TRUE MURDER VOLUME 1: The Zodiac Killer and Black Dahlia - 2 Books in 1
Featuring... *The Zodiac Killer*Black Dahlia2 Great Books in 1!The Zodiac KillerIf not for the ominous shadow of Jack the Ripper, the case of the Zodiac Killer would perhaps be the greatest mystery the world has ever known. The Zodiac Killer was the self-given name to a murderer who took responsibility for the deaths of at least five people in the San Francisco area of California throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Over the decades, the case has become synonymous with mystery and injustice. The Zodiac Killer's murders were brutal, bizarre and without remorse. He began by targeting young couples in lovers' lanes and executing them with close-range gunshots. His murders then progressed, indicating a highly-unstable frame of mind yet one intelligent enough to evade capture. He would go onto taunt the police and the media with strange ciphers and messages which would take significant time to decode - some of which remain untranslated to this day. Despite extensive searching, analyzing and profiling, no conclusive evidence of the Zodiac Killer's identity has ever been put forward. Of course, many theories exist, some of which appear to answer all of the questions one would have regarded the identity of a notorious serial killer. However, none are concrete enough to serve as solid confirmation of who he really was. This is the story of a delusional, inhuman killing machine. It is often said that the truth is stranger than fiction, and the Zodiac Killer's reign of terror continues to prove this. Black DahliaThe sun rose over Los Angeles that Wednesday morning in 1947, and a light breeze from the southeast ruffled the hair of Betty Bersinger and her three-year-old as they took a walk down South Norton Avenue in the Leimert Park neighborhood in southern Los Angeles. It was just two weeks into a new year, January 15, 1947. WWII had been over for almost two years, and dawn was breaking on the cold war. Harry Truman was president. He'd taken charge of the country after Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in 1945, and the country was beginning the push back against the communist ideals of the USSR. It's a Wonderful Life had just debuted at Christmas 1946, and nobody knew it would grow to be a classic. The Old Lamplighter by Sammy Kaye and his Orchestra was at the top of the Billboard charts, but swing music was on its way out, soon to be replaced by doo-wop, pop, and rock and roll. Los Angeles was in a real estate boom. G.I.s home from the war were using the new G.I. Bill to buy vacant lots waiting to be transformed into subdivisions with houses to raise the children who would become the Baby Boomers. Betty Bersinger noticed a white discarded store mannequin laying in a scraggly, undeveloped lot near the side walk; its top half separated from the bottom half. A closer look revealed two things. The discarded mannequin was actually the naked body of a woman who'd been cut cleanly in half, and the discovery would become one of the grisliest, most notorious murders ever committed in the United States. It's been 70 years, and still-no one knows who did it.