True Crime Brewery

In a rundown two-story house in Findley, Ohio, 24-year old Vera Jo Reigle was a prisoner and a slave.  The story behind how Vera ended up in such a terrible circumstance is complicated and disturbing.  At the heart of the story is the Brooks family, a family engaged in generational abuse and criminal activity.

Join us at the quiet end for The Girl on the Train Tracks. The tragedy of this story is how many people turned a blind eye to torture and abuse, allowing unspeakable crimes to occur unchecked.

Long before there was a Susan Smith or a Casey Anthony, there was Alice Crimmins.  When the New York housewife called the police to report her two young children missing in the summer of 1965, the focus was on her custody battle with her estranged husband and the children’s father, Edmund Crimmins.

When it came out that Alice had been having sex with multiple men and that she was less than ideal as a mother, the case became a media circus.  With two trials filled with bombshell testimony and courtroom theatrics, Alice got years of attention and seemed to dodge punishment.  In all of the craziness, the lives of little Missy and Eddie Crimmins seemed to take a backseat.  But it is the memories of the two children which will stay with us and all of those who followed the case, because what happened to them is, truly, unthinkable.

The shocking story of arson investigator John Leonard Orr began in 1984.  A fire in a Pasadena, California, hardware store killed four people, including a 2-year-old child.  Arson investigators examined the ruins and determined that the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction.  All except John Orr. He was convinced that the cause was arson.

Join us at the quiet end today for the case of fire captain and arson investigator John Orr.  As close to 2,000 suspicious fires raged for the next seven years, a task force was formed to find a serial arsonist.  The task force called themselves the Pillow Pyro Task Force and their methods of investigation were both fascinating and effective.

22-year old Taylor Samson left his fraternity on the night of August 15, 2015.  He had only his cell phone and a large black duffel bag as he walked out the door, telling his girlfriend he would be back soon.  She knew that he had been dealing drugs, but Taylor tried to keep his life with her separate from his life as a drug dealer.  He was in college, studying physics, and selling drugs was supposed to be a temporary way to pay the bills until graduation.

Justin Blades and Pookiel McCabe, two other college students, were hanging out in McCabe’s apartment when they heard a gunshot. 23-year old neighbor William Sandeson came to their door in a panic.  Money, drugs, and blood were on his apartment floor.

Taylor Samson has never been found. Join us at the quiet end today for Blood Money.  Why were two bright and promising students so deeply involved in the drug trade and what happened to Taylor Samson?

Michele Wallace was a freelance photographer who disappeared hiking in Colorado in 1974.  She was a free spirit, a pretty and adventurous 25-year old woman with long dark hair she wore in two thick braids.

It was late August when Michele told her parents she was going on a backpacking trip with her dog in the Rocky Mountains.  Many parents would have been worried, but Michele was an experienced traveler. Her parents trusted her to be safe.

But smooth-talking deviant Roy Melanson was unlike any predator Michele had ever encountered before.  When she found herself alone in her car with him, her fate was sealed.  Melanson had a history of abducting and raping women. And Michele would not be the first woman he murdered.

It took nearly 20-years for investigators to get justice for Michele after a new detective and new evidence came into the picture.  When Melanson was captured for Michele’s cold case, his DNA was entered into CODIS, helping to solve other murders across the country.

Join us at the quiet end today as we discuss the disappearance and murder of Michele Wallace and how solving her murder led to taking a dangerous man off the streets and solving another 1974 cold case murder, that of 51-year old Anita Andrews.

When two teenaged sisters were arrested for murdering their 43-year old mother in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, the community was shocked.  Shock was followed by outrage when it came out that many of their friends had been aware of the murder plot.  Some had even offered advice on the best way to kill their mother and get away with it.

Canadian law has supported treating minors guilty of serious crimes differently from their adult counterparts.  As a result, the young killers served short sentences and their privacy has been protected.  The hope with this treatment is that young offenders can be reintegrated into society and contribute in a positive way.

Despite the court’s ruling to keep their real names a secret, their names are searchable online.  For this discussion, however, we had decided to use the pseudonyms used by Toronto Star Journalist Bob Mitchell.

Join us at the quiet end today as we talk about the cold-blooded murder of Linda Anderson by her daughters, Sandra and Beth.  In addition to the dysfunctional family relationships in the Andersen family, we hope to examine the psychology behind the girls’ friends who chose to keep quiet and, in some cases, help out.

When Amanda Hamm’s three young children drowned in Clinton lake in 2003, the incident was compared to the Susan Smith case.  Amanda and her live-in boyfriend, Maurice LaGrone Jr., were in the front seat of Amanda’s 1997 Cutlass when it went into the lake from the boat ramp.  Amanda and Maurice escaped the shallow water, leaving the children behind.

Parents who heard this tragic story reacted with sadness and anger.  They all believed that they would have died before they would have left their child under water.  How was is possible for two adults to save themselves and call 911 without saving even one child?

Join us at the quiet end today for Into Clinton Lake, the story of single mother Amanda Hamm and the tragic deaths of her children Christopher Hamm, Austin Brown, and Kayleigh Hamm.  People in Amanda’s hometown of Clinton speculated that the drownings were a planned attempt to murder the children, despite Amanda’s claims to the contrary.  Both Amanda and Maurice’s histories made them unsympathetic to the public, as did their behavior afterwards, leaving them open to public disdain and prosecution.

https://www.madison-reed.com

Christian Michael Longo was married at age nineteen and was a father of three by the time he was twenty-six.  Originally from Michigan and raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, Longo did not adapt well to his life as a husband and father.  His wife, MaryJane, stayed home with their children while Longo was expected to provide for their family.  But he quickly turned to a life of crime.

After getting into trouble for check fraud, Longo took his family on the run in a stolen minivan.  But after promising to turn over a new leaf, Longo continued to steal and scam for money.

The Longo family moved from Michigan to Ohio to Oregon.  Then their four-year old son Zachary and three-year old daughter Sadie were found dead in the waters of Lint Slough.  The bodies of MaryJane and their infant daughter Madison were recovered days later.

Join us at the quiet end today for the story of a young family destroyed by the evil acts of compulsive liar and manipulator Christian Longo.  The lives of this young family started out with hopes and aspirations but ended in tragedy and despair. The only one left to explain what happened was the one who could never be trusted or believed, but we can debate causations and examine missed opportunities in our efforts to understand the murders of MaryJane, Zachary, Sadie, and Madison Longo.

Bill and Melanie McGuire were an attractive couple in their thirties.  They had two young sons, two successful careers, and they had just closed on a $500,000 home when Bill disappeared.  Melanie told their friends that they had fought on the night they had closed on their new home.  Bill had physically attacked her and walked out, telling her that he was done with her.

Bill didn’t seem like the type of guy who would hit his wife and leave his children behind.  But Melanie insisted that he had hit her and walked out on his family.  She even went to court and took out a restraining order against him.

As the days passed and no one heard from Bill, Melanie appeared to be moving on with her life without him.  But Bill’s family and friends worried.  Bill had been a gambler.  Maybe he had pissed off the wrong people.

Then a bizarre news story got everyone’s attention.  First, a Kenneth Cole suitcase was found in Virginia Beach. It contained a pair of bloodless male human legs which had been severed at the knees.

One week later, Virginia Beach police recovered a second suitcase that was part of the same Kenneth Cole set. It held a five-pound weight, black trash bags, and more human remains. This time, it was a man’s head and torso. But who this man was and when he had been killed were still unknown.

The third and last suitcase was recovered within two weeks.  It contained the man’s hips and thighs. Virginia Beach police launched an intensive investigation to identify the victim and identified him as Bill McGuire.

Join us at the quiet end today for a haunting case that became known as The Suitcase Murder.  Well-respected fertility nurse Melanie McGuire was accused of her husband’s murder and dismemberment and she faced life in prison.  Although her attorney would argue her innocence, a complex unravelling of the facts would reveal a twisted murder plot which grew from infidelity, greed, and hate.

The disappearance of 53-year old Cher Hughes from her paradise-like home set off an investigation that led to the search for a serial killer in Panama in 2010. Cher had moved with her husband Keith to Bocas del Toro, Panama, to live out her dream on their own private island. But, after she and Keith separated, Cher was gone and an eccentric neighbor had taken over her property.

It turned out that Cheryl was not the only missing person in the area.  Someone was killing Americans in Panama and taking possession of their property.  When all was said and done, six Americans had been killed.  When the killer’s home was searched, police found stolen checkbooks, ATM cards, jewelry, purses, gun ammunition, and gold dental fillings and crowns in a glass jar.

William Holbert, a North Carolina native known to his victims as Wild Bill Cortez, had become well known among the Boca ex-patriots.  After an American family of three disappeared from the area, Bill and his wife had moved into their home and converted a boathouse into a private bar they called “The Jolly Roger Social Club.” The bar was decorated with a skull and crossbones flag and it was opened for partying every weekend.

But as disappearances piled up, neighbors decided that there was something wrong.  The police came in and discovered bodies buried in shallow graves. But Wild Bill and his wife were already on the run.  They fled through Costa Rica and were finally captured on the Nicaraguan border.

Join us at the quiet end for this stunning tale of theft, murder and real estate fraud. After being extradited to Panama, Wild Bill confessed to his crimes but showed little remorse for all of the pain he had caused.  He would explain what he did and how he did it but the question of why will forever haunt the loved ones of his victims.