Phantasmal Crime

The Herald's cover story read "…if her death was accidental, it was as strange an accident as was ever conceived by the brain of Poe." Old Hollywood and mysterious deaths seem to go hand in hand, whether it's the case of the Black Dahlia or the mysterious "suicides" of Marilyn Monroe and George Reeves. In the same vein as the mysterious suicides of the latter stars, comes the tale of the mysterious death of movie star Thelma Todd. It is a story that contains all the elements of a perfect Hollywood drama: fame, fortune, gangsters, love and betrayal. Was she murdered, did she die by accident or did she die at her own hand? Whatever the truth may be, her spirit is at unrest. Blonde bombshells and Hollywood. They went together well in Hollywood's Golden Age, but many of those stories ended in heartbreak or tragedy. Thelma Todd was one of those promising starlets who came to an unhappy end in what has become one of Hollywood's enduring mysteries...

The thought that some humans could be deemed as the throw away people of society is detestable. Drug addicts, the homeless and sex workers are usually classified in this way. And that, makes them easy victims. Particularly for serial killers. An unknown serial killer that wreaked havoc in the city of Cleveland back during the Great Depression was nicknamed "The Mad Butcher." His victims were the people that society had tossed aside. Their torsos were the only things left behind in this killer's wake.    James Kingsbury was the first resident of Newburgh, which was a township south of Cleveland. An area along the east side of Cleveland near Shaker Heights that stretched westward down to the Cuyahoga River was named for him, Kingsbury Run. This piece of land that separated Cleveland from Newburgh was a booming place. At least for a little while. The industry here collapsed during the Great Depression and poverty moved in hitting the immigrants and minorities the hardest. ...

Many of you have probably spent some time in a cabin in the woods. Or perhaps you have hiked on a nature trail somewhere. Nature is supposed to be a place of peace. But sometimes this can also be a place of danger. Remote natural places are favorite dumping grounds for murderers. The recent murder of Gabby Petito is proof of that. Natural places make easier hunting grounds. A mountain resort or lodge like the Keddie Resort became one such place in 1981. And the horrific murders that happened here remain unsolved today. Keddie really isn't a town. This was a resort that became a community. The resort started as a former railroad town that sat at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas and it was named for railroad surveyor Arthur W. Keddie. The area was so beautiful that it became a vacation destination. People could get out of the big cities and enjoy nature at the Keddie Resort, which was established 1910. The property had a two-story lodge that featured rooms for rent, a bar and a resta...

A house is an inanimate object. People can fill a home with either positive energy or negative energy. But the house is still just a house. When a murder happens inside a house, the house is innocent. And that statement, The House is Innocent, is posted outside of 1426 F Street in Sacramento, California. This is the Dorothea Puente Murder House, a private home that was once a boarding house run by Puente who made the downtrodden of her community her victims, all while at the same time appearing to be a pillar of the community. She had a handful of victims that she buried in her backyard. Women don't tend to be serial killers, so when a female killer is found to have multiple victims, it gets more than the average amount of attention. The list is a fairly short one and female serial killers seem to be different from their male counterparts. Their crimes are usually not about hunting prey as is the case for many male serial killers. And many of these female killers prefer a hands o...

The murder of Mildred Ann Reynolds is a cold case that stretches back more then 60 years. The crime scene was horrific with blood and a burned out car. This young woman had come to a brutal end. Violent murders, especially those that remain unsolved, seem to spawn spirits. The supernatural occurrences that accompany this puzzling story serve to deepen the intrigue. Mildred Ann Newlin, or Annie as her family called her, was born on December 25, 1933 in Lambert, Oklahoma. Lambert started as a settlement that was named for Ambrose Lambert who obtained the land in the Cherokee Outlet Opening land run in 1893. This piece of Oklahoma was between two railroads and was part of wheat-growing country, so it prospered. But this was never a big town and today has less than 10 residents. Ernest and Marie Newlin had moved to Lambert and had a little farm. A photo of a young Annie pictures her in a dress and cowboy boots, bottle feeding a young lamb as she smiles for the camera. People all de...

Husband kills wife. This is the classic true crime tale. The spouses of murder victims are always the first to be scrutinized as suspects. And for good reason. The CDC did a study in 18 states of murdered women from the years 2003 to 2014 and more than half were murdered by a former or current partner or family or friend of that partner and 93% of those cases were current or former partners. Hawley Crippen was a successful homeopathic doctor in the early 1900s and his wife Cora went missing. All eyes focused on Dr. Crippen as the search for his wife began. The murder of Cora Crippen and the trial that followed became international news. The Chamber of Horrors closed in April of 2016 at Madame Tussauds in London. Part of that exhibit was a wax figure of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen. Hawley Crippen was born in Coldwater, Michigan in September of 1862. He was a short man, standing only 5'3", and had what were described as very unusual buggy eyes. Crippen decided to pursue medici...