True Crime Stories

  This case is a prime example of a case where investigators have tunnel vision and refuse to clearly look at and examine all of the evidence of a case. Some reports say it is also a case of clear prosecutorial misconduct but in my opinion, and I do not say this likely, despite never seeing it stated in my research, it is also a case of ineffective counsel. In the early afternoon of January 4, 1989 in Emory Texas, about an hour east of Dallas, Debbie Tucker Loveless and her common-law husband, John Miller had realized that Debbie's four year old daughter, April Tucker had wandered off. They began looking for her and would find her in a wooded area near a barn on their property. April was on her stomach and nearly naked but awake it seems at that point. The couple reached the child and she seemed to have several scratches but otherwise fine, that is until they turned her over. She had an extremely large “gash” on her right thigh. Debbie ran back to the home to get the ke...

I have stated before that when I am working my way down the list that I have created I often come across clusters of cases that are similar in nature. This has proven true once again. Just this morning I finished a blog in which the crime was in Evansville, Indiana and now I have this one. In fact, I have another one researched to be composed later. This case, like the other one from the area I recent did touches on the subject of mental illness but it also left some other questions to ponder. And, despite so many convicted criminals appealing on grounds of ineffective counsel, this is one of the few cases in which it seems to be a legitimate complaint. In November of 1992 Vincent Prowell moved to Evansville from Chicago. It is unclear if his mother, Karen Johnson was already here with her boyfriend Edward Cooper and Vincent moved in with them or they all moved together. Although Vincent was twenty-eight years old at the time of his move it was stated later that he had ...

Quite often when I sit down to start compiling a case I have just researched I get to a point and think "Oh yeah, I wanted to search that issue" or will do another quick search of something else to clarify something.  But is only the rarest of cases where I get a significant amount done here that I end up starting over because something I have just found becomes such an issue that I need to rethink how I communicate it here.  This was just such a case. On the surface this case seems easy.  Frances Newton was convicted in 1988 for the April 1987 murder of her nearly 2 year old daughter, Farrah.  Although she was not apparently charged she was also accused of murdering her 23 year old husband, Adrian and their 7 year old son, Alton at the same time.  Prosecutors had the murder weapon that Frances admitted to hiding; they claimed the motive was to collect on insurance policies Frances had gotten just three weeks before; there was GSR (gun shot residue) on h...