Who Killed Betsy

In 1969, a 22-year-old graduate student from Holland, Michigan, named Betsy Aardsma was murdered inside Penn State University's Pattee Library. The murder was never solved. The suspects included Ted Bundy, the Zodiac Killer, and others. It appears likely, though, that the killer was someone even stranger.

THE TRUE STORY BEHIND NBC’S MARQUEE MINI-SERIES "THE THING ABOUT PAM" STARRING RENEE ZELLWEGER AS PAM HUPP AND JOSH DUHAMEL AS JOEL SCHWARTZ, PREMIERING FEBRUARY 2022. The explosive, first-ever insider’s account of the case that’s captivated millions – the murder of Betsy Faria and the wrongful conviction of her husband – told by Joel J. Schwartz, the defense attorney who fought for justice on behalf of Russel Faria, and New York Times bestselling author Charles Bosworth Jr. Goodreads Top Nonfiction of 2022 On December 27th, 2011, Russell Faria returned to his Troy, Missouri, home after his weekly game night with friends to an unthinkable, grisly scene: His wife, Betsy, lay dead, a knife still lodged in her neck. She’d been stabbed fifty-five times. First responders concluded that Betsy was dead for hours when Russ discovered her. No blood was found implicating Russ, and surveillance video, receipts, and friends’ testimony all supported his alibi. Yet incredibly, police and the prosecuting attorney ignored the evidence. In their minds, Russ was guilty. But prominent defense attorney Joel J. Schwartz quickly recognized the real killer. The motive was clear. Days before her murder, the terminally ill Betsy replaced her husband with her friend, Pamela Hupp, as her life insurance beneficiary. Still, despite the prosecution’s flimsy case and Hupp’s transparent lies, Russ was convicted—leaving Hupp free to kill again. Bone Deep takes readers through the perfect storm of miscalculations and missteps that led to an innocent man’s conviction—and recounts Schwartz’s successful battle to have that conviction overturned. Written with Russ Faria’s cooperation, and filled with chilling new revelations and previously undisclosed evidence, this is the story of what can happen when police, prosecutor, judge, and jury all fail in their duty to protect the innocent—and let a killer get away with murder. “Fans of Dateline will be interested in this work, which will likely only grow in popularity when the miniseries The Thing About Pam, starring Renée Zellweger, premieres in March 2022.” –Library Journal “Filled with chilling new revelations and previously undisclosed evidence, this is the story of what can happen when police, prosecutor, judge, and jury all fail in their duty to protect the innocent—and let a killer get away with murder. This book is an explosive, insider’s account of a case that continues to fascinate the public. We highly recommend it.” –Mystery Tribune “An engaging true-crime book that exposes failures in the American criminal justice system while putting a human face on those involved and is recommended to those that enjoy well-researched books.” –Mystery and Suspense “If you are interested in justice, in criminal profiling, in trial procedures, the dynamics between the judge, the defense, and the prosecution, this book is for you.” –Defrosting Cold Cases

On Nov. 28, 1969, Betsy Aardsma, a 22-year-old graduate student in English at Penn State, was stabbed to death in the stacks of Pattee Library at the university’s main campus in State College. For more than forty years, her murder went unsolved, though detectives with the Pennsylvania State Police and local citizens worked tirelessly to find her killer. The mystery was eventually solved—after the death of the murderer. This book will reveal the story behind what has been a scary mystery for generations of Penn State students and explain why the Pennsylvania State Police failed to bring her killer to justice.More than a simple true crime story, the book weaves together the events, culture, and attitudes of the late 1960s, memorializing Betsy Aardsma and her time and place in history.

From beloved author Lois Duncan comes a frightening novel about a group of students who set out to teach their malicious teacher a lesson -- only to learn that one of them could be a killer. Mr. Griffin is the strictest teacher at Del Norte High, with a penchant for endless projects and humiliating students. Even straight-A student Susan can't believe how mean he is to her crush, Dave, and to the charismatic Mark Kinney. So when Dave asks Susan to help a group of students teach Mr. Griffin a lesson of their own, she goes along with them. After all, it's a harmless prank, right? But things don't go according to plan. When one "accident" leads to another and people begin to die, Susan and her friends must face the awful truth: one of them is a killer.

'Oh God, ' the voice was twisted with fear and horror, but the dispatcher was calm in the face of the caller's distress. 'She's got a knife in her neck.' It was 9.40 pm, just two days after Christmas 2011 and Russ Faria had arrived home to find his wife lying, blood splattered, on the floor. His immediate assumption was that she had killed herself. Betsy was in the latter stages of terminal cancer, and often her condition got on top of her.The seditious disease had started in her breast and had now spread to her liver. The pain and stress of living with such a condition is inconceivable to imagine for those who have not suffered from its spreading tentacles. It is of little wonder that Russ should leap to the conclusion that his wife had committed suicide.Yet despite the indescribable horror of seeing his wife lying lifeless on the floor of their Troy, Missouri, home, forty-one year old Russ could not have conceived of the trauma that was about to play out in his own life, not just in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy of his wife's death but for years and years afterwards.'Why should she do this to me?' he asked the operator who answered his 911 call. His words were spoken through twisted tears.However, it took little investigation for the authorities to discover that Russ's initial conclusion was far from the truth. A medical examiner found that Betsy had been stabbed no less than fifty-five times. The attack on her had been so savage that her arm had nearly been severed from her body. She had not killed herself but had been the victim of a vicious and prolonged assault.So, was Betsy killed in a frenzied attack carried out on her disease riddled body? Or was her death even more complicated than this?

A New York Times Notable Book: A girl’s disappearance unearths old crimes for the Yorkshire detectives in this “multilayered masterpiece” (Publishers Weekly). Reginald Hill “raised the classical British mystery to new heights” when he introduced pugnacious Yorkshire Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, the callow Sgt. Peter Pascoe (The New York Times Book Review). Their chafing differences in education, manners, technique, and temperament made them “the most remarkable duo in the annals of crime fiction” (Toronto Star). Adapted into a long-running hit show for the BBC, the Gold Dagger Award–winning series is now available as ebooks. It’s been fifteen years since three girls were abducted from Dendale. Just as long since the village was flooded to create a reservoir. Haunted by the cold case, Andrew Dalziel believes the truth was submerged forever. But now, with a drought, the ruins of Dendale are reemerging—along with its mysteries. And as if by a terrible twist of fate, another child has vanished from a nearby hamlet. For Dalziel to finally solve an unspeakable crime, he must once again stir the dread of a still-traumatized community—and all its secrets. “Weaving their pain into his densely textured story of Dendale’s cursed past and haunted present, Hill creates a tragic tale of loss and regret and the persistence of grief” (The New York Times Book Review). On Beulah Height is the 18th book in the Dalziel and Pascoe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Something bad is brewing among a friendly group of book lovers: “A deliciously Agatha Christie-style mystery that sucks you in from the first page.” —Sibel Hodge, bestselling author of Look Behind You Imagine nine women meeting. Tea and cake are on the coffee table. They’ve come together to share their love of books. They are friends. They trust each other. It’s a happy gathering. What could be more harmless? Then scratch the surface and look closer. One is lonely. One is desperate. And one of them is a killer. When the body of a woman is discovered on a Cambridge common, DCI Barrett and DI Palmer are called in to investigate. But the motive behind the crime isn’t clear—and it all leads back to a book club. As the lies, volatile friendships, and tension among the group rise to the surface, DCI Barrett and DI Palmer must work out the motive and track down a cold-blooded killer. But just when they think they’re on the right track, a twist in the plot throws them off course . . . “Will keep readers guessing till the very end!” —J.A. Baker, bestselling author of The Other Mother “A deliciously devilish whodunit!” —Robert Bryndza, bestselling author of the Detective Erika Foster series

An NPR Best Book of the Year A Vanity Fair Best Summer Read "A haunting, mind-bending memoir. . . . riveting." —New York Times "A mixture of biography and true crime, this narrative . . . offers more plot twists, shocking revelations and shady characters than most contemporary thrillers." —NPR The Book of Atlantis Black will have you questioning facts, rooting for secrets, and asking what it means to know the truth. A young woman is found dead on the floor of a Tijuana hotel room. An ID in a nearby purse reads “Atlantis Black.” The police report states that the body does not seem to match the identification, yet the body is quickly cremated and the case is considered closed. So begins Betsy Bonner’s search for her sister, Atlantis, and the unraveling of the mysterious final months before Atlantis’s disappearance, alleged overdose, and death. With access to her sister’s email and social media accounts, Bonner attempts to decipher and construct a narrative: frantic and unintelligible Facebook posts, alarming images of a woman with a handgun, Craigslist companionship ads, DEA agent testimony, video surveillance, police reports, and various phone calls and moments in the flesh conjured from memory. Through a history only she and Atlantis shared—a childhood fraught with abuse and mental illness, Atlantis’s precocious yet short rise in the music world, and through it all an unshakable bond of sisterhood—Bonner finds questions that lead only to more questions and possible clues that seem to point in no particular direction. In this haunting memoir and piercing true crime account, Bonner must decide how far she will go to understand a sister who, like the mythical island she renamed herself for, might prove impossible to find.