An Almanac of Infamy

Marlene Olive, graphite and ink drawing by Marlene McCarty McCarty created a series of drawings based on Marlene Olive's life and later created series based on other teenaged murderers entitled Murder Girls On this day in 1975, police were called to the home of Jim and Naomi Olive in Terra Linda, California, after being reported missing by Jim's business partner. They found the Olive house empty and in disarray. Later that day, Marlene Olive, the Olives' adopted daughter showed up at the police station. She said her parents were on vacation in Lake Tahoe. The next day she told the police that Jim had murdered Naomi and fled. Then she claimed that Naomi had actually killed Jim. Her fourth tale involved both her parents being kidnapped and murdered by the Hell's Angels. Eventually, she would lead police to a China Camp State Park barbecue pit containing Jim and Naomi's charred remains. The investigation led police to 16-year-old Marlene's 20-year-old boyfriend

Mark your calendars, true crime buffs, because on July 24, Investigation Discovery premieres its new documentary, Bad Henry . This will be the first time that the case of serial killer Henry Louis Wallace has been discussed at length on television. In the early '90s, Wallace murdered 10 young African-American women and many believe the status of his victims led the Charlotte, North Carolina, police department and the media to ignore the murders as they were being committed. At the time, the city was heavily divided by racial tensions. Over at Buzzfeed , Pier Dominguez takes a look at our obsession with moms who murder and compares the cases of Casey Anthony and Darlie Routier. And while it's not a true story, I think many of us, especially those of us who grew up in the 1980s, will be interested in a new movie coming out in August called Summer of '84 . The movie takes place in a small Oregon town where a serial killer is preying on teenaged boys. A group of teens dec

           Melvin Rees after his arrest On this day in 1957, Margaret Harold and her boyfriend were forced off by the road by a green Chrysler, while out for a drive outside of Annapolis, Maryland. The Chrysler's driver proceeded to exit his car and after demanding cash and cigarettes from the couple, he shot Harold point-blank in the face. Harold's boyfriend managed to escape to a nearby farmhouse where he was able to call the police. When officers arrived at the crime scene they discovered that Harold's killer had also sexually assaulted her corpse. While searching for the assailant in the area, they also discovered an abandoned building with a broken basement window. Inside the basement, they found a stash of violent pornography, along with a University of Maryland yearbook photo of a woman named Wanda Tipton. When police contacted Tipton, she denied knowing anyone matching the description of Margaret Harold's killer. With no additional leads to follow and virtually

Most true crime fans are familiar with the case of infamous female serial killer Rose West and many consider her to one of the worst serial killers in the U.K. However, according to criminologist Christopher Berry-Dee , one woman stands above West and other female killers in terms of cruelty and brutality. In his new book, Love of Blood , Berry-Dee claims that Joanna Dennehy, who he exchanged several letters with, is the worst female serial killer in Great Britain because she murdered three men on her own, while other female killers usually work with a (usually male) partner. And unlike West, she had a solid middle-class upbringing with nothing in her past to indicate that she would eventually stab three men to death and attempt to murder two more. Berry-Dee says, “I have interviewed many one-off female killers and even the notorious American serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, and none of them hold a candle to the fiend that still exists in Joanna Dennehy. In my opinion, she will kill agai

One of my favorite feminist websites/magazines, Bustle , has also become one of my favorite sources for a true crime fix. Check out their current lists of creepy British documentaries and unsolved true crime docs . After you've finished bingeing, go outside and get some fresh air. If you're in Los Angeles take the Haunted Tales of Downtown L.A. tour. Over at The Outline , Rose Eveleth takes a look at internet sleuths and whether or not their crime-solving efforts ever really pay off. And if you have the chance, please tune in to my new twitch stream True Crime Review . Every Tuesday at 4 PM Eastern, I'll be discussing all the latest true crime and case updates and if there's something you'd like to hear discussed, please let me know here in the comments.

On this day in 1964, three civil rights workers were murdered by the KKK for registering black voters in Mississippi. Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney were returning from a trip to Philadelphia, MS when they were pulled over by deputy sheriff Cecil Price, who held them in custody while his fellow hate group members prepared to shoot them and bury them in graves that had been dug in advance. When news of their disappearance got out, FBI Agents converged on the state and eventually learned of their murders through an informant. Since the state of Mississippi refused to prosecute, the federal government charged 18 men with conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney. Seven men were convicted, eight men were acquitted and the all-white jury deadlocked on the remaining three. On June 21, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, an outspoken white supremacist and Baptist minister, was convicted on three charges of manslaughter and sentenced to sixty years in p

The subject of false confessions has been in the spotlight ever since the case of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey was featured in Making A Murderer . Many of Dassey's supporters believe that he was coerced by police into falsely confessing to taking part in the murder of Teresa Halbach. One might wonder why anyone would ever confess to a crime that they didn't commit, but it does happen, and it happens more often then one might think, according to another Netflix documentary, The Confession Tapes . While it hasn't received as much hype as Making A Murderer or The Staircase , The Confession Tapes is probably the most important true crime docuseries ever produced. It's a searing indictment of a system that is all too often in search of a quick fix instead of a true solution. In podcast news, How Stuff Works takes a look at the murky world of serial killer memorabilia. I highly recommend this essay by Dan Savage. It's a very interesting take on two very infamou

On this day in 1892, Francisca Rojas murdered her two children, Ponciano Carballo, age 6, and his four-year-old sister Teresa in the town of Necochea, Argentina. She then slit her own throat to make it appear that she was also a victim and claimed that the family had been attacked by a neighbor, Pedro Ramón Velázquez, because Francisca had rejected his advances. Police arrested Velázquez and proceeded to torture him in hopes of making him confess, even tying him to the bodies of the dead children throughout the night. Despite being brutalized by the police, Velázquez maintained his innocence. Meanwhile, Juan Vucetich, the head of criminal identification at the regional headquarters, had become intrigued by new theories of fingerprint identification that were emerging at the time. When he inspected the Rojas house he found a bloody thumbprint on the bedroom door that was a positive match to Francisca Rojas. Rojas, when confronted with the new evidence, confessed to the murders and ad

If you've finished reading Michelle McNamara's amazing book I'll Be Gone In The Dark and are hungry for more, then I have good news for you. McNamara's writing partner Billy Jensen is now working on a memoir, Chase Darkness With Me that will also serve as a companion piece to the book he co-authored with McNamara. The book will detail Jensen's relentless work with homicide departments across the country to bring closure to cold cases. Another memoir in the works is that of child abduction survivor Shasta Groene . Readers may remember in 2005 when the entire nation was both captivated and horrified by the murder of Groene's mother, stepfather, and older brother. The perpetrator, Joseph Duncan, then kidnapped Shasta and her brother Dylan. Duncan later murdered Dylan while on the run. Groene says she is writing her story in an attempt to gain some peace in life, which she certainly deserves. She also hopes to produce a documentary. If you're a true crime

On this day in 1984, liberal radio talk show host Alan Berg was gunned down in the driveway of his Denver, CO home. Nearly a year later, neo-Nazi leader Bruce Pierce was arrested in Georgia. His group, The Order, had been linked to several armored car robberies in the western half of the United States. Two of his accomplices, David Lane and Richard Scutari, were arrested shortly after Pierce's capture, while a third accomplice, Robert Matthews, had died in a shootout with FBI agents in December 1984. Pierce, Lane, and Scutari were charged with violating Berg's civil rights and a jury found Pierce responsible for Berg's death and Lane for driving the getaway car. Scutari was acquitted. It's believed that Alan Berg was targeted by the Order, not only because he was Jewish but because he also openly challenged White Supremacist beliefs on his radio show. His murder inspired the movies Betrayed and Talk Radio . Related Reading: Alan Berg: Talked to Death Murdered

Dr. Donald Grant , a former government psychiatrist turned true crime writer, has been referred to the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission by Queensland Health. The hospital has concerns about possible patient confidentiality breaches in Grant's newly published book Killer Instinct . In the book, Grant recounts the murderers he examined in a professional capacity. One such murderer was Rhys Austin. In 2010, Austin throttled his girlfriend Bianca Girven and left her for dead in a van. She died of her injuries the next day in the hospital. Austin was sent to a psychiatric hospital after being found by the courts to be of unsound mind and that's where he came in contact with Dr. Grant. He revealed to Grant several intimate details of Girven's last moments, including her last words. These details ended up in Grant's book and he was recently confronted by Bianca Girven's mother Sonia Anderson at a book reading. She expressed her outrage over the fact that she neve

Director and screenwriter Deborah S. Esquenazi has launched her own production company, Myth of Monsters, to address stories and myths about women of color and the LGBTQ community. One project of particular interest to true crime fans is a planned adaptation of her documentary Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four . The 2016 doc tells the story of four women who were wrongfully convicted of rape in the "Satanic Panic" era and it helped to exonerate its subjects. Speaking of adaptations, here's a list of true crimes that would benefit from the Netflix treatment. And here's what it's like to be a re-enactor on one of those true crime shows that we all love.

We now know, thanks to additional DNA testing, that there is at least one California killing that Joseph James DeAngelo, better known as the Golden State Killer, is not responsible for. Simi Valley Police Chief David Livingstone has revealed that DeAngelo is not a match to DNA left at the double murder of Rhonda Wicht and her son Donald. In 1980, Craig Coley was wrongfully imprisoned for the murders and after his release in November of last year and the arrest of DeAngelo in April of this year, Simi Valley officials were hoping there would be closure of the case through the GSK's DNA. It's one of several cold cases that officials have reopened since DeAngelo's capture, and while he is not the perp, Chief Livingstone says his department is not giving up on finding the real killer. And speaking of DeAngelo and DNA, it appears that two Sutter Health employees in Sacramento have been terminated from the hospital for inappropriately accessing his medical records. While the h

Everybody's favorite thriller subscription service, Hunt A Killer, is teaming up with the Cold Case Foundation in hopes of solving real cases. For each box purchased, HAK will provide the foundation with the means to facilitate expert consultation, forensic assistance, officer training, funding and victim support. HAK is encouraging its members to spread the word about the Foundation and its mission. When you're not immersed in catching a fictional killer, try out these true crime podcasts from across the pond. I've listened to All Killa No Filla and highly recommend it. I'm eager to check out the others on the list. For you true crime bookworms out there, Dead Girls by Alice Bolin comes out on June 26. It's a collection of essays about our obsession with various dead girls both in fiction and in reality. Over at the Phoenix New Times , Bolin discusses her own obsessions that led her to write the book. And finally, if you haven't heard, the director o

The "most hated mom in America" may be set to make another court appearance in the near future. Nearly 10 years after he found the body of Caylee Anthony, Roy Kronk is asking a judge to rule in favor of his defamation suit against Casey Anthony moving to trial. Kronk claims that he was wrongly accused of killing Caylee and planting her remains. His attorney has asked that the trial be held in the very same court where Casey Anthony was acquitted and that private investigator Dominic Casey be allowed to testify. Readers may remember that Casey has alleged that Anthony paid Jose Baez for his legal services with sexual favors. As of now, no decisions have been made regarding Kronk's request. It's hard to believe that is has been 10 years since Caylee Anthony's death. While many of us haven't moved on from the shocking verdict, it seems that at least one person has, Casey Anthony herself . She is now living with and working for another investigator who was inv

Ok so we don't know the exact brand of the discarded tissue used to catch the Golden State Killer but it's such a catchy title that I couldn't resist. Unsealed warrants indicate that police waited for the GSK suspect, Joseph James DeAngelo, to wheel his garbage to the curb and then they plucked the tissue from the bin for DNA testing. Officers also took swabs off the handle of his car door while he shopped at a local Hobby Lobby. The warrant also lists nine pages of "trophies" that DeAngelo took from his victims including wedding rings, handbags, a poker chip, clothes and silver dollars. While much of the 171-page warrant was redacted, there were still several disturbing details revealed to the public. Police believe that DeAngelo stalked his victims before attacking them, using drainage ditches to essentially hide in plain sight. He was very bold in his attacks and terrorized entire neighborhoods. DeAngelo has yet to enter pleas to any of the 12 murders th

The Last Defense , premiering June 12 on ABC, will examine the conviction of Darlie Routier in the murder of her two sons. Routier has spent the last 20 years on Death Row and there has been a lot of debate over whether she committed the crimes. I have to admit, based on what I've heard about the case I'm one of those who doubt that they convicted the right person in this case so I'm really looking forward to her story being told. The series will also look at the case of Julius Jones, a former college student now on death row for the carjacking murder of a father of two. Over at Den of Geek Paradise Lost director Joe Berlinger discusses his new Starz docu-series Wrong Man . The series examines the case of Christopher Tapp, who confessed to a brutal sexual assault and murder. Many, including the victim's mother, believe that the confession was coerced. The series also profiles the cases of Evaristo Salas and Curtis Flowers. It should be noted that the newest season o