Mona Wilson’s 1927 Mug Shot for the women’s prison in York, Nebraska   In 1927, thirty-one-year-old Mona Wilson lived with her husband of two years on her parents’ farm in rural Sheridan County, Nebraska. She was a loyal daughter who helped them on their rented farm and had little interest in the outside world. Mona […]

During the early morning hours of December 8, 1921, Wilburn Barton, 19, and his older brother, Milton, 22, robbed and tortured an elderly couple in their farm house in western Iron County, Missouri. The Barton brothers tied Bud Osborne to his bed with bailing wire, murdered him, and then set the house on fire. His […]

   by Jason Lucky Morrow   This story is no longer available on this blog. Please look for it in my soon to be published book, Famous Crimes the World Forgot, Volume II. Kindle Price Only $2.99 —###—

  In August 1925, neighbors of Prague, Nebraska, farmer John Smetak grew suspicious when they hadn’t seen him since March. His son, Adolph, told neighbors he had gone back to the “old country” (Bohemia) to visit relatives. Their suspicions led them to report the missing man to county deputies who began their search on the […]

Story by Jason Lucky Morrow Posted: December 9, 2015 On November 9, 1927, twenty-year-old Howard Hitchens of Georgetown, Delaware, was growing concerned for his uncle, Robert, whom he had not seen in several days. When he went to the man’s home in nearby Frankford, he found him “beaten to death in a blood splattered room,” […]

On August 19, 1928, Atlanta Police Department Patrolman John McDaniel responded to a disturbance between two acquaintances. When Officer McDaniel attempted to arrest Frederick D. Fair, the principal instigator, Fair shot the forty-nine-year-old lawman in the chest. McDaniel was transported to the hospital, but died three days later of his wound. Fair was later apprehended, […]

The George Tisdale Case The case of George Tisdale, convicted in 1911 for second degree murder and sentenced to 10 to 15 years in federal prison, reveals a deplorable side to the prison justice system at that time. The story below  comes from the August 1926 edition of the publication, The O.E. Library Critic. The […]

The following story was written and provided by the History Section of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A link to a photo gallery of high quality black and white images from the Chicago Tribune taken during Martin Durkin’s trial can be found at the end of this article. These images are amazing to view and […]

. In early July of 1921, West Palm Beach Postmistress Lena Clarke embezzled $41,000 from two registered money bags that were being sent to the Federal Reserve by a local bank. On July 26, the money was discovered missing and one week later, Miss Clarke appeared at an Orlando, Florida, police station and told officers […]

When railroad section hand George Darnell was fired from his job on August 17, 1929, he set his mind on revenge. The following day, Darnell tampered with a track switch near Henryetta, Oklahoma, which later caused a passenger train to jump the track. Thirteen people, eleven of them passengers, were killed and ten more were […]