Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy murdered at least 30 women between 1974 and 1978, and Kathy Kleiner Rubin was just seconds from becoming another victim.

​

Kleiner Rubin, now 65, narrowly escaped Bundy when he broke into Florida State University's Chi Omega house and killed sorority sisters Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman in their beds during the early morning hours of Jan. 15, 1978.

Second acts signify a major shift in the story of our lives—personal, professional, or both. I used to be this and now I am going to be that. But second acts don’t just happen to us—we can script, stage, and direct them. This is reinvention, empowered by intention. 

​

​I’ve navigated at least two second acts throughout my writing career: from journalist to communications consultant, nonfiction author to novelist—not to mention some personal upheavals along the way. In my latest second act, I found my voice and stretched myself in a new direction as a mystery writer—at the age of 63. 

In Geri Spieler's compelling narrative, "Housewife Assassin," we are taken on a journey that transcends time and geography. This story is a nuanced exploration of the intricate network of the U.S. government's security apparatus, exposing hidden flaws that threaten the very heart of our national security. 

A three-part docuseries on Sundance Now and AMC+ explores the life of Rose Dugdale, who broke from her upper-crust origins to become an activist, art thief and IRA bomber.

​

Journalists and authors, among them David Davin-Power and Dugdale biographer Anthony Amore (“The Woman Who Stole Vermeer”) put her later crimes in perspective.

Dugdale ended up in London, where she took up with left-winger Wally Heaton. “Walter and Rose meet at a union protest and they strike it off immediately and they become like Velcro,” says author Anthony Amore. “They’re inseparable. They’re together all the time. Although he’s still living with his wife and children, he’s taken up an extramarital relationship with Rose Dugdale when the two become lovers.”

This October, near the anniversary of Jacob's abduction and killing, the Minnesota Historical Society Press will publish the memoir Wetterling and Baker wrote together, a behind-the-scenes look at a crime that shaped the state and the mother who refused to let it steal her hope, her kindness or her marriage.

For 13 years, a pair of the famous ruby red slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" was missing. Valued today at $3.5 million, the shoes were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the actress's hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Over the past two decades, the theft launched an investigation from the FBI and inspired a podcast, documentary and several true crime sleuths to speculate on the mystery of the red shoes.

Today's Agent Spotlight is with Jen Newens of Martin Literary Management. As fate would have it, Jen IS doing a giveaway with this Spotlight interview--oh, how we love agent giveaways...but don't scroll to the bottom like a Neanderthal just to enter the giveaway. We are not Neanderthals here. You will read every. 

Keep up a nearly 30-year correspondence with anyone and you'll get to know a lot about them. But for investigative journalist and Palo Alto-based author Geri Spieler, who traded letters for 28 years with would-be presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore, she also discovered the ways in which Moore was unknowable, by her own design — as well as the things she couldn't hide about herself.

A MUM-turned-detective has told of her haunting investigation into the 27-year-old cold case of a young boy who vanished without a trace.

Joy Baker found herself helplessly drawn to the case of Jacob Wetterling - an 11-year-old who was snatched by a masked stranger in a terrifying abduction.

Two thieves dressed as Boston cops made off with $500m in stolen art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum more than three decades ago. No arrests have ever been made, the case remains unsolved, and the museum’s chief investigator is still actively searching for the art — as a $10m reward goes unclaimed, writes Sheila Flynn

How a Texas serial killer went under police radar for years. The recent conviction of a prolific killer sheds light on the need for protections for a vulnerable population.