An Almanac of Infamy

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...