This unfortunate face belongs to Nathan Jerry Ellis, killer and rapist. In 1956, Ellis and another man were convicted for the murder of Victor Quick in Custer County, Oklahoma. He was sentenced to life in prison for first degree murder. He appealed, received a new trial, and was re-sentenced to serve sixty-years for manslaughter. […]

  Today’s mug shot is taken from “Famous Crimes the World Forgot.” This is Arthur Eggers. In 1946, he was a cuckold who got tired of his younger, dominant wife running around on him. He was coming home late one night when he caught sight of his wife’s lover leaving the house. When he went […]

  This story was the inspiration for several movies, and there is a book about this tragedy called The Wreck of the William Brown. There are links to further reading at the end of the story. Story by Thomas Duke, 1910 “Celebrated Criminal Cases of America” Part III: Cases East of The Pacific Coast On […]

  John Elgin Johnson, 1919 to 1953, was a career criminal who ended up in the federal prison system for robbing banks. After a failed escape attempt from Fort Leavenworth that left one guard severely injured, Johnson was sent to Alcatraz in 1944. He served nine years there and was released in 1953. During his […]

  This story was written by NYPD detective Captain Henry Flattery, Retired, for Front Page Detective magazine, November, 1955. It was part of a collection of stories called, “Dumbells I have Known.” which poked fun at some stupid criminals. He was with the NYPD for thirty years and worked on many important cases from that […]

While searching my newspaper archive sources for specific stories, or just on fishing expeditions for new ones, I often come across stories about a lynch mob serving up vigilante justice to an unconvicted murderer. In most cases, the lynch mob would storm the jail where the prisoner was held and grab him while others held […]

In Memoriam. Donna Marie Dixon, 1956 to 1974 Although it has been more than forty-years now, the memory of Donna Marie Dixon has not been erased by time. Her existence, her time with us in this world, lives on in the memory of four of her friends who wish to honor her, remember her, and […]

. 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 […]

. Originally Published: “I Had To Kill,” by George Beltz, Front Page Detective, May, 1950. Editor’s Note: Articles written for detective magazines during the 1940s, 50s and 60s often incorporated “recreated dialogue” in order to both tell the story and to advance the storyline. For readers today, this dialogue will feel contrived and trite. In […]

. Fighting Frederick Hansen “Fighting” Frederick Hansen, first mate on the SS ROLPH,  picked up a crew at Vancouver to haul lumber to Melbourne in 1920. The vessel was owned by James Rolph Jr., the mayor of San Francisco and future governor of California. Hansen had been convicted of killing a seaman in 1917 and […]