It was late in the afternoon of Sunday, December 10, 2023, when 81-year-old Sharron Hilda Schwartz put a plate of hot pancakes on the table for her husband, Steven, inside their home on the northwest side of Washington DC.
He flipped out, according to US Attorney Matthew M. Graves, who says the 85-year-old man grabbed a knife and stabbed Sharron in the back only because he didn’t want to eat pancakes.
Then, as Sharron lay dying on the kitchen floor, Steven began stabbing himself. Metropolitan Police Department homicide detectives say they found Sharron critically wounded and Steven suffering self-inflicted wounds when they busted down the apartment’s front door.
Sharron died later at a local hospital, while Steven was treated, released, and booked on a charge of second-degree murder.
One of the Best, Now One of the Worst: A Shocking True Crime Story
Brittiny Lopez-Murray, a 33-year-old middle school teacher in South Florida, was once cited as one of the best teachers in her school district. Declared “rookie teacher of the year,” in fact.
Not anymore. Not after pleading guilty to six charges after being arrested for having sex with a former student. Brittiny was busted two years ago. She entered guilty pleas on December 13, 2023, to charges of lewd and lascivious battery, lewd and lascivious molestation of a child, and electronic transmission harmful to minors.
Although the boy in question was a student of hers at Hialeah Middle School, he was in high school and 17 years old when Brittiny was arrested two years ago.
His father called the police and got them involved in the case after the boy’s sister discovered “explicit text messages and photos” exchanged by the teenager and Brittiny.
So, what now?
Jail?
No.
Brittiny was sentenced to two years of community control and ten years of probation. She will have to register as a sex offender and take part in a program for sex offenders with mental disorders.
How Could They Not Know? A Shocking True Crime Story
Now, from the “No Sh*T Sherlock” department, we find a 308-page report from the British government that cites “failures of management, governance, regulation and processes, and a persistent lack of curiosity” allowed David Fuller to have sex with more than 100 corpses over fifteen years without anyone being the wiser.
In fact, his love for sex with the dead -- necrophilia -- wasn’t uncovered until police used DNA to tie him to the murders of two women. According to AP, police then found millions of images of sexual abuse in his home. The list includes videos of Fuller having sex with the dead bodies of women and girls inside mortuaries at two hospitals where he worked in southeast England.
The official report declares this is “truly shocking.”
Serial Killing Maniac Rots in Prison
Dennis Rader, the BTK serial killer, pleaded guilty to murdering ten people from 1974 to 1991. This is what he looked like during his 2005 trial.
And this is what he looks like in his 2023 prison mug shot.
“He’s lost like seven inches, and he’s in a wheelchair,” Kerri Rawson told NewsNation of her 78-year-old dad’s nearly 20 years in prison for killing 10 people.
History. We Make More of It Every Day.
My latest Shocking True Crime Story, “The Murder of Mary Falzone,” begins in October 1929, as the stock market is crashing and runs through the early 1930s. While researching this story, I came across an excellent example of how justice was done back then.
I call this snapshot of a Shocking True Crime Story:
You’ve Got A Choice, Kid
April 11, 1932
On page 49 of the Times Union newspaper in New York comes news from Chicago that Charles B. Keck, 19, is standing before a magistrate in open court after being arrested on a charge of “necking” with a girl in his automobile.
Magistrate John Ehardt looks down from the bench and gives the nervous young man a choice.
“You can either pay a $5 fine or marry the girl,” says Ehardt.
Charles doesn’t think twice.
He pulls a fiver from his wallet and walks out of court, a free man in more ways than one.
Since I have your attention...
