An Almanac of Infamy

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'