By Mary Ruth Rombalski Bakersfield, California, February 4, 1955 Originally appeared in Front Page Detective, May 1955 Editor’s Note: In 1954, Mary Ruth Rombalski was a nineteen-year-old girl from Kentucky who, like many young girls from that era, dreamed of moving to Hollywood where she would become a movie star. After leaving her husband […]

A sad, stupid, senseless crime.  Horrible. Child is Slain by her Grandfather: Singing Kept him Awake August 25, 1955, TEXAS CITY , United Press— A preliminary hearing was scheduled Thursday for Robert J. Wallace, 78, who is charged with beating his blonde, nine-year-old granddaughter to death with a ball-peen hammer because her singing kept him […]

Inside Look at Serial Killers, Assassins, Bank Robbers, and More Crime Overviews, Evidence Gathered, and Theories for Solutions California’s picturesque shores have always been a magnet for outcasts and criminals. Read about 64 of the most horrifying crimes ever committed in The Golden State, from the early 1950s into the 1980s. These accounts tell of […]

On August 3, 1950, Curtis Shedd stopped by the Walhalla, South Carolina, home of his trade school pal, John Boyter, to pick-up Boyter’s two daughters for an afternoon of cruising around the countryside. Earlier that day, Boyter was seen in Shedd’s car as the two drove around town. He was never seen alive after that […]

Isaie Beausoleil was a fugitive who was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List in 1952 and was captured one year later dressed as a woman-a disguise he had been using to escape detection. The following article is from the FBI’s booklet, Ten Most Wanted 60th Anniversary, 1950-2010. Although investigators described “Top Ten Fugitive” Isaie […]