Tag: murder

Woman sets out to solve 100-year-old cold case MURDER of her great-great-grandmother – after her family spent years being plagued by the mysterious death and the wild WITCHY conspiracy theories surrounding it

A woman has set out to investigate the 100-year-old cold case murder that has plagued her family for decades.

Jo Piazza, from Philadelphia, had grown up being told that her great-great-grandmother Lorenza Marsala was killed in Sicily before she could join the rest of the family on their move to America.

The mom-of-three, who is an author and podcast creator, was forced to unravel a whole host of wild theories about the death – including speculation that the village had turned on her because she was a witch or that she owned land the mafia wanted to get their hands on.

Jo said that members of her family had tried to warn her off delving into the case at the risk of ‘opening old wounds’ – but she was undeterred. 

The intriguing tale began after Jo’s father passed away back in 2015.

She was pregnant at the time, newly married, had recently relocated and lost her job, telling Today: ‘I didn’t have time to grieve… All of it is a blur.’

The doting daughter was forced to clear out some of his belongings so her mom could have a fresh start – with one item being his computer.

But Jo came to regret throwing it out after coming across some emails from her dad when she was cleaning out her inbox a few years later.

She said that she had responded to most of them at the time but there were a handful that had gone unopened.

‘One caught my eye. It was his grandfather’s birth certificate. He had remarked on the fact that the mother’s name, Lorenza, was so beautiful. “She was the one who was murdered,” he reminded me in all caps,’ she shared.

Jo revealed that her father had become ‘obsessed’ with discovering the truth about her death – even making several trips back to the island.

However, he eventually had to limit his research to that which she could do online after suffering a rare form of muscular dystrophy.

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Recommended reading…

Get it HERE.

“Just days before Kurt Cobain’s body was discovered on April 8, 1994, Courtney Love hired private investigator Tom Grant to locate him. In The Mysterious Death of Kurt Cobain Tom Grant takes readers behind the scenes of the investigation. Here, you can read a day by day account of Grant’s investigation and learn about the evidence for murder regarding Kurt Cobain’s death. There are many new details contained in The Mysterious Death of Kurt Cobain, including new transcripts of recorded telephone conversations with Courtney Love and others, as well as an updated list of “persons of interest” in the crime. In this book, you will get a clear picture of 1) Why Kurt Cobain was killed and 2) Who is responsible for his death. The book also contains a compelling account of Tom Grant’s struggles to blow the whistle on the botched investigation into Cobain’s death. Did Kurt Cobain really commit suicide? Or was he murdered? You won’t be able to honestly answer that question until you read The Mysterious Death of Kurt Cobain.”

South LA Man Is 13th To Be Exonerated For Murder In LA County Since 2020

It took only a single eyewitness testimony to convince a jury to wrongfully convict Stephen Patterson to a 50-year life sentence for shooting and killing 16-year-old Yair Oliva in 2005. That witness was 200 yards away, inside her home in South Los Angeles and peering through closed blinds.

Other witnesses contradicted that testimony or could not identify Patterson, who was only 19 at the time. Investigators also ignored that the gun used in Oliva’s killing showed up at another crime scene six weeks later.

But on Wednesday, Patterson was declared innocent after spending nearly half his life behind bars. His exoneration marks the 13th under Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s tenure. According to his office, those 13 people collectively add up to nearly 300 years of wrongful incarceration.

Gascón is running for reelection and touting his work on criminal justice reform that his competitors have criticized as being soft on crime.

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Three Pennsylvania men who have spent decades in prison for rape and murder of elderly woman in her home have their convictions overturned

Three Pennsylvania men who were imprisoned for decades in the 1997 slaying of a 70-year-old woman – despite their DNA never matching that found at the scene – have had their convictions overturned by a judge.

The Delaware County judge threw out the convictions for Derrick Chappell – who was 15 when he was arrested – and first cousins Morton Johnson and Sam Grasty. The District Attorney is now reviewing the case to see if a new trial is necessary.  

Chappel, Johnson, and Grasty were each convicted in separate trials for the murder of Henrietta Nickens, a 70 year old woman who was brutally killed at her home in Chester, Pennsylvania, on October 10, 1997.

Nickens was savagely beaten and had had her underwear removed. Investigators found her home ransacked and blood on the walls and bedding. 

A mysterious green jacket, in the pocket of which was cocaine, was found on top of Nickens’ television set.

Investigators discovered semen in the woman’s rectum. They tested the semen and found that it didn’t belong to any of the three arrested individuals.

The prosecutors, who have been characterized as pugnacious, sought to separate the recovered semen from the crime. They affirmed that the semen might have originated from consensual intercourse and was unrelated to the murder. 

Nickens had been chronically ill and had no known sexual partners. 

The prosecution’s case against Chappel, Johnson, and Grastly hinged on the testimony of key witness Richard McElwee, who was 15 years old at the time of the crime.

McElwee testified that he functioned as a lookout while the three older boys pilfered Nickens of $30.

In exchange for his testimony, McElwee pled guilty to third-degree murder, as well as other charges. He was sentenced to serve six to 12 years in prison in 1999.

In 2000 and 2001, Chappel, Johnson, and Grasty were each convicted of second-degree murder, and they were sentenced to life in prison.

Over the course of their more than two decades-long prison stint, the three men have continued to protest their innocence.

Each of them filed pro se petitions in federal court over the years saying they were wrongly convicted, but their petitions were denied.

The fate of Chappel, Johnson, and Grasty drew the attention of many organizations dedicated to freeing wrongly convicted men and women.

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California woman’s 2001 conviction for murdering her husband is OVERTURNED after two decades in prison as evidence used against her is discredited

More than two decades ago, a California woman was convicted and sent to prison for 25 years to life for murdering her husband.

Jane Dorotik has always maintained that she did not kill her husband of 30 years, Bob Dorotik, and over the years she has filed many motions requesting new testing be done on the evidence used in her case.

Dorotik, now in her mid-70s, was finally able to get her message through to the courts that the evidence evaluated against her in 2001 needed further assessment.

During the summer of 2020, when jails were overcrowded and COVID-19 was a concern, Dorotik was temporarily and conditionally released from prison.

Her legal team hoped that release would become permanent pending a court overturning her jury’s verdict.

During a remote hearing, that is exactly what happened when, much to Dorotik’s surprise. The state requested that her murder conviction be overturned. The judge agreed to the ask.

But the good news was followed shortly by the San Diego County DA’s attempt to retry her. A judge allowed the retrial to proceed, but said some of the central pieces of evidence used against her 20 years ago would not be admissible.

Then, in May 2022, as jury selection was about to begin again, the deputy district attorney walked in and said the state no longer felt the evidence they had was ‘sufficient to show proof beyond a reasonable doubt and convince 12 members of the jury. So we are requesting that the court … dismiss the charges at this time.’

Dorotik was once again, unconditionally, a free woman. 

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Illinois parole board members resign after releasing man who stabbed 11-year-old to death in less than 24 hours

A board member and chair of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board resigned after freeing a man who went on to fatally stab his ex-girlfriend’s 11-year-old son less than 24 hours after he was released.

According to CBS 2, board chair Donald Shelton and board member LeAnn Miller resigned Monday following the March 13 murder of Jayden Perkins, who was stabbed in the chest allegedly by the recently released prisoner.

Crosetti Brand (37) allegedly ambushed Perkins and his pregnant mother, Laterria Smith, who was his ex-girlfriend, at their home after he was granted parole from the Stateville Correctional Center.

Smith (33) was stabbed in the neck during the attack but survived.

Brand had been serving 16 years for home invasion and aggravated assault.

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Newsome and Bergquam Expose the Terror of Lawless Illegals at Chicago Migrant Facility – FOIA Reveals Battery, Assault, Burglary, Domestic Battery, Criminal Sexual Abuse, Child Abuse, Stabbings at ONE SINGLE FACILITY

The dystopian political landscape in Chicago is reaching a fever pitch with the immigration crisis. Chicago is no stranger to violence in recent years. However, as illegal immigration continues to plague the country, real-world evidence of a crisis is on display throughout the streets of Chicago. Terry Newsome of Behind Enemy Lines, and Ben Bergquam of Real America’s Voice, teamed up on March 21st to expose the truth about the human catastrophe in Chicago. While many immigrants are likely seeking a brighter future, the economy of violence and exploitation has spun out of control due to the rampant corruption of the Democrat party in blue cities across America. Americans and illegal immigrants alike have become victims of violent crime including murder. Cities like Chicago signal no end in sight to the human tragedy that lays at the foot of the American taxpayer.

In December 2023 Ben Bergquam of Real America’s Voice re-posted a video on X from Terry Newsome of Behind Enemy Lines podcast highlighting the illegal immigrant catastrophe in Chicago. The post went viral approaching half a million views. Newsome had reported on busloads of immigrants being redirected to Chicago suburbs as a political ploy to attempt to slow down the migratory influx. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson sought to politicize migrant women and children by pointing the finger at Texas Governor Gregg Abbot as the villain of the Biden administration’s illegal invasion. Mayor Johnson had directed law enforcement to both ticket and impound buses bringing illegal immigrants into the city. The bus companies reacted by redirecting their routes to suburban train stations where the illegals were forced to prolong their journey waiting in the freezing temperatures of the Chicago winter.

Newsome recorded some of these interactions for his podcast and start-up news site, Behind Enemy Lines. In February of 2024 The Gateway Pundit reported on an interaction Newsome had in the Downers Grove, Illinois train station. Newsome encountered a number of Venezuelan immigrants appearing to flash gang signs and tattoos associated with the transnational criminal gang, Tren de Aragua. Predictably, many of these immigrants voiced their fealty to Biden.

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Two squatters who took over NYC home of woman found beaten to death, stuffed in duffel bag are being sought for murder: cops

Two squatters are being sought over the gruesome murder of a 52-year-old woman whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag inside her late mother’s upscale Manhattan apartment last week, police said Thursday.

The victim, Nadia Vitel, was savagely beaten by the two perps when she discovered them holed up inside the 19th-floor apartment on East 31st Street last week, according to cops.

Having just flown in from Spain, Vitel had gone to her late mom’s apartment — which had been vacant for roughly three to four months — to start prepping it so a family friend could move in.

“We believe that some squatters took the apartment over and this woman came home … and walked in on the squatters that were there,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.

The brutal beatdown left Vitel with blunt force trauma to the head, multiple facial fractures, a brain bleed and two broken ribs, cops said.

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MH370’s suicidal pilot entombed plane and its 239 passengers at bottom of the ocean after perfect ditching, says flight expert 10 years after plane disappeared

The ‘suicidal’ pilot of the MH370 Malaysia Airlines flight perfectly ditched the plane into the sea, entombing it and the 239 passengers aboard at the bottom of the ocean, a flight expert has claimed ten years after it disappeared.

British pilot Simon Hardy has said he believes that the plane was sunk into the ocean at a spot that has never been searched before.

The Boeing 777 aircraft vanished from radar while en route from Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Satellite data showed the plane deviated from its flight path to head over the southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.

There are fears that pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, was responsible for deliberately crashing MH370 in a murder-suicide of a shocking scale, which he committed because of problems in his personal life.

Shah had allegedly split with his wife Fizah Khan, and was said to be furious that a relative, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, had been given a five-year jail sentence for sodomy shortly before he boarded the plane for the flight to Beijing. But the pilot’s wife has angrily denied any personal problems, while other family members and friends said he was a devoted family man and loved his job.

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Alvin Bragg’s Prison Reform Poster Boy (And Joe Rogan Guest) Charged With Murder

Sheldon Johnson, a “criminal justice activist,” is being held on murder charges following a gruesome discovery in a Bronx apartment: a dismembered body. The body, it is alleged, is that of a former prison rival.

Johnson, 48, worked at Queens Defenders (@QueensDefenders), a public legal defense firm.

Johnson became something of a cause célèbre in the past year. He was released early from prison, having served 25 years of a 50 year sentence. His release was the work of activist D.A. Alvin Bragg, who has sought to decriminalize and forgive scores of prisoners. We continue to see the fruit of his labors.

After he was spotted by a neighbor of the deceased, Johnson was monitored by building superintendent Orlando Medina on CCTV. Johnson left and returned to the apartment complex several times, once in a blond wig. The police were summoned. According to the NY Times, what they eventually discovered was gruesome.

Once the detectives obtained a warrant to search the apartment, they discovered the victim’s torso and feet inside the bin, the reports said. They also found his legs, arms and head in the freezer. Mr. Small had been shot at least once in the head.

—NYT

Wrote To Alvin Bragg From Prison

Johnson wrote to D.A. Bragg from prison, using the website PrisonWriters.com, a nonprofit organization that seeks so open channels of dialogue between prisoners and lawmakers. His letter is full of verbal flourishes, woke jargon, and fifty-cent words. The full body of the letter can be found here.

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