True Crime Case Histories - (Books 25, 26, & 27)

36 Disturbing True Crime Stories of Murder and Mayhem
Three Book Collection: Volumes 25, 26, and 27 of the True Crime Case Histories Series

There is a comfort in believing that evil announces itself. That something in the posture, the stare, the too-still hands would give it away in time. It rarely does. The men and women in these pages held down jobs, coached little league, sat in pews, and paid their taxes on time.

This collection travels through commuter towns, rural counties, and cities on several continents to reconstruct thirty-six cases in which the ordinary turned lethal. Built from court transcripts, police files, and the words of those who survived, each account follows the same grim formula: proximity plus trust, and how little else a killer needs.

A sampling of the stories includes:

The Kiss of Death – A young mother vanished at closing time from a gas station with no cameras, leaving behind her coat, her purse, and the cash in the drawer. The one early tip led to a man with a clean alibi, and it would be three years before anyone learned what was hidden under the floor of his van.

No Fire, No Food – A desperate Phoenix family paid nearly $14,000 to send their troubled sixteen-year-old into the Utah backcountry, believing a wilderness program would straighten him out. Twenty days later he weighed 108 pounds, and the journal he left behind recorded each of them.

Whips and Chains – A long-haul trucker crossed the southern highways with a chained, naked woman shackled into the sleeper of his cab. The accident that finally stopped him was a state trooper who noticed something strange about his truck.

Hello Kitty Murder – A young mother in Hong Kong was held captive over a debt so small it defies belief. What her captors did to hide the crime—and the child’s toy they used to do it—remains one of the most disturbing cases in the city’s history.

The Conduit – A husband and wife ran a small e-commerce news website out of their home. When their coverage annoyed the wrong person, a campaign of terror arrived at their front door, orchestrated from an executive suite.

What the Garden Knew – A charming real estate agent reported his wife missing at dawn, with fresh scratches down his cheek he blamed on a blunt razor. It would take a botanist, a bloodstain, and his country’s highest court to settle what really happened in that house.

The Baton Rouge Serial Killer – For two years a killer talked his way through unlocked doors across Louisiana while investigators chased the wrong man, certain of what he looked like. A survivor’s memory and a single DNA test finally proved how wrong they’d been.

Plus twenty-five more chilling true crime cases.
You won’t find the same handful of cases retold here for the hundredth time. Each chapter was researched from the ground up—court transcripts, case files, testimony—and reconstructed exactly as far as the evidence allows and no further. Nothing speculated, nothing sensationalized, nothing stretched to fill space. Just what happened, told with momentum, and with care for the people it happened to.

Readers love the True Crime Case Histories series:

“If you’re a fan of Mindhunter or Forensic Files, you’ll love this series. Real cases, no fluff—just gripping, well-researched storytelling.”

“These aren’t the usual overdone true crime stories. Jason Neal digs up cases I’ve never heard of—and tells them in a way that sticks with you.”

“I thought I’d just read one chapter before bed. Three hours later, I was still turning pages. Totally addictive.”

“What I appreciate most is the balance—factual, respectful, and still completely chilling.”

“Some true crime books feel sensationalized. Not these. They’re raw, honest, and sometimes hard to read—but impossible to put down.”