Mom: God Told Me to Kill

Deadly Thirst is the true story of four-year-old foster child Andy Setzer, who was murdered in Perris California August 2, 1999.

Deadly Thirst follows Andy from conception to burial and reveals, in riveting investigative style, the series of deadly blunders that led Riverside County Child Protection officials to herd him into a one-way slaughter chute of foster care and straight into the hands of death. Andy's story is a frightening journey into the grim, dark side of foster care.

In the heart of Kentucky's mining country, in a tiny town where alcohol was against the law and no one locked their doors, everyone knew Jerome Boggs was a bad seed. Even so, no one suspected how vicious he was...

A stone's throw from a church, in a neatly kept single-wide trailer, police found the body of a young man murdered execution style. In the bedroom they found Tim Cook's innocent 4-year-old son T.J. lying among his toys--with two fatal bullet wounds in his chest and tears still in his eyes...

Soon police were hunting down Jerome Boggs and unraveling a stunning story of depravity. Holed up in a cheap motel and stocked up on liquor and beer, Jerome had wed his 20-year-old wife to a diabolical plan for murder. Now the only question was: what punishment could possibly fit their crimes?

It’s a chilling reality that homicide investigators know all too well: the last face most murder victims see is not that of a stranger, but of someone familiar. Whether only an acquaintance or a trusted intimate, such killers share a common trait that triggers the downward spiral toward death for someone close to them: they are masters at hiding who they really are. Their clever masks let them appear safe, kind, and truthful. They are anything but—and almost no one can detect the murderous impulses buried deep in their psyches.

These doomed relationships are the focus of Ann Rule’s sixteenth all-new Crime Files collection. In these shattering inside views of both headlined and little-known homicides, Rule speaks for vulnerable victims who relied on the wrong people. She begins with two startling novella-length investigations.

Mary Jean Pearle and John Battaglia's marriage seemed picture perfect from the outside. With their two young daughters, Faith and Liberty, they made their home in a wealthy Dallas suburb. John was handsome, charming, and successful--but behind his mask of normality lay a vicious, violent abuser who'd brutally beaten his first wife--and who made Mary Jean the new target of his irrational rages. After nine hellish years, she divorced Battaglia.

On Christmas Day, 1999, during a court-ordered family visit, he attacked her in front of their daughters. For the next two years, he threatened, harassed and stalked her. Mary Jean feared for her life, but not for the lives of the children, with whom Battaglia was never anything less than caring, loving, and gentle.

But in spring, 2001, when Faith and Liberty were visiting their father, Mary Jean received a message to call her daughters. Helpless, horrified, she heard her older daughter's pleading cries. Then came the sound of gunshots--followed by silence. What evil impulses had driven a seemingly devoted father the ultimate act of violence and betrayal. . .and how would justice be served?

Hero, Husband, Father . . . Monster?

In Creekstone, Texas, a small, quiet suburb of Houston, football was king . . . and David Temple was a prince. A former high school and college gridiron star-turned-coach, he had a fairy-tale marriage to bright, vivacious Belinda Lucas, a teacher at the local high school who was so warm and popular her colleagues called her "The Sunshine Girl."

The fairy tale ended savagely on January 11, 1999, when Belinda's lifeless body was discovered in a closet. Her skull had been shattered by a shotgun blast at close range. She was eight months pregnant.

There was no damning evidence directly linking the brutal murder to husband David, who stood by emotionless and dry-eyed as police searched the crime scene. But a dogged eight-year investigation would expose a shocking history of cruelty and domination, infidelity and rage—ultimately resulting in an epic courtroom battle for the ages—as the scandalous truth was revealed about love betrayed and innocent lives . . . shattered.

In the summer of 2003, the Houston suburb of Clear Lake, Texas, was devastated when four young residents were viciously slain. The two female victims were just eighteen-years-old, popular and beloved--but when a killer came knocking, it turned out to be someone they knew all too well. . ..Seventeen-year-old Christine Paolilla was an awkward outsider--until the girls befriended her. In this gripping true story, M. William Phelps delves into the heart of a baffling mystery to get to the truth of an act so brutal it could not be understood--until now.

"Phelps is the Harlan Coben of real-life thrillers." Allison Brennan

"The best true-crime writer to come along in years." Gregg Olsen

Praise for M. William Phelps

"Phelps ratchets up the dramatic tension." Stephen Singular

"One of America's finest true-crime writers." Vincent Bugliosi

"Phelps creates a vivid portrait." Publishers Weekly

You only have to mention the name Baby P and it stirs up emotions of anger and sadness. It is a name that will forever be associated with how cruel and evil people can be. Baby P (Peter Connelly) was an innocent angel who suffered the most horrendous torture and abuse at the hands of his stepfather and his stepfather’s brother, while his neglectful mother looked away, more interested in internet chat rooms than the duties of being a mother. Peter was to die an avoidable death as social workers and medical workers alike were so incompetent and negligent in their duties and work that they failed to see that Peter was being systematically abused, tortured and beaten over a period of time. They should have ensured this child’s safety and well-being; instead they returned him repeatedly to the dangerous environment that would result in his demise. Doctors failed to notice horrific injuries time after time and social workers ignored the flea infested squalor that Peter was to living in. This book takes a look at what turned the murderers of Baby P into the monsters they are and shows how a social care system failed a child in every aspect of his life. This book is a very sad story but all the facts, however unpleasant, need to be known to ensure this never happens again.