The shocking, true story of Pennsylvania mass murderer Michael Ballard who received the death sentence for his crimes—includes eight pages of dramatic photos.Out of controlJune 26, 2010. A Pennsylvania State Trooper, heading home from work, witnesses a car speeding and crashing into trees. Stopping to help, he finds that the driver, Michael Ballard, is alive—and drenched in blood. When asked what happened, the man answers: "I just killed everybody."

The true story of Mary Jane Fonder, the oldest woman ever convicted of murder in Bucks County, PA—and how an infatuation with her pastor led her there.On the outside, Mary Jane Fonder seemed like a kindly sixty-six-year-old congregant of the Lutheran church in Springfield Township, PA. But inside, she longed for the church's handsome Pastor Gregory Shreaves, a former golf pro who sparked her most sinful thoughts.When Mary Jane let her feelings be known, the...

June 26, 2010. A Pennsylvania state trooper witnesses a car speeding and crashing into trees. Stopping to help, he finds that the driver, Michael Ballard, is alive—and drenched in blood. When asked what happened, the man answers, "I just killed everybody."Not far from the accident, police make a gruesome discovery. In the home of Michael's ex-girlfriend, Denise Mehri, they find four bodies that had been stabbed repeatedly with a knife: Denise, on the kitchen floor; her grandfather,...

On the outside, Mary Jane Fonder seemed like a kindly sixty-six-year-old congregant of the Lutheran church in Springfield Township, PA. But inside, she longed for the church's handsome Pastor Gregory Shreaves, a former golf pro who sparked her most sinful thoughts.When Mary Jane let her feelings be known, the Pastor gently pushed her away. But her obsession only grew stronger when she became convinced that he was romantically involved with a younger church member, a woman named Rho...

A true crime account of a brutal 1983 Texas murder and the ten-year hunt for the killer and the woman who placed a price on the victim's head."One of the most remarkable true crime books I've ever read." —Ann RuleOn a fall afternoon in 1983, in an upscale Dallas suburb, Rozanne Gailiunas was found stripped, bound to her bed, and shot through the skull. Her four-year-old son was napping peacefully in the next room when she was killed. Rozann...

A true crime account of a brutal 1983 Texas murder and the ten-year hunt for the killer and the woman who placed a price on the victim's head."One of the most remarkable true crime books I've ever read." —Ann RuleOn a fall afternoon in 1983, in an upscale Dallas suburb, Rozanne Gailiunas was found stripped, bound to her bed, and shot through the skull. Her four-year-old son has been napping peacefully in the next room when she was killed. R...

Their friendship would kill her…Weaver and fiber artist Edith “Pen” Meyer knew her friend Sandy Merritt’s relationship with a married man was wrong. She had even urged Sandy to take out a restraining order against Kenneth Carpenter. Which was why her call to Sandy on February 23, 2005, seemed to come from out of the blue. During it, she told Sandy to drop the restraining order and get back together with Ken.Pen was never seen again.One man stood to ...

He Called It A Tragic Accident.On a May evening in 1998, the idyllic marriage of wealthy Lake Tahoe couple Peter and Rinette Bergna ended in a crush of metal as their truck plunged 800 feet down a Sierra-Nevada mountainside. Peter was thrown from the vehicle and lived. Rinette, strapped in her seat, died on impact. In time, the grieving widower would meet a new woman, and put the tragic past behind him. Two-and-a-half years later, his life took another fateful turn....

When a hideous murder makes the headlines, a barrage of questions usually appears in its wake: Why did this happen? Could it have been prevented? What kind of family was the criminal from? Are his parents in some way to blame? Any crime writer worth his salt would attempt to answer these questions—but how do you address such questions when the killer is your own son?As a single father raising two sons, Carlton Stowers did his best to instill in his boys a healthy sense of right and...

On April 10, 2001, Sandra Baker, a recently separated, forty-five-year-old mother of two, went for a facelift-and a new lease on life. But the nurse anesthetist was a woman from her past. And Sandra's future was in jeopardy...Decades before, in a world of high school cliques and competition, Sally Jordan Hill had a crush on a guy whose attentions turned toward Sandra. Little did Sandra know how jealous Sally might have been...Once Nurse Sally had Sandra in her care, she adm...

A seemingly perfect world held an even more unlikely killer...Julie Keown had a great job, financial security, and a perfect husband who was attending Harvard Business School. But after Julie suddenly died, and doctors discovered she’d been poisoned with the main ingredient in antifreeze, her parents began to suspect that her husband, James, was not so perfect. This blow-by-blow account shows how investigators and state police unraveled James Keown’s chilling web o...

As an exotic dancer at The Great Alaskan Bush Company in Anchorage, Mechele Hughes Linehan knew how to captivate men. Three of them were convinced she was engaged to them. Then one spring morning in 1996, one man, Kent Leppink, was found in the snow, shot in the head…Days before his death, Kent had removed Mechele's name from his million-dollar life insurance policy. He wrote a letter to his family stating that, should he meet foul play, Mechele would likely be among those involved...