True Crime Stories

George and Alene Jenkins had tried to have children for several years without success. Eventually they adopted two children but the specifics on how, when, or how old the children were upon their adoption are unknown to me. By 1995 the couple lived in Las Vegas with their fifteen year old son, Joshua and ten year old daughter, Megan. It is unclear how old Joshua was when he began having behavioral issues but it was said that by the age of five he was in “treatment for his educational, behavioral and mental health obstacles.” It seems that things did not get better as he got older. Sometime in late 1995 or early 1996 it was discovered that Joshua was “plotting” to kill George. He armed himself with a crossbow and a rifle and attempted to attack him. His plot failed and his parents sent him to Visa del Mar, a boarding school in Los Angeles for troubled children. This was apparently not the first issue they had with Joshua as it was said that the police were called several t...

  I found this case interesting because it appears that while by a legal standard Arthur Paul Baird Jr. did not qualify as “insane” it seemed to be understood that he actually may have been. The idea, or the “rule” of someone being “insane” to meet a legal definition has been up for debate for a very long time. The long and short of things is that if someone seemingly knows their actions are wrong, then they are not insane. To prove “temporarily insane” is even harder to prove because actions both before and after are considered and looked at. While I will agree that claiming insanity can be as common as appealing a case based on ineffective counsel and often is nothing more than a tactic used to lessen culpability, that is not always the case. Many believe that these rules should be changed but little has really been done about it. Arthur Paul Baird Jr. lived in Darlington Indiana with his wife Nadine. Even though I have lived in Indiana all of my life I had never heard of ...

  I came across this story when watching the television show American Monster. It was one of those that I was surprised that I had never heard about; it was also one of those that had me angry at investigators by the time it was done. Dateline has also done an episode on this case titled 11 Minutes . I attempted to find it on a streaming service to watch but was not successful. I point out the title to their episode however because “11 Minutes” kind of says it all. These were eleven crucial minutes that in my opinion makes the case regardless of what investigators may say. I will say that at this point and time it appears as if while the investigators may still have a grudge to hold the prosecutor in the case eventually made a reasonable decision. It is just sad that a) it took so long to happen and b) that investigators had already convinced people they had the guilty party to the point that they cannot accept that the prosecutor was correct in their decision. Jesse ...

There not very people who will argue that the Kananen children did not have a hard life, at least when their father was around. While no one, except those who live it, knows exactly what goes on behind closed doors there always seem to be little things that stick out to others. For the Kananen family it seemed odd to others how they moved from state to state so often and many times in the middle of the night like they were sneaking away or evading someone or something. Some have said that this happened when Richard Kananen Sr. thought that things going on inside the home were leaking out and people were getting curious. The family, that consisted of Richard, his wife Marilyn and their three children, Richard Jr., Cheryl and Stacey, lived in California, Maine, Minnesota, and Arkansas before settling down near Orlando Florida in 1978. I should note, to put things in perspective that Richard Jr. was at least ten years older than his next sibling, Cheryl and thirteen years o...

On July 21, 2011 the state of Georgia executed thirty-seven year old Andrew DeYoung. He was convicted in 1995 for the 1993 murders of his parents, Gary and Kathryn and his fourteen year old sister, Sarah. Only his sixteen year old brother, Nathan escaped the home that night. The case itself seemed pretty open and shut. Aside from making headlines because of the brutality of the crime the execution also made headlines. It was the first execution in over twenty years to be video taped, although it has not apparently been officially viewed as it was immediately put under seal of the court. The execution was videoed because there had been claims that the lethal injection process “caused unnecessary pain and suffering.” This is not surprising as this has always been, and continues to be, an argument by those opposed to capital punishment. It was later said that the execution was carried out without any issues. It seems unlikely that when the DeYoung family went to bed on...

Most people believe when they put their child up for adoption that they are giving their child a better life and more chances than could be offered to them if they kept the child. However, I have shown you case after case where that is not the situation and more often than we would like to admit the child has been handed a life of torture. But, what about the other side of that? What about the good and decent people who adopt a child not just to improve the child's life, but their own also? It is hard even today to make that choice and know through genetics what one may be getting themselves into but it was almost impossible back in 1957 when James Clarke Sr. and his wife Elizabeth adopted a four month old child. Do not get me wrong in thinking that I do not believe that a child deserves a chance even if there are things such as mental health issues in their genes. But, at least today people are able to have the opportunity to know this going into a situation. I ca...

I found this case particularly interesting for several reasons. It has been a while since I have read Truman Capote's In Cold Blood but although Andrews was not a prominent character in the book, he was mentioned both there and in the movies because he shared death row with the perpetrators in that book. Another reason I find this case interesting is just the time period itself. Many of the cases around this era were open and shut quickly but by the time Lowell Andrews was convicted in 1958 appeals seemed to take a little longer than they had in the past, although still nothing like they do now. This case began on November 28, 1958 with the murders of William and Opal Andrews and their twenty year old daughter Jennie Marie, and it ended on November 30, 1962 in the execution of Lowell Lee Andrews. And to be fair, this mere four years was considered to be a long time to close during this time. There are a few other reasons that I found this case interesting. One, w...

If you are a regular reader of my blog then you know I have particular feelings when it comes to the truly mentally ill as well as the way they are dealt with in society long before there is ever a crime committed. In the same respect I am definitely not a fan of those who imply someone is mentally ill to get them out of a crime. But, how do we determine mentally ill and what can be defined as such is more of a touchy line that is often jumped over. What I mean by this is someone with bi-polar disorder is generally classified as mentally ill, but what about someone who has psychopath or sociopathic behaviors? Do they also classify as mentally ill? Both of the latter diagnosis' are basically the same with the psychopath being of more severe quality. And, like many mental illnesses it is technically not wise to diagnose anyone under the age of eighteen with any one of these diseases despite the fact that the signs are there. Much of that has to do with not wanting to diag...