Where is Brandon Sims? The four-year-old had not been seen since July 3, 1992, when he attended a birthday party with his twenty-year-old mother, Michelle Jones. Jones was employed, confident, talented, smart, assertive and involved in many community activities in Indianapolis, Indiana. In contrast, when he was last seen, Brandon Sims, an only child, was a serious, quiet, thin boy who rarely maintained eye contact with his mother. After that … [Read more...]
TOXIC RAGE: A Tale Of Murder In Tucson
Brian Stidham fell in love with Tucson, Ariz., the minute he came to town. A young and talented eye surgeon, he accepted a job with an established eye surgeon to take over his pediatric patients. “It’s a beautiful place,” Stidham told a friend. “I can live right there by the mountains and go hiking. It’s a great deal for me there. The partner I’ll be working with is ultracool. He’s giving me the keys to the kingdom.” Brad Schwartz, the doctor … [Read more...]
Alan R. Warren Reveals Shocking Details Of Rodney Alcala’s Serial Murders In THE KILLING GAME
Beginning in 1968 and continuing into the 1970s, a predator stalked California and New York, torturing, raping and murdering young girls and women. But who was the monster behind these tragedies? Eventually, a suspect emerged, but he didn’t look like a monster. Indeed, Rodney Alcala was a handsome, charming photographer who’d once studied film at New York University under director Roman Polanski. With his wit and easy self-confidence and … [Read more...]
SHOTS IN THE DARK: The Saga Of Rocco Balliro
On a cold, winter's night in early 1963, mob enforcer Rocco Anthony Balliro and a pair of associates stormed a darkened apartment on the outskirts of Boston and engaged in a fierce gun battle with several assailants (police officers, it turned out) waiting in ambush for the ex-convict and recent prison escapee. In the aftermath, a young woman and her toddler son lay dead. The story of Rocco Balliro, a petty criminal and enforcer for New England … [Read more...]
WildBlue Press Teams Up With Criminology Podcast To Bring Readers THE CASE OF THE ZODIAC KILLER
In the late 1960’s, and early 1970’s, an enigmatic serial killer terrorized the San Francisco Bay area of Northern California, and teased the police tasked with stopping him. Through bold letters and cryptic ciphers mailed to local newspapers as well as taunting calls to police, the Zodiac left his mark on the state of California. Without warning he was gone, but not before achieving infamy in the annals of true crime history. Just who was the … [Read more...]
THE BEAST I LOVED’s Robert Davidson Warns “Don’t Believe The Con Man”
Domestic violence is all about power and the need to control, which comes from the monumental insecurity virtually all batterers suffer from. Like little children, they have a constant, nagging, inescapable fear of abandonment that they never outgrew like normal children do, and so carry around their warped perception of a fearful world that leads so reliably—and unfairly—to the abuse of their partners. Because most batterers have experienced … [Read more...]
Robert Davidson Answers The Question “Why Didn’t She Just Leave?”
There are many issues regarding domestic violence, but the one that, to me, is most infuriating, most unfair, and most misunderstood is the most commonly asked question of all: “Why didn’t she just leave?” But that should not be the question. The question should be, “Why do men batter women?” And as a society, “How do we stop it?” That’s what we should be asking. Why don’t they leave? There are many issues involved, and very complicated ones … [Read more...]
Robert Davidson
Robert Davidson speaks nationally and has written numerous columns for various publications. In The Beast I Loved, originally published by Ballantine Books in 2000 under the title Fighting Back, now revised and updated with new material, he examines family dysfunction, the psychology of violence, and the resulting tragedy. He was the winner of New England’s venerable Seacoast Writers Association award for Best Nonfiction. He also wrote How … [Read more...]
THE BEAST I LOVED: A Battered Woman’s Desperate Struggle To Survive
Before abuse hot lines and safe houses were widespread, June Briand shot four bullets into her husband’s head and was sentenced to fifteen years to life. This is the shocking true story of survival—and the intense bond June shared with her pathologically violent husband, a monster who physically and sexually tortured, degraded and dominated her so relentlessly that she refused to believe he was dead even after she killed him. What kind of woman … [Read more...]
Dr. Phil Show To Feature John Paul Fay, co-author of THE SHAWCROSS LETTERS
After a little more than three days in Hollywood to tape an appearance on the Dr. Phil Show, I've returned to Boston. The three days before the show were wrought with the seemingly insurmountable logistics of being chosen to appear, and then dealing with numerous family members signing releases and even uncertainty if they would even participate. So, by the time I was actually sitting with Dr. Phil, it was the least stressful part of the whole … [Read more...]