True Crime Stories

The most difficult cases to understand are the ones in which there is no known motive. While I understand the courts obtaining plea deals and trying to unclog the courts I like a case that has a trial. That is where you get a lot of the information and evidence. Many plea deals include a provision in which prevents an appeal being filed and that also prevents a lot of information being released. But, then there are the cases that do make it to trial and still there is no known motive. In most cases the prosecutor will come up with a theory as to why the crime was committed but in the case of Kyle Flack it appears that even the prosecutors were at a loss. In general every murderer has to have a reason. Sometimes that reason is money; sometimes it is anger, sometimes it is opportunity; and even sometimes it is simply for the thrill. Serial killers are often thought to be thrill killers. They do it for the “high” that they get. Your mass murderers, something we ar

When it comes to family annihilation cases generally the motive is clear. If they do not end in a murder/suicide then the perpetrator usually takes off and ends all contact with anyone they know. They are also careful to make sure no one is left alive. In many ways these cases are not much different than other cases when it comes to motive. There are almost always financial issues. In cases that do not end in murder/suicide it is often believed, although not always expressed by the perpetrator, that the motive is as simple as wanting to rid oneself of a family and start over. These types of cases are generally planned out for weeks or months in advance by the perpetrator which is why oftentimes the crime is not discovered for some time, giving the perpetrator plenty of time to get far away. Think of cases such as John List and William Bradford Bishop Jr. Both of these men killed their mothers, wives and children, either effectively hid their bodies or prepared thi

You have often heard me say that it is not always the aspect of the true crime that fantasizes me, but the law itself and how things are conducted. Sometimes guilty people go free because either the evidence is not there to obtain a conviction or because the prosecutors did not do all that it took to get the conviction. Then are the times in which the prosecutor or the state witnesses did whatever it took, legal or illegal, to get their man. While in those cases, at least those that are caught, justice is not served for the family or families of the victims, it should prevent injustice being brought to innocent people. For people in Oklahoma City it seems it took decades. If you do a search on Curtis McCarty you will find him on websites for The Innocence Project and those claiming he was exonerated. You will also see on those sites multiple references to the fact that he was convicted of a “crime he did not commit.” Police and prosecutors have argued against t

We all know that the people closest to a victim are the first people that are looked at for their murder. Oftentimes the investigators know that it has to be one or more of them but it takes time to prove the case. Sometimes that comes down to who can be believed more or who tells a story that matches more with the evidence. Of course it is the job of a defense attorney to case doubt as to their clients guilt and it is not unusual to see them accuse someone else of the crime. That becomes more complicated when it involves a parent and a child, no matter how old the child is. In general everyone here could probably put themselves in a situation in which they could be a suspect in a murder. We do not make sure that every minute of every day can be accounted for and that we can have proof to what we were doing. Sure cell phone data, surveillance camera and even applications on your phone can often prove, or disprove for that matter, a store. My grown son lives with my

Once again I have decided to do a more unique crime. It does involve a death but the death itself was determined not to be a crime. The crime was embezzlement and money laundering but that did not come out until later. But, when Joe Gliniewicz died it was initially believed it was murder and because he was a police officer it entailed a full scale manhunt. Fox Lake Illinois is almost two hours northwest of Chicago and sits on near the Wisconsin border. When Joe Gliniewicz died in September of 2015 tensions were high all over the country between police officers and especially African Americans. It had been building for some time as it was but the murders of Eric Garner in July 2014 in New York and Michael Brown in August of 2014 in Missouri had truly brought the issue to the forefront. Garner and Brown had both died at the hands of police officers. They were both African Americans and the officers involved in their deaths were white men. Even today in 2018 you r

Cases that involve in-laws murdering each other interest me quite a bit. I have blogged about a few here but even in the realm of things this one is a bit different. I am not sure that I have read about too many cases in which this sort of murder occurs when the family is still “in tact” as the courts call it. Generally you see these cases when there is a divorce and/or custody battle going on, or at the very least the couple has separated. You have son-in-laws who are bitter over the split and want to take it out on the ex-wife and her family; you have the mother-in-laws who decide their child has been wronged. This was a case in which a mother-in-law decided her son-in-law was abusive towards her daughter and grandchildren and she planned to gun him down. On the morning of February 11, 2014 Cynthia Cdebaca opened fire on her son-in-law, Geoward Eustaquio in their Fallbrook California home. Only Cynthia and Geoward were present at the home at the time and when it