I’ll skip the “blood” wordplay and get straight to the topic. Which cases/criminals are you interested in because they’re only a couple of “degrees” away from you? Mine is that guy up there, “Little Nicky” Scarfo, for whom a relative ALLEGEDLY did some little jobs. VERY little, just to work off vig! Allegedly. There’s absolutely no way this relative shows up in books about the Philly mob after, like, doing collections maybe twice? But I read them anyway. (A relative on the other side of the tree, my first cousin once removed, was a kicker on the Buffalo Bills in 1971, but I’m not interested in OJ Simpson for that reason.)
I also maaaaay have done the Ancestry DNA kit in part to see whether I was related to John Bunting. (I’m not. Not related to any otherBuntings of note, either.)
Obvs you’re not required to divulge anything you don’t wish to — but if you have little connections like this that you find interesting, feel free to share. — SDB
The Lyon Sisters kidnapping happened blocks from my house. It's a wild and underreported story outside the DC area, possibly because it initially ranked among the many 1970s "didn't think it could happen here" kidnapping murders unsettling suburbias across the country, losing valuable fascination points for being unsolved...until now. Bum bum baaaaaah!
Also I'm 90% sure I'm related to Richard Speck, because just how many different Speck families could there be in early-mid twentieth century Peoria, Illinois, Grandpa? How many???
My closest connection is to the Newsom case chronicled in Jerry Bledsoe's 1988 book Bitter Blood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Blood) which went down in my hometown of Greensboro, NC. I knew Susie Newsom's niece (we worked at the same restaurant during one college summer) who was around my age. We never talked about the case or her family directly...every now and then she'd make vague references to the stuff her family had gone through, but I tried never to pry. The other random one is related to the dinosaur bones fakery detailed in The Dinosaur Artist by Paige Williams. My husband grew up with the forger's ex-wife in Williamsburg, VA who plays a really prominent role in the book and my in-laws are really close friends with the family.
I was shacking up with Jim Harrison's youngest son in a trailer in Montana when Jim killed his wife Susan in 1994. It's a crazy story. He was never criminally charged for the murder. Laura Lippman (crime novelist and wife of David Simon) wrote the longform article in the Baltimore Sun, if anyone's interested.
Nightmare Next Door S7E10, “Murders Under the Mistletoe,” is about the murder of Vicki Wholaver, a girl I went to middle and high school with and had some mutual friends and a few conversations with, as well as her mother and younger sister, by their father to keep them from testifying at his molestation trial. It gets worse: Vicki’s 9-month-old daughter was found clinging to her corpse on Christmas morning. It totally rocked our small town, and the beat cop who discovered the bodies was the father of a girl in my dance class, so it’s *that* small of a town. Her dad is still on death row but I assume they’ll eliminate the death penalty in Pennsylvania before he gets it. As far as I know, there are no books about the case.
I listened to the Casefile episodes on Dennis Nielsen purely because my friend used to live around the corner from one of his flats (which were back on the rental market recently- London property scene is too ruthless to worry over a dozen corpses).
Back in my academic publishing days I was on friendly terms with a lecturer from a notoriously unfriendly department. Thought I might convince him to write for us one day. Then he killed his girlfriend:
I was 10 when Ruby Ridge happened in the county north of me (about 30 miles away). The Weavers were definitely not the only "back the the land" isolationist families, and later on my mom actually ended up tutoring the kids of another similar family that went into foster care as they'd just been homeschooled up until then.
Mine is weak sauce compared to the stellar entries here and I've already detailed it during the A-Z-athon. Here are some more details: My two housemates at the time (mid to late 80s) came running into the house, all out of breath and obviously freaked out. They had just been to see a house up for rent (our lease was coming to an end). In California, if a murder happens in a house up for rent/sale, prospective buyers/tenants have to be told about it. Well, this charming little house had been visited by Richard Ramirez. And, yes, he killed the woman living there. They passed on the house but what I didn't mention before is that they asked me to throw their tarot cards (not a professional, still using a reference book, so don't ask or @ me) to see if they should rent the house. Apparently, due to the house's notoriety, rent was pretty cheap. They passed on it anyway once I did their reading (which I don't recall. Come on, it was over thirty years ago and I rarely throw the cards for myself anymore. Again, don't ask, don't @ me).
I thought of another one...the shopping center a few blocks from my house in the Northern Virginia 'burbs was the site of one of the D.C. Sniper killings in 2002 (a lady was shot while putting stuff in her car at the Home Depot). It's creepy and I think about every time I'm over there (which is often).
The Lyon Sisters kidnapping happened blocks from my house. It's a wild and underreported story outside the DC area, possibly because it initially ranked among the many 1970s "didn't think it could happen here" kidnapping murders unsettling suburbias across the country, losing valuable fascination points for being unsolved...until now. Bum bum baaaaaah!
Also I'm 90% sure I'm related to Richard Speck, because just how many different Speck families could there be in early-mid twentieth century Peoria, Illinois, Grandpa? How many???
My closest connection is to the Newsom case chronicled in Jerry Bledsoe's 1988 book Bitter Blood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Blood) which went down in my hometown of Greensboro, NC. I knew Susie Newsom's niece (we worked at the same restaurant during one college summer) who was around my age. We never talked about the case or her family directly...every now and then she'd make vague references to the stuff her family had gone through, but I tried never to pry. The other random one is related to the dinosaur bones fakery detailed in The Dinosaur Artist by Paige Williams. My husband grew up with the forger's ex-wife in Williamsburg, VA who plays a really prominent role in the book and my in-laws are really close friends with the family.
I was shacking up with Jim Harrison's youngest son in a trailer in Montana when Jim killed his wife Susan in 1994. It's a crazy story. He was never criminally charged for the murder. Laura Lippman (crime novelist and wife of David Simon) wrote the longform article in the Baltimore Sun, if anyone's interested.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-08-20-1995232097-story.html
I also have it copied into a google doc, if you can't get past the Sun paywall -- just let me know and I'll send you the link.
Nightmare Next Door S7E10, “Murders Under the Mistletoe,” is about the murder of Vicki Wholaver, a girl I went to middle and high school with and had some mutual friends and a few conversations with, as well as her mother and younger sister, by their father to keep them from testifying at his molestation trial. It gets worse: Vicki’s 9-month-old daughter was found clinging to her corpse on Christmas morning. It totally rocked our small town, and the beat cop who discovered the bodies was the father of a girl in my dance class, so it’s *that* small of a town. Her dad is still on death row but I assume they’ll eliminate the death penalty in Pennsylvania before he gets it. As far as I know, there are no books about the case.
I listened to the Casefile episodes on Dennis Nielsen purely because my friend used to live around the corner from one of his flats (which were back on the rental market recently- London property scene is too ruthless to worry over a dozen corpses).
Back in my academic publishing days I was on friendly terms with a lecturer from a notoriously unfriendly department. Thought I might convince him to write for us one day. Then he killed his girlfriend:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sophie_Elliott To make it worse, he insisted on representing himself at trial a la Bundy, making it into a media spectacle.
I was 10 when Ruby Ridge happened in the county north of me (about 30 miles away). The Weavers were definitely not the only "back the the land" isolationist families, and later on my mom actually ended up tutoring the kids of another similar family that went into foster care as they'd just been homeschooled up until then.
Mine is weak sauce compared to the stellar entries here and I've already detailed it during the A-Z-athon. Here are some more details: My two housemates at the time (mid to late 80s) came running into the house, all out of breath and obviously freaked out. They had just been to see a house up for rent (our lease was coming to an end). In California, if a murder happens in a house up for rent/sale, prospective buyers/tenants have to be told about it. Well, this charming little house had been visited by Richard Ramirez. And, yes, he killed the woman living there. They passed on the house but what I didn't mention before is that they asked me to throw their tarot cards (not a professional, still using a reference book, so don't ask or @ me) to see if they should rent the house. Apparently, due to the house's notoriety, rent was pretty cheap. They passed on it anyway once I did their reading (which I don't recall. Come on, it was over thirty years ago and I rarely throw the cards for myself anymore. Again, don't ask, don't @ me).
I thought of another one...the shopping center a few blocks from my house in the Northern Virginia 'burbs was the site of one of the D.C. Sniper killings in 2002 (a lady was shot while putting stuff in her car at the Home Depot). It's creepy and I think about every time I'm over there (which is often).
I’m from Essex County. I have no good stories (that I can share). Hehe.