True Crime Stories

I have mentioned many times in the past that when cases make it to my list of cases to research they often fall in groups with related topics or places. I do not always do them obviously in any sort of order. It depends on my mood at the moment but sometimes, like now, you will notice the trend because my last two blogs were about men who were sentenced to death in Kentucky, and here we are with another one. This is a case that going into it I thought was probably pretty cut and dry but then the more I dug, the more issues I saw. We all know that court cases come down to who the jury believes in the end. This was a case that pitted father against son inside the courtroom. It is seemingly a case that continued to pit father against son until the father died in prison in 2018. Before I want to start telling the story I want to clear up something that I was confused about at first. The first thing that I came across was a Murderpedia page that took the facts of the crime fr...

  This case has apparently been on my list for a very long time but I have to say that I do not remember hearing about it, even though it is obvious that I did at some point. In fact, my research stated that Ann Rule wrote a book called A Rose For Her Grave about it although admittedly it was apparently one of her books with several stories in in. When it comes to true crime books in reference to Ann Rule I am a bit in the minority when it comes to her. I admit that it was one of her early books that got me hooked on true crime reading and many of her books and stories are very good. However, I have always felt that as her popularity grew it affected her writing and that rather than give facts of a story she did a lot of interjecting herself and her feelings in her books. There are a few cases that she did where in my opinion she ignores the evidence collected and expressed her own conclusion, one that went against investigators. It has been said that Charles Campbell is t...

  This case has me a bit perplexed on some things. Everyone that has been or continues to be held on death row in Indiana can be found on a particular website. The site is full of information about a case, but more particularly about the person. If they have already been executed it will add things such as what they had for their last meal or their last statement. One of the more interesting things that it often shows is the mitigating and aggravating circumstances of the case. It was here that I found one of the confusing things. The second thing revolved around issues with the jury in the sentencing phase. I will get into these issues as I tell the story but I will let you know that while Daniel Ray Wilkes was sentenced to death in December of 2007, after several appeals upholding this sentence, in 2011 he was subsequently re-sentenced to life without parole. Daniel Ray Wilkes met Donna Claspell when they were both residents at a rehabilitation center in Evansville Indi...

If I had done this blog anytime before December of 2019 it would have had a much different tone to it. It surely would have been on that I would have researched at some point as it was a notorious crime that took place in 1983 in Lexington Kentucky and resulted in the death of three people. In my opinion what it has now become is a symbol of how politicians use crimes, criminals and the death penalty for political gain. It also shows the hypocrisy of such people. I will definitely get into the details of this case as we go along but I want to start at the end, instead of the beginning. In November of 2019 incumbent Governor Matt Bevin lost his re-election bid to Andy Beshear. One thing I find interesting about Kentucky is that while most of their Congressmen and Senators are Republicans and they appear to be a very red state, when it comes to electing governors it is quite a different story. They have had more Democratic governors than Republican ones and a large ma...

This is one of those crimes that just seems especially senseless and while we can argue today that domestic issues are not taken as seriously as they should by law enforcement that in the 1980's it was worse. I have blogged about several cases that involved domestic issues in which no matter what the abused (overwhelmingly, although not exclusively women) person tried to do to prevent a tragedy they had been unsuccessful. Now, I will say that nothing in my research necessarily indicated that the adult victim in this case, Angela Clay, had sought help through legal means, that does not necessarily mean law enforcement were not aware or had a duty. Also to be fair I have posted cases before from this era in which I have stated that at least for a time period when it came to domestic violence the laws almost went too far, giving the alleged abused person, more power than they should have as not all cases are always as they seem. It appears today in 2020 we have backed of...

This case is quite interesting at not just a crime level but also at a legal level. One of the problems I came across researching the case was getting a lot of details of the crime itself as well as what was presented at trial. I think this is because there has been so much about the case since that time through appeals and yet the appeals that I read also gave few details. In general an appeal is the best place to get the details. News articles are often not just skewed but also it is not unusual to find inaccuracies. An appeal often will not only go through the story of what happened in the crime but also presents things that were given to the jury. If give you an idea as to how the jury likely came to their decision but also keep in mind that only really occurs when the jury has found the defendant guilty. It is “rarer than rare” to find a case where a jury has acquitted someone and the prosecution has appealed. More often then not in severe cases you will find ...

When I start researching a case I go in with the belief that the outcome is the correct one.  In cases where a jury trial has occurred I have to believe that the jury "got it right." To have faith in our criminal justice system you have to think this most of the time.  Now, I am human, just as juries are and I know that they do get it wrong sometimes. But as a rule, before knowing facts we should always believe in our justice system. If you are a reader of my blog already then you know that by the time it is over I do not always feel that way.  And then of course if there is a trial that ends in a conviction there is the sentencing.  When the death penalty is being asked for by the prosecutors there is often another "mini trial" so the jury can make a recommendation on the sentence. I am neither an advocate for or against the death penalty.  I do think that it is sometimes warranted but no, I do not think that it is a deterrent for other criminals. Sometimes I j...