{"title":"Bill James","description":"Bill James made his mark in the 1970s and 1980s with his Baseball Abstracts. He is currently the Senior Advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox. James lives in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife and three children.","products":[{"product_id":"popular-crime-reflections-on-the-celebration-of-violence-paperback","title":"Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the one-of-kind mind of Bill James, famous for revolutionizing the way we think about baseball, comes a \"thought-provoking meditation\" (Seattle Times) and epic tour through American crime--now available in paperback.The man who revolutionized the way we think about baseball examines our cultural obsession with murder--delivering a unique, engrossing, brilliant history of tabloid crime in America. Celebrated writer and contrarian Bill James has voraciously read true crime throughout his life and has been interested in writing a book on the topic for decades. With Popular Crime, James takes readers on an epic journey from Lizzie Borden to the Lindbergh baby, from the Black Dahlia to O. J. Simpson, explaining how crimes have been committed, investigated, prosecuted and written about, and how that has profoundly influenced our culture over the last few centuries--even if we haven't always taken notice. Exploring such phenomena as serial murder, the fluctuation of crime rates, the value of evidence, radicalism and crime, prison reform and the hidden ways in which crimes have shaped, or reflected, our society, James chronicles murder and misdeeds from the 1600s to the present day. James pays particular attention to crimes that were sensations during their time but have faded into obscurity, as well as still-famous cases, some that have never been solved, including the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Boston Strangler and JonBenet Ramsey. Satisfyingly sprawling and tremendously entertaining, Popular Crime is a professed amateur's powerful examination of the incredible impact crime stories have on our society, culture and history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51367072825567,"sku":"9781416552741","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/DVsdAMN6AS9781416552741.webp?v=1789102309"},{"product_id":"the-man-from-the-train-discovering-americas-most-elusive-serial-killer-paperback","title":"The Man from the Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn Edgar Award finalist for Best Fact Crime, The Man from the Train is an \"impressive...open-eyed investigative inquiry wrapped within a cultural history of rural America\" (The Wall Street Journal). In this groundbreaking work of historical true crime, legendary statistician and baseball writer Bill James applies his analytical genius to crack an unsolved century-old mystery surrounding one of the deadliest serial killers in American history.Between 1898 and 1912, families across the United States were brutally murdered in their sleep with the blunt side of an axe. Valuables were left untouched, bodies were staged, and faces covered. Some cases, like the infamous Villisca Axe Murders in Iowa, gained national attention--but few believed the crimes were connected. Fewer still noticed that every family lived within walking distance of a train line. Digging through thousands of newspapers, court transcripts, and public records, James and his daughter Rachel uncovered a chilling truth: these murders were the work of one man, traveling by rail, who would go on to become one of America's most prolific yet largely forgotten serial killers. Riveting and immersive, The Man from the Train offers a vivid portrait of turn-of-the-century America, exposing how cultural blind spots, flawed investigations, and opportunistic detectives allowed this killer to operate undetected. Blending meticulous research with narrative drive, this modern classic of true crime nonfiction will fascinate readers of Devil in the White City, My Favorite Murder, and fans of unsolved mysteries and historical crime investigations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51367080689887,"sku":"9781476796260","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/vbnllzdyrM9781476796260.webp?v=1789102325"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/bill-james.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}