True Crime Stories

  This next case was another in which I saw on Deadly Women. It is another unusual case for me to blog about because the crime actually took place in a country other than the United States. In general, and for the most part, I do not do a lot of these types of cases because different countries have different rules when it comes to evidence and justice in general. But, this case was a very tragic case for one, and for two, it involved American citizens. That being said, and again I do not want to take away from the tragedy of this event, I must admit that while watching the story on the television show I actually snickered a bit. The perpetrator here, Theresa Riggi, made several attempts to take her own life and each of them failed which resulted in her being brought to justice through the courts. Theresa and her husband, Pasquale were married in 1989 in and lived a few years in California where Theresa was raised. Pasquale worked for the Shell Oil company and after a few year...

  Normally I probably would not put this blog together after doing my research but this case just seems too interesting not to tell even with all of the questions left. The problem with this case is that while there were several different appeals filed not all of them gave details of the crime itself that included the evidence against the defendant but most revolved around misconduct by the judge. At some point the Indiana Supreme Court threw out James Harrison's conviction and sentence. If there was a re-trial or a plea made it is unclear. What I can say is that in December of 1991 Harrison was sentenced to die and while some reports say he was later given a life sentence, according to the Indiana Department of Corrections he was given a sentence of ninety years and another sentence of sixty years. The Department of Corrections also states that James Harrison is now deceased. They list his “projected” release date as May 12, 2017. I have seen this before and this is genera...

Cases that involve the deaths of children are the most difficult to research and put together due to the emotional level. They are especially difficult when there are clearly signs that things could have been different if someone had acted upon their knowledge. This case is just such a case. Caroline Young lived in Hayward California located in Alameda County. In 1993 she had custody of her daughter Vanessa Torres' two children, six year old Darin and four year old Dai-Zshia. Reports are shady as to when she received custody of them. While all indicate that she had cared for the children for many years, some made it appears that she had gotten them each separately as infants but that may not be the facts. It was clear that Vanessa had been deemed unfit to care for the children and had spent some time in jail on drug charges and those relating to prostitution. However by 1993 Vanessa was not in jail and it was indicated that she too lived with Caroline and her ch...

I am unsure I have ever said this, but there is no other way to put this, Jessie Dotson is simply put, not a good person and by all accounts he never really as been. In 1990, when he was fifteen years old he was charged with disorderly conduct after he threatened his mother when she tried to discipline him. A month later he was charged with assault after he hit a thirteen year old boy in the fact and threatened “to put him in the hospital if he didn't bring him $25 the next day.” The following year he was arrested again for disorderly conduct after he came home and wanted to fight his brother, he had punched several holes in the wall and once again threatened to kill his mother. When the police arrived he was still refusing to calm down and was still attempting to fight his brother. A few months later a car he was riding in was pulled over and two guns were found on the floorboards of the vehicle. Again the next year was another disorderly charge when he got into...

On December 4, 1888 two teenagers were out boating on the recent man-made lake called East Lake in Birmingham Alabama when they came across the body of a young girl floating face down in the water. The body was taken to the local medical examiner and was laid out to the general public as was often the practice of the time. This time it was to see if anyone could identify the young girl. It was thought that whomever she was she was approximately twelve to fourteen years old but no one knew. The body was very bloated from being in the water for so long so it took a day before a local butcher identified her as May Hawes. It has been said that May was seven or eight years old and the daughter of Richard and Emma Hawes, local residents. There seemed to be a little division between the residents as to whether Richard and Emma were even still married. Some said that they were but the marriage was “troubled” while others claimed that the couple were divorced an...

I had intended to spend the day mainly doing research on cases and then spend the day tomorrow putting them together to publish. That is how I have been trying to do things lately... spend one day on research and one day on composing. Yesterday I did two very long blogs and then a short one and I started researching more late last night. I had researched two and then I started looking into this one. This case is a bit unique. We have seen family annihilators, those who murder their entire family, or at least those who live with them. We have also seen many of those annihilators then kill themselves. Then there are the annihilators like John List who murdered his family and then disappeared before being capture several decades later. In this case, after finishing what he considered to be his goals Ronald Gene Simmons had someone call the police and he waited patiently until they arrived and without resistance turned himself in even if he did not tell them abo...

After doing two very long and complicated cases I decided to do one that is very much not long, or complicated. At the time this case took place in Evansville Indiana in 1984 I lived in Indianapolis but still had family in the area. I knew approximately where this took place within the city and for years I would think about it as we drove on the main road near the home. On the morning of Thursday October 18, 1984 Candice Day returned home around 10:00 after working at her new job at the Post Office. When she walked in the door she found her husband, James, sitting in the front room in a chair with a gunshot wound to his head. She called 9-1-1 and then she went into each of her children's rooms and found that all six of her children were also dead. James had apparently shot fifteen year old Michael, fourteen year old Bartholomew, nine year old John, eight year old Stephen, seven year old Christopher and six year old Laura, all in the head while they lay sl...

***I should warn the readers that I believe this may be my longest blog yet*** A few months ago my son, who obviously knows my fascination with true crime, brought up this case to me saying he had just heard of it. For my part I had obviously heard of it but I had never researched it. Murders that involve children are always the most difficult to do, not that I do not do them. The main reason I had likely not looked into it is because it is an unsolved case and I do not generally tend to do a lot of those. Just the other day I did one on the Villisca Axe Murders, an unsolved case and I have already put the information together for another one that is technically unsolved, The Bear Brook Murders (it should be coming soon). I think the reason unsolved crimes do not tend to “touch” me a lot is that I like closure in cases. I like to see what evidence is presented at a trial and the most accurate way to get that is through appeals from already convicted people. ...