True Crime Tuesday: A Ghastly Halloween Double Murder

IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!

*deep breaths*

It’s officially October which means my month-long celebration of Halloween can commence.

At home you will find me decorating, watching scary movies and buying bite-sized boxes of candy from Costco, eating it all before Halloween night, then buying more. Good times.

I love Halloween so effing much. It’s my favourite time of year (which I think is true of most of us around here judging by the number of pumpkins currently spicing everybody’s posts), but because I love it so much, I can’t just leave my Halloween festivities at home. I’ve got to bring it here to share with all of you in my little corner of the internet, as well.

I started with a brand new header for my blog. Please check it out and let me know what you think! Consider it me putting out jack-o-lanterns on my front porch. Except instead of a porch it’s a blog home page… something like that.

And next up is going to be Halloween-themed True Crime Tuesday posts for the next month. That’s right! I’m going to fill your booknerd noggins with terrifying stories of people being murdered on Halloween so that when that spooky night rolls around you’ve really got that festive scared-out-of-your-mind feeling!

You’re welcome. I love you.

First up, a story of unknown motive and Halloween nightmares. The murders of Adriane Insogna and Leslie Mazzara.

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True Crime Tuesday: Bruce McArthur, Serial Killer – Part Two

I know Greyson is floating around here and has been waiting for this so I’m writing it up just for her (but also for all of you that are interested.)

It’s Part Two, Bitches!!!

We’re talking about Bruce McArthur, the Toronto Serial Killer making headlines right now. If you haven’t read Part One of this story, I suggest you do so to learn about who McArthur is, where he comes from and what his history was before he was arrested for being a damn serial killer. Because it’s fucking interesting and disturbing. Exactly what you want from your true crime, right?!

You can find that post here.

Before we jump back into this crazy ass story of horror and death, let’s do a small recap of where we left off last time.

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True Crime Tuesday: My Hometown Murder

Good morning friends, lovers and strangers! It feels sooo goood to be back with a new edition of #TCT.

The end of August was SO busy for me I barely posted anything around here, but I got a lot done at home, so I’m not complaining. We’re just here for a good time, right?

Before we get into it, how was everyone’s long weekend?! Really, I want to know. I had a family BBQ, played some Battleborn with my husband and yesterday I deep cleaned my car.

You don’t understand what a big deal that was. I bought my car in 2015 and this was the first time I’ve ever cleaned the inside of it.

It was time. There were puppy puke stains everywhere. A little heads up that puppies can have motion sickness for the first year of their life would have been nice.

Besides that, I’ve been doing so much stuff at home all month that last week I actually slipped a disk in my lower back and I was laid up in bed for three days. Welcome to your 30s – where a Sunday afternoon of yard work means you are a cripple for half the week.

We also had some crazy excitement about two weeks ago in my neighbourhood. And that’s what this post is going to be about. That’s right! When I say MY HOMETOWN MURDER, I fucking mean it!

Now, I have to say I’m a little bit hesitant to share this story because it essentially tells you exactly where I live *nervous laugh.* But it’s too close to home, too intriguing and too big of a story right now in my city to not share with you guys.

So please, just promise not to stalk me okay?

This week’s true crime story is the Kitchener House Explosion! Dun dun dunnnnn…

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True Crime Tuesday: Bruce McArthur, Serial Killer – Part One

One of the hottest stories in true crime right now – if such stories can be “hot” – is alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur.

If you haven’t heard of this serial killer yet, you must be living under a rock with zero access to the internet. (At this point, I’m pretty sure a rock could be wired for WiFi.) Even if you aren’t interested in true crime, this is one of the biggest serial killer cases to hit the news in a long time so you’ve probably heard something about it.

What makes it even more interesting is that this whole thing is unfolding in Toronto, Canada.

That’s right. Canada. Land of maple syrup and apologies.

Canada, my home, where the most often laid charge falls under the legal category of mischief. As in, “Hey guy, you’re kinda of being a dick there, eh? Why don’t you knock it off, buddy?”

In 2016, there were 611 homicides in the entire country.

The whole thing.

For comparison, there were 627 homicides just in the state of Ohio that same year.

Further, serial killers in Canada are like unicorns. Rare, seemingly mythical but coming equipped with something that could stab you.

Not to say we haven’t had any. Most prolific, I would say, was Robert Pickton, the pig farmer. He even inspired an episode of Criminal Minds. Most famous is probably Paul Bernardo, the Scarborough Rapist, and the case to which I credit with my fascination with true crime.

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True Crime Tuesday: The Cold Case of April Tinsley

One of the most fascinating things happening in the crime solving world right now is the use of genealogy databases, like Ancestry and 23 And Me, to solve cold cases.

Most recently, and maybe most famously, we saw it this year when the Golden State Killer was finally apprehended after 40+ years undetected.

Privacy and ethic debates aside, I actually think it’s brilliant to be looking for matches this way if it gets more wastes of fucking oxygen off the street.

In the case I want to tell you about for this week’s instalment of TCT, the Fort Wayne Police Department ran testing on DNA evidence from a 1988 cold case using a genealogy database and came back with hits on two living brothers of the DNA source.

That’s ah-meezing.

What are killers supposed to do? “Hey, family? Please don’t give your DNA over to 23 and Me. The police might find out I’m a serial killer they’ve been hunting for the last 30 or so years. Okay? Thanks, great talk.”

This is the Cold Case of April Tinsley.

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TCT Update: A Graphic Novel Murder

Now, I know it’s not Tuesday, but if you read my post from last week about Blake Leibel, the trust fund douche who murdered his girlfriend just weeks after she gave birth to their daughter, than you have been waiting with bated breath for an update on the trial.

Or you’ve been waiting with normal breath, no irregular breathing pattern at all. That seems more likely.

Breaking News: about 12 hours ago, the jury came back with it’s decision.

GUILTY.

Like, duh.

So it’s officially time for True Crime Tuesday – Thursday Update…or something like that. It would be better if I had some kind of flashing graphic for it.

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Review: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

★★½

I have an ~~unhealthy obsession~~ totally normal interest in true crime. I love mystery-crime fiction. And I’m not comfortable just resting on my laurels and staying in the now, I want to know the history of the things I love. I want to have a developed appreciation for those that came before me and helped contribute to making these genres as accessible as they are, and as artistic as they’ve become.

I also want to be that girl who reads classic novels and has a nighttime face routine and wakes up early to take her dog for a walk.

But if my reading experience with In Cold Blood as taught me anything it’s that I’m none of those things and classic novels are boring as shit. I got out of bed this morning fifteen minutes before I needed to leave. And I don’t give a fuck.

Okay…maybe that’s a bit dramatic. I give a tiny baby of a fuck. And not all classic novels suck. #NotAllClassicNovels.

Honestly, I’m super disappointed that I didn’t like this. I feel like I should have. It’s almost a rite of passage to read this book if you’re in the murderino scene. It’s so popular and has all those key words on the cover… “spell-binding”, “masterpiece.”

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? This book is giving me an extensional crisis.

In Cold Blood was written over a period of seven years and published in 1966. It was not the first true crime novel ever written, but it is the first to bring the true crime genre to mainstream culture. Capote created the blueprint. He’s a trailblazer.

And I didn’t like it?! I DIDN’T LIKE IT.

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True Crime Tuesday: A Graphic Novel Murder

Gooooood morning friends, lovers, Vietnam and strangers! It’s my favourite day of the blogging week once again, True Crime Tuesday! *crowd goes wild*

Today I’ve got a cracker of a case to share. I’ve been obsessing over it all weekend as the trial just started so there’s lots of new information spilling out.

…but first, a joke:

This might actually be my new favourite serial killer joke. Yes, that’s a thing I’m allowed to have a favourite of. My previous favourite was:

Q: What does Jeffrey Dahmer sing while he’s making his lunch?

A: My bologna has a first name…

Classic.

And now that’s you’re in a good mood, let’s completely ruin that, shall we?

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True Crime Tuesday: The Yogourt Shop Murders

I wasn’t old enough in the early 90s to full enjoy it. The big bangs and long hair and neon spandex. Saved by the Bell, 90210 and Nirvana and Chris Farley SNL days. I was aware, but I wasn’t. I remember being in my cousin Bill’s room one day after school – he’s 10 years old than me – and he had the Nirvana smiley face on everything. I asked him “what’s this?” and he said, “it’s a thing for a band.” That might have been the first time I took in the concept of a band.

I was a teenager in the early 2000s. Things like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake in full jean outfits, Blink-182 and “flared” jeans, trucker hats and unnecessary scarves were really what was going on when I fully came online as a person, for better or for worse. Early 2000s fashion is truly some of the very, very worst.

There are things about being a little girl in the 90s that have stuck with me and shaped me as a person, though. Clueless is still one of my favourite movies. I always wanted to grow up and own a white Jeep. Maybe some day still. Scream inspired my love of horror. And Silence of the Lambs inspired my love of crime fiction.

My love of true crime didn’t start until later when I turned on an episode of Dateline for the first time. Oh, you mean this is like the murder-mysteries I read except for real life?! Count me in!

Maybe that’s why I find myself drawn towards 90s true crime. It was happening, and I didn’t know it. My access to information was so much more limited. But now I can learn all about these things that were going on in the world while I was growing up. Plus the fashion, the pop culture – I feel connected to it.

So, for this week’s True Crime Tuesday, we’re going to go back to 1991. To a yogourt shop in Austin, Texas, where four girls died in a fire.

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Cover Reveal: Tear Me Apart by J.T. Ellison

Happy Thursday, lovers! We are one day away from a long weekend. Praise Thor! I don’t really have any plans besides not wearing a bra and gorging myself on true crime documentaries. You?

Last night I finished up Evil Genius on Netflix. It’s a detailed look into the case of the Pizza Bomber from 2003, in Erie, Pennsylvania. Basically, a pizza delivery man showed up with an order for a mysterious location, and was then allegedly assaulted and a bomb was strapped to his neck. He was sent out on a scavenger hunt to find the keys to unlock the bomb, but not before he was made to rob the local bank.

That’s just the basics, the case goes so much deeper than that. For someone who knew about the case already – moi! – it was still a completely wild ride, and revealed a lot I wasn’t totally aware of, or at least, hadn’t realized the gravity of. It’s jam-packed with information, and nothing beats the footage and interviews they got their hands on. Super intense.

There is some graphic video of the victim, Brian Wells, being blown up by the neck bomb though, just fair warning.

I highly recommend this if you’re a Netflix true crime documentary and chill, kind of person like me.

Anyhooters, onto some book talk. The cover of J.T. Ellison’s new thriller was released today and I’m definitely into it!

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