True Crime Stories

While my last several blogs have been about crimes that took place between the mid 1800's and the 1920's, I went a bit later for this one. This one took place in 1977 in Indianapolis. Yes, I know a few of the ones I have done lately have involved Indianapolis. And, while I was alive then, and even living in Indianapolis at the time this was one I had not heard of until I did some searches of famous crimes. While it is said to be infamous in Indiana and there have been many articles done on the crime over the years, for me it did not reach the level of say, the Sylvia Liken's or the still unsolved Burger Chef murders. Marjorie Jackson was an eccentric, extremely wealthy widow who had lived alone since her husband, Chester, had died in 1970. Chester's father, Lafayette, had been the founder and owner of Standard Grocery stores. Lafayette was killed in his Washington Street store in 1931 (and may be the subject of a future blog) and Chester i...

The common standard for an insanity defense is to answer the question of whether the defendant knew the difference between right and wrong.  If the answer to that is yes, then it is commonly believed, at least by legal standards, that the defendant is not insane.  Yet, does that truly mean that someone is not insane?  The Supreme Court has ruled over the last several years that minors, the mentally retarded, and the insane are not to be executed. While this is the legal standard when it comes to criminal offenses, that standard is often, or should be applied in other areas involving mental illness. And isn't insanity a mental illness?  However, the question lies with, does the simple act of knowing the difference between right and wrong truly the test of insanity? Let's take hoarding for example.  Over the last several years hoarding itself has been classified as a mental illness.  Along with the act of what I call the "visible" hoarding, hoarders all o...