Woman Condemned

I had a few cute emails about my first celebrity murderers article and my brother ragged me about the lameness of the Laura Bush paragraph so I decided to give it another try. So here goes. Charles S. Dutton No wonder he is such a good actor. He has lived it all. Charles S. Dutton served prison sentences for manslaughter, illegal possession of a firearm and acting as the ringleader of a prison riot. He killed a man during a fight at age 17 and was sentenced to manslaughter. He served seven years. Once released, he was caught with a firearm and did three more years. He was a shit starter in prison and once, while in solitary confinement when he accidentally found himself with a book on black playwrights, he fell in love with acting. Lillo Brancato Jr. This is one of my favorite celebrity fuck-up stories. He's just so damn dumb. I loved Lillo in A Bronx Tale, a wonderful true story of life in the Bronx for a young Italian boy in the 50's. He was also on the Soprano'

Many people claim an interest in true crime books, movies or news reports is  morbid, sick even. They take great strides to tell the rest of us how gratifying it is to the killer when we want to know what happened. They demand to know "who knows the victims' names" and toss around insults to those whose curiosity and interests are peaked. The truth, however, is that without an interest in the  "who, what, why and how" these things happen, there will never be an end to it. All the prison time and state sanctioned murders in the country will not stop it. Only an understanding of the acts can prevent them. In keeping with that theory, there are many amazingly insightful movies about true crimes that not only depict the crimes in horrifyingly  realistic detail, but show all sides of the crimes and criminals for a whole picture. In fact, some true crime movies and documentaries have won worldwide awards for the light they shed on such horrific acts and th

Strangely enough, convicted murderess , Chiquita Bulger, was offered a chance at parole eventually. She was convicted last week in the shooting death of Emily Clark for "snitching", as she told a witness.  Just before 8 p.m., at the Addison Apartment complex in the 10100 block of E Admiral Blvd. Bulger walked into the apartment and shot Clark in the head. An unnamed witness heard the gunshot and went into the apartment to see someone removing a gun from Bulger's hands and hearing her say Clark was a snitch. Clark's death was Tulsa's 13th death. Bulger was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

 Roxanne Buck, 45, has been found guilty of murdering her 21 year old roommate, Michelle Johnson in Stow, Ohio. Details in this case are sparse, but authorities claim Buck was approximately four months behind on rent and was asked by Johnson to move out but had not. Johnson's body was found with multiple stab wounds to the neck in a shed behind her Maplepark Drive home after her mother alerted authorities that she had not returned her calls in several days. She was covered with several blankets. Buck was an employee of the Stow Burger King. She will be sentenced October 21rst.

From Fox News: TORRANCE, Calif. –  A woman who spent 17 years in prison for the death of a homeless man hugged her grandchild for the first time and did a dance of happiness after she was judged innocent of murder and freed . "I always knew that one day God would bring the truth to the light," Susan Marie Mellen, 59, told reporters Friday, after she was released from a Torrance courthouse shortly before 6 p.m. About eight hours earlier, a Los Angeles County judge overturned her conviction, saying that her attorney failed to properly represent her and that a woman who claimed she heard Mellen confess was a "habitual liar." "I believe she is innocent," Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold said. "For that reason I believe in this case the justice system failed." The courtroom burst into applause after his ruling. Based solely on witness testimony, Mellen was convicted of orchestrating the beating death of Richard Daly at a Lawndale home

Kimberly Cargill is on death row for the killing of her mentally retarded babysitter, Cherry Walker. Ms. Walker was found burned on the side of a rural road in Texas. Doctors had diagnosed her as mentally challenged in 1995, saying she had the living skills of a 9 year old. Witnesses, some her own family, testified that Cargill was abusive and violent toward them and to Cherry Walker. Cargill was arrested in 2010 on child abuse charges and a custody trial was pending in which Cherry Walker was slated to testify. The state alleged that Kimberly killed Cherry to keep her from testifying. Kimberly has always said that she did not kill Cherry but that she suffered from a seizure as she was riding in the car with Kimberly. She had been prone to seizures and Kimberly panicked. She tried to revive her, but could not. When she realized Cherry was dead, she set her on fire in an attempt to rid any DNA from her body. She was certain she would be charged with her death. She was convicted

Isn’t it strange how when celebrities are involved in a murder it only seems to make them more famous? It’s a far different experience for the average joe. Case in point, consider these celebrity murderers. Matthew Broderick killed two women by reckless driving. He and Jennifer Gray were tooling along a country road in Northern Ireland when for some unknown reason he went into the opposite lane and ran head on into an oncoming car, killing two women inside. He was convicted only of reckless driving and given $175 fine . He claimed memory loss from the accident and has no memory of why he swerved into the wrong lane. Somehow I don’t think I would have gotten off quite as easily. William S. Burroughs , a writer, shot and killed his common law wife. He claimed several different stories before finally settling on a mishandling of the gun. He served about two weeks in prison. Rebecca Gayheart was driving on a Los Angeles street when she killed nine-year-old Jorg

There are victims of serial killers and atrocious murderers whom no one cares about. Their names are known. Their connections apparent, their pain obvious, and yet the public at large still ignores them and many even point fingers and gossip. These victims rarely matter to anyone but each other. They are the killer’s family and friends. The family and loved ones of convicted killers are treated with extreme disrespect in most cases and even abused physically, emotionally and mentally (including cyberbullying ) and no one cares. No one does anything about it. I scoured the Internet for hours and found only a handful of articles and videos on the subject. The family members of killers go through an immense pain not unlike the death of a child or loved one. If the death penalty is on the table, the loss of a child is no different for them than other parents. They are left with feelings of horror, grief, denial, outrage, misery and confusion with no one to turn to but each other. Wh

I was invited as a special guest to the Dark History Convention in Rantoul, Illinois last weekend. So, my boyfriend Steven and I, along with my son Lucky and his lifelong bestie , Dillon, came along for the ride. Rantoul is 8 hours from my home in Middle Tennessee so we headed out very early. I slept a lot and read a lot and prepared for my reader’s questions. The hotel would not let us check in until 3 and the event began at 6 so I was pressed for time to get something in my stomach and become presentable after an 8 hour drive. We tried to eat at Olive Garden but it was so packed I wondered if it was the only restaurant in town. A quick Google search pointed out a nearby TGI Friday’s so off we went. I sipped through two glasses of Chardonnay while I ate my pasta and my nerves eased up just a little. The hotel was in Champaign, Illinois, about 30 minutes from the venue, a V.F.W. lounge . I set up my table next to Richard O. Jones, who writes and sells “Two Dollar Terrors”