Murder Revisited

"The Diamond-Back Killers"

2010-02-06T19:59:00.010-05:00

Mary Busch was a 27-year-old beauty who's unfortunate misstep was the man she chose to fall in love with.

In 1935 she answered an ad for a job at a beauty parlor/barber shop in downtown Los Angeles. The owner of the shop, Robert James, was looking for a manicurist. Shortly after Mary was hired, the two were married and three months later the couple was expecting their first child.

On the evening of August 3, 1935 Mary fell ill while working at the shop. Her husband put her in a taxi and sent her home. The following Monday, August 5, Robert opened up the shop on his own. He told his employees that Mary was still feeling a little "under the weather" and would possibly come in later that day if she was better.

By 7:30 that evening Mary still had not put in an appearance and Robert closed up the shop for the night. He invited two friends to join him at his home for dinner - Viola Lueck, a close friend of Mary's, and her boyfriend, Jim Pemberton.

When they arrived at his pink stucco home in La Canada, a suburb of Los Angeles, Robert was surprised to find the house dark and no sign of Mary. After searching the house Robert and his guests headed out to the back yard garden where they made a ghastly discovery.

In the midst of the garden was a fish pond. Several goldfish could be seen darting beneath pink and white water lilies floating on top of the water. In the center sat a bearded gnome, smoking on a pipe, smiling down on an unexpected occupant in the pool.

Mary Busch James was lying face down in the pool with her arms and legs splayed out behind her.

When the police arrived they brought a physician with them and Mary was pronounced dead at the scene. At first glance it appeared to be an accidental drowning. Robert explained to the police that Mary was pregnant and had dizzy spells. She also loved to watch the goldfish. It was surmised that she had become dizzy, fallen and struck her head on one of the rocks used to rim the pool. When the physician examined Mary's body he found no evidence of a head injury but did notice that her right leg was discolored and swollen and that she had a cut on her right great toe.

When police searched the house they found a note to Mary's sister, Robert confirmed that it was her handwriting, in which she told her sister that she was pretty sick. Her leg was swollen; something had bitten her while she was watering her flowers that morning.

While they were searching, one of the detectives discovered something out of place. He found a bottle of black widow spiders in a dark corner of the James' garage. Given the unusual circumstances the police were about to rule Mary Busch James' murder suspicious until they spoke with one of their neighbors, a retired English Army Officer name Dinsley. He claimed to have seen a young woman walking alone in the garden near the pool.

A coroner's inquest was held and the question of how Mary Busch James died remained unanswered.

However, when Robert James filed a claim to collect on his wife's insurance policies totaling $21,400, he launched a chain of events that would lead to his downfall. His claim prompted the usual investigation by the insurance company but their findings were anything but usual.

Robert James had obtained policies totaling $10,000 naming himself as his "wife's" beneficiary from the Mutual Life Insurance Company and the Occidental Life Insurance Company. When James tried to push for payment under the double indemnity clause, the companies refused to payout and he filed suit. Unfortunately for James, he had to settle for $3,500 when he had to admit in court that he and Mary Busch were not legally married at the time he initiated the policies. Turns out he was still married and was in the midst of an annulment when he pretended to marry Mary. The two were not legally married until several months later on July 19th just weeks before her death.

The investigator continued digging and he also uncovered the fact that James had been married at least five times. Along with the fact that at least one of his other wives had drowned in a bathtub after being heavily insured. James' payout from her policies totaled almost $18,000. In each case both women died after the first premium had been paid. The investigator decided to go to the police with the facts his suspicions which resulted in them launching an investigation into James' past.

Robert S. James was actually born Major Raymond Lisenba in 1895 to Alabama sharecroppers. He was saved from a dreary future of picking cotton when his sister's husband sent him to barber school. He married his first wife Maud Duncan at the age of 26. The marriage however, quickly ended in divorce when she accused him of being sadistic and engaging in perverted sexual practices.

Marriage no. 2 also ended in divorce when Lisenba skipped town after an angry father came after him with a shotgun for getting his young daughter pregnant. He ended up in Fargo, North Dakota with a new name, Robert James, and wife no. 3, Winona Wallace.

Within days of the wedding James took out insurance policies on his wife which included clauses for accidental death. The couple went on a honeymoon to Pike's Peak in Colorado. While his wife was driving down the mountain, according to James, she apparently lost control of the car and it went off the road. James claimed that he jumped from the moving car and went for help.

When the officials arrived at the scene of the accident they found the car resting against a large rock approximately 150 feet below the road. His wife, Winona, was just outside the car. Her feet still resting on the running board. Amazingly she managed to survive the precipitous drop and was unconscious. The officials noted that her head was covered with blood. They also discovered a large amount of blood inside the car and a bloody hammer lying on the floor.

Officials also couldn't help but notice that although James' claimed to have jumped to safety from the out-of-control car, his suit was amazingly neat. Not a piece of clothing was out of place, not a tear nor a speck of dirt could be found on the suit either.

Winona was immediately taken to a hospital in Colorado Springs and surgeons were able to save her life. Unfortunately she was unable to remember any of the facts surrounding her terrifying ordeal.

When Winona was finally released from the hospital Robert James took her to a remote cabin in Manitou Springs, Colorado on the premise that she needed a quiet place in which to recover.

Gerald Rogers worked in the local grocery store in Manitou Springs. In the early evening on October 14, 1932, James entered the store, ordered some groceries and asked that they be delivered to his cabin. In the end James decided to hitch a ride back to the cabin with Rogers and his groceries. When the two men arrived at James' cabin he told Rogers to take the groceries to the kitchen while James went in search of his wife, Winona.

James suddenly appeared in the kitchen visibly upset and motioned for Rogers to follow him. The two men entered the bathroom when Rogers saw Winona lying on her back in the tub half filled with lukewarm, soapy water. She appeared to have died from drowning. When the coroner arrived to examine the body James claimed that she must have attempted to wash her hair while he was out running errands, gotten dizzy and drowned. The coroner suggested an autopsy but James refused. Later James asked the coroner to change the death certificate to reflect that the drowning was a direct result from the previous car accident. Although her death seemed suspicious there was no official investigation launched and James was able to collect approximately $14,000 from the life insurance policies he had taken out on Winona immediately after they married.

James bought a new car, a Pierce-Arrow convertible, and a new wardrobe and headed back to his hometown of Alabama to share his good fortune with his family.

And how does Robert James repay his sister and brother-in-law for sending him to barber school and saving him from the life of a sharecropper? He seduces their 18-year-old daughter, his niece, Lois Wright and moves with her to Los Angeles where he sets up his barber shop and hunts for wife number four.

After his marriage, James files papers to have it annulled when wife number four refused to go to a doctor for the required physical examination. During this time he met and "married" wife number five, Mary Busch.

After Mary's suspicious death James moved back in with and openly continued his relationship with his niece, Lois. During their investigation into Mary's death, the police decided to bug James' residence and even though they could uncover any evidence to prove that he had murdered Mary they did have enough evidence to arrest him for having sex with his niece.

On April 19, 1936, Robert James was arrested and charged with incest, a felony under California law. He was convicted and received a sentence of 50 years. When the papers got wind of the arrest they also began to delve into James' background and printed his numerous exploits for the world to read.

The widespread press coverage got the exact result that the police were hoping for. A liquor store owner came forth and told a report from the LA Herald and bizarre tale involving a drunk named Charles Hope. When the lead was passed on to the police they were able to track Hope down through the California Motor Vehicle Department.

It was not long before the police showed up at a hamburger stand in Hermosa beach where Hope worked as a short order cook and brought him in for questioning. At first Hope denied knowing anything about Mary but after several hours of questioning he finally admitted that he knew she had drowned but refused to be more forthcoming with any of the details. However, after the police took him back to the pink stucco house where Mary was murdered, Hope finally broke down and related the gruesome details of Mary's murder to the police.

He claims to have entered the James' barbershop one day and told him that he was broke and could he receive a haircut on credit. James agreed and after Hope sat in the chair James asked him if he knew anything about snakes. When Hope shook his head in the negative James went on to explain he had a friend who wanted to get rid of his wife and wanted to use rattlesnakes to commit the deed. He also told Hope that he would pay him $100 if he helped him obtain the snakes. Hope, desperate for money, jumped at the chance.

James gave Hope $20 and a few evenings later he showed up with three rattlesnakes he purchased at a sideshow in Long Beach. James also gave Hope money to have two special boxes in which to house the snakes with sliding glass tops. When Hope came to the James' barber shop a few days later he found that James was dissatisfied with the snakes and had Hope go to the Ocean Park snake pit and purchase another pair of snakes. These also met with James' disapproval and Hope eventually ended up in Pasadena where he purchased two Colorado diamond-backs named Lethal and Lightning from a man named Snake Joe Houtenbrink. They were tested on chickens and definitely lived up to their names.

James had decided to use Mary's pregnancy as a way to get rid of her and somehow managed to get her to agree to an abortion. On August 4, 1935 Hope showed up at the James' residence and it was then that James revealed the real reason why he had Hope procure the snakes. James also warned Hope that he had no other choice but to assist he as he was in just as deep as James.

James convinced Mary that as the procedure was illegal, he would have to tape her eyes and mouth shut in order to protect the identity of the "doctor". After Mary had consumed several glass of whiskey as anesthesia, James helped Mary lay down on the kitchen table, taped her eyes and mouth, and strapped her down to the table. James then went to the garage where Hope was waiting and had him bring in one of the boxes containing the snakes. James grabbed Mary's foot slid back the glass top and stuck her foot into the box where the snake immediately sunk its fangs into her great toe three times. James then instructed Hope to take the snakes back to Snake Joe. After he had sold them back for half price he threw the special boxes out along the side of the road. Hope then returned to the James' residence where he and Robert James sat in the garage drinking whiskey while they waited for the snake venom to work its deadly course on Mary.

By 1:30 in the morning Mary's leg was swollen and turning dark purple. But instead of being dead Mary was very much alive and writhing in agony. It was then that James decided he had had enough and decided to fall back on the same method he had used with his previous wife. He carried her limp body to the bathroom and drowned her in the bathtub.

Later he insisted that Hope help her carry her to the fishpond and arrange her body to make it appear that she had tripped and fell in head-first.

When confronted with the facts of the case and Hope's account which it was obvious the police believed, James tried to turn the tables against him and blame Mary's murder on Hope.

Hope agreed to turn states evidence after he plead guilty to first-degree murder and received a life sentence. James went on trial for the murder of his wife Mary. The trial lasted five weeks after which the jury quickly returned with a guilty verdict. James was sentenced to death by hanging.

He fought the sentence for six years with appeals but eventually his luck ran out. On May 9, 1942 Robert "Rattlesnake" James kept his date with destiny. By that time however, California had adopted a more "humane" form of capital punishment. Unfortunately in James' case he was sentenced to death prior to the adoption of the gas chamber so he became the last man to be hanged in California. The rope was the wrong length and it took over ten minutes for him to die.

The "Antifree" Murders

2009-11-11T15:43:00.014-05:00

On the morning of August 22, 2005 Stacey Castor went to work at Liverpool Heating and Air Conditioning. She was the office manager for her husband, David Castor Sr, who owned the business. She made several attempts to call his cell phone but he refused to answer. When he still had not arrived at his business by 2 p.m. she decided to call the police and ask them to meet him at her residence because she was concerned about her husband's welfare. She claimed that her husband had locked himself in their bedroom. She also stated that he had been acting strangely for the last month and he kept a gun in the room.

When deputies from the Onondaga County Sheriff's department arrived at 4127 Wetzel Road, Stacey was waiting in the front yard for them. Sgt Robert Willoughby entered the residence and made his way to the bedroom door. Sgt Willoughby knocked on the door but after receiving no response he kicked the door in. David Castor was sprawled naked across the bed. On the floor next to the bed was a container of Prestone antifreeze. On the nightstand there was cranberry juice, apricot brandy, and a half full glass of a bright green liquid.

Sgt Willoughby summoned paramedics but it was already too late. Detective Dominick Spinelli arrived on the scene and observed David Castor's body on the bed and Stacey Castor outside seemly distraught. The house was searched and evidence collected. Including a turkey baster found in the kitchen trash.

Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Robert Stoppacher performed an autopsy and ruled that David Castor's had caused his own death by consuming antifreeze.

His family however, vehemently denied that David would ever consider taking his own life. And there was at least one other person who had his own suspicions about David's death. Detective Spinelli refused to close the case. Something just didn't sit right with him.

The following day Detective Spinelli sat down with Stacey Castor and she gave a nine-paged detailed statement as to the final days of David Castor's life.

Stacey felt that the recent death of his father and stress at work pushed David over the edge and led him to take his own life.

She claimed that they had been having frequent arguments in the four days leading up to his death. According to Stacey, David locked himself in the bedroom and spent the weekend drinking and vomiting. She cleaned up the vomit and rubbed his feet, gave him cranberry juice and water, and did whatever she could to try and make him comfortable. At one point during the weekend she came in the room and found David on the floor. She called a family friend to help her pick David up and put him back in the bed. She claimed she spent the weekend sleeping on the couch and tried to stay out of the house as much as possible. She gave a detailed account of her comings and goings for the entire weekend.

Stacey Castor volunteered one final piece of information prior to ending the interview. David and she had watched a "48 Hours" television show about a woman who had killed her two husbands by putting antifreeze in green jello. They watched the program again a month or two ago when it aired again.

The interview did not sit well with Detective Spinelli and as Stacey Castor buried her second husband next to her first husband, Michael Wallace, he helped launch an investigation that would take two years to complete.

One month after David Castor's death, Stacey convinced her longtime friend, Linda Pulaski and her husband to witness David's signature on a will leaving Stacey sole heir to his estate. The will was then backdated to two years earlier.

As the police police conducted their investigation it soon became apparent that Stacey's description of events did not match the evidence. She claimed to have repeatedly phoned her husband on the day of his death but a search of all her phone records showed that she only placed one call to David.

The half-full glass of antifreeze contained three fingerprints. All of which belonged to Stacey. The container of antifreeze found on the bedroom floor had no finger prints on it at all. And the turkey baster that was found in the kitchen garbage had traces of antifreeze and David's DNA on the tip.

The police were now certain that David Castor died by his wife's hands and not his own. The suspicious circumstances surrounding his death caused them to look more closely at the death of Stacy Castor's first husband Mike Wallace.

Michael Wallace died of a heart attack or so doctor's originally thought. The police were skeptical and made the unusual request to have the body exhumed. When an autopsy was performed the medical examiner found traces of antifreeze and rat poison in his remains. The official cause of death was changed to homicide.

Detective Spinelli again brings Stacey Castor in for questioning and asks her why the only finger prints found on the glass of antifreeze was hers she responds, " when I poured the antifree... I mean cranberry juice." Once she realize what she had done Stacey terminated the interview and requested to speak with a lawyer.

Stacey could feel the noose tightening around her neck. It was just a matter of time before the knock came on the door that would spell an end to her life as a free woman. Someone had to pay for the murders of David Castor and Michael Wallace and Stacey was determined that it would not be her.

Ashley Wallace, Stacey's oldest daughter from her first marriage, was visited by detectives on her first day of college in September of 2007. They informed her that her father had not died of a heart attack but had indeed been poisoned. A hysterical Ashley called her mother to tell her about the detectives. Stacey arrived at the college to pick Ashley up and suggested that the two of them go home and get some drinks. They were going through a stressful time and needed something to help them relax. 20-year-old Ashley, who had no reason to mistrust not only her mother but her best friend, readily agreed. Stacey bought some Watermelon Smirnoff Ice on the way home and Ashley drank with her mother until she became ill. The next day when Ashley returned home from school, Stacey was waiting for her with a mixture of Vodka, Sprite and orange juice. Ashley took a sip of the concoction but was put off by the awful taste. Stacey convinced her daughter to drink it quickly by using a straw, which Ashley did, because again, this was her mother.

Seventeen hours later, Ashley's younger sister Bree Wallace came into her room to check on her and found Ashley nearly comatose on her bed. She screamed for Stacey who came flying into the room, took one look at her daughter and called 911. She told the 911 operator that Ashley had swallowed a lot of pills along with a bottle of Vodka and that her sister Bree had found a suicide note. The typewritten letter was apparently Ashley's confession to the murders of her father and stepfather. The painstaking description of how the murders occurred could have only come from someone who had firsthand knowledge of the crimes.

When Ashley awoke in the hospital she was confused. She could not figure out how she had ended up in a hospital bed with her wrists tied down and most of all why police Sgt Michael Norton was yelling at her. She never took any pills, she didn't write any suicide note, and she sure as heck hadn't murdered anyone. Investigators also took note of the fact that the supposed suicide letter refered to antifreeze as "antifree" and during her interrogation Ashley always used the entire word unlike her mother, Stacey.

When news of Ashley's supposed suicide attempt reached Detective Spinelli he was appalled. He never thought for one minute that Stacey would go to such lengths to save her own skin. It was time to put an end to her murderous rampage. Stacey Castor was arrested soon after for the murder of her second husband David Castor and the attempted murder of her own daughter, Ashley.

In December of 2007, Stacey Castor was indicted on three separate charges: 2nd degree murder, 2nd degree attempted murder and 1st degree offering of a false document.

Stacey Castor went on trial in January of 2009. Prosecutors laid out the case against Stacey including the lack of David's fingerprints on the glass and antifreeze container, the turkey baster containing his DNA which prosecutors felt she used to force-feed the antifreeze to David. They also introduced evidence that Stacey's first husband, Michael Wallace, had also died of antifreeze poisoning. Also that Stacey and not Ashley referred to antifreeze as "antifree."

But what was the motive? Not surprising prosecutors felt it had to do with money. Stacey collected on her husbands life insurance policies and she forged a new will cutting out David's son from his previous marriage and leaving his estate solely to her.

Stacey Castor's computer was confiscated and there was found several drafts of the suicide note that Ashley was supposed to have written. The time stamp on the drafts showed they were written when Ashley was at school. Prosecutors also argued the attempted suicide was in actuality a murder plot in which to frame her own child for the murders.

Stacey Castor took the stand in her own defense. She maintained her innocence and insisted that her daughter Ashley had in fact murdered her father, even though she was only 11 years old at the time, and her stepfather. When asked what possible reason her daughter would have for the murders she would only imply that Ashley might be suffering from some sort of mental illness. She admitted on cross-examination that she never attempted to get any sort of help for her daughter.

On February 5, 2009, Stacey Castor was found guilty on all three charges and received a sentence of 51-1/3 years. As Judge Fahey handed down the sentence he had these parting words for Stacey Castor, "...I have to say Mrs Castor, you are in a class all by yourself. I had never seen a parent willing to sacrifice their child to shift the blame away from themselves. It's the most reprehensible crime I've ever seen."

Stacey Castor had no comment and showed no remorse. Given the length of her sentence, at her age it is very likely that she will die in prison.

On a final note, charges are pending against Stacey Castor for the murder of her first husband, Michael Wallace.

Cordelia's Candy

2009-11-06T11:24:00.007-05:00

31-year-old John P. Dunning had the kind lifestyle that many people dream of. He was a well-regarded war correspondent and had a devoted wife, Mary, who was the daughter of former congressman John B. Pennington of Dover Delaware.

In 1891 the couple moved to San Francisco where Dunning took a position as the Bureau Chief of Associated Press' Western Division. A year later the couple welcomed the birth of their daughter.

In the summer of 1895, Dunning was riding his bike to work through Golden Gate Park when it broke down near a bench where the woman who would tragically alter his future was sitting enjoying the morning sun. As he fixed his bike the two struck up a conversation and although she was 10 years his senior Dunning soon found himself captivated by her ill disguised, raw sensuality and they were soon embroiled in a torrid affair. She was Cordelia Botkin, wife of wealthy businessman, Welcome A. Botkin from Stockton California. Although they were separated, Cordelia's husband still supported her financially with a monthly stipend. Cordelia introduced Dunning to the seedy side of San Francisco and before long he was caught up in a sordid lifestyle of drinking, partying, and gambling.

Mary Elizabeth Dunning had suffered the ultimate humiliation. Her husband was openly cavorting with a woman of obviously loose morals. To add to this he had been fired from his position at Associated Press when it was suspected that he had embezzled company funds in order to pay his gambling debts. And due to his heavy drinking he was unable to maintain employment. Fed up, Mary Elizabeth packed up herself and her daughter and moved back to Delaware with her parents.

Still caught up in the clutches of Cordelia, Dunning moved into same hotel where she was staying and for the time being was content to let Cordelia support the both of them with her husband's money.

During one of their conversations the subject of Dunning's wife arose and he let it slip about her love of candy and that she had a close friend in San Francisco named Mrs Corbaley.

Eventually Dunning grew tired of his life of debauchery and jumped at the chance when Associated Press offered to rehire him as a war correspondent to cover the Spanish-American war in Cuba. He informed Cordelia of his plans and turned a deaf ear to her impassioned pleadings for him to stay with her. Dunning also informed her that he had no intentions of returning to San Francisco and upon completing his assignment he would be returning to Delaware in the hopes of reuniting with his wife and child.

Mary Elizabeth received letters signed "A Friend" postmarked San Francisco. They informed her that her husband was still constantly seen in the company of an attractive woman and warned Mary Elizabeth not to reconcile with her husband. She turned the letters over to her father for safe keeping.

On August 9, 1898, a small package arrived at the Dover, Delaware addressed to Mary Elizabeth Dunning. Inside the box was chocolate bonbons resting atop a lacy handkerchief with the price tag still attached. The note enclosed with the package read, "With love to yourself and baby. Mrs. C."

Later that evening after dining on trout and corn fritters, the family retired to the veranda in a effort to cool off from the summer heat. Thinking the chocolates were from her friend, Mrs. Corbaley, from San Francisco, Mary Elizabeth had no reservations about indulging in her love of chocolate or passing the box around for her family to share. Mary Elizabeth's parents passed but her older sister, her daughter, her niece and two young neighbors who had stopped by to visit.

Hours later all six of the unfortunate people who ate the candy experienced stomach pains and vomiting. The physician who came to examine them diagnosed their illness as cholera morbus, a common ailment due to lack of refrigeration. He claimed it was probably from the corn fritters they had eaten at dinner. The problem with that theory was the two neighbors had not eaten the fritters. Nonetheless everyone eventually recovered with the exception of Mary Elizabeth and her sister. Having eaten the bulk of the candy they progressed to severe stomach spasms and their father called in a specialist who's grim suspicion spelled doom for the two women. He feared that they had been poisoned and by then it was too late to save them. Mary Elizabeth and her sister died a day later.

Mr Pennington began to suspect that his daughters had been poisoned by the candy and he had the uneaten candy analyzed. The chemist reported that a few of the chocolates had indeed been tainted with arsenic.

Mary Elizabeth's father dispatched a telegram posthaste to John Dunning informing him of the death of his beloved wife. When he reached the home of Mr. Pennington, Mary's father, he was immediately shown the letters and handwritten note that accompanied the box of chocolate. It took only one brief glance for him to instantly recognise the handwriting. There was no doubt as to the identity of the writer in his mind. He broke down and told Mr. Pennington the details of the sordid affair with Cordelia Botkin.

The Dover Police were contacted who then referred the case to San Francisco since the candies were sent from there. The remaining candy, the paper it was wrapped in and the handkerchief were sent to San Francisco in the custody of Dover Police.

San Francisco Police Chief Isaiah W. Less spearheaded the case against Cordelia and immediately set to work building the evidence against her. The sensational story was soon front page news and the Examiner "assisted" the police with the investigation. The paper that was used to wrap the candy was traced back to the George Haas confectionery where the clerk recalled selling the chocolate bonbons to a woman fitting Cordelia's physical description. The price tag on the handkerchief led directly to the City of Paris department store. A clerk who remembered selling arsenic to a woman who resembled Cordelia was eventually located at the Owl Drug store. Finally Less had the note that accompanied the chocolates and the anonymous letters sent to Mary Elizabeth analyzed by a handwriting expert who conclusively matched them to samples of Cordelia's writings.

In October, 1898, Chief Less appeared before the grand jury, confident that he had a strong, albeit circumstantial case. The only potential problem was the fact that an autopsy had not been performed on the two women so there was no proof that they had died from arsenic poisoning. In response the grand jury returned with an indictment for two counts of first-degree murder against Mrs. Cordelia Botkin.

Her trial began in December, 1898 before Judge Carroll Cook. Given the strength of the prosecutions case, the defense had no choice but to put Cordelia on the stand. She admitted that she bought the arsenic in June but hers was powdered not the crystalline type that was found in the candy. Furthermore she claimed she had bought the arsenic to bleach a straw hat. She also produced alibis to prove that she did not purchase the candy or mail the package. However her alibis could not be substantiated.

After four hours of the deliberation the jury found Cordelia guilty and recommended life in prison. As recommended Cordelia was confined to the Branch County Prison to serve her life sentence. One Sunday a few months after being sent to prison Judge Cook spotted Cordelia shopping in downtown San Francisco. He immediately launched an investigation and uncovered evidence that Cordelia had exchanged sexual favors for lavish comforts in jail and the freedom to leave the prison grounds.

Meanwhile Cordelia's lawyer appealed her conviction and was able to have it overturned based on a procedural error. Her second trial commenced in 1904 and on August 2, 1904 she was again sentenced to life in prison.

Cordelia Botkin was transferred to San Quentin State Prison where she remained until her death on March 7, 1910. The official cause of death was "softening of the brain due to melancholy." She was 56 years old.

"Lambeth Poisoner"

2009-10-21T22:03:00.003-04:00

Thomas Neill Cream was born in Glasgow Scotland May 27, 1850. At the age of 4 his father moved the family to Canada where he opened a prosperous lumber mill. His siblings eventually joined their father in the family business but Thomas was more interested in scholarly pursuits. Thomas dreamed of becoming a doctor and in 1872 he attended McGill College in Montreal from which he graduated with honors.

While attending McGill Cream met Flora Elizabeth Brooks. Teenage daughter of wealthy hotel owner, Lyman Henry Brooks. He seduced her and soon found himself cast in the unwanted role of father-to-be. Cream convinced Flora to allow him to abort the baby and nearly killed her in the process. When Flora's father learned of the abortion he showed up at Cream's residence brandishing a shotgun and forced him to marry Flora on September 11, 1876.

Cream had big plans for himself and they did not include remaining shackled to a woman he did not care for. The following day while most couples are enjoying their honeymoon Flora woke up to an empty bed and a note from Cream on the pillow next to her promising that he would keep in touch.

Cream fled to London, England and attended St Thomas Hospital Medical School. The glittering social life proved to be to much of a lure for Cream who more often than not could be seen courting wealthy young women rather than attending to his studies. He failed to earn his certificate. Cream moved to Edinburgh Scotland and completed his studies at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.

In August of 1877 Flora contracted bronchitis and died from what was assumed to be consumption. But not everyone was convinced that her death was anything but natural. Prior to her demise Flora admitted to the town's physician, Dr Phelan, that she was taking medicine that her husband had sent her. The doctor managed to extract a promise from her that she would not take anything else unless he prescribed it but by then it was too late. Dr. Phelan was never able to obtain any of the medication for examination and an autopsy was not performed.

As for Cream, he no longer had to pretend that he was unmarried. He returned to Canada in 1878 and set up his practice in London, Ontario. He opened a small shop above a clothing store and specialized in obstetrics. Cream's career was quite promising until he derailed it in May of 1879 when the body of a young woman was found in the outhouse in the alley behind his shop. She was identified as Kate Gardner and the overwhelming scent of chloroform wafting from her made it quite simple to surmise cause of death. When the authorities questioned her roommate, Sarah Long, she confided to them that Kate had gotten herself in "the family way" and had gone to the new doctor to seek an abortion.

A Coroner's inquest was held at which time Cream admitted Gardner had come to his office but he refused to give her the drugs to induce an abortion and went so far as to suggest her death had been a suicide.

The Coroner disputed Creams theory stating that her face had been badly scratched implying force. Secondly it would have been impossible for her to hold a chloroform-soaked sponge over her nose long enough to cause her own death. She would have passed out before then.

Her death was ruled a homicide by person unknown. Although Cream was able to escape a murder indictment his reputation had been ruined. He pulled up stakes and decided to try his luck in the United States.

Cream ended up in Chicago, Illinois where he began the unsavory practice of terminating pregnancies for prostitutes. It wasn't long before one of those prostitutes ended up dead. When Mary Anne Faulkner was found dead in a tenement apartment police eventually tied her to Cream and he charged with murder. He managed to again avoid the executioner because he had the good sense to hire a suave and persuasive attorney who was able to convince jurors that Cream tried to save the unfortunate woman after a midwife botched her abortion.

Within a year Cream would again find himself on the wrong end of a murder charge and because of his own stupidity even Johnny Cochran would not have been able to get him off.

In addition to performing illegal abortions, Cream manufactured his own special concoction of anti-epilepsy drugs. One of his patients was Daniel Stott, a retired railroad agent. Since he was for all intents and purposes an invalid, he would send his beautiful young wife, Julia, who was 30 years his junior to collect his medicine. Her visits to Cream became more frequent and it soon became obvious to her husband that they were having an affair. On June 14, 1881 Cream mixed an extra special concoction for Mr. Stott, including a liberal dose of strychnine and he died within a half an hour of consuming it.

His death was originally attributed to epilepsy and would have never been questioned if Cream hadn't grown nervous. He attempted to divert any possibility of suspicion falling on him in the death of Stott by trying to implicate the pharmacist. Cream sent several telegrams to the coroner's office claiming that the pharmacist had mixed strychnine with Cream's concoction causing Stott's death. Cream's telegrams raised enough suspicion to have the district attorney order an exhumation of Stott's body. And just as Cream had implied, Stott's stomach contained a lethal dose of strychnine.

Cream had one major problem though. He did not know when to quit ( a fact that would ultimately lead to his final downfall). Thinking himself safe he actually identified himself as the writer when he sent the telegrams. Cream literally wrote himself into a conviction for murder. He was sentenced to life at Joliet State Penitentiary. Unfortunately for his future victims, his life would not end in that American prison. Thanks to corrupt politicians and prison officials Cream walked out a free man 10 years later after purchasing a pardon. He eventually returned to England and the slums of South London with a new practice and a new name, Dr. Thomas Neill.

His first known victim was 19-year-old prostitute Ellen "Nellie" Donworth. Prior to her death witnesses placed Nellie with a well-dressed gentleman. She would later be found lying on the bed of her rented room convulsing and writhing in agony. She would tell police that the man gave her something to drink with some white stuff in it. Nellie died on the way to the hospital. A postmortem exam revealed a lethal dose of strychnine in her stomach.

One week later Matilda Clover, 27, a prostitute and alcoholic, returned to her rented room with a well-dressed gentleman. Around 3 am the household was awaken to the sound of ear splitting screams. Matilda was found convulsing on her bed. She claimed a man gave her pills and had poisoned her. Unfortunately her death was attributed to excessive drinking and no autopsy was performed.

Lou Harvey was in search of a client for the night. When Cream approached her and introduced himself she agreed to accompany him to a hotel where they remained until the following morning. Before parting company the arranged to meet again later that evening for drinks. Cream gave Lou two capsules that he claimed would improve her complexion and insisted that she take them in his presence. Lou instantly became suspicious and pretended to swallow the pills and when Cream was not looking tossed them away. Her instincts saved her life.

Cream's last know victims were 21-year-old Alice Marsh and 18-year-old. He spied them in St. George's Circus and accompanied them to their residence and promised to give them pills to keep them from contracting sexual diseases.

By 2:30 the following morning, both women were convulsing and screaming in agony. Alice Marsh lived long enough to tell police a tall well-dressed man gave them pills.

During his killing spree Cream set in motion the series of events that decide his fate. Cream decided to try his hand at extortion. He flooded the city with letters accusing wealthy, prominent people of the murders he himself had committed. He offered to destroy the proof against them if they were willing to pay for it. This time at least Cream had the sense not to sign his own name to them.

So sure was he that he was not going to get caught, Cream befriended John Haynes, a New York detective who was now living in London. When the talk between the two men turned to the murders of the prostitutes Haynes was surprised at the amount of knowledge Cream had about the case. Cream had even brought up the names of two women that had not been named in the newspapers, Matilda Clover and Lou Harvey. One night after they had met for supper Cream took Haynes on a tour of the murder spots. Cream's detailed description of the murders left Haynes in no doubt that he was face-to-face with the man who had committed the murders. So Haynes relayed his suspicions to a friend of his, Inspector Patrick McIntyre, who worked at Scotland Yard.

Police soon launched an investigation and began tailing Cream. They soon found out that he was in the habit of visiting prostitutes. They had also obtained copies of his handwriting and had matched it to the blackmail letters that had been turned in to them. His passport which contained the named Dr. Thomas Neill had been forged and he was in reality Dr. Thomas Neill Cream from Canada. Further investigation uncovered the mysterious death of his wife, suspicion of murdering prostitutes, and his conviction of murder in the United States. The body of Matilda Clover was exhumed and the results led to the arrest of Thomas Neill Cream and the charge of murder.
Dr. Cream went on trial on October 17, 1892. Throughout the start of the trial Cream maintained his innocence. He showed little emotion in court convinced that he would be cleared of the charge. That is until the prosecution uncovered the most damning piece of evidence against him. When the bailiff called Lou Harvey to the witness box, Cream's composure cracked.

The trial lasted 5 days and when the case was turned over to the jury it took just 10 minutes to return with a guilty verdict.

On November 15, 1892 Dr. Cream was hanged at Newgate Prison. What happened next would spark a heated debate for years to come. As the trap door sprung open Cream is purported to have shouted "I am Jack..."before the snapping of his neck cut off the conclusion of his boast.

This led to the immediate supposition that Cream was confessing to being Jack the Ripper. A highly unlikely fact seeing that he was in Joliet at the time. Also Cream was a poisoner while Jack was a mutilator. Nevertheless Dr Thomas Neill Cream's remains on the long list of suspects thought to have been Jack the Ripper.

Stevie?...Or Is It Sarah?

2009-10-18T21:05:00.008-04:00

On the night of July 1, 1997, the fire department responded to a 2-alarm fire in the 2100 block of 50th Ave in Oakland, California. Just moments earlier a woman ran from her burning house; the bottom of her dress ablaze. One of her neighbor's poured water on the woman's legs and called 911.

The woman identified herself as Stevie Allman, 52, an unemployed secretary. She had suffered first- and second-degree burns to her arms and legs. She told authorities that she suspected the fire had been set by drug dealers she had crossed.

An investigation as to the cause of the fire proved it was indeed arson and fire officials confirmed that they had been to the same residence twice before for firebombs that had been set off outside of the home.

Allman was also known to the Oakland Police. For over a year she had been secretly video taping drug dealers doing business on her street and she passed the tapes, along with tips, to the police.

When news surrounding the events of the third firebombing became public knowledge, Allman was hailed a hero and an anti-drug crusader. The lure of the ovewhelming media coverage proved too strong for Ms. Allman. She issued two statements from her hospital bed in which she condemned the drug dealers whom she claimed no doubt intended to murder her.

Police vowed to apprehend those responsible for what was described as a "cowardly act." Then Govenor Pete Wilson offered a $50,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators. A donation was set up in Allman's name to help cover her hospital costs and local contractors offered to rebuild her home.

Shortly after her appearance on television police would receive their first hint that things weren't as they appeared. Police were alerted that there were two women living in the house not one and one of them was missing.

Tips poured in from neighbors and Allman's oldest sister, Leotta Belleville, that the woman claiming to be Stevie Allman was in reality her younger sister, Sarah Mitchell.

The sisters had been living in the same house for twenty years and the two were often mistaken for twins as they closely resembled each other. But there the similarities ended.

Whereas Stevie was a quiet, somewhat reclusive secretary, Sarah had a history of drug and alcohol abuse and had been arrested for prostitution and fraud.

The police reopened the investigation and decided to search the home again in order to find clues as to the whereabouts of Stevie Allman. Officers searched the house with a dog and came upon a charred freezer that had been sealed with duct tape close to the point of origin of the fire. When officers opened the freezer they immediately uncovered the dismembered and decomposed body of who would be later as Stevie Allman.

Mitchell was arrested after she cashed the check made out to Allman consisted of donations received while she was in the hospital. When police confronted her with the fact that her fingerprints proved that she was Sarah Mitchell she admitted to impersonating her sister.

Police surmise that Mitchell had been assuming Allman's identity for almost two years. Mitchell's siblings confirmed this fact when they told police that Mitchell had been stealing from them for years. She had also posed as Stevie at least once before that the family knew of when she used Stevie's identity to cash a stolen inheritance check. Further investigation revealed that Stevie had last been seen alive in April of 1997 and when questioned by family members Mitchell would tell them that Stevie was in Lake Tahoe or Reno looking for a new home for them.

Stevie was about to cut Mitchell off. She was through with Mitchell stealing from her and was no longer willing to support her. Mitchell was about to lose her gravy train. Mitchell apparently bludgeoned Stevie while she slept and stuffed her dismembered body into the freezer. She then tried to cover up the murder by burning down the house and blaming it on drug dealers. Mitchell then assumed Stevie's identity in order to gain the deed on Stevie's house and access to her trust accounts.

Sarah Mitchell was convicted of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of financial gain. She was spared the death penalty when the jury recommended life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Murdering Modiste

2009-10-01T00:41:00.007-04:00

Marie Alexandrine was a woman with passable looks and big dreams. She was born in 1877 in Liege Belgium. At age 33 she settled into the role of a virtuous and proper housewife when she married Charles Becker, a cabinetmaker.

By age 53 she was thoroughly bored with her staid lifestyle. One day when she was out buying vegetables at a street stall, she was propositioned by a smooth-talker named Lambert Bayer. The sexual attraction between the two was immediate and they were soon engaged in a passionate affair.

Marie Alexandrine eventually grew tired of pretending to be the faithful wife. She wanted to flaunt her relationship with Bayer openly. So she decided that the only way to be free to live as she wanted was to get rid of her husband. Her drug of choice; Digitalis. Charles Becker was dispatched to the hereafter with a lethal dose in his cup of tea.

Marie Alexandrine collected on Becker's life insurance policy and after observing the proper period of mourning she married Lambert Bayer.

And again it was not long before married life palled. Unfortunately for Bayer it was sooner rather than later. For Marie Alexandrine their relationship no longer held the same appeal as it did when they were involved in an illicit affair. Less than two months after the wedding, Bayer was dispatched posthaste; but not before making sure she was named as sole beneficiary in his will.

If Marie Alexandrine had been a pragmatic female the money that she received from her spouses would have been enough to allow her to live quite comfortably for her remaining years. How ever she was far from pragmatic. She fantasized about a life of luxury and decadence and she was determined to live out her fantasy.

Her nights were spent in dance halls and nightclubs surrounded by men half her age. And it was not unusual for her to buy sexual favors from these men.

In order to maintain some semblance of respectability, Marie Alexandrine opened a small couture dress shop in a fashionable district of town in the hopes of attracting the grand dames of society.

Unfortunately her fortune could not keep pace with her extravagant expenses and though popular, her dress shop did not generate enough income to continue her elevated lifestyle.

Marie Alexandrine had to come up with another scheme and quick. In early July 1935 one of her friends, Marie Castadot began suffering from nausea and dizziness. Marie Alexandrine graciously offered to care for her. Not surprising under Marie Alexandrine's ministrations Madame Castadot became gravel ill and by July 23rd she was dead.

It was not long before she was again searching for more victims. Through her store Marie Alexandrine became acquainted with a number of society's matriarchs. By earning their implicit trust she was able to arrange for private showings in their opulent homes. When the inevitable refreshments were served she would whip out her ever-present vial of digitalis and managed to slip a lethal dose in her hostess' tea. As the victim lay dying Marie Alexandrine would help herself to anything of value that she could stuff in her pockets before she summoned help.

Though she was never got red-handed eventually her actions aroused enough suspicions and the police received anonymous letters accusing her of being involved in the deaths of several elderly women.

But it was her own mouth that would cause her downfall. When a friend complained about her aggravating husband, Marie Alexandrine offered to supply her with a powder that would leave no trace. Appalled the woman went to the police and this latest incident along with the letters were enough for them to launch an investigation. With each suspicious death looked into the police noted that they all had one thing in common, they were in the company of Marie Alexandrine during the last hours of their life.

When the police arrived at Marie Alexandrine's residence they searched her rooms. They found clothing, jewelry, and personal items belonging to the victims. They also discovered her vials of digitalis. Marie was taken into custody immediately and the bodies of several of her victims were exhumed. They found high levels of digitalis in all.

During her trial witnesses testified how she would attend the funerals during the day and by nightfall she would be in the nightclubs spending the money she had stolen from them. She failed to show any remorse about the murders going so far as to make scandalous statements as to how her victims looked when they died. She was convicted of murder and fortunately for her she was spared the death penalty because Belgium rarely executed women. Died in prison during World War II.

For over two years Marie Alexandrine Becker poisoned at least 10 victims. Many fear that her deadly spree claimed many more before she was caught.

A Killing In Hollywood

2009-09-23T12:18:00.030-04:00

Hollywood is no stranger to scandal. There is no question that under all the glitz and glamour lies a world filled with greed and degradation. Hopefuls arrive daily in search of fame and fortune and are willing to sell their souls in order to attain their goals.

One such hopeful was Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner. She was born on February 8, 1921 in Wallace, Idaho. Hard times forced the family to relocate to San Francisco, California where her father, John "Virgil" Turner, tried to earn a living by gambling. In 1930, after a night of good luck, Virgil stuck his winnings in his left sock and struck off for home. His body was found in the Mission District with his left sock and shoe missing. His murder was never solved.

When Julia's "Judy" mother, Mildred Frances Turner, developed health problems, she was advised by a doctor to move to a drier climate and they moved to Los Angeles, California. Mildred tried to support herself and Judy by working as a beautician but Judy was often forced to live with her mother's friends and acquaintances in order to save money.

Judy attended Hollywood High School and one day in 1936 she decided to ditch her typing class. She went to the Top Hat Cafe on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and bought a soda. William R. Wilkerson, publisher of the Hollywood Reporter, walked into the cafe and immediately spotted the 15-year-old beauty sipping her soda and decided to approach her. He uttered the fateful question that would forever change her life, "Would you like to be in the movies?"

Wilkerson referred her to talent agent Zeppo Marx who agreed to represent her.

Film director Mervyn LeRoy was having a difficult time finding someone to cast in the role of Mary Clay in his upcoming film They Won't Forget. When Marx introduced Judy to LeRoy he knew he had filled the part.

Her walk-on role consisted of her walking down the street wearing a form fitting skirt, tight sweater and high heels. Even though the film was forgettable, Judy's small role caused an overnight sensation and earned her the unwanted nickname of "The Sweater Girl." She went on to sign a contract with MGM who set at work to reinvent her image. They created a new persona for her, complete with platinum blonde hair and a new name.
The sweater girl became Hollywood's latest sex symbol, Lana Turner. She is best known for her sultry performances in "The Postman Always Rings Twice", "Imitation Of Life", "Peyton Place" and "The Bad And The Beautiful".

Unfortunately Lana Turner's success on the big screen did not spill over into her personal life. She was married eight times to seven different men.

Her first marriage was to band leader, Artie Shaw who she had met while rebounding from her affair with Mickey Rooney. The marriage lasted only four months. Shaw was an arrogant man with a huge ego. He felt he was intellectually superior to Lana and was verbally and physically abusive to her.

Lana's second marriage was to Stephen Crane, a restaurateur. The marriage was annulled shortly after the nuptials when it was uncovered that Crane's Mexican divorce from his first wife was not recognized in the United States. Meanwhile Lana became pregnant with her only living child, a daughter named Cheryl. The two married again after Crane obtained a legitimate divorce but this union fared no better than her previous marriage and the two parted company for good.

Husband number three was millionaire Henry J. Topping Jr. whom Lana divorced when he lost his lost a substantial portion of his fortune due to excessive gambling and poor investments.

She next married actor Lex Barker. They divorced after four years when it was revealed that he was molesting her daughter, Cheryl.

She went on to marry and divorce three more times before throwing in the towel.

Lana had reached a low point in her life when she met Johnny Stompanato in 1957. She had just divorced Barker and her career was in a downward spiral. He went by the name of John Steele and his dark good looks and muscular physique and his persistent wooing, proved to much for Lana to resist.

When their relationship became public knowledge one of Lana's closest friends broke the news to her about Johnny's real identity.

Stompanato was a small-time hood and reputed gigolo. He preyed on women with money and once that was gone so was he. She learned that he had ties to the mob and he worked as bodyguard for gangster Mickey Cohen. Fearing bad publicity Lana tried to break off the affair but the attraction between them had deepened and Lana would later claim that she was afraid of what he would do to her and her daughter if she tried to leave him. Over the course of the following year their relationship was fraught with violent confrontations which Turner strived to keep hidden from the public eye.

Things finally came to a head on the night of Good Friday, April 4, 1958. Turner had been nominated for an Oscar for her role in Peyton Place. Determined not to be seen in public with a known gangster, she refused to allow Stompanato to escort her to the awards ceremony. A fact that did not sit well with him. When Turner returned from the ceremony Stompanato was waiting for her and the two became involved in a violent argument.

On this night Turner decided to finally end the relationship with Stompanato for good. Unfortunately for her Stompanato had other ideas. As the fight escalated in Turner's bedroom her 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl, could hear everything from her room next door. She heard Stompanato threaten to cut her mother's face and kill her and her grandmother.

At that moment Cheryl's only thought was to protect her mother. She ran downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed a carving knife. She ran back to Turner's bedroom, banged on the door and pleaded with her mother until Turner opened the door. Cheryl claims that Stompanato rushed towards her with his arm raised, holding what she thought was a weapon, straight onto the carving knife in her outstretched hand. The wound was fatal and within minutes Johnny Stompanato was dead.

Turner phoned a physician and her mother. Cheryl called her father, Stephen Crane. Eventually all three arrive at Turner's home. After pronouncing Stompanato deceased the physician suggested that Turner contact a lawyer. She immediately procured the services of Jerry Giesler. Only after he arrived at her residence were the police notified.

Giesler escorted Turner and Cheryl to the Beverly Hills Police station where they gave a formal statement about the events of that night. Cheryl was detained at the police station until being transferred to the county Juvenile Hall the next day. She remained there until the Coroner's inquest one week after the killing. Geisler was able to convince the authorities to excuse Cheryl from testifying. Citing that doing so would further traumatize her. It didn't really matter though. The only person that everyone wanted to hear from was her mother.

The Coroner's inquest was destined to be one of the most highly publicized events ever.
120 of the 160 seats in the court room were reserved for the press. Television stations ABC and NBC broadcast the inquest live.

Lana Turner was about to take center stage in the most important performance of her life. At stake was her daughter's future. And what a performance she gave! It was truly Oscar-worthy.

After Lana left the stand investigators testified that there were details of the event that confused them: the knife that was supposed to be brand new was chipped and scratched and there were no fingerprints on it; there was no blood on Turner's clothes or in the bedroom; there was no evidence of a violent fight in the bedroom; and finally there were unidentified hair or fibers mixed in the blood on the knife.

The jury deliberated for approximately a half-hour before reaching a decision. They ruled that it was a case of justifiable homicide. Cheryl Crane was justified in using deadly force against John Stompanato because she feared for her mother's life.

The district attorney decided not to pursue charges against Cheryl but he did initiate legal proceedings against Lana to determine whether or not she was a fit parent. As a result Cheryl became a ward of the state and eventually went to live with her grandmother.

To this day however, questions and rumors still surround the death of Johnny Stompanato. There are some people who insist that Lana Turner was the one who killed Stompanato and then after staging the scene got her daughter, Cheryl, to take the rap because she was a juvenile.

Sources:

Wikipedia - Lana Turner
Tru TV.com - Lana Turner and John Stompanato

Vera Renczi - Black Widow

2009-09-08T20:17:00.002-04:00

Although Vera Renczi was without question one of the most prolific female serial killers in history, her motives were not based on greed but rather a pathological need for unerring devotion from her men.

Born in 1903 in Bucharest, Romania into wealth and privilege, by the age of 15 she had already engaged in numerous affairs, many of which involved men who were significantly older than she. Her childhood friends described her as being extremely jealous and overly possessive.

Vera's first marriage was to a wealthy business man several years her senior. She was pregnant with her son, Lorenzo, at the time. Unfortunately it did not take long for the marriage to sour. Spending time home alone with her son led to her conjuring up all manners of scenarios which involved her husband cheating. One evening, blinded by jealously, she decided to put an end to his imagined infidelity by spiking his dinner wine with arsenic. She covered up his absence by claiming that he had abandoned her and her son.

After observing the socially correct period of mourning, during which time Vera claimed to have received word that her first husband had been killed in an automobile accident, she remarried. This time the gentleman was closer to her age. In a matter of months Vera would again claim that her husband had abandoned her. After a year Vera supposedly received a "letter" declaring that her second husband had no intention of returning.

After two failed marriages, due entirely to her ingrained belief that all men were untrustworthy, Vera made the conscious decision not to remarry. However it did not stop her from continuing to take lovers. The men came from all types of social classes; rich or poor, married or not, it did not matter to Vera.

As was the case with her two husbands, if Vera had even the slightest hint of infidelity, and she inevitably did, the men disappeared months and in some cases even days after becoming romantically involved with her. If the missing men were connected to her she would simply say that they had either been unfaithful or had abandoned her.

Vera's downfall came at the hands of the wife of one of her lovers. The woman became suspicious about her husband's clandestine activities. She followed him one evening and watched as he entered Vera's residence. When her husband failed to return home the woman returned to Vera's residence to confront her. Vera denied that she knew the woman's husband and dispatched her post haste.

It was not long before the authorities showed up at Vera's front door. Apparently the woman did not take kindly to Vera's treatment of her and went to the police.

During a search of Vera's house the police entered her wine cellar and stepped straight in to what can only be described as a scene from the macabre. The cellar contained thirty-two zinc lined coffins which held male corpses in various stages of decomposition. Vera was arrested and taken to police headquarters at which time she confessed to having caused the death of each of the men in the cellar. If she suspected that they were being unfaithful or if their attraction to her was waning, the men were quickly dispatched with a dose of arsenic. She would spend time sitting in the wine cellar surrounded by her former lovers. Vera had finally achieved with their murders what she could not have while they were alive. Their undivided attention.

In addition, Vera confessed to killing her two husbands and her son, Lorenzo. There was obviously no love loss between mother and son. One day while visiting his mother Lorenzo happened upon her secret in the basement and attempted to blackmail her, thereby sealing his fate.

Vera Renczi was convicted on thirty-five counts of murder and spent the rest of her life in prison.

Tillie Gburek

2009-09-06T17:00:00.008-04:00

In the early nineteen hundreds there was a large concentration of Polish Americans on the north side of Chicago, Illinois. One of those residents was Ottilie (Tillie) Gburek. In addition to being a master in the kitchen,Tillie had gained a reputation in the community as a psychic. She had an uncanny ability to foresee the future with amazing accuracy, or so her neighbors thought. She claimed her visions came to her through her dreams. Her first predictions involved stray dogs in the neighborhood. She correctly predicted the day that they would die and her neighbors were astounded when right on cue the mongrels managed to cock up their toes.

Her next prediction involved her husband of twenty-nine years, John Mitkiewicz. She revealed to a friend that she dreamed she would be finding his corpse in three weeks. Her prophecy proved accurate and Tillie found herself widowed but one-thousand dollars richer when John's life insurance policy paid off.

However, Tillie did not remain alone for long. Within a few months Tillie exchanged vows with John Ruskowski. Sadly within three months of the wedding Tillie reported that she was having dreams that her husband would be dead in two weeks. When John obliged Tillie by succumbing at the aforementioned time, Tillie gained some small measure of comfort from the insurance money she received.

Husband number three was Frank Kupszcyk and barely six months later he joined his predecessors in their eternal slumber after Tillie foretold of his impending death.

Husband number four was Joseph Guszkowski. Somehow he managed to last several years longer before Tillie told anyone who would listen, including Joseph, about her "visions". In the meantime one of her neighbors, Rose Chudzinsky, was very vocal in her suspicions about Tillie's gift and her seemingly bad luck with husbands. When Tillie claimed that Rose's days were numbered no one was surprised when she turned up dead. So convinced were they that she was a true psychic, people in the community began to avoid Tillie for fear that she would predict their own demise.

When visiting a fabric store to purchase black material to make a dress for Joseph's funeral, the clerk offered her condolences and asked Tillie when her husband died. Tillie blithely replied, "ten days from now!" A fact to which Joseph complied.

Three young children on Tillie's block died agonizing deaths weeks after she foretold that a plague would strike the family. What she failed to disclose was that she had had words with the family before her "dreams" started.

Despite the warnings of his family and friends, Anton Klimek decided to chuck caution to the wind and exchanged vows with Tillie. Once his life insurance policy was in place and the couple had signed a last will and testament making each other sole beneficiaries, Anton's health seemed to decline overnight.

His family became even more concerned when Tillie did not insist that he seek medical advice and decided to step in and take Anton to the hospital themselves. When doctors examined him they began to suspect that he had been poisoned. They pumped his stomach and his gastric contents were sent to the lab for analysis and their suspicions were confirmed. Anton had managed to thwart Tillie's prediction.

The hospital immediately notified police and Tillie was arrested. Rather than risk the exhumation of her other husbands, she confessed to poisoning Anton.

Tillie Gburek went on trial at the Cook County Courthouse. She was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. On a side note, there was one major stipulation to her sentence. She was never to be allowed to cook for the other inmates!

Murder At The Red Barn

2009-09-05T21:42:00.005-04:00

At a time when there was wide spread belief in the validity of dreams, in Polstead, Suffolk, these would prove to be prophetic and deeply disturbing.

In late December Mrs. Ann Marten dreamed that her stepdaughter, Maria, had been murdered and was buried in a red barn approximately one mile from their cottage. After having the same terrifying dream for three consecutive nights, Mrs. Marten became convinced that Maria was dead and she pestered her husband, Maria's father, until he agreed to apply for permission to search the barn.

On April 19, 1828, armed with a spike, Thomas Marten, a labourer and molecatcher, and a friend entered the red barn and searched the area where Mrs. Marten had insisted that Maria was buried. They immediately noticed that the ground had been disturbed and began to dig. After some eighteen inches they uncovered a body in a sack with a silk green man's scarf protruding from it. They immediately summoned the constabulary. The coroner was also sent for and he quickly summoned a jury. The inquest was held at the Cock Inn in Polstead. The post mortem examination was performed by Dr. John Lawden. He concluded that her death had been the result of foul play. The green handkerchief had been tied tightly around the woman's neck and there was a wound in the orbit of the right eye. At that time the body was identified as that of Maria Marten by her sister.

Maria Marten was Thomas' oldest daughter. She was described as an attractive and very intelligent young woman. Unusual for a country girl at that time, Maria was able to read and write. Unfortunately in an effort to better her circumstances through a good marriage, Maria bartered with, to no avail, her most precious commodity, her virginity. At age 17 she became involved with Thomas Corder, son of wealthy farmer James Corder. Knowing that his family would disapprove, Thomas insisted on keeping their courtship a secret. When Maria became pregnant Thomas refused to marry her and provided very little in the way of financial support. The child would not live past infancy.

She next embarked on a relationship with a Mr Peter Matthews, a well-to-do gentleman who had relatives in Polstead. In time Maria would again become pregnant and Mr. Matthews also made it painfully clear that he had no intention of marrying her. However, he did provide Maria with an allowance when their son, Thomas Henry, was born.

Undeterred Maria was determined to marry well and by all accounts her wish was finally going to come to fruition. She formed an attachment with William Corder, Thomas Corder's youngest brother, he seemed to be openly courting her and frequently spoke of making her his wife. As with her previous liaisons, Maria again allowed herself to become pregnant. When the infant was barely a month old however, it mysteriously died. Corder claimed that he and Maria had taken the child to Sudbury to be buried, a fact that Maria never disputed, however when no official record of burial was ever found he refused to disclose the location where the infant had actually been interred.

William Corder was the youngest son of John Corder. He was described as being 5ft 4in in height, with a fair complexion and freckles, and extremely poor eyesight. Although he was not handsome by any means he seemed to have done quite well with the ladies. During his school years he earned the nickname Foxey because he was not adverse to stealing and lying when it suited his purposes. He was also caught several times in fraudulent and dishonest dealings which caused a rift between himself and his father and brothers. He did, however, remain extremely attached to his mother. At one point his father attempted to ship him off to sea, but his eyesight was so bad no one would employ him. So William was banished to London in disgrace. That changed when his father and eldest brothers all died within 18 months of each other and he returned to Polstead to help his widowed mother run the family farm.

With each postponement of their official union Maria grew more anxious. Perhaps she knew something about the death of their infant that would have destroyed William and used it to coerce him into committing to a firm date for the ceremony.

On Friday morning , May 18 1827, Corder came to the Martens cottage to speak with Maria. According to him a warranted had been issued for her arrest and she was about to be prosecuted for having illegitimate children. No proof of this was ever uncovered.

Maria was afraid to leave in broad daylight in case the constables were watching the cottage. William had already considered that possibility. He had brought along a suit of his clothes for her to change into and told her to meet him at the red barn. Corder left with a bag containing her clothing and personal items after promising to meet her at the barn with a carriage and from there they would travel to a church at Ipswich where they would be married by special license.

When Maria left the cottage to meet Corder it would be the last time she would be seen alive.

Several days later Corder returned to Polstead without Maria. He was confronted by Maria's family as to her whereabouts. He told them that she was staying with a friend of his near Yarmouth and that he could not bring her home yet as his wife because his relatives did not approve of her. And when asked why she had not written he claimed that she was unwell, or had hurt her hand, or that the letter had been lost. When Corder could no longer evade the probing questions of the Marten's, Corder left Polstead for reasons of poor health. He wrote letters to the Martens claiming that he and Maria were married and living on the Isle of Wight. The Martens could not help but notice however that although Corder claimed to be on the Isle of Wight all of the letters bore a London postmark.

In actuality Corder was living in London with his wife, a Miss Mary Moore, whom he had married in November. They had become acquainted when he advertised for a wife in the Morning Herald and the Sunday Times.

After the discovery of Maria's body suspicion immediately fell on William Corder. James Lea of the London police was sent to arrest him. When Lea explained to him that he was being charged with the murder of Maria Marten he denied any knowledge of her even after his house had been searched and the bag belonging to Maria had been found.

Corder was taken back to Suffolk and was tried at Shire Hall, Bury St Edmunds. The trial commenced on August 7 1828 and because of the considerable interest in the proceedings it was determined that women would not be allowed to attend and admittance to the court was by ticket only.

Since the exact cause of death could not be determined because of the level of decomposition the indictment was carefully drawn up to encompass all the possible causes of her murder, a total of nine charges.

In his defense, Corder claimed that when he met Maria at the red barn the two had argued and he retracted his promise to marry her. He left the barn and as he was walking away he heard a gun shot. He ran back to the barn and found Maria lying dead on the floor with one of his pistols next to her. According to him he panicked fearing that he would be blame and decided to bury her body.

The jury returned after 35 minutes with a verdict of guilty and Corder was sentenced to hang.

The day prior to his execution Corder confessed to killing Maria but he claimed that he had accidentally shot her in the eye while they were arguing.

Shortly before noon Corder was led to the gallows in Bury St Edmunds and hung before a crowd of thousands. When he was taken down the body was dissected and parts were preserved. The scalp with one ear attached is on display at Moyse's Hall Museum along with a copy of his death mask. A copy of the judicial proceedings was bound with Corder's skin after the surgeon had it tanned.

Mary Cecilia Rogers: The beautiful "Seegar" Girl.

2009-08-31T01:20:00.008-04:00

Described as "ethereal and hypnotically pleasing", Mary Cecilia Rogers would come to be known in New York as the "Beautiful Seegar Girl." But it would be her brutal and unsolved murder that would catapult her into history and the literary world when she was immortalized by Edgar Allen Poe in his book, "The Mystery of Marie Roget."

Mary Cecilia Rogers is believed to have been born in Lyme , Connecticut around 1820, although there are no official records of her birth. Her mother, Phoebe Rogers would have been 42 at the time which led to the speculation that Mary was actually the illegitimate daughter of Phoebe's oldest daughter from her first marriage and that she was taken in by Phoebe and her second husband Daniel Rogers to be raised as their own.

At the age of 17 Mary and her mother moved to New York to live with Phoebe's sister in 1837 after Daniel Rogers died in a steamboat explosion three years earlier.

In 1838 Mary came to the attention of John Anderson, a young entrepreneur who was looking for a gimmick to place Anderson's Tobacco Emporium ahead of it's rivals. He hired her at a generous wage to work behind the cigar counter, confident that her raven locks and attractive features would lure more patrons into the shop.

In October of 1838, Mary left her home and disappeared. It was reported by her mother Phoebe that she had left behind a letter bidding her "an affectionate and final farewell." She returned home a short time later claiming that she had gone to visit a friend in Brooklyn. The papers dismissed her disappearance as a hoax. More than likely a publicity stunt cooked up by her employer, John Anderson.

Mortified by the attention she received upon her return to the tobacco shop, Mary soon resigned her position at the shop to help her mother run her new boarding house at 126 Nassau St. in Manhattan.

Unfortunately Mary's next disappearance would be her last. On the morning of Sunday, July 25, 1841, knocked on the door of her intended and one of her mother's boarders, Daniel Payne. Daniel Payne was a cork cutter by trade who was also known to be a heavy drinker. Mary's mother heartily disapproved of him as a suitor for his daughter. A witness would later testify at the coroner's inquest that she had overheard Phoebe extract a promise from Mary that she would break off the engagement. Payne would later testify that Mary knocked on his door that Sunday morning to inform him that she was going to visit her relative, Mrs Downing, uptown on Jane St. and would be spending the day with her. They made arrangements for him to come and collect her later that evening. Daniel Payne left the boarding house later that morning to visit his brother, John at 33 Warren St and they spent the day together.

However later that day, a violent thunderstorm swept through New York and Payne, assuming that Mary would want to stay put, failed to show up at Mrs Downing's residence to collect her.

But by Monday morning when Mary failed to come home or show up for work, Phoebe and Daniel Payne became alarmed. Payne immediately went to Jane St. to speak with Mary's aunt and was informed by Mrs. Downing that not only had she not seen Mary but had not been expecting her to visit. He began a frantic search hoping that someone had seen her without success and he and her mother eventually placed an ad in the New York Sun asking for any information on her whereabouts.

Word that Mary was again missing traveled quickly and soon reached the ears of Arthur Crommelin, former boarder and suitor for Mary's hand. He too decided to join in the search for Mary.

On Wednesday, July 28, on the New Jersey side of the North (Hudson) River, James M. Boulard and Henry Mallin were strolling along the river path in the Elysian Fields, near

. As they looked out over the water they spotted what appeared to be a body floated in the river approximately 200 yards from the Hoboken shore. They raced to the docks where they procured a boat and rowed out to the body and discovered that it was the body of a female. After several failed attempts to pull the body into the boat they tied a rope around the midsection and towed the young woman's body to the shore, where they placed it on a bench.

Shortly thereafter Arthur Crommelin arrived on the scene, after having stepped off one of the three steamboats that connect New York and New Jersey. When he gazed upon the young woman's body reposed on the bench he recognized her almost immediately. It was Mary.

Dr Richard Cook, the Hoboken coroner, took possession of the body and performed an cursory exam at the scene. He initially concluded that Mary had been raped and brutally beaten sufficiently enough to cause her death. In a more detailed report he stated: "her face was bruised and swollen, the veins were highly distended. About the neck there were bruises that appeared to be from a man's thumb and fingers. It appeared as if the wrists had been bound and a piece of lace trimming was tied tightly around her neck indicating she had died from strangulation. She had been horribly violated by more than two or three persons. Since there was not the slightest trace of pregnancy, she had evidently been a person of chastity and correct habits."

The papers played a large part in the mystery that surrounded Mary Rogers death. They whipped the public up into a frenzy with their constant half-truths and fake suspects.

Various newspapers immediately cast suspicion on Daniel Payne whom they called a liar when they learned of the statements he had given to police as to his whereabouts at the time of Mary's murder. In order to prove his innocence Payne brought in sworn affidavits from witnesses who had seen him throughout the day to the news offices of the New York Herald and the Evening Star. He was exonerated at least for now in the eyes of the press.

The next persons to fall under the suspicions of the press was Arthur Crommelin and John Anderson, Mary's former employer, and all of Mary's other suitors. Each man was arrested, questioned and then released by the police. With no new clues and very few leads the police were stymied in their investigation and the stories began to fade from the headlines.

That is until late August when a Mrs Frederica Loss contacted the police with an incredible story. Mrs. Loss ran Nick Moore's House, a tavern located in the woodlands in Hoboken, New Jersey near where Mary's body had been brought to shore. She claimed that she had sent two of her three sons out to collect some firewood and that when they had entered a thicket and found several articles of a woman's clothing in a handkerchief monogrammed with the initials M.R. She also recalled that a young woman fitting Mary's description had entered her tavern with a tall, dark man around 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 25. They left after finishing their refreshments. Mrs. Loss claimed that sometime later that evening she heard a woman scream and thinking that one of her sons was in trouble rushed to his aid but found him safe and unharmed. She thought nothing more of the scream until her sons found the woman's clothing.

The press was divided as to the validity of Mrs Loss' story. The Herald felt that it proved that Mary had been murdered by a gang of ruffians. Whereas the Evening Tattler concluded that Mrs Loss was trying to cash in on the sensational murder and had her sons plant the clothing.

Plunged into a deep depression after the death of his fiance, Daniel Payne's alcoholism spiralled out of control. He even claimed to have been visited by the ghost of Mary Rogers on several occasions. On the morning of October 7, 1841 Payne visited several neighborhood bars, drinking heavily at each one. He also paid a visit to an apothecary's shop where he purchased a small vial of Laudanum. Next he boarded a ferry bound for Hoboken. He made his way to the spot where Mary had been brought ashore and sat down. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and scribbled a note, "To the World here I am on the very spot. May God forgive me for my misspent life." He shoved the paper back in his pocket and pulled out the vial of Laudanum and downed the entire contains. The poison took some time to take effect.

Since his alibi statements had exonerated him, the press viewed him as a man so consumed with grief that he could no longer live without his beloved.

And in another strange twist in this bizzarre case, on October 26, 1842, Mrs Frederica Loss was "accidentally" shot by one of her sons. She lingered on her deathbed for two weeks during which time she sent for the justice of the peace in order to give a final confession: On the Sunday of Mary Rogers disappearance she came to the tavern in the company of a young physician who brought her there to perform an abortion. However the operation was botched and Mary bled to death. Later that night her body was taken to the river by one of Mrs Loss' sons and tossed into the river.

Given the previous lies she had told and the coroner's report, many did not believe this latest story from Mrs. Loss. Still Mrs Loss' version of Mary's death became the accepted version of the facts. Especially after Poe hinted at the abortion attempt in his book. They felt that the coroner had lied in his report in order to protect Mary's reputation.

So who really killed Mary Cecilia Rogers? Was it a gang of miscreants, a jilted lover, or an unscrupulous physician? To this day the answer still remains a mystery!

Yvonne Chevallier - Crime Passionel

2009-08-13T16:16:00.006-04:00

They met in 1935 in the city of Orleans, France. Pierre Chevallier was a promising young medical student at Orleans Hospital where Yvonne Rousseau worked as a midwife.

Theirs was an instant and passionate attraction that overcame their immense social inequalities. He was from an old and distinguished family. She was raised on a peasant farm.

Yvonne's love and passion for Pierre would never waiver during their time together. Unfortunately over time her feelings would no longer be reciprocated and would bring forth the tragic consequences that would forever change their lives.

Four years later the two were married and their first son, Mathieu was born in 1940 during the era of Adolf Hitler and the invasion of France.

Pierre joined the French resistance and quickly rose to become a leading figure. He received the French Legion d'Honneur and Croix de Guerre for his heroism during the war. After the war he was elected Mayor of Orleans and in 1945 Yvonne gave birth to the couples second son, Thugal.

Pierre threw himself into politics and spent more and more time in Paris while Yvonne was left behind in Orleans to care for their children.

Pierre was described as handsome, dashing and socially adept. Yvonne, on the other hand, was described as dull, witless, and socially unacceptable.

Pierre began to look on her with growing contempt and at one point told her, "you disgust me."

Yvonne was desperate to win back her husband's love. She read about art, literature and politics. She frequented fashionable beauty salons and bought more flattering clothes. All to no avail. She eventually turned to drugs and booze to provide the comfort that was denied her by Pierre.

In the spring of 1951, Mrs Chevallier received an anonymous letter suggesting her husband was having an affair.

As she searched Pierre's closet for evidence she found a love letter in the pocket of one of his suits. It read, "Without you life would have no beauty or meaning for me." The letter was signed "Jeannette."

In her heart Yvonne knew "Jeannette" was none other than her neighbor Jeanne Perreau, wife of Leon Perreau, owner of one of Orleans' most prestigious department stores.

Jeanne Perreau was beautiful, intelligent and ultra sophisticated. The sort of woman Pierre should have married.

Yvonne left the children in the care of a maid and boarded a train bound for Paris to confront Pierre. But she returned home utterly humiliated when she was turned away from the National Assembly by an usher who was under strict orders not to allow her admittance and Pierre refused to meet with her.

When she returned home she confronted Jeanne Perreau and engaged in a shouting match that brought no resolution to her dilemma.

Pierre eventually returned to Orleans to face his wife but refused to discuss his affair with her claiming it was a private matter and continued to treat her with contempt.

Yvonne tried to force Pierre to return her affections by attempting suicide. When that did not work she went to a police station and applied for a handgun license claiming she needed protection due to her husband's political prominence.

Once she obtained the permit she went to a gun shop and eventually purchased a Mab 7.65mm, a semiautomatic handgun, and ammunition.

In August of 1951, Pierre was appointed government minister for education, youth and athletics. While he was in his dressing room changing his clothes for a public appearance, Yvonne decided to make one last ditch effort to save their marriage.

Pierre's dismissal of her was brutal. He coldly explained to her that he no longer wished to have anything else to do with her and had another woman he wanted to marry.

She fled from the room and retrieved the gun from the linen closet where she hid it and returned to Pierre's dressing room.

She turned the gun on herself and threatened to kill herself if he tried to leave her for another woman. But Pierre mocked her, telling her to go ahead and shoot herself but wait until he left the room.

That was the final straw. With deadly precision she pointed the gun at Pierre and fired four shots, hitting him in the chest, forearm, thigh, and chin.

As she stood over him their oldest child, Mathieu burst into the room and saw his father lying on the floor. Yvonne calmly led him back downstairs and handed him over to the maid. She returned to Pierre's dressing room and shot him a fifth and final time in the back.

Minutes later she called the Orleans police station and spoke with Commissaire Gazano simply stating, "Please come here at once. My husband needs you urgently." She was patiently waiting in widow's weeds when the gendarmes arrived and arrested her.

Yvonne Chevallier went on trial November 5, 1952. In those days the French penal code included a love-triangle provision that absolved from punishment any man who committed homicide after finding his wife in the bed with another man. Albeit the roles were reversed, the Chevallier case was widely viewed throughout France as a crime-of-passion which fell under the provision.

When Jeanne Perreau was called to the witness stand it was clear that the sympathy in the courtroom rested solely with Yvonne. Her approach to the stand was accompanied by hissing from the gallery. She testified that the affair began in 1950 and continued up until the day Pierre was killed. They met in Paris two to three times a week. When asked if she was ashamed of the affair she proudly replied, "Not at all." She went on to state that even though she felt pity for Mrs. Chevallier, she had no intentions of ending the affair.

Before handing the case over to the jury, the presiding judge, M. Raymond Jadin gave Yvonne a fatherly lecture for failing to conquer her "animal passion" she felt for her husband. He said, "this passion overwhelmed your whole life, without any attempt on your part to control it. I understand your cavalier action, but do not condone it."

After deliberating for 45 minutes the jury returned with a verdict, "Not Guilty", much to the relief of the crowd that had gathered to show Yvonne their support.

Even though she had been absolved of the crime by the church, Yvonne could not rid herself of the overwhelming guilt she felt. So she devised her own form of penance by moving to French New Guinea with her sons where she worked as a volunteer nurse in a hospital for the poor until her death in the 1970's.

The Murder of Bella Wright

2009-08-03T00:08:00.018-04:00

21-year-old Bella Wright was considered a very attractive and self-assured young lady. She was the oldest of seven children of an illiterate cow herder and his wife. She lived with her parents in a cottage in Stoughton, England and worked the night shift at Bate's rubber mill. She was often seen riding alone through the country side on her bicycle.

In Saturday July 5, 1919, she set out on her bicycle to post some letters in the village of Evington. She returned home and then proceeded on to the village of Gaulby to visit her uncle, George Measures.

When she arrive at her uncle's she was accompanied by an unknown male. He was riding a green BSA bicycle and wearing a raincoat, even though it was a clear night.

Measures expressed concern about the stranger but Bella did not seem alarmed. When she left her uncle's cottage an hour later she again met up with the stranger and the two rode off together.

Around 9:30 that night, a farmer, Joseph Cowell, came across the body of a young woman lying in the road as he was driving his cattle along the Via Devana. There was a pool of blood around her head and her face was covered in blood. He noticed her bicycle lying nearby. When he lifted her up he quickly realized that she was dead and moved her to the side of the road. He arranged for two farm labourers to guard the body while he left to summon the police.

When the police arrived with Dr. E. K. Williams he made a cursory examination of the body and concluded that the young woman had met with an accident while riding her bike. The body was then taken to a nearby chapel in Little Stetton.

But not all of the police were convinced her death was an accident. Police Constable Alfred Hall returned the next morning around 6:30 to conduct a closer inspection of the scene and discovered a .455-caliber bullet lying approximately 17 feet from where the body had been laying. Next he returned to the chapel where the body was and washed the dried blood from the woman's face. It was then that the real cause of death was determined. She had been shot. The bullet had entered her face just below the left eye and had exited on the right side of her face near the temple.

It was not long before the murdered woman's identity was made known, it was Bella Wright and she had last been seen in the company of an unknown man riding a green bicycle.

The police investigation uncovered few leads and the murder was destined to remain unsolved until the following year when an important clue turned up quite by circumstance.

On February 23, 1920, Enoch Whitehouse was guiding a horse drawn barge full of coal along the River Soar when he noticed the towrope dip below the water and then tighten up as if it had snagged on something. Slowly he noticed an object emerge from below the water. The towrope had become tangled around the frame of a green bicycle.

Soon the banks of the river was crawling with police searching the river for more evidence. When they examined the bike frame they noticed that someone had gone through great pains to destroy any identifying evidence from the bike. However eventually they uncovered a faint serial number inside the front fork. They traced the serial number back to the agent who had sold the bicycle. A search of his records showed that a green BSA bicycle had been sold to a Mr. Ronald Light of Derby on May 18, 1910.

Ronald Light was born in October of 1885. He lived a privileged life. His father was a successful inventor of plumbing devices. Unfortunately, Light's life consisted of a series of misfortune, mostly of his own making. In 1902 he was expelled from Oakham School at the age of 17 for lifting a little girl's clothes over her head. At age 30 he attempted to make love to a 15-year-old and admitted to improper conduct with an 8-year-old. In addition, after graduating from Birmingham University as a civil engineer he was employed at Midland Railway Works in Derby. He was fired in 1914 when he was suspected of setting fire in a cupboard and drawing indecent pictures on a lavatory wall.

When war broke out in 1914, Light was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1915. For reasons not disclosed he was court martialed and relieved of his duties in 1916. During this time his father fell out of a two-story window, an apparent suicide. He returned to Derby to live with his mother but rejoined the army as a gunner in the Honourable Antillery Company. He was demobilized in 1919 and sent home suffering from shell shock.

Light had begun teaching mathematics at Dean Close School when on March 4, 1920 his life changed forever. Police arrived at the school and arrested him for the murder of Bella Wright.

Police continued to drag the River Soar searching for clues and on March 19 they dredged up an army holster and a dozen live .455-caliber bullets. The revolver was never found. When examined the bullets were a match to the one PC Hall had found. They were eventually proven to belong Light.

Ronald Light went on trial at Leicester Castle in June of 1929. He was defended by the Honorable Sir Edward Marshall-Hall and the trial lasted 3 days.

Press coverage of the trial was sensational but it was clearly biased towards Light. His sordid past never made it into print. He was honored as an ex-Army Officer, an engineer, and a teacher. Bella's character, on the other hand, was reduced to a mere factory girl with questionable morals.

Attorney General, Gordon Hewart opened for the prosecution. He laid out the facts of the case as follows: It was proven that Light bought an enamelled green BSA bike. The day before the murder he took the bike in for repairs. The day of the murder when he picked up the bike the mechanic noticed that he was wearing a raincoat. After the murder he was never seen riding his bike again. He was known to be in possession of a revolver. He contended that after leaving Gaulby, Light made an inappropriate advance towards Bella and she fled. In her haste she mistakenly took a longer route home leaving Light the opportunity to take a shorter route in order to overtake her. He laid in wait until she appeared and then shot her.

The prosecution called ballistics expert Henry Clarke to draw a connection between the bullets found in the river and the one found near Bella's body.

However Sir Marshall-Hall was brilliant in his cross-examination of Clarke. He was able to get Clarke to concede that bullet could have easily come from a rifle. He went on to make the case that the fatal shot had been accidentally fired from some distance away. Base purely on conjecture he cast doubt on the fact that Bella had been shot at close range which would have been necessary if Light had shot her with his revolver. He all but got Clarke to admit that the damage to Bella's face would have been more severe if this had been the case.

Light took the stand in his own defense and admitted that the green bike was his. He claims that after he read about the murder he hid the bike in his closet for 5 months. He didn't want to go public out of fear of worrying his ailing mother. He decided that it was best to get rid of the bike instead. He went to the River Soar, dismantled the bike and threw it into the river piece by piece. Unbeknownst to him the entire event was witnessed by a laborer named Samuel Holland. He also admitted that the holster and bullets were also his and that he had disposed of the clothes he was wearing that day. As for the revolver he claimed he was not in possession of the revolver at the time of the murder because it had been taken from him when he was in France during the war.

According to him he met Bella on his way to Little Stretton. She was stooping over her bicycle and asked if he had a spanner so she could tighten up her loose freewheel. He told her no but offered to accompany her which she accepted. When they reached Gaulby he went to have a flat tire mended while she visited her uncle. He met up with Bella again as she left the cottage and they parted ways shortly after leaving Gaulby when his tire and flattened again and he realized he would have to walk.

Throughout his entire well-rehearsed testimony he remained poised and in control and during his cross-examination the prosecution was unable to rattle him or shake his testimony. A fact appeared that to have impressed the jury.

They deliberated for three hours before returning their verdict, Not Guilty! Immediately afterwards there could be heard loud cheering both inside and outside the courtroom.

When asked about the verdict members of the jury declared that they were confident that Light was innocent. They also expressed the opinion that there had been no murder at all.

The Priory Puzzle

2009-07-13T20:49:00.008-04:00

On April 18, 1876 the occupants of the ostentatious mansion known as the Priory at Balham, a suburb of London, sat down to dinner. Their meal included whiting, lamb, and poached eggs on toast. The male occupant drank three glasses of Burgundy while his female companions polished off almost two bottles of sherry between the two of them.

After three days of excruciating agony, one of them would be dead. The cause of death was determined to be antimony, a particularly harsh poison, and would lead to one of England's most celebrated unsolved murder mysteries.

The Victim:

Charles Delauney Bravo was an up and coming barrister with a promising Parliamentary career in front of him. He resided at the Priory with his wife, Florence Bravo and her paid companion, Mrs. Jane Cannon Cox.

Charles Bravo was described as a cruel and vindictive man who had been accused of marrying Florence for her money. In typical Victorian fashion, he was the master of his domain and his wife was to submit to him in all things. He became enraged when he learned that Florence, intended to retain control of her considerable fortune and punished her by forcing her into degrading sexual acts, in addition to being verbally and at times physically abusive. In an effort to cement his hold over Florence, he insisted that she bear him a child regardless of the consequences to her health.

The Suspects:

Florence Bravo was a widow when she met Charles Bravo. Her first husband, Algernon Lewis Ricardo, was a Captain in the Grenadier Guards. He received an honorable discharge from the guards after their wedding but found that he was not cut out for a non-military regimen. Within a year the marriage was already under a tremendous strain. Florence discovered that he was sleeping with other women. He also developed a fondness for the bottle and quickly developed into a dipsomaniac. They remained married an additional 6 years during which time he was rarely sober. Their marriage ended after he became physically abusive during one of their frequent arguments and she packed up and left. Rather than go back to her husband as her father demanded she went to a hydropathy clinic in Malvern, Worcestershire. While at the clinic she was informed of her husband's death and that she had inherited his estate to the tune of 40 thousand pounds. She immediately made plans to leave Malvern and move to London where purchased the Priory. She would eventually meet Charles Bravo and the two married in December of 1875 after Bravo made sure the odds were stacked in his favor. The two began having premarital relations and Florence became pregnant in November but she had difficulty carrying the child and miscarried in January. Charles insisted that they resume relations three weeks later even though Florence had not yet recovered. She soon found herself pregnant but again was unable to carry the child to fruition and miscarried in April. Florence became seriously ill after the miscarriage and was terrified that if Charles again forced her to become pregnant before she had a chance to sufficiently recover it would kill her.

Mrs Jane Cannon Cox was a widow with little means and considerable debt. She and her three small sons moved back to England from Jamaica after the death of her husband. Her sons were enrolled in private school and she barely supported herself and her family by renting out her home and by working as a governess. When she and Florence met they took an instant liking to each other and Florence offered her an ideal position as a highly paid live-in companion. The two became fast friends and Florence came to rely heavily on Mrs Cox for advice and guidance. Charles was jealous of the close relationship between Florence and Mrs Cox. He also felt that Mrs Cox was the reason why he could not control his wife. Even though they were extremely well off, Charles was a penny-pincher and insisted that Florence fire Mrs Cox among other things in an effort to save money. Mrs Cox faced the possibility of losing her comfortable lifestyle and returning to a state of poverty and destitution.

Dr James Manby Gully was the director of the hydropathy clinic in Malvern, Worcestershire. He first met Florence when she came to the clinic after she had separated from her first husband. Even though he was nearly 40 years her senior the two became attracted to each other and began a scandalous affair causing Florence to be ostracized from her family and society. During one of their illicit rendezvous, Florence discovered that their attempts at birth control had failed and she was with child. Realizing that their reputations would be permanently destroyed if word of her pregnancy became public knowledge, Dr Gully agreed to perform an abortion on Florence.
Florence suffered severe complications after the abortion and nearly died. She would eventually recover but their relationship was never the same. Even though he was still deeply in love with her, Florence insisted that their relationship remain purely platonic. Upon hearing about the upcoming nuptials, Dr Gully became angry and broke off all communication with Florence.

The first inquest was held on April 25, 1876 at the Priory with Florence providing refreshments for the jury. The Coroner, an acquaintance of Florence's family, convinced that Charles Bravo had committed suicide, took great pains to keep any scandal to a minimum. The proceedings were kept private and Florence was never called to testify. Two of the five doctors present during Charles' sickness testified to the fact that when he was confronted with the fact that they believed he had been poisoned stated that he had rubbed laudanum on his gums for a toothache and might have accidentally swallowed some. He denied taking poison and refused to name anyone who might have wanted to harm him. The doctors also testified that Mrs Cox had made known to them that Charles had admitted "I've taken some of that poison, but don't tell Florence." The Coroner then closed the inquiry and the jury returned with an open verdict. That is, "the deceased died from the effects of poison - antimony - but we have not sufficient evidence under what circumstances it came into his body."

When additional facts of the case and the verdict of the inquest were revealed to the public there was an immediate outcry of dissatisfaction and a demand to open up a second more in depth inquiry. One of the physician's present, Dr George Johnson, who had not been allowed to testify at the first inquiry gave a statement to the press in which he claimed that Charles Bravo had not knowingly taken poison. Mrs Cox also changed her statement previous statement which she had altered in an attempt to shield Florence from public scorn. She claimed that Charles had actually told her that he had taken poison for Gully and to not tell Florence. In light of this the illicit affair of Florence Bravo and Dr James Gully again resurfaced.

On June 19, 1976 the Attorney General made application to the Court of Queen's Bench and was granted a rule that squashed the first inquiry and ordered the Coroner to hold a new inquest.

The second inquest was held at the Bedford Hotel in Balham on July 11. Both Jane Cox and Florence testified that Charles Bravo was mean-spirited and deeply disturbed. They claimed that he was often verbally abusive and had one time even struck Florence. He was also extremely jealous of her former relationship with Dr. Gully. On one occasion he had called Florence a selfish pig and that he was leaving her. How he hated both her and Gully and wished they were dead. Their testimony was seen by some as a means to lay the groundwork for establishing the fact that he had taken his own life.

Florence and Mrs Cox's statements were refuted by the unanimous testimony of relatives, friends, and servants. They described Charles as a strong, active man with a cheerful disposition. The last man who would ever commit suicide. To them his relationship with Florence appeared happy and affectionate and none of the servants had ever heard or sensed the level of discord described by Florence and Mrs Cox.

It was further established that Charles kept a water bottle at his bedside and it was his custom to drink from it each night when he went to bed. The bottle was filled nightly by one of the housemaids. It was presumed that the water bottle was the medium for the poison since he would have become ill within 15 minutes of consuming the antimony. But one of the physicians was sure that he had drunk some of the water from the bottle while attending to Charles.

When she was on the stand Florence was forced to describe in lurid details her relationship with Dr Gully and at one point pleaded with the Coroner to protect her from the relentless questions put to her by the solicitor representing Charles' family.

Dr. Gully was much more controlled on the witness stand. Even though he admitted to the affair with Florence he unequivocally denied any direct or indirect participation in the poisoning of Charles Bravo.

On August 11, with no hard evidence, the jury reached a verdict of willful murder. "We find that Charles Delaunay Turner Bravo did not commit suicide; that he did not meet his death by misadventure; that he was willfully murdered by the administration of tarter emetic; but there is not sufficient evidence to fix the guilt upon any person or persons.

After the trial, the three suspects were free to leave but their lives were forever changed. Florence Bravo was publicly disgraced and disowned by her family. She moved to Southsea in the county of Hampshire where she died at the age of 33 in 1878 from alcohol poisoning. Dr. Gully also suffered complete ruin to his social and professional reputation and died in 1883.

Mrs Cox fared much better than her counterparts. She returned to Jamaica with her sons where she received a substantial inheritance from her husband's aunt. She eventually returned to England and died in 1913.

To this day the questions still remain a source of great debate, who killed Charles Bravo and how?

Murder In Peasenhall

2009-07-07T01:16:00.003-04:00

22-year-old Rose Harsent was a pretty, robust, country-girl who resided in the remote Suffolk village of Peasenhall. She was employed by Deacon William Crisp, a Baptist elder, as a domestic servant at Providence house.

On May 31st, 1902, Rose received an anonymous letter arranging to come and meet her at midnight. As the time approached for the late night assignation Rose made her way down the servant's staircase leading to the kitchen.

The following morning, William Harsent came to Providence house to pay a his daughter, Rose, a visit. When he entered the cottage through the back door he encountered Rose laying at the foot of the stairs. Her throat had been cut, she had deep gashes on her shoulders, and her nightdress was charred. The police and a doctor were summoned and soon realized that the seen was made to look like she had tripped down the steps and cut herself with the oil lamp and that the lamp had caught her nightdress on fire. They found that the fire had actually been started by a newspaper and also found a broken medicine bottle containing paraffin near the body.

When the police searched Rose's room they uncovered the anonymous letter and the handwriting was eventually traced back to one William Gardiner. Gardiner, a married man with six children, was considered a pillar of the community. He was a foreman at Peasenhall seed drill works, an elder at the local Primitive Methodist Church in addition to being the choir master. Rose Harsent also attended the church and was a member of the choir.

When an autopsy was performed Rose Harsent was found to be six months pregnant. To authorities there was no doubt that the father of the child was William Gardiner and that the pregnancy was the motive for her murder.

The previous year the two had been involved in a scandal. Their illicit affair had been uncovered when two young men from the village, George Wright and Alfonso Skinner, noticed the pair entering an empty cottage known as the Doctor's Chapel. Once they were inside the young men crept closer and soon they heard the unmistakable sounds of an intimate nature coming from inside. The two wasted no time spreading the gossip of what they had seen and heard. Apparently Gardiner and Rose had continued their sordid relationship even though he had been severely chastised by his pastor. As an elder of the church he was expected to be above reproach and it did not sit well with the members of the community that he had seduced an innocent young girl.

During his interrogation Gardiner denied any involvement in Rose's murder. He stated that he had been at home in bed with his wife at the time of the murder. An alibi which she staunchly corroborated.

The evidence, albeit circumstantial, against Gardiner was overwhelming. The newspaper used to start the fire had been brought to the crime scene as neither the Crisps or Rose subscribed to it. The broken medical bottle of paraffin had been prescribed for the Gardiner children. Gardiner's clasp knife was stained with blood, he claimed he had used it to cut up rabbits. Unfortunately at that time there was no way to test if it was human or animal blood. Neighbors testified that they had seen a large fire burning in the back yard of the Gardiner's house on the morning after the murder. The prosecution would later argue that this explained why there were no bloodstained clothing found in the house.

The first trial took place on November 7, 1902. In those days the jury had to reach a unanimous verdict in a murder trial. The jury returned with a count of 11 to 1 in favor of conviction.

The judge ordered a retrial which commenced on January 21, 1903. This time the jury returned with a count of 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal.

Once again a retrial was ordered, except this time, authorities not hopeful of securing a conviction, entered a plea of Nolle Prosequi and the case against Gardiner was dismissed. He and his family moved to a suburb in London and into relative obscurity.

Speculation of Gardiner's guilt or innocence has persisted ever since. It was his wife's determined support of him that went a long way in convincing others of his innocence.

It was also uncovered that Rose was not quite the innocent she was portrayed to be. She was purported to have a string of lovers. In addition to the letter from Gardiner there were lewd poetry and suggestive notes written to her by other men from the village, adding to the list of potential suspects.

In fact, William Gardiner could be the one providing the alibi for the one woman who stood to lose the most if Rose gave birth, his wife, Georgie Gardiner

The Curious Case of Captain Hart

2009-07-04T16:51:00.003-04:00

Tenants Harbour, Maine is a quaint little seafaring village along the coast east of Muscongus Bay. But in 1877, it would become the scene of one of New England's most famous and mysterious murders.

In October 1877, Captain Luther Meservey boarded his schooner, the Bickmore, for a four-month long sea voyage. Used to spending long periods alone, his wife settled into her usual routine when her husband was at sea.

On December 22, 1877, Mrs Meservey was seen by several neighbours en route to the post office. A five minute walk from her cottage. When she arrived at the post office she was informed that her neighbour, Mark Wall, had already collected the mail, this was not an unusual occurrence. She was also seen walking back to her cottage but did not stop at her neighbour's to pick up the mail.

The next morning, Mark Wall sent his son around to the Meservey cottage with their mail. When he arrived he noticed that the curtains were drawn. He also received no reply when he knocked on the front door and assumed that she had gone out. In fact none of her neighbours seemed curious about Sarah's mysterious disappearance.

What is surprising in such a small community, no one voiced any concern when Sarah Meservey failed to take part in any of the Christmas activities and her mail was piling up at the post office.

Finally after 38 days Captain Albion Meservey, cousin to Luther Meservey, brought the matter of her absence to the attention of First Selectman Whitney Long. The men went to the Meservey cottage and entered through an unlocked rear window. They noticed at once that something was terribly wrong. The cottage was freezing and had appeared to have been ransacked. As they searched the rooms the whereabouts of Sarah Meservey was quickly solved. When they entered the large bedroom amidst broken furniture and glass they found her body wrapped tightly in a quilt.

They surmised that she had been killed not shortly after returning from the post office since she was still wearing her coat and overshoes. She had been strangled with her white woolen scarf and her arms were tied behind her head with a cord tied in seaman's knots.

The men also discovered several distinct matches - long and slim- in the kitchen and bedrooms. Also in the kitchen, Capt. Albion found a crumpled hand-written note. On one side was written the date , "Monday Eveny 24". And on the other side, " i cam as A Woman She was out and i wait till She Came back not for mony but i kiled her"

On February 16, 1877, Captain Luther Meservey returned home to the news that his wife had been murdered and little progress had been made towards solving the crime.

Three days later, Mrs Levi Hart, whose husband, Capt Nathan Hart, had been helping Sheriff A. T. Low with the investigation, received an anonymous letter dated February 10 and postmarked February 16. The letter had been mailed from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sheriff Low deduced that the letter had actually come from Tenants Harbor and that some one had actually managed to route the letter to make it appear it had come from Philadelphia. The letter warned her to tell her husband "to be careful how he conducted things about Tenants Harbor" and went on to warn "tell them it is no use trying to catch this chap for he will not be caught".

After obtaining the letter, Sheriff Low asked four men, including Capt Hart, to submit a handwriting sample. They were asked to write the phrase, "i kiled her".

On March 8, 1877, Captain Nathan Hart was placed under arrest based on the assumption that his handwriting matched that of the murderer. Also in evidence were the distinctive matches found at the Meservey cottage. Matches that only one resident of Tenants Harbor possessed, Nathan Hart.

Leading handwriting expert of the day, Professor Alvin R. Dunton was asked to examine a ship's log book, alleged to belong to the accused, along with the note and letter. He concluded that all three documents had been written by the same hand. It was because of his testimony that the Grand Jury handed down an indictment against Hart for the murder of Sarah Meservey.

Hart went on trial in Rockland, Maine on October 1, 1878. The prosecutor, L. M. Staples claimed he had no alibi for December 22nd when authorities believe the murder actually occurred. He also claimed that since Hart had an ironclad alibi for the 24th he snuck back in the cottage and plated a note with numerous grammatical errors and dated the 24th in order to throw off the police. He produced a witness who claimed that Hart had made improper advances towards Sarah and had been repulsed.

Professor Dunton took the stand and dropped a bombshell. Even though he still claimed that the ship's log, the note from the crime scene and the letter had been written by the same hand, they had not been written by Capt Hart. In fact the ship's log did not even belong to Capt Hart. It belonged to and had been written by Capt Luther Meservey's cousin, Capt Albion Hart. Before presenting his startling discovery in court he had the findings verified by other handwriting experts.

Unfortunately his testimony was negated when Capt Hart took the stand to face his accusers. When he opened his mouth he literally talked himself into a conviction. Not only was he forced to admit that he had no alibi for the 22nd, he went on to testify that he had dreamed that Sarah had been murdered and the conditions of the inside of the cottage.

After only two hours deliberation the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. Hart was sentenced to life imprisonment.

On October 9, 1883, Capt Nathan Hart died after spending five years of his life sentence. His supporters, which included Professor Dunton, swore that an innocent man had been imprisoned and that the police and prosecutor were more interested in obtaining a conviction that finding the true culprit.

To this day no effort has ever been made to prove or disprove his innocence.

The Acid Bath Killer

2009-06-23T18:50:00.008-04:00

John George Haigh was born on July 24, 1909 in Stamford, Lincolnshire and grew up in Yorkshire, England. His parents, John and Emily belonged to the religious sect of the Plymouth Brethern. He was raised on Bible stories and any kind of frivolous entertainment was strictly forbidden. His father claimed the world was evil and erected a 10 ft fence around their property to discourage contact with the outside world.

John Sr. had a bluish birth mark on his forehead. He told his son that it was the devil's mark because he had sinned. John Jr was in a constant state of anxiety that he would "sin" and it would leave a mark. Contrary to what his father told him, he did not suffer any dire consequences for his infractions and he started to believe that he was invincible. He also learned to lie quite convincingly at an early age.

As he got older he stopped attending his parents church and adopted a more worldly practice. In 1934 he married Beatrice Hammer and the couple moved in with his parents. The marriage lasted only 4 months when he was arrested for fraud and sent to prison. Beatrice gave birth to the couple's daughter and gave her up for adoption. After Haigh was released from prison he returned to his parents home and worked briefly as a dry cleaner before moving to London.

He answered an ad for a job as a secretary/chauffeur to amusement park owner, William "Mac" McSwann. The two became fast friends and Haigh was soon promoted to manager. He left after one year citing that he wanted to be his own boss.

He opened up an office pretending to be a solicitor and set up a stock scam. When he was caught it earned him four years in prison. While there he studied law books in order to perfect his craft and chanced across the Latin phrase "Corpus delicti". He erroneously interpreted the phrase to mean no corpse (body), no conviction and it would prove to be the key factor in his downfall.

Within a year of being released he was imprisoned yet again for theft. He vowed that this would be the last time he was caught and decided to put a more profitable plan into action. In order to get the real money he had to prey on older, wealthy women. He learned how to work with sulfuric acid in the prison tin shop and experimented with mice to learn how long it would take their bodies to dissolve.

Upon his release from prison Haigh obtained a position as a bookkeeper. When he had saved up enough money he rented a basement space at 79 Gloucester Road and set up his ghoulish workshop which included special glass containers of sulfuric acid.

One night when Haigh was out on the town he ran into his old friend Mac McSwann and the two reminisced about old times. Mac took him to see his parents, William and Amy, who told him about their profitable investment properties. Unbeknownst to them they had sealed their fate with their revelations.

Around September 9, 1944 Haigh invited Mac to his basement workshop. Sometime during the night he snuck up behind him and bludgeoned him with a blunt object and then slit his throat. He left him overnight to bleed to death and returned the next day with a 40-gallon drum. He stuffed McSwann in the drum, filled it with sulfuric acid and covered the drum. He returned two days later to find the drum filled with a black sludge and poured the contents down a manhole drain.

Haigh told McSwann's parents that he had run off to Scotland to avoid the draft. He bolstered his lie by putting his talents as a forger to use sending fake postcards from Scotland.

When his parents became concerned about their son's continued absence he invited the McSwanns to his basement workshop and killed the in the same fashion as their son. He told their landlady that they had moved to America and their mail, including William's pension checks, forwarded to him. He forged Mac's signature on a Power of Attorney given him control over the McSwanns estate. He sold their properties and securities and netted a tidy sum of approximately £8000.

He moved to Onslow Court Hotel in Kensington and passed him self off as a liaison officer who dealt with patents and inventors. By the summer of 1947 Haigh had gambled away most of the money and needed to find more victims.

Dr. Archibald and Rose Henderson were selling their house. Haigh pretended to be interested in buying their house and cultivated a friendship in order to learn the extent of their considerable assets.

Haigh rented a storehouse on Leopold Road in Crawley, London. He moved his possessions from Gloucester Street and set up his workshop once again. He ordered more sulphuric acid and two 40-gallon drums.

On February 12, 1948, Haigh drove Dr. Henderson to Crawley on the pretext of showing him an invention. Once in the workshop Haigh shot him in the back of the head with a gun he had stolen earlier from Dr. Henderson. Next he lured Mrs. Henderson to the workshop and she too was shot in the back of the head. He placed the bodies into the two 40-gallon drums and dissolved both bodies in the sulfuric acid. As he dumped the sludge in the corner of the storehouse yard, he noticed that one of Dr. Henderson's feet had not dissolved. Unconcerned he tossed the foot on top of the sludge.

He forged a letter from Dr. Henderson giving him legal authority to obtain their possessions and properties. The sell of which totaled £8000.

Mrs Olive Durand-Deacon, a wealthy widow and resident of Onslow Court, approached Haigh with an idea she had for artificial fingernails. He invited her to his workshop to discuss her idea further.

February 20, 1949, Constance Lane walked into the Chelsea police station and reported her friend, Mrs Durand-Deacon missing. She was accompanied by John Haigh.

Policewoman, Sergeant Lambourne had been assigned to question the residents of Onslow Court about the disappearance. When she first encountered Haigh her gut feeling told her that he was not being truthful and she decided to run a background check on him. Within the hour his extensive criminal past was uncovered.

When she reported her suspicions to her superiors the West Sussex constables decided to search his workshop. The found three 10-gallon glass bottles of sulfuric acid, rubber boots and gloves, and a gas mask. They found a man's attache case bearing the initials J.G.H that contained papers belonging to the Hendersons and McSwanns, a .38-caliber Enfield revolver, and a cleaner's receipt for a Persian lamb coat that was identified as Mrs Durand-Deacon's. They also located jewelry belonging to Mrs Durand-Deacon's that had been sold by Haigh.

When Haigh was brought in for questioning he denied any involvement until he realized the evidence they had against him. Before he began his bizarre confession he asked one of the inspectors "what are the chances of anybody being released for Broadmoor?" The inspector refused to answer. Assuming he was safe, after all, as he put it, "How can you prove murder without a body?" Haigh confessed to the murders of Mrs Durand-Deacon, the McSwanns and the Hendersons. In an attempt to set up his insanity defense he claimed that he had had nightmares about blood since he was a child and had been driven by a compulsion he could not control to drink the blood of his victims after he killed them.

As the police continued to search his storehouse they identified a fine spatter of bloodstains on one of the walls. They then focused their attention on the sludge in the corner of the yard.

They carefully sifted through the sludge for 3 days and cataloged the following evidence:

28 pounds of human body fat
three gallstones
part of a left foot
18 fragments of human bone
upper and lower dentures
handle of a red plastic bag
lipstick container

April 1, 1949 John Haigh went on trial for the murder of Mrs. Olive Durand-Deacon. Confident that he would be found insane and confined to Broadmoor for a period of time, Haigh paid little attention to the proceedings preferring to work on a series of crossword puzzles instead.

During the closing arguments the crown stated that Haigh thought he had discovered the perfect method of concealing a crime. He had committed murder for gain and had only raised sanity as an issue when he got caught. He had laid claim to vampire tendencies in order to advance his insanity plea.

It took the jury only 15 minutes to find him guilty. John George Haigh was executed at Wandsworth Prison on August 6, 1949.

10 Rillington Place

2009-06-21T15:54:00.019-04:00

John Reginald Halliday Christie was born in Yorkshire, England in 1898. The product of a control-freak, abusive father and an overprotective mother, he grew up sexually impotent and a hypochondriac. He developed an inherent dislike of women, a horror of dirt and often exaggerated minor illnesses in an attempt to gain attention.

Socially and sexually inhibited, his early attempts at love-making failed earning him the nicknames, "Can't-make-it-Christie" and "Reggie-No-Dick." By age 19 he was frequenting prostitutes.

In 1920 he married Ethel Simpson Waddington. The two were separated four years later when Christie left her to move to London. He also continued visiting prostitutes throughout the marriage.

Over the next ten years Christie spent the next ten years or so in and out of prison for petty crimes and assault. When he was released from his latest stint in prison in 1933, he was reunited with his wife, Ethel, when she agreed to join him in London. The two moved into a ground floor apartment at 10 Rillington Place in the Ladbroke Grove neighborhood of Notting Hill.

During World War II, Christie became a special constable for the Harrow Road Police Station. His wife made frequent trips to Sheffield to visit her relatives leaving Christie free to continue visiting his prostitutes. He also had an affair with a woman working at the police station which lasted until he resigned in December 1943.

In August of 1943, Christie picked up 21-year-old Ruth Fuerst, a munitions worker and part-time prostitute, and brought her back to his apartment at Rillington Place. She would become his first victim when he impulsively strangled her during sex and buried her in the communal backyard garden.

His next victim was 32-year-old Muriel Eady who was suffering from bronchitis. He invited her over to his apartment claiming that he had a special inhaler which would cure her chest ailment. In actuality, the "inhaler" contained carbon monoxide which rendered her unconscious. He then strangled her while raping her and buried her alongside his first victim.

In the Spring of 1948, Timothy Evans and his wife Beryl moved into the top-floor apartment of 10 Rillington Place. The couple was expecting their first child and shortly after moving in a daughter Geraldine was born.

Evans had an IQ of 70, possessed a violent temper and his learning disabilities made it difficult for him to hold a steady job. One year later Beryl found her self burdened with an unwanted pregnancy and tried several times to rid herself of the baby.

Christie, claiming that he had some medical knowledge from his time spent as a constable during the war, offered to abort her baby. On the morning of November 8, 1948, Christie entered the Evans' apartment. Instead of performing the abortion he gassed Beryl and then strangled her with a cord while raping her. When Timothy returned home from work he was informed by Christie that the abortion had not gone well and she had died from septic poisoning from her previous abortion attempts. He convinced Timothy not to go to the police by instilling a fear in him that the police would blame him for his wife's death.

Christie offered to dispose of her body and make arrangements for a couple he knew to care for baby Geraldine while Timothy went to stay with his aunt in Wales.

Timothy's mother became concerned about the mysterious disappearance of Beryl and the baby. She confronted him and quickly exposed his lies.

On November 30, 1949, Timothy Evans walked into the police station at Merthyr Tyalfil, Wales and confessed to having disposed of his wife down a drain. He claimed that she had died after taking abortion pills and he got scared and disposed of her body in a sewer drain outside of the apartment.

Evans was re-questioned after the first search yielded no body. This time he implicated Christie. Fear of Christie had forced him to confess. A second search by the police uncovered the bodies of Beryl and baby Geraldine in the communal washroom in the backyard. A man's tie was still knotted around Geraldine's neck.

Evans went on trial at Old Bailey on January 11, 1950. The fact that he lacked the mental capabilities to come up with the elaborate attempt to cover up the murder of his wife and he was unaware that his daughter was also dead, never registered with the authorities.

He was charged with the murder of his baby and testimony included the murder of his wife. Christie was the chief witness for the Crown.

Evans lawyers never launched any investigation of their own and failed to provide any type of defense on his behalf.

He was found guilty and was hanged on March 9, 1950.

After the trial Christie fell into a deep depression. His criminal past had been exposed in court and he lost his job because of it. His wife Ethel was not pleased and made sure he knew it. She also taunted him about his continuing impotence.

December 12, 1952 was the last day anyone could recall seeing Ethel Christie. John told neighbours that she went to Sheffield to visit her relatives and that he would be joining her there shortly. He told her relatives that she was too ill to visit or write them. In fact he had strangled her and placed her body under the floor boards in the parlour.

When neighbours remarked about the foul odor, he sprinkled the house with strong disinfectant.

In need of funds, he pawned his wife's wedding ring and watch and sold almost all of his furniture except for a table, three chairs and a mattress.

On January 19, 1953, a pregnant prostitute named Rita Nelson caught Christie's eye. He lured her back to 10 Rillington place with a promise to assist her in aborting her baby. Once in the apartment he gassed her and then strangled her while raping her. He placed the body in an alcove behind a cupboard in the kitchen.

Christie forged his wife's signature on her bank account and emptied it.

His final two victims were both prostitutes, Kathleen Maloney and Hectorina McLennan. Both were gassed and strangled while being raped. Their bodies were stashed in the alcove along side Rita Nelson and then Christie wallpapered over the cupboard.

The smell from the apartment was becoming increasingly putrid. It was time to make a move. He illegally sublet his apartment to a young couple and absconded with the three months rent they had paid in advance. They were forced to move less than 24 hours later when the landlord notified them that Christie did not have the authority to rent to them.

While the flat was being renovated, the landlord allowed another tenant to use the kitchen. While he was tearing down wallpaper he discovered the concealed cupboard. When he opened the door who noticed what appeared to be a body. He closed the door and immediately notified the police.

When the police arrived and examined the cupboard they found not one but three bodies located in the alcove. They continued to search the flat and noticed loose floorboards in the parlor. The floorboards were removed and they began to dig. It did not take long for them to uncover the body of Christie's wife, Ethel. The police also discovered a man's suit, a man's tie fashioned like a noose, a container of potassium cyanide, and a tobacco tin that contained four clumps of pubic hair.

The communal garden was dug up and the bodies of Christie's first two victims were unearthed.

Christie was arrested 10 days later. During questioning he confessed to four of the murders. He claimed that his wife's murder was a mercy killing. He woke up and she was choking next to him and he strangled her to put her out her misery. He claimed self defense in the other three murders. The victims were all prostitutes who had tried to take advantage of him and attacked him first.

At one point he also confessed to the murder of Beryl Evans, claiming hers was also a mercy killing, but later recanted. He denied killing baby Geraldine.

John Christie stood trial at Old Bailey on June 22, 1953. His trial lasted four days and after 22 minutes he was found guilty of the murder of his wife. He was sentenced to death and hanged two weeks later on July 15, 1953 at Pentonville Prison in London.

His confession led to an inquiry of Timothy Evans' case in order to see if an innocent man had been put to death. Eleven days later the inquiry concluded that Evans had indeed murdered his wife and daughter leading to a backlash of public criticism siting that the inquiry was rushed and grossly inadequate.

Another inquiry conducted in 1968 concluded that Evans probably strangled his wife but not his daughter. As a result he was granted a posthumous pardon in 1966 in the death of his daughter.

To this date it is unlikely that the guilt or innocence of Timothy Evans will ever be definitively established.

The Tea Cup Murderer

2009-06-18T21:49:00.008-04:00

Graham Frederick Young was born in Neasden, North London on September 7, 1947. His mother died when he was three months of age after developing pleurisy while she was pregnant. His father, unable to raise young children on his own, sent Graham to live with his sister and Graham's older sister to live with her grandmother.

When Graham was 2-1/2 years old his father remarried and the family was reunited.

Graham preferred to keep his own company and had very few friends. By age 12 he was avidly reading books about murder, especially those that used poison as the modus operandi. He had also developed and unhealthy fascination for Adolf Hitler and the occult and took to wearing a swastika badge to school. His only interests in school were chemistry and toxicology, particularly the study of poisons.

Although 13-years-old at the time, Graham was able to convince some local chemists he was much older due to his considerable knowledge of poison and he was able to procure large quantities of antimony, arsenic, digitalis and thallium for "school" experiments.

Graham befriended a fellow science enthusiast at school named Christopher Williams. The two often ate lunch together and swapped sandwiches. Soon after Christopher began to suffer from bouts of vomiting, severe cramps and headaches. Doctors were baffled as to the cause of his illness and attributed the symptoms to severe migraines. Christopher would eventually recover from his illness.

In early 1961, a mysterious gastric illness plagued the Young family. Graham's stepmother, Molly, was the first to suffer from vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps. The illness next struck his father, older sister and finally Graham himself.

One morning Graham fixed his sister, Winifred, a cup of tea. After a couple of sips she refused to drink anymore because it tasted bitter. On the train ride to work she began to hallucinate and had to be hospitalized. The doctors eventually discovered that she had been poisoned with belladonna.

Graham's father, Fred Young, suspected that he had inadvertently contaminated the families food with his chemistry experiments and warned him to be more careful in the future.

On April 21, 1962, Fred Young came home to find an entranced Graham staring out the kitchen window. When he looked out he saw his wife, Molly, writhing in agony in the back yard. She died at the hospital later that night. Her death was attributed to a prolapsed spinal bone and she was cremated at Graham's urging.

Following Molly's death, Fred's symptoms intensified and he was admitted to the hospital. When the doctor's diagnosed that he was suffering from Antimony poisoning, he still refused to believe that his son had deliberately poisoned him.

Concerned about the dangerous experiments he was conducting, Graham's chemistry teacher contacted police after he searched his desk and found bottles of poisons and information about infamous poisoners.

Graham was arrested on May 23, 1962 and confessed to poisoning his family and his schoolmate. No charges were brought against him for the murder of his stepmother since the evidence had been destroyed when she was cremated.

At the age of 14, Graham would become the youngest inmate at Broadmoor Maximum Security Psychiatric Hospital since 1885. He was sentenced to serve a minimum of 15 years.

Within a few weeks of his arrival, fellow inmate John Berridge died from Cyanide poisoning. Graham confessed to the murder but he was not believed and the official verdict was listed as suicide.

By the end of his 5th year Graham realized that the only way he would be released any sooner was to become the model prisoner and to hide his obsession with poison. However, that did not stop him from continuing to tamper with the staff and inmates drinks.

By June 1970, after he had served nearly 8 years, the prison psychiatrist recommended that Graham be released stating that he was no longer obsessed with poisons.

On the eve of his release Graham told one of the nurses, "when I get out, I'm going to kill one person for every year I've spent in this place." His statement was recorded in his file but was never passed on.

Graham was released on February 4, 1971 and moved into a room at a hostel in Hemel Hempstead. It was not long before he started his poison collection for his "experiments". Soon after residents of the hostel started to exhibit abdominal cramps and sickness. One of the residents ended up committing suicide because of the severe pain he was suffering.

Graham obtained a position as a store clerk at a photographic supply firm in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire and within days of his employ started to make tea for his colleagues.

His boss, Bob Egle, began to suffer from severe cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. His symptoms were attributed to a virus that was going around at the time. When Bob Egle went on vacation he recovered completely. However, the day after he returned to work he fell ill again. Eventually he was admitted to the hospital where he died 10 days later. The official cause of death was recorded as pneumonia.

Fred Biggs, stock supervisor, suffered from symptoms similar to Bob Egle. He was admitted to London National Hospital for Nervous Disease when he eventually succumbed after suffering excruciating agony for weeks.

By this time at least 70 employees had suffered similar nonfatal symptoms of various degrees prompting authorities to launch an investigation. The police quickly ascertained that the illnesses started shortly after Graham began working at the firm. Subsequent forensic investigations revealed that the victims had been subjected to Thallium poisoning. They also uncovered the fact that Graham was a convicted poisoner.

When his room at the hostel was searched, the police found numerous vials of poison and a detailed diary with the names of his victims along with the effects of the poison. Also who he was going to kill or allow to live.

Graham Young was arrested on November 21, 1971 and went on trial at St. Albans Crown Court in June 1972. He was convicted of two murders, two attempted murders, and two counts of administering poison. When asked if he felt any remorse he replied, "No, that would be hypocritical. What I feel is the emptiness of my soul."

He served his sentence in the maximum security Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight until his death in 1990 at age 42. The official diagnosis was Myocardial Infarction, however many have their doubts.

"Der Metzgermeister"

2009-06-15T18:49:00.006-04:00

Armin Meiwes, a 44-year-old computer technician from Rotenburg, Germany, lived a lonely and fantasy-filled life. He was born on December 1, 1961 in Kassla, Germany. His father was a stern, authoritarian who showed little interest in his only child and when Armin was only 8, his father abandoned the family and had no further contact with them. His mother domineered his life, accompanying him everywhere and often admonishing him in public.

At the age of 12 Meiwes began fantsizing about eating his imaginary friends so that they would remain a part of him always.

In 1999 when his mother died, Meiwes constructed a shrine to her in their mansion-type home in Rotenburg. He also had a replica a mannequin's head that he would lay on the pillow next to him each night. Also at this time Meiwes developed an interest in internet pornography, particularly that which dealt with torture and pain.

He eventually found his way into chat rooms that specialized in cannibalism and in 2000 Meiwes posted a message on the Cannibal Cafe website advertising for a young, well-built man aged 18 to 30 to slaughter and then consume.

On February 14, 2001, Bernd-Jurgen Brandes, a 43-year-old engineer from Berlin, responded to Miewes post and agreed to be killed and eaten. On the evening of February 25, 2001 Brandes arrived at Meiwes home in Rotenburg.

He swallowed 30 sleeping pills, a bottle of Vicks cough medicine and a bottle of Schnapps. Then he allowed Meiwes to cut off his penis and bandage him so that the two of them could eat it. Brandes tried to eat some of his penis raw but claimed it was too tough and "chewy" so Meiwes sauteed the rest of Brandes penis with garlic, salt and pepper but ended up burning it.

Meiwes assisted Brandes into a warm bath so that he could finish bleeding out and then sat down to read a Star Trek book. Ten hours later Brandes was still alive so Meiwes stabbed him in the neck several times in order to put him out of his pain and suffering. The entire death process including the amputation of Brandes penis was recorded on videotape.

After Brandes was finally dead, Meiwes hung him on a meat-hook and stripped chunks of flesh from his body. He even tried to grind up the bones to make flour. He stored the flesh in plastic bags hidden under pizza boxes and dined on it over the next 10 months.

When his supply started running low, Meiwes posted another advertisement along with details of Brandes death on cannibalistic websites looking for another willing victim.

The authorities were notified when the ad was seen by an Austrian student whom Meiwes had contacted and assured him that it was not a sick joke. When his gruesome story was picked up by the press, Meiwes was dubbed "Der Metzgermeister" or master butcher.

Meiwes was arrested in December 2002 after police raided his house and found the remaining flesh in the freezer and the videotape.

The case proved to be problematic for German prosecutors given that Bernd Brandes was a voluntary participant and the fact that at the time of the incident cannibalism was legal in Germany. Still Meiwes was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 8-1/2 years in prison on January 30, 2004.

One year later Meiwes was retried after prosecutors appealed the sentence. They claimed that the sentence was too lenient and because he had mental problems and had consumed a large quantity of drugs and alcohol, Brandes was not legally capable of given consent.

On May 10, 2006 Armin Meiwes was convicted of murder and his 8-1/2 year sentence was changed to life in prison.

Brighton Trunk Murders

2009-06-12T22:06:00.004-04:00

In the early 1930's Brighton, England became the site of a series of grisly murders. The seaside resort, best known as a destination for illicit rendezvous' earned the dubious nickname of "Queen of Slaughtering Places."

On May 10, 1927, the attendants noticed a foul odor emanating from the left-baggage department at the Charing Cross Station. They discovered the smell coming from a large, black trunk. The staff became suspicious and notified police. When the trunk was opened, the police discovered five brown paper packages that were tied with string. The packages were opened to reveal the arms, legs and torso of a female.

Sir Bernard Spilsbury performed the post-mortem and determined that the female was in her 30's and she had died of suffocation. She was eventually identified as Minnie Alice Bonati and the trunk she was found in was traced back to a John Robinson.

When he was taken to Scotland Yard for questioning John Robinson confessed to the murder. During the trial his defence was that he had been attacked by Minnie Bonati when she demanded money from him and he refused. He stated that during the attack he pushed her as she tried to to strike him and she fell and hit her head on a coal-scuttle. According to him he panicked when he realized she was dead and he decided to get rid of the body by dismembering it, stuffing the body in a trunk and leaving it at the Charing Cross Station.

John Robinson was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Pentonville Prison on August 12, 1927.

On June 17, 1934, an attendant at the Brighton Railway Station noticed a foul smell coming from an unclaimed trunk. He alerted police who opened the trunk and discovered a female torso. The next day her legs were discovered in a suitcase at the Kings Cross Railway Station. Sir Bernard Spilsbury performed the post-mortem and estimated the woman's age at 25. He also found that the woman was five months pregnant and the she had been struck in the head with a blunt object.
The only clue was a piece of paper with the word "Ford" written on it.

After a month-long investigation uncovered no further clues, police decided to conduct a search of the houses surrounding the Brighton Station. On July 15, 1934, the police entered a house located at 52 Kemp Street. They noted a foul odor in a bedroom. They located the source, a trunk that had been covered by a cloth. When the trunk was opened they discovered yet another decomposing body of a woman.

The woman was later identified as 42-year-old Violet Kaye Saunders. She was a known prostitute and had also worked as a dancer. She shared the home on Kemp Street with her lover Tony Mancini. Violet was last seen on May 10, 1934. Mancini told friends that he and Violet had argued and that she had left him and moved to Paris.

Mancini was arrested on July 17, 1934. In his statement to the police he claimed that he had returned to the home and found her dead. He assumed that she had been killed by one of her "clients" and he was afraid he would be blamed for her murder because he had a criminal record. He hid her body in a trunk and on hearing that the police were conducting house-to-house searches he went on the run.

Despite the overwhelming evidence presented by the prosecution, Mancini was found not guilty of murder. However in 1976, prior to his death he publicly confessed to the murder but could not be tried again.

The first murder that led to the discovery of Violet Kaye's body was never solved. The body was never identified. She was dubbed by the press the Girl with Pretty Feet. Her head and arms were never found. Her murder was thought to be unrelated to Kaye's death because no evidence was ever found linking Mancini to her murder.

George Emil Banks

2009-06-05T02:48:00.008-04:00

George Emil Banks was born on June 22, 1942. He was the illegitimate son of a black man and white woman and would claim that his bi-racial status caused him to be shunned and abused throughout his life.

Despite an IQ of 121, Banks was an underachiever in school. In 1959, he joined the army but was discharged in 1961 due to numerous disputes with his officers. He was sent to prison in 1961 after he shot and injured an unarmed man during an attempted robbery. He was paroled in 1969.

Banks married his longtime friend Doris Jones and they had two daughters. They separated in 1976 due to domestic arguments and infidelity on George's part. Shortly after the separation Banks bought a home at 28 Schoolhouse lane in Wilkes-Barre, PA and began to accumulate live-in lovers. All of his girlfriends were white.

Regina Clemens, Bank's first lover, gave birth to his daughter, Montanzima Banks in 1976. Sharon Mazzillo moved in with Banks and Clemens and shortly after gave birth to Bank's son, Kissamayu Banks on October 6, 1976. Regina Clemens' sister, Susan Yuhas joined the bizarre family and gave birth to Bank's son, Bowendy Banks in 1978.

In 1980, despite his criminal record, he obtained a job as a prison watchtower guard at the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill, PA. His last lover, Dorothy Lyons moved in along with her daughter from a previous marriage, Nancy Lyons. She gave birth to Bank's son, Foraroude Banks on January 25, 1981. Shortly after, Susan Yuhas gave birth to her second child with Banks, daughter, Mauritania Banks.

It was at this time that Banks started to lose his hold over "his" women. Sharon Mazzillo was the first to move out. In 1982 she left with their son and moved in with her mother, Alice Mazzillo at the Heather Highlands mobile park just outside of Wilkes-Barre. Regina Clemens was the next to leave, moving into a shelter for battered women. For some unknown reason she decided to return to the residence on Schoolhouse Lane.

Banks was also beginning to have problems at work. He began writing a book about an impending race war. He spoke with co-workers about committing mass murder. He also talked about killing himself and his family to spare them the painful realities of racism. After he barricaded himself in a guard tower and threatened to commit suicide, he was suspended from work and told not to return until he received counseling.

In the early morning hours of September 25, 1982, George Banks lost his fragile thread of reality. He woke after a night continuous drinking and drug use, rose from the couch and picked up his AR-15 assault rifle. Regina, Susan and Dorothy were sitting in the living room. He raised the rifle and fired. The first shot hit Regina in the face, killing her instantly. Susan was shot next, five times in the chest. One-year-old Mauritania was shot once in the face. Dorothy raised her arm to shield her face. The first bullet sliced through her arm and chest. The second hit her in the neck. Four-year-old Bowendy was shot once in the face.

Banks then made his way to the bedrooms upstairs where the rest of his children were sleeping. Six-year-old Montanzima was shot in the chest. Nancy Lyons, Dorothy's daughter was shot once in the arm and the face. Bank's one-year-old son Foraroude was shot once in the back of the head. Banks then went to his bedroom where he changed his blood splattered clothes and donned fatigues and a T-shirt that read Kill em all and let God sort em out.

He left the house and happened across Jimmy Olsen and Ray Hall Jr. Both were shot in the chest and then Banks got into his car and drove off.

His next stop on his murderous spree was the Heather HIghlands Mobile Park. He forced his way in to the mobile home of Alice Mazzillo and shot Sharon Mazzillo in the chest. Next he put his rifle up to his five-year-old son, Kissamayu's, forehead and pulled the trigger. While Alice frantically tried to call the police, Banks walked up to her, pointed the end of the rifle up her nose and pulled the trigger. He grabbed Sharon's screaming nephew, seven-year-old Scott Mazillo, hit him with the butt of the rifle, kicked him while accusing Scott of calling his son a nigger. Then shot him in the head just behind his ear.

When Banks had finished his savage rampage he had killed a total of 13 people, including his five children and their mothers. He claimed he had killed the children in order to spare them of having to suffer the racism he had been forced to endure.

Banks refused to allow his attorneys to put forth an insanity plea. He was found competent to stand trial and insisted on taking the stand in his own defense. He claimed that the police had conspired against him and fired the fatal bullets into some of his family members whom he had only wounded. He demanded that the bodies be exhumed so that he could prove that the police had killed and mutilated nine of the victims to make the crime scenes look more horrific.

On June 21, 1983, George Emil Banks was found guilty of 12 counts of first-degree murder, one count of third-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and other lesser charges. He was sentenced to death the next day.

On the eve of his scheduled execution, December 1, 2004, the state supreme court issued a stay when he was declared to be too psychotic to executed. Banks is still on death row at Graterford State Prison in Pennsylvania.

Vincent E. Brothers

2009-06-03T22:12:00.014-04:00

On Sunday July 6, 2003, Joanie Harper, her three children and her mother, Earnestine Harper, attended Sunday morning church service. It was the first time at church for six-week-old Marshall Harper. After the service they went to dine at the Black Angus before going home. They laid down to take a nap prior to returning to church for the evening service. Joanie and her children were in the rear bedroom while her mother was in another bedroom at the other end of the house.

An intruder, armed with a .22-caliber pistol, entered the house through the backyard and quietly moved to the rear bedroom.

On Tuesday morning family friend, Kelsey Spann, decided to check on her friend Joanie Harper and her family. She had not heard from her in several days and feared something was wrong. She went to a side door and inserted the key given to her by Joanie into the lock. Something was blocking the door keeping her from pushing it open. She walked around to the back of the house and tested the sliding glass door. It was unlocked, something that was very unusual. Kelsey entered the house and walked back to Joanie's bedroom.

A call was placed to 911 at 7 am. When the police arrived at 901 3rd st, they witnessed the horrific scene that Kelsey Spann had stumbled upon:

Joanie Harper - found face down on the bed. She had been shot three times in the head and twice in the arm. She had also been stabbed seven times.

Marshall Harper - the six-week old was found next to his mother under a pillow. He had been shot in the back.

Marques Harper - the four-year-old was found on the bed. He had a gunshot to the right side of his head and his eyes were open. The fingertips of one of his hands had been bitten to the bone. It was surmised that he had seen the killer and frightened he had stuck his
fingers in his mouth.

Lyndsey Harper - the two-year-old was found at the foot of her mother's bed. She had been shot in the back.

Ernestine Harper - found in the hallway. She had been shot twice in the face. The pistol she held when she confronted the intruder was found lying next to her body.

Almost immediately after the murders were discovered, suspicion fell on the estranged husband of Joanie Harper, Vincent E. Brothers. He was arrested nine months later and charged with five counts of first-degree murder.

Vincent Brothers was well-known and well-liked in the Bakersfield, CA community. He was respected as a mentor and a Christian family man. Brothers has a bachelor's degree from Norfolk State University and a master's degree in education from California State University - Bakersfield. He began his career as a substitute teacher in 1987 and eventually became the vice-principal of Fremont Elementary School in 1995.

The trial began on February 22, 2007. Brothers pleaded not guilty and claimed that he was in Ohio visiting his brother at the time of the murders. A brother he had not seen in ten years.

The Prosecution:

According to the prosecution, Brothers was an admitted adulterer, who never loved his family and used murder as a means to rid himself of the financial burden his family placed on him. They claimed that on July 2, 2003 he flew to Ohio to visit his brother in order to establish an alibi. When he touched down in Ohio he rented a Dodge Neon from Dollar Rent-A-Car. Detectives seized the rental car and alleged that the records proved that while the car was in his possession, Brothers put more that 5,400 miles on the car. More than enough mileage for him to have driven to Bakersfield and back. Prosecutors contended that Brother's drove approximately 4,500 miles in three days.

The radiator and air filter was taken to the Bohart Museum of Entomology for testing. Prof. Lynn Kimsey from the University of California - Davis took the stand and testified that she found several insect species in the car parts that were found only in the west and that the types of insects found indicated that the car had only been driven at night.

The prosecution introduced video evidence that proved that Vincent's brother, Melvin, used his credit card at Wal-mart. Melvin also admitted to forging his brother's signature and that he had no knowledge of his brother's whereabouts between July 4th through July 7th. Evidence showed that a call was placed to Brother's cell phone in Ohio around 4 pm on the day of the murder from the Harper residence.

The Defense:

The defense claimed that the extra marital affairs did not a murderer make and were being used to discredit his character. They claim that cell phone records placed Brother's in Ohio at the time of the murders and that he had also been involved in a minor traffic accident when a boy on a bike darted out in the street and ran into Brother's car. Also there was no video evidence of Brother's in over 100 gas stations and mini marts between Ohio and California. The murder weapon was never found. Brother's took the stand in his on defense and claimed that he had also spent time driving around with his other brother, Troy, which was why Melvin did not know where he was from the 4th through the 7th.

Troy Brother's was subpoenaed to testify for the defense but he disappeared. A $100,000 arrest warrant was issued. Columbus police tracked down the man who was actually involved in the traffic accident with the boy on the bike and he testified in court.

On May 15, 2007, the jury found Vincent E. Brothers guilty of five counts of first-degree murder. and on September 27, 2007 he was sentenced to death.

During the sentencing hearing the family members were allowed to read statements, including an emotion packed statement delivered by his only surviving child, Margaret Kern-Brothers. She said that she was resigning from the Brother's family and after she walked out of the courtroom she would be known as Margaret Kern. She went on to state "I am leaving my name with him. I don't have a father now. He is just a man handcuffed to a chair, looking straight ahead. He will never see me again, until it's time to die."

The Bordello From Hell

2009-05-31T20:27:00.003-04:00

From 1950 to the early 1960's the Gonzalez sisters, Delfina and Maria, lived on a small ranch in Guanajuato, Mexico. They recruited young women to the ranch by placing help-wanted ads in newspapers. The ads claimed that the sisters were looking to hire maids and promised to pay them very well. Once a girl that fit the sisters qualifications answered the ad the true requirements for the "job" were revealed. Delfina and Maria were madams and they ran a brothel known as the bordello from hell. Girls who resisted were beaten and tortured until they agreed to become prostitutes or died. They were prisoners and any attempt to escape brought dire consequences if they were caught. Many of the girls were forced into drug use in order to wear down their resistance. When they were no longer pleasing to the "Johns" they were disposed of. If they became ill they were clubbed to death. If one of the girls became pregnant, she was hung by her hands and beaten until she lost the baby. If a customer came to the bordello with a lot of cash they too fell victim to the brutality of the sisters.

In 1964, three of the girls managed to escape from the brothel and related their horrific stories to the police. The police planned a raid on the brothel but Delfina and Maria had been tipped off and fled before the police arrived. As they searched the ranch the police uncovered the bodies of 11 men, 80 women, and several infants.

Delfina and Maria were finally captured when they tried to sell their possessions in order to get money to flee the country. They were both found guilty of murder and sentenced to 40 years in a Mexican prison.

The Murder Factory

2009-05-29T15:14:00.005-04:00

In September of 1907, James and Amy Archer bought a house on Prospect Street in Windsor, Connecticut and opened the Archer Home for the Elderly. She claimed that she had received her training at New York's Belleview Hospital and passed herself off as a nurse. Her patients referred to her as "Sister Amy" and described her as a good Christian woman.

Three years after opening up the home, James Archer died at the age of 52. Amy used the proceeds from the life insurance policy she took out on him weeks earlier to continue running the home.

Amy met a wealthy widow named Michael Gilligan, who not only expressed an interest in her but also investing in her nursing home. They were married on November 25, 1913. Three months later Michael Gilligan died of what was determined to be by the coroner, natural causes. Fortunately for Amy Archer-Gilligan, not before he named her as sole beneficiary of his estate.

Sister Amy offered her patients a proposition that was too good to pass up and many jumped at the chance. They would pay a $1000 insurance premium up front which guaranteed them lifetime care, no matter how long they lived.

Between 1911 and 1916 there were 48 deaths at Archer Home. Far above the annual average for this type of facility, which was said to be around 8 to 10. In each case, Sister Amy would explain to the local medical examiner, Dr. Howard Frost King, that their deaths were due to old age. He signed off on each death certificate without question.

Franklin Andrews was one of the patient's who had agreed to the lifetime care contract. He moved into the Archer Home in September of 1912. He was in seemingly good health until the morning of May 30, 1914 when he woke up with a severe stomach ailment and by 11 pm he was dead. In his personal effects that were sent to his sister, Mrs Nellie Pierce, was a letter to Andrews from Sister Amy. In it she had requested a sizable loan from him in order to pay bills left by her late husband. Mrs. Pierce had discovered that shortly before his death, Andrews had withdrawn $500 from his bank and given the money to Sister Amy.

Her suspicions about the circumstances surrounding her brother's death would lead to a yearlong investigation by the authorities.

On May 2, 1916, Franklin Andrews body was exhumed in order to perform an autopsy. Tests of his organs revealed enough arsenic to kill at least three men. Amy Archer-Gilligan was arrested for the first-degree murder of Franklin Andrews on May 8,1916.

The findings of Andrews autopsy led to the exhumation of four more bodies; her second husband Michael Gilligan and three of her patients - Charles Smith, Alice Gowdy, and Maud Lynch. All but one of them had arsenic in their system. Mrs Lynch had been poisoned by strychnine.

Sister Amy went on trial for Andrews murder in June of 1917. She was found guilty and sentenced to hang. On April 30, 1918, Sister Amy was granted a new trial after her attorney successfully argued that the prosecution should not have been allowed to introduce in to evidence the poisoning deaths of other individuals besides Andrews.

During her second trial, Amy Archer-Gilligan agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder. She was sentenced to life to be served at Wethersfield Prison. She was later transferred to Connecticut Hospital for the insane where she died in 1962, at the age of 94.