True Crime Stories

I have been doing this blog for nearly four years now and was a bit surprised to discover this is not a case that I had researched and discussed before.  Then again there are many crimes that I know quite a bit about (maybe that is why I could be considered a Death Hag) that I have not taken the time to sit and blog about.  As a true fanatic there are just certain crimes we know.  Many of them are the same ones... we know about John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein, The Boston Strangler... just to name a few.  John List is one of those cases for me.  I gander to guess that I have not sat down to compile this one because there is so much out on the Internet that is accessible and for me personally since I know the case pretty well (although research lets me narrow down dates, names and places) it is unlike the ones that I research and learn more as I go along.  I mistakenly believe that because I know just about all there is to know about the case, then doesn't every els...

This is one of those cases in which you just have to shake your head about. The shocking part about this crime is not the motive.  We see crimes every day that revolve around greed and anger which is what is at the core of this case.  And of course we see stupid criminal acts all the time too.  I mean come on, besides the fact that there used to be a show called "America's Dumbest Criminals" if you are into true crime you sometimes just have to ask yourself "what were they thinking." But, for me, this one almost takes the cake.  One of the victims, the main target was 85 year old Bonnie Harkey.  She was already in the early stages of dementia and just a few months before her murder she was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm.  This means she had what is considered to be a "bulge" in the main artery of not just her heart, but of her body.  Now, sometimes, when caught aneurysms can be fixed but that was not advised in Bonnie's case.  Basically at any ...

I spent this week as I often do watching True Crime shows and jotting down the names associated with cases to do further research.  I admit that quite often while in the middle of an episode that I find particularly interesting I find myself doing a quick search. This was just such a case and at the time I had to literally stop myself from looking too much further until I was ready to sit down and do legitimate research.  Of course, as I said one of my true crime shows had brought me to this story, and as we all know they tend to be at least slightly bias in their telling of stories.  It really just depends on what angle the show is portraying to determine which way they are leaning.  The particular show I watched leaned towards the fact that Eugene Christopher "Chris" Wright may have been framed for the murder of Kenneth Dolezsar and ultimately not responsible.   I have said many times that I go into researching a story on the idea that the pol...

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...

I have often blogged about cases in which there is no question who was the person who killed another... this is such a case.  One thing that seems to be a resounding claim in these sorts of cases is self defense.  One person kills another but claims they were in fear of their own life and had no choice but to do so.  Then there are the cases like the Montana case of Markus Kaarma that uses laws such as "Stand Your Ground", also known as the Castle doctrines, to attempt to prove they had a legal right to defend themselves and their property. I mention the Kaarma case specifically because the Byron Smith case is very similar in many aspects.  They are cases in which the question is not who pulled the trigger, but whether the use of deadly forced was warranted or taken too far.  Strangely enough in both these cases the defendants were ultimately convicted, not just because of their use of deadly force but because prosecutors were able to prove in both cases that th...