The Unlovely Truth

If you’ve been around true crime for very long, you’ve probably heard the legal term “habeas corpus”. Although it sounds like it may have something to do with the body of a victim, it really refers to the procedure by which prisoners can appear before a judge to see if they are being legally detained. After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, many states made changes to their habeas corpus laws that made it harder for prisoners to overturn wrongful convictions. This was not good news for Kennedy Brewer and Levon Brooks of Noxubee County, Mississippi. Authors Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington argue in this week’s book, The Cadaver King and The Country Dentist, that Mississippi’s early death investigation system developed as a mechanism to hide the areas numerous lynchings. It makes you wonder what these changes in the law might allow the system to hide today. 

 

https://theintercept.com/2018/04/22/junk-forensics-mississippi-cadaver-king-country-dentist-interview/

https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a32225164/the-innocence-files-dr-michael-west/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/08/24/expert-witness-goes-nuts-during-questioning-for-mississippi-death-penalty-case/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/02/28/the-fifth-circuit-turns-its-back-on-a-huge-forensics-scandal-in-mississippi/

Southern Fried true Crime Episode 27

Coroner Talk

https://www.iheart.com/content/2019-08-13-janie-wards-botched-autopsy-leads-to-serious-questions-on-hell-and-gone/ 

LA Times 8/14/88

ID Files

The eyes of the world were on Atlanta, Georgia, during the summer of 1996. After years of careful and detailed planning, the Games of the 26th Olympiad had begun dramatically with an ailing Muhammed Ali lifting the torch to light the cauldron. Richard Jewell was thrilled to be a part of it with his job as a security guard. He’d lost his last two jobs in law enforcement and he was glad to be back in the mix, and loved the party feel of the events. But he was serious about his job. So serious that 8 days after the games had begun so gloriously, Richard flagged down the head of security to point out a stray backpack he’d noticed under a bench. He thought it looked suspicious. From that moment on, his life would never be the same.

Victimology Podcast

Reginald Royce Coleman was 17 years old in 2019 when he became the 4th homicide victim of that year in Beaumont Texas. It was only early April when police found his body around 10:30 PM near the Sterling Pruitt pool building in the 2800 block of Gulf Avenue. Police found both money and drugs on Reginald, which made robbery seem unlikely. Police knew who Reginald was because they had considered him a person of interest in a string of local aggravated robberies. They said that as they attempted to interview witnesses, those people laughed and refused to cooperate. But someone out there knows something. 

https://www.12newsnow.com/article/news/local/beaumont-police-say-witnesses-laughed-refused-to-cooperate-after-17-year-old-gunned-down/502-5b0a9ffc-27c2-4e8d-a895-22a8ef880313

https://www.12newsnow.com/article/news/crime/beaumont-police-release-surveillance-footage-ask-for-help-identifying-two-in-area-of-monday-night-homicide/502-4447518a-d04c-4868-a488-6dad5e016a3d

https://beaumonttexas.gov/beaumont-police-are-investigating-a-late-night-homicide-2800-block-of-gulf-street/

https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/BPD-investigating-north-end-homicide-13752710.php

https://kfdm.com/news/local/beaumont-homicide-investigation

https://kfdm.com/news/local/grieving-parents-plead-with-public-for-answers-to-sons-homicide

https://www.cbs19.tv/article/news/crime/beaumont-police-release-surveillance-footage-ask-for-help-identifying-two-in-area-of-monday-night-homicide/502-4447518a-d04c-4868-a488-6dad5e016a3d 

 

If you have any information about this homicide, please contact Southeast Texas Crime Stoppers at 409-833-TIPS or download the P3 TIPS app and use your smartphone to submit your tip.  ALL tips are anonymous and you could be eligible for a cash reward.

You can also call the call the Beaumont Police Department at (409)980-8311.

It’s been said that mothers hold their child’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever. I think that’s especially true when you’re a mom fighting for justice for a child you believe was murdered, but your local authorities insist on calling their death a suicide or an accident.  Today we are going to talk about two cases like that, and two moms who never gave up their fight. I’ve learned in my work that there are far too many moms like them out there. I’ve also learned that they desperately need our help.  

 

http://justicefordanielrayunderwood.com/

We all have exes, but most of us never had an ex with a secret criminal record that included violent offenses - people that are dangerous to stay with. It can be even more dangerous to try to get away from them. 

For more information on stalking, please check out the following resources.

 http://www.unresolvedhomicides.org/about-us/ and [email protected] 

https://victimconnect.org/learn/types-of-crime/stalking/

Her name was Jean Ellroy, and she was brutally killed at the age of 43. She left behind a ten-year-old son, and a trail of mysteries. Best selling author of Black Dahlia, James Ellroy, is that son. The book “My Dark Places” is, he says, his attempt to burn down the distance between him and a mother he didn’t really know. I believe it’s really an attempt to understand himself.

If parents aren’t supposed to bury their children, then they definitely aren’t supposed to have to push law enforcement to see their child’s homicide investigation through until it’s solved.  Bill and Leslie McAllister are two very determined parents who are doing just that. Their daughter Taylor’s death was classified as a homicide, and suspects were identified. So why has no one been charged with causing her death?

https://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas/crime/family-disgusted-by-short-sentences-for-men-who-dumped-their-dead-daughter-in-an-alley-20181221/ 

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2020/02/05/family-continues-to-fight-for-justice-3-years-after-taylor-mcallister-s-death

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5180675/Heir-52-arrested-death-22-year-old-mom-two.html   

https://www.facebook.com/taylormcallister94 

https://www.facebook.com/leslie.mcallister.986

If you know anything at all about the murder of Taylor McAllister, please reach out to the Pinellas County Florida Sheriff’s Office at 727-582-6200, or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS(8477).

When author Dennis Griffin contacted me, there was no way I wasn’t going to dedicate another episode to such a special book. Dennis’s experience with investigations, and cold cases in particular, gives him tremendous insight into the difficulties of solving them. He is also well aware of the challenges families often face when they take on their own search for the truth. Dennis has developed some incredible resources that anyone with a heart for these families will want to learn about. 

To learn more, check out these sites:

www.dennisngriffin.biz

The Transparency Project closed FB page https://www.facebook.com/groups/199487740806089/ 

https://www.thetransparencyprojects.com/ (find links to several podcasts here)

Losing a loved one to a violent crime is traumatic for a family. Needing to fight to get answers about what happened is like being victimized all over again. In this week’s book, “Survivors: Shocking True Stories About America’s Pursuit of Police Transparency and Justice”, you’ll hear stories told by family members abut their struggles to get proper investigations when a death is wrongly determined to be accidental or a suicide. Today’s guest Sheila Wysocki will share her own struggles as an investigator helping families like these who want nothing more than to be told the truth.

A true crime book podcast with no books by Ann Rule? Unthinkable! Join me to discuss “Mortal Danger, Volume 13 of Ann Rule’s Crime Files”. Many men seem charming, or at least harmless, until you get to know them. By then it can be too late to get them out of your life. We often believe that if something is familiar, then it must be safe. But as Ann says, “strangers aren’t the only people who might do us harm.”