the secret practices of the FLDS and bringing Warren Jeffs and his inner circle to justice. In Prophet’s Prey, Brower implicates Jeff in his own words, bringing to light the contents of Jeffs’s per...

**“Ojito has done truth an invaluable service. Extraordinary.”—Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao2014 International Latino Awards FinalistA Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist uncovers the true story of an immigrant's murder that turned a quaint village on the Long Island shore into ground zero in the war on immigrationIn November 2008, 37-year-old Marcelo Lucero, an unassuming worker...