Böcker av Pete Dove

Gary Hilton will not walk free again. One way or another, he is going to die in prison. If the gurney does not get him, then old age will. Currently, he sits in his cell paying penance for the deaths of four people including that of Cheryl Dunlap, whom he murdered in the Apalachicola National Forest, which lies in the north of Florida. He received the death penalty for that homicide.'He will most likely die in prison and most certainly never see the light of day again, ' the Hall County District Attorney in Georgia had said in 2008 after Hilton was convicted just a month after he killed Meredith Emerson on New Year's Day of that year. That was before he was sentenced for the killing of three other victims in a spree which lasted from the end of 2005. It is widely believed that Hilton also murdered several others, but either their bodies are yet to be found, or they were too decomposed to be tied definitively to him...How many people did Gary Hilton kill?

Did he kill himself? Was he murdered? Did he run off to meet a friend about whom his family knew nothing? Did he join some cult and if so, is he still a part of it? Did he die while a member of this unnamed, unknown group? Did he leave it, and has for decades been too ashamed to admit his error?Is he indeed dead, but his demise has nothing to do with his departure from an apparently loving, caring and tight knit home?His parents have no idea. Since his disappearance, they have not moved home, not even changed their telephone number or altered the locks on their doors. Because they are convinced that one day the possibility exists that there will a hesitant knock on the door and there will stand Christopher, older but still their son.Or a phone call will be received, again, that says 'Mom, I'm ready to come home, ' Each time they go shopping, or visit a friend they hold the faintest glimmer of a hope that they will return to find a strange car in the drive, and a man they hardly know but know so well sitting on the sofa, awaiting their return.Imagine thirty years of that hope, something to be dashed every day. Imagine the pain that causes, the hardship they endure.Because, nobody knows - has the faintest clue - what happened to Christopher Kerze.

Young love is infectious. The future is an open book, each page to be filled as the couple go along. Hope blossoms; everything is rosy. Amy Wroe Bechtel and her husband Steve were an active, outdoor adventure type couple making the small town of Lander, Wyoming a perfect location for their second home together. They had only recently moved into their compact ex miner's cottage on Climbers Row when their paradise was punctured. Because, on July 24th, 1997, Amy disappeared...What happened to Amy Bechtel? No one knows for sure but there are theories...

Best friends forever. The bond between teenage girls can be strong. And often is. That was certainly the situation between eighteen-year-old Susan Smalley and her great mate, Stacie Madison, who was just a year younger.The two were classic late eighties girls. Lots of carefully styled hair, innocent smiles and a love of life. Their bubbly personalities and bright intellects lit up wherever they went. A friend was holding a party in Arlington, which lies to the west of Dallas. It is a fair drive from Carrollton - to the north west of the city - to the small town, which sits mid-way between Dallas and Fort Worth. But they were teens, and possibly thought nothing of the forty-minute journey they would have to make. So, after changing at Susan's home, they headed off there. The girls stayed at the party for just a short while and left at around 10pm to drive back to Stacie's house. But at midnight, the youngsters did something out of character. Although they had been told to be home by midnight - a reasonable enough expectation for such young adults - they decided to return to the party. It was an odd decision, being so far - close to another ninety minutes of driving there and back, in the dead of night. Still, that is what they appeared to set off to do. Perhaps, though, they changed their mind - or at least had doubts. Because, on the way, they stopped at a Steak and Ale restaurant where Susan worked part time as a waitress.She chatted to a boy who was a co-worker for a while, and Madison waited in the car. Then the two girls went on their way. As far as is known, their plan was to head back to the party.Neither girl was seen again.What happened to Stacie Madison & Susan Smalley?

Yeardey Love and George Huguely seemed like the average college couple...dating then drifting apart. It seemed as though, in the beginning, this was something that both sides accepted. Young people change more quickly than older ones, and long college relationships are rare. When a couple had so little time to be together, the process of breaking up becomes easier and more likely. But as their final college days approached, Huguely became less and less able to accept the end of their relationship. Graduation was just three weeks away when, on May 3rd 2010, friends arrived in the early hours at Yeardley's apartment. There, they found their buddy lying on the floor. It was clear that she was dead...What they didn't know was that she was murdered...

"We're no nearer to a solution now than we were when the body was found. For all I know, we're farther away from one."Can any words be harder for a loved one to receive? No parent can conceive of finding that their sixteen year old daughter has been murdered. For two days Beverly Jarosz's parents, Thaddeus and Eleanor, along with her sister Carol, held out hope that there would be a quick solution to the crime. Those forty-eight hours must have flashed around them; a whirl of anger, guilt, fear and horror. Each minute simultaneously lasting hours but disappearing as soon as it arrived. Then it became apparent, the trail was already going cold. It would reach freezing point in the coming weeks and has rarely given even a hint of a thaw in the fifty-six years that have since passed. And the question still remains. Who killed Beverly Jarosz?

Lisa and Rob Whedbee seemed to have it all. He ran a successful insurance business; she was the former high school cheerleader whose pretty looks, blonde hair and bouncy personality made her the centre of social gatherings.Indeed, their romance was like something out of one of those middle-class Disney movies the company poured out in the seventies. Rob was the football team captain; the jock with brains as well as brawn; the guy who got the girl about which every beta male dreamed. Lisa was his catch; one he'd never look to throw back.The couple were even labelled Ken and Barbie. Those squeaky-clean Mattel dolls engineered youngsters into the look to which they should aspire; he muscle bound and square jawed, she a woman of her time; courageous, entrepreneurial, intelligent but never forgetting her first job - to look beautiful.But in the same way as the Barbie theme offers just a thin veneer to cover the realities of life, so this Ken and Barbie couple presented a blistering coat of varnish to the outside world. Under the surface, their relationship was rotting away. It would end in a vicious attempt on Rob's life, one which involved a weak and inept lover and a bungled legal case littered with unproven assertions that flew like indiscriminate pellets from a child's toy gun.The cartoon character perfection of the early years of their relationship fell into soap opera tragedy; one that held the attention of the nation.

On October 5th, 2009 workmen were carrying out maintenance along the northwards side of the M5, clearing the undergrowth, when they came across some thin, cheap black plastic bin bags, tied across the top with building twine. Inside were bones and a skull. After thirteen years of fear over what had happened to Melanie Hall, the worst news was confirmed. These were the remains of her body. Although she had officially been declared dead, five years earlier in 2004, hope remained in her family that, by some miraculous chance, their daughter might turn up alive one day. That painful desire was wiped out by the discovery of those carelessly discarded bin bags.The question remains...Who killed Melanie Hall?

The sad and troubling fact is that when a child does go missing for nefarious reasons, the person who takes them is most often somebody they know. Given all of the above, something that is a complete rarity occurs when a teenager does go missing, but the authorities have not the slightest indication as to what has happened to them. Even when the news will be the worst imaginable, usually police will have clues or tip offs which lead them hopefully to the living child, but at other times to their body.So it was unusual in that extreme that in the case of Kemberly Ramer no such information has ever made its way to the authorities. Not to local police, state police, nor the FBI who are also involved in the investigation into what is now accepted to be her abduction.

Nearly six weeks after Lynette Dawson disappeared, on February 18th, 1982, her husband Chris finally reported her missing. He stuck to his story. There was nothing to be worried about. She had left to join a religious group after they had argued about her spending addiction. It was sad, but these things happen. He would get over it. Don't worry.Yet the notion that Lynette would abandon her two children seems impossible to swallow. She was a loving mom, and nothing suggested that she would give up her daughters for anything. She had said nothing about joining some cult to her mom and sister, with whom she was close. Never did she get back in touch with her children or make any enquiries about their well-being.What really happened to Lynette Dawson?

Arville Garland was a hard-working, God-fearing traditional man earning a hardscrabble living in Ohio. But his daughter, Sandy, wanted a different life. She wanted college. And education and a career. So she left home to live with her boyfriend. In sin. Worse than that, she moved into what Garland regarded as the epitome of such sin, a hippy commune. But it was worse than that. Arville Garland had not only seen his property take ownership of itself, steal itself from him, but take itself away and challenge every value its rightful owner held. One wonders, from afar, what else had happened to make Sandy despise her father so, but that can only be speculation. For him, it was enough that she had moved in to a commune with her allegedly drug abusing boyfriend. It was in such a state of uninformed fury that Arville Garland set out late on the night of May 7th, 1970. To kill his own daughter...

Her orange and white striped jump suit beneath long, blonde, flowing locks suggests a children's entertainer, a professional party host for a gathering of eight-year olds. In a different setting, we could expect to hear the screams of joy and laughter, the party poppers going off, the moms and dads enjoying a glass of wine in the middle class kitchen of their middle class homes, bi-fold doors open to the gardens where the children have been placed to avoid the slightest risk of custard pie foam on the couch.Thank God it isn't raining, smile the benevolent hosts, trying and failing to fix an ironic grin on their faces. Truly, in their hearts, they thank God it is not raining.That Lori Vallow does look like a children's entertainer, dressed in bright hoops that extend even to her sneakers, is of course the properly ironic matter here. Painfully ironic. Because Vallow is suspected of one of the worst crimes a mother could possibly commit, although the charges, while hardly throw-away, are of a slightly less serious nature. Clearly, unspoken words tell that the public believe that she is guilty of something far more horrific.A mother betraying her children. More than that? The words are on everybody's lips, sympathy settles in the hearts of very, very few.But what if she's innocent?

California in the 1970s. Serial Killer central. Over a hundred bodies turned up, murdered, mutilated, assaulted in less than a decade. And at least two thirds of them were the result of just one man - compulsive killer Randy Kraft.It is believed that there were at least three serial killers operating in the south western state at that time, possibly more, but Kraft was by far the most prolific. On the night of May 14th, 1983 Sgt Michael Howard was on late night patrol. He and his partner were cruising the highway when they noticed a Toyota Celica driving erratically. It was trying to stay in its lane, but failing badly.Sgt Howard put on the patrol car's red and blue flashing lights, but the Celica did not pull over. It continued on its way for several more minutes before finally easing to one side, so close to the barrier that the passenger door could not be opened. Howard got out of the patrol car and approached the stopped vehicle, and as he did so the driver's side door opened, and out stepped a moustachioed man in his thirties. The policeman immediately realised this was going to be no routine case of driving under the influence because the suspect was displaying some very strange behaviour. But had Howard known then what he came to understand later, he would not have been surprised by the oddities with which he was now confronted. Because the man lurching before him was Randy Stephen Kraft. And he was acting under that part of his personality which came to the fore when compulsion became his driving force. A compulsion to kill.

The murder of Jeanne Clery shocked anyone who read the story. A young and beautiful college student away from home for the first time falling prey to a random and violent stranger. The stuff of every parent's nightmare. But Clery's parents were determined to do something about her death, to not have her daughter simply be another forgotten statistic. Their daughter's death would usher in the Clery Act which would be implemented around college campuses around the nation. But even with these precautions in place, could their daughter's murder been prevented?

Shayna Hubers was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her boyfriend Ryan Poston. A beautiful but jealous young woman, she became enraged when her boyfriend stated that he wanted to leave her so he could date another woman. But Hubers claimed self-defense as she stated that Poston pressured her to perform sex acts and was abusive. What really happened in their relationship? Was Shayne wrongfully charged or was she a cool, calculating killer?

'Kiss, Kiss - love you sis, ' the goodbye that Patti Adkins shared with her sisters. How could they know that, at the end of June 2001, they would hear it from their younger sibling for the final time?'You don't think that the worst is going to happen. You don't think it will be the last time you speak to your little sister, ' Jeanine Laurie recalled the shock of hearing of Patti's disappearance. Within just a few hours of receiving the appalling news, Jeanine had no doubt in her own mind that Patti knew her attacker. 'There's something wrong here. It just makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.' Detective Jeff Stiers was involved in Patti's case. As he and his colleagues dug deeper, it became apparent that Patti's life was more complicated than it might seem from a distance.Investigators searched her accounts, found her papers and determined that she had not run off. Friends and relatives could have told them this. They knew that nothing would drag Patti away from her daughter. Seven year old Michaley and her mom shared a bond as strong as any between mother and child.What happened to Patti Adkins?

In fact, for all the apparent thrills of the wedding, the year 2000 was one of enormous tragedy for Marsha Brantley. The newly wed lost both of her parents during those twelve months, both succumbing to cancer within a few weeks of each other. The sense of isolation that comes from losing one parent can impact on a person for years; to lose both so close together, in such painful circumstances, is hard to imagine. Further, Marsha had neither brothers nor sisters. Donnie apart, she had no-one with whom to share her grief. A spouse or partner can be a huge strength in times of bereavement; they can offer sympathy and support, a shoulder to lean on. But they are not from the same family. They do not have the stories to share, the joint experiences which can help siblings through such a crisis. It was, Marsha told friends at the time, the hardest point of her life.Yes, Marsha had cousins and aunts, extended family spread over the breadth and depth of the United States. But they were not close to her. Indeed, when she went missing in 2009 it was between six months and a year before most of these relations learned that she had disappeared...What happened to Marsha Brantley?

His reign of terror lasted from the summer of 1984 to August of 1985 when he was finally captured. During this time, Richard Ramirez terrorized the people of Los Angeles before making his way to the San Francisco Bay Area, getting the nickname of the "Night Stalker" because of his propensity to invade homes well past midnight. Claiming to be a Satanist, Ramirez brutalized his victims beyond human comprehension. Now featured in such programs as True Crime and Mindhunter, Ramirez's case begs the question, was he a born psychopath or a "made" one? How did he get away with his crimes for so long and what prompted the sudden shift in his behavior?

Jerry Michael Williams had headed to the Lake for a spot of December duck hunting. Mike, as everybody called him, didn't come home again. The conclusion to draw was clear. The thirty-one-year-old had slipped, fallen into the chilly waters and drowned before falling prey to one or more of those large alligators that waited, barely visible, in the waters. The year 2000 was coming to a close, and the real estate appraiser would not be home for the New Year. It was December 16th, the sixth anniversary of his marriage to wife Denise, and the two had an eighteen-month-old daughter, Anslee, who would be forced to spend Christmas - and every day after - without her daddy.But investigators could see a clear and likely answer to the conundrum of what had happened to Mike. His boat had been quickly found. It was moored - or more likely it had drifted - into a small cove towards the western edge of the lake. It had been little used that day. The tank remained full of gasoline although the engine was not running.A forty-four-day search ensued. It revealed nothing. What happened to him?

Martha Marek was a black widow before her time, seeing murder as a means of collecting insurance money. She murdered her husband, daughter, and elderly relative all of whom had benefits that would be bequeathed to her after their deaths. After she killed one of her roommates, the state sentenced her to death by way of guillotine...But what inspired her murders? Her own husband had initially coached Martha on how to defraud insurers...by chopping off his own leg so they could collect over $30,000 in accident insurance. That amount would not be enough for Martha, who now had dollar signs in her eyes, an axe in one hand and a bottle of poison in the other...A truly gruesome True Crime tale...

Jolly Thomas is a serial killer. Allegedly. But her case appears to be so confused that it offers few answers to our questions. She has confessed to murdering six members of her family over a 14-year period. Even while she was poisoning them with cyanide to her family, her community, and her friends she appeared to be a cheerful, happy, upstanding woman. Jolly was a pious and friendly person who seemed to be possessed of a strong moral fibre. She was the kind of woman we would all love to have as a part of our family or as a neighbour. Which only goes to show that appearances can be extremely deceptive.Because the 47-year-old mother, who lived in the south western State of Kerala in India, is alleged to have murdered her relatives by lacing their food with the poison. However, despite confessing to the crimes, many of her friends and relatives believe that she is the victim here - an innocent one at that. They cannot come to terms with the fact that such a cheerful and respected member of the community could be a mass murderess. They believe that she has been framed by the authorities. While, from the opposite side of the fence, the police are sure that they are dealing with a psychopath.

On February 19th of 2005, Danielle Imbo and Richard Petrone disappeared after leaving a restaurant in Philadelphia. Danielle has been separated from her husband while Richard was her "on-again, off-again" boyfriend. Danielle had a young son while Richard had a teenage daughter. Richard had exchanged threats with Danielle's ex-husband before while Danielle herself wanted "space" from both of them. The FBI entered the investigation in 2008 and the case remains unsolved. But what happened that night? Was this a murder-for-hire? If so, by whom?

Some crimes are so vile that they stick in the mind. Attacks on children, assaults on the elderly. Skylar Deleon's murder of a middle-aged couple fits into this category. It is one of the coldest, most mindlessly cruel killings in the history of the US. Skylar Deleon considered his victims' lives in the way most of us regard the wrapper off a chocolate bar. It does a job, but when the luscious center it protects has provided its short-term thrill, it is thrown away, disregarded. Not with any purpose, or any intent, but just because it is no longer needed.Skylar Deleon and his small crew of cronies murdered Jackie and Thomas Hawks by tying them to the anchor of their yacht, then pushing that heavy anchor over the side, dragging them to an inevitable death by drowning. His motive was pure greed...even if it meant killing...again and again...

The charges pursued against Adele Craven turned into, at the time, one of the longest running and most expensive criminal cases in Cincinnati history. It is still a crime surrounded by uncertainty, despite confessions from three people. Adele's involvement is held in doubt in many quarters.Imagine she was not involved - the horror, the insanity of going through firstly the death of a spouse, followed by years of stress and tension. Ultimately facing the prospect of life in prison, or worse, the possibility of parole deep on the horizon while the most important people in your life, your children, grow up apart from you.But if she was responsible for murder, and that is what the courts decided in the end, then how callous to take a father away from those children, to risk their upbringing, their security because of passion and dollars. In this case, the love of money really would be the route of all evil.

From the side angle of his most recent mugshot, Harvey the Hammer still looks like the murderer he is. Flat of nose, shaven headed, protruding chin on his jowly, hanging face, this now old man still retains the features of a childhood nightmare.But from front on, we see his eyes. They are overhung by flabby eyebrows, and sitting deep inside their sockets, seem dark and broody. There is a half-smile on his face. Not a smirk, not a smile of smugness, but a smile of acquiescence. The face lacks symmetry. One eye sits higher than the other, the nose is twisted to one side, no doubt the result of one or more of the many fracas that have littered his life. The lines dripping from his nose are of different lengths, the wobbling flesh they hold back a dull, dusky pink.But it is the eyes which call you. Another of the monikers attached to this vicious rapist and killer is the 'Want Ad Murderer', because he would sometimes find his victims through ads placed in the local press. They are eyes full of want. Not desire, note, but need. From this front on view Harvey Carignan changes. He is the cuddly great grandfather who would envelope our kids in hugs and slobbery kisses. He is the man who knows he has little time left and is scared by that thought. Maybe even a man with regrets. We might feel for him. Almost...Until you find out what he did...

Patrick Mackay had killed at least eleven people in his short life, including a four year old child, a nanny, an elderly priest and an 89 year old woman. Today, the killer has been in prison for forty four years. That makes him the longest serving inmate currently serving time in a British jail. He is slightly ahead of the notorious Michael Peters. While, that is not a name which may be familiar to all true crime aficionados, his alternative identity - Charles Bronson - will. (Peters even spent a spell known as Charles Salvador in recognition of the artist, Salvador Dali, whose work he admired). Other long servers include, until he died recently, Moors murderer Ian Brady, and Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.But given that Mackay killed many more people than either Brady or Bronson - in fact he is one of Britain's most prolific serial killers - how it is possible that he is not better known?

To commit murder is an act beyond the comprehension of most people. But to do so, and then obliterate the memory of the victim seems a step further down in the basement of human activity. This is what happened to Holly Maddux, a pretty, popular thirty year old from Tyler,Texas. Although it soon became apparent who her killer was, it would be twenty four years before he was finally brought to justice, and made to pay penance for his crime.In that time his actions laughed in the faces of the forces of justice, and in doing so, mocked the memory of his victim.

Roger Fain is reaching that age when most Americans are thinking of retirement. He is sixty five in 2019, and should be looking forward to a life of leisurely commitments, perhaps time with the grand kids, or enjoying his interests and hobbies.But, instead, the future Fain can see consists of four concrete walls, unpleasant smells and the ever present threat of violence. It is very unlikely that he will set foot in the free world again; instead an old age inside the prison system beckons, which will surely hold him until, unmissed and forgotten, he passes on and his place is taken by the next felon in the unending cycle of US crime.It is hard not to spend time reflecting on how Roger Fain might feel as he approaches this milestone in his life. Does he regret his past misdemeanors, holding some form of guilt for what he has done? According to Dan Anderson, ex husband of one of the woman alleged, but not proven, to have been a victim of Fain's crimes, he does not.

Rory Conde didn't begin his serial killing career until later in life. He was an unusual killer in that he would dress his victims up to preserve their dignity. In one instance, Conde dressed his victim, loaded him into his car and drove him to an upmarket area off the Tamiami Trail in Florida. There, he threw the body out, leaving it to be found in the open close to the road. Something he would repeat five more times as his killing spree gathered pace. He made no attempt to hide the bodies, yet appeared to hold the sense of propriety to ensure his victims' decency.His next victim followed very shortly after. On October 8th, 1994 he picked up prostitute Elisa Martinez. When her body was also found, dressed and strangled, once more just off the Tamiami Trail, police began to wonder whether they had a copycat killer on their hands, or a serial killer. Within another six weeks they were further perplexed when the strangled body of the next prostitute was found in a similar place. This time, however, the killer had gone further.What possessed Rory Conde to commit these horrible crimes and how was he caught?

Toni Lee Sharpless stares out from the picture her mother holds. At the time it was taken, Toni was in her late twenties. She is dressed all in white, the uniform of a nurse topped off with a neat squared cap. Her smile is genuine, her teeth at least as bright as the uniform she wears. Her eyes, too, glow. By contrast, her mother looks strained. Also smartly attired, her short grey hair and glasses make Donna Knebel look business like. But the neatness of her appearance fails to hide the stresses and strains her face displays. This is not surprising. Her daughter has been missing for eleven years. 'You can't imagine it until you go through it. It's like a void, a big hole you're falling into and can never touch any sides or reach the bottom,' she said, referring to the unimaginably difficult decade she has just lived through.Toni was a young woman who had her fair share of troubles. They were not her own fault. But she had found the strength to make the courageous and impressive effort needed to put her life back on track. It seems, though, that everything went wrong once more when she decided to let her hair down after a long spell on the wagon. Then, something took place that led to her disappearance. As to what happened in the early hours of August 23rd, 2009 - well, nobody is completely sure. The possibility remains that they never will be.