When a 23-year-old Texas woman named Christina Morris vanished after walking into a parking garage with an acquaintance in 2014, her disappearance haunted Dawn Wilcox, a Plano school nurse who had known Morris as a child.

Watching the case unfold motivated Wilcox to confront a truth she had long believed: women were being killed across the country with little public outrage or understanding, especially when compared to more “viral” incidents like the 2016 shooting death of Harambe.

When Wilcox searched for reliable data on how many women were murdered by men each year, she came up empty-handed. So, she opened a spreadsheet that would eventually become Women Count USA, and began documenting all the cases she could find.

So far, Women Count USA’s databases—organized by years—have covered more than 14,445 cases.

➜ Read the full story (The Atavist Magazine)

In October 2025, St. Louis career criminal Russell Byers died at 94 with one last secret revealed on tape: that he may have helped set in motion the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

According to Byers, in the late 1970s, a Confederate-obsessed lawyer offered him $50,000 on behalf of a “businessmen’s association” to have King killed. Byers claimed to have turned down the bounty, but in a final interview, he admitted to telling a federal informant about the reward within minutes of the meeting, and not years later, as he’d testified to Congress.

If what Byers said is true, that timing would mean the FBI may have known of a significant plot against King well before his actual murder. Now, with key witnesses dead and thousands of case files still sealed, the story hinges on what the FBI knew—and when.

➜ Read the full story (Slate Magazine)

In 2024, 120 sexual assaults that took place on cruise ships were reported to the FBI, a significant increase from previous years (101 in 2019, before the cruise industry was wrecked by the pandemic).

Last year, a 20-year-old woman aboard The Norwegian Sun discovered she had been assaulted after being drugged at a nightclub on the ship. But finding justice at sea for the victim and her family proved incredibly difficult.

Security on the cruise minimized her claims, questioned her intentions, and even suggested the case would go nowhere. Despite having clear-cut evidence of a date-rape drug in her system, the woman’s investigation stalled.

Tragically, her story reflects a wider pattern of abuse victims discovering that the rights they have on land don’t always apply when the ship leaves port.

➜ Read the full story (The New York Times — free gift link)

In 2021, George Bell, who was wrongfully convicted of a 1996 double murder and exonerated after 24 years behind bars, was awarded a record $17.5 million settlement by the City of New York.

Now living in a suburban “mansion” with luxury cars, designer clothes, and more money than he knows what to do with, Bell is still haunted by Christmas Eve 1996 and the brutal interrogation that led to him serving more than two decades for a crime he didn’t commit. 

“My story, and what I’ve been through, it’s been an open book,” Bell says. “But also it’s something like you see in a movie, when I sit down and think about it.”

➜ Read the full story (Esquire — no paywall for most readers)

In the early 1960s, a 17-year-old named Sandra was sent away to give birth in secret. She named her newborn son Barry, handed him over for adoption, and spent decades wondering about the man her son became.

Then, in October 2022, when Sandra was in her 70s, someone knocked on her door with Barry’s birth certificate. Her son wanted contact, the investigator claimed. And, he was on death row.

What followed were three years of emotional letters, phone calls, and difficult conversations. Barry had endured an abusive childhood, and addictions that consumed him. There was also the crime that landed him on death row.

Sandra found herself torn between shock, guilt, and the timing of a reunion that came only as his execution date got closer. This is a devastating story about fate, family, and two lives altered by choices that never fade away.

➜ Read the full story (The Intercept)

In 1976, journalist Janice Tomlin was only 22 years old when she pitched an idea to D Magazine: she would go undercover and document the lurid world of sex workers in Dallas.

What began as curiosity soon turned into a month-long undercover plunge deep into the darkest street corners, hotel bars, and massage parlors of the “Big D.” Throughout her journey, Tomlin was propositioned by businessmen, teachers, cops, and husbands who looked, well, completely ordinary.

Fifty years later, this story is still sharp and unsettling, offering readers a vivid snapshot of 1970s Dallas and its many vices.

➜ Read the full story (D Magazine)

➜ Nearly 40 years after 30-year-old Rhonda Fisher was found assaulted and strangled on April 1, 1987, near Sedalia, Colorado, DNA taken from paper bags placed on her hands identified her attacker as one of Colorado’s “most prolific” serial killers.

➜ A woman who spent decades believing her abusive father killed a Wisconsin couple in 1992 helped reopen the cold case, only to find her cousin arrested and acquitted of the murders. Now, she’s back to believing her father was responsible.

➜ A recent BBC investigation into ritual killings in Sierra Leone uncovered juju practitioners offering human body parts for sale. The story reveals how an ill-equipped police force and deep cultural beliefs leave most of these murder cases unsolved.

➜ In 1994, a man named Ivan Milat was convicted of murdering seven backpackers in New South Wales, Australia. Now, a report suggests his murders may have started in 1971, with Keren Rowland’s disappearance. Some investigators believe Milat could be linked to dozens of unsolved cases.

➜ Why do women kill? Research suggests women are responsible for only 10% of global homicides, and multiple data sources across countries suggest most cases involve years of domestic abuse that courts often overlook—leading to severe and unjust results.

📚 The Devil Behind the Badge: The Horrifying Twelve Days of the Border Patrol Serial Killer
A haunting account of how Border Patrol officer Juan David Ortiz murdered four vulnerable women in Laredo, with a focus on both Ortiz’s downfall and the systemic poverty that put his victims directly in harm’s way.

➜ Read the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon

🔊 Dead Certain: The Martha Moxley Murder
This reexamination of the 1975 murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley traces the tangled investigation and explosive trial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel, asking the lingering question of who really killed Martha.

➜ Listen to the podcast

▶️ The Setup Murder of Kristil Krug
A Broomfield, Colorado mom who’d been receiving chilling threats was found murdered in her garage, but as detectives unraveled her case, the truth led somewhere no one expected.

➜ Watch now

On December 4, 1975, a man named Walter Neeley led police toward remote, swampy farmland near Prospect, South Carolina. There, Neeley claimed, were buried eight victims of Donald Henry Gaskins, a serial killer nicknamed “Pee Wee” and “Junior” thanks to his 5’4”, 126-pound frame.

Neeley, who was also involved in the murders, helped reveal the extensive and brutal crimes of Gaskins, a man who was known to drive an old hearse around town so "I can carry 'em dead or alive," he reportedly said.

Gaskins was eventually convicted of ten murders and is believed to have killed at least 15 people. He was executed by electric chair in September 1991.

📚 Read: Pee Wee Gaskins: Prospect's Notorious Serial Killer

🔊 Listen: Donald Pee Wee Gaskins Part 1, True Crime All The Time