In this “astounding autobiography,” a celebrated true crime author delves into a tragic murder committed by his own son (Publishers Weekly).As a single father raising two sons, Carlton Stowers did his best to instill in his boys a healthy sense of right and wrong. But with Anson, his oldest, it would prove to be an ongoing uphill battle. At a young age, Anson became involved with a number of illicit activities, including drugs, forgery, and theft.After each jail stay, Anson would vow to get clean and start anew. But then he crossed a fatal line. Twenty-five years old and strung-out on amphetamines, Anson brutally murdered his young ex-wife.In a brave, honest, and moving work, bestselling true-crime writer Carlton Stowers examines the downfall of his eldest son, once a happy child full of promise, now a convicted murderer serving a sixty-year sentence. With a reporter’s shrewdness and a father’s heart, Stowers presents a true story of two lives irrevocably lost, and of one man struggle to understand.Introduction by Jonathan Kellerman

The New York Times–bestselling psychologist and true crime author examines the twisted mind of a doctor driven to kill time and again.Dr. John Kappler was a well-respected physician in dozens of California hospitals, yet none of his patients ever imagined that his true calling was murder. The horror began the day he secretly attempted to kill three patients—including a pregnant woman who suffered permanent brain damage at his hands. Then, in a driving rampage, Kappler rammed another car, stole it, and used it as a lethal weapon. Yet, incredibly, his fellow doctors bailed him out of jail, and he was soon back on the job.Desperate to satisfy his lust for killing, Kappler plunged a patient into cardiac arrest. Next, he pulled the plug on an unconscious man. Finally, he exploded in a terrifying rage of violence and murder. Pressing the accelerator of his car to the floor, he cut down a promising young doctor and seconds later maimed a toddler’s mom for life.In Without Mercy, Keith Ablow examines Kappler’s many crimes, his eventual murder trial, and his unsuccessful insanity defense.

From the New York Times–bestselling author of The Fortune Hunter, “a classic true-crime tapestry” (Ron Franscell, bestselling author of The Darkest Night).   Andrea Yates, a suburban Houston mother of five, horrified the nation on June 20, 2001, when she dialed 911 and said, “I killed my children.”   While her husband Rusty, a NASA engineer, was at work, Andrea filled the family bathtub with water and systematically drowned their children, ages six months to seven years. As her eldest child lay lifeless in the bathtub and the bodies of her four youngest rested in her bed, Andrea, a devoted Christian wife and former nurse, called the police to confess her sin.   The investigations by the prosecutors, by the defense, and by the press delved deeper into Andrea’s mind and history, revealing a disturbing web of suicidal tendencies, depression, and psychoses. While her husband struggled between his overwhelming grief and his loyalty to his incarcerated wife, an outraged nation asked one question after another: How could anyone do this? What would drive a mother to kill her children?   Drawing from hundreds of hours of interviews, court testimony, and medical records, including new access to psychiatric and legal files, Breaking Point traces the story of an all-American family struggling with the darkness of a mental illness that twisted a loving mother into a killer obsessed with hellfire.

“A suspenseful, well-researched account of the life and trial of a man accused of smothering his babies for the insurance money.” —Kirkus ReviewsIn 1981, the daughter of Garrett Wilson—a man prone to money problems and extramarital affairs—apparently succumbed to sudden infant death syndrome. In 1987, remarried and blessed with a new child, Garrett suffered another loss when his infant son also seemed to fall victim to SIDS. The tragedy remained inexplicable to everyone—except for his wife, Missy . . .Seven years later, Missy, who was now divorced from Garrett, made shocking accusations that her philandering ex was a baby-killer. For Garrett, who had married a third time and fathered another child, his sordid history as a womanizer and a thief finally caught up with him . . .Did Garrett trade his children’s lives for the payoffs he could expect from their $190,000 insurance policies? Or was he the victim of a scorned wife who held seething fantasies of revenge, and a scapegoat for obsessive prosecutors and bloodthirsty public? A stunning investigator into unimaginable crimes and medical mysteries, While Innocents Slept will disturb and outrage you . . .Praise for While Innocents Slept“One of the most chilling and evil characters in the . . . history of true crime writing.” —Carlton Stowers, Edgar Award–winning author of To the Last Breath“A riveting read that I could not put down.” —Robert K. Ressler