truTV: Not Reality. Actuality.

The real story behind Theodore Dreiser's wildly popular novel was the murder of lovely (and pregnant) Grace Brown by her boyfriend, Chester Gillette.

Beloved comedian is charged with the rape and murder of the beautiful, but promiscuous, actress Virginia Rappe. It takes three different trials to sort out what really happened at the wild party at San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel.

Seventeen-year-old Virginia college student disappeared without a trace, until her remains were found a month later. A former friend, Ben W. Fawley, claims he killed her accidentally. Fawley, a 38-year-old amateur photographer, faces grand jury Jan 17.

Mark Winger, a husband and father, catches a man in the act of bludgeoning his wife to death. Winger shoots and kills the man, and the ensuing investigation reveals the intruder was a mentally troubled cab driver, against whom the wife had filed a complaint after a harrowing drive with him a few days earlier. Police find that Winger had acted justifiably in the shooting. A few years later, Mark Winger files a civil suit against the cab company. But amazingly, this suit results in the husband's own arrest for the double murder. Author Harlan Coben guides viewers through the incredible twists and turns of a real-life page-turner.

When a Biloxi state judge and his politician wife were found murdered gangland style, it remained the biggest news to hit the Gulf Coast until hurricane Katrina. The huge investigation that followed soon led detectives to suspect the involvement of an underground network of criminals known as the Dixie Mafia. But as if the uncovering of this new criminal organization wasn't shocking enough, investigators were forced to deal with the swirling rumors that none other than the Mayor of Biloxi himself was involved. As the story unraveled, years of intense police work revealed a million dollar phone scam run by Angola prisoners and its secret ties to the most powerful figures in Biloxi.

Robert Stroud, self-taught prison inmate spent most of his adult life in jail becoming an expert on birds, their breeding and diseases. Stroud was a very controversial prisoner who fought until his death for the freedom to pursue his scientific achievements.

The full story behind the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley and the trial of her celebrity husband.

Hollywood's most famous murder case took place in post-war Los Angeles. Elizabeth Short, an engagingly attractive young woman was found brutally murdered and dumped in a vacant lot. She was called the "Black Dahlia" because she always dressed in black. This unsolved case became an obsession and will continue to be legendary when the Black Dahlia movie comes out this fall with an all-star cast.

This classic has to be one of the most enduring murder mysteries America has ever produced. Elderly Andrew Borden, still in his heavy morning coat, reclines on a mohair-covered sofa, his boots on the floor so as not to soil the upholstery. As he naps, his wife, Abby, is on the floor of the guestroom upstairs, dead for the past hour and a half, killed by the same hand, with the same axe, that is about to strike him, as he sleeps.

The bloodiness of the acts is startling. Along with the gruesome nature of the crimes is the unexpected character of the accused, not a hatchet-wielding maniac, but a church-going, Sunday-school-teaching, respectable, spinster-daughter, charged with parricide, the murder of parents, a crime worthy of Classical Greek tragedy. Many people believed she killed her father and stepmother, but recent forensic research suggests that she didn't.

Two white sisters are brutally murdered, but was the dead black teenager the killer?

An upstanding citizen, the eldest son of a family who had risen to wealth and influence, he'd been a trusted political strategist, the city attorney, a successful prosecutor and legal counsel to one of the governors.

Anne Marie Fahey, a beautiful young woman who worked in the Delaware governor's office, was the latest of Capano's mistresses. She had tried to break off the secret affair, but he could not tolerate the idea that she initiated the break-up. She belonged to him. Her act damaged his belief in his omnipotence and he couldn't live with that.

When she disappeared, suspicion fell on him, but there was no evidence to arrest the wealthy and well-connected Capano until a year later when there was a major break in the case. The amazing and highly publicized murder trial was the subject of Ann Rule's best selling book, "And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano, The Deadly Seducer."

Like in F. Scott Fitzgerald's seminal novel, everything Rick Chance did was bigger than life. His rise from farmer to millionaire came faster than most; his marketing style was more brash, his marriages more passionate, his divorces more rancorous, his death more violent. A paradox of personalities, Chance was part huckster, part born-again Christian, part genius, part fool. Labels didn't seem to fit Chance and he was constantly shedding one persona for another. People loved him or they hated him, or they loved to hate him.

The assassin who snuffed out the life of John Lennon and ended an era

Anita Cobby, former beauty queen and nurse, was killed by a gang of spineless cowards who preyed on women and other people's property between prison terms. Between the five of the them they had over 50 convictions for offenses including larceny, illegal drug use, car theft, breaking and entering, armed robbery, escaping lawful custody, receiving stolen goods, assault and rape. Her murder united the public in outrage, with many Australians calling for a reinstatement of the death penalty.

When a successful New York dermatologist is brutally murdered, surveillance footage helps reveal the murderer's identity. But will his killer ever be brought to justice?

The star of Hogan's Heroes and subject of the new movie Auto Focus was a sex addict and a blabbermouth about his myriad of sexual conquests. His murder remains mysterious.

Distinguished judge attacks controversial murder case.

A proud day for Donald and Marsha Levine is brutally ended by a hired gunman.

Dr. Katherine Ramsland explores cases of doctors who kill and why they do it. Includes new case file on Dr. Robert Bierenbaum.

Daniel Williams left his Georgia home to live in LA where he believed he could live the lifestyle that he wished, but pretending to be a woman led to his death when an unsuspecting sex partner discovered the truth. Plucked from the cold case files, two detectives solve the case with new technology.

Troubled Philadelphia area teenager Ashley Burg tries to straighten out her drug addiction, but slips up and accepts a night of fun and sex from technology consultant David F. Downey. Downey plies her with more cocaine than she can handle and she becomes dangerously ill. Instead of calling an ambulance, he tries to get his procurer to take care of the situation. Precious time is lost as Downey negotiates a deal and Ashley's young life slips away.

New chapters show Downey as a man without boundaries.

A Murdered Prostitute Found in a Sleazy Las Vegas Motel Leads Investigators to the East Coast and into the Heart of one of America's Richest Families

Rich and powerful, eccentric and very arrogant, he shoplifted a chicken sandwich and was apprehended for the mutilation murder of an old man. This millionaire cross-dressing killer may have murdered his best friend and others as well.

Twenty-five-year-old Edward Grimsley admits that under the influence of illegal drugs he abducted, raped and murdered 18-year-old Tanya Flowerday and dumped her body on the street. The rumor that her murder was the subject of a "snuff film: that was sold outside of South Africa," has been discounted.

When Ginny Foat walked out of the Jefferson Parish Courthouse in Gretna, Louisiana a free woman on November 16, 1983, she and others who sided with her during her high-profile trial on murder charges were quick to proclaim it a victory for the feminist cause.

But was it a victory for a noble cause or was it merely a personal triumph for an abused, formerly battered woman who found herself on the dark end of a bad situation? Was Ginny Foat truly "innocent" in the 1965 bludgeoning death of an Argentine businessman visiting New Orleans or was she found "not guilty" simply because there was too much reasonable doubt in the minds of a sympathetic jury?

Dubbed the most beautiful girl in the Peace Corps, it seemed that everyone loved Deborah Gardner.

She was smart, alluring, funny and free-spirited. Her life was a wide-open adventure and she loved teaching in the Pacific island of Tonga. Unfortunately, someone as attractive as she was had unwelcome suitors: one, a fellow Peace Corps worker became relentless, obsessed pursuer who attacked her in a jealous rage.

Perhaps even more shocking than her brutal murder is that fact that her killer is alive and free in New York City.

Wealthy Scarsdale student is brutally bludgeoned in her sleep by her Mexican-American boyfriend. A bizarre public relations campaign orchestrated by the Catholic clergy results in a trial that portrays the killer as the victim.

The particularly vicious murder of actor Kelsey Grammer's 18-year-old sister is solved by master detective Lou Smit of JonBenet Ramsey fame.

Stalker targets popular British television personality Jill Dando for death.

Kind black benefactor is killed by white trash family that she helped.

Famous Arctic explorer is murdered. Did the German Dr. Bessels do it and, if so, why?

The Lindbergh-vintage kidnap/murder of this popular & attractive young man drove the people of San Jose to lynch the suspects.

Dr. Katherine Ramsland tours "America's Most Haunted" — scenes where ghosts of past crimes still roam the earth.

Spirits of the murdered and the murderers are often trapped in the circumstances of their death or of the crime they committed. Originally published as a sequel to the very popular first Halloween special called Haunted Crime Scenes, our second special tour has just been updated with the story of a famous serial killer's ghost which is haunting another killer.

Alcoholic couple tricks school into releasing Bobby Greenlease into their custody. A classic murder/kidnap case.

Impressionable young newspaper heiress robs banks with Kathleen Soliah and the Symbionese Liberation Army who kidnapped her.

When Phoenix investigators found the wife of the cattle baron Ed Tovrea murdered, her stepson became an immediate suspect. It was well known that he despised the victim for marrying his late father and receiving most of the family fortune. But without any hard evidence, the suspicions of the police remained just that- suspicions. For seven long years, the case remains unsolved until an anonymous caller pointed the finger at one of the stepson's former business partners, accusing him of being one of the killers at the scene. While prosecutors managed to convict the business partner, they couldn't get him to talk, leaving a chilling question. Who was the other killer? Could he be enjoying his inheritance to this day?

Two "nice" Mormon boys become murdering monsters when they create cult called the Children of Thunder.

Beautiful and cultured New York City prostitute fell in love with her wealthy client. Suddenly, Helen is murdered and her lover suspected.

Who killed David and Carol Keeffe and why? After over a year authorities have made no arrests. Will the killer ever be caught?

A kind and generous grandfather is found murdered in his bedroom, a victim of gunshots. LAPD investigators discover that a family diamond is the key to revealing a killer close and familiar.

Sante Kimes and son Kenneth lived the same outrageously bold life of crime that made their predecessors Bonnie and Clyde famous for generations. This incestuous duo meticulously planned elaborate multimillion dollar scams and executed their wealthy victims without a scintilla of remorse.

Hated embezzler found murdered in his empty Greenwich mansion after his wife left him with just a bed to sleep on just before his date with federal prison. With so many enemies, police have many potential suspects his estranged wife, a Columbian "Man Friday," and the many people who were Kissel's victims. Could his death have been a staged suicide?

Lovely foreign exchange student murdered by habitual criminal, who was released early only to kill two people and break his parole repeatedly.

He grimaced as he looked down at the body of his pregnant daughter in the trunk of his car. Rebecca's neck was chafed raw from the rope her killers had used to strangle her, and a stream of blood had dripped from her nose onto the mat under her head. He slammed the trunk shut.

The green-and-white Ford LTD was new, and it was the spiffiest car Ervil had ever owned. Not only had his daughter's blood soiled his precious car, it was also an indication of sloppy work by the murderers whom he'd contracted.

Troubled 19-year-old arsonist sets fire to the home of the Hasties in Hull, England. Called a one-family crime wave, the Hastie family murders suggested revenge by some criminal associates. Attention focused on Lee who surprised police by confessing to 23 murders by arson, including the killing of a baby.

It was called the "Crime of the Century." Two incredibly wealthy and brilliant young Chicago men with IQs almost off the chart decided to execute "the perfect crime." Their arrogance convinced them that they were so superior intellectually superior to the that they would never be discovered. Their kidnap victim would be random, the first boy they found walking home from the prep school they had gone to. As it happened, the first boy they saw was a cousin of Dickie Loeb's named Bobby Franks. Bobby willing jumped into the car with his cousin and his friend and took the last ride of his life.

The next day, a ransom note was sent to his terrified parents telling them that to ensure Bobby's safe return, $10,000 a very large sum in 1924 must be produced by noon. "George Johnson" called to give the Franks family instructions on where to leave the ransom money, but in the meantime, Bobby's body had been found in a culvert.

As the investigation of Bobby's brutal murder went into high gear, suspicion increasingly focused on the two young college men. Amazingly, despite their intelligence a few stupid mistakes handed prosecutors a powerful case. Public sentiment in Chicago, exacerbated by anti-Semitism in the heartland, was to hang them.

But then the legendary Clarence Darrow took on their defense, but even so there were very serious doubts that even the great lawyer could save them from the hangman's noose.

Bizarre case of married teacher who raped her young student and eventually had two children by him. Now out of prison, she has married her victim. Happy ever after? Not entirely.

Sixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens was found murdered with "I'm a prostitute and proud of it" burned onto her stomach. The perpetrators of her slow, tortured death turned out to be the family that was caring for her and several neighborhood children.

A new attempt to bring the story of this 1965 murder to the screen is underway for 2007, but does it give us any insight into how mother and group of children could commit such a horrible crime?

Son of an American hero kidnapped and murdered

Former Marine runs a "tough love" boot camp near an Apache reservation in Arizona. Two children die and an investigation shows the conditions are shocking.

Eccentric and deeply unhappy heiress transforms herself into her late father's image. Trusting in the wrong people to manage her affairs, she meets a shocking death in one of New England's most bizarre unsolved mysteries.

Many hardened criminals blame their crimes on their parents, but few have as clear a case as Charles Manson. His mother was an alcoholic prostitute who sold him for a pitcher of beer. In and out of reform school as a youngster, he had an IQ of 109 and became a kind of institutional politician and manipulator by age 19.

From then on his continuous scrapes with the law landed him in prison. His record there described Charlie as having "a tremendous drive to call attention to himself.

On March 21, 1967, Charlie was released from prison in California. He was 32 years old and more than half of his life had been spent in institutions. He protested his freedom. "Oh, no, I can't go outside there...I knew that I couldn't adjust to that world."

Charlie started to attract a group of followers, many of whom were very young women with troubled emotional lives who were rebelling against their parents and society in general.

This was the core of the Manson Family execution team who he ordered to kill pregnant actress Sharon Tate, her wealthy house guests, and the well-to-do LaBiancas.

Charlie was trying to start a race war and vet himself as a prophet of doom.

Shootist, rapist and consummate intimidator, he terrorized his community until the people took the law into their own hands. Twenty-five years later, the daughters of his victims give their first joint interview about what really happened in the famous "candy incident" that put the town in the center of a media circus.

Nazi death camp doctor specializes in horrible experiments on Jewish twin children.

The execution-style shooting of the head of a rapidly growing, family-owned beauty products discounter leads police into a tangled web of sibling rivalry, greed and bargain-basement hitmen.

After murdering a man, brilliant American surgeon contributes to literary masterpiece from an insane asylum.

Ineptitude or slanted justice? With updates posted regularly!

Attractive and independent Amy St. Laurent disappears. What follows is a vast, multi-jurisdictional effort, with unprecedented collaboration between law enforcement agencies. Over the course of their tireless efforts, investigators are led through multiple suspects, conflicting stories and cover-ups, and eventually, to a dangerous sexual predator who's been hiding in plain sight.

Some people believe that politicians will say and do anything to win. In Tennessee, bizarre politician, Byron "Low Tax" Looper, tries to win the election by murdering his opponent. Fortunately, this daring campaign strategy has not caught on nationwide.

Judy Nilan, an outstanding member of a safe, upscale Connecticut community, goes missing while she's jogging. Excellent detective and forensics work leads to the handy man on the estate of Carroll Spinney, known to the public as "Big Bird."

Housewife and church-member Betty Gore is found murdered in her own home. She has been axed to death 41 times. Wylie Police Department's investigation tracks down Betty's friend Candace Montgomery. On trial for murder, Candace admits to killing Betty and claims self-defense. In one of the most shocking verdicts delivered by a Texas jury, Candace is cleared of murder.

A popular professor of nutrition at the University of Florida was suffocated by two killers and a sixteen-year-old accomplice who fled the scene before the killing. The killers were bent upon taking the doctor's money, goods and car.

When Karyn Hearn Slover's car is found abandoned near her Decatur, Illinois workplace, nobody expects the tragedy that is to follow. When her dismembered corpse is found in a nearby lake, investigators must find a motive for murder. In a case with few leads, it is the hard work of forensic scientists from across the continent that catches the killers. That forensic evidence leads back to the family of Karyn's ex-husband vengeful, domineering grandparents who will stop at nothing to keep Karyn's son for their own.

When New Orleans police discover the butchered body of a Roman Catholic priest, their investigation into his bizarre death uncovers a secret life of sex, lies, and videotape.

Two handsome, affluent young adults are murdered one night on a dark country road. Who are they?

Alcohol & drug-fuelled binge results in the brutal murder of two women. Instead of serving his two life sentences, quirks in the Oregon prison system let this dangerous man out after a few years.

Air-tight alibi and a coerced "confession" don't protect him from being convicted for the rape and brutal murder of 13-year-old Peggy Cuttino, the daughter of a prominent politician. Many years later, a new trial seems stuck in a judicial and political cul-de-sac. Distinguished judge attacks this controversial case.

Beautiful and talented child was found dead in the basement of her doting parents' Boulder, Colorado home. Police immediately assumed that either John or Patsy Ramsey are guilty of their daughter's death. The media demonized the parents for entering her in beauty pageants and destroyed the Ramseys' excellent reputation by promoting unsubstantiated rumors and distortions of fact. Finally, retired investigator Lou Smit analyzes the evidence that helped vindicate the long-suffering parents, but stubborn wrong-headed law enforcement in Boulder let the trail of the real killer get cold. This case ranks as one of the worst travesties of justice in recent times.

Exxon executive is kidnapped and suffers a lonely and excruciating death at the hands of a former company security consultant.

Once pegged "The Most Hated Woman in America," Madalyn and her family disappear from their Austin, TX home, never to be seen again. Intrepid newspaper reporter John MacCormack takes it upon himself to find the truth. After an arduous 5-year investigation, and with the help of the IRS and the FBI, can MacCormack get his story and justice for Madalyn?

The enduring mystery of Mary Roger's murder is the basis for Edgar Allan Poe's "The Mystery of Marie Roget." Poe actually knew the pretty young woman who worked in a New York cigar store that he frequented.

Wealthy young man entered American lore, joining a pantheon of missing persons that includes Ambrose Bierce, Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Hoffa and D.B. Cooper. As with each of the other lost luminaries, various theories about his fate have been floated over the years. Did he simply drown, as his family concluded? Or did he decide to go native and lose himself in the jungles of New Guinea? Was he a meal for a shark or a crocodile? Or, in the most sensational speculative twist, was he a pale human trophy for New Guinean headhunters?

JonBenet Ramsey case expert and author of "Presumed Guilty"

This famous French aristocrats name coined the word sadism. His often violently pornographic writings, espoused a hedonistic lifestyle, free from the restraints of ethics and morals. His libertine behavior and writings earned him significant prison time, but created a legacy that has lived for centuries. Countless books and movies have been inspired by his controversial philosophies.

Two teenagers, best friends since grade school, are gunned down execution style in a Northridge sandwich shop. The community is outraged and it is up to LAPD to find the killer. Once they find him, it will take a special forensic technique to bring him to justice.

Troubled Philadelphia area teenager Ashley Burg tries to straighten out her drug addiction, but slips up and accepts a night of fun and sex from technology consultant David F. Downey. Downey plies her with more cocaine than she can handle and she becomes dangerously ill. Instead of calling an ambulance, he tries to get his procurer to take care of the situation. Precious time is lost as Downey negotiates a deal and Ashley's young life slips away.

New chapters show Downey as a man without boundaries.

This may be considered the crime of the last century. t became the most publicized case in US history. It cost over $20 million to fight and defend, ran up 50,000 pages of trial transcript and called 150 witnesses.

No movie or television courtroom drama would have dared to unfold the way this one did, and it was not without coincidence that it evolved in Los Angeles, so often referred to by cynics as "La La Land." The rest of the country became obsessed with the empty, celebrity-dominated West Los Angeles backdrop to the crime.

To many, particularly in minority communities, the trial of Orenthal James Simpson became not so much a determination of his guilt or innocence of murder in the first degree, beyond a reasonable doubt, but whether or not a black man could find justice in a legal system designed by and largely administered by whites. To others, many of whom were white, the key question was whether a mostly minority jury would convict a black celebrity regardless of the weight of evidence against him.

More than 10 years after the murder of his ex-wife and her friend, the former football star continues to stir controversy. Analysis of the murder and road rage trials, and forensics.

Vivacious and beautiful North Dakota college student is abducted, tortured, raped and murdered. Level 3 sex offender Alfonso Rodriquez goes to trial and could become first person executed in ND in over 100 years. Dru's Law, if enacted, would create a national sex offender registry.

On the morning of July 7, 1997, the day-shift manager of a Georgetown Starbucks Coffee Shop arrives and finds the bodies of employees Emory Evans, Aaron Goodrich and Caity Mahoney who had worked the night before. All three have been shot to death. Metro Detective James Trainum and FBI Special Agent Bradley Garrett team up and spend nearly two years tracking down one of D.C.'s most notorious and elusive career criminals: Carl Derek Cooper.

The inspiration for movies Natural Born Killers, Badlands, and Wild at Heart

One of Hollywood's most successful directors is murdered. Before police arrive, a studio exec goes through his house searching for evidence of scandal, may have planted monogrammed underwear with a famous actress's initials. What is the studio trying to hide? Who of the many suspects had a motive for murder? The detailed story. But some experts discount the rumors that swirled around the popular director and the cast of characters. Another view of the case focuses on confirmed facts.

Ken Register- clean-cut, polite and religious young man shocked his small town of Conway, SC, when he raped & murdered his best friend, Crystal Todd.

Mel Gibson's The Passion has stirred up age-old controversies. Get the facts before you go.

Mary Mallon was a New York cook who unknowingly gave typhoid to the families who hired her. When health authorities realized that she was the typhoid carrier, they quarantined her for several years. Then when she agreed not to work as a cook, they let her go, but after several other typhoid outbreaks which were traced to her cooking, health authorities took more drastic measures.

A shocking number of clergymen have committed murder. Motives range from covering theft, getting rid of an unwanted wife or son, retribution, and even the termination of an abortion doctor.

Cult-like rituals inside the church, a nun murdering another nun for ministering to the prostitutes, a preacher beating his wife to death with a chair leg. The tip of the iceberg in the stories of violent clergy members.

Son of Nazi SS officer, he deals meth and operates as a contract killer. Forensic sculptor Frank Bender takes expert aim & brings him in.

A gunman in a black mask ambushes 70-year-old William Overson and shoots him to death in his vehicle outside of a golf course in San Diego on April 12, 2004. San Diego Police Department's search for the gunman uncovers a vicious organized crime unit that planned to rob Overson of $60,000

A small brush fire near the LA airport reveals a horrific discovery — a burning body bound and gagged with duct tape. Near the unidentified victim are bullet casings and unusual tire tracks, but investigators are stymied. What they do next is a remarkable forensics case study.

On the chilly night of December 8, 2000, the strapping bachelor feared his life would come to an abrupt end.

He was at a convenience store when two young men approached him and brandished a gun. They ordered him into his own car. As his heart hammered, the men told him to drive to various ATMs where they forced him to withdraw $800. Later Andrew Schreiber said, "I was just hoping if I did what they said, they'd let me live."

They did. The assailants released him in a field, physically unharmed but badly shaken. They shot out the tires of his vehicle, then jumped in another car and sped away.

But this was just the beginning. Soon the city would be shocked by the brutal murders of a teacher and several college-age young people and then plunged into a crisis when the case was finally solved.

She had reached the top of her game: the daughter of a prominent New England family and Vassar graduate, she lived a very glamorous life as a fashion writer for Women's Wear Daily, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and the New York Times, traveling to Paris and London, interviewing celebrities.

While Christa's career had soared to new heights, she was not content in her personal life. She longed to have children, but she was unmarried. She wanted to have the time to make a serious mark with her writing, perhaps a play. So right around her 40th birthday, she left New York and went to live in the quaint little town of Truro on Cape Cod, where a couple years later after an affair with a married man, she had a daughter. Motherhood changed Christa's ambitions and she found contentment raising her little girl.

All that came to an abrupt end when Christa was brutally murdered with her daughter as witness. The toddler was found days later trying to revive her mother and sustain herself by suckling her mother's breast and eating bits of cereal.

The investigation focused on the Christa's relationships and even the heroin-addicted prostitute that was her father's mistress, but when the real killer was found through DNA evidence 3 years later, it was a real shock. The trial of this fashion-writer mom's killer leaves many troublesome questions unanswered.

Intelligent and educated, the Black Messiah styled himself into a religious leader who preached love and black empowerment but his followers practiced murder, intimidation and extortion. Those who joined the Yahweh ben Yahweh cult included fraternity boys, sheriff's deputies, grandmothers and ex-cons fresh out of prison. They allowed Mitchell to control every aspect of their lives, from their diet to their finances to their sexual liaisons.