True Crime Stories

I have spent the last several days running down my list of cases to research before blogging about them. I actually have about fifteen cases that I researched and made notes for but did not post about. Why? Sadly they seemed so "routine."  I often see people complaining about for instance shows like 48 Hours and Dateline that "it is always a case of the husband." or things such as that.  For there to be a spousal murder case it seems as if any more there has to be a multi-layered plot in order for there to be generated interest.  It is sad, but it is also true. In fact, it is likely that I will end up doing one blog where many of the stories are told at once.  This story however, is one that I have been fascinated with for years. When I first became interested in true crime stories, like many, my favorite author was Ann Rule.  Admittedly I feel as her fame grew that she tended to put more of her own bias' into the stories.  Now some could argue th...

Edward Gingerich was the first Amish person ever charged with murder when he was arrested for the beating and dismemberment of his wife in March of 1993.  Does that mean that he was the first Amish person to ever commit homicide?  I do not know.  Although it was the murder itself that outraged the Amish community, it seems that the "English" (as the Amish liked to call non-Amish people) were more stunned at the treatment (or non-treatment) that Edward Gingerich had received for his obvious mental issues prior to the murder. Although, admittedly, it seems he got more help than the Amish would normally get at times, but only when his behavior became more than others could control. On March 18, 1993 Daniel Gingerich went to an English neighbors home to use their phone and call 911.  His five year old nephew had ran, almost a mile, to his home telling him that his father, Edward, Daniel's brother, was beating his mother, Katie, and they needed help.  By the time D...

I learned a very long time ago that when I find a case on one of the many reality crime shows I watch that they tend to slant things and quite often make them sound more cut and dry than they really are.  When I do my research for cases I often times look at comments made to articles as well and will see if I can verify some information.  Then when I sit down to type things up at least in the beginning I try to give all sides of the case, but I am human and in the end it generally falls on my gut feelings of the case.  There are cases where I believe innocent people were let go and I am confused as to how the jury could not see that.  There are cases where someone is convicted and yet, while I may believe in their guilt I am not sure the evidence was there.  And then there are cases where I absolutely believe in a convicted person's guilt but I feel as if the tactics that law enforcement and prosecutors used to get that guilty verdict could in the end harm a lot...

Quite often you hear of cases of deaths that were "unnatural" and untimely that have been ruled accidents or suicides and there is a family member somewhere that comes out fighting that ruling.  Most generally it is a parent doing the fighting.  I have a saying "No bad people die."  It seems that more often than not when someone dies everyone seems to forget any faults they had.  Maybe this is because we have been conditioned to "not speak ill about the dead."  I do not believe in making things up but I also believe in being honest.  I am not saying that in all the cases that I have heard where a family member is fighting a cause of death ruling they are wrong, but there have been many cases in which I have.  As the mother of now grown children I obviously hope I never feel the pain of losing a child but I also hope that I would be realistic if something were to happen. Obviously as parents we are supposed to always fight for our children. We tell them...

On the evening of May November 22, 2004 in San Antonio Texas a popular high school teacher, Diane Tilly, was packing in preparation for a trip when there was a knock at her door.  When she opened the door 15 year old Pearl Ann Cruz was standing there saying she had car trouble and asking to come inside and make a call. Soon Pearl and her father, Ronnie Joe Neal were inside Diane's house and by the time the night was over Diane would lay in field dead from several gunshot wounds. Most reports that I found stated that at some point before the murder Ronnie Joe Neal had gone to Diane Tilly's home, with his daughter, Pearl, in search of lawn mowing jobs.  The stories say that while she denied needing her grass mowed she had offered them an old swing set that was in her yard.  This was the claimed as really being the only contact made between the victim and her murderers prior to her killing. However, at his trial there was a Thanksgiving card shown that Ronnie Joe Neal...

I have a long list of cases to research to blog about.  I get the names of the cases through different media outlets... television shows, news articles, books and the like.  The sad thing is that it seems in today's world some cases just seem to "routine."  Over the last few days I have been going through my list and so many of them are spouse (or ex spouse) against spouse. We all know, at least all of you who are into true crime stories like I am, that when a murder occurs the first person looked at is a current or ex-spouse (or boy/girl friend) and sadly this has become the norm because it happens so often.  So when Phillip Naydenova found his wife, Slavka and her son Paul Wilson dead in their home it is not unexpected that media comments and outlets questioned his story in the beginning.  Phillip had stated that he had spoken to Slavka on the phone and she had told him that a woman who spoke Russian was at the door asking to use the bathroom.  This comme...

Obviously I am a bit obsessed with true crimes.  I watch all the shows and read all the books that I can.  I especially like the stories that occurred in the early 1900's and prior.  The only problem with them however, is that the facts are often distorted by legend and sometimes it takes a bit to muddle through everything and try to determine exactly what happened.  In the end these stories are usually riddled with questions as well as what seems like confusing information, but I try the best that I can. This story I discovered when I started reading Gregg Olsen's book "Starvation Heights" (I am still reading actually).  Upon my research I found that there have been a few crime shows that have shared the story and I find it interesting that I do not recall the story from an episode of "Deadly Women."  I thought I had seen every episode, and maybe I have but this story obviously did not stand out for me. Crimes of intentional murder almost always in som...