Isis Valdes Cruz, 40, was getting out of her car on Wednesday when she was approached by her estranged husband, Heriberto Garcia Ortega, 55, on 58th Court. They got into an argument and Heriberto slashed his wife's throat with a knife, then stabbed himself. Responding officers found Isis dead at the scene and Heriberto conscious but bleeding profusely. He later died at Jackson Memorial Hospital. More Florida Murder-Suicides Man Shoots Neighbor … [Read more...]
Neighborhood Blames ‘Squatters’ In Fatal Shooting
Neighbors claim a man’s death might not have happened last Tuesday if the city had listened to their cries for help with the rundown squatter home in the neighborhood. The house was an eyesore with an overgrown lawn and broken-in windows. Residents of the Northwood Hills Historic District say the house has been filled with squatters since the owner died a few months ago. Yet despite their many calls for help to police and city officials, the … [Read more...]
Relatives Fear Facebook Posts Led To Murder
It took the rags to riches mom, Makeva Jenkins, just two years to work her way from homelessness to financial success. Late Wednesday evening, she reached out and wrote the following post on FaceBook: “I’m in awe of how far I’ve come … Fast forward to now: We overcame being homeless in 2013/2014 to reaching my six-figure mark in 2015…” Early Thursday morning at around 2 a.m.—barely two hours after that post—a masked man knocked on the front door … [Read more...]
A Palm Beach Murder From My True Crime Book, DADDY’S LITTLE SECRET
Rodney Clark, a fifty-year-old man from Jackson, Miss., is being tried in Palm Beach this week after being charged with first-degree murder in the 1987 death of Dana Fader. It will be the first death penalty case to be tried in the county since Florida got a new death penalty law in March. This is a Palm Beach murder from my true crime book, Daddy’s Little Secret: “Detective Venetucci was not just a dedicated detective, he was also the drummer … [Read more...]
Denise Wallace Reveals Her Discussion With the Prosecutor From Her Father’s Trial
Near the end of the trial in Daddy's Little Secret, I pulled the prosecutor, Marc Shiner, aside and confessed something about my father that I had never divulged to anyone. We were of opposing views from that point on. "Every little girl thinks her father's scary," he had told me, but I had not told him a story from when I had been a little girl--I had told him one from when I had been nineteen. Shiner had listened to me and assessed the … [Read more...]
Author Denise Wallace on the Power of Visualization In Accomplishing Your Goals
After a rough day at the picture car company when a film industry worker had threatened to bring a gas can and set the place on fire, I went home and thought to myself, "This can't be all there is to life." Working fifty hours a week at a place where they threw chairs and humiliated anyone who had figured out a way to get a job in Hollywood was hardly living the dream. It was actually more like the film, Swimming With the Sharks, starring Kevin … [Read more...]
Denise Wallace Discusses Her Efforts To Overcome Impatience When Writing
Without a doubt, I used to be one of the most impatient people on the planet. I'm serious; I really was. Just to give an example: If I had a dinner date with the president and got hungry on the way, I'd stop somewhere and grab a burger. It's ridiculous, I know. And though I had the discipline to burn the extra calories, I was well aware that this was not a virtue, especially if I wanted to be a writer. That's why when I wanted to … [Read more...]
Author Denise Wallace Offers Six Step-By-Step Tips for Writing a True Crime Book
So, you have fallen in love with the scintillating world of true crime? The psychological profiles of killers and the investigative processes of detectives have enthralled you and left you hungry for more. You have read dozens and dozens of true crime books (make SURE you do this) and taken writing classes to learn the craft, and now you want to write one of your own. But where do you start? Step 1 First of all, you should start by … [Read more...]
Author Helps Police Investigate Father’s Murder In DADDY’S LITTLE SECRET
Denise Wallace Pens Poignant True Crime Memoir About Secret Life And Brutal Death Of Father DADDY'S LITTLE SECRET: A Daughter's Quest To Solve Her Father's Brutal Murder is the poignant true crime story about a daughter who, upon her father's murder, learns of his secret double-life. She had looked the other way about other secrets of his, as well -- deadly secrets that could help his killer escape the death penalty, should she come … [Read more...]
True Crime Author Denise Wallace Begins New Career With DADDY’S LITTLE SECRET
Denise Wallace is an American author and story analyst in Hollywood. Her debut true crime book, Daddy's Little Secret, is about the murder of her father, Wesley Wallace in Palm Beach, Florida. Denise completed the Professional Program in Screenwriting at the University of California, Los Angeles. Once there, she also took additional film classes, such as How to Write a Thriller, The Art of Pitching, Television Writing, and The Fundamentals of … [Read more...]
