True Crime Stories

So, I walked into my research on this one thinking that at worse I would have the issues that I often face doing a very, very old crime where dates and stories conflicted from read to read. I thought this case was pretty cut and dry... there was a mass murder, there was a perpetrator... the end. But thankfully for both you and I, I do not just stop at just a few things. I will dig and dig, sometimes to the point that I have to force myself to stop, this is just such a case. This case happened in 1920 and is still considered to be the worse mass murder incident in North Dakota. It is also alleged that “this is believed to be the fastest administration of justice on record in any state” and I cannot be sure I disagree, at least from a legal sense. Whether justice was actually served is apparently up for debate. A book was released in 2010 called The Murder Family by Vernon Keel. I have checked my local library to see if I could manage to find this book and so far I have not ha...

  As I stated in my last blog, I have several cases put together that involve the murder of children. I also discussed the issue of false confessions in my last entry. In my last blog there was a confession and while the person later apparently pleaded not guilty and took his case to trial, he never seemed to not only change his story, but never claimed he was coerced in any way, and he told the same story to several different people at different times. This case is not like that and while I cannot tell you exactly how the confession came about, or what was said, I can tell you that the man who confessed almost immediately recanted and claimed coercion. The other difference in this case is that while investigators had a confession, DNA would later prove that confession to be false. We talk so often about mishandled investigations and crime scenes and this case is one in which this was very evident. On the morning of June 6, 2004 six year old Tyler Fox woke his father, Ke...

This case contains a lot of things that I would say “push” my buttons. First there is a horrific crime that involves not just one child, but several. Then there is the fact that a case was built nearly solely on a confession that was questionable at best, illegally obtained at worse. There were no forensics that tied the person to the crime and lastly the prosecution presented a theory in court that in no way seems to be backed up by anything. As most of you know the prosecution in a case never has to present a motive, but the fact of the matter is that juries want to hear the “why.” Of course there are some defendants who will admit their motive and there are others who will leave a trail that makes the motive clear but in many cases there is never a clear motive. That does not mean that when a motive cannot be found against a defendant that they are innocent but I still take issue when a motive presented that does not match the known facts of the case or when a ...

I have often said how I feel we all have to believe in the justice system and the way that it is at least supposed to work. It is not as if I have never seen a case in which proper justice has not been served. In fact, it is quite the contrary. I come across cases every day that in my opinion has made a mockery out of the justice system. Not all of those cases resulted in the acquittal of people I believe are guilty (i.e. think O.J and Casey Anthony). Some of those cases are the prosecution of defendants I believe are innocent. One thing it seems that all of the latter cases have in common is either an overzealous investigator, or prosecutor. I understand that investigators are often pressured to close a case whether it be by the community or the victims family. I also understand that for prosecutors it is about the “win.” And, there are some among those in both professions that do not care how they reach their goal. It is these people that make me fear the justice s...

We all know the cases that will never be solved or at the very least end in a conviction in a court of law.... Nichole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman... JonBenet Ramsey... Caylee Anthony.  I truly believe we can add the murder of Stephanie Crowe to this list.  While the JonBenet case has never been in front of a jury, in attempts to hold someone responsible, the other three have. I have different opinions on each case as to why this is the case.   In the Simpson/Goldman murders I believe the prosecution lost that case.  I know there is a difference of opinion as to whether the right defendant was brought to trial, in fact, Investigation Discovery is airing a mini-series this week just on this subject.  I have always been of the belief that O.J. Simpson was involved in some manner in that killing, whether he was the actual perpetrator is more of a question.  I believe it is possible that he was there, but there's also the possibility that he was not...