A South Carolina historian examines a selection of true crime murder stories from the Palmetto State, from 1903 to 2003. Murder leaves no decade unscarred. In 1903, the lieutenant governor of South Carolina shot dead a local newspaper editor, in full view of witnesses. George Stinney was marched to the electric chair in 1944 at age fourteen. A mother made national news in 1994 pleading for the return of her kidnapped sons, when in truth she had driven them to a watery grave herself. Jones spares no chilling detail in describing each of these crimes; all make for fascinating, and terrifying, reading.
A former forensic photographer and author of Murder in the Midlands chronicles horrific killings that struck at the heart of the Palmetto State. Ax assault, kidnapping, brutal murder: how could these things happen in a small town? Although regional crimes hardly ever make it to the national circuit, they will always remain with the families and communities of the victims and a part of the area’s history. After working with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division as special agent/forensic photographer for twenty-four years, Rita Shuler has a passion for remembering the victims. In Small-town Slayings, Shuler takes us back in time, showing differences and similarities of crime solving in the past and present and some surprising twists of court proceedings, verdicts, and sentences. From an unsolved case that has haunted her for thirty years to a cold case that was solved after fifteen years by advanced DNA technology, Shuler blends her own memories with extensive research, resulting in a fast-paced, factual, and fascinating look at crime in South Carolina. Includes photos!
From John Douglas—the legendary FBI criminal profiler, #1 New York Times bestselling author, and inspiration for the Netflix show Mindhunter—comes a chilling journey inside the mind and crimes of Larry Gene Bell, one of the most dangerous serial killers Douglas confronted, and the desperate effort to identify and catch him. On May 31, 1985, two days before her high school graduation, Shari Smith was abducted from the driveway of her family home in South Carolina. Based on the crime scene and the abductor’s repeated and taunting calls to the family, law enforcement quickly realized they were dealing with a sophisticated and highly dangerous criminal. A letter arrived the next day entitled “Last Will & Testament,” in which Shari, knowing she was to be murdered, wrote bravely and achingly of her love for her parents, siblings, and boyfriend, saying that while they would miss her, she knew they would persevere through their faith. The abduction rocked her quiet town, triggering a massive manhunt and bringing in the FBI, which enlisted profiler John Douglas. A few days later, a phone call told the family where they could find Shari’s body. Then nine-year-old Debra May Helmick was kidnapped from her yard, confirming the harsh realization that Smith’s murder was no random act. A serial killer was evolving, and the only way to stop him would be to use the study of criminal behavior to anticipate his next move before he could kill again. Douglas devised a risky and emotionally fraught strategy to use Shari’s lookalike older sister Dawn as bait to draw out the unknown subject. Dawn and her parents courageously agreed. One of the most haunting investigations of Douglas’s storied career, this case details how the eerily accurate profile he created—alongside his carefully crafted and stage-managed manipulation of the killer’s psychology—combined with dedicated police work and cutting-edge forensic science to end a reign of criminal terror. As Shari’s family took incredible personal risks to lure her killer from the shadows, Douglas and the FBI pushed criminal profiling to its limits, culminating in one of his most dramatic and effective confrontations with a sadistic and remorseless killer.
Connie Price is not the kind of woman who suffers fools--or injustice--lightly. When she noticed an old broken-down trailer in the woods behind her neighbor's house that was only visited late at night, she knew someone was up to no good. Myrtle Beach is notorious for attracting young runaways--especially underage girls--who come down for the ocean and sunshine and end up missing or dead. Between the missing girls and the abandoned trailer and its late-night traffic, Connie knew this could only spell trouble. So she set out to do something about it. What she found was the tip of the iceberg of corruption that runs deep in her little beachside city. What she didn't know is how much trouble this would cause her. When a chance encounter with the wrong doctor left Connie with third-degree burns from an illegal medical laser and a prolonged, near-fatal illness, no doctor in town would treat her, no lawyer in town would honestly represent her, and no court in Horry County would give her a fair trial. Her attempts to bring justice for the missing girls of Myrtle Beach had come back to haunt her. There was no way to know that hiring a new lawyer--Stephen Stanko--would bring its own set of troubles. He turned out to be nothing more than a con man, a psychopath who would tell any story to anyone to get what he wanted. When Connie, without knowing the true extent of Stanko's deception, gave him the proof of the cover-up and corruption that surrounded her malpractice suit, Stanko was ecstatic. He now had the ammunition necessary to blackmail nearly the entire town to cover for his own crimes. Stanko could get away with anything but murder. Before he could complete his nefarious plans, he snapped and murdered his girlfriend and attempted to murder her 15-year-old daughter, leaving her for dead. By the time Stanko was caught, he had also killed a kind old man who had helped him on several occasions, and possibly others. Just about the only person he didn't manage to kill was Connie Price.
The “riveting” #1 New York Times bestseller: A true story of three wealthy families and the unbreakable ties of blood (Kirkus Reviews). The first bodies found were those of a feisty millionaire widow and her daughter in their posh Louisville, Kentucky, home. Months later, another wealthy widow and her prominent son and daughter-in-law were found savagely slain in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Mystified police first suspected a professional in the bizarre gangland-style killings that shattered the quiet tranquility of two well-to-do southern communities. But soon a suspicion grew that turned their focus to family. The Sharps. The Newsoms. The Lynches. The only link between the three families was a beautiful, aristocratic young mother named Susie Sharp Newsom Lynch. Could this former child “princess” and fraternity sweetheart have committed such barbarous crimes? And what about her gun-loving first cousin and lover, Fritz Klenner, son of a nationally renowned doctor? In this tale of three families connected by marriage and murder, of obsessive love and bitter custody battles, Jerry Bledsoe recounts the shocking events that ultimately took nine lives, building to a truly horrifying climax that will leave you stunned. “Recreates . . . one of the most shocking crimes of recent years.” —Publishers Weekly “Absorbing suspense.” —Chicago Tribune “Astonishing . . . Brilliantly chronicled.” —Detroit Free Press “An engrossing southern gothic sure to delight fans of the true-crime genre. Bledsoe maintains the suspense with a sure hand.” —The Charlotte Observer
Explore the grizzly tale of Charleston's most infamous serial killers from the beginning of their reign of horror till their eventual incarceration and execution. In 1819, a young man outwitted death at the hands of John and Lavinia Fisher and sparked the hunt for Charleston's most notorious serial killers. Former homicide investigator Bruce Orr follows the story of the Fishers, from the initial police raid on their Six Mile Inn with its reportedly grisly cellar to the murderous couple's incarceration and execution at the squalid Old City Jail. Yet there still may be more sinister deeds left unpunished, an overzealous sheriff, corrupt officials and documents only recently discovered all suggest that there is more to the tale. Orr uncovers the mysteries and debunks the myths behind the infamous legend of the nation's first convicted female serial killer.
“Reminds readers that the history of lynching and racial violence in the United States is not a closed book, but an ever-relevant story.” —Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books Before daybreak on February 17, 1947, twenty-four-year-old Willie Earle, an African American man arrested for the murder of a Greenville, South Carolina, taxi driver named T. W. Brown, was abducted from his jail cell by a mob, and then beaten, stabbed, and shot to death. An investigation produced thirty-one suspects, most of them cabbies seeking revenge for one of their own. The police and FBI obtained twenty-six confessions, but, after a nine-day trial in May that attracted national press attention, the defendants were acquitted by an all-white jury. In They Stole Him Out of Jail, William B. Gravely presents the most comprehensive account of the Earle lynching ever written, exploring it from background to aftermath and from multiple perspectives. Among his sources are contemporary press accounts (there was no trial transcript), extensive interviews and archival documents, and the “Greenville notebook” kept by Rebecca West, the well-known British writer who covered the trial for the New Yorker magazine. Gravely meticulously recreates the case’s details, analyzing the flaws in the investigation and prosecution that led in part to the acquittals. Vivid portraits emerge of key figures in the story, including both Earle and Brown, Solicitor Robert T. Ashmore, Governor Strom Thurmond, and West, whose article “Opera in Greenville” is masterful journalism but marred by errors owing to her short stay in the area. Gravely also probes problems with memory that resulted in varying interpretations of Willie Earle’s character and conflicting narratives about the lynching itself.
A former forensic photographer leads readers through the twists and turns of twelve homicide cases that gripped South Carolina during her career. Rita Y. Shuler’s fascination with the criminal mind began with her exposure as a young girl to a 1953 double-homicide that shocked South Carolina. When she came face to face with the original case records twenty-four years later on her first day of work as a forensic photographer with South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), she was immediately hooked on a profession that took her deep into the investigation of hundreds of cases. Shuler’s firsthand experience with forensic evidence of crime scenes and the court system gives her a unique perspective on murder and its horrifying effects on public and private lives. By combining analysis of court transcripts and official statements and confessions from murderers with her own personal interactions with the key players in some of these tragic dramas, Shuler allows the reader to see into the criminal minds of notorious killers like Pee Wee Gaskins, Rudolph Tyner, Ronald “Rusty” Woomer, and Larry Gene Bell. Shuler’s study is a must for everyone fascinated by the criminal mind and by the most famous murder cases in South Carolina’s recent past. Includes photos
