Join our True Crime Book Club and dive into the chilling world of real-life mysteries! Every two months, we tackle a gripping true crime book, sparking lively discussions and deep insights into the minds behind the criminals.
DISCLAIMER: Discussions and book titles may include graphic details and mature content NOT suitable for individuals under 18. Participation is intended for adults only. Registration is required. Please complete form below. Limited supply of free copies of the book.
- Cruel Deception by Gregg Olsen
Thursday, June 26, 2025 | 6:00 – 7:00 pm
In and out of hospitals since birth, angelic nine-month-old Morgan Reid finally succumbed to what appeared to be Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Morgan’s Texas-born mother Tanya, a nurse and devoted wife, pulled up stakes with her grieving husband Jim, and moved on. It was the best way to put the past behind them. Until their son Michael, a boy who by all accounts was terrified of his mother, began showing signs of the same affliction that stole the life of his baby sister…
First, the suspicion: Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Then, Tanya was charged and convicted with felony child abuse of her son. She was later tried and ultimately convicted for first degree murder of Morgan. It would become a landmark trial that unfolded in a series of reversals and bizarre twists of fate as it gradually revealed another side of Tanya Reid—of her own troubling childhood and the dark secrets that drove a woman to the cruelest deception of all…
- Church Pastor, Child Trafficker: The Crimes of Elsa Cuellar in a Border Town by Roger Rodriguez
CONTENT WARNING: Includes themes of child abuse, trafficking, murder, and other mature content.
Thursday, August 28, 2025
Since the early 90’s, Cuellar was able to operate in a way that left no trail. She would pose as a pastor, doctor, or lawyer to win the trust of her young victims. With the promise of a better life, citizenship, and an education, these young girls were lured into the clutches of Cuellar’s claws where they became the source of her wealth. Her numerous family photos were just one of the pieces of evidence authorities found that showed Cuellar’s true intention was to advertise her young victims to older men. This in itself made her money, but the true motive was to ensure these young girls got pregnant. By posing as a doctor or mid-wife, Cuellar would convince the young girls that having the baby at her home was the most sanitary natural way to give birth. Unknown to the girls, the objective was to have a delivery that would not be on record at a hospital. This made her underground baby selling enterprise easier. After all, who would look for a baby no one knows exists? Once Cuellar delivered the sad news to the young girls that the baby died during birth, her mission was complete. The research for this project goes back to 2013. For almost nine years, I have looked for victims, people who know Elsa, interviewed law enforcement, and gained possession of documents that not any ordinary citizen has access to. Hundreds of hours have gone into the scholarly research and hunting down the truth of how Elsa Cuellar never saw a day of prison. Today, the extent of Cuellar’s damage cannot be ascertained. There could be hundreds of men and women who are in their thirties by now who were raised believing their guardians are their true biological parents. Photos, documents, interviews, and stories from sources close to Cuellar will assist in putting together the pieces of this amazing puzzle that for years had law enforcement wondering how they could gather enough to put Elsa Cuellar behind bars. In the end, Cuellar never sees a day in a prison cell and after the mysterious re-assigning of the lead prosecutor, she is found guilty of only one count of tampering with document officials meaning twenty-three other counts were dropped. Nothing regarding the children was ever presented in court and before this project, the public had no idea what happened to Cuellar. It had been rumored she had stage 4 terminal cancer and had months to live. It had been reported that government deported her because they did not want to pay her medical bills, but six years later Cuellar re-appears in Laredo, Texas preaching at a church. What happens to Elsa Cuellar? This collection of nine years’ worth of work will deliver the story many have been waiting to hear. The victims of Elsa Cuellar deserve a voice and this project provides it.
- Wolf Boys by Dan Slater
Thursday, October 23, 2025
The story of two American teens recruited as killers for a Mexican cartel, and their pursuit by a Mexican-American detective who realizes the War on Drugs is unwinnable.
What’s it like to be an employee of a global drug-trafficking organization? And how does a fifteen-year-old American boy go from star quarterback to trained assassin, surging up the cartel corporate ladder?
At first glance, Gabriel Cardona is the poster boy American great athlete, bright, handsome, and charismatic. But the streets of his border town of Laredo, Texas, are poor and dangerous, and it isn’t long before Gabriel abandons his promising future for the allure of the Zetas, a drug cartel with roots in the Mexican military. His younger friend Bart, as well as others from Gabriel’s childhood, join him in working for the Zetas, boosting cars and smuggling drugs, eventually catching the eye of the cartel’s leadership.
Meanwhile, Mexican-born Detective Robert Garcia has worked hard all his life and is now struggling to raise his family in America. As violence spills over the border, Detective Garcia’s pursuit of the boys, and their cartel leaders, puts him face to face with the urgent consequences of a war he sees as unwinnable.
In Wolf Boys Dan Slater shares their stories, taking us from the Sierra Madre mountaintops to the dusty, dark alleys of Laredo, Texas, on a harrowing, often brutal journey into the heart of the Mexican drug trade. Gabriel’s evolution from good-natured teenager into a feared assassin is as inevitable as Garcia’s slow realization of the futile nature of his work. A nonfiction thriller, Wolf Boys depicts more than just Gabriel, Bart, and the officers who took them down. It shows, through vivid detail and rich, often moving, narrative, the way in which the border itself is changing, disappearing, and posing new, terrifying, and yet largely unseen threats to American security. Ultimately though, Wolf Boys is the intimate story of the “lobos” boys turned into pawns for cartels. Their stories show how poverty, ideas about identity, and government ignorance have warped the definition of the American dream.
- My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
Thursday, December 18, 2025
You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer — the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper — seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, “Jeff” was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides.
In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche — a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and one readers will never forget.
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