Tortured Minds

A man finds his aunt bludgeoned to death in the living room of her elegant Forty Fort home. A teenage girl disappears on her way home from Coatesville High School. A reputed witch turns up dead in Pottsville. A young woman seemingly helps solve her own murder after she dies in a Philadelphia park.

True-crime author Tammy Mal digs up facts on four of Pennsylvania's weirdest killings in her book Tortured Minds: Pennsylvania's Most Bizarre-But Forgotten-Murders. These 1930s crimes have long fallen into obscurity, but Mal deftly revives them in stark detail, from discovery of the body and through the trial.

Ghosts, witches, resentment, and sex factor into these crimes, giving them a chilling edge as Mal brings them back to life in her latest true-crime book. It's a look into just what tortured minds can do, certain to convince you to lock your doors after dark.