THE LAS VEGAS MASSACRE CONNECTIONS—Mark Gray

The incredible story of a 1958 murder that ended with the last woman to ever be executed in California—a murder so twisted it seems ripped from a Greek tragedy.Deborah Larkin was only ten years old when the quiet calm of her California suburb was shattered. Thirty miles north, on a quiet November night in Santa Barbara, a pregnant nurse named Olga Duncan disappeared from her apartment. The mystery deepens when it is discovered that Olga’s mother in-law—a deeply manipulative and deceptive woman—had been doing everything in her power to separate Olga and her son, Frank, prior to Olga’s disappearance.From a forged annulment to multiple attempts to hire people to “get rid” of Olga, to a faked excoriation case, Elizabeth seemed psychopathically attached to her son. Yet she denied having anything to do with Olga’s disappearance with a smile.But when Olga’s brutally beaten body is found in a shallow grave, apparently buried alive, a young DA makes it his mission to see that Elizabeth Duncan is brought to justice. Adding a wrinkle to his efforts is the fact that Frank—himself a defense attorney—maintained his mother’s innocence to the end.How does a young girl process such a crime along with the fear and disbelief that rocked an entire community? Decades later, Larkin is determined to revisit the case and bring the story of Olga herself to light. Long overshadowed by the sensationalism and scandal of Elizabeth and Frank, A Lovely Girl seeks to reveal Olga as a woman in full. Someone who was more than the twisted family that would ultimately ensnare her.As we follow the heart-pounding drama of the case through Larkin's young eyes—her father was the court reporter—A Lovely Girl is by turns page-turning yet poignant, and makes the reader reexamine how we handle fear, how we regard mental illness, and how we understand family as we carve our own path in a dangerous world. A LOVELY GIRL: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California's Most Notorious Killers-Deborah LarkinReplyForward 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 Jan 202353min

Murder is the most vile crime known to man. It can be triggered by love or money or sex. Those are the three big ticket items for homicide. But people are strange. They will kill for the most obscure and ridiculous of reasons. In 30 years covering murder, Brad Hunter has discovered each one has its own flavour. Cops and friends can be stunned by the evil lurking within a seemingly ordinary man or woman. In this collection of some of the most memorable cases Brad has reported on, there are serial killers, rich kid monsters, football stars and wives in pursuit of hormone-charged hijinks… The very rich and the very poor. Successful lawyers and hotel executives. Southern belles who could melt butter with a come hither wink and a sexy drawl. Daddy’s girls with gleaming smiles, good marks and possessed by the devil.These are stories of American crimes and they stretch from coast to coast.You will find cheating husbands and wives so desperate for love that they’ll kill for it. COLD BLOODED MURDER: Shocking True Stories of Killers and Psychopaths-Brad Hunter 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

3 Jan 202355min

The western suburbs of Chicago were being terrorized by a serial rapist and murderer in the 1970s and 1980s. Bruce Lindahl was a psychotic rapist and killer who preyed on girls and young women for almost a decade. He managed to escape detection because he did not leave his rape victims alive. But in 1980, he kidnapped and raped Debra Colliander in Aurora, Illinois. She escaped before he could murder her, and Lindahl finally was arrested. Two months later, just before he was to go on trial on charges of kidnapping, rape and deviate sexual assault, Lindahl kidnapped and murdered Miss Colliander. Lindahl disposed of her body and no one could find her. The following year, because the victim did not show up in court, the kidnapping and rape charges had to be dropped – and he could not be charged with murder without a body. Reporter Jim Ridings wrote a number of stories for The Beacon-News over several months, determined to shine a light to try to stop Lindahl from getting away with another murder. Suddenly, the public knew the truth about this monster who had been able to evade justice and public attention. Aurora police said Lindahl planned to kill Ridings once the judge finally dismissed the case. But fortunately, a few days after the charges were dropped, Lindahl accidentally killed himself while murdering another person. The story took another turn nearly 40 years after Lindahl’s death when DNA tests linked Lindahl to an unsolved cold case murder from 1976. Murder in the Fox Valley tells the story of Bruce Lindahl’s terrible crime spree and how he finally was stopped. MURDER IN THE FOX VALLEY: The True Story of Serial Killer Bruce Lindahl-Jim Ridings 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

2 Jan 202347min

From the award-winning author of Two Crows Sorrow comes another historical true crime story about secret identities, deception, and murder.At the turn of the century, an ex-convict from Ireland arrives in the back country of rural Nova Scotia, whereupon he is accused of murdering a man and burying him in the victim’s own cellar under a pile of potatoes. Rooted in Deception follows the life of John Kavanagh and how this petty criminal deceives everyone in his path until he is eventually accused of a heinous and violent murder for which he is ultimately hanged. But how much of the tragedy was of his own doing and how much had been woven by his enemies? Told from a variety of perspectives, including that of the accused, the book creates a sympathetic case for a man who may deserve none. Using primary sources including newspaper articles, trial transcripts and actual letters from the accused, the true story of the murder of Freeman Harvey is told using creative nonfiction devices to fill in the gaps of the narrative. Rooted in Deception follows Two Crows Sorrow, which was awarded the 2020 Bronze Award for best creative nonfiction by the Miramichi Reader. ROOTED IN DECEPTION-Laura Churchill Duke 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

21 Dec 202252min

For more than three and a half decades, the disappearance of 12-year-old Jonelle Matthews was a mystery – a riddle neither authorities nor her family members could solve. The residents of her cloistered Colorado hometown had scoured every inch of prairie. Jonelle’s face had been on milk cartons nationwide. Even the President of the United States had appealed to the public for help. Still, every lead had fizzled. Every person of interest had turned out to be a dead end. Then, in 2019, Jonelle’s remains were unearthed near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. With the discovery came a troubling new question: Had the truth been hiding in plain sight the entire time? Was the man who couldn’t stop obsessing over Jonelle’s disappearance also the person who took her? From Campside Media and Wondery comes season two of SUSPECT. Former CNN reporter Ashley Fantz and executive producers Matthew Shaer and Eric Benson (Suspect, Over My Dead Body) dig into one of the most mind-bending cold cases in modern history, in an attempt to separate fact and fiction, compulsion from guilt, and true-crime fandom from a motive for murder. Listen to SUSPECT: Vanished in the Snow early and ad- free by subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.https://wondery.app.link/suspect-tm 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

19 Dec 20226min

On a cold, windy December night in 1926, hell was unleashed on a tenant farm near Farwell, the last Texas town before the New Mexico border. Prone to the bottle and fits of rage, the burly man with the smiling blue eyes was in no mood to quarrel with his third wife over his bootleg whisky and sexual abuse of his stepdaughter. He went from room to room in the house, killing his wife and each child with primitive cutting tools and his bare hands. By the time he concluded his bloody work, he had taken the lives of nine family members ranging in age from 2 to 41, committing what one local reporter called “the blackest crime” in the history of the West Texas Panhandle. Husband, father, uncle, embezzler, serial mass murderer, philanderer, child molester, convict, and military deserter, George Jefferson Hassell was many things to many people, most of them bad. His pattern of familicide crime had begun in 1917, when he slaughtered his common-law wife and her three kids in Whittier, California. Later, in Texas, he married his brother’s wife and became stepfather to her eight children. Using Hassell’s confessions and his many interviews with reporters as well as the trial transcripts and reminiscences of those who crossed paths with him in Texas, Oklahoma, and California, Mitchel P. Roth presents the first comprehensive account of the life and crimes of one of the least known multiple murderers in Texas, let alone American, history. Roth situates Hassell’s saga within the 1920s Texas criminal justice system, including the death penalty, which Hassell ultimately received from Old Sparky, the electric chair at Huntsville. THE MAN WITH THE KILLER SMILE: The Life and Crimes of a Serial Mass Murderer-Mitchel P. Roth 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

12 Dec 202256min

In 1979, Brenda Spencer, a seemingly average teenage girl living in a nice suburban neighborhood, made and executed plans that would place her in infamy and set a violent and terrifying national precedent. She received a rifle for Christmas and a month later set her sights and opened fire on the elementary school across the street.The event is forever glorified by the song ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ by The Boomtown Rats and marks the bloody beginning of the American phenomenon of school shootings. Long before Columbine and Sandy Hook, there was Brenda Spencer…I DON’T LIKE MONDAYS: The True Story of America’s First Modern School Shooting sifts through the mythology that has sprung up around this fateful day, presenting the raw and riveting facts for the first time. This book lays bare this seemingly average teenage girl’s brutal motives and subsequent arrest. N. Leigh Hunt spent years researching and uncovering shocking details from officers, investigators, and lost police dispatches. He has interviewed people who were on the scene and local reporters who spoke with the perpetrator directly after her shooting spree. Hunt has even cultivated an unlikely rapport with the killer and through personal interviews, has shed light on previously unknown details about her upbringing and influences. I DON'T LIKE MONDAYS: The True Story Behind America's First Modern School Shooting-N. Leigh Hunt 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 202249min

Mike Rothmiller and Douglas Thompson draw on previously secret LAPD intelligence files, a cache of FBI documents released to the authors in 2021, and extensive interviews with prime sources, including many who worked with Frank Sinatra and many more who tracked his long and fatal association with the American Mafia, notably his ongoing connection, after his original godfather was assassinated: Sam 'Momo' Giancana, who shared a lover with President John F. Kennedy.Sixteen days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on 30 November 1963, while the singer was 'consoling' the president's widow, nineteen-year-old Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped at gunpoint from his hotel room in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. A $240,000 ransom was demanded from his father. While the FBI and Nevada and California law-enforcement agencies sprang into action, Frank secretly contacted his Mafia friends for help. The Mafia believed they could free young Frank much more quickly through their underworld connections. In the end, nine people died, having been beaten for information.Revealed here as never before is the extent to which Sinatra was adopted by the Mafia. They promoted his career and 'watched his back' and, in return, Sinatra danced to their tune. New information disclosed here shows that Sinatra also offered to spy for the CIA. Inside sources say Sinatra wanted the CIA to intercede to stop an investigation into his gaming license in Las Vegas. But the CIA declined because they were already working with the Mob and were concerned Sinatra would learn of the Mafia's connection to the CIA and leak it. FRANK SINATRA and the MAFIA MURDERS-Mike Rothmiller 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

5 Dec 202254min