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The fishermen and the dragon : fear, greed, and a fight for justice on the gulf coast / by Johnson, Kirk W.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A gripping, twisting account of a small town set on fire by hatred, xenophobia, and ecological disaster--a story that weaves together corporate malfeasance, a battle over shrinking natural resources, a turning point in the modern white supremacist movement, and one woman's relentless battle for environmental justice. By the late 1970s, the fishermen of the Texas Gulf Coast were struggling. The bays that had sustained generations of shrimpers and crabbers before them were being poisoned by nearby petrochemical plants, oil spills, pesticides, and concrete. But as their nets came up light, the white shrimpers could only see one culprit: the small but growing number of newly resettled Vietnamese refugees who had recently started fishing. Turf was claimed. Guns were flashed. Threats were made. After a white crabber was killed by a young Vietnamese refugee in self-defense, the situation became a tinderbox primed to explode, and the Grand Dragon of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan saw an opportunity to stoke the fishermen's rage and prejudices. At a massive Klan rally near Galveston Bay one night in 1981, he strode over to an old boat graffitied with the words U.S.S. VIET CONG, torch in hand, and issued a ninety-day deadline for the refugees to leave or else "it's going to be a helluva lot more violent than Vietnam!" The white fishermen roared as the boat burned, convinced that if they could drive these newcomers from the coast, everything would return to normal. A shocking campaign of violence ensued, marked by burning crosses, conspiracy theories, death threats, torched boats, and heavily armed Klansmen patrolling Galveston Bay. The Vietnamese were on the brink of fleeing, until a charismatic leader in their community, a highly decorated colonel, convinced them to stand their ground by entrusting their fate with the Constitution. Drawing upon a trove of never-before-published material, including FBI and ATF records, unprecedented access to case files, and scores of firsthand interviews with Klansmen, shrimpers, law enforcement, environmental activists, lawyers, perpetrators and victims, Johnson uncovers secrets and secures confessions to crimes that went unsolved for more than forty years. This explosive investigation of a forgotten story, years in the making, ultimately leads Johnson to the doorstep of the one woman who could see clearly enough to recognize the true threat to the bays--and who now represents the fishermen's last hope"--
Subjects: Ku Klux Klan (1915- ); Fisheries; Refugees; Vietnamese;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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I know who you are : how an amateur DNA sleuth unmasked the Golden State Killer and changed crime fighting forever / by Rae-Venter, Barbara,author.;
"The amateur DNA sleuth who solved one of the most infamous cold cases in American history-the Golden State Killer crime spree-tells the incredible true story of how she did it, and explains how her methods have forever changed criminal investigations. In the span of just a few years, Barbara Rae-Venter went from researching her family history as a retiree to finding a serial killer who had baffled law enforcement for decades. I Know Who You Are tracks her improbable journey to becoming the nation's leading authority in investigative genetic genealogy, and to identifying the Golden State Killer-who had evaded authorities for forty-four years-in just sixty-three days. Rae-Venter also details other extraordinary cases that she has worked on, from the first criminal cold case she ever cracked-uncovering the long-lost identity of a child abductee-to the heartbreaking case of the Billboard Boy, which began with unidentified remains dumped along a North Carolina highway. When she looks at DNA data, Rae-Venter sees numbers, percentages, probabilities-but she also sees the very stuff that makes us who we are. Drawing on both her own experiences and insights from all the key players in her investigations, Rae-Venter brings readers inside her unique "grasshopper mind" as she analyzes DNA data; pores through obituaries, marriage records, and old newspapers articles; and envisions different scenarios that bring her closer and closer to her target. She lets readers join in on urgent calls from sheriffs, FBI agents, district attorneys, and researchers, and she takes us inside the struggle to obtain a usable crime scene DNA sample and other unexpected roadblocks that often make the search more difficult. Time and again, Rae-Venter pushes through setbacks, finds new angles of investigation, and uses the most cutting-edge new technology-much of it developed during her search-until, finally, a critical piece of the puzzle suddenly tumbles into place. I Know Who You Are captures the exhilaration of the moment of discovery in cold case investigations, but also the sheer depth of emotion that lingers around these cases and informs Rae-Venter's careful approach to her work. It is a story of relentless curiosity, of constant invention and reinvention, and of recognizing that we may not be who we thought we were"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Rae-Venter, Barbara.; DeAngelo, Joseph James, 1945-; Cold cases (Criminal investigation); Criminal investigation; Rapists; Serial murderers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Among the Hidden [electronic resource] : by Haddix, Margaret Peterson.aut; cloudLibrary;
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke, an illegal third child, has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family's farm in this start to the Shadow Children series from Margaret Peterson Haddix. Luke has never been to school. He's never had a birthday party, or gone to a friend's house for an overnight. In fact, Luke has never had a friend. Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He's lived his entire life in hiding, and now, with a new housing development replacing the woods next to his family's farm, he is no longer even allowed to go outside. Then, one day Luke sees a girl's face in the window of a house where he knows two other children already live. Finally, he's met a shadow child like himself. Jen is willing to risk everything to come out of the shadows—does Luke dare to become involved in her dangerous plan? Can he afford not to?
Subjects: Electronic books.; Action & Adventure; Fantasy & Magic; Family;
© 2002., Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
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The Last Kilo Willy Falcon and the Cocaine Empire That Seduced America [electronic resource] : by English, T. J..aut; cloudLibrary;
From true-crime legend T. J. English, the epic, behind-the-scenes saga of “Los Muchachos,” one of the most successful cocaine trafficking organizations in American history—a story of glitz, glamour, and organized crime set against 1980’s Miami. Despite what Scarface might lead one to believe, violence was not the dominant characteristic of the cocaine business. It was corruption: the dirty cops, agents, lawyers, judges, and politicians who made the drug world go round. And no one managed that carousel of dangerous players better than Willy Falcon. A Cuban exile whose family escaped Fidel Castro’s Cuba when he was eleven years old, Falcon, as a teenager, became active in the anti-Castro movement. He began smuggling cocaine into the U.S. as a way to raise money to buy arms for the Contras in Central America. This counter-revolutionary activity led directly to Willy’s genesis as a narco. He and his partners built an extraordinary international organization from the ground up. Los Muchachos, the syndicate founded by Falcon, thrived as a major cocaine distribution network in the U.S. from the late 1970’s into the early 1990’s. At their height, Los Muchachos made more than a hundred million dollars a year. At the same time, Willy, his brother Tavy Falcon, and partner Sal Magluta became famous as championship powerboat racers. Cocaine, used by everyone from A-list celebrities to lawyers and people in law enforcement, came to define an era, and for a time, Willy Falcon and those like him—major suppliers, of whom there were only a few—became stars in their own right. They were the deliverers of good times, at least until the downside of persistent cocaine use became apparent: delusions of grandeur, psychological addiction, financial ruin. Thus, the War on Drugs was born, and federal authorities came after Falcon and his crew with a vengeance. Willy found himself on the run, his marriage and family life in shambles, the halcyon days of boat races and lavish trips to Vegas and parties at the Mutiny night club seemingly a distant memory. T. J. English has been granted unprecedented access to the inner workings of Los Muchachos, sitting down with Willy Falcon and his associates for many lengthy interviews, and revealing never-before-understood details about drug trafficking. A classic of true-crime writing from a master of the genre, The Last Kilo traces the rise and fall of a true cocaine empire—and the lives left in its wake.
Subjects: Electronic books.; 20th Century; Criminals & Outlaws; Organized Crime; Latin America;
© 2024., HarperCollins,
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Trail of the lost : the relentless search to bring home the missing hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail / by Lankford, Andrea,author.;
"As a park ranger on the National Park Service's law enforcement team, Andrea Lankford led search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful (and dangerous) landscapes in America, from Yosemite and Zion to the Grand Canyon. But though she had the official support of the agency, Andrea found herself increasingly frustrated with the service's bureaucratic idiosyncrasies, and after twelve years, she finally left the force, haunted by her own failure to find a lost hiker in 1995. Two decades later, however, she stumbles across a mystery that pulls her right back where she left off: three young men have vanished from the Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile trek made famous by Cheryl Strayed, and no one has been able to find them. It's bugging the hell out of her. Andrea's concern leads her to a wild environment she didn't have to traverse when she last searched for the lost: missing person Facebook groups. Andrea launches an investigation, joining forces with an eclectic team of amateurs who are determined to solve the cases by land and by screen: a mother of the missing, a retired pharmacy manager, and a mapmaker who monitors terrorist activity for the government. Together, they track the activities of kidnappers and murderers, investigate a cult, rescue a psychic in peril, cross paths with an unconventional scientist, and reunite an international fugitive with his family. Searching for the missing is a brutal psychological and physical test with the highest possible stakes, and it takes its toll on each of them. And the insidious nature of the internet wreaks havoc on their investigation, with obsessive "fans" of missing person pages offering fabricated clues, financial requests, and, most damaging of all, false hope. But their hardships begin to bear strange fruits. They discover clues -- bloody socks on the trail, a novel with underlined passages, bones in the desert -- that were missed by the authorities, ones that lead them to places and people they never saw coming. TRAIL OF THE LOST is a female-driven true crime adventure that explores the power and limits of determination, generosity, and hope. It paints a vivid picture of hiker culture and its complicated relationship with the ever-expanding online realm. It offers a deep awe of the natural world, even as it unearths just how vast and treacherous it can be. And along the way, Andrea tells the tale of the incredible strength and inventiveness that brought three bodies home, and that changed the searchers' lives forever. On the TRAIL OF THE LOST, you may not find what you are looking for, but you will certainly find more than you seek"--
Subjects: Hikers.; Missing persons.; Park rangers.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Long past dues / by Butcher, James J.,author.;
"Grimsby, the newest Auditor in the magical Department of Unorthodox Affairs, finds himself in hot water when he intercepts a friend's case in this fast-paced and thrilling urban fantasy. Against all odds, Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby has become an Auditor, enforcing laws about magic for Boston's Department of Unorthodox Affairs. But Grimsby soon realizes the daily grind of his job is far removed from the glamour he imagined. Overlooked for every exciting case, Grimsby tires of being told to handle mundane magical troubles, and appropriates a case file intended for a friend. Alongside Leslie Mayflower, the temporarily unretired Huntsman, Grimsby aims to crack the case and discover the origin of a strange, unfinished ritual-one that seems to imitate the handiwork of a foe Mayflower put down twenty years ago. Together, they'll have to deal with escaped werewolves, a cursed artifact, and a perilous journey to the mysterious subterranean city below Boston, all to uncover the shocking truth. At any cost, Grimsby must stop this ritual from finally being completed. Yet the cost may be paid not by himself but by his friends ... "--
Subjects: Witch fiction.; Paranormal fiction.; Fantasy fiction.; Novels.; Criminal investigation; Magic; Rites and ceremonies; Underground areas; Witches;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Slaughter of the Mountain Man / by Johnstone, William W.; Johnstone, J. A.;
He calls himself The King. Once a respected professor, he was ruined by scandal. Now, he rules his own "country"--an area of western territory where an army of outlaws enforce his laws. Any town he claims as his own must pay "taxes," collected from bank, stagecoach, and train robberies. When he learns that President Rutherford B. Hayes and General William Tecumseh Sherman are venturing into the far west on a tour of the nation, The King devises a plan to kidnap America's leaders and expand his empire. But The King didn't reckon that Smoke Jensen had already staked his claim on the frontier. Traveling with the president's entourage, the mountain man is not about to let this bloodthirsty, evil tyrant endanger his commander-in-chief and threaten American liberty...
Subjects: Western fiction.; Outlaws;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Paw of the jungle / by Kelly, Diane.;
The weather is beautiful, work is slow, and her canine colleague could use a walk. What better day for Megan to take Brigit to the Fort Worth Zoo, where they can let loose and witness the law and order of nature unfold? But what begins as a fun field trip turns serious when a pair of rare hyacinth macaws named Fabiana and Fernando goes missing. Is the new custodian, a gentle soul who happens to be an ex-convict, to blame? Or is something far more sinister afoot?
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Fort Worth Zoological Park; Police dogs; Policewomen; Poaching; Detective and mystery stories;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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American cartel : inside the battle to bring down the opioid industry / by Higham, Scott,author.; Horwitz, Sari,author.;
"AMERICAN CARTEL is an unflinching and deeply documented dive into the culpability of the drug companies behind the staggering death toll of the opioid epidemic. It follows of a small band of DEA agents led by Joe Rannazzisi, a tough-talking New Yorker who had spent a storied 30 years bringing down bad guys, along with a band of lawyers led by West Virginia native Paul Farrell Jr. who fought to hold the drug industry to account in the face of the worst man-made drug epidemic in American history. It is the story of underdogs prevailing over corporate greed and political cowardice, persevering in the face of predicted failure, and how they found some semblance of justice for the families of the dead with the most complex civil litigation in American history. The lawyers and investigators discovered hundreds of thousands of confidential corporate emails and memos during courtroom combat with legions of white-shoe law firms defending the opioid industry. One breathtaking disclosure after another-from emails that mocked addicts to invoices chronicling the rise of pill mills--showed the indifference of big business to the epidemic's toll. Its narrative approach echoes work such as A Civil Action and The Insider, moving dramatically between corporate boardrooms, courthouses, lobbying firms, DEA field offices and Capitol Hill while capturing the human toll of the epidemic on America's streets. AMERICAN CARTEL is the story of those who were on the front lines of the fight to stop the human carnage. Along the way, they suffer a string of defeats, some of their careers destroyed by the very same government officials who swore to uphold the law, before they finally prevail over some of the most powerful corporate and political influences in the nation"--
Subjects: United States. Drug Enforcement Administration.; Drug control; Opioid abuse; Pharmaceutical industry;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The prosecutor : one man's battle to bring Nazis to justice / by Fairweather, Jack,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Volunteer, the powerful true story of a Jewish lawyer who returned to Germany after World War II to prosecute war crimes, only to find himself pitted against a nation determined to bury the past. At the end of the Nuremberg trial in 1946, some of the greatest war criminals in history were sentenced to death, but hundreds of thousands of Nazi murderers and collaborators remained at large. The Allies were ready to overlook their pasts as the Cold War began, and the horrors of the Holocaust were in danger of being forgotten. In The Prosecutor, Jack Fairweather brings to life the remarkable story of Fritz Bauer, a gay, Jewish judge from Stuttgart who survived the Nazis and made it his mission to force his countrymen to confront their complicity in the genocide. In this deeply researched book, Fairweather draws on unpublished family papers, newly declassified German records, and exclusive interviews to immerse readers in the shadowy, unfamiliar world of postwar West Germany where those who implemented genocide run the country, the CIA is funding Hitler's former spy-ring in the east, and Nazi-era anti-gay laws are strictly enforced. But once Bauer landed on the trail of Adolf Eichmann, he wouldn't be intimidated. His journey took him deep into the dark heart of West Germany, where his fight for justice would set him against his own government and a network of former Nazis and spies bent on silencing him. In a time when the history of the Holocaust is taken for granted, The Prosecutor reveals the courtroom battles that were fought to establish its legacy and the personal cost of speaking out. The result is a searing portrait of a nation emerging from the ruins of fascism and one man's courage in forcing his people--and the world--to face the truth"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Bauer, Fritz, 1903-1968.; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jewish lawyers; Lawyers; War crime trials; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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