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 […]

George Edward Cole George Edward Cole shot and killed a San Francisco Police Sergeant during a hold-up of a tavern on Dec. 30, 1956. He was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List on Feb. 25, 1957. He was captured two years later in Des Moines, Iowa after a citizen identified his girlfriend, Yvonne Conley, […]

. Book Review: The Murder of Maggie Hume: Cold Case in Battle Creek, by Blaine Pardoe & Victoria Hester, History Press, August, 2014. While researching and writing his last true crime book, Murder in Battle Creek: The Mysterious Death of Daisy Zick, which was great reading, veteran author Blaine Pardoe was repeatedly confronted with another […]