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 ...

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...