Triangle True Crime Stories

by Cathy Pickens

Overview

North Carolina's Triangle region is known for universities, research facilities and politics, but even in such a prosperous, diverse, modern environment, crime helps define the edges. These cases cover several decades of murder, fraud and betrayal. Read about the nation's largest prison escape and a couple of North Carolina's poisoners. From a civil rights-era clash of Old South and New and a suspected Cold War spy to new-tech sleuths and tales of diligent as well as discredited investigators, these stories will keep you entertained and aghast at the dark side of daily life. Crime writer Cathy Pickens explores a collection of headline-grabbing tales that shows the sinister side of the Triangle's cities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467147453
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	06/28/2021
Series:	True Crime
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	1,000,151
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Cathy Pickens, a lawyer and college professor, is a crime fiction writer and true crime columnist for Mystery Readers Journal. She taught law in the McColl School of Business and served as provost at Queens and as national president of Sisters in Crime and on the boards of Mystery Writers of America and the Mecklenburg Forensic Medicine Program (an evidence collection/preservation training collaborative). Her other books from The History Press include Charlotte True Crime Stories, True Crime Stories of Eastern North Carolina and Charleston Mysteries.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Introduction 11

Why are we fascinated by crime? How does crime reflect its time and place? What are the Triangle's iconic cases and why are they important? 11

1 Unsolved 15

Decades apart, the Valentine's Day Mann/McBane and Faith Hedgepeth cases remain unsolved mysteries with unanswered questions.

2 New Forensics 34

Without diligent police work, new technologies and social media citizen-sleuths, the cases of the boy under the billboard, a missing Nash County woman and a murdered newcomer might still be unsolved.

3 Bad Science 47

A discredited expert witness with the State Bureau of Investigation's crime lab shows the seamy side of science and opens questions about several cases, including the Durham case made famous by the television documentary The Staircase.

4 The Poisoners 63

Does North Carolina have more poisoners than other states? Ann. Miller's case prompted a critical court decision, and a Sanford case presented a rarity-a male poisoner.

5 Free and Famous 81

A landmark civil rights-era murder case, a Cold War spy in Chapel Hill and a daring prison break all put North Carolina in the national headlines.

6 Campus Crimes 102

In a region full of unwersities, crimes inevitably involve campuses: two men wrongly convicted of murdering North Carolina State and St. Augustine's students and students mixing Dungeons & Dragons fantasy with real murder.

7 Too Close to Home 119

A rash of puzzling domestic murder trials captured national attention: a political strategist and her husband attacked at home, a bomb exploded at a Raleigh tech company and a Durham cellist disappeared.

8 Side Trips, Crime Bits and Oddities 136

A few Triangle oddities, not all of them crimes: a con man on a ledge, a lady who did battle with UNC-Chapel Hill, the house from the movie Halloween and others.

References 147

About the Author 160