3 True Crime Cases You May Not Have Heard About



This post is going to be a bit of a long one so I'd suggest getting comfy on the sofa with a cup of tea. If you've been following me on social media for quite a while you may recognise one or two of the cases that I am sharing below as I have written about them before elsewhere online. I thought it would be interesting to briefly combine a selection of different cases all in the same post. 

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As always, I have to remind you that some of the details that I will be sharing in this post may be disturbing. 

Sooo, let's get to it!

(Left: Stuart Hazell. Right: Tia Sharp. Picture credit: telegraph.co.uk)

The Murder of Tia Sharp:

This monster is Stuart Hazell, He murdered and sexually assaulted (post mortem - after death) his adopted 12 year old granddaughter Tia Sharp in New Addington, London in August 2012.

This was a high profile murder case here in the UK and the background details of Stuart's romantic relationships with Tia's mother and grandmother were a bit strange to say the least. Stuart had been in relationships with both daughter (Tia's mother) and the mother (Tia's grandmother) and for years he acted as a grandfather to Tia and helped raise her. Tia adored him and thought the world of him but what nobody knew was that Stuart hid a dark past, he'd had a difficult childhood and spent a lot of time in carehomes as well as being involved in petty crimes. 

As Tia got older, she began to be interested in things like boys and makeup, she loved putting lipstick on and styling her hair, all normal things for a young girl to do but Stuart began to have an unhealthy obsession with the child. He would take pictures of Tia and record videos of her on his phone. If she stayed overnight at her grandmother's house, he would sneak into the bedroom she was sleeping in and secretly record her sleeping. 

Tia was reported missing in 2012 and Stuart Hazell was the last person to see her alive as she was staying at the house he shared with her grandmother (he claimed they had been playing video games the night before whilst her grandmother was working a nightshift). Staurt told the police that he had given Tia some money as she said she was going into town to buy some shoes and she just didn't come back.

For days, Stuart played the frantic, concerned grandfather doing TV appeals and interviews, wearing T-shirts with Tia's face on them, holding up missing posters of Tia and even took part in a search for her with members of the local community. Stuart looked scared and worried as any relative of Tia's would be, but he wasn't scared because the child was missing, he was scared because he knew what he had done and he knew that the truth would soon come out.

Mistakes by the police were made quite early on in the investigation, they had been to Tia's grandmother's house and did a ''quick'' search and found nothing, Stuart must have thought that he'd gotten away with it. The sickening truth came to light when Tia's grandmother noticed a horrific smell in the house and no matter how hard she cleaned it just wouldn't go away. The smell came from the attic and that is where they found the poor child's body, naked, wrapped up in a trash bag, decomposed and her clothing and smashed glasses found near her. Nobody could imagine what Tia's grandmother must have felt, knowing that her grandchild's body had been up there whilst she was in the same house.

Knowing the game was up, Stuart Hazell ran off and the police were soon on his tail. Luckily, they caught him. Tia's grandmother was arrested but released without charge as they found no evidence that she knew or had any idea what happened. Both Tia's mother and grandmother have appeared in TV interviews since and spoke about their utter devastation and anger about what happened to Tia.

With Stuart in custody, the police searched the house again, inch by inch. They checked Stuart's phone as well as an SD card which he had hidden in a doorframe. What they found on the phone and SD card was sickening. Stuart recorded himself putting objects into his anus and performing sexual acts on himself, even more disturbing and horrifying was the videos he had recorded of Tia after he had killed her. I don't want to go into too much detail because it is horrendous but he disrespected the child's lifeless body. 

Stuart tried to tell the police that Tia had fallen down the stairs and he panicked but nobody bought his stories and he was found guilty and sentenced to life with a minimum of 38 years in May of 2013.

(Donald Henry Gaskins. Picture credit: thestate.com)

The Meanest Man In America?:

Donald Henry ''Pee Wee'' Gaskins Jr (13th of March 1933 - 6th of September 1991) was an American serial killer. He was nicknamed ''Pee Wee'' as a child because he was small for his age, as an adult he was 5"2 and weighed approx 130 lbs. He was later given the nickname ''The Meanest Man In America'. Donald was convicted of 9 murders committed in South Carolina between 1973 and 1975 but he was suspected of the murders of 31 people. He also murdered two fellow inmates on death row and later claimed that he had actually murdered between 80 - 110 people. He was exectued in the September of 1991. 

I remember one of the first true crime books that I ever read was ''Final Truth: The Autobiography of Mass Murderer/Serial Killer Donald ''Pee Wee'' Gaskins by Donald Henry Gaskins and Wilton Earle''. Wilton spent 15 months interviewing Donald where nothing was off limits. This book was and still is, the most horrific book that I have read to date. It was VERY graphic, there was no hiding away from the details and it gave a real insight into the mind of a monster. 

I read this book when I was 15 and even now the memory of it still shocks me.

(Blanche Taylor Moore. Picture credit: journalnow.com)

The Black Widow Murders:

Blanche Kiser Taylor Moore also known as ''The Black Widow'' is an American convicted murderer from Alamance County, North Carolina. She is currently on death row awaiting execution for the 1986 arsenic poisoning of her boyfriend. Blanche is North Carolina's oldest woman on death row. She is also suspected of the murder of her mother-in-law and her first husband and the attempted murder of her second husband in 1989. Blanche would give people food that contained arsenic-based ant killer. 

Author Jim Schutze wrote a book about the murders called ''Preachers Girl''. In 1993, the amazing Elizabeth Montgomery starred as Blanche in the movie ''Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story'', based on the book (this is one of my favourite true crime movies, check it out here).

In a strange and sad twist of events, the lead prosecutor in Blanche's trial, Janet Branch committed suicide in 2015 by walking into traffic on the Interstate 485 in Charlotte, North Carolina.


I hope you enjoyed my brief coverage of these three cases and if you would like me to do some more of these types of posts, let me know. Thanks as always for your support and please keep yourselves safe. See you in the next post x 

Further reading & sources:


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Check out some of the true crime cases I have covered previously:

- The Babes In The Wood (Epping Forest, 1970) | Ronald Jebson

- The Deadly Cougar? | The Jimmie Sue Finger Story | 2 Part Series

- The Story of Ed Gein (3 Part Series)

- Infamous Murderers On Death Row, Their Last Words & Last Meals

- The Real Buffalo Bill & His House Of Horror | Gary Michael Heidnik

- Playing With Fire: Mick & Mairead Philpott 

- What Happened To The Petit Family?

- The Most Evil Cult Leader In History? | Roch Theriault

- The Truck Stop Serial Killer 

- Deadly Lust: The Pamela Smart Story 

- The Dark & Haunting History of Overtoun Bridge 

- The Stuff Of Nightmares | The Toy Box Killer: David Parker Ray

- Beyond Evil: The Murder of Jessica Lunsford 

- Death Row Scot: The Kenny Richey Story: Part One

- Death Row Scot: The Kenny Richey Story: Part Two

- Death Row Scot: The kenny Richey Story: Part Three

- Don't Talk, Just Listen...The Weepy Voiced Killer

- Amityville | The DeFeo Murders

- What Really Happened To Mavis Bran? 

- Nowhere To Run: The Marilyn McKenna Story | Part One

 - Unsolved : Part Three: The Highway Of Tears & The Disappearance Of Maddy Scott 

- Unsolved: Part Two | What Happened To Melanie Melanson? 

- Unsolved: Part One | Molly Bish & Holly Piirainen 

- The Dark Side of The Internet: The Amanda Todd Story 

- The Story of Bible John

























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2 comments:

  1. The String Theory4 April 2020 at 21:34

    That first case is disturbing and disgusting. It always bothers me when I see things like this happen to children. It's horrifying heartbreaking and disgusting. That absolutely blows me away that he was sentenced to 38 years in prison. But these cases also show the serious problems with the judicial system. These killers get sentenced to life in prison, they get free food, free healthcare and can get educated. Death Row might as well be life in prison, half the time they don't even get executed.
    Absolutely loved this post Jo! ❤❤❤

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown7 May 2020 at 16:13

    Stuart certainly is a twisted, sick man. We haven't had capital punishment in the uk since the 60s but it does make you think maybe we should bring it back for cases like this and for the murder of children in general.

    ReplyDelete

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