True Crime

David Brown was the consummate entrepreneur: a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But in the wake of Cinnamon's murder conviction, thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown himself unfolded with astonishing clarity -- revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games. A complex and often dangerous investigation suggested a horrifying scenario: Was the seemingly bland David Brown really a stone-cold killer who convinced his own daughter to prove her love by killing for him? A man who turned young women into his own personal slaves, who collected nearly $1 million in insurance money, and married his dead wife's teenage sister, David Brown was a sociopath who would stop at nothing...a deadly charmer who almost got away with everything.

Donald MacNeil was teaching sailing in the north of England when he was hired to skipper a yacht across the Mediterranean. The pay was good and the work was easy--or so he thought. But the truth was soon revealed: He had to sail the Atlantic to South America to collect one of the biggest hauls of cocaine ever bound for the United Kingdom.

Realizing he knew too much about the gangsters who had hired him, he saw that refusal wasn't an option. There followed a harrowing journey to Venezuela, where almost £50 million of coke was waiting. But before they could escape, MacNeil and his fellow crewman were arrested. They were found guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced to six years in the notorious island prison of San Antonio.

MacNeil soon discovered why Venezuela's prisons are the most violent in the world, with hundreds killed every year in riots, vendettas, and petty disputes. Thrown into a filthy, overcrowded dormitory and surrounded by armed gangs and crack addicts, he faced a daily fight to survive. Ferocious guards beat prisoners indiscriminately, and many cut themselves in "blood strikes" to protest against the scarce food, undrinkable water, and lack of medical care. Finally, a war broke out between the two prison compounds, involving guns, machetes, and even grenades.

Through it all, MacNeil clung to the belief that one day he would be home. Journey To Hell is a harrowing but compelling account of one man's extraordinary will to survive in a world gone mad.

Donald MacNeil has worked as a sailing instructor and in mountain rescue. He is currently rebuilding his life in Scotland.

HE WAS THE "BAD BOY" OF BODYBUILDING
Craig Titus once earned the championship title of Mr. USA, but that was before his illegal drug use and terrible temper got the best of his body and his career. Soon he would redirect his attention toward a young, bubbly fitness professional who looked up to Craig as a mentor and later became his wife.

SHE WAS A COVER GIRL FOR MUSCLE MAGAZINES
Kelly Ryan quickly rose to the top of her field. She appeared on the cover of "Ironman "magazine's swimsuit issue and was named Ms. Fitness America. A crowd favorite, her fans were shocked to learn that Kelly had been taken into custody, along with Craig, on charges of murder. The victim: the couple's personal assistant, Melissa James.

THEIR BODIES WERE TO DIE FOR
Did Craig have a romantic relationship with Melissa? And did Kelly find out about and force Craig to put a deadly end to their affair? When Melissa's corpse was found in the back of Kelly's Jaguar, police made an arrest. Now, the burning question that remains is: Is America's favorite celebrity bodybuilding couple guilty as charged? With this shocking expose, author Michael Fleeman attempts to find out."

In 1967, U.S. Marshal John Partington was given the task of overseeing the protection of the wife and young daughter of renowned mobster Joe "The Animal" Barboza, now an informant with a bounty on his head. It wasn't Partington's first time guarding underworld witnesses. But this time was different. It was at the behest of Senator Bobby Kennedy that Partington became the architect of a new high- threat program to get the bad guys to testify against the worse guys. Lifelong protection in exchange for the conviction of the upper echelon of organized crime would require a permanent identity change for every member of the witness's family, a battery of psychological tests for re-assimilation, and a total, devastating obliteration of all ties with the past. With no blueprint for success, it created a logistical nightmare for Partington. He would have to make up the rules as he went along, and he did so without the luxury of knowing whom he could really trust at any given time. And so, the Witness Protection Program was born.

The account John Partington tells of the next thirty years of his life is a never-before-seen portrait of members of the underworld and law enforcement--from Joe Valachi, the first mobster to violate the "omerta," the sacrosanct code of silence, to high-profile informant and NYPD narcotics detective Bob Leuci, immortalized in "Prince of the City." He reveals the details of the protection provided such significant figures as Watergate players to Howard Hunt and John and Maureen Dean. Ultimately, Partington delivers the unvarnished truth of the Program, from the heavily-shielded delivery of witnesses to trial, to countless death threats, to managing an ever- rotating crew of U.S. Marshals, to the step-by-step procedure of reinventing his sometimes dangerous, sometimes terrified charges and their families as uncomplicated suburbanites. These would be the guarded new neighbors just across the street bearing secret histories--uncomfortable actors in a play that would run for the rest of their lives.

Lifting a cloak of confidentiality and controversy, "The Mob and Me" immerses readers in the rarified, misunderstood world of Witness Protection--at once human, dangerous, intimate, surprising, and stone-cold violent.