fact or fiction

Is it fact or merely fiction? Fact or Fiction explores the myths and beliefs we hold about copycat killers, eyewitnesses testimony, what makes a murderer and more.

The Great Train Robbery
The Great Train Robbery was the robbery of £2.6 million from a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London on the West Coast Main Line in the early hours of 8 August 1963, at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England.
By Paige H7 years ago in Criminal
Signs Someone Might Murder Their Spouse
Let's face it: We've all thought about killing our spouses before. If you've thought about it, who's to say your spouse isn't also thinking about killing you? If you want to have any hope of surviving your marriage, it's imperative for you to stay at least one step ahead of your partner at all times, lest you become a victim in a murder. Thankfully, if you keep your eyes peeled for significant warning signs and red flags, you just might be able to save yourself or a friend who may be in danger. It's important to be wary of any signs someone might murder their spouse so you can stop a tragedy before it occurs.
By Joseph D. N. Kendrick7 years ago in Criminal
Who Is the Ripper?
I know many of you are familiar with history's most notorious serial killer and how they had never found the killer him/herself. I also am aware that there were suspects in the case but were never convicted. I am merely giving out my thoughts on who could have done it.
By Johann Hollar7 years ago in Criminal
What Is a Crime of Passion?
In the world of criminal investigations, detectives and other crime-fighting professionals have a variety of different tools to help them track down a perpetrator who committed a crime. One of these tools is categorization by motive, and it's actually one of the most important ways to determine who could be the perpetrator in more baffling crimes.
By Cato Conroy7 years ago in Criminal
10 Crime-Related Industries You Didn't Know Existed
The idea that crime doesn't pay is pretty laughable. In America, we have a very lucrative criminal system that tends to give birth to a number of different industries relating to crime in one way or another. Between our billion-dollar private prison systems and the sheer amount of money that heroin dealers can make, it's easy to see where there's profit to be found.
By Iggy Paulsen7 years ago in Criminal
The Undying Love of Count von Cosel
Ten years ago, I wrote my novel Buried (2008) about a curious case of "forbidden love" that took place many, many decades ago, in Key West Florida. The story, that of German immigrant "Count" Carl von Cosel, in reality one Otto Carl Tanzler, captured my creative imagination in a way few stories ever have: what he termed his "undying love" for his chosen bride, the tragic Elena Milagro de Hoyos, the young Cuban immigrant girl who succumbed to a tuberculoid lung at the tender age of twenty-two. Carl, the putative "Count" (he swore he was descended from a German countess whose poltergeist-like phantasm frequently haunted him) commenced, upon the death of his beloved, to exhume the body and steal away with it to his squalid home. He did this after perpetrating medical quackery upon the luckless Elena, trying, through dint of his bizarre "treatments," to cure her of her disease. Predictably, this did NOT work; but, of course, if it actually had, we wouldn't know this story.
By Tom Baker8 years ago in Criminal
Based on a True Story.... Top Story - July 2018.
There’s nothing quite like settling down at night to watch a horror movie with a few friends, a buttery popcorn bucket overflowing on your lap, a plush blanket draped over your legs and an eerie soundtrack playing through the speakers to get you in the mood for the next few hours of screams and slaughters. And nothing quite like seeing "Based on a True Story" popping up over the screen to give you a chill that you won’t quite shake during the movie or even days after. It’s an unsettling stray hand brushing against you that, yes indeed, this could happen to you, just like it happened to these innocent victims on the screen.
By carlie rice8 years ago in Criminal
Overcoming Fear: Personal Impressions of Plagues and Poisonings
It sounds bleak, but let's face it: There are so many ways to die. It can require mental skill and determination to not be afraid. One of the ways one could go? Death by poison. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book, actually.
By Wade Wainio8 years ago in Criminal
Five Famous Necrophiles
The subject of necrophilia is one that is near and dear to my sordid spirit; there is something in the obsessive love for an idealized (albeit dead) paramour that strikes us as the very height of deeply touching romantic love. We have written not one, but TWO small books (our novel Buried, as well as The Men Who Loved the Dead, an unpublished monograph on the subject.) about romantic necrophilia; "romantic necrophilia" as distinguished from "opportunistic necrophilia," or one of the other classifications given by Dr. Anil Aggrawal in his excellent text Necrophilia: Medico-Legal and Forensic Aspects. (Which, when I borrowed it through Interlibrary Loan, no doubt left the library staff even more leery of me than they previously had been.) Necrophilia is a practice both odious and morbidly fascinating at the same stroke; mix in the idea of someone who simply cannot let go of their loved one at their passing; who will steal the body, painstakingly preserve it as it decays, build to it a shrine, speak for it, breathe for it, imbue it with a reanimated existence (in their psychopathic brain scape, of course) and you have the makings for a never ending slew of morbid gothic potboilers. The practice was known in the ancient world. Greek tyrant Periander, Herod the Tetrarch (who had his wife Mariamne "preserved" in honey, where after he made love to her until the remains passed the point of being detestable) and other ancient world grotesques indulged in it. For our purposes, we will recount a small list of some of our personal faves. So, without further adieu, let us recount the Wretched Romances of the Rotten, as we present for your edification and delectation, "Five Famous Necrophiles of Morgueland." (All men recounted here, but the curious should also not discount the contributions made by such female necro- pioneers as Joan of Castile and Karen Greenlee. No chauvinists we.)
By Tom Baker8 years ago in Criminal
How Does Prejudice Affect Justice?
Throughout history, prejudice has come in many different forms and styles. The most widespread misconception among our population was that the idea that black people were inferior to white people and women were inferior to men. Also, the pride of the black people—as many white people hated them, they feared and hated whites. We see that throughout history a white man's word over a black man's word must have been the truth, or at least accepted as the truth.
By Tyler Black8 years ago in Criminal
Facts About Serial Killers and Psychopaths
Even amongst the worst of criminals, serial killers have a particular mystique—their crimes are often the most shocking, and their psyches the hardest to understand. But there's a lot more to these criminals than a desire to kill—some of these facts about serial killers and psychopaths may surprise you.
By Nicola P. Young8 years ago in Criminal
The Hypothetical Confessions of a Border-Jumper IV
Heat. That’s all I think of when I look back to that 2015 Christmas Day. The heavy weight of it that just wouldn’t lift as I walked out of O.R. Tambo airport. Heat around me. Heat all over me. Heat inside of me. Heat engulfing me. The hottest December of my life, when all my ploys and hopes burned up into ash.
By M Z8 years ago in Criminal