True Crime Stories

I think I mentioned a while back that I have been binge watching Forensic Files on Netflix lately. While my list of cases was surely not lacking names already, watching the show, one after another, has added several. That is always a good thing because I never know how I will feel when it comes time to sit down and do a case and many of these that I am seeing now are ones I have never heard of before so it keeps things “fresh.” This case was featured on the show and originally aired in May of 2004. While I really enjoy the show there is absolutely no way that they can touch on every issue in a case on a television show, especially one that is only twenty-five minutes long. Larry Moore and Brad Brisbin were said to be friends and hunting partners. Brisbin was a former county sheriff's deputy in their area of West Yellowstone Montana but by 1990 he owned a restaurant and was teaching part time. So many articles about his death refer to him being a former deputy but noth...

This is not your standard, spouse on spouse crime. In addition to that this case brings up a few other questions. First, what are the odds of someone knowing, or being related to more than one person who has been murdered, and secondly, can criminal behavior or mindset be inherited? Of course there are the cases where siblings work together on a crime, but we have also seen them where different siblings commit different crimes and spends time in prison. But, what about a grandson of a murderer becoming a potential murderer? Is it nature verses nurture? Is it just a rare coincidence? I do recall this question being asked at one point concerning a father and son who both had committed crimes in which they had earned the death penalty for several decades apart. Fred and Charlotte Grabbe were first married sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's. In 1961 they would divorce but they would remarry a year later. By 1981 the couple had two grown children, twenty-two...

As I stated in my last blog, I have several cases ready to put together which I often struggle with. Besides the fact that I seem to lose a bit of luster when I research them without posting them soon and my memory often fails me I also have the issue that to give something the attention it deserves I have to “feel” it. While I may find one interesting when I start my research I may not feel the same later, especially if it has been days. In those cases I tend to want to “just get it done” and so as I said it does not necessarily get the attention it deserves. But, as I was going through the four or five I have ready I saw this one and remembered my excitement from it. I was glad to see it because I have struggled with the fact that I have wanted to research more cases. I have been re-watching Forensic Files, or at least listening to them, on Netflix lately and have heard several cases I had never heard about that I have been excited about digging into. Before I do tha...

Life got busy for a while and although I have several blogs already researched, I have not posted in more than a week. Sometimes that makes it a bit more difficult for me because I like to compose my blogs close to when I researched them so I remember things but, it is what it is. On October 15, 1930 ten year old Leona O'Loughlin was reported missing in Denver Colorado. It is not exactly clear who reported Leona missing. Her father, Leo, was a police detective but he was extremely sick on the day that she was reported missing. In fact, it was said that everyone in the house except for Leona's uncle, Leo's brother, Frank, was sick that day with varying symptoms. Aside from Frank, Leona lived with her father, her step-mother, Pearl, and step-brother Doug Millican, who was seven. It was unclear whether before she had gone missing if Leona was also sick. Leo's symptoms resembled the flu while Pearl's seemed to be acute poisoning, meaning sh...

In late August 2017 the southern portion of the United States, in particular the states of Texas and Louisiana, was preparing for Hurricane Harvey to hit land. Houston Texas resident Crystal McDowell would last be seen on August 25 th , just hours before Houston would be plummeted by the storm. The following day Crystal's uncle, Jeff Waters, who had raised her since the age of eleven, reported her missing. Crystal and Steven McDowell had been married close to ten years when they divorced in June of 2017. Reports of exactly where Crystal was living at the time of her death, two months later were a bit sketchy. Almost all of the information stated that not only throughout the marriage, but also after the divorce, Crystal, who was now a real estate agent working for a family company, had been the breadwinner and had been supporting Steven. But, while some reports claim that she was living in her own townhouse that would be searched after she was found to be missi...

On August 10, 1991 nine bodies were found inside a Buddhist Temple in Waddell Arizona. The bodies belonged to the Abbott, five monks, a nun, a novice monk and a temple employee. All of the victims were either Thais or of Thai descent. Soon after four men were arrested from Tucson and would be dubbed the “Tucson Four.” At least one of the men gave a confession to the crime and they were all charged with the murders. However, it was determined that first, the men had been arrested on the “tip from a man with mental health issues” and that any confessions that had been obtained had been false. After three months the men would be released and at least three of the four filed wrongful arrest suits against the county. In March of 1994 they took a $2.8m settlement from Maricopa County. Reports are a bit unclear but at some point a .22 caliber weapon was found in a vehicle. Some say the vehicle belonged to a man named Allessandro “Alex” Garcia while other reports cla...

You know, as much as some may say I am “obsessed” with true crime and I have to admit that at some level they may be right, I have never been so obsessed that I wanted to know what it was like to commit a crime or be “famous” as some who have committed horrendous crimes have later said. Such is the case of Robert Benjamin Smith. Robert Smith's father was in the military and the family moved around quite often when he was young. The boy never had a lot of friends in school nor was he very athletic. This is often said of military children due to all of their moves to different places and schools. In 1963 when John F. Kennedy was assassinated the family lived in Baltimore and it was said that Robert begged his father to go to the funeral but it did not happen. It was said that later Robert's obsession with Kennedy manifested into an obsession with Lee Harvey Oswald. In 1965 Robert's father retired from the military and the family settled in Mesa Arizona...

Many beliefs and behaviors are learned and passed down from generation to generation. The theory that male children are superior to female children is one of them. Of course until the early 1900's women were still even legally considered to be inferior. Some would argue today that women are still considered that way but it is nothing compared to where we started. This goes back at least as far as ancient times and just carried on down. Many female children babies were abandoned or even murdered in China when there was a one child policy in place for more than thirty years. Male children carry on surnames which make them important to fathers in particular. But mother's doted on their sons, some more than others. Sons were treated better than daughters. Daughters were expected to marry well; sons were expected to do well. Many mothers would not just try to convince their sons that no one would love them like they would, they made sure the women dating their son...