Apr 2, 2015
Ever since the release of Andrew Jarecki’s HBO documentary "The Jinx," which carries the subtitle of “The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” public attention has been focused on the long trail of crimes possibly -- and quite probably -- committed by the real-estate scion over...
May 19, 2014
The kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Marion Parker by William Edward Hickman in 1927 was considered a clear indication of the “moral imbecility” of the Jazz Age.
by Benjamin Welton
We should not stop with Hickman; in fact, we need not wait to begin with him. The...
Mar 24, 2014
When Fatty Arbuckle was charged with manslaughter in the death of Virginia Rappe in 1921 he was the highest paid actor in Hollywood. The tabloid press went after him with a vengeance. Eleven years later, despite being exonerated by a jury, he died of a heart attack...
Feb 10, 2014
Screen star Thelma Todd’s untimely death in 1935 set off wild speculation about the cause of her demise. Was she murdered or was she the unfortunate victim of carbon monoxide poisoning?
by Benjamin Welton
Hollywood has always been about making grand illusions. The movies are...
Oct 10, 2013
Carl Wanderer’s precipitous drop from a highly decorated World War I hero to a philandering murderer – who might or might not have been either a pedophile or a closeted homosexual – shocked Chicago and ushered in an era of widespread cynicism and urban violence. ...
Aug 1, 2013
After an 11-day bender, Bob Wood, the co-creator of the infamous comic book Crime Does Not Pay, admits to beating his girlfriend to death in a whisky and blood-drenched hotel room. This rampage was only one step in the artist’s downfall, and the story of Wood is one of the...
May 16, 2013
With good reason, conspiracy theories abound about the shooting deaths of oil scion Ned Doheny and his companion/secretary Hugh Plunkett at the fortress-like mansion Greystone in Los Angeles.
by Benjamin Welton
On the night of February 17, 1929, two would-be writers...
