My Account Wish List
Advanced Search
Print - Close Window
www.praeger.com/catalog/C8333.aspx
All Greenwood Products
Famous American Crimes and Trials
Frankie Y. Bailey, ed., Steven Chermak
ISBN: 0-275-98333-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-98333-8
1500 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 10/30/2004
List Price: $415.00 (UK Sterling Price: £286.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: What do Lizzie Borden and O. J. Simpson have in common? Or the Lindbergh baby and Gary Gilmore? They were all the focus of famous crimes and/or trials in the United States. In this five-volume set, historical and contemporary cases that not only shocked the nation but that also became a part of the popular and legal culture of our country are discussed in vivid, and sometimes shocking, detail. Each chapter focuses on a different crime or trial, and explores the ways in which each became famous in its own time. The fascinating cast of characters, the outrageous crimes, the involvement of the media, the actions of the police, and the trials that often surprised combine to offer here one of the most comprehensive set of books available on the subject of famous U.S. crimes and trials.

CRIMES AND TRIALS FEATURED:
Volume 1: 1607-1859. Mary Dyer Trial/Execution; Salem Witch Trials; Blackbeard the Pirate; Peter Zenger Sedition Trial; Boston Massacre Trials; Bathsheba Spooner Murder Case; The Amistad Slave Ship Case; John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry.

Volume 2: 1860-1912. Andersonville Prison Trial; The Molly Maguires Trial; Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County Wars; Gunfight at the OK Corral; Lizzie Borden Murder Trial; Belle Gunness Serial Murder Case; Becker-Rosenthal Murder Trial.

Volume 3: 1913-1959. Leo Frank Case; Sacco and Vanzetti Trial; Fatty Arbuckle Case; Leopold and Loeb Thrill Killing; Scopes Monkey Trial; Scottsboro Boys Trials; Bonnie and Clyde; Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping Case; The Lonely Hearts Killers; Sam Sheppard Case; Emmett Till Case.

Volume 4: 1960-1980. Assassination of JFK; The Boston Strangler; Lenny Bruce Obscenity Trial; Chicago Seven; Angela Davis; My Lai Court Martial; Charles Manson Cult Murder; Attica Prison Riots; Gary Gilmore; Joan Little Trial; Ted Bundy.

Volume 5: 1981-2000. Jack Abbot Murder Case; Green River Serial Murder Case; Henry Lee Lucas; Exxon Valdez Oil Spill; Willie Horton; Rodney King Beating Trial; Polly Klass; O. J. Simpson Trial; Susan Smith; World Trade Center Explosion 1993; Timothy McVeigh Case.
Table of Contents:
  • Volume I
    Set Foreword
    Series Foreword
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction
    1 Quaker Mary Dyer: Twice under the Hangmans Noose
    2 Witch Trials, 1692: Madness in Salem
    3 Blackbeard the Pirate: Seventeenth-century Public Relations
    Professional
    4 The Sedition Trial of John Peter Zenger: The Power
    of the Printed Word
    5 The Boston Massacre: A Prelude to Revolution
    6 Bathsheba Spooner: The Result of a Wicked and Licentious
    Appetite on the Life Expectancy of Husbands
    7 The Whiskey Rebellion: Western Settlers Challenge
    Federal Power
    8 The Treason Trial of Aaron Burr: Americas Would-be Caesar
    9 The Tragic Murder of Helen Jewett: Sin and Sensationalism
    10 Amistad: Slaverys Northern Dred Scott Decision
    11 The Bickford Murder of 1845: The Somnambulist
    and the Fallen Woman
    12 The Parkman Murder of 1849: The Commonwealth
    v. John White Webster
    13 The Shadrach Courtroom Rescue: Abolitionists Free
    Fugitive Slave
    14 The Daniel Sickles Murder Trial: A Husbands Vengeance
    15 The Ordeal of Harpers Ferry and the Trial of John Brown
    :Madman or Martyr?
    Index
    About the Editors and the Contributors
    Volume II
    Introduction
    1 Major Henry Wirz and the Andersonville Prison Trial
    :War Criminal or Scapegoat?
    2 Alexander Campbells Molly Maguire Trial: The Miners
    and the Pinkertons
    3 The 1875 Alienation of Affections Trial of Henry Ward
    Beecher: For Better or Worse
    4 Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War: Villain or Hero?
    5 Gunfight at the OK Corral: The Path to Conflict
    6 The Murder Trial of Crow Dog: The Clash of Justice Systems
    7 The Charles Guiteau Assassination Case: Arguing His
    Own Insanity
    8 The Lizzie Borden Murder Trial: A Respectable Woman
    9 H. H. Holmes, Multiple Murderer: Man or Monster?
    10 The Nesbit-Thaw-White Affair: Spectacles of Sex
    and Violence in Old New York
    11 The Case of Chester Gillette: Murder in the Adirondacks
    12 The Belle Gunness Serial Murder Case: The Fiendish Widow
    13 The Becker-Rosenthal Murder Case: The Cop
    and the Gambler
    Index
    About the Editors and the Contributors
    Volume III
    Introduction
    1 Leo Frank and the Legacy of Southern Lawlessness: A Murder
    and a Lynching
    2 The Sacco-Vanzetti Trial: Judging Anarchy
    3 Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle: Cleared by the Court, Convicted
    by Conspiracy
    4 The Incomprehensible Crime of Leopold and Loeb: Just an
    Experiment
    5 The Scopes Monkey Trial: A Debate about Evolution
    6 The Crime and Trial of Albert H. Fish: Divine Hunger
    7 Bonnie and Clyde: A Mad, Dizzy Whirl
    8 The Scottsboro Boys Trials: Black Men
    as Racial Scapegoats
    9 The Lindbergh Baby Murder Case: A Crime of the Century
    10 The Sleepy Lagoon Murder and the Zoot Suit Riots
    :Los Angeles at War
    11 Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez: The Lonely
    Hearts Killers
    12 The Barbara Graham Murder Case: The Murderess
    Walked to Her Death as if Dressed for a Shopping Trip
    13 The Sam Sheppard Case: Do Three Trials Equal Justice?
    14 The Emmett Till Murder: The Civil Rights
    Movement Begins
    Index
    About the Editors and the Contributors
    Volume IV
    Introduction
    1 The JFK Assassination: Three Murders, Two Killers,
    and Four Decades
    2 The Boston Strangler: A Mans Confession and a Citys
    Unsolved Case
    3 Lenny Bruce Obscenity Trial: Free to Be Obscene
    4 The Trial of the Chicago Seven: Stage against the Machine
    5 The Murder of Fred Hampton: The Governments
    Involvement and Cover-up
    6 The Angela Davis Trial: A Political or a Criminal Trial?
    7 The My Lai Massacre: A Mixed Reaction to Tragedy
    8 Charles Manson and the Tate-LaBianca Murders
    :A Family Portrait
    9 The Attica Trials: A Thirty-year Pursuit of Justice
    10 The Execution of Gary Gilmore: Restarting
    the Killing Machine
    11 The Trial of Joan Little: An Inmate, a Jailer,
    and a First-degree Murder Charge
    12 The Life and Trial of Francine Hughes: Beyond
    the Burning Bed
    13 John Wayne Gacy Jr.: The Killer Clown
    14 Ted Bundy: The Serial Killer Next Door
    Index
    About the Editors and the Contributors
    Volume V
    Introduction
    1 Jack Henry Abbott: An Author from behind Bars
    2 Green River Murders Case: The Hunt for a Killer
    3 The Confessions of Henry Lee Lucas: High Numbers
    and Higher Stakes
    4 The State of Texas v. Karla Faye Tucker
    :Death Row Inmate #777
    5 The Ford Pinto Trial: The Criminal Prosecution
    of a Corporation
    6 The Wreck of the Exxon Valdez: Oil and Water Dont Mix
    7 William Willie Horton: Presidential Campaign Controversy
    8 The Central Park Jogger: The Impact of Race
    on Rape Coverage
    9 Rodney King Beating Trial: A Landmark for Reform
    10 The Kidnapping and Murder of Polly Klaas
    :An Atypical Crime Yielding Controversial Reforms
    11 Representing O.J.: The Trial of the Twentieth Century
    12 The Susan Smith Case: From Victim to Child Murderer
    in Nine Days
    13 1993 World Trade Center Attack: The Forgotten Bombing
    14 Timothy McVeigh: The Oklahoma City Bombing
    Index
    About the Editors and the Contributors
About the Author: FRANKIE Y. BAILEY is Associate Professor at the State University of New York, Albany. With Steven Chermak, she is co-editor of Media Representations of September 11 (Praeger, 2003) and Popular Culture, Crime, and Justice (1998). She is author of Out of the Woodpile: Black Characters in Crime and Detective Fiction (Greenwood, 1991), which was nominated for the Mystery Writers of America 1992 Edgar Award for Criticism and Biography, and Law Never Here: A Social History of African American Responses to Issues of Crime and Justice (Praeger, 1999).

STEVEN CHERMAK is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Affairs in the Department of Criminal Justice at Indiana University. He is the author of Searching for a Demon: The Media Construction of the Militia Movement (2002) and Victims in the News: Crime and the American News Media (1995).
Tune in to Praeger's Hot Topics! Sign up for our newsletter on today's fast-moving issues.
All rights reserved. Copyright © 1999-2010 ABC-CLIO
130 Cremona Dr., Santa Barbara, CA 93117 805-968-1911