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There are more than 400 entries in the Malefactor’s Register, which as of this writing recently celebrated its 11-year anniversary online.
While I’m fairly happy with most of the articles, there are a few that are my favorites. I’ve broken them down into categories and am sharing them here in no particular order. They might make a good place to start if you’re overwhelmed by the number of entries on the Register.
I reserve the right to put some in more than one category.
~August 2015.
My Favorites
- Mabel Mayer’s Murder
- The Butterfly Murders
- The Black Widow
- King of the Pimps
- Who Killed Captain Wanderwell?
- Mail Order Murder
- The Murder of Vivian Welsh
- The Fall of Frank Egan
- Murder in Three Acts
- Fame’s Ugly Cousin
- A Cure for the Lovelorn
- Appearances Can Be Deceiving
A vicious unsolved Oakland, California, murder of a young girl in 1927.
The murders of two Broadway chorus girls gave birth to the phrase “Sugar Daddy.”
A real-life version of The Postman Always Rings Twice.
Combine a pimp, a roller derby star, and a dope-smoking lesbian embezzler and you get murder.
The globetrotting leader of a group of beatniks ends up dead on his yacht.
The lesson here: Don’t take pills that anonymous people send you in the mail.
A crooked cop runs afoul of the Purple Gang. The very first true crime article I ever wrote (newspaper articles notwithstanding).
San Francisco’s first public defender gets greedy and ends up on the wrong side of the bars.
It took John Kerry to bring down this rapist and murderer.
She came in search of fame and fortune but only got a jail cell and a life sentence
A superstitious mom almost gets away with killing her daughter’s high school ex-boyfriend
It started out looking like a suicide and ended up as a double-homicide
Just Plain Sad
Note:All homicide is tragic; these murders take it to a different level.
- Instrument of Torture
- House of Horrors
- Which Ones are the Bad Guys?
- Don’t Pick Up Hitchhikers
- A Gentle Reminder of What Childhood is Meant to Be
- The High Price of Crack
- Beyond Redemption
- “How Could You Do This to Me?”
An accordion teacher abuses her young student to death.
The tragic story of the torture-murder of Silvia Lykins.
A college student and his grandfather are entrapped by the feds in a murder-for-hire plot.
A troubled teen runs away from home with a friend and ends up dead.
A kindergartner is brutally slain by another troubled child who was the victim of bullies.
A crack addict kills his elderly parents and ends up on death row. I witnessed this execution.
Philly teens kill a friend for his paycheck.
The story of two parents who gave everything to a daughter to whom everything was not enough.
Crimes That Should Be Better Known
- Who Killed Captain Wanderwell?
- A Tinsletown Murder
- A Sin of Passion
- The Franklin Syndicate
- The Fall and Rise of Phenix City
- Wasted Efforts
- Bad Dad
The globetrotting leader of a group of beatniks ends up dead on his yacht.
Before Elizabeth Short there was Georgette Bauerdorf.
The Rev. Richeson couldn’t keep his hands off his lady parishioners.
The story of a Ponzi scheme in 1890s New York City and the crooked lawyer who gets away with it.
A small southern town thinks vice will save it.
The Poland brothers put a lot of effort into a fatal armored car heist.
Clarence Ray Allen is not the kind of father you want.
Crimes That Would Make a Good Movie
- One for the Books
- The Ordeal of David Lamson
- Appearances Can Be Deceiving
- Anything for Dad (Was a made-for-TV movie)
- Minute by Minute
- Murder and Global Warming
- The Fall and Rise of Phenix City
- Louise the Lady Killer (At least a Lifetime version)
- Death House Conversions
An honest Deputy DA running for judge on an ant-corruption platform takes on the LA mob.
David Lamson either did or did not kill his wife. Thirty of 36 jurors thought he did.
The apex of a love triangle tries to get cute with a double homicide.
The Tison boys break dad out of jail and wind up on a cross-country killing spree. This one could be in the Just Plain Sad category.
Proving the doctor killed his wife comes down to checking his alibi down to the minute. Oh, yeah: This one features Idi Amin in a walk-on role.
The inventor of a now-forgotten high-efficiency car engine is murdered for the insurance.
A small southern town thinks vice will save it.
Multiple murderer Louise Peete mistakenly believes the governor won’t send her to the gas chamber.
How many good deeds does it take to earn a pass off death row?
Best Potential Law and Order Episodes
- Dying Declaration
- Alternative Theories
- Lethal at any Speed
- A Cure for the Lovelorn
- The Murder of Marian Parker
- What Should We Do With David?
- Another Bite at the Apple
- Exigent Circumstances
- Sex, Drugs, and Murder
- Which Ones are the Bad Guys?
A U.S. Army doctor ends up in prison based on his wife’s final words. But what did they really mean?
The word “innocent” doesn’t fit with Jesse Wayne Jacobs — except in a technical sense.
Out of control tow truck drivers in LA kill a young boy.
A Texas mom goes to a witch doctor for help in killing her daughter’s ex-boyfriend.
A young girl’s life is taken in a brutal kidnapping and murder.
David Brom’s murder of his family presents the courts with a problem in defining insanity.
Kevin Cooper wants a second chance to prove his innocence and may deserve it.
The cops break into a house to gather evidence in hopes of rescuing a kidnap victim.
He didn’t kill anyone, but he’s still in prison for murder.
A college student and his grandfather are entrapped by the feds in a murder-for-hire plot.
- The Yule Bomber
- Jigsaw Puzzle
- Muddy Water
- Gone, but not Forgotten
In 1922, handwriting experts, linguists, and forensic scientists team up to put a bomber in prison.
Circumstantial evidence can be used to put a killer on death row.
An not-so-nice guy is wrongly accused of murder and it takes decades to prove.
Lots of people thought Virginia executed an innocent man, but post-death DNA tests prove otherwise.
Best WTF?
- Fabian of the Yard
- Mail Order Murder
- Throw Momma from the Cliff
- Stranger than Fiction
- Shotgun Wedding
Throwbacks
Was witchcraft involved in the murder of this strange Englishman?
The lesson here: Don’t take pills that anonymous people send you in the mail.
A car with a push-button transmission can’t be a murder weapon, or can it?
The judge smokes pot while the prosecutor and defense counsel end up in the sack.
Married at the point of a gun, this poor guy didn’t stand a chance with his in-laws.
After his son beats a friend nearly to death, his dad helps finish the job.
- Death Plays a Hand
- Phantom of the Opera
- Did Billy Do It?
- The Col. Swope Case
- How Did Marion Die?
- Road Rage
- The Other Dr. Shepard
- Improbable Facts
Who killed the man-about-town and Bridge wizard?
We can probably guess what lead to his death, but who killed the opera tenor is still a mystery.
The feds think this farmer conspired to kill his mother, but no one else does.
The death of this Kansas City scion may not have been murder.
She died of cyanide poisoning, but that’s all we know.
Even the rich and famous can end up as roadkill.
The wife of an aviator thinks he poisoned her with tainted whiskey.
Two lawyers have it out, but who shot who?
- He said, She said
- The Black Widow
- Mail Order Murder
- Beneath the Surface
- Replacement Killer
This is just a simple case of cattle rustling and murder in 1930s San Francisco.
A real-life version of The Postman Always Rings Twice.
The lesson here: Don’t take pills that anonymous people send you in the mail.
The minister tried to convince everyone that his wife drowned.
At least make the body look like you if you try this ploy.
- “Nobody Can Care About Me Anymore” Latin King Louis Filipe is serving a life sentence completely cut off from the outside world.
- House of Horrors
- Mabel Mayer’s Murder
- Poetic Justice Glen Northcott killed because he liked it. In the end he got what he deserved.
- The Murder of Marian Parker A young girl’s life is taken in a brutal kidnapping and murder.
The tragic story of the torture-killing of Silvia Lykins.
A vicious unsolved Oakland, California murder of a young girl in 1927.