True Crime Stories

I was twelve years old in 1984 when the movie “The Burning Bed” aired on television. It was based on the book of the same name by Faith McNulty. The Burning Bed was the story of Francine Hughes, a woman who had spent more than a decade being abused by her husband with little help from authorities. On the night of March 9, 1977 in Dansville Michigan Francine told her three children that were home to put on their coats and wait for her in the car. Once they were gone Francine poured gasoline around the bed in which her ex-husband, James “Mickey” Hughes, laid passed out from his latest drunken bender. Francine then lit a match, set the bed on fire and met her children in the car. She watched for a few minutes as her home began to burn and then she drove herself to the local police department and confessed to what she had done. In fact, by all accounts she was confessing before the fire department would even get to the scene and attempt to put the fire out. Once it was the...

I cannot tell you the number of cases I have come across that involve the murder of a child in which there are quick demands for reform in some way. Most of those calls refer to having the Department of Family Services re-evaluated. Those are the cases that involve children who have been in the system and either returned to a known abusing parent or placed in foster homes in which they were later abused or murdered. Sadly it appears that nothing really happens aside from maybe one or two people involved in protecting the child is fired or put on administrative leave. Then a few years later another child will be murdered in that same area and the same arguments are brought up again. It is a case of wash, rinse and repeat it seems. This case did not involve the Department of Family Services, although it obviously should have. In this case the reform calls came for the process of adoption. However, in my opinion reforms for adoption would not have saved the life of Li...

I both love and hate doing cases prior to about the 1950's. The part I love is hearing about very old cases, many of which I simply come across in other research. But, the part I hate is the often inaccurate information that is found. Some of the inaccuracies are due to the passage of time, especially those prior to 1900. After that time we entered the era of “yellow journalism.” If you have never heard this term you really should research it a bit. The term itself is defined as journalism based on sensationalism and “crude exaggerations.” In the late 1890's two men, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst each started up rival newspapers in New York. Their goal obviously was to sell newspapers, but then it became to sell more than the other and they basically said and did whatever it took to sell them. Truth and research had no room in these newspapers. “Reporters” often followed police officers around to crime scenes and would even take things from the scene...

This is another one of the cases that I researched several months ago and never sat down to compile.  I watched an episode of Women in Prison today and this case was highlighted so I decided to go over my notes, add some more and come here and put it all together. As I have repeatedly said, it seems that only on the rare occasion do I find myself intrigued enough to write about a spouse on spouse crime.  It is likely that only a true crime enthusiast would understand why.  "It's always the spouse."  We seem to hear that often so that should tell you just how almost "routine" these types of cases are. Sadly, to spark interest anymore there has to be more.  Well, this case has lots of "more." On April 17, 2003 late at night, outside a Kirby vacuum training facility in Merrillville Indiana John Parker Jr. was shot while getting into his car at his office.  His wife, Judy, was inside the car and would tell investigators she saw little...

I must be in the mood to discuss "wives who kill their husband and then make excuses to get away with it" today since this will be my second one.  As I have said before I do not do these types of cases very often because they almost seem routine anymore, but in this case and the case of Dorothy Glaser that I discussed earlier today it was not so much about the crimes that were shocking but the women behind them.  This case is also one of those that every time I think I am done with my research I think of something else I need to check first and I seem to open a whole new can of worms.  Like Dorothy Glaser, Julie Harper too admitted to shooting her husband in self defense.  The difference between the two is that Dorothy Glaser was at least smart enough to convince everyone else it was plausible before it happened.   Now before I go any further into this case I want to make clear that I am not someone who does not believe in the battered woman's syndrome or that...