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...

I love hearing about very old crimes that took place in the late 1800's or early 1900's. The problem however is that the research is a bit more difficult. In most cases it is harder to find legitimate sources or newspaper articles due to the age of the crime. Even when they can be found they can sometimes be questionable. While we may say what we will about journalism today, it was much worse back then. It was less about the facts than it was about the sensationalism of the crimes and the criminals. This leads to the bigger problem of allowing false information to be repeated and going down as legend. It can be difficult to weed through the information and determine what exactly is true. Browning Missouri is located in Linn County and is in the north/central portion of the state. In 1894 a horrible crime took place. As you will soon see, the motive for this crime is one we still see today. Two brothers, George and William Taylor were very wealthy and until the ear...

  I started researching this case and then I almost decided not to continue. Since the case ended in a guilty plea and ultimately in the suicide of the defendant in prison there is not a lot of information out there that can really be “nailed down” and verified. But, I decided to continue for a few reasons. First, there are the heinous crimes that Rios committed, first the murder of an innocent young girl and then five days later to his own family including his wife and three young daughters. Secondly, there were questions raised as to why Rios was not deported to his home country of Mexico prior to committing murder. I will try to discuss both issues at length and explain what I can. In the end, and as always, I welcome feedback to possibly explain some of the things I could not or to clarify any confusing issues that I may have. Simon Rios lived in Fort Wayne Indiana with his wife, Ana and their three daughters, Liliana, Katherinne and Thannya. In 2005 the girls were ten,...

  I have often stated that almost all murders are senseless and then you will hear me say “this one seems more senseless than others.” So here I am again saying those words. I do not simply say this because a child was one of the victims. Some believe though that this crime may have occurred because the family is “cursed,” and that includes the perpetrator also. The Hargon family was well-known and respected in the small, rural Mississippi town of Vaughan. They owned several farms and at one time for several years owned a grocery/convenient store on some of their property. In 1994 Dan “Haywood” Hargon and his wife Diana ran the store. In April of that year three men, Forest Branch, Ronnie Joe Wright and James Wesley Jackson, went to the store. My research indicated that while Branch stayed in the vehicle Wright and Jackson went inside. By the time they left Haywood Hargon lay dead and the murderers had left with only $114. It was said that another customer had interrupted...

**** The exact location of this crime seemed to be rather confusing. Some information stated that a few years before the crime the family had moved from Alba Texas to Celeste Texas to be closer to their church. Other information stated the crime occurred in Emory Texas. However, it seemed that even more claimed it still to have occurred in Alba. I have chosen to stick with Alba for two reasons. One it is in Rains County, the county in which the prosecutions took place, although in fairness Emory is located there also, while Celeste Texas is in Hunt County. Secondly, the Findagrave website lists the place of death for the Caffey's as being in Alba while their burial occurred elsewhere.**** It is not like I keep my blogging or my obsession with true crimes a secret from my family. I often bounce things off my husband and talk about the cases I have researched. He also helps me sometimes when I have questions about guns or things like that. When it comes to my gr...

If you know anything about the John List case then you will see that this case is almost a copycat version of that one, just five years later and a few states away. It is believed that on March 1, 1976 William Bradford Bishop Jr. murdered his wife, mother and three sons in their Bethesda Maryland home. It was not until March 10 th that the police were notified when neighbors realized they had not seen the family in quite some time. Without realizing it, the bodies of Annette, Lobelia, William, Brenton and Geoffrey Bishop had already been found. The one person not found, then or even today over forty years later was William Bradford Bishop Jr. Some would say that no one could simply disappear and never be found and there have been alleged sightings of Bishop over the years but the reality of it is, if anyone would have been able to pull this off it would have been William Bradford Bishop Jr. Bishop was once a member of the United States Army, he had multiple col...