(FORTUNE Magazine) – Mary Stiles paid a neighbor $1,500 to shoot her circus freak husband, Grady "Lobster Boy" Stiles Jr., in November 1992. Come next May, you can find out all about it for just $4.99, thanks to Fred Rosen. Rosen is a true-crime author, working in a growth industry. Three major presses that deal in true crime -- St. Martin's Press, Signet Press, and Zebra Books -- will offer up 40% more true crime this year than in 1990. Crime pays: In the past few months the New York Times' paperback nonfiction bestseller list has included Ann Rule's You Belong to Me, a collection of six true-crime cases, and Aphrodite Jones's Cruel Sacrifice -- "Four teenage girls, one gruesome murder."

Author Rosen feels the books serve a legitimate purpose. "I look for a case involving some kind of abuse," says he. "Maybe I can shed a light on it and stop this sort of thing from happening again." He acknowledges that many might have a morbid curiosity: "People get a sort of vicarious thrill out of it, you know, 'There, but for the grace of God, go I.' " The true-crime biz is now expanding into other vicarious murder-and-mayhem products for those who want to get a little closer to the action. You can keep your grisly-tragedy bookshelf adorned with a souvenir Kurt Cobain death certificate ($18 from PostMortem Art; medical examiner's report, $2 extra) as you wear your O.J. Simpson mug-shot T-shirt ($10 to $16, various makers) around the house. To be reminded of cult crimes, pick up the Waco, Texas, comic book ($5, First Amendment Press). Tired of reading? Crank up the VCR and exercise with O.J. Simpson: Minimum Maintenance Fitness for Men ($15, Alta Loma Productions) or check out the private side of two true-crime heroes with John Wayne Bobbitt's film debut, John Wayne Bobbitt. . . Uncut ($44.95, Leisure Time Video) or Tonya Harding's Wedding Night ($34.95, Leisure Time Video). Talk about your guilty pleasures.