Murder Most Foul

Imagine you come home from a pick-up basketball game at your church’s gym, to find your wife and two small children slaughtered in your garage. But wait! It gets worse!Now imagine after a few short days of inept, possibly corrupt, investigation and, despite the fact you have 11 witnesses swearing you were with them at the precise time the murders took place, you are arrested for the crime. Not done yet. You are convicted twice with twoappeals vacating your previous convictions. Three times the charm you say? Join me today as we navigate the 13-year odyssey that is the case of former Indianna State Trooper David Camm and his quest for justice. My guest is former FBI Agent and Investigator for the defense, Gary Dunn.Producer’s Note: This edition of MMF is just under 2 hours in length. I hope you will take the time to follow the story to its conclusion…for David Camm.

Florence Bennet is found dead in a bathtub of scalding water. Her husband, Casper, claims that he found her like that, but his burned hands tell a different story.Or so the police and almost the entire population of Lorain believe.And as the Bennetts’ marriage with its secrets of alcohol, affairs and abuse is laid bare in the courtroom, it looks like the only possible verdict is murder.Bennett’s sensational trial more than fifty years ago pitted an aggressive, mercurial county prosecutor against a defense team that included Ray Miraldi. In the tradition of John Grisham and Scott Turow, The Edge of Innocence, written by Ray Miraldi’s son, David, recreates the tension and excitement of this true courtroom battle, and also reveals the uncertain edge that often divides guilt from innocence.And there is more than one twist in the case that was revealed long after the case was settled!

On February 15, 2010, Joseph McStay, his wife Summer, and their two young sons were reported missing from their new home in San Diego County. They left eggs and fruit rotting on the counter. Their Dodge truck sat in the driveway. Their dogs were abandoned outside without food. But investigators found no blood, signs of a struggle, or clues to their whereabouts. Did the family take an unannounced vacation? Were they running away from personal problems? Or were they victims of foul play?In her book, DOWN TO THE BONE, Caitlin Rother presents the riveting story of a botched investigation, multiple suspects and a web of lies. Was justice ever served? The question will remain with you long after you finish reading.

On December 30, 1999, in rural Oklahoma, sixteen-year-old Ashley Freeman and her best friend, Lauria Bible, were having a sleepover. The next morning, the Freeman family trailer was in flames and both girls were missing.While rumors of drug debts, revenge, and police corruption abounded in the years that followed, the case remained unsolved, and the girls were never found.In 2015, crime writer Jax Miller--who had been haunted by the case--decided to travel to Oklahoma to find out what really happened on that winter night in 1999, and why the story was still simmering more than fifteen years later. What she found was more than she could have ever bargained for: evidence of jaw-dropping levels of police negligence, entire communities ravaged by methamphetamine addiction, and a series of interconnected murders with an ominously familiar pattern.My guest today is Jax Miller who is here to share her story…HELL IN THE HEARTLAND with us.

When Black women and girls are targeted and murdered their cases are often categorized by police officers as “N.H.I.” — “No Human Involved.” Dehumanized and invisible to the public eye, they are rarely seen as victims. In the United States, Black women are killed at a higher rate than any other group of women, but their victimhood is not covered by the media and their cases do not receive an adequate level of urgency. That is until now. My guest today is sociologist, Cheryl L. Neely, whose newly published book, “No Humans Involved,” presents a disturbing picture of the treatment of minority women, often on the fringes of society, by law enforcement in America. It is my honor to welcome Professor and author Cheryl Neely to this episode of MURDER MOST FOUL.

Imagine, spending 18 years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit! October 1997. Late one night in Fairbanks, Alaska, a passerby finds a teenager unconscious, collapsed on the edge of the road, beaten nearly beyond recognition. Two days later, he dies in the hospital. His name is John Gilbert Hartman and he's just turned 15 years old. The police quickly arrest four suspects, all under the age of 21 and of Alaska Native and American Indian descent. Police lineup witnesses, trials follow, and all four men receive lengthy prison terms. Case closed. But journalist Brian Patrick O'Donoghue can't put the story out of his mind. When the opportunity arises to teach a class on investigative reporting, he finally digs into what happened to the "Fairbanks Four." A relentless search for the truth ensues as O'Donoghue and his students uncover the lies, deceit, and prejudice that put four innocent young men in jail.

The 1987 murder of Lita McClinton Sullivan sent shockwaves through the affluent Atlanta suburb of Buckhead, Georgia like few other crimes before it. The neighborhood, with its stately mansions and top-tier schools, was simply not the kind of place where women were gunned down in cold blood in broad daylight. How many socialites had enemies so dangerous they would be murdered by a hitman pretending to deliver roses on an early winter morning.In A Devil Went Down to Georgia, award-winning writer Deb Miller Landau details the shocking events that followed Lita’s murder in 1987, including the surprising lack of evidence, racial bias in the justice system, and the international manhunt for Lita’s killer. Full of twists and turns, legal battles, and the McClinton family’s unrelenting dedication to justice, Landau's rigorous investigation is the first complete account of this tragic American crime.