The life and tragic death of a young socialite in the 1930s inspires an Academy Award winning movie. But, Starr Faithfull's life was far from the glamorous treatment it would receive on the big screen.
Sources:
Ripped from the Headlines: The Shocking True Stories Behind the Movie's Most Memorable Crimes by Harold Schechter (Little A, 2020)
The Passing of Starr Faithfull by Jonathan Goodman (Piatkus, 1990).
Open Files: A Narrative Encyclopedia of the World's Greatest Unsolved Crimes by Jay Robert Nash (Rowman & Littlefield, 1983).
BUtterfield 8, (1960), directed by Daniel Mann for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Eddie Fisher, Laurence Harvey
Links:
As a bonus for this month's theme "Stranger Than Fiction" I interview author Harold Schechter about his new book, Ripped from the Headlines: The Shocking True Stories Behind the Movies' Most Memorable Crimes, an anthology of forty true crime cases that inspired films.
Links:
Purchase "Ripped from the Headlines" here.
Two women accused of murder in the Roaring 20s would become the inspiration for one of the best known and longest running shows in American musical theater history. This is the story of the real life Roxie and Velma from "Chicago".
Resources:
"1924 - Beulah Annan & Belva Gaertner". Newspaper articles compiled and posted on Chicagology.com.
Ripped from the Headlines by Harold Schechter, Published by Little A, New York, 2020.
"Musical Theater and Law: Chicago, The Musical" by Geraldine Davila Gonzalez, April 30, 2019.
Music:
"Hula Lou" - 1923 recording by Isabelle Patricola,
"Prohibition Blues", 1920 recording by The Missourians
(Both available for use by public domain.)
Links:
Listener survey:
https://survey.libsyn.com/onceuponacrime
YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/2UDxhEG
In 1986, a beautiful young mother discovers her husband is cheating on her and files for divorce. Soon afterward, she goes missing. Discovering what happened to Helle Crafts would take an small army of detectives, forensic scientists, serologists, forensic anthropologists, a police diving team and other investigators to unravel this bizarre crime and would inspire an Academy-Award winning film.
Resources:
Forensic Files: Season 1, Episode 1 - "The Disappearance of Helle Crafts", FilmRise TV.
"The Wood Chipper Murder Case" by Mark Gado for CrimeLibrary.com.
"Richard Crafts, notorious wood chipper murderer, released from prison" by Christine Dempsey for The Hartford Courant, Jan 31, 2020.
Details about the film "Fargo" were found on IMDB.com.
Links:
Let's Taco 'Bout True Crime - https://www.truecrimepodcast.com/lets-taco-bout-true-crime
"Fargo" (1996) Trailer: https://youtu.be/h2tY82z3xXU