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Where to start.
I grew up living across the street from the house where;
Bold and Brassy: Oklahoma's Own Black Widow is the true story of a 1908 murder that scandalized the nation. When Lawrence Matthews was found dead in his barn, it was assumed that mules had kicked him to death--until rumors started to spread about his widow Lorena Matthews and the Chicksaw hired hand, Jim Chapman, who spent a great deal of time alone with the boss' wife. Lorena was declared an unfit mother and ordered to give up her children to a guardian; instead, she took them and fled to Canada to reunite with her lover. At the time, the case was luridly sensational, and Lorena Matthews' life after the trial is itself a surprise. Black-and-white photographs illustrate this fascinating and extensively researched true crime account.
I played in the barn and house a lot as a child and never knew of any of it until a book was written about it when I was 30.
Next, the summer of 1988 I played coed softball with a quiet redhead;
On June 8, 1988 the nude bodies of Mark and Delores Stepp were discovered in the bedroom of their home. They had been viciously murdered; stabbed a total of 27 times, plus Mark Stepp had been shot as well.
The normally peaceful town of Stillwater, Oklahoma was shocked. Some feared drug-crazed addicts, or a Satanic ritual killing while others thought it was related to the Stepps' secret involvement in nudist activities.
The Stepps were regarded as a model American family, but following the police investigation, two likely suspects emerge -- Francine Stepp, the couple's daughter, and her best friend, Cindy Wynn.
Why would a teenager who "had everything" brutally murder her own parents?
I now live a few miles from the Clutter house;
Its' a small world but I would hate to have to mow it.
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