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Showing posts from 2014

The Death of Mary Hawkes

As I have stated previously often how I come about finding cases to blog about is by watching television shows or seeing news articles.  I then generally put them on a list and when I decide to start working on this again I go through the list.  That is not to say that every case or story on the list makes the cut, and initially I was not sure about this one. At first glance this case comes off as a justifiable police shooting.  It is not until you dig a little deeper and open your mind, as well as remember there are laws to follow, that questions arise. In this case there are just too many questions to ignore. When I first began to dig into this case, the first article I read was pretty cut and dry.  Simply put it reported an Albuquerque officer involved shooting of 19 year old Mary Hawkes. She had been suspected (although later all but confirmed, however, her death makes that moot as there was no conviction) of auto theft and had ran from the police. The responding officer, Jeremy

The Deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner; What It Has Done to This Country

I have a list that I keep close by that I add names of victims or case on so that I can go back and do the research on them to blog about them.  Often times when I search the name I do not recall what the case is about, such was the case a few minutes ago.  I picked a name off my list, Mary Hawkes and when I searched I remembered it was a case where a young woman was murder by the police.  Of course with all the media lately it made me think of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases.  The difference here obviously is that Mary was a woman and she was white.  However, I realized that I had not sat down and really discussed these cases and that being the author of a true crime blog and seemingly choosing, even if not consciously, to ignore these cases was not proper.  The only real reason that I have "bulked" them together is mainly because the media has.  I have, for the most part, left my opinion about these cases off of social media and really have only discussed them with

The Murder of Kathy Bonney

This is a case in which I have seen the made-for-TV movie, starring Tony Danza, as well as documentaries on the case so I knew quite a lot about it but after doing research I realized that not only did I not know a lot of the information but I also realized how much seems distorted.  Granted when stories like this are made into movies, or even often times when they are aired as a documentary, things are often exaggerated.  This is why it is so important to me to research each case as much as I can before I report them here.  Even still, I often find conflicting information, however, at least I can state that here as opposed to others that state them as facts.  I was lucky enough to come across the court documents from 1992 to settle a few of the issues. This is a case however, that reminds me that we may not be so far out of the "yellow journalism" era as I thought we were.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term "yellow journalism" it was a term created in the

The Rachel Wade Case

I have attempted to create this blog a few times but it has been difficult. I think the difficulty comes from the age of the participants as well as my age now.  I often try to ensure that I do not become a victim blamer.  In fact, the only other case that I can think of that I have placed some blame on the victim is the Betty Broderick case.  But, then again, the participants in that case were old, and as we say, should have known better.  We can say that too about this case.  However, the participants were eighteen and nineteen years old.  The older I get the more I realize how irrational I was at that age but yet, at the time I did not see that.  I was recently reminded by some people of a time in which I was probably in my early twenties and was at a party.  No-one recalls what the person said to me but apparently I was none too happy and chased this person down the street.  I am now over 40 and cannot fathom what this person could have said to me that would have mattered to me.  T

The Tracey Grissom Case

I have not blogged in quite a while, although admittedly I have some waiting to be written up and put together.  However, after watching 48 Hours from this past Saturday night I was compelled to research the case they discussed and bring it here. I always encourage participation but I do so particularly in this case.  As always I have my opinion of what I believe and undoubtedly there is always someone who has a different opinion. To some this case seems puzzling; to others there is no puzzle at all.  Some are left with questions while others feel all the pertinent questions are answered.  Just as with most cases there are two sides to every story and you have to determine the truth from within but you also have to have all the facts, and be sure that they are facts.   As I stated, the episode of 48 Hours prompted this and as usual I found much more information than what was aired on the show. That information came from news articles and websites that told the "supposed" st

The Bath School Disaster

We live in a world where when we hear of an especially heinous crime people will say they wish we lived in the "Good 'Ol Days" or how our "world has gone to hell."  Among my  reasons for my more recent blogs is to show that there was no such thing. Murder and extraordinary crimes have been occurring since the beginning of time, almost literally. Also, admittedly as a true crime "buff" it seems I hear the same stories over and over and this is an attempt to bring to others, like myself, new stories.  We all knew, justified or not, murder has always occurred.  We had forefathers having duels in fields; we have all heard of Jesse James and the gangsters of the 1930's.  What we have not heard about are many crimes that were lost to history but were very prominent in their time.   After reading about the Bath School Disaster I was intrigued.  I think like most people we believe that school shootings and disasters are more of a modern thing.  Most of u