Nonviolent True Crime

Updated June 6, 2026
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The art thief : a true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession
Finkel, Michael
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century * "The Art Thief, like its title character, has confidence, élan, and a great sense of timing."--The New Yorker A...
Anansi's gold : the man who looted the west, outfoxed Washington, and swindled the world
Yeebo, Yepoka
Paper Book
"Catch Me if You Can meets Coming to America in this epic tale of one of the greatest scammers of all time."-NPR Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize * A New York Times Notable Book of the Year * A New Yorker, NPR, Newsweek...
Rogues : true stories of grifters, killers, rebels and crooks
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the award-winning author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing--and one of the most decorated journalists of our time--twelve enthralling true stories of skulduggery and intrigue "An excellent collection of Keefe's detective...
The dinosaur artist : obsession, betrayal, and the quest for Earth's ultimate trophy
Williams, Paige
Paper Book
In this 2018 New York Times Notable Book,Paige Williams "does for fossils what Susan Orlean did for orchids" (Book Riot) in her account of one Florida man's attempt to sell a dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia--a story "steeped in natural history, human nature, commerce, crime, science...
The feather thief : beauty, obsession, and the natural history heist of the century
Johnson, Kirk W.
Paper Book
As heard on NPR's This American Life "Absorbing . . . Though it's non-fiction, The Feather Thief contains many of the elements of a classic thriller." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime...
Empire of pain : the secret history of the Sackler dynasty
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR * A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From...
Little bosses everywhere : how the pyramid scheme shaped America
Read, Bridget
Paper Book
A "gripping" (The Washington Post) work of history and reportage that unveils the stranger-than-fiction world of multilevel marketing- a massive money-making scam and radical political conspiracy that has remade American society. "Reads like a thriller . . . masterfully...
Bad blood : secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup
Carreyrou, John
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The gripping story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos--one of the biggest corporate frauds in history--a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley, rigorously reported by the prize-winning journalist. With a new Afterword.
0101818131795
364.168 B498A
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. The unbelievable true story of the man who built a billion-dollar online drug empire from his bedroom--and almost got away with it   In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old libertarian programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the...
Unmask Alice : LSD, satanic panic, and the imposter behind the world's most notorious diaries
Emerson, Rick
Paper Book
Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson goes a long way to showing what investigative journalism could be in the right hands ... this book is undeniably buzzworthy.' -- Portland Book Review. 'An absorbing and unnerving read ... this book demands to be finished in one sitting.' -- Booklist. Two teens. Two...
Billion dollar whale : the man who fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the world
Wright, Tom (Wall Street Journal reporter)
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of 2018 by the Financial Times and Fortune, this "thrilling" (Bill Gates) New York Times bestseller exposes how a "modern Gatsby" swindled over $5 billion with the aid of Goldman Sachs in "the heist of the century" (Axios). Now a #1...
My friend Anna : the true story of a fake heiress
Williams, Rachel DeLoache
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF TIME'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Sex and the City meets Bad Blood and Catch Me if You Can in this riveting true crime memoir that tells the astonishing firsthand story of Anna Delvey--the...
Nowhere girl : a memoir of a fugitive childhood /
Diamond, Cheryl
Paper Book
By the age of nine, I will have lived in more than a dozen countries, on five continents, under six assumed identities. I'll know how a document is forged, how to withstand an interrogation, and most important, how to disappear . . . To the young Cheryl...
American heiress the wild saga of the kidnapping, crimes and trial of Patty Hearst
Toobin, Jeffrey.
Paper Book
A National Bestseller From New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author of The Nine and The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson, the definitive account of the kidnapping and trial that defined an insane era in American history...
The less people know about us : a mystery of betrayal, family secrets, and stolen identity
Betz-Hamilton, Axton
Paper Book
AN EDGAR AWARDS 2020 WINNER AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER In this powerful true crime memoir, an award-winning identity theft expert tells the shocking story of the duplicity and betrayal that inspired her career and nearly destroyed her family. ...
Priceless : how I went undercover to rescue the world's stolen treasures
Wittman, Robert K.
Paper Book
The Wall Street Journal called him “a living legend.” The London Times dubbed him “the most famous art detective in the world.”   In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his...
A gentleman and a thief : the daring jewel heists of a Jazz Age rogue
Jobb, Dean
Paper Book
A captivating Jazz Age true-crime caper about "the greatest jewel thief who ever lived" (Life Magazine), Arthur Barry, who charmed everyone from Rockefellers to members of the royal family while simultaneously planning and executing the most audacious and lucrative heists of the...
The forger's spell : a true story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the greatest art hoax of the twentieth century
Dolnick, Edward
Ebook
"Mesmerizing account of an amateur artist who made millions selling forged paintings to art-obsessed Nazis and business tycoons" ( Kirkus, starred review). New York Times-Bestseller A New York Times Staff Pick ...
All that glitters a story of friendship, fraud, and fine art
Whitfield, Orlando
Orlando Whitfield and Inigo Philbrick met in 2006 at London's Goldsmiths University where they became best friends. By 2007 they had started I...
American fire : love, arson, and life in a vanishing land
Hesse, Monica
Paper Book
The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn't stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. Vigilante groups sprang up, patrolling the rural...
Ghost in the wires : my adventures as the world's most wanted hacker
Mitnick, Kevin D.
Paper Book
In this "intriguing, insightful and extremely educational" novel, the world's most famous hacker teaches you easy cloaking and counter-measures for citizens and consumers in the age of Big Brother and Big Data (Frank W. Abagnale). Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break...
The Gardner heist : the true story of the world's largest unsolved art theft
Boser, Ulrich.
Paper Book
"Boser cracks the cold case of the art world's greatest unsolved mystery." --Vanity Fair
The falcon thief : a true tale of adventure, treachery, and the hunt for the perfect bird
Hammer, Joshua
Paper Book
A rollicking true-crime adventure about a rogue who trades in rare birds and their eggs--and the wildlife detective determined to stop him. On May 3, 2010, an Irish national named Jeffrey Lendrum was apprehended at Britain's Birmingham International Airport with a suspicious...
Empire of deception : the incredible story of a master swindler who seduced a city and captivated the nation
Jobb, Dean
Audiobook
A rollicking story of greed, financial corruption, dirty politics, over-the-top and under-the-radar deceit, illicit sex, and a brilliant and wildly charming con man who kept a Ponzi scheme alive perhaps for longer than anyone else in history.   It was a time of...
You'll never believe me : a life of lies, second tries, and things I should only tell my therapist
Ferrell, Kari
Paper Book
"A captivating, sharp and very funny memoir." --New York Times Book Review The compelling, edgy, compassionate, laugh-out-loud memoir from Kari Ferrell, formerly known as the "Hipster Grifter" Before Anna Delvey, before the Tinder Swindler,...
Gator country : deception, danger, and alligators in the Everglades
Renner, Rebecca
Paper Book
A New York Times Editors' Choice "Delivers everything its title promises and much more." - NPR "Remarkable... Every species, and every person who fights for its continued existence, deserves a book like this." -- The New York Times
Easy money : cryptocurrency, casino capitalism, and the golden age of fraud
McKenzie, Benjamin
Paper Book
At the height of the pandemic, TV star Ben McKenzie (The O.C., Gotham) was the perfect mark for cryptocurrency: a dad stuck at home with some cash in his pocket, worried about his family, armed with only the vague notion that people were making heaps of money on something he-despite...
Confident women : swindlers, grifters, and shapeshifters of the feminine persuasion
Telfer, Tori
Paper Book
A thoroughly entertaining and darkly humorous roundup of history's notorious but often forgotten female con artists and their bold, outrageous scams--by the acclaimed author of Lady Killers. From Elizabeth Holmes and Anna Delvey to Frank Abagnale and Charles Ponzi, audacious...
Master thieves : the Boston gangsters who pulled off the world's greatest art heist
Kurkjian, Stephen A.
Paper Book
The definitive story of the greatest art theft in history, as seen in the Netflix documentary "This is a Robbery." In a secret meeting in 1981, a low-level Boston thief gave career gangster Ralph Rossetti the tip of a lifetime: the...
Hype : how scammers, grifters, and con artists are taking over the internet--and why we're following
Bluestone, Gabrielle
Paper Book
"Hype is the best kind of nonfiction: juicy, sharp, savage and wildly entertaining, with a celebrity behaving badly on every page. What more could you want?" -Cat Marnell, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Murder Your Life From former Vice...
The confidence men : how two prisoners of war engineered the most remarkable escape in history
Fox, Margalit
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The Great Escape for the Great War: the astonishing true story of two World War I prisoners who pulled off one of the most ingenious escapes of all time. FINALIST FOR THE EDGAR® AWARD * ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post,<...
The pirate king : the strange adventures of Henry Avery and the birth of the Golden Age of piracy
Kingsley, Sean
Paper Book
The incredible story of the "Robin Hood of the Seas," who absconded with millions during the Golden Age of Piracy and who harbored an even greater secret. Henry Avery of Devon pillaged a fortune from a Mughal ship off the coast of India and then vanished into thin air--and into...
The wizard of lies : Bernie Madoff and the death of trust
Henriques, Diana B.
Paper Book
No Marketing Blurb
The key man : the true story of how the global elite was duped by a capitalist fairy tale
Clark, Simon
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES & MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF 2021 In this compelling story of lies, greed and tarnished idealism, two Wall Street Journal reporters investigate a man who Bill Gates, Western governments, and other...
Diamond Doris : the true story of the world's most notorious jewel thief
Payne, Doris
Paper Book
Soon to be a Major Motion Picture In the ebullient spirit of Ocean's 8, The Heist, and Thelma & Louise, a sensational and entertaining memoir of the world's most notorious jewel thief--a woman who defied society's prejudices and norms to carve her own path, stealing...
The woman who stole Vermeer : the true story of Rose Dugdale and the Russborough House art heist
Amore, Anthony M.
Paper Book
The extraordinary life and crimes of heiress-turned-revolutionary Rose Dugdale, who in 1974 became the only woman to pull off a major art heist. In the world of crime, there exists an unusual commonality between those who steal art and those who repeatedly kill: they are almost...
0101814780710
364.163 G856P
Paper Book
Is it still possible to fake your own death in the twenty-first century? With six figures of student loan debt, Elizabeth Greenwood was tempted to find out. So she sets off on a foray into the world of death fraud, where for $30,000 a consultant can make you disappear--but your...
Conspiracy of fools : a true story
Eichenwald, Kurt
Audiobook
From an award-winning New York Times reporter comes the full, mind-boggling true story of the lies, crimes, and ineptitude behind the Enron scandal that imperiled a presidency, destroyed a marketplace, and changed Washington and Wall Street forever. It was the corporate...
Scam goddess : lessons from a life of cons, grifts, and schemes
Mosley, Laci
Paper Book
A delightfully subversive essay collection from Laci Mosley, host of the award-winning "Scam Goddess" podcast, about the frauds, cons, and schemes that make up our world--and how the scammer mindset has affected her own upbringing, career, friendships, love life, and more. ​ ...
Con/artist : the life and crimes of the world's greatest art forger
Tetro, Tony
Paper Book
The world's most renowned art forger reveals the secrets behind his decades of painting like the masters--exposing an art world that is far more corrupt than we ever knew while providing an art history lesson wrapped in sex, drugs, and Caravaggio. The art world is a...
Gentleman bandit : the true story of Black Bart, the Old West's most infamous stagecoach robber
Boessenecker, John
Paper Book
As seen on Netflix's Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War New York Times bestselling author and award-winning historian John Boessenecker separates fact from fiction in the first new biography in decades of Black Bart, the Wild West's most mysterious gentleman...
Tree thieves : crime and survival in North America's woods
Bourgon, Lyndsie
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COLUMBIA SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM J. ANTHONY LUKAS BOOK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION FINALIST FOR THE NELLIE BY CHANTICLEER INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS FOR JOURNALISTIC NON-FICTION...
Devil's coin : my battle to take down the notorious OneCoin cryptoqueen
McAdam, Jennifer
Paper Book
*A NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB MUST-READ BOOK FOR AUGUST 2023* "[An] exhilarating mix of memoir and true crime. . ." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) The astonishing true story of the coal miner's daughter who took on the creators of the world's biggest financial fraud and...
The Peking Express : the bandits who stole a train, stunned the West, and broke the Republic of China
Zimmerman, James M.
Paper Book
The thrilling true story of train-robbing revolutionaries and passengers who got more than they paid for in this Murder on the Orient Express-style adventure, set in China's republican era.   In May 1923, when Shanghai publisher and reporter John Benjamin...
The woman who wasn't there : the true story of an incredible deception
Fisher, Robin Gaby.
Paper Book
The astounding story of Tania Head, whose heartrending account of surviving the World Trade Center attacks made her a celebrity--until it all turned out to be an elaborate hoax.  It was a tale of loss and recovery, of courage and sorrow, of horror and inspiration. Tania Head...
Blessed are the bank robbers : the true adventures of an evangelical outlaw
Smith, Chas
Paper Book
Chas Smith grew up deeply enmeshed in the evangelical Christian world that grew out of Southern California in the late 1960s. His family included famous missionaries and megachurch pastors, but his cousin Daniel Courson was Grandma's favorite. Smith looked up to Cousin Danny. He was handsome,...
Guilty admissions : the bribes, favors, and phonies behind the college cheating scandal
Laporte, Nicole
Paper Book
GUILTY ADMISSIONS weaves together the story of an unscrupulous college counselor named Rick Singer, and how he preyed on the desperation of some of the country's wealthiest families living in a world defined by fierce competition, who function under constant pressure to get into the "right"...
The last job : the "bad grandpas" and the Hatton Garden heist
Bilefsky, Dan
Paper Book
The definitive account of one of the most brazen jewel heists in history. Over Easter weekend 2015, a motley crew of six English thieves, several in their sixties and seventies, couldn't resist coming out of retirement for one last career-topping heist. Their target: the Hatton...
The great pearl heist : London's greatest thief and Scotland Yard's hunt for the world's most valuable necklace
Crosby, Molly Caldwell.
Paper Book
Molly Caldwell Crosby, author of The American Plague and Asleep, once again brings forgotten history to vivid life in an absorbing account of crime and deduction in the early days of the twentieth century. . . . In the summer of 1913, under the cover of London’s...
The map thief : the gripping story of an esteemed rare-map dealer who made millions stealing priceless maps
Blanding, Michael
Paper Book
Once considered a respectable rare-map dealer, E. Forbes Smiley made millions and was highly esteemed for his knowledge; until he was arrested for slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library. Though pieces of the story have been told before, Blanding is the first reporter to gain...
Fraud : an American history from Barnum to Madoff
Balleisen, Edward J.
Paper Book
A comprehensive history of fraud in America, from the early nineteenth century to the subprime mortgage crisis The United States has always proved an inviting home for boosters, sharp dealers, and outright swindlers. Worship of entrepreneurial freedom has complicated the task...
The spider network : the wild story of a math genius, a gang of backstabbing bankers, and one of the greatest scams in financial history
Enrich, David
Paper Book
SHORT-LISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR The term "Libor" is obscure, but it determines a good deal of our financial lives-the interest rate on our credit card; our student loans; our mortgages; our car payments. How did a math genius, a handful of...
There is no Ethan : how three women caught America's biggest catfish
Akbari, Anna
Paper Book
Part memoir, part explosive window into the mind of a catfisher, a thrilling personal account of three women coming face-to-face with an internet predator and teaming up to expose them. In 2011, three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels...
Never saw me coming : how I outsmarted the FBI and the entire banking system--and pocketed $40 million
Smith, Tanya
Paper Book
A riveting true story of an unsuspecting woman who creates an ingeniously clever white-collar scheme that manipulates the Federal banking system out of millions--who eventually loses everything that is most important to her.   In Never Saw Me Coming,...
The spy who couldn't spell : a dyslexic traitor, an unbreakable code, and the FBI's hunt for America's stolen secrets
Bhattacharjee, Yudhijit
Paper Book
Before Edward Snowden's infamous data breach, the largest theft of government secrets was committed by an ingenious traitor whose intricate espionage scheme and complex system of coded messages were made even more baffling by his apparent dyslexia. In this fast-paced, true-life spy thriller,...

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