Preface -- Part 1: Law Changers -- 1. Lessons Learned from the Salem Witch Trials (1692-93) -- 2. The Dream Team Representing Levi Weeks (1800) -- 3. Daniel Sickles's Claim of Temporary Insanity (1859) -- 4. The Slaying of Stanford White and the Trial of the Century (1906) -- 5. The Coerced-but-True Confession in the Hix-Snooks Case (1929) -- Part 2: Societal Shifters -- 6. How the Shirtwaist Factory Fire Changed Industry Standards (1911) -- 7. The Radium Girls' Fight for Workplace Safety (1917-1920s) -- 8. The Bath Massacre: America's Deadliest School Attack (1928) -- 9. The Legacy of Kitty Genovese's Lonely Murder (1964) -- 10. The Mass Hysteria of the Satanic Panic (1980s) -- Part 3: Civil Rights Catalysts -- 11. Delphine LaLaurie's Horrific Torture Chamber (1834) -- 12. The Slaying of Marie Smith, and the Black Man Nearly Lynched for It (1910) -- 13. How the FBI Helped End the Osage Nation Murders (1910s-1930s) -- 14. The Legacy of the Scottsboro Boys (1931-2013) -- 15. The Galvanizing Murder of Emmett Till (1955) -- Part 4: Forensic Advances -- 16. How an Orthopedic Shoe Felled Criminal Genius Edward Rulloff (1845) -- 17. The Beheading of Pearl Bryan (1896) -- 18. Leopold and Loeb: The Evidence that Felled Them (1924) -- 19. Nannie Doss: The Giggling Grandma (1954) -- 20. Kirk Bloodsworth and America's First DNA Exoneration (1984-93) -- Part 5: Unsolved with Impact -- 21. The Abduction of Charley Ross, the First Kidnapping for Ransom (1874) -- 22. The Enduring Mystery of the Villisca Axe Murders (1912) -- 23. The Murder of Mary Phagan (1913) -- 24. The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping (1932) -- 25. The Tylenol Murders (1982) -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Picture Credits

A fascinating pop-history dive into the stories behind the incredibly impactful crimes--both infamous and little-known--that have shaped the legal system as we know it. When asked why true crime is so in vogue, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Amber Hunt always has the same answer: it's no hotter than it's always been. Crimes and trials have captured American consciousness since the Salem Witch Trials in the seventeenth century. And these cases over the centuries have fundamentally changed our society and shifted our legal system, resulting in the laws we have today and setting the stage for new rights and protections. From the first recorded murder trial led by the first legal dream team, to one of the earliest uses of DNA, these cases will fascinate