True Crime Confidential Volume 2: True Crime Confidential, #2

By Robert Keller

18 Truly Horrific Murder Cases, including;
  
In Plain Sight: A young woman is brutally murdered in front of 38 witnesses. So why didn't anyone call the police?

Bad Chemistry: John Balaban had a problem with women, one that he resolved at the end of a sharp blade. 
 
Fox on the Run: A young mother is found shot to death and the clues point to the unlikeliest of suspects – a gorgeous ex-cop and playboy bunny. 
   
Weeds: The Major enjoyed an orderly existence, using poison to extinguish the weeds from his garden and the human encumbrances from his life.   

Blood Sacrifices: Everyone on campus knew that Alex had mental problems, few suspected how deep those problems ran. 

A Murder in Amish Country: Edward Gingerich was always a bit odd, but no one believed he was dangerous. They were wrong, dead wrong. 
  
The Bodies in the Trunk: A steamer trunk sits on the platform, leaking a vile smelling brown liquid. Who will collect it and more importantly, what's inside?  

    
The Fifth Commandment: Father Hans Schmidt was selective about which commandments he chose to obey. Thou shalt not kill did not make the cut.
 

Plus 10 more riveting true crime cases. Scroll up to get your copy now. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Keller
• Release date: Mar 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386281740

Robert Keller

Bestselling true crime author Robert Keller first developed an interest in the subject when, as a teenager, he accidentally checked out a book from the library thinking it was a vampire novel. It was, in fact, the true story of British "vampire killer” John Haigh. Thus a lifelong fascination with true crime was born, launching a writing career than has produced more than fifty books over forty years. Mr. Keller’s works include the acclaimed Monsters series, an exploration into the lives and crimes of the world’s most deadly psychopaths.       Find out more at www.robertkellerauthor.com  

Book preview

18 Truly Horrific Murder Cases, including;

In Plain Sight: A young woman is brutally murdered in front of 38 witnesses. So why didn’t anyone call the police?

Bad Chemistry: John Balaban had a problem with women, one that he resolved at the end of a sharp blade. 

Fox on the Run: A young mother is found shot to death and the clues point to the unlikeliest of suspects – a gorgeous ex-cop and playboy bunny.   

Weeds: The Major enjoyed an orderly existence, using poison to extinguish the weeds from his garden and the human encumbrances from his life.  

Blood Sacrifices: Everyone on campus knew that Alex had mental problems, few suspected how deep those problems ran.

The Coffin Case: A controversial Canadian murder case. Did a miscarriage of justice send an innocent man to the gallows? 

The Killer from Manila: As a former enforcer for Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Victor Castigador was well versed in the art of murder. When he set out for revenge on the employer who fired him, the results were truly horrific.  

A Murder in Amish Country: Edward Gingerich was always a bit odd, but no one believed he was dangerous. They were wrong, dead wrong. 

Death of a Fat Man: A brilliant detective is faced with a unique challenge - solving the murder of a man who everyone hated.   

Die, Mother Dearest: Blood runs thicker than water in this disturbing tale of familial relations gone horribly wrong.

The Jigsaw Murder: Dr. Buck Ruxton thought he’d covered all the angles, but cutting edge forensics might just send him to the gallows.

Columbine: Two teenaged killers carry out one of the most horrific school massacres in American history.

Ultimate Evil: A deadly pedophile is stalking the children of Maryland and Florida – with the tacit approval of his parents. 

The Bodies in the Trunk: A steamer trunk sits on the platform, leaking a vile smelling brown liquid. Who will collect it and more importantly, what’s inside?  

Sudden Death: The harrowing tale of a murderous mother who sent four of her infant children to an early grave.

Blood Relatives: George Jefferson Hassell had a unique way of resolving family disputes. He used a knife.

The Acid Doctor: A narcissistic doctor exacts a horrendous revenge for his wife’s perceived infidelity.   

The Fifth Commandment: Father Hans Schmidt was selective about which commandments he chose to obey. Thou shalt not kill did not make the cut. 

In Plain Sight

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Regrettably, the fatal stabbing of a young woman on the streets of a large American city is not a particularly unusual occurrence. Even in 1964 when the brutal murder of Kitty Genovese took place, it was not that unusual. What makes this case unique is that 38 witnesses either saw or heard the murder being committed – and did nothing about it.

At around 3:20 on the morning of March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Catherine Kitty Genovese was returning to her apartment on Austin Street, a tree-lined thoroughfare in middle-class Kew Gardens, Queens. Kitty had just finished a shift at a bar in Hollis where she worked as a manager. Unbeknownst to her, one of the bar patrons had followed her home.

Parking her red Fiat in a lot adjacent to the Kew Gardens Long Island Railroad Station, Kitty locked the door and started walking towards the mock-Tudor building at 82-70 Austin Street, where she had a second-floor apartment. The entrance to the residential units was to the rear of the building because the first floor was taken up by retail stores. It was dark and the streets were eerily quiet but that did not bother Kitty unduly. The distance she had to cover was only a hundred feet and it was a path she walked most mornings. 

Her anxiety was however triggered when she noticed a man standing beside a white car at the other end of the lot. She was sure he hadn’t been there when she’d parked her car. She began walking quickly towards her building. As she did she thought she heard footfalls behind her and walked faster, heading for the streetlight in front of the bookstore on the other side of the road. She’d almost made it when someone grabbed her from behind.

Kitty screamed, the volume and crescendo rising as she felt a sharp pain to her lower back. Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me! she shrieked. In the apartment houses across the road lights went on, windows slid open, a man’s voice barked. Leave that girl alone!

Kitty felt the attacker loosen his grip on her. She turned frantically around and saw him walking away. She felt moisture on her back and automatically directed her hand there. It came away bloody. In a state of shock, uncertain what to do, not sure how badly she was hurt, she staggered along the sidewalk. She was sure that someone, at least the man who had shouted out, would come to her assistance. But amazingly, the lights in the apartments blinked out. The street was dark again. Then she heard running footsteps and realized to her terror that the attacker was returning.

The man barreled into her, stabbing and slashing. Help me! the distraught woman wailed. I’m dying!

Once again the lights came on, this time causing the attacker to flee across the parking lot, get into his vehicle and drive off.

Kitty Genovese dragged herself to her feet and leaned against a storefront, leaving a bloody handprint on the glass. She supported herself against the building and worked her way around to the alley where the entrance was. She was badly hurt. She knew that. Her only thought was to get to her apartment and call for help – the police or an ambulance. She was at the door now, hauling it open, pulling herself into the darkened foyer. One look up the steep staircase told her that she wasn’t going to make it. She was too weak, had lost too much blood, the pain was starting to kick in. As she slumped to the floor, Kitty realized for the first time that she was probably going to die.

But the nightmare that Kitty had endured was not over yet. As she lay there whimpering in pain in the dark, the foyer door creaked open. In the meager light admitted from the alley, she saw a man silhouetted in the doorway, a large knife dangling from his hand. Then he crossed the space between them, dropped to his knees beside her and in one movement plunged the knife into her chest. The pain was searing but by now Kitty did not have the strength to cry out. She felt herself slipping away. By the time the man started working at the buttons on her jeans and pulling them down, she was unconscious.

It was 3:50 (a half hour since the attack had begun) before someone in Kitty’s building eventually plucked up the courage to call the police. They were on the scene within two minutes but by then the assailant had already fled and Kitty Genovese was beyond help. She was rushed to hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

As the police began processing the scene and questioning witnesses, it became clear that several people had seen or heard at least part of the attack. The New York Times article on the murder printed the following day stated that 38 people stood by while a young woman was brutally slain. This number was later disputed, although it was evident that at least a dozen people were aware of the attack in progress and not one of them had done anything. Some later said that they thought it was a lover’s quarrel or a fight that had spilled out of the local tavern. The most common refrain the police heard was, I didn't want to get involved.

The killer of Kitty Genovese did not remain at large for long. Just six days after the murder, the police arrested a 29-year-old business machine operator named Winston Moseley. Married with two children and a homeowner with no prior police record, Moseley made an unlikely murderer. Asked why he had attacked Kitty he said that his motive was simply to kill a woman.

Moseley also confessed to two more murders. Barbara Kralik, 15, had been stabbed to death in her home on July 20, 1963; Annie May Johnson, 24, was shot and then set alight on February 29, 1964, two weeks before the Genovese murder.

Winston Moseley would eventually stand trial for all three murders and be sentenced to death. However, the sentence was later reduced to life in prison on the grounds that he had not been allowed to enter evidence of reduced competency during the sentencing phase.

In 1968, while being transported to a hospital in Buffalo, New York, Moseley overpowered a guard and beat him senseless before taking five hostages and going on the run. He was at liberty for two days, during which time he raped one of his captives. Returned to prison, he was later an active participant in the Attica riots. At the time of writing, Moseley, now aged 80, remains incarcerated having been denied bail for the seventeenth time in December 2013. 

The killing of Kitty Genovese was a senseless act of violence, which might have had a different outcome if just one of the eyewitnesses had had the courage