Content tagged with “crime”

“ Scam call center operating from East Asia hold victims’ passports and keep them in debt bondage, while presenting themselves – and even internally operating – as legitimate businesses. ”

“ This is an anti-police slang/acronym for ‘All Cops Are Bastards.’ It originated in the UK in the 1920s. It’s sometimes represented by the number ‘1312,’ referring to the numeric position of each letter. ”

“ A specialized branch of crime investigation using writing patterns to solve crimes. ”

“This is one of the organized crime groups in Italy. In the United States, we speak of ‘the mafia’ to refer to organized crime, but this is very general term for a branch of organized crime in this country. The ‘American Mafia’ has its roots in a crime organization in historical Sicily. In…”

“More specifically, this is a term often used for the killing of Jesus Christ. It can be used as a antisemitic pejorative. From an article entitled ‘ The origins of anti-Semitism ’: Some important thinkers in early Christianity offered a dangerous allegation: that Judean Jews had handed Christ over…”

“ A man on the run for robbery romanced a local woman while living in an improvised space inside a retail store. ”

“ Details of a brazen hack of the multi-state lottery system by one of the key security employees that resulted in multiple lottery winnings. ”

“ This refers to ‘banditry’ or ‘theft,’ mainly in Asia. It’s an anglicized form of the Hindi word meaning ‘armed robbery.’ ‘Dacoit’ is the noun form. ”

“I tried to read this years ago, but didn’t get too far. It’s a weirdly tough read. I picked it up in an airport on the way home from a conference and tried again. Gibson has an odd writing style. He’s done a lot of world-building, and he uses all sorts of nomenclature and jargon without much…”

“This was the first of the Fu Manchu novels. It’s over 100 years old, and I’m trying to take that into account when I discuss it. The book is written from the first person perspective of the British Dr. Petrie. On the first page, his friend Nayland Smith shows up at his house and tells him that he’s…”

“I know this is a classic, but I didn’t really enjoy it. It’s the story of an idiot who commits a murder. And when I say ‘idiot,’ that’s not flippant – he’s written that way. The character is a failed student living in Saint Petersburg in the 19th century (I think it was called ‘Petrograd’ back…”

“This is a book that describes the U.S. intelligence community so that spy novel writers can describe it more accurately. Note the subtitle: How to Write Spy Novels, TV Shows and Movies Accurately and Not Be Laughed at by Real-Life Spies The book delivers on what it says – it’s a very stark…”

“ A long analysis of the disappearance of Malaysia Air Flight 370 provides evidence that pilot suicide is the most likely scenario. ”

“I keep buying these Murderbot books for some reason. I tend to get them on Kindle when I travel. They’re short. You can read one in 90 minutes. They remind me all the world of a primetime action show. Every episode has some self-contained story that will never come up again, and every episode moves…”

“ In 1985, the DC police sent an offer for free tickets to the Superbowl to the last known address of 3,000 criminals. When they showed up to claim them, they were arrested. ”

“One of my daughter’s friends left this in my car after she borrowed it to drive to a Pitbull concert in Omaha. So I read it. Five students get mysteriously pranked into serving detention together. One of them dies from an allergic reaction. Who did it? The format of the book is interesting. Each…”

“ A man with access to a lot of classified information disappeared in 1983. He was finally found and arrested in 2018. ”

“This is the second book of The Murderbot Diaries. Again, it’s a novella – only 149 pages. This picks up right after the first book. In this installment, she (1) helps a group of scientists get some research back, and (2) investigates a very bad episode from her past. In this sense, it’s like a…”

“This was recommended to me by a friend, and a Hacker News thread. It was recommended as a short work of fiction, and it is – it’s a novella, at best. ‘Murderbot’ (a name she gave herself) is a SecUnit – a cyborg security unit, hired to protected a surveying crew on a wilderness planet. Near as I…”

“ A deep dive into the trope of the ‘bulletin board with things connected by string’ used in an investigation. ”

“ An in-depth, minute-by-minute analysis of the infamous North Hollywood bank robbery shootout from 1997. ”

“ A murderer was burying a victim when he had a ‘cardiac event’ and collapsed onto the grave. People called 911 for him, and responders found both murderer and victim. ”

“Fascinating history of the Gucci family and company, from the patriarch and his humble origins as a leatherworker in rural Italy, down through the generations, including the sensational murder which was the focus of the 2021 movie, and then the current disposition of all the players and the destiny…”

“A ‘lynching,’ or ‘to lynch someone,’ is an illegal killing by a group. So when a mob executes someone, that’s called a lynching, regardless of the method. We often associate lynching with hanging, as that’s very common, but it’s not required. It’s also not technically required to be related to…”

“ In 1987, thieves in Brazil stole a radioactive capsule from an abandoned medical facility. A week later, four people were dead and 250 were contaminated. ”

“I literally picked up this book because I’ve always been intrigued by The Knowledge, which is the test of city geography that London’s black cab drivers have to pass before they get licensed. It’s considered one of the hardest tests in the world. This book has very little to do with The Knowledge….”

“ In 1913, parents were reunited with their toddler son who had disappeared eight months earlier. However, another woman claimed the child was her son. Almost 100 years later, DNA evidence proved the child was misidentified. ”

“ Multiple female Indian journalists were tricked into accepting teaching positions at Harvard which were entirely fake. No one knows who targeted them or why. ”

“ A grisly aquarium discovery leads to a sordid tale of murder and double-cross. ”

“ Chris Duntsch was a very, very bad surgeon. He killed or maimed 90% of his patients, but no one wanted to speak up and embarrass the hospitals where he worked. ”

“ A comprehensive legal analysis of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict that digs into what ‘self defense’ means in a fluid, chaotic situation like the Kenosha riots. ”

“ Someone is using all sorts of email tricks to get early access to novel manuscripts. No one knows who they are or what they want, but everyone in the industry is paranoid. ”

“ Apparently the Latin word for prison is ‘carcer.’ This is where we get the word ‘incarcerated.’ ”

“ Adherents of a new extremist movement simply claim that they own the rights to, well, everything, it seems. ”

“ The story of a single handgun that traveled a long way and did a lot of damage. ”

“ In 2017, two people were shot at a ranch in Texas in an event that was blamed on illegal immigrants. However, an investigation suggests the victims were the only people there. ”

“ Several states have laws that require disclose if something bad happened in a house. Or if it’s…haunted. ”

“ In a sensational trial, a lawyer successfully defended his client with a shocking defense. Near death, he admitted the entire story was fabricated. ”

“Entertaining, but not the best Bond I’ve read. It involves Bond racing at Le Mans, which is new, and there’s a very interesting post-script about how this was Ian Fleming’s idea, and Horowitz used Fleming’s notes for the basis of the first part of the story. The main plot is pretty fantastical. It…”

“ A European art thief was unsophisticated but effective, stealing hundreds of items out of under the noses of museums across the continent. He never sold any of them. ”

“ Last year, Citibank accidentally sent half a billion dollars to a client’s lenders. But since the client owed the money anyway, the recipients kept it. Lawsuits ensued. ”

“This is likely the definitive account of The Panama Papers – the massive data leak from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. It also covers some other sensational data leaks, like SwissLeaks and Offshore Leaks. It’s good, no doubt. But it’s confusing, and there’s no real way around that. There…”

“ A story of the horrifying reputation damage one person can do on the internet, and how hard it can be to stop them, or reverse what’s been done. ”

“ Very expensive self-published books on Amazon were likely used to launder money, purchased by people wanting to illicitly transfer funds to the seller. ”

“ Many U.S. presidents have had close brushes with death, including an actual assassination attempt on George W. Bush that hardly anyone knows about. ”

“This is a story of a bunch of hacks, which the author has strung together. The claim is that NotPetya, WannaCry, the Korean Olympic hack, etc. were all the work of the same organization – a Russian GRU hacking group nicknamed ‘Sandworm’ (the name came from the book ‘Dune,’ from which there were…”

“ Some investigators took a redacted deposition, and using its own index, they cracked the redactions like a cypher. ”

“ A Minnesota grandmother snapped one day, killed her husband, then went on a road trip, and killed again. ”

“ There was a viral headline all over social media for a couple of days. This article breaks it down, determines what was true and what wasn’t, and presents a larger look into how the news regularly gets twisted. ”

“ An FBI agent doggedly pursued Osama Bin Laden for most of the 90s. He retired in August 2001, and took a job as head of security for the World Trade Center. He died two weeks later on 9/11. ”

“ In 1980, an un-defuseable bomb appeared in a Lake Tahoe casino, setting off an elaborate extortion attempt and creating a legend inside the FBI. ”

“ An entertaining yarn about a private investigator and his quest to find the body of a young murder victim. The backstory of the investigator is as interesting as the case he was working. ”

“ This reads like something out of a spy novel. ”

“ Not many people know about the 1973 Swedish bank robbery that coined the term used when hostages begin to sympathize and identify with their captors. ”

“ Lack of road traffic has allowed the record for fastest cross-country run to be broken five times in seven weeks. It’s been lowered to a level likely only possible during a pandemic. ”

“ The story of the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko – why it happened, who might have done it, and why polonium is such an attractive murder weapon. ”

“ When you have to renovate one of the most iconic jewelry stores in the world, moving all your inventory is a risky undertaking. ”

“ When a domain name owner wouldn’t give it up, the thwarted buyer sent a gunman to his house and attempt to force him to transfer the domain at gunpoint. ”

“ The FBI doesn’t believe the two Boston Marathon bombers actually built the bombs they placed. So, who did, and what does it have to do with a weird arrest made after the bombings? ”

“ The details of a wildly irresponsible Cannonball run across the United States, from NYC to LA. They averaged 103mph. ”

“ A sales guy for the Sacramento Kings came ridiculously close to getting away with an audacious theft from the team. ”

“ Horrifying but ultimately triumphant story of a young girl who fought back and kept the secret for decades. ”

“ A man’s recently-deceased mother had always kept a box in the very back of the freezer and refused to say what was in it. The box had been there as long as he and his sister could remember. He finally opened it. ”

“This is compelling book in a weird format. It’s about two things: (1) the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and (2) a serial killer at work in the city during that time. The two stories are weirdly separate. The killer visits the fair, but doesn’t commit any murders there, so the…”

“ In 2003, a band of daring robbers proved that, sometimes, real life can be just like one of those totally unrealistic vault heist movies. ”

“ The convoluted tale of a missing car, and the guy who searches for it for a living. ”

“ A guy comprises the computers (including the webcams) of a scam call center in India. He shows how the scams work (they claim to have accidentally over-refunded people, then ask for money back), and ultimately disrupts the scam, hilariously. ”

“Notable for a one-minute sequence in the middle where Rogen recollects the moment at an award show event when Hannibal Buress told him that Bill Cosby was a rapist, with Cosby standing just a few feet away. Rogan says that Buress started referring to this in his stand-up routine about a month…”

“ The story of a horrific gasoline pipeline explosion, with the larger context of how siphoning gas from pipelines has become a pursuit of organized crime and gang warfare in Mexico. ”

“ One of my favorite books is ‘Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea’ which is the story of the USS Central America and its treasure, recovered by a genius named Tommy Thompson. Sadly, the years since the recovery have not been kind to Thompson, and this is the rest of the story. ”

“ A man got AIDS, and, thinking he was going to die, embarked on decades of fraud to finance his lifestyle. He’s still alive. ”

“I enjoy Suarez – I’ve been reading him since ‘Daemon,’ which was so good. He has a great ability to envision how technologies we deal with today would be manifested in extremes down the road. The visions of the future that he puts together are scarily realistic. You’re reading it and thinking,…”

“I’ve become a little obsessed with the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum heist lately, after listening to the ‘Last Seen ‘podcast. This book is by the definitive reporter to cover the crime – he’s been reporting on it, on and off, for 25 years. Sadly, the book is scattered. It’s not a…”

“I had just seen the movie, so I knew what the big plot twist was. In that sense, I was reading it less for the story, and more to get a feel for how Christie wrote. Turns out, she writes well – very clear, with a minimum of fluff. And perhaps unsurprising given the context of her hero, there’s…”

“Another book that I read for a women’s book club that I’m not actually in, but am following along with. Nothing I would ever choose to read myself, which made it that much better. It’s a wonderful, fast-paced mystery involving a family’s sordid past and a podcast (a thinly-veiled version of…”