New Releases by Stephen Singular

Journalist Stephen Singular, a New York Times bestselling author, has written books about some of the most high-profile crimes in recent American history: the O.J. Simpson case, the JonBenet Ramsey case, and the saga of the BTK serial killer. Until now, he''s probed human violence from the outside, documenting other people''s stories. In The Heart of Violence, he turns the lens inward, combining true crime with a personal spiritual journey that examines the roots of violence from a radically different perspective. He explores the long-term effects of the war that shaped his father''s life (and helped shape his own), while venturing far beyond the boundaries of conventional journalism. Neither he nor the reader could have imagined where this quest would lead him.

What’s scarier than a murderer? Someone with the charisma to compel others to kill for them . . . or to kill themselves. Meet these cult leaders—and get an inside look at their beliefs and how they controlled others. Some cults, led by leaders like Charlie Manson, Jim Jones, and David Koresh, are notorious. But others are less well known, such as Shoko Asahara and his doomsday cult, Aum Shinrikyo, who orchestrated the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Or Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret, who founded the Order of the Solar Temple, a doomsday cult that led to the death of 51 members by murder or suicide. Then there is Marshall Applewhite, leader of Heaven’s Gate, who, along with 38 followers, killed themselves in the belief that the Hale-Bopp comet signaled the arrival of a spaceship that would transport them to a higher plane of existence. What makes cult leaders so compelling is their often-unfathomable power over their adherents. Why do people kill others or themselves for a questionable set of beliefs? Killer Cults tells the stories behind both famous and unfamiliar cults, and the people behind them. Across a series of profiles, we learn the jaw-dropping truth behind some of the most mystifying and deadly cults, and their leaders, all of whom led their followers down a dark, murderous path.

Nancy Pfister, heir to Buttermilk Mountain, the world-renowned site of the Winter X Games, was Aspen royalty, its ambassador to the world. She lived among the rich and famous: she partied with Hunter S. Thompson, dated Jack Nicholson, had a joint baby shower with Goldie Hawn, and globetrotted with Angelica Houston. She was also a philanthropist, admired for her generosity. But behind the warm façade, she could be selfish, manipulative, and careless. Pfister enjoyed bragging about her wealth and celebrity connections, but those closest to her, like Kathy Carpenter, Pfister''s personal assistant, drinking companion, and on one occasion lover, knew better. In 2013, after a long fall from grace, Dr. William Styler and his wife, Nancy, relocated to Aspen to reinvent themselves. They''d lived the high life before a misguided lawsuit left them near poverty, and Nancy Pfister was their answered prayer. She took them in, gave them a place to live, and allowed them to launch their new spa business. Everything seemed perfect until Pfister turned on them, making increasingly irrational demands and threatening to throw them out on the street. When Nancy was found beaten to death in her own home, the Stylers and Carpenter were all under suspicion for the gruesome murder. But in this close-knit, wealthytown set on keeping its reputation and secrets safe from the public eye, the police struggled to solve the mystery of what really happened.

On July 20, 2012, twelve people were killed and fifty–eight wounded at a mass shooting in a movie theater in Colorado. In 1999, thirteen kids at Columbine High School were murdered by their peers. In 2012, twenty children and seven adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary. Thirty–two were killed at Virginia Tech. Twelve killed at the Washington Navy Yard. In May 2014, after posting a YouTube video of "retribution" and lamenting a life of "loneliness, rejection, and unfulfilled desires," a lone gunman killed six and wounded seven in Isla Vista. All of these acts of violence were committed by young men between the ages of eighteen and thirty. Mass violence committed by young people is now an epidemic. In the first fourteen school days of 2014, there were seven school shootings, compared to twenty–eight school shootings in all of 2013. The reasons behind this escalating violence, and the cultural forces that have impugned a generation, is the subject of the important new book The Spiral Notebook. New York Times–bestselling author Stephen Singular has often examined violence in America in his critically–acclaimed books. Here he has teamed with his wife Joyce for their most important work yet — one that investigates why America keeps producing twenty–something mass killers. Their reporting has produced the most comprehensive look at the Aurora shooting yet and draws upon the one group left out of the discussion of violence in America: the twenty–somethings themselves. While following the legal proceedings in the Aurora shooting, The Spiral Notebook is full of interviews with Generation Z, a group dogged by big pharma and anti–depressants and ADHD drugs, by a doomsday/apocalyptic mentality present since birth, and by an entertainment industry that has turned violence into parlor games. Provocative and eye–opening, The Spiral Notebook is a glimpse into the forces that are shaping the future of American youth, an entire generation bathed in the violence committed by their peers.

With A Death in Wichita (originally published as The Wichita Divide) New York Times bestselling author Stephen Singular offers an in-depth account of the life and death of a controversial doctor, the debate that sparked his assassination, and the place where two Americas collide On May 31, 2009, Scott Roeder walked into a Wichita church, drew a pistol, and shot Dr. George Tiller at point blank range. Tiller, who was the most public practitioner of late-term abortions in America, had been a lightning rod for controversy, regularly referred to in the conservative media as "Tiller, the Baby Killer." Tiller''s death was a pivotal, public murder in a war that has been raging for decades. It''s a war of violently opposing ideologies, encompassing abortion, but also questions of privacy, sexuality, and religion. It''s being fought in our nation''s courtrooms, school and churches, on television sets, at our dinner tables, and in our bedrooms. And more and more, the key battlegrounds are in Kansas, once home to Brown vs. Board of Education and some of the bloodiest conflicts of the Civil War. A Death in Wichita is a gripping look at a cold-blooded terrorist action, two men representing opposite ideological extremes, and the region where those violent forces clash. "A disturbing, haunting journey into unrepentant hatred." - Kirkus Reviews

The New York Times bestselling author offers an in-depth account of the life and death of a controversial doctor, the debate that sparked his assassination, and the place where two Americas collide On May 31, 2009, Scott Roeder walked into a Wichita church, drew a pistol, and shot Dr. George Tiller at point blank range. Tiller, who was the most public practitioner of late-term abortions in America, had been a lightning rod for controversy, regularly referred to in the conservative media as “Tiller, the Baby Killer.” Tiller’s death was a pivotal, public murder in a war that has been raging for decades. It’s a war of violently opposing ideologies, encompassing abortion, but also questions of privacy, sexuality, and religion. It’s being fought in our nation’s courtrooms, school and churches, on television sets, at our dinner tables, and in our bedrooms. And more and more, the key battlegrounds are in Kansas, once home to Brown vs. Board of Education and some of the bloodiest conflicts of the Civil War. This is a gripping look at a cold-blooded terrorist action, two men representing opposite ideological extremes, and the region where those violent forces clash.

In When Men Become Gods, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Singular casts a light on a dark corner of religious extremism. He reveals a group of fundamentalists operating in the present-day United States, where teenage girls are kept in virtual bondage in the name of upholding the "sacred principle" of polygamy. As the leader and self-proclaimed prophet of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, a sect of Mormonism based in isolated southern Utah, Warren Jeffs held sway over thousands of followers for nearly a decade. His rule was utterly tyrannical. In addition to coercing young girls into polygamous marriages with older men, Jeffs reputedly took scores of wives, many of whom were his father''s widows. Television, radio, and newspapers were shunned, creating a hidden community where polygamy was prized above all else. But in 2007, after a two-year manhunt that landed him on the FBI''s Ten Most Wanted List, Jeffs''s reign was forcefully ended. He was convicted of rape as an accomplice for his role in arranging a marriage between a fourteen-year-old girl and her nineteen-year-old first cousin. In When Men Become Gods, Edgar Award nominee Stephen Singular traces Jeffs''s rise to power and the concerted effort that led to his downfall. It was a movement championed by law enforcement, private investigators, the Feds, and perhaps most vocal of all, a group of former polygamous wives seeking to liberate young women from the arranged marriages they''d once endured. The book offers new revelations into a nearly impenetrable enclave---a place of nineteenth-century attire, inbreeding, and eerie seclusion---providing readers with a rare glimpse into a tradition that''s almost a century old, but that has only now been exposed.

To all appearances, Dennis Rader was a model citizen in the small town of Park City, Kansas, where he had lived with his family almost his entire life. He was a town compliance officer, a former Boy Scout leader, the president of his church congregation, and a seemingly ordinary father and husband. But Rader''s average life belied the existence of his dark, sadistic other self: he was the BTK serial killer. The self-named BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill) had terrorized Wichita for thirty-one years, not only with his brutal, sexually motivated crimes, but also through his taunting, elusive communications with the media and law enforcement. In 1974, BTK committed his first murders -- torturing and strangling four members of the Otero family -- and wrote the police an audacious letter declaring his responsibility for the Oteros'' deaths and labeling himself, for the first time, BTK. Thus he established a pattern -- stalking and killing a series of ten victims, then bragging and claiming ownership of his crimes -- that ended in 1991 but left law enforcement confounded and the public with deeply troubling memories. Until, that is, he resurfaced in 2004 with another string of letters that would finally lead to his arrest. Drawing from extensive interviews with Rader''s pastor, congregation, detectives, and psychologists who worked the case, and from his unnervingly de-tailed thirty-two-hour confession, bestselling author Stephen Singular delves into the disturbing life and crimes of BTK to explore fully -- for the first time -- the most dangerous and complex serial killer of our generation and the man who embodied, at once, astonishing extremes of normality and abnormality. In Unholy Messenger, Singular recounts the year prior to Rader''s arrest, in which the BTK killer reemerged, and the aftermath. Woven throughout are the details of his crimes, elaborate schemes, and bids for public attention, and the wrenching impact his deception had on his family, church, and heartland community. The result is a chilling story of a man considered a "spiritual leader" by his pastor and congregation, who turned out to be the devil next door. More than just true crime, Unholy Messenger is a powerful, thoroughly engrossing examination of the intersection between good and evil, and of the psychology and spirituality of a killer in whom faith and bloodshed converged.

Presents over sixty brief biographies of productive members of the Knights of Columbus society, including John F. Kennedy, "Babe" Ruth, and the founder of the society Father Michael J. McGivney.

In a sport full of players who are larger than life, Terrell Owens towers above the crowd. It isn''t just that he holds the NFL record for catches in a single game (twenty) or that he''s the most feared wide receiver in the game. It''s also his penchant for unique self-expression -- spiking the ball on the midfield Texas lone star in front of a hostile Dallas Cowboy crowd, pulling a Sharpie from his sock to sign a game ball after a touchdown, and dancing with a cheerleader''s pom-poms after another TD. Never politically correct and always controversial and colorful on and off the field, Terrell Owens has transformed himself into "TO," the outrageous gridiron personality who has rocked the entire NFL and the sports landscape. But Owens is more than touchdowns, dancing, and celebrations. In this wickedly insightful book, he''s full of sharp-eyed observations on the contentious, demanding, insane phenomenon that is pro football. In Catch This! Owens takes readers back to his hardscrabble childhood in rural Alabama, where he was raised by a stern grandmother and loving mother. By the time he won an athletic scholarship for football at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, the once small, bullied boy had transformed himself into a very large man with a super body and an iron will to succeed. He takes us behind his apprenticeship to -- and eventual eclipsing of -- the legendary 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice. He pulls no punches when it comes to his extremely public fight with San Francisco coach Steve Mariucci -- a relationship so sour that they didn''t speak at all during the crucial final weeks of the 2001 season. And, finally, he lets loose on the free agent scandal that shook the NFL in 2004 -- and reveals the truth behind the NFL''s attempt to deny him free agency, his fraudulent trade to the Baltimore Ravens, and his ultimate happy landing with the Philadelphia Eagles. For those who think they know both Terrell Owens and TO, catch this story.

A True Story of sex and death on the internet.

The bestselling author of Presumed Guilty explores the rise of hatred and violence in America since the 1984 murder of Denver talk show host Alan Berg by neo-Nazis. As the new millennium begins, Singular asks Americans to relearn a critical lesson: that a society that violates or destroys its ideals will eventually descend into violence.

The NBA legend''s stirring account of a season spent coaching, mentoring, and learning from a unique high school basketball team. Author events.

On the morning of December 26, 1996, JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered in the basement of her parent''s million-dollar home in Boulder, Colorado. The events surrounding the death of the 6-year-old beauty queen horrified the city''s residents and immediately captured the nation''s interest. As throngs of reporters and media crews swarmed into Boulder, local and national networks flashed images of JonBenet, dressed provocatively in pageant regalia, across the country and overseas. Concurring with the opinions expressed on television and radio talk show programs, Boulder''s police department focused its attention on two suspects: John and Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet''s parents. Despite pressure from the police to arrest the Ramseys, the district attorney''s office attempted to establish new leads and identify other suspects, but without the support of law-enforcement authorities, the D.A.''s efforts were stymied. As the investigation came to a standstill, one man looked deeper. Not content to pass judgment on the Ramseys without conclusive evidence -- and convinced there was a reason for the legal system''s wariness in prosecuting the case -- Denver-based journalist Stephen Singular followed a trail from the local bars to the county, jail to answer the question: Who, or what, killed JonBenet Ramsey? Singular''s search led him into the often seamy worlds of tabloid journalism, local politics, beauty, pageants, child pornography, and the business of sex on the Internet. His discovery -- of a subculture that sexually exploits young children and that surreptitiously is working its way into mainstream America -- motivated him to share his findings with the district attorney and the police. PresumedGuilty is his account of this journey into one of the darkest corners of modern American life.

Undeterred, Geffen founded Geffen Records four years later. Ten years later, he owned the best independent record label in America and had become a successful producer of Broadway plays (Cats and M. Butterfly) and hit films (Risky Business and Beetlejuice). When he sold Geffen Records to MCA, in March of 1990, he earned $710 million and was touted as the first self-made billionaire in Hollywood history. But just as he was experiencing his greatest business achievements, he was faced with another serious challenge - he was being attacked bitterly for "dishonesty." For years he had described himself as bisexual, but now gay activists demanded that he step forward as a gay man, donate more of his millions to AIDS research, and declare his homosexuality to the world. After an excruciating public battle, they got their wish.

In August 1995, after the Walt Disney Company announced its $19 billion merger with Capital Cities/ABC, Michael Orvitz''s power as head of the high-rolling Creative Artists Agency seemed eclipsed--until he joined Michael Eisner at the top of the Disney empire. This book offers the first complete, unauthorized portrait of one of the richest, most formidable, yet least known of the media moguls, whose clients include Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, David Letterman, and Barbra Streisand. of photos.

Investigates information that charged that Mark Fuhrman''s relationship with Nicole Simpson led him to tamper with evidence

Alan Berg was the talk-show host all of Denver loved to hate. Nobody escaped his attacks on hypocrisy, bigotry and injustice. Then he was brutally murdered in front of his home, sending the FBI on a nationwide manhunt which ended in the discovery of a violent cult of neo-Nazi supremacists.