True Crime Stories

I do not claim to know a lot about this case.  I realize it has been in the media for several years and I know the crust of the crimes accused.  I can tell you that Drew Peterson was a police officer, that he was suspected (although several years later) of the death of his second wife and the disappearance of his third. I am going to do this blog differently than the other ones. I am not going to give the details of the accused crime or the background of the accused.  I am not even planning to debate the guilt or innocence of Drew Peterson.  My concern with this case has to do with the legalities of how the trial was conducted and the evidence presented. I welcome anyone who has a different view or can maybe give details that I have not learned or been privy to, to comment and enlighten me or express their opinion.   Prior to this case going to trial, the state of Illinois passed a law called "Drew's law" specifically for this case.  Drew's law basicall...

On the morning of August 9, 1969 a maid entered the home of her employer in California and noticed that a few things did not seem right and even more things did not feel right.  Upon a short look around she saw the bodies of two people laying on the back lawn and ran away from the residence screaming to a neighbor home.   When police arrived at 10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles California they found five bodies, one in a vehicle, two in the back yard and two in the home.  The home was being rented by the director, Roman Polanski.  Polanski was in another country directing a movie but his wife, actress Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant was at home.  Also at the home were Abigail Folger, her boyfriend, Voytek Frykowski, stylist Jay Sebring and a young man who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, Steven Parent.  Some of the victims had been shot; some had been stabbed and there even appeared that there had been attempt to hang at least...

I came across this story when I was looking for new true crime books to read through Barnes and Noble.  Sometimes I get sick of reading or seeing television shows on the same subject over and over so it is refreshing to find something new that I have never heard of.  The other appeal for me when it came to this story was the fact that it took place in Indianapolis, Indiana where I grew up (although this story took place many years before I was born).   Another appeal to this story is that there is not a lot of information out there.  When that happens it makes you want to find more and more.  I came across a book called "In the Eyes of the Law" by Tom Faulconer (his father was the trial judge) and a few articles spread out from the time.  However, this is not the first older case (not that they do not continue to do it) that I have found where one cannot always rely on the newspaper stories of the day.  I have read many things that indicate that...

I first heard of this case when watching the new show, Blood Relatives on Investigative Discovery. I then read the book, Savage Son by Corey Mitchell (see my book blog).  I was excited to hear a story that I had not heard of in the past as it seems that the same stories seem to be told over and over again on different magazine television programs. On December 10, 2003 the Whitaker family returned home after having dinner together to celebrate their oldest son's upcoming college graduation.  Mother Patricia and younger son, Kevin entered the home first while dad, Kent trailed behind and oldest son, Thomas "Bart", went to retrieve his cell phone from his vehicle.  Patricia and Kevin were shot immediately when they each entered the home, Kent soon after.  Bart ran into the home to "chase" the "intruder" and he too was shot.  Both Kent and Bart were shot in their shoulders (although opposite arms) and survived.  Patricia and Kevin had been shot at point ...

This was another one of those cases where I simply could not make the title be "The Case of...." because it just felt wrong, as if I was giving someone so full of evil some sort of credit in a way and if there is ever someone who does not deserve one ounce of credit or sympathy it would be John David Battaglia. John Battaglia was an abuser.... period.  Most of his abuse was directed at his two wives, however, there were others that were victims of his abuse.  As the classic abuser however, he was able to use charisma and charm to get out of things and to convince people that he was the victim.  Even when he was obviously caught he would blame the victim for pushing him to the point in which he abused.  Also, like many classic abusers, after he abused his spouse he would apologize and cool down to which the women would take him back and accept his apologies.    Battaglia's abuse to his first wife, to which he was often faced with legal problems bega...

I have blogged a few cases lately, as well as seen a few others on television, that have said to me that society has become one that when an unexpected, or suspicious death occurs that someone has to be blamed, whether the evidence is there or not.   In the two cases I have blogged (the Adam Kaufman murder trial and the Ronda Reynolds death case) investigators charged or attempted to charge the spouse of the person who passed away.  In both cases there were allegations of mis-conduct by the investigators.  In the case of Ronda Reynolds, the prosecutors have refused to press charges even though even the county coroner issued  warrants for the arrest of Ronda's husband and stepson.  In the Adam Kaufman case, charges were filed, and even a trial followed in which he was acquitted. I saw another case last night of a woman who was convicted in the poisoning death of her husband, yet there seemed to be little evidence to which conclusively pointed to her and some sa...

This was a case that I had not followed.  I subscribe to "In Session" on Facebook but I had not actually watched any of the trial or read anything on the case.  All I knew was that a man by the name of Adam Kaufman was being charged with the murder of his wife.  From what I had seen it seemed like one of the standard spousal murders that you often hear. Watching an episode of Dateline I found that my thoughts were far from the truth. In fact, after watching the show, and doing some research I am left asking myself if this country has not gotten so used to cases of a spouse killing another that things are not made up to make a case.   On the morning of November 7, 2007 Adam Kaufman called 911 saying that he had found his wife, Eleonora "Lina," in the bathroom slumped over a magazine  rack and not breathing. The case soon turned in "The Spray Tan" murder.  Just the day before Lina had gotten her first ever spray tan to prepare for a wedding.  There w...

This seems to be all the rage at the moment.  The History channel just finished a 3 night mini series on the subject, a new movie called Bad Blood comes to theaters next month and a few more books have recently been written and released.  Staying true to how I generally work when writing my blogs I looked beyond the movies, we all know they are not completely accurate, as well as try to work my through all the other works to come to an un-bias reality.  Considering this feud likely started in the 1860's and spanned several years sometimes makes it difficult to sort through.  This story rings true with the fact that both sides have a story and that the truth is somewhere in the middle so I will try to go with what seems to have been confirmed, for the most part, and state what is uncertain when I can.  Seeing as this feud not only ended nearly 120 years ago, it spanned nearly 50 years.   What we do know is that the McCoy family lived on the Kentucky side o...

This is a new show on Discovery ID.  I am watching the first episode now so I cannot say for sure exactly how good it will be but thought I would let other true crime buffs know about it. The premises of the show (hosted by Erin Brockovich) is to feature stories that have been made into movies and compare the real story to the story that the movie portrayed.   The first episode is the story of Aileen Wuornos and comparing her story to the one told in "Monster." I am not completely certain that this will be anything really knew than those of us who watch all the true crime shows or not just yet.  Just as in those shows the story is told, people are interview...etc.   

I tried to make every effort to separate my feelings in my book blog when I reviewed the book "In the Still of the Night" by Ann Rule.  I first heard about this case on a recent episode of I believe Dateline.  Ann Rule was on that show as well as Ronda Reynolds' mother, Barb Thompson and it talked a lot about their quest and their belief that Ronda was murdered, likely by her husband, or maybe by her stepson.  I had looked at a few articles on the subject at that time but that was a few weeks ago and once I started the book I stayed away from them so I could give an objective view on the book itself.  That blog can be found here:  http://mybookblogger-susan.blogspot.com/2012/05/in-still-of-night.html  It was a large struggle for me not to search for information while reading the book because I knew and felt that Rule's book was slanted towards one side and I also felt that it was full of holes.  To give Rule a small amount of credit, I realize that s...