Please tell me they were found guilty and given the death penalty. I know it is horrible to kill one's parents but to try killing your sibling by beating the poor kid to death, she deserves to die.

Anyone catch the Salem, MA. episode last night? The killer was the worst kind of sociopath (like there's a good kind). He had to cover up evidence that he groped at a resistant woman aboard his sailboat, so he just shoved her overboard with a weight belt. And an anchor! And the lobsters ate her after she drowned! What a monster. The cops discreetly say "Oh, we don't think he meant to murder her", but I'm much less certain.

That IS horrible! As awful as the premiditated murders are, I think I might be slightly more horrified by the murders commited casually like that.

That story reminds me of another one that I think (hope) was also a City Confidential episode, about a man who had gone hiking with his wife, and she "slipped and fell" to her death. Police came, procedures were followed, and I think for a long time foul play was not even suspected. But, an investigator did some more checking on the guy, and found that he'd had a wife years before who had "commited suicide". She shot herself in the head from an impossible angle, and typed a suicide note with no signature. Pretty shoddy detective work on that one, because he walked away unscathed and remarried. He later admitted that when they were on that hike (they hiked all the time, so it was nothing unusual for them to be in a high, unprotected area), they had reached a good point to check out the view. He was standing behind her, and it suddenly occurred to him that he no longer had any use for her, and now would be a good time to get rid of her, so he just shoved her hard in the back, and down she went. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. :::shudder:::

He offered to tell his entire story to some professional-type person (author? psychiatrist? I don't remember) because he considered himself to be such a genius and a fascinating study of human behavior. While I think he needed to get over himself, I will agree that his story was thought provoking for me, with regards to how we unconsciously trust our spouses and significant others to not randomly kill us like that, but how easy it would be for them to do so. The thought of what must have been going through that poor woman's head when she felt her husband push her, and as she fell (it was far enough that she had a few seconds to compute what had just happened) breaks my heart.

Oh man that is truly terrifying, Green. What I don't understand about all of these husband/wife murders I see on these types of shows is, why not just get a freaking divorce?? Leave the country and never see them again, tell them to get lost, anything! Why must someone die for their life to be easier? Fucking cowards.

My husband won't watch any of the true crime shows with me any more because he says the majority are the husband killing the wife. I had never paid a lot of attention to it before, but he is right. A lot of the shows have that theme.
Sick and twisted, but true.

He is right but they rarely get away with it. That's what is so weird. They usually do it to be "free" and they end up spending the rest of their misrable life in jail. You just can't get away with murder. Well, maybe the first time but oh brother that second time will get ya.

It really amazes me how many stories there are of people getting away with murder once, and then getting caught the next time. I guess they start to feel untouchable, but you would think they would want to live their life as perfectly as possible after the first murder, so as not to draw attention to themselves.

Sorry to break it to you, gaPeach, but I'm pretty sure the girl has already been paroled, or at least came up for it if they didn't let her out. I remember reading in the paper that she all, 'turned her life around in jail'. Whatever. I'm with you that she should rot there for life. Her partner had a significantly longer (maybe even life) sentence, since I think he was the one who did the actual shooting.

Hee! That cracked me up for some reason.

Spousal murders are so stupid, not only because of the "that's so unnecessary" aspect, but because a husband/wife is always the prime suspect. I do feel sad for the kids in those instances, though -- mom (usually) dead, dad in jail. The kids who stubbornly, steadfastly refuse to believe in Dad's guilt make me the saddest, though.

That's too bad. Isn't funny how crimminals always find God in prison. Too bad they couldn't have found him when they really needed him.....when they were planning the murder.

That sort of thinking shows why you're TWoPer, Green and not a murderer being criticized by TwoPers. I think killing someone is sort of like bungee jumping -- there just has to be something in you that lets you calculatingly take a life/jump off a bridge. If you don't have it, you don't have it.

These people are very narcissistic and sociopaths. Rules do not apply to them. Plus they think that they are so much smarter than the police.




I hardly agree with this.

Last night's rerun was an interesting one - I had never seen it before. It was about Dr. Malmstrom in Bangor, Maine. He was shot 5 times in the face, neck and arms. His whole family had been out and about in varied directions; his wife was at some kind of (school?) concert that I think one or two of their kids also attended. She volunteered to stay after the concert and help clean up, promising to catch up with the kids at home later. When one of the daughters came home, she called her mother's cell phone to say that her dad's car was there, and it looked like he was home, but she couldn't find him anywhere in the house. Her mother said, "Well, if his car's there, he's got to be there somewhere, I'm sure everything is fine." but a few minutes later the daughter called back hysterical because she found his body in the garage.

He had been ratting out fellow physicians for doing things like writing prescriptions for drugs that they weren't qualified to prescribe, and selling prescriptions on the black market. He'd been speaking with a reporter about it, and had feared for his safety and the safety of his family if word got out that he was the guy getting all the shady docs in trouble. So, it was thought at first that the murder had something to do with all of that. Until the murder weapon was found on the lot of a funeral home, after the winter snows had melted away. The gun was registered to his wife's father, so the police started to consider her a suspect. Also, her daughter told them that she passed her mother on the road the night of the murder, heading towards the house, when she was supposedly at the concert. They soon found out that nobody actually saw the mother at the concert until afterward, so she'd had ample time to commit the murder. But, they couldn't come up with any motive, and she was found not guilty when they took her to trial. No one else was ever a suspect, so the case was closed unsolved.

Now that I think of it, there have been quite a few unsolved stories on City Confidential. I kind of like it better when I know what happened at the end, but this one was still pretty intriguing.

I caught CC last night and they did the story of the Amityville killing. They did not cover the "horror" story of the family that moved in and only lived in the house for 28 days before running out of the house screaming in terror from all the "spooky" goings on. It was about the actual murders that took place in the house. It was very interesting.

All I knew before watching this last night was some kid went nuts and killed his 4 siblings and his parents. From the movies that came out later it seemed as though he was a normal kid that was suddenly taken over and did this terrible thing. Oh not so fast.

Apparently this family had some major issues. First, the kid was actually in his early 20s living at home because he was such a loser. They interviewed people that actually knew him and went to school with him (before he dropped out) and they all said he was the local bully. I mean these people actually seemed like they were afraid of him back then. He lived on an allowance from his dad with a car and even his own boat. And he was a drug addict. Heroin was his drug of choice. He was involved in guns and drugs. Sounds like a nice guy.

The father was very abusive to all the children. Apparently at the drop of a hat or napkin (for those of you that saw this show will get that). He owned a car dealership that turned out to be a front for mob money and hiding bodies. So at first the son tried to say it was mob hit.

Later on during the trail it came out that it was possible his sister actually helped in the killings and then he shot her. His stories varied, she did all the killings and then he killed her, he only killed his parents and she killed the kids so he killed her etc etc.

Sure took the scariness out of the "The Amityville Horror" story. No wonder it was never really discussed in the book or movie.

Darn, I wish I would have seen this. I saw that this was on last night, but elected to get some food instead of watching it. Besides, I thought I knew everything there was to know about the Amitiville family. Most of my info came from an episode of "Histories Mysteries" on The History Channel. However, they didn't get that much dirt on the family. They hinted that there was definitely trouble in the family, but also hinted that perhaps the son was driven to kill by the ghosts of dead Native Americans. That's right, the house is on an old. Indian. Burial. Ground.

That's why I love City Confidential. No stone unturned, no bit of dirt not brought up. And Paul Winfield's voice has just the perfect touch of cattiness that's usually reserved for small town hair dressers. He should start every episode by saying, "Now, you didn't hear this from me, but..."

You folks are right - the real Amityville Horror is light years beyond anything anyone could imagine. The brutality of the crime is shocking, even to my true-crime hardened nerve endings.

Speaking of brutal, another massacre (there's no other word for it) that just stunned me was the one in the Barrington, VT episode. The ne'er do well husband of a prominent Barringtonian got caught defrauding a respected lawyer in an investment deal. When the lawyer rightly threatened to turn him in to the Securities Commission, the husband not only killed the lawyer, but kidnapped his wife and daughter and killed them as well. What's particularly unsettling is that he tried to pick the man's daughter up at day care, but his name had been removed from the lawyer's emergency contact list. The murderer left, faked a phone call pretending to be the lawyer, and then picked up the child. As one of the officers noted, "everyone seemed to be ok about it, except for the kid". And this particular sociopath was just a garden variety loser before - cushioned by his wife's money and prestige. But the threat of losing it all sparked his murderousness so quickly that it's quite terrifying to me. It's the kind of unexplained malice that makes you completely paranoid about the simplest of everyday exchanges.

I saw the last part of this episode. It sounded familiar when I realized I read a book or something about it. He chased someone into the garage and killed them with a crossbow. I thought it was the wife but it might have been the husband.

This guy was a total loser. As most murders are. He came up with all these crazy stories of what happened. Mob money etc. At one point while he was in the house with the dead bodies someone came by and he answered the door. I forget how he got them to go away.

I was excited that CC was new Saturday night, but then it turned out I was already very familiar with that story, so it didn't feel new to me. Interestingly, one of the people interviewed to talk about what a lovely town Barrington was to live in was a woman with the last name DeFeo. I thought that was also the last name of the family in the Amityville story - is that right? Or was that just the name they were given in the movie?

DeFeo was definitely the name of the Amityville family. Geez I remember that horrifying story just as if it happened last week.

Just wanted to say that I finally got around to watching the Gibsonton "Murder of Lobster Boy" episode last night after recording it last week, and hearing PW use carny terms like "blow off" in that catty voice. was. awesome.

I, too, am disappointed I missed the Amityville episode. I tried checking the A&E website to see if it would rerun, but it doesn't look like it will anytime soon. :(

One of the people interviewed on the Amityville CC is this guy here. I'm not ashamed (well, sort of not ashamed) to say I bought his book and it really answers a lot of questions.

I liked that, too! As a whole piece, it's a much better study of the town than E!'s special was, but the E! special gave more insight into Lobster Boy's family. I hate to say this, but I can't say when I've disliked a victimized family more. And believe me, with my history, I am usually on the side of the abused person who stands up to their tormentors.

But LB's family were both pathetic and quite loathsome - E!'s report noted that Mrs. Lobster Boy was still married to Midget Man when she returned to her beclawed ex. And Lobster Mom kept going on and on about "He's so terrible! I have no self-esteem! I couldn't leave!" While cold-bloodedly plotting his death and getting the most vulnerable of her children to take the rap (E!'s report mentions that the son that killed him had a borderline IQ and was very suggestible.) A simple phone call to Social Services or a battered spouses shelter could have got them out of that jam honestly and cleanly. But what it boiled down to is that they liked the paycheck and their carney life but were getting tired of him. Poor Midget Man - his son with Lobster Mom was the one that got the longest sentence. He was so loyal to that family, and all he got was grief. Evil, evil, evil.

I loved the Lobster Boy episode, it was so evil. All the planning and plotting really made me sick. It was just like a real life episode of Carnivale.

The site LGraves posted is definitely worth a look, y'all. I came across it accidentally a year or so ago, and wiled away what was to have been a boring afternoon at work with it. It's a bit graphic, just a warning. There was something messed up with the positioning of the daughter's body in her bed; that's why there was speculation (in addition to the son's story) that she was involved somehow.

What creeped me out the most was there seems to only be one picture of the kids (them on the couch with one of the youngest making faces). If that's a reflection of their family life, how sad.

The next family that only lived there for a month was totally out to just make a buck of the whole thing. And basically caused a living hell for the rest of the town with the publicity the book and movie raised. So yeah, the "haunting" sounds like it was total BS.

Here's something I thought I would share, I know a man who witnessed the Miami shooting that was shown on last night's episode. On top of that the guy actually worked for the man who was shot. Small world I guess.

It is with great sadness that I report Paul Winfield died over the weekend.

Obit

...

Aw, man....a wonderful actor and a wonderful voice silenced. City Confidential will never be the same. RIP Mr. Winfield.

Noooooooo! His voice was classic, what will they do now? Poor man, he rocked.

I can't imagine anybody doing CC like Paul Winfield. What a voice. James Earl Jones, of course, has that deep booming range, but I don't think he can match the wicked irony Winfield was always able to inject.

Bye, Paul. Thanks.

I sorta hope they can find someone else to narrate the show, because this show is just too great. Yet, Paul is hard to top; he had the greatest voice ever for a show like this -- almost better than Robert Stack's was, and he died last year.
Oh well, if they can't find a replacement, A&E better always show reruns.

BTW, did y'all know Paul was gay? According to IMDb.com, his partner of 30 years died in 2002; not that it matters to me of course, just that I didn't know he was gay.

Anyhoo, sad to see he has died. RIP Paul.

So sorry to hear this. Paul Winfield injected a certain note of schadenfraude into his voiceovers that took a little bit of the horror out of some of these very tragic stories. Like a sly neighbor sharing some juicy gossip.

RIP Paul.

A&E is going to have a tribute to Paul Winfield on Saturday's City Confidential.

I've been watching this show for some time now and always wondered who did the voiceovers. His voice was so perfect for this show. I just happened to notice his name on the credits last Friday while watching the Amityville story and then I saw that he passed away this weekend.

They will probably get someone else to narrate but no one is going to come close to Paul Winfield.

Winfield made this show, IMO. His snarky narration was always pitch perfect. If A&E continues the series, they have their work cut out for them as far as finding a new narrator goes.

If anyone replaces him (not that anyone ever could really!), they should get Bill Kurtis. He rules too and I watch anything that guy narrates. Can't wait for the tribute on Saturday, thank you for letting us all know.

Cool beans, my Mom was asking if they were gonna mention something about his death. She turned me onto this show last year and I've been watching ever since.

Awww. Rest ye, Paul Winfield. I was just about to mention how awesome a voiceover guy he was, and now he's gone from us. Please, A&E, find a suitable new narrator because I love me some city Confidential.

Does anyone know when the Stringbean episode will be rerun? It's not even listed on the A&E website in their episode guide.

I had never even heard of Stringbean until I saw CMT's Most Shocking Moments in Country Music and one of the selections was the murder of Stringbean and his wife. Holy cow, it freaked me out (yet strangely, I want to see the full story).

I actually have a family connection to the Capanos of Delaware (through in-laws). Before that even, my mother was a junkie for the Ann-Marie Fahey case so when we met the brother (not Tom or the accomplice brother, but the third one) I thought she would burst she was dying so much to mention it (she didn't).

The Stringbean episode was on like a couple of weeks ago, I didn't see on the TV listings and TiVo doesn't say it airs in the next week or two. It was disturbing the way he and his wife were killed like that. Especially his wife, hunted down and killed mercilessly, how terrifying. It did make me grin when all that money was found in Stringbean's overalls and the criminals had totally missed it.

What frustrated me even more was the guy who owned the house after the murder found all that money from the chimney and it was worthless from sitting up there all that time and rotting. There's just something about losing out on riches-that-would've-been really bothers me!

"City Confidential" Update: Actor Keith David is the show's new narrator.(He replaces the late great Paul Winfield.) A new episode of "City Confidential" airs June 19, and it will be about the case in Milford, Utah about a house squatter who shot and killed a policeman. The June 4 issue of Entertainment Weekly gives the episode a "B" grade and says that Keith David is a good choice to replace Paul Winfield.

Wow. Thanks for the info! I'm not familiar with the actor even after reading his bio, though it does seem he is hired often for his voice work. I hope he does it justice!

Thank you, Rydell! I was afraid we'd seen the end of City Confidential.

It seems like all these shows - City Confidential, Cold Case, Forensic Files, etc. - have all been reruns for the past 6 months. Or maybe it's just because I know all the cases by heart. (Unfortunately.)

No, they have been on reruns for the last 9 months! Man, just film some new Forensic Files already!

Keith David is a perfect choice. Believe me, katymo, you know this guy. He is the classic definition of "Hey, It's That Guy!" He was Mary's stepfather in Something About Mary, if that helps.

No comments on the new narrator? I thought he did a good job, after I got used to having a different voice narrating. Mr. Fraoch (who doesn't watch the show nearly as often) couldn't even tell a difference.

Also, the case being discussed? I'm totally on the "he did it" side, but I could see where others would disagree. Did they ever explain WHY the wife was so emphatically against visiting doctors?

The new guy sounds a lot like Paul Winfield! He just doesn't have as much snark in his voice, but I think with time he could. At times he talked a little fast, but I think its because I'm used to Paul's laid back narration. Overall I give him credit for a good job. Heh, he's totally a hey its that guy! I still am not all that familiar with him consciously, but I'm sure I know him.

I agree about the case, that was a tricky one, but I think the guy did it. I was curious about the dr. thing too but I didn't catch it if they said anything. Very bizarre.

I agree. Keith David has a great voice and a personality to match. Nobody can be Paul Winfield, but KD can come close. And I'm glad it doesn't mean the end of the show. The last one I saw was about the record promoter Charlie Minor. Crazy shit.

I find myself unable to believe what some of the people featured in this show have done. I did not see the episode but I heard one woman had a guy killed
because he broke her daughters heart. What an over reaction. Most people aren't
lucky enough to never get their heartbroken, some people are, but not most
people. Even if most people didn't get their heartbroken is that any excuse to kill a
person. I never saw the show so maybe he was a real sleazebag but even then I
don't see that justifying her actions.

The situation where the Mother put a hit on the mother of her daughters
cheerleading rival blew me away. Her daughter didn't seem to be that disappointed
about not getting an important position on the squad. I don't know what makes
these people think they won't get caught.

I was really appauled by how the killer of of the gay man got off so lightly. Who's
bright idea was it to assign a devout Mormon with a history of interpreting the law
as he sees fit to that case. Six ears for hunting down a guy and shooting him in the head? Are people allow to appeal sentences like that. Is there not laws that
prevent judges from bringing their own personal prejudices to a case?

Paul Winfeild died? What a shame. I am glad that Keith David seems to be doing a
good job. I will still miss Paul's voice.

I was pretty floored by the judges decision on the court case of the gay man who was fatally shot in Utah. To me, the crime seemed premediatated and it's obvious that it was cold blooded. I know the crime wasn't premediatated a long time in advance. However, I believe the two men left the apartment with the plan to track the other guy down and kill him. Isn't that premediation? Can somebody explain this to me?

I don't think premeditated means you had to have planned something a long time
in advance. I think when you are tracking down someone with the intention to kill
them it is premeditated. I am pretty sure that has been established in case law if
not the official written law.

It was obviously not manslaughter. It wasn't even second degree murder. In my
opinion it was first degree.

That was my only complaint as well! I still thought he did a great job, but on Sunday when I laid down on the couch to watch it and nap, his voice just didn't soothe me into sleep as well as Paul's did. Oh well, maybe now I won't have to watch an episode three times to catch the whole thing!