True Crime Stories

I both love and hate doing cases prior to about the 1950's. The part I love is hearing about very old cases, many of which I simply come across in other research. But, the part I hate is the often inaccurate information that is found. Some of the inaccuracies are due to the passage of time, especially those prior to 1900. After that time we entered the era of “yellow journalism.” If you have never heard this term you really should research it a bit. The term itself is defined as journalism based on sensationalism and “crude exaggerations.” In the late 1890's two men, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst each started up rival newspapers in New York. Their goal obviously was to sell newspapers, but then it became to sell more than the other and they basically said and did whatever it took to sell them. Truth and research had no room in these newspapers. “Reporters” often followed police officers around to crime scenes and would even take things from the scene...

If you are a child of the 80's like I am then you remember the television show 21 Jump Street For those of you who only know of the recent movies in my opinion there is no comparison. The television show was one of Johnny Depp's earliest roles. The show resolved around several young people who worked in undercover work, mainly in high schools, to solve crimes. The actors, including Depp, Peter DeLuise and Holly Robinson, were all young adults but looked much younger, which was the idea of the show obviously. When I was researching the case of George Raffield I kept thinking of this television show even though in fairness there was nothing in any of the research that brought it up. Out of curiosity before finishing my research on the case I decided to see exactly when the television show premiered. After discovering that the pilot episode aired in April of 1987 and continued through the summer and fall of that year I was even more intrigued about a connection consi...

As a true crime book reader I first learned of the case of Jeffrey Gorton through the author Tom Henderson. There are several authors that do cases in regional areas. Ann Rule was known to concentrate many of her cases in the upper northwest of the United States area. Kathryn Casey reports on a lot of cases in the Texas area. Tom Henderson does cases in the Michigan area. The interesting thing about the crimes that Gorton committed is that they show that criminals have no way of knowing just what advances can be made in forensics that can come back and bite them. It also shows that there are cases that investigators never give up on and there is no statute of limitations on murder. Fifty-five year old Margarette Eby was murdered in her Flint Michigan home on November 9, 1986. She had been raped and left with her throat cut nearly to the point of decapitation. Investigators saved semen samples from the scene, as well as a latent fingerprint but until there were advances i...

You would think that with all of the true crime I read about nothing surprises me anymore. In part that is true I suppose but there are certain types of cases in which I simply cannot wrap my head around. These are the cases where family members either gang up together or take it upon themselves to kill someone after they have divorced a family member and there is a custody battle for a child. The most surprising about cases such as these is the age of the person who is accused of being the driving force behind the murder, or sometimes attempted murder. Murder between couples, especially when there is a custody battle going on is not that uncommon, nor necessarily is the fact that the murder is carried out with other family members at least knowing about the crime, if not helping at the very least of covering things up. And yet, they still amaze me in some way. I suppose it is the fact that more than one person in a family can go to the extent of murdering someone for their...

Linda Lou Charbonneau This one has been a bit harder than some for me to sit down and put together. First, there is the issue of not just the fact that there are several people involved but their relationship with each other. Secondly, there this is one of those cases that remained in the court system for a while considering that one of the defendants had their conviction overturned, thus granting them a new trial, despite the defendant later taking a plea deal. While obviously the courts found the reason to overturn the conviction significant, and from a legal sense I have to agree, I have also asked myself if it really would have made a difference, and even if it had, would it have been nothing more than a distraction. But, I'll get more into that later. On September 23, 2001 John Charbonneau, a resident of Bridgeville Delaware, went missing. At the time of his death his ex wife, Linda Lou was living with him in his home. Linda and John had met after Linda's ...

On the surface this case is one of your standard, spouse kills spouse, lies about it and gets caught cases. When you look deeper into the case you see that there were a few things different about this case than some of the other ones. On the morning of August 30, 1986, around 7:20, a call came into 911 dispatchers in Wilkes-Barr Pennsylvania. Some reports say the call was made by Glen Wolsieffer, a prominent dentist in the area while other reports say it was made by Glen's brother, Neil. Regardless of who made the call first responders went to the home and found Elizabeth “Betty” Wolsieffer dead. A later autopsy would determine that she had been strangled to death. Also in the home was Betty's husband, Glen, and their six year old daughter, Danielle. Danielle was left unhurt but Glen would claim that intruder(s) entered the home that morning and “overpowered” him, knocking him unconscious before apparently killing Betty and fleeing. Police were not exact...

I love hearing about cases that have been solved after many years, or decades. However, the problem with these cases is that the older they are, the more difficult it is to get all of the information and make sure that information is correct. Such is the case in the death of Sandra Howard in 1975. So, the question lies for me whether to tell the story at all without all of the facts. This is a case though that I have seen on crime shows over the years and while many murders are heartbreaking and senseless, this one seems more so for many reasons. It is one of those cases in which a simple sentence reminds you exactly what case it was. In this case it is the story that Sandra Howard was a newlywed and every month on their anniversary she and her new husband, David, shared a piece of wedding cake. They made it nearly five months but on this particular anniversary, David was going to be out of town. He took some cake with him and while they would not be together when they ate...