True Crime Stories

In 1935 in Laurel Mississippi a hunter, out with his dog discovered at least partial legs on the side of an isolate road. Research indicates that the body parts found were only thighs. But exactly how authorities were led to believe those legs belonged to Daisy Keeton seems a bit unclear. Ultimately investigators would accuse Daisy's daughter, Jaunita “Ouida” Keeton and her “lover,” prominent business man, William Carter, with the murder and dismemberment. It seems that a witness had claimed to see Ouida on the road where the legs were found at some point. This case was nicknamed the Legs Murder Case not because they had been discovered, but because they were the only body parts ever found. Ouida also received her own nickname, “Mississippi's Lizzie Borden.” Daisy had been married to John Monroe Keeton who had “mysteriously died in a railroad accident in 1907” when Ouida was eight years old. Ouida was the second oldest of five children shared by Daisy and Jo...

This is one of those cases in which you have to wonder what William Dhondt was thinking when he decided to call the police himself and report his live in girlfriend, Kaitlin Hehir, missing. On February 23, 2013 at around ten at night William Dhondt called the Farmington Michigan police to report his girlfriend missing. He claimed she had been missing since the early morning hours. He had not seen her since about 12:30 in the morning when she had left to go to a party. As protocol the responding officers searched the home the couple shared. They found only what I found described as “bloody plastic” somewhere within the home which appeared to be suspicious. This gave them reason to ask a judge for a search warrant. While they were waiting to get the warrant and search some more investigators were interviewing some of Kaitlin's friends. They stated she had been at a party on Friday night but she had left to pick William up from work and had never returned. They...

I am currently reading the book Masquerade by Lowell Cauffiel. If you have not read any of his books you should check him out. I am not sure how many books he has written but this is his second that I have read and they are very good. What I did not know or realized after reading my first book of his, House of Secrets , was that he was previously a newspaper journalist. That in and of itself is not odd, nor is it unusual for them to write books about cases they covered in their job as a journalist. This is just such a case for Cauffiel. He was a journalist for a local newspaper in Detroit in 1985 when psychologist, Alan Canty was murdered and the people responsible were put on trial. This story is the one that authors and screenwriters dream about. It had everything, a rich, respected victim who was hiding a dark secret; then there was the prostitute and her pimp who not only used him, ultimately murdered him. And, let us not forget the wife who was as shocked as any...

I found this case interesting mostly because technically it did not occur in the United States and yet the perpetrator was being tried in a court in San Diego California. Initially he was charged in June of 2013, not for murder, but for charges such as obstruction of justice, giving false statements to a federal officer and falsifying records. In April of 2015 he would be indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of committing a foreign murder of a U.S. National. This is the first time that I had heard of this being done. When it comes to the legal system, whether it is criminal or civil, the number one issue is always jurisdiction. Of course you have cases that are moved to other counties when a change of venue is sought, usually due to fears of not being able to sit an impartial jury. But, I have rare, if ever, seen a case in which a murder occurred in another country and tried here in the United States. The initial charges in this case were however committed on U.S. soi...

I have mentioned before that I have lists all over my house of names that I have acquired of cases I want to search for here.  At one point I sat down with them all and put them into a Word document.  Of course that has not prevented me from making even more lists but at least the majority are together.  The other day I decided I needed to work more on that list and make an attempt to work my way down it.  I also took bit of a different approach than I normally have.  I have found in the past that when I spend days just doing research on cases and not getting around to actually doing them I lose interest but I thought if I did three or four I could handle it.  So far so good.  I've been able to continue paying at least some attention to more shows while I research a few cases. It is when I sit down here to compile it together that things need to be quiet.  By doing things this way it is likely that there will be a lot more cases of spouse on spous...

I began writing this blog in 2012 but it was not until January of 2015 that I decided to take a much more serious approach to it. From 2012 until the beginning of 2015 I had made a total of 88 postings.  I decided I was going to make it my goal to spend at least one day a week, preferably Sunday, to devote to research and postings.  I did fairly well considering I made 85 entries in 2015.  For the most part I obviously met my goal of at least one post a week on average.  Some weeks I spent more than one day, while admittedly there were others that I did not spend any days here working on things.  That has been the case the last few weeks, however, just because I have not posted does not mean I have not looked or found more cases for my ever growing list.  I am a self proclaimed Investigative Discovery (ID) addict.  Sadly however I no longer subscribe to that channel (it was the only channel I wanted in the next much higher priced package) and soon I wi...

While this case takes place in the early 1930's and the same issues as previous cases, when it comes to time and accuracy occurs, this case is a little easier to separate most of the fact and fiction.   This is the case of Winnie Ruth Judd.  She was born in 1905 in Indiana and by 1931 she had been married to a much older man, Dr. William C. Judd, for about 7 years.  Her marriage was waning and reports differ on some things involving where each of the married parties were at particular times.  Some reports say that Dr. Judd had moved from Phoenix, where they lived together, to Los Angelos in 1931 to reestablish a practice where other reports claim that he was in Mexico moving from town to town practicing.  Some reports also claim that Dr. Judd's practice was waning also due to a drug addiction.   What is known is that in 1931 Winnie Ruth was working as a medical secretary in Phoenix and by at least October of that year Dr. Judd was not with her and ...