True Crime Stories

Here again is a case out of the New York area in the mid 1800's. I gander to guess that these sorts of crimes, that I have been blogging about as of late, were not isolated to this area and were likely occurring all over the country. However, the large newspaper companies were located in this region.  California did not join the union until 1848 to which they too had large newspapers but it seems that many cases from the 'middle of the country' likely got lost. This case is a curious one.  On the night of December 25, 1843 two boys saw smoke billowing from a house in Staten Island New York and alerted people.  It was the home of Captain George Housman.  He was out to sea at the time but he lived in the home with his wife Emeline (nee Van Pelt) and their 20 month old daughter, Ann Elizabeth.  The home was located across the street from George's parents' home.  It was assumed that the home was empty as it was believed that Emeline had gone to visi...

This is another one of those cases that has fascinated me for years.  I have read many books and looked at a lot of research that has been done.  Just like the modern cases of O.J. Simpson and Casey Anthony, this is a case in which many people believe the defendant was guilty but either the prosecution did not prove their case, or the verdict was just simply unjust.  The only one true difference that I have seen is that in the Borden case there has been a lot of speculation as to an alternative murderer.  Obviously the other two cases are rather recent and there has not been 120 years of speculation to work with but in the same respect I think it is also different in the fact that there really did not seem to be enough evidence to convict Lizzie Borden despite if you believe she was the murderer or not.  This could also be based on the fact of how quickly trials were conducted in those times compared to today.  Take into consideration that Caylee ...