True Crime Stories You Won't Believe

In this book, I present additional tales of true crime and bizarre applications of justice (or injustice, as the case may be). They include:

The real story behind "Arsenic and Old Lace" and why the reality isn't as lighthearted as Hollywood made it out to be.

A case in which a dream helped solve a gruesome murder. Or did it?

When a staunch Irish sea captain murdered almost his entire crew on the high seas and what happened afterward.

Did an Ouija board drive an Alabama mother and daughter to commit murder?

The story of Jane Toppan and what drove her to kill so many of her patients.

The story of Blanche Monnier, whose family locked her away for decades to keep her from marrying the wrong man.

Was the Devil responsible for the murder of Alan Bono?

The true story of the Vampire of Le Muy and his bizarre need to steal corpses.

The story of Bridget Cleary, whose husband killed her in the belief that she had been replaced by fairies.

And this is just a sampling of the stories you will find. Though you may well be acquainted with some of these stories, I try to be as complete as possible, including newspaper accounts and additional details from what other true crime writers have written about these cases.

Romeo Vitelli earned his doctorate from York University in 1987 and worked as a psychologist at a maximum-security prison for fifteen years before entering private practice. He is also an avid writer and has authored five books and thousands of blog posts for his own Providentia blog, as well as Psychology Today and the Huffington Post.