true crime Archives

Have At It, Sister

Murderer or Battered Woman? Author: Bill Griffeth One late night in April 1991, the abuse was finally too much for Gloria Burtzlaff. She walked down the stairs, loaded the gun, walked back, said “Larry, I’m going to kill you,” and shot her husband dead. From there, the trial spooled out, but South Dakota did not allow expert witnesses to offer a diagnosis of “battered woman syndrome.” Besides, Gloria had had an affair, one that lasted years. She had options. She showed calm forethought. It was enough to put her away, but was it all really true? What is battered woman [...]

Frances Carden2023-06-20T16:58:54-07:00June 20th, 2023|Tags: Audible, Audible Original, book review, read, reading, true crime|

In Cold Blood

A Surprisingly Banal Representation of Murder Author: Truman Capote A sleepy Kansas town, where families safely leave their doors unlocked. Where everyone knows everyone else in town. A family – father, mother, two children, slaughtered in the night. Shot, point blank. Tied up. Robbed. All for $40.00. Truman Capote took an infamous, seemingly inexplicable crime and ushered in narrative non-fiction and the popularity of true crime books with In Cold Blood, which has since become a classic. I remember as a child watching the first movie based on this book. I recall marveling at the complexity of emotion, the way that [...]

Frances Carden2023-05-02T18:43:51-07:00May 2nd, 2023|Tags: book review, classic, horror, in cold blood, read, reading, true crime, truman capote|

Father’s Story, A

A Look at Jeffery Dahmer, Told By His Father Author: Lionel Dahmer Like almost everyone else, I recently became addicted to Netflix’s Dahmer series, binge-watching it, open mouthed, within a few days. Jeffery Dahmer is one of the most well-known and gruesome serial killers of our time, famous for the brutality of his murders and his grisly apartment, stocked with dead men, body parts, and partially eaten corpses. What, exactly, makes a person kill and eat someone else? Was it insanity or evil? Were Dahmer’s actions a result of nature or nurture? The Netflix series, wisely, does not attempt an answer, [...]

Frances Carden2022-12-11T22:13:40-07:00December 11th, 2022|Tags: book review, dahmer, jeffery dahmer, read, reading, true crime|