Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 68 i Crime Monthly

Erik and Lyle Menendez have been granted a new court hearing, which is due to start on 29 November. The brothers were convicted of murdering parents José and Kitty in 1989, but evidence corroborating their claims that they were sexually abused has led to calls for them to be freed after serving 35 years. LA County District Attorney George Gascón confirmed their case was being reevaluated, saying, 'We're not saying there was anything wrong with the original trial, [but] we have been given [new] evidence,' adding, 'We are not ready to say that we either believe or do not believe that information, but… we have a moral and an ethical obligation to review what is being presented to us.' Last month, the brothers' hopes of being released were further buoyed…

MUST-SEE TV SHOW When John Sweeney was arrested after attacking Delia Balmer in late 1994, it must have felt like the end of a terrifying ordeal for his girlfriend. She had endured years of terror and abuse at his hands, once being held captive and raped for almost a week. But when he was released on bail, Delia would just about survive his final attack – only to find out she was not his first victim. As Anna Maxwell Martin and Shaun Evans star in a harrowing new ITV drama telling Delia's story, we look back at the case. CHANCE ENCOUNTER Delia, an agency nurse from north London, met casual labourer Sweeney in a Camden pub in 1991. That night, they went their separate ways, but Delia, then 40, regretted…

CULTS EXPOSED 'I was 10 when my childhood was over. While other 10 year olds were riding bikes or playing with dolls, I was laying in a bed with a pillow over my head, just waiting for it to be over. While other 13 year olds were getting boyfriends and holding hands, I was holding onto my secret and losing the people I loved one by one. When other 16 year olds were experiencing the freedom of learning how to drive and planning parties with their friends, I was planning my own death every day when I drove to school.' This was the testimony of Emily Hutson, one of convicted felon Daniel Perez's countless victims. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation's sex offender registry showed the victims of his child sex…

In July 2015, 60-year-old chiropractor Mary Yoder, from Whitesboro, New York, was poisoned with a lethal dose of the prescription medication colchicine. The finger of suspicion first turned to her son Adam and then her husband Bill, before police arrested Adam's ex-girlfriend, Kaitlyn Conley. She was convicted of manslaughter in 2017, but now, she's speaking out in a new documentary where she insists she's innocent. THE CRIME On 20 July 2015, Mary (above) began experiencing severe stomach pains. When her condition worsened, her husband Bill took her to the hospital, where she died two days later. Initially suspecting gastrointestinal disease, the medical examiner would later discover that Mary had been poisoned with an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat gout, and ruled her death a homicide. THE VICTIM Along with husband…

UNDERCOVER THRILLS PARAMOUNT+, STREAMING NOW For S2, Paramount+ has wisely simplified the title of this espionage thriller from Special Ops: Lioness to just Lioness. Created by ultra-prolific producer/writer/director Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone), the slick, dazzlingly paced series features a top-notch cast, including Zoe Saldaña, Michael Kelly, Morgan Freeman and Nicole Kidman. In this new season, CIA operatives Joe (Saldaña), Kaitlyn (Kidman) and Byron (Kelly), enlist a new female agent (or Lioness) to go deep undercover and investigate a new terror threat. But there's huge pressure mounting on Joe, who has to grapple with the personal sacrifices she's made to become the leader of the controversial program.…

PRIME VIDEO, FROM 14 NOVEMBER You may know James Patterson's detective Alex Cross from his hugely popular series of novels – three of which have been made into films: Kiss The Girls (1997), Along Came A Spider (2001), and the less-well-known Alex Cross (2012). Now, the character has got his own eight-part series, featuring Aldis Hodge (Leverage and the acclaimed Death-Row drama Clemency) in the title role of the Washington DC-based detective and forensic psychologist, who is uniquely capable of digging into the psyches of killers and their victims, in order to identify and capture the murderers. Both brilliant and flawed, he is full of contradictions and scarred by the murder of his own wife years earlier. The series kicks off with a number of bodies being found, with Cross…

A mother has been freed after her husband allegedly kept her and their seven children, aged three to 22, captive in a derelict house in Brazil. The family were reportedly held in the small town of Novo Oriente de Minas, in Minas Gerais, and their escape came when one of the girls drugged her father with sleeping pills and fled. She went to police and after an investigation, they raided the property where they found the rest of the family. Horrifyingly, police discovered three foetuses buried in the grounds, amid claims the unnamed man had sexually abused his wife, 40, his mother in law, and his daughters. The man, aged 52, had yet to enter a plea on charges of false imprisonment, rape, psychological violence, abortion, and concealing corpses. Police…

The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been cleared on two counts of rape and two counts of indecent exposure. Christian Brueckner, 47, had been on trial in Braunschweig Regional Court, Germany, for the alleged attacks, which took place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. Finding him not guilty, Judge Ute Engemann pointed to inconsistencies in the witness testimonies, saying, 'The media has reported about Madeleine McCann, and this influenced the witnesses, [so] it was not possible to convict the defendant for objective reasons.' With Brueckner's original jail term for the rape of a pensioner coming to an end, there are now fears prosecutors will not be able to bring a case for Madeleine's disappearance before he is released next September. After the verdict, lead prosecutor Hans…

The music world has been rocked by the allegations against Sean Combs, aka P Diddy, which include sex trafficking, sexual assault and racketeering conspiracy. The disgraced three-time Grammy winner, 54 – who, at time of press, was being held in a detention centre in New York – has pleaded not guilty, and 'categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors'. A tentative trial date for May 2025 has been announced, with 'more possible charges on the horizon'. Since his arrest, over 100 new accusers have come forward with claims of sexual misconduct, many of them male, and six new civil lawsuits lodged. In addition, his A-list connections have also come under scrutiny. USHER R&B artist Usher Raymond, 45, was introduced to Combs early…

Catching the television news, my ears pricked up as the newsreader said, 'Griselda Blanco is known as the Godmother of the drugs world.' Her network, which saw cocaine brought in from Colombia, allegedly made $80m a month, but now she'd just been convicted of conspiring to manufacture, import and distribute cocaine, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. That was the day Griselda became my idol. Aged 17, I'd been dealing crack cocaine for a year. Like many others in my hometown of Oakland, California, it was a means of survival. Besides, I had big dreams. I wanted an empire – flash cars, a mansion, jewellery – and this woman had the life I was desperate for. But she was cut-throat. She was called the Black Widow, as she was…

THE BIG READ 'Now is everybody happy?' asked Jeffrey Dahmer's mother Joyce after she had been told her son was dead, murdered by another criminal inside the Columbia Correctional Institute in Wisconsin in late 1994. 'Now that he's been bludgeoned to death, is that good enough for everyone?' It was a question that was met with a mixed response, not least from the grieving families of the 17 victims cruelly murdered by the 'Milwaukee Cannibal', some of whom felt robbed of justice by Dahmer's death at the age of 34. But there was no doubt that those who celebrated the national news far outnumbered anyone harbouring a sliver of sympathy for the slain serial killer. Dahmer had been behind bars for just two-and-a-half years when he was fatally attacked. His…

CRIMEscreen TENSE SPIN-OFF PRIME VIDEO, FROM 1 NOVEMBER Sean Harris is one of those British character actors who never fails to deliver when playing a crazed bad guy in the likes of Harry Brown (2009) and the Mission: Impossible movies. Now, he's once again an evil terrorist leader in this new drama series spun off from the Has Fallen action movie franchise, from Misfits creator Howard Overman. When Jacob Pearce targets the French Minister Of Defence, protection officer Vincent Taleb and MI6 spy Zara Taylor (Ritu Arya) try to avert disaster. This will be harder than they imagine, because one of their colleagues is acting as a mole for Pearce.…

CRIMEscreen PREVIEW TRUE CRIME, STREAMING FROM 13 NOVEMBER As any TV detective show will tell you, the older a criminal investigation gets, the less chance it has of being solved. But there are members of law enforcement who dedicate their lives to cracking the oldest puzzles, and this gripping new series reveals how police are now solving even the toughest cases using cutting-edge forensic technology and old-fashioned detective work. Each episode dives deep into real cases, featuring emotional interviews with victims' families, as well as the detectives who originally worked on the cases and those tasked with opening them up again. The opening episode follows the 14-year quest to solve the murder of Michelle Moore, who was found beaten to death in Tennessee in 2003. And as with all of the…

A defence team working on behalf of convicted killer Scott Peterson has begun re-examining evidence relating to the murder of his wife Laci and their unborn child. Peterson was convicted in 2004 of the 2002 double murder, but in January this year, his case was taken up by the Los Angeles Innocence Project. Now, a judge has allowed the team access to 'hundreds of pieces of decades-old evidence', as well as recordings of police interviews with two men some believe could be the real killers. Peterson is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, but his lawyers are offering the argument that Laci, who was eight months pregnant, was killed after stumbling upon burglars breaking into a neighbour's home in Modesto, California, during a morning dog walk…

SERIAL KILLER SECRETS In March 1970, 13-year-old Joseph Fancher found himself on Huntington Beach in California. He'd recently run away from home and, with nowhere else to go, wandered along aimlessly. But he was being watched, and before long, he was approached by a smiling man named Randy Kraft. When Joseph revealed he was homeless, Kraft told him he could come back to his place in nearby Belmont Shore and crash. There were no dramas there, no hassle – and if he was interested, there was even a woman Kraft knew who'd be up for sex. It seemed fate had finally dealt Joseph a good hand, and he followed Kraft back to his flat, where he accepted a drink. Hours later, he woke up to find himself alone, disorientated and…

HISTORIC CRIME As the Sambre River snakes its way along the France-Belgium border, it meanders through green landscapes and quaint villages on both the French and Belgian sides. The surrounding countryside is full of rolling hills, forests, and farmlands, offering serene views and a rustic charm. But for 30 years, its beauty stood in stark contrast to the dreadful events that were committed on its banks, as dozens of women were victimised by a brutal predator who would come to be known as the 'Rapist of the Sambre'. But such was the methodical and calculated nature of the assaults, the police couldn't track down the monster of the waterways – and by the end of his reign of terror, the public were left outraged by the way sexual assault cases…

PREVIEW SKY ATLANTIC/NOW, FROM 7 NOVEMBER Sky have outdone themselves with this ostentatiously prestigious 10-part series, which features quite the cast, including Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne. Based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, it tells the true(ish) story of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, aka Carlos The Jackal (Redmayne), the notorious Venezuelan revolutionary and assassin who wreaked havoc in the 1970s, backed by the secret services of the Soviet Union and East Germany. Swerving the temptation to do a Cold War period piece, the series makers have opted for a contemporary reimagining. It begins with The Jackal being contracted to do an assassination – building the tension nicely and showing Carlos' meticulous planning — before switching gears to the subsequent manhunt, led by security service operative Bianca (Lashana Lynch, Bob Marley: One Love).…

STRANGER THAN FICTION U/U&W, FROM 4 NOVEMBER, 9PM This three-part docuseries tells the story of the kidnapping of Delimar Vera on 15 December 1997 in Philadelphia. In the opening episode, the story is picked up in 2003, when Luz Cuevas sees a girl in the street who strongly reminds her of daughter Delimar, who died in a house fire six years earlier. This chance encounter triggers a police investigation and an astonishing discovery: her daughter had been abducted by family friend Carolyn Correa, who then started the fire to hide her crime before raising Delimar as her own. The documentary covers the police investigation, the hunt for and eventual arrest of the perpetrator, as well as the disturbing revelation that a close family member may also be involved. A fascinating…

In 1980, Dorothy Silzel – affectionately known as Dottie – was working as an instructor at Boeing Aerospace and also had a part-time job at local pizzeria Gaetano's in Kent, Washing ton, US. Dorothy, 30, was bubbly, kind and immensely popular with her colleagues, and she also delighted in being a beloved aunt. Single, she lived alone in a second-floor apartment, but was frequently surrounded by family and friends. The last time anybody would see Dorothy alive was on 23 February, when she left Gaetano's sometime between 10 and 11.15pm. Her apartment was just a short walk away and it would've taken her no more than 10 minutes to reach her home. Friends began to fear something had happened when she failed to turn up to her job at Boeing…