By Jon Tait BLACK WALTER’ SELBY AND THE MITFORD GANG If you were going to give the Black Walter Selby story the full Hollywood treatment,you’d want to cast someone like Joe Pesci as the main man. Getting some of that swagger and psychotic stage presence would be essential for the big screen, for sure. StickContinue reading “Meet the Medieval Mafia #5”
Tag Archives: True Crime
Meet The Medieval Mafia #4
By Jon Tait Hutcheon Graham of Gards The Bishop of Carlisle was watching from the ramparts of Carlisle castle whenHutcheon Graham and his crew of border reivers started riding out to plunder theCumbrian countryside following the death of Queen Elizabeth 1 in March 1603.Hutcheon and his fellow horsemen – around 140 of his ‘kinsmen andContinue reading “Meet The Medieval Mafia #4”
Serial Killer: Michael J. Swango
By Chris Bunton I love to travel, and as part of my travel plans I research criminals and crime locations. Recently, I traveled to Quincy, Illinois, where I discovered that the Serial Killer named Michael Swango was raised there. So, I checked out some of the sites associated with him. He was born in 1954,Continue reading “Serial Killer: Michael J. Swango”
Meet The Medieval Mafia #3
By Jon Tait Ellen Charlton of the Bower It should come as no real surprise that Ellen Charlton of the Bower was jailed inNewcastle alongside her son John junior for cattle theft in 1629.Ellen was the wife of a notorious border reiver called John Charlton of the Bower andthe daughter of one of the mostContinue reading “Meet The Medieval Mafia #3”
Meet The Medieval Mafia #2
By Jon Tait Adam Scott of Tushielaw Adam Scott was such a notorious leader of sheep and cattle raiders that he earned the nicknames ‘King of Thieves’ and ‘King of the Border.’ Scott was born sometime in the late Fifteenth century, a son of David Scott in theforest of Ettrick, who had gained possession ofContinue reading “Meet The Medieval Mafia #2”
Serial Killer: Leslie Irvin
By Chris Bunton Leslie “Mad Dog” Irvin terrified the Evansville, Indiana, and Henderson, Kentucky communities in the 1950’s. It all began on December 2, 1954 when the body of Mary Holland was found at the Bellemeade Liquor Store stuffed behind a toilet. She was the owner, and she had been killed execution style. Three dimesContinue reading “Serial Killer: Leslie Irvin”
Meet The Medieval Mafia #1
By Jon Tait Sim Armstrong of Whithaugh He was Scottish organised crime’s Mr. Big TWO CENTURIES before the Sicilianmafia was formed. With links to cattle and sheep rustling, coin counterfeiting, robberies, protectionrackets and murders, Sim Armstrong of Whithaugh was one of the most dangerousand notorious reivers from just over the border in the lonely LiddesdaleContinue reading “Meet The Medieval Mafia #1”
Murder in Vermont
By Donald Guadagni In 1981 Wade Willis was sixteen years old, he attended North Country Union High School with his cousin Roy Bullis and like most high school boys he had a girlfriend. Her name was Terri Weed she also attended North Country Union High School. One afternoon while smoking pot together at the homeContinue reading “Murder in Vermont”
Beauty Brings Beasts
By Emily Kitazawa “Beauty is a curse on the world. It keeps us from seeing who the real monsters are.” – The Carver WHEN EVELYN WAS a young girl, she remembered the strangely exotic feel of her mother’s hair-prickled calves on her tender hands, evoking the same fascination of one’s first time touching a hithertoContinue reading “Beauty Brings Beasts”
Murder in Evansville
By Chris Bunton I was in the Aspen Drive neighborhood of Evansville, Indiana recently. It is what I would call an upper middle class community. A place where you can imagine kids riding up and down the street past well manicured lawns. It’s a peaceful slice of Americana. It’s not a place where you wouldContinue reading “Murder in Evansville”