David Berkowitz, who became infamously known as the 'Son of Sam', first struck on the morning of 29 July 1976. It was the beginning of many brutal attacks that were to terrorize New York City's citizens over a one-year period. During the summer of 1977 at the height of the killer's notoriety and with the city in a collective panic over who was going to be his next victim, bars and nightclubs were deserted. It seemed that the efforts of the NYPD and special task teams couldn't bring the serial killer, who indiscriminately shot his victims with a 44-caliber handgun, to justice. Today,...

Serial killers are people who, on multiple occasions spread over time, murder victims who are generally unknown to them beforehand. Their crimes are committed as a result of a compulsion that, in many but not all cases, has roots in the killer's (often dysfunctional) youth, as opposed to those who are motivated by financial gain or ideological/political motivations Many times this compulsion is linked to the individual's sexual drive. We will focus on the five most infamous serial killers that hunted down victims in the sunshine State of Florida. We will look at their crimes, the...

What makes a police officer disregard his oath and cross the Thin Blue Line. Some say that it may be caused by the stress of the job. While others say that they are just criminals themselves. We will take a look at four police officers, Richard Crafts, Drew Peterson, Lawrencia "Laurie" Bembenek, and Gerard Schaefer. We will try to figure out what caused them to murder and cross that Thin Blue Line.

No one can explain the strength of a mother's love. A woman who carries a child inside her for 9 months and nurtures them as infants..... Only to one day become their killer. Diane Downs, Andrea Yates, Marybeth Tinning and Susan Smith are mothers who crossed that line of love and killed their own children. We will explore their lives and their crimes and journey through the courtrooms, as we try to find out what made these mothers turn into MOMSTERS.

On Jan. 12, 1996, 9 year old Amber Hagerman was abducted riding her bike in her Grandmother small Texas town. Amber is just a faded news story in most parts of this country; the Amber alert program was named after her. Jessica Lunsford was 9 years old when she was abducted from her own home in central Florida. The authorities found her body in a neighbor's yard. She was held captive in a closet raped and buried alive. When they unearthed her body she was clutching a stuffed purple dolphin her daddy won for her just days earlier at the county fair. 12 year old Polly Klaas was having a sleep...

To countless millions the movie Shawshank redemption, was just that "a movie." It is actually one of my favorites so writing this story was more fun than a project. A lot of people don't know is that the prison that was used for the movie was also used in a couple other movies also. Such films as Harry and Walter Go to New York, Tango & Cash, and Air Force One have all had scenes filmed within the walls of The Ohio State Reformatory, better known as Stephen King's Shawshank prison. Let's look at some of the interesting history of the prison and journey through time to experience the...

For years, the mainstream media and tabloids put John and Patsy Ramsey on trial in the press for the murder of their daughter. Evidence of their involvement in JonBenet's death was not really necessary, the thinking went; any parent who would promote her daughter's participation in something as politically incorrect as a beauty contest was capable of well, anything. Rumor and innuendo snowballed, becoming increasingly absurd as the media frenzy fed upon the story: The Ramseys must be guilty because they had a lawyer advising them. Patsy's "motive" for killing her daughter was that she wet the...

The tan, dark haired young man sat and watched the made-for-TV miniseries. The miniseries, based on real life events, told the story of a group of young men from Beverly Hills who planned and carried out two murders, including the killing of the father of one of the members of the group. As the young man watched the movie, he called to his older brother who joined him and together they watched the "Billionaire Boys Club." Later, they began to discuss killing their father. Each brother complained to the other about how domineering and controlling their father was, how impossible it was for...

New York City is the place of origin for organized crime in the United States. Currently, there are five families in the New York City outfit of La Cosa Nostra. This book will give background information on each of the five families. First of all, the five families are Gambino, Genovese, Colombo, Bonanno, and Lucchese. These names come from Joe Valachi. He was a low ranking soldier who was the first man to break the omerta, or code of silence. The family names come from him, because he testified as to who the bosses were of the five families at the time of his arrest in 1959. The only...

Darlie Routier is on death row in Texas, convicted of the murder of one of her two sons, who were killed in the early morning of June 6, 1996. The media coverage of the investigation into the murders of Devon and Damon Routier depicted the crime as another heartless mother whose children were getting in the way of her lifestyle, so she killed them. After a jury trial in Kerrville Texas, Darlie was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Most found it believable in the aftermath of the Susan Smith case two years earlier. But the prosecutor withheld very crucial evidence. After the trial...