True Crime Stories

You have often heard me talk about my list of cases and working my way through them. I do not always know how a case made it to the list or even what it is always about before I sit down to find a case that catches my interest at the moment and has me doing research. I am often surprised when I come across an interesting cases and I do not remember hearing anything about it, especially when not only it takes place in Indiana, but in Indianapolis specifically where I spent most of my “growing up” years. I lived there from the age of four until the age of twenty-eight. Now, granted I was not alive in 1900 when this case first “took place” nor in 1920 when legally it seems it was solved, but I had never heard of this case. Note that I used the word “case” and not “crime” when I described this story but also know that while the crime of murder has not and cannot probably ever be proven here that does not mean that there was not a murder, or even a crime. Because of the era in which th...

  I debated on how to title this one. Generally I will have a victim or a perpetrator in the title. I am unsure if that makes it easier to find on the Internet or not but that is not necessarily why I do the titles as I do. I decided to use this title because this is the title used on a Wikipedia page so I know it can still be found that way. For those who may be wondering already as I am sure there are “Hamilton Avenues” all over, this crime took place in Indianapolis. I dug a bit deeper in this case and purposely went out of my way to find an appeal record because I have to say in my initial research I was a bit confused first at how police were so fast in determining who was involved and secondly, in just what evidence investigators and prosecutors had to obtain convictions considering I kept seeing that there was no physical evidence connecting the perpetrators to the crime. Not long after 10:00 pm on June 1, 2006 Indianapolis police received several 911 calls about s...

  I heard about this case for the first time on and episode of Paula Zahn's On The Case. I was quite surprised considering not only have I heard, and blogged about, many Indiana “infamous” cases but also by the fact that I actually lived in Indianapolis when this crime occurred. The crime itself was not “technically” committed in Indianapolis, but in the town of Speedway. If you know anything about Indianapolis then you know that Speedway IS Indianapolis. Yes, it is its own incorporated town with their own school system but unless you live there and know it you cannot tell a true difference. While I can sit and tell you that a difference cannot be made, I can also tell you that when you visit the Indianapolis 500 racetrack, you are in fact not in Indianapolis, you are in Speedway. Cynthia “Cyndi” Albrecht was a was a chef who not only worked for the Penske Racing team, traveling with the crew, she had also catered to celebrities. It was said she was well on her way to ...

While my last several blogs have been about crimes that took place between the mid 1800's and the 1920's, I went a bit later for this one. This one took place in 1977 in Indianapolis. Yes, I know a few of the ones I have done lately have involved Indianapolis. And, while I was alive then, and even living in Indianapolis at the time this was one I had not heard of until I did some searches of famous crimes. While it is said to be infamous in Indiana and there have been many articles done on the crime over the years, for me it did not reach the level of say, the Sylvia Liken's or the still unsolved Burger Chef murders. Marjorie Jackson was an eccentric, extremely wealthy widow who had lived alone since her husband, Chester, had died in 1970. Chester's father, Lafayette, had been the founder and owner of Standard Grocery stores. Lafayette was killed in his Washington Street store in 1931 (and may be the subject of a future blog) and Chester i...

After doing the D.C. Stephenson blog I was inspired to do a few more very old cases so I spent the day yesterday researching several cases. I mention often that these sorts of cases are a bit harder to research sometimes because while they were famous cases of their day, the lack of accurate information is sometimes difficult to weed through. So often I have to pick and choose or feel like I spend a lot of my time explaining the discrepancies. This case is a prime example. The Cold Spring Murders took place in what is now officially Indianapolis, Indiana in 1868. It is not that Indianapolis was not there, it is just that it has officially expanded. Just like the D.C Stephenson case, where the victim was said to live in Irvington, today that is simply a historical area within the city, so too is true in this case. I grew up in Indianapolis so I am unsure if it makes it easier or harder for me when I do these cases. You, as the general reader, likely do not ...

I wanted to change courses a little bit from some of the cases that I have been blogging about recently. Doing old cases, such as one like this, can often prove to be difficult. Often the information is contradictory if not flat out false and it can sometimes be a challenge to determine what is the truth. So I end up looking at many more sites than I normally would, often just to clear up why one site said one thing and another said something else. And sometimes I do not even need to go further when even the same site shows me proof. For example in this case I had read that associates of D.C Stephenson were also charged with murder, among other things and were acquitted at trial. Then there was an article by a reputable news outlet that claimed differently. However, right there in the article were photos of the newspaper accounts in 1925 that stated the men had been acquitted. Now, I am going to be fair in saying that while there were several charges against ...