Helen Plum Library

The scene was paralyzing. We stood there, numb. No one spoke. There were 69 bodies spread about the 24x50 foot area. They all could have been sleeping. In the small hours of the annual Punta Carnivale celebrations held by Central American communities of the West Bronx, residents witness flames and smoke coming from a popular nightspot known as Happy Land. Fire and rescue personnel arrive at the scene within three minutes, only to find all 87 party-goers...

One day while Dorothy Stratten was on shift working at a Diary Queen, an older man walked into the store. Dorothy noted his outfit — a long fur coat, lizard skin boots, and gold and diamond jewelry — and she was captivated. She had never seen anyone like him before, and the two talked for a little bit before he drove off in a black sports car. Dorothy was sure she would never see the sophisticated stranger again. To her surprise, the man called...

Madeleine McCann, a young child of three years old, was visiting the popular Portuguese resort town of Praia da Luiz along with her parents and younger siblings, as well as a group of her parents' close friends, when she went missing on the night of May 3rd. Madeleine's disappearance became an international sensation and various police departments in both Portugal and the United Kingdom, as well as Madeleine's parents, would conduct independent investigations...

An inside account by the youngest member of Charles Manson's cult describes her indoctrination at age fourteen and the manipulation, psychological control, and physical abuse that she endured before she was rescued and adopted by the police officer who arrested her

"Jubilee Rathman is a straight-A student and star soccer goalie destined for Princeton - until her family is brutally murdered. Twelve years later, she lives in a virtual fortress on Purgatory Bay near Bleak Harbor, plotting revenge on the people she considers responsible. In her crosshairs is former reporter Michaela "Mikey" Deming, who Jubilee believes got her family in trouble with the Detroit mob. As retribution, Jubilee kidnaps Mikey's sister...

"A shocking massacre in 2019 sparks a probing investigation into the strange, violent history of a polygamist Mormon outpost in Mexico. A harmless, unassuming caravan of women and children was ambushed by masked gunmen in northern Mexico on November 4, 2019. In a massacre that produced international headlines, nine people were killed and five others gravely injured. The victims were members of the La Mora and LeBaron communities-fundamentalist Mormons...

In 1967, in the small town of Circleville, Ohio, a man walked into an old-fashioned drug store on a busy Saturday and laid a smoking package on the pharmacy counter in the back. He shouted for everyone to leave, he had a bomb. The store owner grabbed the package and ran down the back hallway. The man chased the owner, grabbed him and struggled to take the package away. A pharmacist saw what was happening, raced after both, and tried to pull the two...

On the 15th of July 1997 the world of fashion was changed forever. Gianni Versace had decided to have a change of routine. Instead of sending out an assistant, as he usually would, to collect the morning papers, Versace travelled down to his local coffee shop to get them himself. As he returned home to his Miami Beach mansion, Andrew Cunanan pounced. Firing his gun and shooting Versace twice, a fashion icon fell to his knees and left the world shocked....

Adriana Vasco was a 35-year old mother of two when she had an affair with a 57-year old doctor named Kenneth Stahl. Both Adriana and Kenneth would indulge in a lengthy affair and would later come up with a plan to kill his wife, Carolyn. The doctor wanted out of his marriage but feared the financial consequences of divorce. So when a security guard discovered a car parked along the shoulder of the Ortega Highway on November 20, 1999, with the engine...

WHEN YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD 'SEX PARTY' TURNS DEADLY Joan and David Shannon were swingers who met other married couples for "sex parties" through the Internet. David would introduce his wife to Jeffrey WIlson and the two quickly fell in love. David grew jealous and warned his wife to stop seeing Wilson. Joan, however, wanted to keep seeing her swinger friend. In a bizarre series of events, she enlisted the aid of her fifteen-year-old daughter...