True Crime Stories

  This case and the one I plan to do after this one, are both cases in which the perpetrators were executed in the state of California. I do not think there is a question in either case whether the perpetrator was guilty of the crime that sent them to their deaths but I do question the mentality of them both. But, here I am, as usual getting ahead of myself. Few people will argue that Robert Alton Harris did not have a horrible childhood. It was repeatedly said that he was born in 1953 early (some say two months, some say three) due to the fact that his father, Kenneth, had kicked his mother, Evelyn, in the stomach. Both of his parents were alcoholics. Court reports would say that at birth Robert suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. While I cannot necessarily dispute this officially and knowing the history I am unsure that it is not technically true, I do question that was a diagnosis in 1953. At the time of his birth the Harris family was living at Fort Bragg in North ...

I stated the other day that I have researched several cases to put together over the last several days. I have not done too bad considering I have published eight in the last three and a half days but I have been reminded why I do not do things like this. When it is time to find a case to research I look for those that grab my attention at the time. If I do not do that then I can spend forever wasting time because I am just not interested in the case. The problem with doing several at one time to publish at a later date is that while it was interesting when I researched it, it may not be as interesting to me now. As it was time to pick the next case to put together several that were ready were no longer interesting to me. Hopefully that will not last long because the other downfall to researching several at a time and not publishing them right away is that I get forgetful or confused with the case from time to time. But, I did find one that still interests me. I ha...

Like the last case that I published here, this case too is about a woman who murdered her own children. However, unlike that last case I am not on the fence about anything in this case when it comes to the guilt or the reasons behind it. This case is pretty cut and dry and in my opinion, despite the fact that it will probably never happen, death row is the proper place for her. On October 26, 1997 in San Marcos California Susan Eubanks took the lives of her four sons. Fourteen year old Brandon Armstrong and seven year old Austin Eubanks had been shot twice in the head. Six year old Brigham and four year old Matthew Eubanks had each been shot once in the head. A five year old boy was a witness to it all. When police arrived at the scene at about 7:30 pm they could hear moaning and crying inside the home. It was Susan Eubanks they heard. She suffered a gunshot wound to her abdomen. So, what would drive this mother to kill her children? Prosecutors would say ...

The cases that are the most difficult for me not just to blog about but to even read are those that involve the murder of a child. While some would argue that all murders are senseless, and to an extent I would agree, it is the murder of the child that is the most difficult to understand. The ones that are even worse in my opinion is when the authorities have been given opportunity after opportunity to save the child and fails. It appears that most of the time after the death of a child who has had an open file within the Department of Children Services, or more often referred to as CPS, there is always a community uproar and while it appears on the surface that an investigation, at least within the department will be made, it is only on the rare occasion that something is truly done and changed. In the case involving the deaths of fourteen year old Conrad Morales and his eleven year old brother Ricky, they had CPS files in two different states and still they were failed. ...

I recently did a combined blog about mothers, Dora Buentrostro and Socorro Caro. They were both mothers in California that were convicted of murdering their children (three each) who would face trials while they continued to maintain that the father's of the children were the actual murderers and they were innocent. Both women were convicted and sentenced to death and remain on death row. The case of Sandi Dawn Nieves came in between those cases. While Dora Buentrostro committed her crime in October of 1994 she was convicted and the jury recommended the death sentence in July of 1998, one month after Sandi Nieves murdered her children. By the time Socorro Caro committed her crime in November of 1999 Buentrostro was sitting on death row and Sandi Nieves was awaiting trial, but she too was facing the death penalty. According to prosecutors and even Sandi Nieves' surviving son, who was fourteen at the time, on the night of June 30, 1998 Sandi Nieves told her five chil...

As I sat down today I planned to compile the Buentrostro case but instead thought that I would research the next one on my list. In the end I am doing something I do not believe I have done before. I am composing two different stories together not just because the similarities are so extensive but also because I think there is almost a bigger story behind the crimes, one that is often ignored, domestic violence from women. We all know about domestic violence. It has been around for centuries. It was first often encouraged, then expected, sometimes even legal, and later often ignored. But most of us were raised in an era where it was believed that domestic violence only occurred from a man to a woman. It seems authorities did not start taking domestic violence serious until more like the 1980's. What began as a movement per se to curb domestic violence in turn became an new kind of ignorance. Shelters and help lines were created.... for women. Police officers w...