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A millionaire's wife lay on their bedroom floor with a gunshot wound to the face when her husband called 911: "I just shot my wife."
When the dispatcher asked where she was, he answered: "She's right here on the floor."
His name was Bob Ward, a Florida real estate developer. His wife, Diane, was 55. She died at their Isleworth home on September 21, 2009.
His defense said Diane was suicidal and the gun went off during a struggle as he tried to stop her from killing herself. Prosecutors said he shot her, and a jury convicted him of murder in 2011.
That conviction was overturned in 2016 because his original lawyers had not adequately represented him. In 2018, a second jury found him guilty of manslaughter - not murder.
In the video below, you hear the real 911 call alongside footage of Ward in court during his retrial. The call is from 2009 and the courtroom pictures are from 2018 - they are not the same moment.
Was this a gun going off while a husband tried to stop his wife killing herself - or a husband killing his wife and calling it an accident?
A millionaire's wife lay on their bedroom floor with a gunshot wound to the face when her husband called 911: "I just shot my wife."
When the dispatcher asked where she was, he answered: "She's right here on the floor."
His name was Bob Ward, a Florida real estate developer. His wife, Diane, was 55. She died at their Isleworth home on September 21, 2009.
His defense said Diane was suicidal and the gun went off during a struggle as he tried to stop her from killing herself. Prosecutors said he shot her, and a jury convicted him of murder in 2011.
That conviction was overturned in 2016 because his original lawyers had not adequately represented him. In 2018, a second jury found him guilty of manslaughter - not murder.
In the video below, you hear the real 911 call alongside footage of Ward in court during his retrial. The call is from 2009 and the courtroom pictures are from 2018 - they are not the same moment.
Was this a gun going off while a husband tried to stop his wife killing herself - or a husband killing his wife and calling it an accident?
Monarc retweeted
In January 2019 a Florida woman's husband was stabbed in their kitchen. She mopped around his body, filled a bucket with pink water, and waited about 11 hours before she called 911 and said:
"He stabbed himself."
Her name was Danielle Redlick. The man on the floor was Michael Redlick, 65, her husband and the father of her two children. He had once been her stepfather. They lived in Winter Park, Florida.
At trial her story changed. She admitted she stabbed him once, but said he had pinned her against the kitchen island and was smothering her, and she was fighting to breathe. Witnesses testified they had seen her with injuries during the marriage, including a black eye.
Prosecutors kept coming back to the 11 hours and the cleanup: bloody towels, mops and a bucket of pinkish water. Redlick admitted she cleaned around his body before anyone was called.
In June 2022 the jury found her not guilty of second-degree murder. The only conviction was for tampering with evidence.
In the video below you hear her real 911 call from 2019, and then see her in court as the verdict is read.
Was Danielle Redlick a woman who survived an attack and panicked, or did she clean up a killing, lie to 911, and walk free?
In January 2019 a Florida woman's husband was stabbed in their kitchen. She mopped around his body, filled a bucket with pink water, and waited about 11 hours before she called 911 and said:
"He stabbed himself."
Her name was Danielle Redlick. The man on the floor was Michael Redlick, 65, her husband and the father of her two children. He had once been her stepfather. They lived in Winter Park, Florida.
At trial her story changed. She admitted she stabbed him once, but said he had pinned her against the kitchen island and was smothering her, and she was fighting to breathe. Witnesses testified they had seen her with injuries during the marriage, including a black eye.
Prosecutors kept coming back to the 11 hours and the cleanup: bloody towels, mops and a bucket of pinkish water. Redlick admitted she cleaned around his body before anyone was called.
In June 2022 the jury found her not guilty of second-degree murder. The only conviction was for tampering with evidence.
In the video below you hear her real 911 call from 2019, and then see her in court as the verdict is read.
Was Danielle Redlick a woman who survived an attack and panicked, or did she clean up a killing, lie to 911, and walk free?
Monarc retweeted
On the Fourth of July in 1990, an 18-year-old in suburban St. Louis picked up a rifle, walked over to the couch where her drunk father was sleeping, and shot him. When he woke up screaming her name, she later told a camera what she did next:
"I shot him a second time. In the head."
Her name was Stacey Lannert. Tom Lannert was asleep on the sofa in their house in St. John, Missouri. Stacey said she had just seen him drag her younger sister, Christy, into a bedroom. She said their father had been sexually abusing her since she was eight and had raped her from age nine until that night. She was 18. Christy was 16.
The first shot broke his collarbone and woke him. Stacey said he screamed her name, then started calling both girls names and told her to wait until he got up from that couch. The phones in the house had been ripped out of the walls. She said she knew that if he stood up, they would die. She closed her eyes and fired again.
The next day she called police and first pretended she had found him dead. Then she confessed to Lt. Tom Schulte and told him about the years of abuse. Prosecutors did not buy it. St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said she killed her father for his inheritance, nearly $500,000, and that she had been forging checks and running up his credit cards.
At trial the judge would not let the jury treat the abuse as self-defense under Missouri law, because Tom was sleeping and unarmed when she pulled the trigger. The jury convicted her of first-degree murder. The sentence was mandatory: life without parole. Christy got five years for conspiracy and served two and a half.
In the video below, Stacey sits across from Piers Morgan and walks through the shooting, the abuse, and the 18 years she spent in prison. In 2009 outgoing Missouri governor Matt Blunt reviewed the case, found she had suffered extensive abuse, and commuted her sentence. She walked out after 18 years. In 2018 another governor, Eric Greitens, fully pardoned her. McCulloch never changed his mind. He still called her a manipulative liar who murdered for money.
Was Stacey Lannert a child who finally stopped her rapist, or a daughter who executed a sleeping man and later sold a battered-victim story?
On the Fourth of July in 1990, an 18-year-old in suburban St. Louis picked up a rifle, walked over to the couch where her drunk father was sleeping, and shot him. When he woke up screaming her name, she later told a camera what she did next:
"I shot him a second time. In the head."
Her name was Stacey Lannert. Tom Lannert was asleep on the sofa in their house in St. John, Missouri. Stacey said she had just seen him drag her younger sister, Christy, into a bedroom. She said their father had been sexually abusing her since she was eight and had raped her from age nine until that night. She was 18. Christy was 16.
The first shot broke his collarbone and woke him. Stacey said he screamed her name, then started calling both girls names and told her to wait until he got up from that couch. The phones in the house had been ripped out of the walls. She said she knew that if he stood up, they would die. She closed her eyes and fired again.
The next day she called police and first pretended she had found him dead. Then she confessed to Lt. Tom Schulte and told him about the years of abuse. Prosecutors did not buy it. St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said she killed her father for his inheritance, nearly $500,000, and that she had been forging checks and running up his credit cards.
At trial the judge would not let the jury treat the abuse as self-defense under Missouri law, because Tom was sleeping and unarmed when she pulled the trigger. The jury convicted her of first-degree murder. The sentence was mandatory: life without parole. Christy got five years for conspiracy and served two and a half.
In the video below, Stacey sits across from Piers Morgan and walks through the shooting, the abuse, and the 18 years she spent in prison. In 2009 outgoing Missouri governor Matt Blunt reviewed the case, found she had suffered extensive abuse, and commuted her sentence. She walked out after 18 years. In 2018 another governor, Eric Greitens, fully pardoned her. McCulloch never changed his mind. He still called her a manipulative liar who murdered for money.
Was Stacey Lannert a child who finally stopped her rapist, or a daughter who executed a sleeping man and later sold a battered-victim story?
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In March 2006 a preacher's wife in a tiny Tennessee town pointed a 12-gauge shotgun at her sleeping husband's back and pulled the trigger. As he lay on the floor bleeding, he asked her why. She told him:
"I'm sorry."
Her name was Mary Winkler. She was 32. Matthew Winkler, 31, was the pulpit minister at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer. Church members found him that evening after he missed Wednesday service. Mary and their three daughters were gone. The phone line had been pulled from the wall.
She drove the girls 400 miles to Orange Beach, Alabama. The next day a patrolman ran the minivan's tags during a traffic stop and found the Amber Alert. A shotgun was in the vehicle. Mary did not cry and did not ask why she was being stopped. In the interrogation room she told Alabama agents she and Matthew had been arguing about money, that he had been criticizing the way she walked and ate, and then she said the line that defined the case:
"I guess that's when my ugly came out."
At trial she testified that Matthew had abused her for years and forced her to wear "slutty" costumes for sex. Her lawyers held up a wig and a pair of platform heels in court. Prosecutors said the motive was a bank scam: Mary had been moving bad checks through accounts for more than $17,000 and the bank had called her the day before the shooting. Church members said they had never seen friction between them. Mary insisted she never meant to pull the trigger.
The jury convicted her of voluntary manslaughter, not first-degree murder. On June 8, 2007, the judge sentenced her to 210 days. With credit for time served and a stay in a mental-health facility, she was free in months. In 2008 she was granted full custody of the three girls.
In the video below you hear her confession tape, watch her take the stand, and hear the verdict that left half the country furious.
Was Mary Winkler a battered wife who finally snapped, or a woman who killed her husband over a bank scam and got 210 days for it?
In March 2006 a preacher's wife in a tiny Tennessee town pointed a 12-gauge shotgun at her sleeping husband's back and pulled the trigger. As he lay on the floor bleeding, he asked her why. She told him:
"I'm sorry."
Her name was Mary Winkler. She was 32. Matthew Winkler, 31, was the pulpit minister at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer. Church members found him that evening after he missed Wednesday service. Mary and their three daughters were gone. The phone line had been pulled from the wall.
She drove the girls 400 miles to Orange Beach, Alabama. The next day a patrolman ran the minivan's tags during a traffic stop and found the Amber Alert. A shotgun was in the vehicle. Mary did not cry and did not ask why she was being stopped. In the interrogation room she told Alabama agents she and Matthew had been arguing about money, that he had been criticizing the way she walked and ate, and then she said the line that defined the case:
"I guess that's when my ugly came out."
At trial she testified that Matthew had abused her for years and forced her to wear "slutty" costumes for sex. Her lawyers held up a wig and a pair of platform heels in court. Prosecutors said the motive was a bank scam: Mary had been moving bad checks through accounts for more than $17,000 and the bank had called her the day before the shooting. Church members said they had never seen friction between them. Mary insisted she never meant to pull the trigger.
The jury convicted her of voluntary manslaughter, not first-degree murder. On June 8, 2007, the judge sentenced her to 210 days. With credit for time served and a stay in a mental-health facility, she was free in months. In 2008 she was granted full custody of the three girls.
In the video below you hear her confession tape, watch her take the stand, and hear the verdict that left half the country furious.
Was Mary Winkler a battered wife who finally snapped, or a woman who killed her husband over a bank scam and got 210 days for it?
In May 2012 a 74-year-old grandmother in Michigan walked into her 17-year-old grandson's bedroom with a Glock. He was in gym shorts and socks, and after the first shots he called 911 and gasped:
"My grandma shot me. I'm gonna die. Help."
Her name was Sandra Layne. Jonathan Hoffman had been sent from Arizona to live with her and her husband in West Bloomfield Township while his parents were caring for his little sister, who had a brain tumor. He had a probation case and a drug problem, and on May 18, 2012, he tested positive for synthetic marijuana. That afternoon, back at the condo, Layne went upstairs with the gun.
She fired 10 times in about 6 minutes and hit him six times, twice in the back. On the 911 recording the dispatcher keeps asking if he is still there. Then another shot goes off on the line, and Jonathan screams: "I got shot again." When police arrived she was still holding the pistol and said: "I murdered my grandson." He was dead on arrival at the hospital.
In the video below, Layne sits in court in an orange jumpsuit while the call is played, then takes the stand. She says Jonathan demanded $2,000 and her car, kicked her and hit her in the head, and chased her through the condo. Asked how many times she fired, she says: "I don't know." A nurse who examined her after her arrest found no injuries, and she never called 911 herself.
The jury played the call over and over and convicted her of second-degree murder. At sentencing her own daughter, Jonathan's mother, refused to call her "Mom": "Sandra Layne is pure evil and if given the opportunity would surely kill again." Layne sobbed, "I don't want to die in jail," and got at least 22 years.
Defenders say she was a frightened 74-year-old alone with a teenager on drugs who had already hit her. Prosecutors say she loaded hollow-point bullets and hunted a boy in his socks for six minutes.
Was Sandra Layne a terrified grandmother defending herself, or did she decide that afternoon that her grandson was not leaving that room alive?
He was 12 when he killed his 6-year-old cousin. Prosecutors offered him 3 years in a juvenile facility. His mother turned it down.
At 14, Lionel Tate became the youngest American ever sentenced to life in prison without parole.
July 28, 1999, Broward County, Florida. His mother was babysitting Tiffany Eunick. The two kids were downstairs, watching wrestling on TV.
About 45 minutes later, he came upstairs and said Tiffany wasn't breathing.
She weighed 48 pounds. He weighed 170. The medical examiner counted more than 35 injuries, including a fractured skull.
His lawyer said he was copying wrestling moves. The press called it the "wrestling defense." Hulk Hogan, Sting and The Rock were subpoenaed. The judge ruled they didn't have to come.
According to the prosecution, the day after Tiffany died he asked her mother if he could have her toys.
The prosecutor, Ken Padowitz, offered the same 3-year deal again and again, right up until trial. It was rejected every time.
In the video below, the jury's verdict is read in court: "guilty of murder in the first degree." Then the prosecutor who won the case says he thought the sentence was wrong.
"I made no secret by the fact that I found life in prison with no parole inappropriate."
An appeals court threw out the conviction. Padowitz put the deal back on the table: "the same exact plea offer that I had engineered three years earlier." Tate, now 16, took it and went home on house arrest and probation.
In May 2005 he was arrested for robbing a Domino's delivery man at gunpoint. He got 30 years for violating his probation.
Was Lionel Tate a child the system failed, or did he get two chances and throw them away?
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In 1984 police found him in the back seat of his car next to a beaten, strangled, unconscious woman - and he was out in two and a half years. He went on to become the deadliest serial killer in American history, and decades later he smiled at a Texas Ranger and said this about one of his victims:
"She was laughing while I was killing her."
His name was Samuel Little. He confessed to strangling 93 women across 19 states between 1970 and 2005, and the FBI has confirmed at least 60 of them - more than any other serial killer in US history. He was a former boxer. He knocked his victims out, then strangled them with his hands.
He chose women he believed nobody would look for: sex workers, drug users, homeless women. Many of their deaths were ruled overdoses, accidents or "undetermined". Some were never even counted as murders.
The system had him more than once. In 1982 he was tried in Florida for the murder of 26-year-old Patricia Ann Mount and acquitted in 1984. That October in San Diego he was arrested for kidnapping, beating and strangling 22-year-old Laurie Barros, who survived. A month later police found him in his car with another unconscious woman who had been beaten and strangled.
He served about two and a half years for both. When he got out in February 1987 he moved straight to Los Angeles and killed at least 10 more women.
He was finally arrested in 2012 at a homeless shelter in Louisville, Kentucky, and DNA tied him to three Los Angeles murders. In 2014 he got life without parole, screaming that he didn't do it. Then in 2018 Texas Ranger James Holland started talking to him, and over hundreds of hours he gave up everything.
In the video below, Little tells Holland about a woman in North Little Rock, Arkansas: "She's fighting for her life, and I'm fighting for my pleasure." Then he walks through another killing - the crack house, three days of shoplifting, getting arrested at a Kroger and released, and the cornfield where he parked "where I could see anybody coming in" and left her on a trash pile.
He drew portraits of his victims from memory so police could put names to them. Many of those women are still unidentified. He died in a California hospital on December 30, 2020, at 80, never having faced trial for most of them.
The courts had him in 1984 and let him walk away with under three years. Was this a killer almost impossible to catch, or did the system decide his victims didn't matter?
In 1984 police found him in the back seat of his car next to a beaten, strangled, unconscious woman - and he was out in two and a half years. He went on to become the deadliest serial killer in American history, and decades later he smiled at a Texas Ranger and said this about one of his victims:
"She was laughing while I was killing her."
His name was Samuel Little. He confessed to strangling 93 women across 19 states between 1970 and 2005, and the FBI has confirmed at least 60 of them - more than any other serial killer in US history. He was a former boxer. He knocked his victims out, then strangled them with his hands.
He chose women he believed nobody would look for: sex workers, drug users, homeless women. Many of their deaths were ruled overdoses, accidents or "undetermined". Some were never even counted as murders.
The system had him more than once. In 1982 he was tried in Florida for the murder of 26-year-old Patricia Ann Mount and acquitted in 1984. That October in San Diego he was arrested for kidnapping, beating and strangling 22-year-old Laurie Barros, who survived. A month later police found him in his car with another unconscious woman who had been beaten and strangled.
He served about two and a half years for both. When he got out in February 1987 he moved straight to Los Angeles and killed at least 10 more women.
He was finally arrested in 2012 at a homeless shelter in Louisville, Kentucky, and DNA tied him to three Los Angeles murders. In 2014 he got life without parole, screaming that he didn't do it. Then in 2018 Texas Ranger James Holland started talking to him, and over hundreds of hours he gave up everything.
In the video below, Little tells Holland about a woman in North Little Rock, Arkansas: "She's fighting for her life, and I'm fighting for my pleasure." Then he walks through another killing - the crack house, three days of shoplifting, getting arrested at a Kroger and released, and the cornfield where he parked "where I could see anybody coming in" and left her on a trash pile.
He drew portraits of his victims from memory so police could put names to them. Many of those women are still unidentified. He died in a California hospital on December 30, 2020, at 80, never having faced trial for most of them.
The courts had him in 1984 and let him walk away with under three years. Was this a killer almost impossible to catch, or did the system decide his victims didn't matter?
He stabbed a 10-year-old boy to death in his own bed - and the boy's mother went to prison for it. Years later, from Texas death row, Tommy Lynn Sells calmly explained what he liked about killing:
"I like to watch the eyes fade, the pupils fade."
Lawrenceville, Illinois, October 1997. Joel Kirkpatrick was asleep in his mother Julie Rea's house when he was stabbed. Julie said she fought off a masked intruder and was cut herself. Investigators didn't believe her. She was charged with her own son's murder, convicted, and given 65 years.
In 2004 a drifter already on death row for stabbing a 13-year-old girl in Del Rio, Texas confessed to the Kirkpatrick killing. It was Sells. He described details of the house few people knew.
Julie got a new trial and was acquitted in 2006. She was later declared innocent.
Sells claimed more than 70 murders across the country between 1979 and 1999. Police linked him to about 22. He was convicted of only two.
In the video below, he tells ABC's interviewer through the glass that killing is a drug with no off switch, and what would happen if the interviewer's head hit the concrete.
He was executed on April 3, 2014. Asked for last words, he said: "No."
A mother lost her son, then years of her life, because police were sure it was her.
Was Sells a monster almost nobody could have caught, or did a police failure let him keep killing?
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Rod Ferrell was 16 when he walked into his friend's house in Florida and beat her parents to death with a crowbar. He told everyone he was a 500-year-old vampire. Then, on police tape, he calmly described the moment her mother fought back:
"Her brains were just like oozing out of her skull."
Eustis, Florida, November 25, 1996. Ferrell led a teenage "Vampire Clan" from Murray, Kentucky. He drove down to help 15-year-old Heather Wendorf run away from a home she called "hell." While the girls were out, he and his friend Scott Anderson walked in through the unlocked garage and picked up a crowbar. Richard Wendorf, 49, was asleep on the couch. Ferrell beat him until his skull and ribs broke.
His wife Ruth came out of the shower and threw hot coffee at him. Ferrell said he had planned to let her live. He killed her too. Richard's body was burned with a "V," Ferrell's symbol.
The teens fled in the Wendorfs' Explorer. Four days later one of the girls called her grandmother for money, and police arrested all of them at a Howard Johnson's in Baton Rouge.
In the video below, Ferrell sits in a Baton Rouge interview room on November 29, 1996. He describes the killing, then the detective asks what Anderson did. "He just watched and smiled." Years later he said: "I have done something that is relegated only to God, as far as who lives and who dies."
At 17 he pleaded guilty and became the youngest person on Florida's death row. He later said execution meant nothing to him. In 2000 the Florida Supreme Court reduced it to life. Anderson was resentenced to 40 years and can get out in 2031. In 2020 a judge ruled Ferrell "irreparably corrupt" and kept him in for life.
Richard would be 79. Ferrell got married in prison in 2023.
He was a 16-year-old whose own mother introduced him to vampire games. Should he ever get a parole hearing, or should he die in prison?
Rod Ferrell was 16 when he walked into his friend's house in Florida and beat her parents to death with a crowbar. He told everyone he was a 500-year-old vampire. Then, on police tape, he calmly described the moment her mother fought back:
"Her brains were just like oozing out of her skull."
Eustis, Florida, November 25, 1996. Ferrell led a teenage "Vampire Clan" from Murray, Kentucky. He drove down to help 15-year-old Heather Wendorf run away from a home she called "hell." While the girls were out, he and his friend Scott Anderson walked in through the unlocked garage and picked up a crowbar. Richard Wendorf, 49, was asleep on the couch. Ferrell beat him until his skull and ribs broke.
His wife Ruth came out of the shower and threw hot coffee at him. Ferrell said he had planned to let her live. He killed her too. Richard's body was burned with a "V," Ferrell's symbol.
The teens fled in the Wendorfs' Explorer. Four days later one of the girls called her grandmother for money, and police arrested all of them at a Howard Johnson's in Baton Rouge.
In the video below, Ferrell sits in a Baton Rouge interview room on November 29, 1996. He describes the killing, then the detective asks what Anderson did. "He just watched and smiled." Years later he said: "I have done something that is relegated only to God, as far as who lives and who dies."
At 17 he pleaded guilty and became the youngest person on Florida's death row. He later said execution meant nothing to him. In 2000 the Florida Supreme Court reduced it to life. Anderson was resentenced to 40 years and can get out in 2031. In 2020 a judge ruled Ferrell "irreparably corrupt" and kept him in for life.
Richard would be 79. Ferrell got married in prison in 2023.
He was a 16-year-old whose own mother introduced him to vampire games. Should he ever get a parole hearing, or should he die in prison?
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Cary Stayner was the big brother of America's most famous kidnapped boy. In 1999, the handyman at a motel outside Yosemite knocked on three tourists' door, said he had to fix a leak, and told the FBI exactly what he did next:
"When I came out of the bathroom, I pulled my gun out."
El Portal, California, February 15, 1999. Carole Sund, 42, her 15-year-old daughter Juli and 16-year-old Silvina Pelosso, an exchange student from Argentina, were staying at the Cedar Lodge. A month later Carole and Silvina were found burned in the trunk of their rental car. Then police got an anonymous letter with a hand-drawn map to Juli's body. The top read: "We had fun with this one."
Detectives interviewed the motel staff. Stayner was one of them. He had no record and stayed calm, so nobody saw him as a suspect. He kept working there for five more months.
In July he found 26-year-old naturalist Joie Armstrong alone outside her cabin near Yosemite. In the audio below, Stayner describes what happened: "That's when I pulled out the gun and put it to her head. She turned around. I told her to go inside." She was found decapitated.
His car was spotted by her cabin. FBI agents found him at a nudist resort, and in Sacramento he confessed to all four murders. The agent who arrested him said he looked like a movie actor and talked about grisly things like he was reading a soup label.
His little brother Steven had been abducted at 7 and escaped at 14, bringing another kidnapped boy home with him. He became a national hero and got a TV movie. Steven died in a motorcycle crash in 1989, ten years before his brother started killing.
Stayner got life in federal court and death in state court in 2002. In April 2026 California's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence. California has not executed anyone since 2006. He is 65 and still alive on death row.
Should California finally carry out his sentence, or is life in a cell until he dies enough?
Cary Stayner was the big brother of America's most famous kidnapped boy. In 1999, the handyman at a motel outside Yosemite knocked on three tourists' door, said he had to fix a leak, and told the FBI exactly what he did next:
"When I came out of the bathroom, I pulled my gun out."
El Portal, California, February 15, 1999. Carole Sund, 42, her 15-year-old daughter Juli and 16-year-old Silvina Pelosso, an exchange student from Argentina, were staying at the Cedar Lodge. A month later Carole and Silvina were found burned in the trunk of their rental car. Then police got an anonymous letter with a hand-drawn map to Juli's body. The top read: "We had fun with this one."
Detectives interviewed the motel staff. Stayner was one of them. He had no record and stayed calm, so nobody saw him as a suspect. He kept working there for five more months.
In July he found 26-year-old naturalist Joie Armstrong alone outside her cabin near Yosemite. In the audio below, Stayner describes what happened: "That's when I pulled out the gun and put it to her head. She turned around. I told her to go inside." She was found decapitated.
His car was spotted by her cabin. FBI agents found him at a nudist resort, and in Sacramento he confessed to all four murders. The agent who arrested him said he looked like a movie actor and talked about grisly things like he was reading a soup label.
His little brother Steven had been abducted at 7 and escaped at 14, bringing another kidnapped boy home with him. He became a national hero and got a TV movie. Steven died in a motorcycle crash in 1989, ten years before his brother started killing.
Stayner got life in federal court and death in state court in 2002. In April 2026 California's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence. California has not executed anyone since 2006. He is 65 and still alive on death row.
Should California finally carry out his sentence, or is life in a cell until he dies enough?
Justin Ross Harris left his 22-month-old son strapped in a hot SUV for seven hours. That night, in an interrogation room, he told detectives what had always scared him most. Five days earlier, he had watched a video about it:
"The worst fear for me is to leave my son in a hot car."
Cobb County, Georgia, June 18, 2014. He buckled Cooper into a rear-facing car seat, stopped at Chick-fil-A with him, then drove to his web developer job at Home Depot instead of day care. He closed the door at 9:26 a.m. and walked inside.
Early that afternoon he went back to the car to drop off some light bulbs. Cooper was still in the back seat. He didn't notice.
In the video below, Harris tells detectives about the veterinarian's video showing how hot a parked car gets. Then he describes pulling his son out: "His eyes were open halfway."
That same day, prosecutors said, he was sexting women, including a 16-year-old girl. A detective testified that his wife asked him in the interview room: "Did you say too much?"
In 2016 a jury convicted him of malice murder. He got life without parole plus 32 years.
In 2022 the Georgia Supreme Court threw out the murder conviction 6-3, ruling the sex evidence had unfairly swayed the jury. Prosecutors declined to retry him. He served time only for the sex crimes against minors and walked out of jail on June 16, 2025.
He is free. Cooper would be 14.
Did a father kill his son on purpose, or did a grieving man get convicted for being a creep?
In 2006, a man acquitted of a double murder sat down for a TV interview to sell a book about how he might have done it. It was supposed to be hypothetical. Then he started saying "I":
"I remember I grabbed a knife. I do remember that portion."
O.J. Simpson. On June 12, 1994, his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were stabbed to death outside her Los Angeles home. In October 1995, after the "trial of the century," a jury found him not guilty in under four hours.
In the video below, he walks publisher Judith Regan through that night. The Bronco. The alley. The wool cap and gloves. The knife he kept in the car "for the crazies."
"After that I don't remember, except I'm standing there."
What kind of stuff was around him? "Blood and stuff."
He explains the glove police found at the scene: "I obviously must have" taken it off. He describes stripping off his bloody clothes and dropping them in a bundle.
News Corp shelved the interview after a public outcry, and the book was cancelled. A court later handed the rights to the Goldman family, who published it as "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer." The tape finally aired in 2018.
He was never retried. A 1997 civil jury found him liable and ordered $33.5 million in damages. He barely paid. Prison came later, for a 2007 Las Vegas armed robbery, and he was paroled in 2017.
He died in April 2024 at 76. In November 2025 his estate accepted the Goldmans' $58 million claim, while admitting it will likely never have that money.
Legally, he died an innocent man.
Is this the confession of a killer who got away with it, or a desperate man selling a story for cash?
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A month after his pregnant wife vanished, a husband sat down with a TV reporter wearing a button with her photo. He said he was "glad" his mistress had come forward and promised to bring his wife home. He already knew where she was:
At the bottom of San Francisco Bay, where he said he spent Christmas Eve fishing.
His name is Scott Peterson. Laci was 27 and eight months pregnant with their son Conner when she disappeared from their home in Modesto, California, on December 24, 2002. Weeks earlier, Scott had told his girlfriend Amber Frey that his wife was dead and this would be his first Christmas without her.
In January 2003, Amber told the world they had been dating - and that he'd said he wasn't married.
In the video below, he sits down with KOVR's Gloria Gomez:
"I'm glad that Amber came forward."
Then his phone starts ringing. His wife is missing. He gets up, finds it, and turns it off.
"I told Laci about... the relationship. She knew about it."
Gomez asks if seeing Amber after that was also "the right thing to do."
"No, it was not."
"But you continued to do it."
"Right."
In April 2003 the bodies of Laci and Conner washed ashore on the bay. Days later he was arrested in San Diego with his hair dyed blond, nearly $15,000 in cash and his brother's driver's license.
A jury convicted him in 2004, and in 2005 he was sentenced to death. In 2020 California's Supreme Court threw out the death sentence over how jurors were screened, and in 2021 he was resentenced to life without parole.
Now the Los Angeles Innocence Project says he never did it. In April 2026 a judge rejected all 14 claims in his latest petition. His lawyers are appealing.
He is 54. Conner would be 23.
Is Scott Peterson an innocent man convicted by the media, or did he give himself away right here on camera?