Woman Condemned

“ W e in this country make horror spectacles out of murder cases, especially when the condemned killer is a woman. We drag the thing out. We sob and wring our hands. … We play cat and mouse with the {condemned}, until we have reduced her to the last extremity of woe; then we kill her.” I found this quote extremely interesting. It came from The NY Daily News after the execution of a woman. People often have this reaction to American serializing of murder and mayhem in our midst. We are societal monsters ourselves, always searching out more info on the sickest of our countries crimes and then bemoaning our outrage as we deny the irony in ourselves. Other countries snicker at our third world justice system and gangland tactics but we soldier on, oblivious to our own ridiculousness. What is really interesting about the Daily News quote above is it was printed in 1934 after the execution of Anna Antonio. All these years later and still we flounder in our sickness. Anna was an abused w...

Nineteen year old Tiffany VanAlstyne of Berne, New York, has murdered her five year old cousin, Kenneth White. She strangled him in her parents home, who had been caring for the young boy. She disposed of his body along a roadside and then staged a fake crime scene and called 911. Her story was was that two masked intruders broke in and kidnapped the boy.  The police began a search last Thursday evening which ended when dogs picked up the boys scent around 9 p.m. They discovered his body covered in snow in a culvert. As police continued to question VanAlstyne her story made less and less sense every time she told it. She was officially charged and stayed completely silent during her arraignment on Friday.  Tiffany's parents had custody of the little boy and his two sisters. It is unclear, as of yet, why. She has been diagnosed as bipolar previously.

Amy Bates Very little information has been revealed in the case of Amy Lynn Bates. For reasons not yet uncovered or reported Amy Bates shot Paul Bryan Rector in the head late December 16th in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The house was full of other people, but no one is talking yet.  After she shot him, she set the house on fire. Apparently she felt everyone in the home would be understanding because she alerted them to what she had done and told them the house was on fire. The witnesses saw flames emerging from her bedroom and called police. Amy ran out the back door but was soon apprehended by police. She appeared in court last week, but it was postponed until January 6th. Perhaps more details will be released then. 

Holy crap, has this case exploded since we last discussed it , and what a horrifying case it is. For reasons unknown Christina Regusters impersonated a Muslim mother and kidnapped a young five year old girl, Nailla Robinson, who she raped and tortured for hours before finally dropping at a playground. Her defense is mistaken identity. Christina was a daycare worker in a South Philly school where the victim attended class. She dressed as the girls mother and checked her out of school without an I.D. Several school staff were fired in the aftermath. She walked the girl several blocks to the home she shared with her aunt. Christina put Nailla into a fabric laundry bag and carried upstairs. The girl was blindfolded, undressed, tortured and raped to the point of injury. She was released the next morning in the early hours. A man heard her crying and went to investigate. She ran out from under a slide. She was wearing only a t shirt. It was 30 degrees. Nailla Robinson The...

The best of true crime writing on serial killers over the year is brought together in this second volume of the annual Serial Killers True Crime Anthology. RJ Parker Publishing releases second annual Serial Killers True Crime Anthology on December 15. Available for Pre-order. 1 This is the second volume of the bestselling annual, Serial Killers True Crime Anthology, a collection of some of the best true crime writing on serial killers over the year. Several of these authors who appeared in Volume 1 of the Anthology, return this year to Volume 2 with new stories. 2015 Serial Killers True Crime Anthology Volume 2: Peter Vronsky in the chilling story "Zebra! The Hunting Humans 'Ninja' Truck Driver Serial Killer" describes the carnage perpetrated in 2007 by Adam Leroy Lane, a long haul truck driving serial killer who after repeatedly watching in his truck cab a serial killer DVD movie he was obsessed with, forayed out in the night from Interstate highway truck-s...

Check in from Krysten Webber this week. In it, she details a program she has been working in prison called Bridges to Life . Female inmates listen to the stories of survivors of violent crimes. Krysten says, "You hear it from their perspective. Just how far and wide it reaches in a persons life to be victimized. It is very moving and it brings me to tears every time."  The testimonials are given in person or recorded on DVD. The program also requires the inmates to share their own stories. They are required to report the details of their actions that brought them to prison. They also discuss their past as in childhood, adolescence and adult years pre-crime. They must answer pointed questions about their behavior and the devastation they have caused and are forced to confront their own crimes and others in the most personal way possible. According to Krysten, it forces each participant to look at and consider things they may never have or may have chosen not to in the p...

Nazira Cross This is the stuff that ends up as a movie on the Lifetime channel. Nazira Maria Cross, 48, is accused of having poisoned to death her estranged husband, Michael Cross, 55, in 2008. The prosecution says she poisoned him at their home in California and then recruited neighbors to help load his stricken body into her vehicle and then drove his body to a secluded ranch the couple owned in Lovelock, Nevada and burying him. Michael Cross was a successful car dealer with dealerships,Kietzke Auto Sales, in Lovelock and Reno, Nevada. The couple lived an opulent if a bit violent life together. They had split and reunited in 2008. People started to look for Michael, police were called and neighbors told the tale of how they helped him into the car so Nazira could take him to the hospital and yet, no hospital records were found. They eventually found Nazira, who told all kinds of tales before settling on the one where he passes away and she panics and buries him. The body ...

Rebecca I. Trevino has got herself into a whole heap of shit. There are very few details to be found but this case sounds like it could get interesting. It seems Rebecca shot her boyfriend on Thanksgiving, just a few weeks ago, at approximately 9 a.m. She ran to a neighbors house and told him what she had done but he had heard the shots and had called 911. She also told him she had been assaulted by him. Police showed up at around 9:20 and he was dead on the scene. Witnesses report hearing five to six shots. They also told tales of constant domestic violence and fighting coming from the house recently. She was arrested. She's been charged with an open murder charge (?) which apparently includes first degree murder as well as  two firearm felonies Her boyfriend was former police reserve officer,  James Gascoyne. The couple is from Saginaw, Michigan. The shooting took place  inside Trevino's home at 2690 Ohio. St. in Bridgeport Township. The arrest warrant reports she...