Steven David Lampley is a former police officer and undercover sex-crimes (SVU) detective with more than two decades of law-enforcement experience who has since become a bestselling true-crime author, speaker, and expert on deception and forensic investigation. He’s worked high-profile cases featured on television programs such as America’s Most Wanted and Investigation Discovery.

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When he was 15 (later described as 16 when sentenced), Betournay was tried and convicted for killing his 14-year-old sister (April Betournay) and her 14-year-old friend (Beth Garbe) on December 14, 1994. He bound the girls’ wrists and ankles with duct tape, then sealed plastic bags over their heads — suffocating them. He later confessed. Although his defense argued that mental illness and diminished capacity should preclude a first-degree murder charge, a judge ruled he was competent to stand trial as an adult. A jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder after 6½ days of trial and about seven hours of deliberation.

At sentencing, Betournay — then 16 — was given a prison term of 63 years and 4 months, which exceeded by over ten years the standard sentencing range for two first-degree murder convictions in such a case. Even accounting for possible good behavior reductions, prosecutors estimated he would likely remain imprisoned until around age 70. Dani Holder was recently in late 2025.

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American Skyjacker (2025) is a true-crime action documentary that chronicles the story of Martin McNally, who in June 1972 hijacked an American Airlines Boeing 727, demanded $500,000 in ransom, and parachuted out of the back — modeling his crime after the infamous D.B. Cooper hijacking. McNally narrates the tale in his own words, with cinematic reenactments showing not just the hijacking but the manhunt, his prison escape attempts, and a later hijacking in 1978.

Website / Screening Information
www.americanskyjacker.com

http://cinedump.com/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/americanskyjacker

Rotten Tomatoes
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/american_skyjacker

Letterboxd
https://letterboxd.com/film/american-skyjacker/

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Please note that the live was done on a cell phone, due to Randy being unable to access a laptop/tablet.

Ronnie Lee Gardner was a convicted murderer from Utah whose violent criminal history and dramatic courtroom escape attempt made him one of the state’s most infamous prisoners. Born in 1961, Gardner endured a troubled childhood marked by abuse, neglect, and frequent run-ins with the law. By his early twenties, he was already incarcerated for violent crimes. In 1985, while being transported to court for a hearing on a murder charge, Gardner attempted to escape and fatally shot attorney Michael Burdell inside the courthouse. 

The incident led to his conviction for capital murder and a death sentence.Gardner spent 25 years on Utah’s death row, during which he became a controversial figure in debates over the death penalty. Known for his defiant attitude early in his incarceration, he later expressed remorse for his actions and pursued education and spiritual growth while imprisoned. His 2010 execution by firing squad — the first in Utah in 14 years — drew widespread attention and reignited discussions about humane methods of execution and the purpose of capital punishment in modern America.

Randy Gardner, Ronnie’s brother, became an outspoken opponent of the death penalty after witnessing his brother’s execution. Deeply affected by the loss and the trauma of the event, Randy turned his grief into advocacy, speaking publicly about the emotional toll capital punishment inflicts on families of both victims and offenders. He has since worked with human rights and anti-death-penalty organizations, sharing his story to highlight the human cost of executions and the cycle of violence they perpetuate. His activism has made him a well-known voice in the movement to abolish the death penalty in the United States.

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In March 1998, Jeffrey Franklin, a 17-year-old high school student from Huntsville, Alabama, brutally attacked his family in their home in the Camelot subdivision. Armed with a hatchet, sledgehammer, and knife, Franklin killed his mother, Cynthia, and father, Gerald, and severely injured three of his younger siblings. Two other siblings managed to escape the attack unharmed. When police arrived, they found a horrifying crime scene described as one of the most gruesome in Huntsville’s history. Franklin, who had fled in his parents’ car, was captured a short time later after a police chase.

 Investigators later uncovered Franklin’s journal entries, which detailed his fascination with Satanism and violent fantasies about killing his family. He was described as a bright but deeply troubled teenager who had been suspended from school earlier that day for bringing a knife. In 2000, Jeffrey Franklin pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder, avoiding the death penalty due to his age. He was sentenced to 5 life sentences.

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In April 2015, Amanda Taylor, a 24-year-old woman from Virginia, committed a shocking and highly publicized murder that would earn her the nickname “The Selfie Killer.” Still grieving the suicide of her husband, Rex Taylor, Amanda blamed his father, Charles Taylor, for his death. On April 4, she and her friend Sean Ball went to Charles’s home in Montgomery County under the pretense of a visit. Once inside, Amanda brutally stabbed Charles more than 30 times with a knife, while Ball helped restrain him, killing him in cold blood.

After the murder, Amanda displayed a chilling lack of remorse. She posted photos on Instagram holding the bloody knife and wrote captions bragging about the killing, describing it as “revenge.” The pair then stole Charles’s car and fled Virginia, sparking a multi-state manhunt. During their flight, Ball attempted suicide, and the two were eventually captured in North Carolina. Authorities later revealed that Amanda had discussed her plans for revenge before the killing, suggesting the act was premeditated and fueled by obsession and grief.

Amanda Taylor was charged with first-degree murder and grand larceny, and in 2016 she pleaded guilty. The judge sentenced her to life in prison without parole, calling the crime “cold and calculated.” Sean Ball, who cooperated with investigators, received 41 years in prison. The case gained national media attention due to Amanda’s disturbing social media posts and emotionless demeanor, symbolizing the dark intersection of grief, revenge, and the performative nature of online notoriety.

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In January 2014, Julie Lane Kennedy Griffith (age 55) was found dead in her home in Reidland (near Paducah). Investigators later determined that she had been shot three times in the chest, and her house was then set on fire in what was believed to be a cover-up of the murder. Two dogs inside the residence also died in the blaze.

Her husband, Keith Griffith, was later charged with her murder, arson, tampering with evidence, and animal cruelty, among other charges. In February 2015, the trial ended in a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury. In January 2016, Keith Griffith pleaded guilty to multiple charges, admitting to killing Julie and setting the house ablaze. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

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Steven Nigg is a former federal inmate best known for his 2016 assault on notorious sex offender Larry Nassar’s fellow high-profile prisoner, former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle. While serving time for a firearms conviction at a low-security prison in Colorado, Nigg became enraged that Fogle was housed with other inmates in relative comfort despite his crimes against children. In January 2016, Nigg attacked Fogle in the prison yard, punching him repeatedly and leaving him with injuries to his face and neck. Prison officials quickly intervened, and Nigg was placed in disciplinary segregation after the assault.

The incident drew national attention because Nigg expressed open contempt for sex offenders and frustration at what he described as lenient treatment of such inmates. Although the attack did not lead to new criminal charges, it added to Nigg’s disciplinary record and affected his prison standing. He later served out his original sentence before being released. The case highlighted both inmate resentment toward sex offenders and the broader challenges prison officials face in managing high-profile prisoners.








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Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was convicted of murdering two sheriff’s deputies in Sacramento, California, in 2014. Bracamontes, who had previously been deported multiple times, carried out a violent shooting spree that left Deputy Danny Oliver and Detective Michael Davis Jr. dead. During his 2018 trial, he showed no remorse, even boasting about the killings and threatening to kill more officers in the future. His violent past and repeated illegal reentries into the United States drew widespread national attention.

In 2018, a jury found Bracamontes guilty of murder, attempted murder, and other charges. He was sentenced to death in March 2018 after a highly publicized trial in which his outbursts—including laughter and taunts—shocked the courtroom. His wife, Janelle Monroy, who was accused of aiding him during the crime spree, was sentenced to nearly 50 years in prison. Prosecutors highlighted Bracamontes’s repeated illegal entries as well as his history of criminal activity to show the severity of the case.

President Donald Trump seized on Bracamontes’s crimes during his push for stricter immigration policies. Trump repeatedly cited Bracamontes as an example of the dangers of “open borders” and featured him in a controversial 2018 campaign ad ahead of the midterm elections. The ad, which portrayed Bracamontes as representative of undocumented immigrants broadly, was widely criticized as misleading and racist, but it underscored how his case became a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration enforcement and border security.



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In April 2006, 23-year-old Christopher Lampkin was murdered in a Salem apartment, shot execution-style, and dismembered by Leonardo Garcia Gonzalez and Victor Gonzalez. His remains were stuffed into a duffel bag and fed to pigs at a Yamhill County farm, where police later recovered partial remains in a feed barrel. The killers were ordered to pay Lampkin’s family $1 million, while charges against the farm owner and apartment complex were ultimately dismissed.

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