True Crime Stories

Today started like any other day when it is "blog day."  I searched, and searched until I skimmed a case in which caught my attention.  Admittedly, when I do that I simply do a search to possibly refresh my memory of the name on my list.  I just knew I had found it in the case of Kelsey Smith-Briggs seeing that she was just under three years old when she was killed.  At first glance this was a case of CPS (or DHS, whichever you prefer to call it) and the courts let another child slip through the system.  I soon learned that that assessment was only half correct.   Another thing I quickly learned was that this case was not cut and dry no matter how you looked at.  For every website I found, I found another that countered the information in the previous one.  Upon further research I was hearing that unless I could find a court transcript written by the actual state of Oklahoma it was not likely I would get any better information because people on ...

When I got up this morning and knew this was the day in which I would blog I kept feeling a pull to do this case.  I tried resisting a bit because this case has always bothered me.  It is not just that it involves the death of a child, which is always difficult to do but in all of the interviews and shows I have seen on this case it was Jessica's father, Mark, and her grandparents, Ruth and Archie that seemed to pull at my heart more than a lot of cases.  It is not that I do not have sympathy for people who have lost children, quite the contrary but these particular people just had a hold of sorts over me.  Once I finally decided there was no sense in trying to talk myself out of doing this case I started my research thinking it would be a fairly easy and quick case.  Boy, was I ever wrong. First, this case required more research than a lot of cases simply because there was so much on the crime itself that I had to dig deeper for other answers of things and it s...

It seems so often when you watch things like Dateline and 48 Hours you are hearing the same stories over and over.  There are a few that the second I know what story it is I turn the channel because I am just sick to death of hearing about it. You do not really get to hear about some of the old cases that "stole" headlines very much.  Then every so often you will catch a show about an old case, or better yet someone decides to make a movie about it.  While I learned a long time ago to never take a television show and their portrayal at face value when it comes to a case, that goes double for movies.  In fact quite often "true story" movies make me mad because it always seems they have to alter facts to make them more interesting for viewers, or even simply change facts for apparently no reason at all.  The movie Lincoln is a good example of this.  After it was released the state of Connecticut was upset because through the movie they had voted against ...

It may seem that I have gotten off track compared to some of the cases I have recently been blogging about considering this one took place a mere ten years ago, in 2004.  That is true, however, the current book that I am reading (Psycho USA) that contains all of the old stories also from time to time mentions a reference to a newer or more modern story and this was one of them.  I have a few stories that I have researched and ready to write, that do stay with that current tradition but I fell across this one and it has struck me. Dena Schlosser lived in Plano Texas in 2004 when on November 22nd she proceeded to cut off the arms of her infant daughter and attempted to cut her own arm off. Dena's case is very similar to the Andrea Yates case (the woman who drowned all her children to save them from Satan) and ironically she and Andrea were actually roommates for a while at a state institution. Both Dena and Andrea suffered from post-partum depression and psychosis. ...

As with many high profile cases that occurred several decades ago, the Lindbergh case has still been hotly debated as to if the correct person was charged (and in this case convicted and executed) and much speculation of the handling of the case as well as the subjects. On March 1, 1932 Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr, the 20 month old son of Charles Sr. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh was reported kidnapped from his home between 10 and 10:30 pm near Hopewell New Jersey. The family nurse, Betty Gow, had placed the child in his crib for bed around 8 and when she went back in at 10 the crib was empty.  Upon asking Charles Sr. and Anne Lindbergh if they had taken the baby and a short search, the police were notified by Oliver Whately, the caretaker around 10:25 pm. Nearly immediately the crime scene was compromised.  There were servants, media, the family lawyer and members of the police (from different branches) swarming the home.  A ransom note was found in an envelope on a ra...