True Crime Stories

  I generally decide on the title of a blog as I am putting it together. When it is a crime where there are multiple arrests and perpetrators you will generally see the title reflect the name of the victims, other times the title is generally the name of the perpetrator. I knew going into this one that Richard Gagnon was convicted, and later exonerated for the murders of Charles and Diane Parker. I also knew that another person would later also be convicted of the murders, long before Gagnon would be exonerated. But, in all fairness I should point out that while website after website have called Gagnon's release and the dismissal of charges an exoneration, in a legal sense that may not be completely true. Do not confuse this with the idea that I believe Gagnon to be guilty, I am just stating how things played out in this case. It is not necessarily uncommon for someone who has been convicted to have their convictions overturned and a new trial ordered. It is not an every ...

  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...

The entire time I was researching this case I thought about another case, that of Cameron “Todd” Willingham of Texas. Willingham was executed by the state of Texas in 2004 in the murders of his children that authorities say occurred when he set their home on fire. Even before his execution there were arguments that the “science” used to convict him was later found to be flawed and new advances had cast doubt on his guilt. However, the courts would not grant a reprieve and it has been argued that further studies were stopped so as to not legally prove that an innocent man was executed. Bill Amor thankfully was not sentenced to death in the murder of his mother in law and was given the right to prove his innocence. We cannot be ignorant enough to believe that innocent people have not been executed. There have been too many people who were at one time on death row and later exonerated through DNA for us to conclude that prior to the science being available every cond...

As I stated in the blog about Robert Anthony Buell, this case is similar in nature, however, in this case two innocent men were sent to death row. This case was cited by then Governor George Ryan as one of the main reasons that when he left office in 2003 he commuted all death sentences in Illinois. For the next eight years the state of Illinois would sentence fifteen more people to death row, including the true perpetrator in this case, but in 2011 the death penalty was officially abolished and once again those sentences were commuted to life without parole. This is also a case in which prosecutors and investigators would later face charges of their own for misconduct in the pursuit and prosecution of three men. On February 25, 1983 ten year old Jeanine Nicarico remained home from school alone suffering from the flu. I know, I know, today this would likely be unheard of but in 1983 everyone felt safe, especially in the town of Napersville Illinois and telephone ca...

I am the mother of now two grown boys. My oldest never gave me much trouble growing up, which was just fine considering the younger one seemed sometimes to be a trouble magnet. Now, I am not one of those mothers who believed her child was always innocent, I knew better. But also learned that with the growing reputation every time something happened in the neighborhood it seemed as if the police were at my door. Most of it was petty things but it was still aggravating. This had come about because he done something more serious that had garnered him probation when he was fourteen, the same age Davontae Sanford was when he was charged with four counts of murder. With the incident with my son, first the officer lied as to why they asked my husband and I to bring our son to the police station. On the way there my son confession to breaking into the garage of a nearby summer home and taking some things. Once at the station the officer took my husband and I aside and admit...

This case was and is not a death penalty case but the entire time I was researching it I could not stop thinking about the Todd Willingham case. If you're interested I have blogged about that case in the past but I will give a short summary. Todd Willingham was from Texas and was executed in 2004 for the arson murders of his three daughters. There was evidence present prior to his execution that the evidence used against him was faulty and yet the state of Texas carried out his execution. Since that time it has been almost completely proven that the man was innocent of the charges. I have said before that while I can nearly guarantee that innocent people have been executed in our history that when it comes to modern times the only one I can say that about for sure is Willingham. The standards that were used in his case to prove arson in the murder of his children had already been proven to be false many years before his conviction and yet were still being relied upon. ...

After a blog that I wrote a few weeks ago ( Jamie Snow ) and the one I did earlier today ( David Hendrick ), I have to ask myself..."Self... what the hell is going on in McLean County Illinois?"  As I said in my previous blog today after I had blogged about the Jamie Snow case someone commented telling me of some others to look into.  Quite often I look at cases that have been reversed or in some way, at least in my opinion, have been decided in a way in which I question the evidence or the legalities of things.  Of course this is not the situation in all the cases that I blog about but it is those that are most interesting to me.   Sometimes, such as the case of Drew Peterson, I completely agree with where he is at (i.e. prison) and totally believe that he is guilty. However, that was a case that I fear the laws made to get the evidence they needed to convict him could come back and bite innocent people.  The fact that his case is also in Illinois may or may ...