Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Criminal.
The "Weird World"
Even as a young girl, Pauline was always aware something about her childhood was very off. Her father, Warren, was a successful businessman. He was a heavy drinker, who could become violent and after a while, Pauline’s mother, Ruth, couldn’t take it any more. They separated when Pauline was five, as she was due to start school.
By Amber Blaize5 years ago in Criminal
The Russian Doll Collector
During the height of his career, Anatoly Moskvin was a well-regarded linguist at Moscow State University. He was revered for his academics and was obsessed with Celtic occultism, and burial rituals. He had a personal library of over 60,000 books and documents on rituals and rites related to the occult. The unassuming Anatoly Yuryevich Moskvin is a Russian philologist, historian and linguist from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s fifth-largest city. He loves history, speaks 13 languages, has travelled extensively, taught at college level, and was a renowned journalist. Anatoly Moskvin is also a self-proclaimed expert on cemeteries, and dubbed himself a “necropolyst.” One of his colleagues even called his work “priceless.” He was known as the ultimate expert on cemeteries and the dead.
By Amber Blaize5 years ago in Criminal
Last call for Brian Shaffer
Annually, thousands of people vanish. Fortunately, many of them leave for various reasons, but eventually return. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t apply to a medical student named Brian Shaffer, 27. Brian had graduated from high school in 1997, and completed his degree in microbiology at Ohio State University (OSU). In 2004, he began attending medical school at OSU.
By Marc Hoover5 years ago in Criminal
THE KEEPERS
The Keepers tells the story of Sister Catherine Cesnik, a 26-year-old nun living in Baltimore who was abducted and murdered back in the 1960s. The case was never solved, but was linked to a horrific history of sexual abuse by a chaplain called Father Joseph Maskell
By Jenny Levey5 years ago in Criminal
Yours
Just as they settled into bed a phone rung in Queenies nightstand. She squeezed her eyes tight and whispered, "you gotta be kidding me." She rolled over, opened the drawer and took the phone into her bathroom. Redd lay there looking shocked but confused. Queenie closed the bathroom door as she answered. "What happened?" She sighed. "Yo mans fucked up!" A male exclaimed on the other end. "What do you mean?" She quizzed. "Sean left the trailer with no lock. There ain't shit here." "Excuse me?"Queenie gritted through her teeth, trying not to be loud. "I can't leave right now. Find his stupid ass and I mean now!" She demanded and hung up. Queenie clinched the counter, rage filled her entire body. Not only was Sean one of her do boys, he was her most recent ex, as well as a barber at her barbershop. She paced the bathroom til she heard Redd knock on the door. "Babe you good?" He shouted. Queenie exhaled and opened the door. "Yeah they fucked up some receipts at the shop. I'll fix it in the morning." Redd studied her, then guided her back to the bed. They wrapped themselves together and fell asleep.
By Theresa Marguerite Wickliffe5 years ago in Criminal
Happy Anniversary
I hate clichés. Everyone says they do, but they still buy twelve red roses on the 14th of February as if it means something more than they couldn’t come up with an original idea (even if they tried so hard it caused a delicious blood vessel to burst in their insignificant little brains) and the local 7/11 still happened to have some fresh ones left. So, when I found myself, without an umbrella, running through the rain in a tan trench coat that barely did enough to keep my clothes underneath from becoming drenched, heading to the 24/7 Diner on the edge of Connolly Street, looking like something out of a bad PI movie, nobody could have been more disheartened than I was.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Criminal
The Mystifying Murder Trial of Michael Magness
Photos, reporting and writing by Joshua Logan Allen -- www.medium.com/@joshualoganallen When I was asked to cover this trial, I was thrilled. I’ve been a journalist for more than several years now, and being that covering crime and the courts has always intrigued me the most, that is where much of my time reporting and writing has been spent. But it’s not often I get the chance to set aside the time in my freelancing schedule for the full-time, daily coverage of a jury trial for a man charged with the first-degree murder of his wife. And as common as this kind of murder seems to be, which is why I assume investigators always look into those closest to a victim after a homicide, there was something about this case that was different, something intriguing to me … something evil.
By Joshua Logan Allen5 years ago in Criminal
Why we love True Crime stories?
Every now and then, the Internet is "wowed" with new crimes. From wildly successful book, podcast or show devoted to a crime. There's never a shortage of true crime stories and the crime documentaries genre on Netflix is very huge - such as Evil Genius, Making a Murderer, The Keepers and also series like American Vandal that took the online viewers by storm.
By Venera Lee5 years ago in Criminal
Your lockdown guide to true crime podcasts
Here in Melbourne, Australia like other parts of the world, we are under COVID-19 restrictions. We are allowed to exercise an hour a day, within five kilometres of our home. But that is still plenty of time to binge some compelling true crime podcasts.
By Stephen J Words 5 years ago in Criminal
