True Crime Stories

As I went through my list for my next blog and came across this one I was unsure about doing it for a few reasons. First, child murders are often difficult to read and research.  Of course that has not stopped me since I have blogged about several cases involving child murders despite they being the most heart wrenching to do.  Secondly, this case was one of the more notorious cases and a case from the 1950's which means that there is a lot written about it but not all of it is completely consistent.  For example I several times I came across the name Robert Paul Greenlease.  More than one source said that Robert Paul was the older, adopted brother of young Bobby Greenlease.  However a website that was designed by a family member states he is an older brother from an earlier marriage of the father.  This may sound like a petty thing to some, and maybe it really is but it bothers me for two reasons.  First I am also very much into genealogy so rela...

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I do not always agree with a verdict that a jury renders and I am very open about my feelings in cases in which I just cannot be certain.  Then there are the cases that I can say I am not sure the evidence is there but my "Spidey Sense" as I call it, tells me something. This case falls into the latter category.   In June of 2012, 42 year old Wisconsin resident, Eric Koula was found guilty in the murders of his parents, Dennis and Merna, in May of 2010 as well as a charge of forgery resulting from Eric signing his father's name to a $50,000 that was cashed the day after it is believed that his parents were murdered.  Few, including Eric it seems, will argue that much of what convicted him was his own behavior throughout the case. Supporters claim the things he did were either innocent things or resulted from the panic of knowing his parents had been murdered.  Others, apparently including the jury, feel differentl...

The fact that I write a blog based on true crimes obviously indicates that I try to keep up with the news and televisions shows based on true crimes are generally my favorite and I watch little else.  My DVR is set to watch a few shows that my husband and I will watch together but aside from that it is generally filled with shows like 48 Hours  and Dateline .  It used to be filled with the show Cold Justice  on TNT but I have to admit that I stopped watching that one.  I was so excited when it first began to air because I am a fan of Kelly Siegler, the former Texas prosecutor, who was involved in the Susan Wright case.  I continued to like the show to learn about more cases that I had not heard of before, but over time I became disappointed in it.  I often felt that in more than a few cases the evidence "found" by Sigler and her team was rather flimsy and was so surprised when at the end of the episode it would show that someone had be arrested and cha...

This is a case that took a little more research than normal due to the length of the case as well as my own lack of full knowledge of the case itself.  The crime occurred in the summer of 1983 and two years later Kevin Cooper was convicted and sentenced to death.  And yet just within the last few months (in 2016) there has still been activity involving the case.  It has become a rather infamous case in which high profile people and celebrities have come to the aide and defense of Kevin Cooper proclaiming his innocence and wrongful conviction. Even after doing all my research I am uncertain my own feelings on the case. It is definitely not unusual to have a defendant proclaim their innocence.  Nor is it unusual for celebrities or high ranking officials to be on their side. All you have to do is look at the case of Roger Coleman to know that no matter what someone convicted says and no matter how hard the protest their innocence, science still has a way of ...

In early May of 1990, 14 year old Blue Lake California resident, Curtis Huntzinger tells his mother that family friend, and his sometime employer, Stephen (sometimes found as Steven) Daniel Hash has been molesting him. Nancy Huntzinger apparently did as any parent would do and contacted  the police, but when Curtis was interviewed on May 11th, he apparently recanted what he had stated to his mother and nothing was really done.  On May 18th Curtis was last seen leaving his sisters home.  He was reported missing the following day.  Investigators were certain that Curtis had run away and insisted to the public that no "foul play" was suspected in his disappearance.  Their proof, so to speak was that Curtis had had some issues at school and a "recent minor brush with the law."  While I found several references to the issue of the "brush with the law," I was never able to find anything specific to verify this, unless of course they were discussing the interview...

Sometimes the most difficult thing for me to do when it is a day in which I have decided to blog is to find a case in which catches my interests at the time.  That is always dependent on my mood of the day it seems. Today it seemed almost more difficult.  As a general rule I tend to make Sunday's my blog day.  But as we all know life sometimes gets in the way and so that does not always happen. I have not been as active here this month due to being out of town and also working on other things but I knew today I had to take the time to sit down and work on this.  If I get frustrated and just pick a case that does not grab me the day becomes extremely long and it seems I will procrastinate a lot so that is why I find it important to find one that strikes me as interesting.  Today after many searches to find that right case I finally settled on the case of Sarah White.  The truth is, there is not an extreme amount of information on this case and even still som...

I often spend my days throughout the week watching (mainly rerun episodes) shows like Dateline and 48 Hours  to find interest in cases I would like to discuss here.  Many times they are stories I remember hearing about in the past and sometimes they are even episodes I have seen but it has been some time so I like a refresher.  When it comes to this case, after watching the show I had not recalled seeing the story before.  This is a story of murder, as most of my blog are about but the part of this story that grabbed me the most was about survival.   In so many cases in which a perpetrator has left a survivor in their wake it is the survivor that helps solve the case of so many others.  Look at the case of Ted Bundy.  It was a survivor that was able to tell her story to get a description of the man as well as the story he had fabricated to get her.  This case is a bit different in that aspect. It was the diligence of officers in anothe...