. WJ Edwards 2-15-39, Convicted of Murder Story 1: “Two Are Held in City Death, Shots Blamed on Robbery Fear” Two men were held in the city jail Monday and funeral arrangements completed for a third as the aftermath of a shooting Sunday night in a one-room house at 129 West Chickasaw Avenue, Services for […]

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 […]

. Originally Published as: “Want to See an Execution?” by Allen Rankin, Front Page Detective, April, 1956. It was a bright moonlight night. I was 22, and, as I cruised out the Wetumpka Highway in the new family car, I clicked on the radio. Kay Kyser was playing Stardust. I had a heavy date—to see […]

  I am really proud [because of its rarity] of today’s mugshot of Lloyd Sampsell, a career bank robber whose amazing escapades spanned three decades. This is the only mugshot of him to known exist on the internet, outside of an FBI wanted circular. From the early 1920s to 1952 Lloyd Sampsell was one of […]

  Roy G. Gardner (January 5, 1884 – January 10, 1940) was once America’s most celebrated outlaw and escaped convict during the Roaring Twenties. During his criminal career, he stole over $350,000 in cash and securities. He also had a $5,000 reward placed on his head three times in less than a year during his […]

. Today’s mug shot belongs to Tulsa bank robber Coney Coffey. Coffey robbed a bank in Tulsa in 1924 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. While in prison, he contracted tuberculosis. He escaped twice in 1934 by tunneling underneath the tuberculosis wing of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary hospital with 7(?) other prisoners. During […]

. July 1, 1934 Jefferson & Jefferson County, Wisconsin Earl Gentry was dead. It looked like he had been “taken for a ride” and polished off with typical gangland efficiency. Not a soul mourned the passing of this self-styled gangster with the itching trigger finger, brass knuckles and concealed stiletto. He had won the sobriquet […]

  First Published: “The Corpse in Coffee Creek-Secrets of Ohio’s Tragic Triangle,” by Detective Otto H. Diskowski, Homicide Squad, Cleveland Police Department, as told to R. Rodgers, True Detective Mysteries, May, 1938.  Want to read this story later on your tablet? Download PDF File of The Corpse in Coffee Creek CHARLES SALWAY SLOWLY MADE HIS […]

While researching newspaper coverage of other crimes, I came across trial coverage of the strange murder of Clothilde Marchand in 1930. What came out of that trial is a bizarre tale with the following ingredients: A Ouija board, witchcraft, an Indian faith healer, manipulation and coercion to kill, and a philandering sculptor who claimed it […]

Posted from: “Full Pardon Asked For One Who Paid For another Man’s Crime,” The Sunday News and Tribune, Jefferson City, MO, Nov. 2, 1947   Attorneys for Frank Werther, 47, who served nearly 15 years in the Missouri state penitentiary here and state mental hospitals after conviction of a crime he did not commit, are […]