Daniel Sickles This is the true story of a self-taught lawyer whose never-before-used defense not only saved him from execution, but turned the entire judicial system on its head. On the afternoon of Saturday, February 27, 1859, the nation's capital was thrown into a state of excitement over an incident which took place at Lafayette Square. At 2 o'clock, two distinguished gentlemen met each other on the square. One offered his hand for a handshake, the other refused. Instead,

Minnie, a mild-mannered widow from Atlanta, had a lot of explaining to do after the body of a missing housewife was discovered stuffed into a trunk in her basement in 1941. Minnie Lee Griffin Did she take the fall in order to protect her troubled teenage son? Or was the timid widow a twisted, cold-blooded killer? Perry Williams, an insurance salesman from Atlanta, last saw his wife, Mildred, when he kissed her goodbye on the morning of November 21, 1941. Mildred worked late t

Baby Jean is not immortal. She's just a girl a cult leader thinks is The One. James Bernard Schafer and Baby Jean He came from the windswept plains of North Dakota, where he had once considered a career in medicine. But for James Bernard Schafer, he found that it was more rewarding, if not more lucrative, to treat a patient's soul instead of the body. When he arrived in New York in 1938 with his previous 42 years of life a closely guarded mystery, he had reinvented himself as

Betty & Mrs. Bannister's doll On the morning of Monday, January 6, 1936, near the tiny settlement of Pacific Junction in New Brunswick, Canada, a middle-aged woodcutter named Otto Blakeney saw smoke over the snowy horizon. He trudged through the woods and was shocked to discover a burned-out cabin. Six days earlier, on New Year's Day, Blakeney had come to this same cabin, which was occupied by 29-year-old Philip Lake and his family, to pick up his mail and provisions, and now

Life is like a box of chocolates: You never know if you're going to bite into one that has been laced with deadly poison. Cordelia Adelaide Brown Botkin Fourteen-year-old Harry Penington returned from the Dover, Delaware, post office on August 9, 1898, with a registered package for his young and pretty aunt, Elizabeth Dunning, the daughter of ex-Congressman John Penington. She unwrapped the package and found a shiny pink box wrapped with a pink ribbon. "Look, Papa, I've recei

Unlike so many murderers who have been forgotten by history, Isaac Sawtelle earned his fifteen minutes of infamy for having the peculiar distinction of being sentenced to death in a state where the crime hadn't even happened. Isaac Sawtelle, Jr Christmas Day of 1889 had a special meaning for one Boston family. Isaac Sawtelle, Jr., would be reunited with the family he hadn't seen in sixteen years. Isaac's long absence from home was neither the result of his seeking fortune out

Murder often defies logic, as Ebba's killer was the last one anyone would have suspected. In a small farmhouse near Bandon, Oregon, there once lived a family named Covell. The head of the household was Dr. Fred Covell, a chiropractor with an office in town. He shared this farmhouse with Ebba, his fourth wife, their three infant children, and two older children from Dr. Covell's third wife, 16-year-old Alton and 14-year-old Lucille. Also living under the same roof was Arthur C

How justice was served, thanks to Jennie Becker's undigested party snacks and a less-than-reputable auto mechanic. Abe Becker On Saturday, April 8, 1922, Abraham Becker walked into a Bronx police station and reported that his wife, Jennie, was missing. She had left home the day before, but it wasn't like Jennie to just disappear. Abe Becker was worried. Becker's report was referred to the Missing Persons Bureau, where it landed on the desk of Detective John Waterhouse. The de

Is it possible for a person's hair color to drive someone to murder? Meet Joseph Medley, a career criminal who just couldn't help falling in love with red-haired women-- before killing them. Joseph Medley Chief Detective Robert J. Barrett of the Washington DC homicide squad arrived at the crime scene and observed that the door to Nancy Boyer's ninth-floor apartment had a peephole. The red-haired, 45-year-old hairdresser must've known the person she let into the apartment on 1

The Archer Home for Elderly People was a highly specialized business. That is, it specialized in the quick and speedy extermination of its residents. In the historic town of Windsor, Connecticut, there once stood a majestic Colonial house. Known as the Archer Home for Elderly People and Chronic Invalids, this house on Prospect Street was owned by a small, middle-aged woman named Amy Archer Gilligan. Mrs. Gilligan was something of a pariah in Windsor-- a town whose residents