The Best Criminals & Outlaws Biographies & Memoirs 2024

1. The Jack-Roller: A Delinquent Boy's Own Story, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

Pre-Owned - Vivid, authentic, this is the autobiography of a delinquent-his experiences, influences, attitudes, and values. The Jack-Roller helped to establish the life-history or own story as an important instrument of sociological research. The book remains as relevant today to the study and treatment of juvenile delinquency and maladjustment as it was when originally published in 1930.

The Jack-Roller: A Delinquent Boy's Own Story, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

2. A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

Pre-Owned - Friendships, connections, family ties, trust, loyalty, obedience-this was the 'glue' that held us together. These were the principles that the greatest Mafia Boss if Bosses, Joseph Bonnano, lived by. Born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Bonnano found his future amid the whiskey-running, riotous streets of Prohibition America in 1924, when he illegally entered the United States to pursue his dreams. By the age of only twenty-six, Bonnano became a Don. He would eventually take over the New York underworld, igniting the Castellammarese War, one of the bloodiest Family battles ever to hit New York City... Now, in this candid and stunning memoir, Joe Bonanno-likely a model for Don Corleone in the blockbuster movie The Godfather-takes readers inside the world of the real Mafia. He reveals the inner workings of New York's Five Families-Bonanno, Gambino, Profaci, Lucchese, and Genovese-and uncovers how the Mafia not only dominated local businesses, but also influenced national politics. A fascinating glimpse into the world of crime, A Man of Honor is an unforgettable account of one of the most powerful crime figures in America's history.

A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

3. Searching for Joaquin: Myth, Murieta and History in California, Used [Hardcover]

On a hot July dawn in 1853, a gunfight took place on the western edge of the San Joaquin Valley, midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. When the smoke cleared, Joaquin Murrieta, one of the most notorious bandits of the Gold Rush lay dead. Soon his severed head was traveling around the new state of California in a pickling jar. Murrieta would have an unparalleled afterlife in dime novels and movies, Mexican folksongs and Gold-Rush legends. Anglos regarded him as a homegrown Robin Hood, while Mexicans on both sides of the border celebrated him as an enemy of Yankee rule. And as the legendary bandit's myth grew and his deeds and death were celebrated throughout the world, every detail of his story, down to the color of his eyes, was debated and contested. Not until Bruce Thornton has anyone tried to unravel his legend from his life and to understand the meanings Murrieta has acquired on his way to literary and cultural immortality. A penetrating look at the life and times of a celebrated bad man, "Searching for Joaquin" also probes the role Joaquin Murrieta has played in the myth of the old Hispanic California, that sunlit lazy land of missions and ranchos, moonlit plazas and fiestas, high passion and derring-do. As Thornton shows, that myth is accepted as history by many even today, and Murrieta continues to play many roles: the chivalric outlaw who settles conflict with violence; and the emblem of a simpler world where life is lived more intensely and passionately; and most of all, the avenging angel who rectifies Anglo misdeeds against powerless Hispanics. "Searching for Joaquin" opens a window onto a vanished past and also shows how myth and history flow in and out of each other and continue to affect the way we live now."

Searching for Joaquin : Myth, Murieta and History in California, Used [Hardcover]

4. The O.K. Corral Inquest (Early West) [Hardcover - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Introduction by Stuart Lake, Preface by Glenn Boyer. Index, biblio, appendices, 50 b/w illustrations and photos. This book contains the complete testimonies of the participants and witnesses given at the Coroner's Inquest. Wyatt Earp testified: "When I saw Billy Clanton and Frank McLaury draw their pistols, I drew my pistol. Billy Clanton leveled his pistol at me, but I did not aim at him... I aimed at Frank McLaury..." Turner used 30 years of research to annotate the transcript. A basic reference on the O. K. Corral fight.

The O.K. Corral Inquest (Early West), Used [Hardcover]

5. Butch Cassidy, My Uncle: A Family Portrait, Used [Paperback]

Lots of people wish they were related to a famous person. Bill Betenson is Butch Cassidy is his great-uncle. Bill's interest in Butch Cassidy was sparked when he was four years old and attended a private screening of the Paul Newman/Robert Redford movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with his great-grandmother, Lula Betenson, who wrote Butch Cassidy, My Brother. For over two decades Betenson has researched and studied the life and times of Butch Cassidy. Betenson utilized privileged family information and memorabilia, traveled to South America to conduct interviews and visit Butch Cassidy's ranch, and spent hours in dusty archives. Betenson offers up new information about this infamous outlaw's life and death.

Butch Cassidy, My Uncle: A Family Portrait, Used [Paperback]

6. Fugitives from Justice: The Notebook of Texas Ranger Sergeant James B. Gillett, Used [Hardcover]

Here reproduced in authentic facsimile is the now very rare List of Fugitives from Justice, the 227-page booklet which the Texas Adjutant General published in 1878 for distribution to the Texas Rangers. Known by the Rangers as "The Book," the list provided a quick reference by county of persons wanted, their crimes, and often a brief physical description of the fugitive. Ranger Sergeant James Buchanan Gillett, who had joined the Rangers in 1876 and quickly distinguished himself before leaving the Rangers in 1882 to become City Marshal of El Paso and later sheriff of Brewster and Presidio counties, had his copy of "The Book" bound along with blank notebook paper into a buckled leather case to carry with him in his saddlebags for quick reference while on the move. Gillett made penciled entries whenever a fugitive was killed or captured; in the index by the entry for John Wesley Hardin, for example, he wrote "in the pen." On the blank notebook pages Gillett listed and described numerous other fugitives from justice, including Sam Bass and his gang. Now proudly owned by the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame in Waco, Gillett's personal copy of "The Book" and his handwritten notebook annotations provide a fascinating glimpse into the life of a Texas Ranger and the state of "law & order" in Texas in the 19th century. A foreword by Michael D. Morrison, Mayor of the City of Waco, places The List and James B. Gillett into historical perspective. Accurately reproduced along with the illustrations of reward posters, Gillett's calling cards, and other ephemera found tucked into his personal copy of "The Book," Fugitives from Justice is an important contribution to the history of the Texas Rangers and of Texas.

Fugitives from Justice: The Notebook of Texas Ranger Sergeant James B. Gillett, Used [Hardcover]

7. Jackal: The Complete Story of the Legendary Terrorist, Carlos The Jackal [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. The biography of the twentieth century's most potent & ruthless terrorist, Carlos the Jackal, with exclusive revelations about his life, his missions, & his ultimate capture.

Jackal: The Complete Story of the Legendary Terrorist, Carlos The Jackal [Paperback - Used]

8. The Authentic Wild West: The Gunfighters [Hardcover - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. 300 b & w photos. 8 3/8 x 10 7/8.

The Authentic Wild West: The Gunfighters, Used [Hardcover]

9. The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. . . . --Sherlock Holmes on Professor Moriarty in "The Final Problem" The Victorian era's most infamous thief, Adam Worth was the original Napoleon of crime.??Suave, cunning Worth learned early that the best way to succeed was to steal.??And steal he did. Following a strict code of honor, Worth won the respect of Victorian society.??He also aroused its fear by becoming a chilling phantom, mingling undetected with the upper classes, whose valuables he brazenly stole.??His most celebrated heist: Gainsborough's grand portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire--ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales--a painting Worth adored and often slept with for twenty years. With a brilliant gang that included "Piano" Charley, a jewel thief, train robber, and playboy, and "the Scratch" Becker, master forger, Worth secretly ran operations from New York to London, Paris, and South Africa--until betrayal and a Pinkerton man finally brought him down. In a decadent age, Worth was an icon.??His biography is a grand, dazzling tour into the gaslit underworld of the last century.??.??.??and into the doomed genius of a criminal mastermind.

The Napoleon of Crime : The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief, Used [Paperback]

10. Charlie and the Angels: The Outlaws, the Hells Angels and the Sixty Years War, Used [Hardcover]

60 years and thousands of maimed and murdered later, the Hells Angels are a dominant criminal empire. The Outlaws, sitting in the #3 position, are loosely affiliated with the Bandidos, although they rule in the UK, the Great Lakes, Florida and the Midwest. Working undercover, Alex Caine witnessed the buffering of the big clubs' US turfs in a Bandidos-mediated truce between the Outlaws and the Angels in the 1980s. But the deal has soured - and a storm of violence is brewing as the Outlaws are determined to unseat the Angels once and for all.

Charlie and the Angels: The Outlaws, the Hells Angels and the Sixty Years War, Used [Hardcover]