True Crime Stories

This will be my fourth case that involves a death penalty case out of the state of Kentucky. One would think so many of them would be rather routine or at least similar in nature, but if these four cases show anything it shows that anything can happen, every case is different and you never know what legal maneuvers will be tried and which ones will fail and which ones will succeed. Some only succeed temporarily. Marco Chapman murdered two children, injured their mother and sister and in the end volunteered for the death penalty. Yet the courts had to decide if he had that right. Thomas Bowling Jr. was convicted and sentenced to death for the killing a couple in their car and shooting their son but in my opinion there was insufficient evidence. He died in prison of cancer. John Garland was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of three people. He maintained his innocence until his natural death in prison, blaming his son. This latest case is one in which David Matthe...

I have recently moved into a new home and in the last few days of settling in I have gotten on one of my “documentary kicks.” I am not a huge Amazon Prime Tv user but I do go back to it from time to time, this is one of those times. Often many of the stories I find on there do not necessarily rise to the level of “crime” that you generally see from me here, but they generally are crimes none the less and ones that I find interesting. Aside from this one I have at least two other blogs to research and compile based on documentaries I have watched recently. The documentary that inspired this blog was called “Facing East.” While I obviously watch true crime shows, read true crime books and write this blog, my other passion in life is genealogy and so cemeteries obviously fall into that category. Both my mother and grandmother were involved in genealogy and there are pictures of me as a small child sitting at the gravestones of ancestors. My genealogy progress is much like ...

This is one of the most confusing cases that I have ever tried to research. In fact, I attempted to do it one other time but became overwhelmed and frustrated at all of the issues at hand. A social worker involved in the case was quoted as saying that this was one of the most dysfunctional family situations that she had ever dealt with. While I agree that the dysfunction was a huge issue in my research as it led from one strange fact to another, it was only part of the issues I had in keeping things straight. Around 1996 Angelina Young and Joshua Gouker had a son. He was also named Joshua but did not carry his fathers surname. He maintained his mother's maiden name. So father and son were both name Joshua but they had different last names. For purposes of this blog I will use the phrases “Big Josh” and “Little Josh” to try and lessen the confusion, if that is at all possible. About a year or so after Little Josh was born there was another boy born in the Lo...

This is one of those cases that leave you wondering how this person got away with all that he had done and how he had treated people for so long. I know the statistics say that abused women do not report it often and stay way longer than they should and I get that, but there is no way that there were not plenty of others that knew what was going on, through two marriages, with children that did not report things. To add to this two women were able to get away from him but it seems that neither would break off ties enough to at the very least keep themselves safe. Sure, Betty Windsor even went out and got a restraining order against her estranged husband but she voluntarily broke it herself and went to his home. It was the last time she, or her son, would go anywhere. Now, do not take this as me saying she asked for it or deserved it, because that is not what I am saying here, but what I am saying is we all play a role in how things happen, not just in our own lives but in ...

This case is different than most that I talk about here. First, it does not involve a murder, although admittedly, it easily could have. Secondly, for me this case is less about the perpetrator or even the victim but about something in our legal system. I have often noted that I am a proponent of the law. I have completed some courses in the quest for a bachelor's degree in paralegal studies but I have also taught myself quite a bit about the law over time whether it deals with criminal law or civil law and I try to keep up on things as much as possible. However, this case involved something I had never heard of before.... shock probation. Let me first explain just what shock probation is. This form of punishment allows a judge to release a defendant from prison and to serve the rest of their time on strict probation. It is sometimes recommended for defendants who have had no prior legal issues and believes that a short stint in jail can teach a lesson. The idea...

I often speak here on the blog about how it is not always about guilt or innocence but the law and what can and cannot be proven in a legal way.  I have also often stated that in order to believe in the justice system you have to go into looking at a case as if the jury got it right. Then there are the cases where in my opinion, and usually in many people's opinions, you look at a jury and wonder how they heard the evidence that you heard (keeping in mind only what was presented at trial) and came up with the decision they did.  One of the more infamous cases I can think of concerning this is the Casey Anthony case.  Many of the jurors later said they acquitted her because the prosecution could not tell them exactly how Caylee Anthony had died. This is true, but it was not from a lack of trying.  The prosecution in that case could not say an exact cause of death because the body had not been found for several months and had been exposed to the Florida heat and elemen...