Crime&Stuff

There’s no doubt that Kenneth Eugene Smith, along with another man, killed Elizabeth Sennett in Alabama in 1988, a murder paid for by her husband, Charles Sennett. But the long road to Smith’s execution, which took place in January 2024 by a new method, nitrogen hypoxia, raises troubling questions about the death penalty, how it’s administered and what justice actually is. We discuss.

Maureen does an NNW review of the book “Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System,” by M. Christopher Fabricant.

Also, looking for a cool Crime & Stuff T-Shirt, or another cool shirt designed by Rebecca? Check out her Bonfire shirt site, by clicking here.

If you’re interested in checking out Maureen’s Bernadette “Bernie” O’Dea mystery novels, click here. [You can also ask your local book store or library to order them if that’s your preference – they’re available through Ingram as well].

We explore the age-old question, “Am I the asshole?” with situations curated by Rebecca from the sub-Reddit world.

Maureen also does an NNW on the Max docuseries Onision In Real Life.

Enjoy!

Charles Terry wasn’t a good guy, especially when it came to women. He liked to beat, rape and strangle them. He was convicted for several attacks and just out of prison in 1951 when Shirley Coolen, a Brunswick, Maine, single mother was found dead, strangled in a yard on the town’s fancy Park Row. But did he do it? And how about the Boston Strangler murders? He was a suspect in those, too. We discuss.

Rebecca gives the NNW treatment to the Kristin Hannah book “The Women.”

In our third episode looking at the “justified” killings of Maine citizens by the state’s law enforcement agencies, we go back to one that spurred a lot of changes over the past decade, but also — spoiler! — not some of the things that really matter. Katherine Hegarty, shot in her remote Maine cabin by three officers from two different agencies on May 15, 1992. We’ll tell you what happened.

Also, Rebecca gives an NNW review to the HBO series “True Detectives: Night Country.”

Ambroshia Fagre was just 18 and likely an innocent bystander when she was killed by police in Maine in February 2017, along with Kadhar Bailey, 25, who police suspected of an armed home invasion. The two were among 13 people shot by police in Maine that year, nine of whom died. Maine police have shot to death nearly 200 people since 1990. Like all those before, and all those after — every police shooting in Maine since 1990 — the officers who shot Ambroshia and Kadhar were found to be justified by the state’s attorney general’s office.

We take a look at what happened that day and Maine’s narrow review system that has yet to find a law enforcement officer unjustified in a fatal shooting. Maureen presents.

Rebecca also has an NNW review of The Running Grave, the latest Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) CB Strike mystery novel.

One of Maine’s 2022 homicides was Drew McKenna, 24, accidentally shot by his older brother Shay. In 2023, the McKenna family suffered a second tragedy when the lost Shay, who was shot by police.

We also update the 2023 homicide list — it’s up to 54 now, and talk about the texts dismissed by police that warned police that Robert Card was going to do a mass shooting.

We bring you our annual Maine homicide list with 2023’s 51 homicides, a record year and more than twice the average annual number. Even without the Lewiston shootings that killed 18, it was the worst year for homicide in Maine in decades.

The list wasn’t yet available from the Maine Department of Public Safety, but that wasn’t going to stop use. We compiled it ourself and got all 51, with some others still pending information from investigators.

Guns tell the tale this year, with 39 homicides by gun, including two mass shootings that accounted for 22 gun victims. Nine of the state’s 15 domestic homicides were also by gun, five of which were murder-suicides with the woman killed by a male partner or former partner (the suicide end is not counted in the overall tally).

Once again, the facts show the narrative of out-of-state drug dealers coming in and causing trouble is simply not true. Homicide in Maine is a Maine-grown problem.

Enjoy the figgy pudding, fireworks, airing of grievances, or however else you celebrate! Here are some recommendations on what to watch to get you through until our next episode in two weeks.

Happy holidays!

Miriam Stoltz was found shot in the head on a cold February afternoon in the woods in New Hampshire, where she’d lain for 15 hours before being found by a runner. The next day, Roger Whittemore was found dead in Miriam’s Windham, New Hampshire, backyard, shot, stabbed and beaten. Miriam wasn’t expected to recover, but she did. And her memories of what happened the horrific night of February 15, 1989, would lead to an arrest and two trials. But there would be no justice for Miriam and Roger. Maureen, who as a young reporter worked with the man charged with the crimes, tells the story.

Rebecca gives the Netflix documentary Escaping Twin Flames the NNW treatment.

Racial injustice on the high seas and in the courts plays out in a 1905 mass murder on a cargo ship, the Harry A. Berwind. Captain ER Rumill and three other crew members, all but one of them white, are killed, leaving just black crew members Henry Scott, Arthur Adams and Robert Sawyer to explain. The case ultimately involved two presidents and the U.S. Supreme Court. Rebecca tells the tale.

Also, an update on Episodes 117 and 118, the murder of Amy Fitzgerald, and what happened when her husband and killer, Greg Fitzgerald, came up for parole.

And Maureen gives the NNW treatment to the Netflix doc series Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire.