True Tales From Burbank

Home to the likes of Disney and Warner Bros., Burbank has a fascinating history beyond the glitz and glamour of its entertainment industry. Discover the true story behind the mysterious Night Riders and how the Druids came to visit. Learn about the plans to film biblical epics in town and how the Crank Conventions came to be. Delve into tales of rodeo queens, Hollywood stars, Mouseketeers and a flying lion cub. Wesley H. Clark and Michael B. McDaniel, authors of Lost Burbank and Growing Up in Burbank, take you on a surprising and whimsical tour of the people, places and events of this historic San Fernando Valley city.

Collects true stories about eccentric car collectors, including a take of an English nobleman who buries his horde of Ferraris in an insurance scam and a woman who loved her car so much she wished to be buried in it.

Life in Burbank during the '60s and '70s was an unparalleled experience. From biking Lucky Busters trail to enjoying movies at the Cornell Theater and shopping at The Akron, Burbankers' choices of entertainment seemed endless. Relive fond memories of dining out at Genio's, the Dip or Santoro's. Recall visits to the Golden Mall before heading home to watch Dark Shadows on television. While some of the local icons may have changed, the spirit has remained the same--and it's waiting to be rediscovered. Authors Wes Clark and Mike McDaniel guide you through their hometown and remember the fads, the hijinks and the places that made Burbank the place it is today.

Slowly fading with the city's ever-changing landscape, the places and people of Burbank's past tell a vibrant story. Before the arrival of Warner Bros. and Walt Disney, First National Pictures built its original studio lot on Olive Avenue in 1926. For over sixty years, Lockheed Aircraft Company produced some of the nation's best airplanes where the massive Empire Shopping Center now stands. Heavyweight champion James Jeffries turned his Burbank ranch home and barn into a beloved landmark and boxing venue. And inventor Joseph Wesley Fawkes's scheme to build a monorail to Los Angeles became a local laughingstock. Die-hard Burbankers Wes Clark and Michael McDaniel collect these and many more forgotten local stories where they can finally be found.

From the 1920s to the present day, Max Bygraves, one of our best-loved entertainers, shares his personal memories of a glittering life in show business, and the greats he has worked with along the way. These include Jack Benny, Judy Garland, Frankie Howerd, Eric Sykes, Danny La Rue, Shirley Bassey, The Goons, Gracie Burns, Laurence Olivier and Peter Sellers, who have all brightened a very full life, and Max has marvellous stories, both hilarious and poignant, to tell about them all. Stars in My Eyes celebrates a dazzling milestone in Bygraves' theatre, television, film and recording career.

He was born in rural Missouri, and it was immediately clear that he was different from the rest. He caught his first criminal when he was just two years old. By his sixth birthday, he had located burglars, missing children, drug dealers, rapists, and murderers—including Utah’s most wanted criminal. Known to friends as JJ, to law enforcement as Michael Serio’s partner, and to captured criminals as “that damned dog,” Jessie Jr., an exceptionally talented bloodhound, bayed like a sea lion that had swallowed a fog horn. Before JJ, few police departments in the West used bloodhounds, and none in Utah. But just when JJ was finally convincing naysayers, he and Officer Serio ran into something worse than resistance: the despair of failure amid high hope. JJ had been tracking Brian David Mitchell, the man who abducted Elizabeth Smart, when he was pulled off the track. Elizabeth later told investigators that on the day she was kidnapped she heard a dog baying in the woods behind her. In almost nine years of service, JJ helped apprehend nearly 300 criminal suspects in the Salt Lake City area. Here is his remarkable story, fleas and all. Click here to view the trailer for Bloodhound in Blue.

From award-winning criminologist R. Barri Flowers and the bestselling author of Dead at the Saddleworth Moor, Prostitution in the Digital Age, and The Sex Slave Murders, comes the gripping historical true crime book, The Dreadful Acts of Jack the Ripper and Other True Tales of Serial Murder and Prostitutes. The renowned Ripperologist taps into his expertise on serial murderers and sex trade workers in offering an in-depth look at four noteworthy cases in which the two worlds collide frighteningly. Jack the Ripper, the infamous and unidentified Victorian serial killer of at least five prostitutes in the dangerous section of London, known as Whitechapel, in 1888. The Ripper, who slashed and horribly mutilated his sex worker victims, set the tone for diabolical, vicious, serial slayers to follow for all time. Aileen Wuornos was an American prostitute, who doubled as a serial killer in murdering seven johns in Florida between 1989 and 1990. She claimed they tried to or succeeded in raping her during the course of prostituting herself. In the process, Wuornos ended up being apropos for this book as a sex worker and serial predator. Kendall Francois was an African American serial killer, dubbed the “Poughkeepsie Killer,” who strangled to death eight streetwalker prostitutes in Poughkeepsie, New York, between 1996 and 1998. Francois used his own residence as a horrifying house of homicides and burial ground. The Edmonton Serial Killer represented one or more mostly unidentified serial killers who targeted and murdered dozens of prostitutes in the city of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s, and possibly beyond that. The sex trade worker victims were often picked up in the city’s red-light district stroll, murdered, and dumped in various killing fields in rural areas around Edmonton. The book will also chronicle the infamous and colorful 19th century New Orleans prostitute and serial killer, Mary Jane Jackson, and modern-day American serial killers of prostitutes, Walter Ellis, nicknamed the “North Side Strangler,” and Vincent Johnson, dubbed the “Brooklyn Strangler.” Included is a bonus true crime short on Douglas Clark and Carol Bundy, a serial killer couple who targeted prostitutes on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California; as well as excerpts from two fascinating historical true tales of child murder, serial murder, and jealous rage. For fans of true crime tales and literary criminology, this gripping volume written by someone with the verisimilitude that the subject matter merits will surely hold your attention from start to finish.

Time has all but forgotten the tragic tales of those who have passed through Nevada, but their spirits remain. As arguably the most haunted state in the nation, Nevada has more than its share of ghosts with intriguing stories and historical connections. Among them is the unfortunate gangster, Bugsy Siegel who died in Beverly Hills only to return to his old stomping grounds, the Flamingo Las Vegas; Julia Bulette, the ill-fated prostitute who was slaughtered in her bed on a cold January morning in 1867; and the many haunted houses in Reno, their owners forever tied to their homes, refusing to depart.