Rod Kackley's Blog: St. Isidore Collection

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 It's a wonderfully chilly, rainy morning here; the perfect weather for writing and reading as far as I am concerned.

So, what am I writing today?

As the title of this blog post would indicate, it's a book about a woman named "Cheerful Eva Dugan" and the "Last of the Cowboy Sheriffs," an Arizona lawman, Jim McDonald.

(Cheerful Eva's mugshot)

It's four o'clock in the morning, February 21, 1930. 

There is not enough coffee to break through the bleary brains of a dozen reporters who are awake long before they want to be.

But the adrenaline flowing through these scribes should be enough to make up the difference.

All twelve are being led at this ungodly hour to the cell of convicted murderess Eva Dugan to begin the process of witnessing the ungodly task of the woman's execution.

She's lived in a cell on Death Row, inside Arizona's state prison in Florence, for several years. But, Eva was such a happy soul that prison guards and fellow inmates dubbed her "Cheerful Eva."

Cheerful Eva was also a killer, or at least so said a jury of her peers.

Eva had led a rough life. Born in 1878, it had been a long time since she worked as a trained nurse. It had also been a while since Eva held a steady job, drifting from one town to another. 

Eventually, she wound up near Tucson, Arizona, and went to work for a rancher, Andrew (A.J.) Mathis, as his nurse and housekeeper.

However, both A.J., sometimes known as "Old Man Mathis," and forty-year-old Eva vanished in early 1927.

Before she left, though, Eva told A.J.'s friends and family that the old guy had taken it into his head to sell everything and travel to California. 

That didn't sit well with A.J. friends and family, nor did it pass the muster of Sheriff Jim McDonald. 

On horseback, the sheriff rode over to the old man's place. Inside the empty house, McDonald didn't find anything suspicious. Not a single sign of violence. But if there was anything out of the ordinary, it was that the house was so damn clean. 

"Seemed funny he'd light out to Californian without telling anybody," said McDonald. But then again, McDonald knew old men can do queer things.

Maybe A.J. did take off.

Suppose A.J. had indeed decided to move to California on a moment's notice. Why wouldn't he leave his forty-year-old nurse behind to clean up and then close up the property?

After she was finished, the nurse, Eva, would naturally take off, too. What else was she to do? There was nothing left here for Eva.

But that was all conjecture. Sheriff McDonald needed to find out if his theory was indeed fact.

Since he was nothing if not a conscientious and persistent cowboy sheriff, McDonald went to work.

After talking to A.J.'s friends and family, the first thing McDonald did was ride into Tucson. He wanted to sit down for a discussion with A.J.'s banker. Made sense to the sheriff that if Mathis was heading for greener pastures, he'd like to make some cash along for the ride.

It didn't take Sheriff McDonald long to learn that something was wrong. A.J. hadn't withdrawn a dime recently, nor had he cashed any checks.

Wait a minute, McDonald thought. A.J. needed money in his pocket to travel.

What did A.J. do? Head off somewhere that he wouldn't have to worry about any expenses? 

"Only two places I know where you can do that," said McDonald, "jail and the cold ground."

Now McDonald went after Eva. He knew she had to be complicit in the disappearance of A.J. But where was she?

This wasn't going to be easy. 

Eva had a three-day head start on the sheriff and hadn't left a single clue behind. McDonald had no idea which direction to turn.

Or did he?

(Sheriff McDonald and Eva Dugan)

Obviously that is just a taste of what's to come. Hope you'll enjoy. 

Until the next time, thanks for reading. 

Rod

Sometimes I just get tired of clouding the issue with facts. 

I will never quit writing Shocking True Crime Stories, of course. But in April, I decided it was time for some crazy, reckless, creativity.

So I set a course to revisit the most dysfunctional community on the planet, St. Isidore, otherwise known as Swingin' Izzy.

The result -- my newest book -- Never Again: An Internet Killer Thriller....

 Joy, a reporter dreaming of a big-city newspaper career and her protégée, Amanda, set off on an impassioned crusade to stop an internet serial killer before he strikes again. 

One of the online sex-world’s favorite cam girls, Emily Underwood, is missing. Her biggest fans are crushed. They reach out to the police, but the cops don’t care. Just another hooker who picked up the wrong John as far as they are concerned.

So Emily’s fans turn to the St. Isidore Chronicle for help.

Teenage girls and young women have been vanishing from the streets of St. Isidore for years only to wind up dead in the city park’s forest. 

Suicides or murders? 

The local cops don’t have a clue, so Joy and Amanda push their way into the biggest murder investigation of their lives.

They decide to bust this story wide open, save Emily, and at the same time, launch fabulous careers for themselves.

At least that’s Joy’s plan.

One other woman decides it’s time to turn the gun on this killer. She’s tired of being hunted. She wants to be the hunter. And she wants to make him dead.

Shocking twists, turns, and page-turning suspense from beginning to end won’t let you stop reading this book, as you join the race to catch an internet killer before another woman dies. 

Never Again: An Internet Killer Thriller available for those who prefer Kindle, paperback and hard cover books.

Tap here to start reading now...

And as always...thanks for reading!  

Rod

 

This is without a doubt the most exciting Shocking True Crime Story I have ever written. And, that is not because I did a great job. It's because this is the most extraordinary story you've ever read. -- Rod

November 2, 1945: On her way to a high school football game with friends, a fourteen-year-old girl vanishes after driving away with a man who says he needs a babysitter.

The FBI unleashes its top kidnapping expert, an agent who helped bring John Dillinger down. Will that be enough to find the girl and her abductor?

Agents chase the suspected kidnapper from California to Illinois and back again.

Arrested in Los Angeles, he admits abducting the child. He also tells the FBI he killed the girl and threw her body into the Pacific Ocean. A search for her corpse proves fruitless.

Then, when all hope is lost, authorities discover the skeleton of another young woman who's fallen victim to this madman.

Ready for another twist? The wife of the man who made that discovery is found dead at the bottom of the cliff.

During the accused killer's trial, women around the country fall in love with the handsome monster and literally break down the doors of a courthouse to get close to him.

Wild enough for you? Wait. After the child's killer is convicted and sentenced to the gas chamber, a scientist shows up and says he can bring the murderer back from the dead.

The Murder of Thora Chamberlain: A Shocking True Crime Story: This is the wildest, most shocking, true crime story you've ever read.

Read more here...

Click here to hear a podcast interview I did with Dan Zupanksy on True Crime: Most Shocking Killers, about the book.

Dead or alive? You hate to say that about a little girl, but if it is the latter, where is she? 

If it's the former that's the truth; who did it, how, and why?

We may never know the answers to any of those questions. The Sun reports that Operation Grange, an investigation funded by British taxpayers, will be closed. 

Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) is a British child who disappeared on the evening of 3 May 2007.

She vanished from her bed in a holiday apartment at a resort in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The Daily Telegraph described the disappearance as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history."

Four years after the official probe began, London’s Metropolitan Police decided that the investigation would end when the money ran dry in the fall of 2022.

“The end of the road for Operation Grange is now in sight,” a source tells the Sun. “The team’s work is expected to be completed by autumn.”

Madeleine vanished eleven years ago. She was only three years old when she disappeared from her family’s holiday rental in Portugal. The case attracted an enormous amount of worldwide interest.

But no one has ever been charged with a crime connected to Madeleine’s disappearance.

Christian Brueckner, a convicted pedophile, and rapist, has been mentioned as a person of interest in the case. Still, no charges have ever been filed against him.

Brueckner is in a Portugal prison right now, serving time for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman. 

Now, Brueckner reportedly told a friend that he was involved in the case. But police could never find enough evidence to file charges against him.

So, Brueckner calls allegations that he had anything to do with Madeleine “an unbelievable scandal.”

The German national said, in June 2021, that he was being persecuted.

“Charging someone with a crime is one thing. It is something completely different, namely an unbelievable scandal, when a public prosecutor starts a public prejudicial campaign before proceedings are even opened,” he said.

And then, there is this: The Sun reports a former Metropolitan Police inspector thinks Madeleine may be still alive!

Scotland Yard, the Sun reported, was still conducting the investigation as a “missing person” case until unearthing firm evidence of the little girl’s death.

The source that told the Sun of the end of the investigation also said the case would be reopened if new evidence came to light.

Back in December 2021, a McCann family spokesperson told the Sun, “It may be, sadly, that we may never know what happened to Madeleine. But we hope to find out. We keep hoping after all these years.”

November 2, 1945: On her way to a high school football game with friends, a fourteen-year-old girl vanishes after driving away with a man who says he needs a babysitter.

The FBI unleashes its top kidnapping expert, an agent who helped bring John Dillinger down. Will that be enough to find the girl and her abductor?

Read more...

 

August 1, 2018

After spending the day working on a rental property he owned, along with two high school students, Thomas Shock, a retired podiatrist, relaxed on his home's back deck. His wife, Nancy, was with him but decided to go upstairs to bed.

She turned on a fan and fell asleep after listening to one of her favorite podcasts.

While Nancy slept, three men approached Thomas. He ran for his life from the backyard to his home's front door. Before he could get inside, shots rang out.

Two bullets hit his upper right arm. Another struck Thomas in his upper right chest, and one of the gunshots went through his hand. 

Lodi, California, police officers called by a neighbor who heard the gunfire found Thomas lying at his home's front doorway. He was pronounced dead at the scene. 

There were no witnesses. Nancy hadn't heard a thing, and the neighbor who called 911 could only say he'd seen a light-colored station wagon, without its headlights on, driving away from the Shock home.

Detectives immediately searched the house, the property, and the neighborhood for evidence. Still, they didn't find anything that would lead them to the person who'd snuffed out Thomas Shock's life.

Except for one thing: officers discovered a single page of a California Medical Board document lying in the doorway next to Shock's body. Police believed the note had something to do with the murder.

They were correct.

The document concerned the case of a patient identified only as "B.L." 

A forensic search of computer records led police to a guy named Robert Elmo Lee, whose wife, Bonnie Lee, passed away a few years before, in 2016.

Robert's wife, Bonnie, had been one of Dr. Shock's patients. He treated her for an ingrown toenail, something went wrong, and she wound up having half of her foot amputated.

She died in 2016 from an infection, and Robert blamed Shock for her death.

March 24, 2022

Robert Elmo Lee, 83, was found guilty today of first-degree murder with special circumstances for financial gain in the shooting death of Dr. Thomas Shock.

Prosecutors made the case that Lee orchestrated Shock's murder, hiring three other men to help him do away with the podiatrist that Robert blamed for Bonnie's death.

With the jury's verdict, the case was wrapped up. 

Co-defendant Mallory Stewart pled guilty to murder in the first degree with a weapons enhancement for his role as the shooter. 

Christopher Costello was found guilty of participating in the murder-for-hire scheme. Another co-defendant Raymond Jacquett IV, 29, was sentenced in December 2019 for the crime.

Lee and Mallory Stewart return to court before the Honorable Judge Lauren P. Thomasson for sentencing on May 16, 2022. 

---

Here's my latest shocking true crime book, The Murder of Thora Chamberlain. I think it's the most fascinating true crime story you'll ever read. -- Rod

Click here, read now...

     

"With no warning or reason, a complete stranger shot our Abbie and seven other people at random. When her father and I arrived at Abbie's side in the hospital, blood was pouring from our 14-year-old daughter's head, and the doctors told us to say our goodbyes. Moments later, Abbie flat-lined. Doctors worked frantically to save her, but ultimately, nothing could be done. They announced the time and left us with our baby."

"I laid my head on my daughter's chest, and I thought I heard a heartbeat. I asked the nurse to check her, and that's when they felt a pulse. She was back. Now the question was, is her mind still working?"

—-Vicki Kopf (Abbie's mother) 

For those who survived his homicidal rampage through downtown Kalamazoo, what came next was as distressing as the night of mass murder. It was just a lot less bloody.

Jason Dalton drove through downtown Kalamazoo killing people, seemingly at random.
But this was not a night of indiscriminate, aimless slaughter. 
There was a method to the madness of Jason ’s mass murder spree. 
An app on Jason's iPhone that glows like the devil told him who would live and who would die.

It was a terrifying night in February 2016 as the people of Kalamazoo, Mich. stayed glued to their TVs and radios while gunshots were cracking and bodies were falling throughout the city. Mothers, fathers, husbands, and wives frantically texted their loved ones to make sure they were not among the dead.
Each time Jason was pulling the trigger. But, each time the devil in his smartphone was telling him who should live and who should die.

This is the story of the people Jason Dalton killed, those who survived, those who sacrificed themselves to save others, and how Jason was able to stay one step ahead of the police officers frantically trying to bring this blood-soaked night to an end. 

The Devil Made Him Do It is a gripping true crime story of one man’s mass murder spree and his confession. It’s also an incredible story of the innocent lives taken, those who lost those loved ones, and those who survived this horrendous night despite having their lives ripped apart by the bullets from Jason's gun.

You won’t be able to stop reading this book until you get to the dramatic ending. It’s a true-crime story you’ll never forget.

Click here and start reading now...

 

A fourteen-year-old girl vanishes after getting into a car with a man who says he needs a babysitter for his sister's kids. 

The FBI unleashes its top kidnapping expert, an agent who helped bring John Dillinger down. Will that be enough to find the girl and her abductor?

Agents chase the suspected kidnapper from California to Illinois and back again. 

When all hope is lost, authorities discover the skeleton of another young woman who's fallen victim to this madman.

Then, the wife of the man who discovers that skeleton, winds up dead.

This is the wildest, most shocking, true crime story you've ever read.

The Murder of Thora Chamberlain: A Shocking True Crime Story, coming soon in ebook, paperback and hardcover from true-crime author, Rod Kackley.

 

The man who led the Columbo crime family after the 1971 assassination of  Joe Columbo was also working for the FBI.
The New York Daily News reports documents released by attorney David Schoen show “The Snake”  was considered by the FBI to be one of their “Top Echelon Informants.
“I think it changes the entire dynamic of how this so-called Colombo war has been sold,” said Schoen.

But the attorney who stood by Carmine Persico’s side for decades calls BS on Schoen’s story.

“There is no truth to this allegation and the supporting record is substantively worthless. Having served as Carmine’s lawyer, I can attest that he was not an informant nor did he provide information to the Government. Until this day, Carmine remains a giant among men, and I was honored to represent him in the many contentious legal battles he fought against the Government,” attorney Anthony DiPietro told the Daily News.

However, as the Daily News points out, if Carmine was a turncoat, his cooperation didn’t keep him out of prison. 

In fact, while serving a 139-year sentence, Carmine died in a prison hospital in 2019 at the age of 85.

But, what about this? Could Carmine have used his “rat” status to save his son, Michael?

Perhaps. Schoen says Persico’s son got a sentence of only three years in prison despite Michael’s conviction on a loansharking charge, which carries a five-year maximum sentence.

Convicted Killer Worse Than An Animal? A Shocking True Crime Story

Connie Bennet, the mother of a man beaten to death with a claw hammer in 1984, looked her son’s convicted killer in the eye on August 24, 2021, and told him he was worse than an animal.

After sentencing that day, Alex Christopher Ewing, is serving three consecutive life sentences for murdering Connie’s son, Bruce, along with her daughter-in-law Debra, and grandchild Melissa.

The gruesome murder and rape, Alex sexually assaulted Melissa before she died, occurred in 1984.

There was only one survivor, Connie’s other granddaughter, Vanessa, who was also brutally beaten.

Vanessa spoke in court before Alex was locked up for the rest of his life.

She talked about battling problems like depression, anxiety, anger and heroin addiction because of the critical head injuries she suffered.

“I’m sober now, but I still can’t talk about things – many things – with my family or anybody for that matter,” Vanessa said. “But all everyone else sees is my anger and my anti-social behavior. 

“I didn’t just lose my parents and my sister. I lost my trust in people and my dignity and pride. I lost the person I was supposed to be.”

As for Connie, she told the court that to call Alex an animal would be an insult to all four-legged creatures.

“Some people may call him an animal, but I won’t because I think animals have a purpose in this world. 

“I feel he has shown no remorse for what he has done. I will not say that he has destroyed our family lives.
However, Connie also said her family has, and will, survive.

“We are a strong family, and we’re leading productive lives. However what he has done has left us with extreme sorrow and a feeling of loss, and a wound that will never heal.”


 Denver Animal Rights Activist Admits Trying To Have Husband’s Mistress Killed

Jennifer Emmi begged and pleaded to no avail in a Colorado courtroom on August 23, 2021. Jennifer, who admits trying to hire a hit man to murder her husband’s girlfriend, says she was out of her mind for most of a two-year period, when she also pulled a knife on her husband.

Jennifer will spend the next nine years in a prison cell, barring early release, for stalking, retaliation against a witness or victim, felony menacing and assault. 

After being arrested in January, Jennifer told a reporter that it was all a set up.

I have been repeatedly set up. All I can say is I want the truth to come out. The whole thing is crazy. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

But, Monday, Jennifer admitted she wanted a man who works at her ranch to “take care” of her husband’s girlfriend. 

But again, Jennifer said it wasn’t really her fault. For the past two years, Jennifer said she had battled severe mental health issues. And, medication prescribed for her autoimmune disease drove her crazy.

“I never wanted to kill anyone, I’m not capable of such a thing,” Jennifer told the judge in tears. “I did horrible things that were completely out of character, and I’m so embarrassed about them.”

The Iowa Murders: A Shocking True Crime Story

Someone you know or even love is the person who will kill you. Usually, that’s true.

But that is not what happened in 2018 to two college students in Iowa.

Two young women who had everything to live for, killed by two men with nothing to lose. 

Completely random attacks. Neither case had anything else in common except they both shocked the nation and even the world.

What’s worse, being murdered by a loved one or a stranger who jumps out of the bushes when you are most vulnerable?

Previously published as We’ll Find You and Let’s Do Murder, The Iowa Murders tells the shocking true crime stories of the senseless deaths of Mollie Tibbetts and Celia Barquin Arozamena.

When Mollie Tibbetts disappeared on July 18, 2018, her mother, Laura Calderwood, promised she would never quit searching.

For five weeks in the summer of 2018, she searched, and the whole world watched Brooklyn, Iowa because this was more than a murder story — it also became one of the top political stories of 2018.

Then, just after her killer led police to Mollie’s body, hidden in a cornfield, news of another shocking, senseless homicide came from Iowa.

Celia Barquin Arozamena was ready to begin the next phase of her life, including a professional career and marriage.

Collin Richards only wanted a woman to rape and murder.

Celia had everything to live for, and Collin had nothing to lose.

They would come together one day in September 2018.

Only one would survive.

The Iowa Murders is the shocking true crime story of two communities and two families coming to grips with the worst crime imaginable, knowing that even if the killer’s put behind bars today, another could be waiting tomorrow.

The Iowa Murders: A Shocking True Crime Story is a heartbreaking, gripping, page-turning thriller that you won’t want to miss.

Read More...

 

Love. Marriage. Cocaine. Murder.
The MacCormack’s marriage looks ideal from the sidewalk outside their home. But inside it’s living hell of drugs, deceit, and disappointment for Vanessa MacCormack. Soon it will be a house of death.

With her husband, Andrew, snorting $500 a week worth of coke up his nose and pawning Vanessa’s wedding ring to pay for his blow, she wants out. No more marriage. Vanessa wants to take their child and leave.

Suddenly, Vanessa is dead, the victim of a horrible, bloody, violent murder. Andrew collapses in tears on the front lawn of his home that’s now a crime scene.

Andrew tells Vanessa’s mother he can’t believe someone could do this to beautiful Vanessa. But his mother-in-law, Karen, is sure that she knows who murdered her daughter.

"No one in this world ever loved Andrew the way Vanessa did, and he repaid that love by killing her,” says Karen Masucci.

But Andrew says she, and everyone else, are wrong. “The explanation is a simple one: I did not murder her. I have never raised a finger to Vanessa, and I sure as hell didn't kill her.”

So who did it? Who’s responsible for the murder of Vanessa MacCormack?

Don't miss your chance to get totally wrapped up in this true-crime thriller, an amazing tale of domestic violence, family murder, and gut-busting true crime.

The Murder of Vanessa MacCormack: A Shocking True Crime Story is a page-turning, heartbreaking tale of love, marriage, and murder, that you’ll never forget.

The Murder of Vanessa MacCormack is available wherever you buy books, including Amazon/Kindle.