. The Harry Thaw & Stanford White case of 1906 is perhaps one of the most famous cases of the 20th Century in terms of newspaper coverage and books written. The case had all the elements a lasting true crime story requires: high society, famous people, sex, jealousy, and cocaine. The following story was published […]

The Mass Murder of Six People in a Washington Cottage Story by Sam D. Cohen, for his syndicated column Today’s True Detective Story, “Killer of Six Captured, Brutal Murders are Solved,” July 11, 1941, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Peach Section, page 2. ON A SATURDAY in March 1934, Tom Sanders stepped out of his Erland Point, Washington […]

  There is a great link to an 1896 article from The San Francisco Call about the case at the end of the article. San Francisco, 1896 Joseph Blanther was born in Rankerburg Steirmart, Austria, in 1859. When nineteen years of age he was made a Lieutenant in the Austrian army, and a few months […]

  On May 1, Mrs. Luetgert suddenly disappeared, but her husband was apparently unconcerned regarding her absence and advanced the theory that she had committed suicide because of his failure in business. On May 4, Deidrich Bicknesse, Mrs. Luetgert’s brother, called to see her, and Luetgert informed him that she had been missing for three […]

The following story was made into a movie in 1984 entitled, Mrs. Soffel, and starred Diane Keaton and Mel Gibson.   Story by Thomas A. Duke, for his book, Celebrated Criminal Cases of America, 1910. . During the early months of 1901, twenty-seven burglaries were committed in Pittsburgh, and the modus operandi of these bold […]

Jan. 8, 1909, San Francisco, CA Anton J. F. Nolting was born in San Francisco on February 9, 1860. He was of a studious disposition and acquired a high education. As a young man he was in comfortable circumstances financially but meeting with reverses, he joined the San Francisco Police Force on December 2, 1895. […]

  On December 22, 1871, the little son of Mrs. Paine, of Chelsea, a suburb of Boston, was inveigled by an unknown boy, evidently about twelve years of age, to Powder Horn Hill, near Boston, where he was stripped naked, tied to a beam and beaten with a rope until he become unconscious. The larger […]

The following story was written by Thomas Duke in 1910. At the end of the story are links to more information and there has even been a movie made recently about this case.   On March 9, 1873, Dr. William H. York left Fort Scott, Kansas, on horseback for his home in Independence, Kansas, and […]

  The following story was written by Thomas Duke in 1910. At the end of the story are links to more articles, a video, and there has even been a movie made recently about this case. The Botkin-Dunning Case was the first time the US Postal Service had been used to commit murder.     […]

Theodore Durrant was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1871, and while a child came to San Francisco with his parents, who gave him a good education. In 1895 he was a medical student at Cooper Medical College. He pretended to be a devout Christian and was one of the most active members of Emanuel Baptist […]