Julian Sher

The wild and gripping story of Yves "Apache" Trudeau. Ideal for true crime readers and fans of crime podcasts. For Yves Trudeau, the blood was all business. An assassin for the Hells Angels in the '70s and '80s, Trudeau was known as Apache, the Mad Bumper and the Mad Bomber. As a contract killer, he did his job so well that the bikers sometimes lent him out to other organized-crime empires in Montreal, including the east-end French gangs led by the deadly Dubois brothers and the upstart Irish Mafia in the west end. Yves Trudeau remains one of Canada's most prolific serial killers. When he narrowly missed being assassinated because he was in rehab, he turned government informant and confessed to his crimes, which included killing forty-three people. But as a witness, Trudeau was a disaster. His testimony led to so many acquittals that prosecutors avoided him. Award-winning writers Julian Sher and Lisa Fitterman tell the incredible story of how this assassin escaped the police and the justice system for over a decade. A compelling and revealing account of corruption, incompetence and murder, Hitman is based on extensive research and exclusive new interviews with police, lawyers and bikers who knew Yves "Apache" Trudeau.

FINALIST FOR THE MAVIS GALLANT PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION - LONGLISTED FOR THE J. W. DAFOE BOOK PRIZE A riveting account of the years, months and days leading up to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and the unexpected ways Canadians were involved in every aspect of the American Civil War. Canadians have long taken pride in being on the "good side" of the American Civil War, serving as a haven for 30,000 escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. But dwelling in history's shadow is the much darker role Canada played in supporting the slave South and in fomenting the many plots against Lincoln. The North Star weaves together the different strands of several Canadians and a handful of Confederate agents in Canada as they all made their separate, fateful journeys into history. The book shines a spotlight on the stories of such intrepid figures as Anderson Abbott, Canada's first Black doctor, who joined the Union Army; Emma Edmonds, the New Brunswick woman who disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union nurse; and Edward P. Doherty, the Quebec man who led the hunt to track down Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. At the same time, the Canadian political and business elite were aiding the slave states. Toronto aristocrat George Taylor Denison III bankrolled Confederate operations and opened his mansion to their agents. The Catholic Church helped one of Booth's accused accomplices hide out for months in the Quebec countryside. A leading financier in Montreal let Confederates launder money through his bank. Sher creates vivid portraits of places we thought we knew. Montreal was a sort of nineteenth-century Casablanca of the North: a hub for assassins, money-men, mercenaries and soldiers on the run. Toronto was a headquarters for Confederate plotters and gun-runners. The two largest hotels in the country became nests of Confederate spies. Meticulously researched and richly illustrated, The North Star is a sweeping tale that makes long-ago events leap off the page with a relevance to the present day.

FINALIST FOR THE 2023 MAVIS GALLANT PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION - LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 J. W. DAFOE BOOK PRIZE - An Audible Best Audiobook of the Year A riveting account of the years, months and days leading up to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and the unexpected ways Canadians were involved in every aspect of the American Civil War. Canadians take pride in being on the "good side" of the American Civil War, serving as a haven for 30,000 escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. But dwelling in history's shadow is the much darker role Canada played in supporting the slave South and in fomenting the many plots against Lincoln. The North Star weaves together the different strands of several Canadians and a handful of Confederate agents in Canada as they all made their separate, fateful journeys into history. The book shines a spotlight on the stories of such intrepid figures as Anderson Abbott, Canada's first Black doctor, who joined the Union Army; Emma Edmonds, the New Brunswick woman who disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union nurse; and Edward P. Doherty, the Quebec man who led the hunt to track down Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. At the same time, the Canadian political and business elite were aiding the slave states. Toronto aristocrat George Taylor Denison III bankrolled Confederate operations and opened his mansion to their agents. The Catholic Church helped one of Booth's accused accomplices hide out for months in the Quebec countryside. A leading financier in Montreal let Confederates launder money through his bank. Sher creates vivid portraits of places we thought we knew. Montreal was a sort of nineteenth-century Casablanca of the North: a hub for assassins, money-men, mercenaries and soldiers on the run. Toronto was a headquarters for Confederate plotters and gun-runners. The two largest hotels in the country became nests of Confederate spies. Meticulously researched and richly illustrated, The North Star is a sweeping tale that makes long-ago events leap off the page with a relevance to the present day.

They are America’s forgotten children, the hundreds of thousands of child prostitutes who walk the Las Vegas Strip, the casinos of Atlantic City, the truck stops on interstates, and the street corners of our cities. Many people wrongly believe sex trafficking involves young women from foreign lands. In reality, the majority of teens caught in the sex trade are American girls--runaways and throwaways who become victims of ruthless pimps. In Somebody's Daughter: The Hidden Story of America's Prostituted Children and the Battle to Save Them, meet the girls who are fighting for their dignity, the cops who are trying to rescue them, and the community activists battling to protect the nation's most forsaken children. Author Julian Sher takes you behind the scenes to expose one of America’s most underreported crimes: A girl from New Jersey gets arrested in Las Vegas and, at great risk to her own life, helps the FBI take down a million-dollar pimping empire. An abused teenager in Texas has the courage to take the stand in a grueling trial that sends her pimp away for 75 years. Survivors of the sex trade in New York, Phoenix, and Minneapolis set up shelters and rescue centers that offer young girls a chance to break free from the streets. “The sex trade is the new drug trade,” says one FBI special agent, and Somebody's Daughter is a call to action, shining a light on America’s dirty little secret.

The Hell's Angels leader, Sonny Barger, is toasted as an American legend, and the bikers work hard to promote their folk-hero image. But the facts tell another story. The Hell's Angels are America's major crime export. Their membership has spread to 25 countries including the UK, Australia and Holland, where they have inspired a violent subculture of biker gangs who traffick drugs and suppress any attempt to stop them. ANGELS OF DEATH opens at the darkest moment of the Hell's Angels story, with the beheading of a woman at a chapter meeting. It tells the true story of the bikers, their crime empire and the attempt of the police to stop them - with only a few successes. With eyewitness accounts from police officers who have infiltrated the gangs and gang members who have turned informers, and undercover interviews with the bikers themselves, this is a chilling insight into the world's fastest growing crime empire. N. B. Also includes exclusive material from the leaders of the Hells Angels - Sonny Barger and George Christie - who have agreed to be interviewed for the book.

Two of today's top investigative journalists discovered the reality of the world's most foremost biker gang The Hells Angels. With an estimated 2,500 members in 25 countries, the Hells Angels have inspired a global subculture of violence and fear. Sher and Marsden unflinching look at how law enforcement agencies worldwide are trying to stop with little success the biker gangs from spreading their violent outlaw creed around the world.