True Crime Stories

This case is different than a lot of cases that I blog about. There is no dispute as to what happened or who committed the crime. The case never saw the inside of a courtroom. Because of such the facts of the case are sparse, but it also opens up a whole world of other types of speculation. People have debated on whether the adults in the situation handled things as they should have; they have debated on whether law enforcement could have done more; and they have debate just who was in the right, despite the end. Seventy-two year old Paul Crawford bought his lakeside home apparently sometime in 1995. Just how long his neighbors, Warren and Marcella Schloegl, had lived in the Sauk Centre Minnesota neighborhood is not clear, but it appears it had been significantly longer. Prior to Paul moving into his home the Schloegl family had built a boat dock on the edge of what they believed to be their property allegedly because it was the only place that it could go. When Paul ...

*** Note that his name is sometimes spelled Jesse in articles and documents, as would generally be the case with a male name. However, most things show the spelling as Jessie. I have chosen this spelling based on the fact that it is the spelling listed in the appeals. I am really not sure where to begin here. Going into this case I was not expecting to be so conflicted. On my list of cases it simply said “Jesse Cummings- sister and niece.” The first page I came to in my research was titled “Child Killer Executed; bigamist denies niece's murder.” Of course it was not surprising to see that an accused killer had insisted they were innocent, the surprising twist was the word bigamist. I could see then that this was going to be a bit more than the run of the mill case. But, I had no idea what I was in for. I have often expressed that I am not a fanatic, for, or against, the death penalty and think that it should only be reserved for those in which there is ab...

As I have stated before I attempt to find cases that grab my attention at any given time. For example, while this may sound bad, domestic, spouse on spouse cases do not always do that. Sadly in our world it is such common place that it is almost unusual for a spouse to not be accused, and/or charged and convicted of murder, in some form or another when their spouse dies. There is almost always an underlying reason, greed and jealousy are the big ones. Then again as I say this there are times I sit down and those are exactly the ones that “grab” me on that day. However, almost always a case involving neighbors both intrigue me and frustrate me, but so much so that they bring me here. First I believe these sorts of cases catch my interest because in many of the stories, it could be any one of us reading this today. I would gander to guess that most of us have at the very least lived in a neighborhood where there is at least one cranky neighbor that for the most part peo...

I have often said that when choosing a case to be my next blog I always try to find one that the topic or something about it “catches” me so that it maintains my interest. I have tried to move down my list one by one but that often just wastes time because if the case does not grab my attention I tend to drag not just in the research but also in the composing. To add to that while a case may not grab me today, it just might tomorrow and I believe the more interest I have in the case, the more justice I will give it, no matter what my opinion of the case outcome may be. Now, one would think that with a title with the word “Massacre” in it that the first thing that caught me would have been the murders, but that would be wrong. In fact, in my list that word was not even there. I had the names of the two perpetrators, Reginald and Jonathon Carr. I also had a note that they were brothers, the case was from Kansas and that both brother were on death row. To be fair just going by...

I know that I have been slacking as of late in my effort to blog. There is never an issue of having enough cases, my list topples over 1,000, but there is often an issue of finding one to grab my attention and that is never so true as it has been today which is leading me to do something I have never done. First, I rarely compile a blog on a case that has not seen the inside of a courtroom unless it is deemed to be an extreme cold case that has never been solved, until now. Secondly, instead of researching this case first and making notes, I am basically winging this one and will do searches for specific places and dates. This latter part will be easy for me because I have followed the case through the news and social sites since it began. I could probably tell you this case inside and out, or at least the opinion of myself and many others in my community. This will definitely be a blog that eventually I will have to come back to and update which is why I try to avoid unfinis...