An Almanac of Infamy

On this day in 1989, 5-year-old Melissa Brannen disappeared from a Christmas party for residents of the Fairfax, Virginia, apartment complex where she lived with her mother Tammy. The two were leaving the party when Melissa went to grab a handful of potato chips and never came back. Over 300 people immediately started searching for her but found no trace of the child. It was then that foul play was suspected and the apartment complex's groundskeeper, Caleb Hughes, became the main focus of investigators. Witnesses told police that he had left the party at around the same time that Melissa had gone missing. Several female attendees also claimed that the married Hughes had propositioned them sexually and that he was paying an unusual amount of attention to the children at the party, including Melissa. When investigators arrived at the home of Caleb Hughes, they found him washing his clothes, shoes, and belt. This was at one in the morning. Hughes' wife Carol told the detectives

Tom Horn braiding rope in the Cheyenne County jail  On November 20, 1903, Tom Horn was hanged in Wyoming for the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell, a crime that many historians believe that the infamous hired killer did not actually commit. While Horn certainly was responsible for many deaths in the Old West, whether or not he murdered the sheep rancher's son and his possible motive are still a subject of debate and speculation. Thomas Horn, Jr., known as "Tom" was born in 1860 in Memphis, Missouri. He was the fifth of twelve children and suffered at the hands of an abusive father. His only companion as a child, a dog named Shedrick, was killed by two boys who Tom had gotten into a fist fight with. By the time he reached his teen years, it was clear that Tom Horn was a very skilled hunter and marksman. Legend has it that, at the age of sixteen, he shot and killed another man in a duel over a sex worker. After heading out west in the mid-1870s, he held various j

While the field of true crime podcasts has gotten a little crowded, a new entry into the genre from Sundance is sure to stand out given the notoriety of its host. On October 25, the network will launch The Truth About True Crime with Amanda Knox . The first episode will examine the tragedy of Jonesville. Because of her own ordeals with the press and the justice system, Knox herself is not really a fan of the true crime genre, believing that it too often veers into sensationalism. However, in a press statement about her new venture, Knox says, “But these stories are very important when told with compassion and context. I’m excited to partner with Sundance to bring nuance to the story of Jonestown.” And I'm excited to tune in. Speaking of true crime sensationalism, few cases have garnered the kind of attention received by the decades-long saga of Robert Durst . Director Andrew Jarecki first explored the case in his fictional 2010 film All Good Things , which starred Ryan Gosling as

Mary Woodson/Al Green On this day in 1974, famed soul and gospel singer Al Green was attacked by Mary Woodson, a woman who he had been in an on-again-off-again relationship with for a year. Woodson threw a boiling pot of grits on Green's back while he was undressing to take a bath in his Memphis, Tennesee, home. Mary Woodson then shot and killed herself with a gun belonging to Green. By the time of the attack, Al Green was at the height of his fame having sung such hits as "Tired Of Being Alone" (1971), "Let's Stay Together" (1971) and "I'm Still In Love With You" (1972). In 1973, after becoming a born-again Christian, Green began performing charity concerts at hospitals and prisons. It was at one of these concerts, held in the New York State Correctional Facility, that he first met Mary Woodson, who told Green that she was there to visit a friend. In reality, she had left behind her husband and their children in New Jersey to specificall

Joseph Harris in Court On this day in 1991, former postal worker Joseph Harris murdered two of his co-workers at the Ridgewood, New Jersey, post office. His crimes were detected when another postal worker, Marcello Collado, drove up to the facility for a scheduled delivery and saw that the bay doors were closed and the two workers who were usually stationed there for the 3 A.M. shift were missing. Collado entered the building and saw a man all in black, wearing a bullet-proof vest, gas mask, and a Ninja headdress. He fled the building when the man shot at him, but missed, and alerted the police. Two police officers tried to enter the building but were attacked by a pipe bomb tossed by the assailant. It soon became obvious that the SWAT team and hostage negotiators were needed on the scene. At dawn, Joseph Harris finally surrendered. When investigators entered the building they found the bodies of two mail handlers, Joseph VanderPaauw, 59, and Donald McNaught, 63. They had both be

On this day in 1988, Roch Thériault, leader of a cult known as the Ant Hill Kids, murdered one of his followers by performing "surgery" on her intestines. Thériault, who was obsessed with anatomy and medicine but had no medical training, sliced open the abdomen of cult member Solange Boilard and ripped out a piece of her intestines with his bare hands. He then had another cult member, Gabrielle Lavallée, stitch her up with a needle and thread. All of this was done to Boilard without any anesthesia and she also had a plastic tube filled with molasses and olive oil stuck up her rectum to act as an enema. Another tube was shoved down her throat and cult members were instructed to blow into it. All of this was done because Boilard had complained of an upset stomach and Roch Thériault saw himself as a healer. After Solange Boilard died from her injuries, Roch Thériault, claiming that he could resurrect her, proceeded to drill a hole in her head in which he and other male cult m

Neil LaFave On this day in 1971, Wisconsin game warden Neil LaFave failed to show up for his own birthday party. His absence prompted his wife Peggy to notify the police, who found his truck in a remote swampy area along with a pool of blood and two .22-caliber shells. His headless body was found in a shallow grave. When authorities found his head, they saw that it had two bullet wounds caused by a .22 shotgun. While serving as a game warden for Wisconsin's Sensiba Wildlife Area, Neil LaFave had earned a reputation for being tough on poachers. Every poacher that he had ever arrested was questioned and anyone who didn't have a solid alibi was asked to take a polygraph test. Only one person refused, 21-year-old Brian Hussong. LaFave had arrested Hussong for poaching multiple times. After authorities obtained a warrant for a wiretap of Hussong's phones, they overheard a conversation between Brian Hussong and his grandmother Agnes, in which she assured Brian that his guns

Fatty Arbuckle, Virginia Rappe On this day in 1921, silent-film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was arrested for the rape and murder of aspiring actress Virginia Rappe. He was later acquitted, after three separate trials, but his career and reputation were irreparably damaged. Roscoe Arbuckle was born in 1887 in the town of Smith Center, Kansas. When he was two years old, his family moved to Santa Ana, California. His mother encouraged him to perform and by age eight he was singing on stage with the Frank Bacon Company. When he was twelve, his mother passed away, and his father, who never believed that Roscoe was actually his child, refused to support him. Roscoe started working odd jobs at a local hotel and was encouraged to compete in a talent show by a customer who had heard him sing. He won the competition and began his career in vaudeville which then led to starring roles in silent films. After appearing in Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops comedies, Roscoe Arbuckle for

On this day in 1977, Gerald Gallego met Charlene Williams at a poker club in Sacramento, California. Their meeting would spark a two-year run of sexual assault and murder until their capture in 1980. The killer couple was responsible for at least 10 deaths, that authorities know of. Charlene Adell Williams was born in 1956 in Stockton, California. By all accounts, she was a shy and intelligent child who was brought up by a very loving family. However, she began to experiment with drugs and alcohol in her teens and had two failed marriages by the time she met the 10-years-older Gerald Gallego, who had quite a different upbringing. His father had the distinction of being the first man executed in Mississippi's gas chamber, for murdering a cop during a prison escape. His mother was a sex worker. By the age of 13, Gallego had committed a sexual assault on a six-year-old girl. He had racked up 23 arrests for various crimes, including robbery, by the time he met Charlene. Despite th

It's been two years since Jesse Leopold was last seen alive. The 23-year-old left work at a meat processing plant in Jewell, Iowa, and a few days later his car was found in Ledges State Park with the keys still in the ignition. Rumors began to fly that Jesse had committed suicide in the park but his father is adamant that his son met with foul play. "There was no suicide in the park," says Jerry Leopold, "because a body surely would`ve turned up by now." Jerry Leopold believes that investigators have been dismissive of possible leads in his son's case because they've come from sources that authorities have deemed as less than credible. This has led him to start a Facebook page, "Finding Jesse Leopold" , that now has 9,000 followers. Jerry hopes that awareness will pressure authorities to act in his son's case and in the meantime, the Leopold family is raising money to hire a private investigator. A "Justice For Jesse" rally is pl

Cynthia Coffman and James Marlow at the moment they learned they had received the death penalty. On this day in 1989, Cynthia Coffman and James Marlow were sentenced to death in San Bernardino, California, for the 1986 murder of Corinna Novis. Coffman had the dubious distinction of being the first woman sentenced to death since capital punishment had been reinstated in 1977. Marlow was no stranger to the criminal justice system. In fact, it was a stint in jail that led him to meet Cynthia Coffman. Cynthia Coffman was born in 1962 in St. Louis and by the time she was four years old, her parents had divorced. At seventeen, she ran away from home, got pregnant and married her child's father, Roy Coffman. Within two years, she had walked out on her husband and their baby and met a man by the name of Doug Huntley in Arizona. In April 1986, they were arrested on drug charges in Barstow, California, where Huntley ended up sharing a cell with James Marlow. Marlow was born in 1956 i

This ad, made prior to DeLorean's arrest, was widely publicized in several magazines. On this day in 1984, John DeLorean, founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, was found not guilty of trafficking cocaine after his lawyers successfully argued that he had been unfairly targeted and entrapped by the DEA and the FBI. He had been accused of entering into a drug smuggling scheme in order to raise money to save his failing company. John Zachary DeLorean was born on January 6, 1925, in Detroit, Michigan. As an engineer for General Motors, he became the youngest general manager of the Pontiac division and the youngest head of Chevrolet. He oversaw the development of several popular vehicles including the Pontiac GTO muscle car, the Pontiac Firebird, the Pontiac Grand Prix, and the Chevrolet Cosworth Vega. He earned a reputation as an innovative corporate maverick and when he left GM in 1973 to start his own company, enthusiasm for the new venture was high. He received investments fro

Mary Blandy On this day in 1751, wealthy Englishman Francis Blandy slipped into a coma and died that same evening at his home in Henley. Soon after, his daughter Mary asked one of the household servants to help her escape to France in exchange for a handsome payment. When the servant refused, she attempted to escape on her own but was caught by neighbors who had heard that Francis Blandy had succumbed to poison. Prior to her father's death, Mary Blandy had been known as a well-mannered and well-educated young woman who was greatly respected by the people of Henley. Then, at the age of 26, she met and fell in love with Captain William Henry Cranstoun. Francis Blandy initially approved of the match and even allowed Cranstoun to live in the Blandy home. However, Cranstoun had a wife and child in Scotland and when he wrote her to ask that their marriage be annulled so that he and Mary could wed, she became outraged and caused a stir in the town of Henley. Cranstoun was soon expell

It seems like everyone is tackling true crime and for good reason. It's a very lucrative and very addictive genre guaranteed to draw in viewers, listeners, and readers. Nora Zimmett , who serves as the Senior Vice President of Content and Programming for The Weather Channel, admits to being a huge true crime fan. That's just one reason that the network will be launching its own true-crime series, "Storm of Suspicion", on October 7. The show will feature cases where weather played an important role and will also feature forensic meteorologist Elizabeth Austin. Zimmett hopes that the series will give viewers a motivation to tune into the network when there isn't a severe weather event to cover. While The Weather Channel may be a new kid on the true crime block, one network that isn't is Oxygen. That network is launching the 24th season of its wildly popular true crime series "Snapped" with a review of the Amy Fisher case, the 25th anniversary of whi

On this day in 1930, Joseph Force Crater, a judge on the New York Supreme Court, became, according to the media, "the most missingest man in New York". His law clerk reported that on the morning of his disappearance he had destroyed some documents in his office, moved several others to his apartment on Fifth Avenue, and arranged for $5,000 to be withdrawn from his bank account. He then left his office, bought a ticket for a Broadway show, and had dinner with the lawyer William Klein and showgirl Sally Lou Ritz. After dinner, according to Klein and Ritz, Crater headed out to see the play. He was never seen again. Joseph Force Crater was born to Irish immigrants in 1889 and grew up in Pennsylvania. After receiving a law degree from Columbia University, he worked his way up from law clerk to lawyer and made several political connections along the way. He was appointed to the New York Supreme Court in April 1930 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was the governor at the time. Rumor

José Gallardo Díaz On this day in 1942, a man by the name of José Gallardo Díaz was found unconscious by the Sleepy Lagoon in Commerce, California. The lagoon was a reservoir beside the Los Angeles River popular with Mexican-Americans. After Díaz passed away at the Los Angeles County General Hospital, without ever regaining consciousness, it was determined that he had been intoxicated and suffered from blunt head trauma. Although a medical examiner stated that his injuries were consistent with being hit by a car, police decided that Díaz had been beaten. Two days after Díaz was found, police arrested 24 men, all of Mexican descent, for conspiring to beat him to death. The media claimed that they were all members of the "38th Street gang". The media also began calling for police to take action against so-called "zoot suiters". As a result, on August 10 police arrested 600 Latinos and charged them with suspicion of assault, armed robbery, and related offenses. O

ICYMI Vulture has published some great pieces this week highlighting the true crime wave that is currently sweeping the nation. One that I found particularly interesting takes a look at how true crime networks choose which cases to cover. Television producers and audiences alike favor cases that have several twists and turns and personal betrayals. Well-known cases like that of Ted Bundy tend to pay off as well because documentarians are always finding new perspectives from which to tell the story. Fun fact: The 2012 Lifetime movie Drew Peterson: Untouchable starring Rob Lowe as the titular killer is still the network's highest-rated film. If you want to turn off the tube and pick up a book, who better to recommend a true crime read than a true crime author? I've added several books from this article to my reading list. Two books mentioned that I highly recommend are Strange Piece of Paradise and The People Who Eat Darkness . And speaking of books, I'm sure you'

Lieth Von Stein On this day in 1988, Bonnie and Lieth Von Stein, of Washington, North Carolina, were stabbed and bludgeoned while sleeping in their bed. While Lieth died during the attack, Bonnie survived even though she was badly wounded and maimed. Bonnie's daughter Angela, whose bedroom was in another part of the house, slept through the attack. Angela's older brother, Chris Pritchard, told police that he had been playing cards all night in his North Carolina State University dorm room. After the police learned that Lieth Von Stein's estate was worth over just $2 Million, Angela and Chris soon became suspects, along with Bonnie even though she was beaten and stabbed to the point of almost dying. Bonnie and Angela were cleared after passing lie detector tests. Chris refused to take the test, and it was that refusal along with the fact that he had never gotten along with his stepfather, Lieth, that made him the main suspect. Detectives also uncovered Chris Pritchard'

On this day in 1984, the body of nine-year-old Dawn Hamilton was found in a wooded area of Rosedale, Maryland, not far from her home. She had been raped and beaten to death with a rock. Police received witness reports of a suspicious man in the area of the crime scene and soon after released a sketch on the local news and in the local newspapers. Two weeks later, an anonymous caller identified the man in the sketches as 23-year-old ex-marine Kirk Bloodsworth. Police discovered that Bloodsworth had been in Baltimore (not too far from Rosedale) and also learned that he had told his friends that he had done something that would destroy his marriage. With very little evidence but the phone call and his friends' anecdote, Bloodsworth was convicted of Dawn Hamilton's murder. During his 1985 trial, the prosecution presented five witnesses who claimed to have seen Bloodsworth with Hamilton. Two of these witnesses, however, could not identify Bloodsworth in a lineup and had only iden