CRIME: The Whole Book

On the dark, squally afternoon of April 3, 1950, three ex-convicts shot and killed a messenger carrying $4,960 (along with more than $35,000 in non-negotiable checks) from the Reader's Digest offices near Pleasantville, N.Y. Two months later the killers were arrested. Tried and convicted were Calman Cooper, a paroled bandit, Harry Stein, a sullen thug, and Nathan Wissner, a habitual criminal. They were sentenced to die the week of Feb. 11, 1951—but justice was not to come so quickly.

Represented by tireless and ingenious lawyers, the Reader's Digest Killers (as they came to be known), ran through the whole book...

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