REDBONE-Ron Stodghill

On a cold, winter’s night in early 1963, mob enforcer Rocco Anthony Balliro and a pair of associates stormed a darkened apartment on the outskirts of Boston and engaged in a fierce gun battle with several assailants (police officers, it turned out) waiting in ambush for the ex-convict and recent prison escapee. In the aftermath, a young woman and her toddler son lay dead.The story of Rocco Balliro, a petty criminal and enforcer for New England crime boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca, played out in glaring headlines across the country following the shootout with the Boston police. Had he heeded the commands of the cops to drop his weapon, Rocco would not have spent the next fifty years behind bars, and his girlfriend and her son might still be alive today. Instead, he fired the gun, erupting death and mayhem in the apartment. In the aftermath of the shootings, all fingers pointed at Rocco. But he would maintain his innocence in the death of his girlfriend and her son for the rest of his life, though plagued with lingering questions.Did he fire the deadly bullets or did they come from another source? Did he unknowingly kill the pair or was he simply guilty of an ill-advised home invasion? What was the police’s true involvement?Balliro agreed to meet with the author over the span of a couple years. Along with countless tales of criminal escapades, Balliro handed over reams of documents, correspondence, and clippings related to his life and the alleged crime that put him behind bars, while Balliro arranged for meetings with many of his family members and associates. This is Rocco’s own story of his life. But most importantly, it is his version of the events from the night of February 2, 1963, in a Boston suburb, and his profession of innocence until his dying breath. SHOTS IN THE DARK: The Saga of Rocco Balliro-Daniel Zimmerman  Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

7 Dec 20181h 11min

The true story of Air Force men and women who struggle to prevent a mass murder and an aviation disaster, and their heroic response to both tragedies when their warnings go unheeded.Have you ever heard someone say that a tragedy struck without warning? On 20 June 1994, a former airman sought vengeance with a rifle at the Fairchild Air Force Base hospital. Four days later a rogue pilot crashed a B-52 outside of Fairchild's Nuclear Weapon Storage Area. Both tragedies had been predicted and repeatedly warned about. Warnings Unheeded is a rare look inside the troubled mind of a would-be active shooter. It is an exclusive look at a talented pilot whose dangerous flying prompted aircrews to refuse to fly with him. It is a look at the leadership culture that allowed both men to travel unchecked on the pathway toward destruction.This unique true-crime book reads like a suspense novel, densely packed with details garnered from medical records, police reports and first-hand accounts obtained from journal entries, letters, witness statements and personal interviews. These empowering stories detail the heroic response to the tragedies, the events that lead up to them, the precursors of violence and disaster and the traumatic aftermath.Written by Andy Brown, the man who ended the hospital killing spree. Brown's narrative focuses mainly on others, including the heroic life-saving actions of hospital patrons and staff, but he also describes the preparations he made which enabled him to win a pistol-versus-rifle gunfight as well as his own experience with the effects of trauma. WARNINGS UNHEEDED: Twin Tragedies at Fairchild Air Force Base-Andy Brown Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

4 Dec 20181h 19min

In March 2009, pretty, vivacious Rhonda Casto plunged to her death from a 300-foot cliff in the Oregon woods. The only witness, Stephen Nichols, the father of her nine-month-old baby, Annie, told police investigators she slipped and fell. Yet, Nichols’ story didn’t quite mesh with the facts. And some of his other actions raised suspicions as well, including just days after her death trying to collect on a million-dollar life insurance policy he’d taken out on his unemployed, 23-year-old girlfriend four months earlier. What had begun with a 911 call to report an accident, quickly turned into a homicide investigation. However, in part due to lackluster police work, the case grew cold. Then in 2011, Dardie Robinson, a tenacious investigator with a Portland law firm began digging into the circumstances surrounding Rhonda's death. The law firm represented Rhonda’s mother, who believed that Nichols, 34 at the time, had murdered her daughter. She wanted to prevent him from gaining custody of Annie and the life insurance money. What Robinson discovered, including an attempt by Nichols to throw his first wife off a high-rise balcony in China, as well as sexual abuse allegations with Rhonda's underaged sister, convinced her that Rhonda’s death was no accident. So began her six-year battle to ‘save Annie’ from her own father and find justice for Rhonda. In the meantime, a parallel investigation into the case by co-authors Steve Jackson, an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author, and private investigator Tom McCallum, posed the same questions. What really happened to Rhonda Casto on that cold, rainy afternoon on the Eagle Creek trail? And what would become of her child? SAVING ANNIE-Book Two-The Investigator-Steve jackson Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

29 Nov 20181h 1min

In 2016-17, while working for the USA TODAY NETWORK's Wisconsin Investigative Team, author John Ferak wrote dozens of articles examining the murder case again Steven Avery, who had already beat one wrongful conviction only to be charged with the murder of Teresa Halbach in 2005. The case became the wildly successful Netflix "Making A Murderer" documentary. In WRECKING CREW: Demolishing The Case Against Steven Avery, Ferak lays out in exacting detail the post-conviction strategy of Kathleen Zellner, the high-profile, high-octane lawyer, to free Avery. To write this book, Zellner, perhaps America's most successful wrongful conviction attorney, gave Ferak unique access to the exhaustive pro bono efforts she and her small suburban Chicago law firm dedicated for a man she believes to be a victim of an unscrupulous justice system in Manitowoc County. WRECKING CREW: Demolishing The Case Against Steven Avery-John Ferak Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

27 Nov 20181h 18min

A DEVOTED MOTHER GOES MISSINGEvery once in a great while a genuine murder mystery unfolds before the public's eyes…Such is the tragic case of Susan Powell and her murdered boys, Charlie and Braden. When the pretty Utah mother went missing in December of 2009, the media was swept up in the story?with lenses and microphones trained on Susan's husband, Josh. He said he had no idea what happened to Susan?and that he and the boys had been camping in the middle of a snowstorm. It was hard to know what, or who, to believe.AND A CYCLE OF DEVASTATION BEGINS…Over the next three years, bombshell by bombshell, a world of secrets about the Powell family came to light. Josh's father, Steve, who was sexually obsessed with Susan, would ultimately be convicted of unspeakable perversion. Josh's brother, Michael, would commit suicide. And in the most stunning event of them all, Josh Powell would murder his two little boys before killing himself. Why did he do it? What really happened to Susan? This is the shocking true story of the Powell family that no reader will soon forget. IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children-Rebecca Morris Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

20 Nov 20181h 33min

It was a shattering death bed confession by a heartbroken mother. But would it solve the oldest cold case murder case in American jurisprudence?In January 1994, Eileen Tessier told Jack McCullough’s half-sister Janet Tessier that he, her son, kidnapped 7-year-old Maria Ridulph from their neighborhood in Sycamore, Illinois and killed her in December 1957. It was a case that tore the child’s family apart, as well as dividing and terrifying the town as the days, then the months, and finally the years passed with no arrest.In 2008 the Illinois State police reopened the case against Jack after receiving an email from Janet Tessier about their mother’s deathbed confession. After the Illinois State police interviewed Janet and learned that Jack had also been accused of raping their other sister, Jeanne Tessier, they reopened the case. But would reopening the case solve the question of who killed Maria Ridulph? And was McCullough the killer?In THE LAST MAN STANDING, true crime author Alan Warren writes in exacting detail about the kidnapping, murder and subsequent investigations—both in 1957 and 2008—that eventually led to the murder conviction of Jack McCullough. But the story doesn’t stop there as it delves into the years McCullough spent in prison and the efforts to have his conviction overturned.Was McCullough the brutal killer of a little girl? Or was he the last man standing when the justice system decided he needed to pay for the crime? You decide. THE LAST MAN STANDING Is Jack Daniel McCullough: A True Story-Alan R. Warren Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

15 Nov 20181h 18min

Brian Stidham fell in love with Tucson, Ariz., the minute he came to town. A young and talented eye surgeon, he accepted a job with an established eye surgeon to take over his pediatric patients.“It’s a beautiful place,” Stidham told a friend. “I can live right there by the mountains and go hiking. It’s a great deal for me there. The partner I’ll be working with is ultracool. He’s giving me the keys to the kingdom.”Brad Schwartz, the doctor who hired Brian, was ambitious and possessed surgical skills few others had. But he was a troubled man.Within a year of Stidham’s arrival in Tucson, the medical relationship would be severed by Schwartz’s personal troubles. Stidham broke away to start his own practice. Rumors abounded within the medical community that Schwartz was incensed and considered the departure a betrayal. His rage grew, even driving a wedge between him and his fiancée, Lourdes Lopez, a former prosecutor.Three years after Stidham moved to Tucson, his life ended in an empty, darkened parking lot. But who would murder such a nice man in such a violent manner? Lourdes, who had witnessed Schwartz’s toxic rage toward his former partner, feared she knew. But would her suspicions be enough to catch the killer? TOXIC RAGE: A Tale Of Murder In Tucson-A.J. Flick Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

13 Nov 20181h 17min

The Creep Among Us, the true story of the next chapter. Investigations and research which entails some of what we know a little more than five months into solving who The East Area Rapist, Original Night Stalker, Golden State Killer is. The story continues after the ARREST of Joseph James DeAngelo on April 24, 2018 in Sacramento, California. The trial estimated to begin in about four years will be unprecedented as several jurisdictions will try DeAngelo in Sacramento at the same time. There have been multitudes of articles and information that have come out in the five months since the arrest. DeAngelo was found from DNA left at the scenes of his many rapes and then murders over a ten year time span 1976-1986. A profile downloaded to GEDmatch as well as experts who traced his profile to his family tree were instrumental in the final arrest of a man whose DNA matched the suspect with a 100% match. Anne Penn is just one of hundreds of people involved in the story who needed to investigate the details. He truly was the creep hiding among us. The creepiest thing of all is he was living among his victims in his favorite attack areas in the East Sacramento area of Citrus Heights for most of the last 42 years. We shall see how the investigators connect all of the dots. Ms. Penn was compelled to follow this story through to justice. Her investigations into the details of who this perpetrator is and how we missed him in 1979 are something she had to ask questions about. Larry Crompton has written his thoughts after the arrest and they are included. Mark Smith discusses the ballistics involved in some of the murders. Many ran the idea that the criminal was in Law Enforcement throughout the many years. Mr. Smith discusses how we could have and should have determined that this man was a cop. THE CREEP AMONG US: Golden State Killer After The Arrest-Anne Penn Follow and comment on Facebook-TRUE MURDER: The Most Shocking Killers in True Crime History   https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064697978510Check out TRUE MURDER PODCAST @ truemurderpodcast.com

9 Nov 20181h 21min