Woman Condemned

No, I'm not making this up. When you think about it, it does seem like a murder that a teenage girl would be involved in, I guess. But still.... a weave? Really? Eighteen year old Shelby Issac from Memphis and her friend Victoria Seay had been going to the online hair accessory store, VirginHair4Us for her hair weaves for quite some time and seemed to genuinely like the owner, EJ Tate and his pregnant girlfriend, Edwina Thomas. On January 22 of 2016 Shelby and Victoria went to the Sycamore Lake Apartments in Memphis Tennessee where EJ and Edwina were sitting in a parked car. Shelby opened fire upon them shooting both several times. She then went through their belongings and stole several bundles of hair valued at near $250. She jumped back in the car with Victoria driving and the two sped off. EJ died on the scene. Edwina was rushed to the hospital where both she and her unborn child died. Police were able to garner much information from the witnesses and eventually tracked th...

A 27 year-old North Carolina woman, Zonna Chanae Locklear, thought she had really come up with a great plan or she really was kidnapped. Who knows? What we do know is police found her walking down highway 101,on May 26th,  disheveled, and she claimed two men busted in on her and a friend, Gary Wayne Bisbee, in bed.  Killing him and forcing her to drive her car to Chadbourne, she claims they kicked her out on the side of the road. Her car was found a short time later in Columbus County. Locklear explained to police she had been kidnapped from 107 N. Sterling St., in Proctorville and when they arrived they found Gary Bisbee's dead body in bed with a gunshot wound. Further investigation revealed that the home belonged to Locklear and Brisbee had been an unlucky visitor. The rest of the investigation has not been disclosed. Somehow, however, it was discovered that Locklear had actually been the one to shoot Brisbee and that he was engaged to be married and had a ...

W ednesday June 8th 2016 I will be doing a live Facebook chat on the RJ Parker Publishing page . I announced this last week and had almost 200 messages via Facebook, Twitter and email with questions galore about Shirley Turner, Terri-Lynn McClintick and the true crime writing business in general. I am really excited to have this opportunity to answer all those questions as well as discuss some new projects on the horizon. We will also be giving away some prizes and having a lot of fun getting to know each other. P lease attend Wednesday night via the link above. I cant wait to meet everyone and tell you all about the crazy world of true crime. See you then! Kelly

See... I do stuff besides watch serial killer documentaries.... A photo posted by Kelly Banaski (@kellymbanaski) on Jun 2, 2016 at 10:45am PDT I was in the garden box this morning, quite pleased with myself for the ginormous Serano Pepper I grew (read: all by myself ) with my Kindle Fire tablet beside me. I usually listen to classical or some other calming music when I'm out in the yard. I feel like it adds to my outdoor experience at times. It helps keep my mind in the moment and not wandering back to work even though my body is active and outdoors. Today I had the local news playing in the background when I heard the newscaster say something about a man and woman involved in the murder of another Nashville couple. Wow. One couple killed another couple. Wow, weird. Why? How? And I was off..... Brandon Griswold and Whitney Gray   H ere we have one Whitney Gray, who, along with her boyfriend Brandon Griswold, killed Preston Claybrooks and Alexandria Grubbs last S...

A video posted by Kelly Banaski (@kellymbanaski) on May 31, 2016 at 8:17am PDT I was sitting in the car at Sonic with my youngest daughter, waiting for my oldest to get off work when my mind began to wander, as it sometimes does, to murder. I wondered if anyone had ever been killed at a Sonic Drive-in. So, I decided to use my time waiting productively (Go, me!) and do a little research. I figured my chances were pretty good that someone somewhere had been murdered at a Sonic Drive-in. Surprisingly, I found only one case. In DeKalb County, Georgia,  in January of 2015, a murder occurred during an attempt at robbery. Four teen boys tried to rob a Sonic customer at gun point but the customer pulled his own gun, and shot one of the assailants, 19-year-old Kenneth Brayboy, who later died at an area hospital from the wounds. The other boys, one a 17 year-old, Desmond McKnight, absconded, but McKnight was later caught and charged with murder and criminal attempt-armed ...