Tag: truecrime

  • Jack R. Smith-1964

    This is a peculiar case I’ve started to look into a bit more. In 1964, Jack R. Smith, a recently retired 20-year Navy veteran and WWII veteran, was enjoying civilian life with his wife Dorothy and mother Ida in Potomac, Maryland. The 38-year-old Smith parlayed his Navy career as a photographer into a job at →

  • Depression-Era Lives of Crime

    While researching a case for my upcoming book on historic D.C. murders, I came across the criminal records of two suspects, William Kappel and Leo Cullen. They present a rather intriguing glimpse of Depression-Era crime (and evidence that it wasn’t hard to avoid jail time). It’s interesting that Kappel was charged with violating child labor →

  • Slaying Over Stove Priority

    As you research historic true crimes, you come across stories that are too brief to be worked into a book chapter, but offer fascinating snapshots in time: From The Washington Evening Star, October 28 and 29, 1944: The kitchen of the Tilden Gardens Apartment Hotel saw “[a]n argument over priority on the use of a →

  • Book links

    You can purchase my book, True Crime Northern Virginia-The 50s and 60s, by clicking on the links here: Amazon.com, Arcadia Publishing, Barnes & Noble →

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