Monsters are real, and they live among us. True crime can be worse than anything that Hollywood could dream up. Sometimes your quirky but seemingly harmless neighbor could be hiding a house of horrors, as was the case with The Camden Ripper. Or, it could be the local baker that you've always known as "Bob the Baker," who also happens to hunt humans in the Alaskan wilderness. All nine stories in Far Worse Than Fiction: Book 1 are true, even if we don't want them to be. In a society that craves a motive and reason why some do what they do, sometimes we'll never know.
In this book...
◆ The Ukrainian Terminator: A serial killer began a months-long killing spree that terrified an entire nation. Ukraine was under siege by a man who would wipe out entire families. He would attack homes and motorists in isolated villages then escape without being seen. When his latest terror campaign ended, his final toll would be 43 murders, but it wasn't his first killing spree.
◆ The Lamb's Head Murder: A worker on a farm discovered a severed lamb's head on one of the farm's fence posts. Although this was shocking enough, a note left with it was even more disturbing. It read "You next."
◆ Camden Ripper: A homeless man was searching dumpsters for food. He pulled out one trash bag with what he thought might contain fish, but the man found a pair of severed legs when he opened the bag. The investigation which followed the gruesome discovery would raise questions about law enforcement's relationship with the mental health system.
◆ Ghosts from the Past: Opportunistic serial killers kill those who are around them during a natural progression through their lives. These are often family members. It's a natural human instinct that tells us we don't want to believe a loved one would kill another loved one, which makes investigating these killings more difficult. Unfortunately, it takes a body count before anyone takes notice.
◆ Missing Witness: A triple homicide at a parking garage in New York City would be the starting event of a complicated case for law enforcement. The subsequent investigation would take detectives across six states and uncover an elaborate multi-million dollar fraud.
◆ Father or Son: An assailant murdered a person in their own home in Papakura, New Zealand. An ex-boyfriend is the first one to be named as a perpetrator. However, the boyfriend will make a claim that will jeopardize the entire case.
◆ Human Prey: It's almost impossible to become a missing person when no one knows anyone and thousands of people were new to town. It was the perfect storm for a predator to operate undetected for years.
◆ Seattle Cyanide Murders: A woman's death started an investigation that would become one of the worst product poisoning cases in the country's history and ushered in a nationwide reform of product packaging.
◆ Climbing the Walls: The death of a woman left behind a grieving husband and two teenage daughters. It was devastating for the girls, and they would begin to try anything they could to get in contact with her one last time. These attempts would play into one of the most bizarre crimes in modern history.
* The names of the victims and investigators have been changed. Only the names of the guilty are real.
