True Crime Books by Jason Lucky Morrow

Welcome to HistoricalCrimeDetective.com [Est. 2013], where you will discover forgotten crimes and criminals lost to history. This blog is the official website for true crime writer Jason Lucky Morrow, author of four books including the popular series: Famous Crimes the World Forgot, Volume I and Volume II. Please follow us on Facebook, for updates. Contact me here.


Tag: 1940s

Mug Shot Monday! Alcatraz Inmate Jim Quillen

After a wild crime spree of robbery and kidnapping in 1942, escaped San Quentin prisoner Jim Quillen was sentenced to 45 years and sent to Alcatraz on Aug. 28 where he became prisoner #586. When he arrived on Alcatraz, he was an angry and bitter young man with a “maladjusted attitude.” He grew up never […]

Mug Shot Monday! Lloyd Sampsell,
Famous California Criminal, 1920s-1952,

  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 […]

Mug Shot Monday! Roy Gardner, 1884-1940

  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 […]

New Book Claims to Identify Zodiac Killer

  Follow HistoricalCrimeDetective.com on Facebook The Zodiac Killer, whose serial murders terrorized northern California in the late ’60s, was a man named Earl Van Best Jr., according to a new book by Gary L. Stewart, who happens to be his biological son. Stewart’s The Most Dangerous Animal of All, as we reported Monday, is for […]

Innocent Man Freed After 15 Years in Missouri Prison & Asylum, 1932-1947

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 […]

Mug Shot: Child Killer Fred Stroble, 1949

. Story #1: Child Brutally Slain in LA, Suspect is Hunted LOS ANGELES, CA, Nov. 15, 1949: The gashed and mutilated body of six year-old Linda Glucoft was found today in a rubbish heap, wrapped in a brightly colored Indian blanket. Police Sgt. Bill Brennan said he definitely had established that the blanket came from […]

The Amazing Crime Spree of a 14 year-old boy

I almost feel sorry for the police. This kid is like the “James Bond” of juvenile delinquents. [November 18, 1949] A thin, wiry, 14 year-old boy who has led officers of three states on a merry chase for seven crime-packed weeks was captured today at his Texarkana home. The boy, small for his age, launched […]