Justice for All: 10 Gripping True Crime Memoirs

All too many people pay the ultimate price because of the United States’ sickening legacy of racial violence. The 1955 murder of Emmett Till was a watershed event that captured people’s attention nationwide. That made it an inflection point in the Civil Rights Movement. Mamie Till-Mobley, Emmett’s mother, wrote her memoir near the end of her own life. While it is her life story, her writing focuses on her son, his too-short life, and his untimely death. It was a deeply loving act that Till-Mobley used her personal tragedy to inspire and galvanize others for justice. You should know her and Emmett’s stories.

This book is a jaw-dropping memoir that I will never stop talking about. Chanel Miller is so much more than a survivor of sexual assault. Her case became famous nationwide because the perpetrator was one of these “promising young men” whose future was being ruined because of his own violent and criminal actions. Miller’s bravery in the face of ridicule for the disgraceful way she was treated, both in person and by the culture at large, is staggering. This book is about so much more than her victimhood. It’s a beautiful meditation of familial love, support networks, and deep inner strength.

This is one of the books in which the author and the crime aren’t very directly connected, but their lives intertwine in a fascinating way. The author was working at the law firm defending a man who was both a murderer and a pedophile. The shockingly strong reaction he elicits in the law office staff puzzles them. So they dive deeper into his story, and that’s where Marzano-Lesnevich finds a familiar tale. It’s a raw and dark story that underscores how keeping child abuse under wraps can rot families from the inside.

The New York Times declared this one of last year’s best books, for good reason. It’s a challenging book that doesn’t provide any easy answers to the question of what care looks like when dealing with severe mental illness. The author and his childhood friend Michael Laudor were on parallel paths in life, the paths of well-to-do academic superstars, until their paths diverged sharply. Michael Laudor went on to murder his girlfriend. Before then, he kept receiving insufficient care for his schizophrenia because everyone hoped he could live up to the potential he displayed in his youth. This book will haunt you.

This memoir won a Pulitzer Prize, so I’m not alone in thinking it’s great. It follows the author as she deeply investigates the 1990 murder of her sister Liliana Rivera Garza. Liliana was an architecture student in Mexico with her whole life ahead of her, but an abusive ex-boyfriend killed her. The author returned to Mexico after many decades away to investigate this crime. While, of course, Liliana’s story is tragic, Cristina Rivera Garza painted a vivid portrait of her. You honestly feel like you get to know Liliana in all her complexity as you read this book that exposes Mexico’s problem with gendered violence.

Among true crime memoirs written by criminals, I had to pick an art forger. Art forgery is one of those crimes it’s hard for me to be too mad about. After all, I’m never going to be in the position to buy a Rembrandt. Those who do probably got their filthy lucre through the exploitation of other’s labors, so I’ll be over here playing the world’s smallest violin to accompany their suffering. Tony Tetro’s story of forging art that ended up in such esteemed places as King Charles III’s collection is a wild and cinematic ride. It’s up to you to decide how much is true and whether Tetro’s holding back even more secrets.

The Hulu docuseries Stolen Youth, about a cult that arose out of student housing at Sarah Lawrence College in 2010, boggles the mind. This memoir gives you the story from the perspective of someone who followed Larry Ray, a student’s father, after he moved into the titular house and took control of people there. It takes tremendous bravery to tell a story you know will get you ridiculed. The author captures the feeling of being manipulated by a master with a poetic sensibility. This one does delve into potentially upsetting detail about the abuse that happened at the hands of Larry Ray, so take care if you choose to read.

Another harrowing book, I Am Not Your Slave gives you insight into the experience of someone kidnapped and trafficked from Namibia to Dubai. There, she was subject to horrific sexual violence from many people, including those in allegedly humanitarian careers. Amazingly, she escaped, so her story is as inspiring as it is horrifying. Again, make sure you’re in a good emotional place if you choose to read this, but bearing witness to stories like Tupa Tjipombo’s is vital.

The Ted Bundy series on Netflix led to people developing depraved crushes on an absolutely vile man. Let’s get some counterprogramming going! Kathy Kleiner Rubin survived Ted Bundy’s 1978 attack on a sorority house at Florida State University. Her story as someone who came face to face with Bundy and lived deserves to be amplified. Rubin underscores a theme of survival in her book, as someone who lives with lupus and survived breast cancer. In addition to telling her own story, she shares information about the women whom Bundy killed. So read this instead of reading or watching anything that glamorizes Bundy.

How about a graphic novel memoir? So much true crime focuses on “violent crime.” Then there’s the segment devoted to white-collar crime. Memoirs about environmental crimes are relatively rare. Pablo Fajardo is from the Amazonian region of Ecuador where Texaco/Chevron established oil fields. Both the people and the land in this region suffered because of corporate exploitation and indifference. But Fajardo fought back. His work to get reparations for his people and remediation for his land is ongoing, and you can learn about its origins in this moving memoir.