Latest news with #trueCrime
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Serial killer-inspired baby names are trending — revealing how culture can ‘creep into our minds,' experts say
Expecting parents are taking a stab at it — quite literally. Villains, crooks and knife-wielding nuts. Although they're bad guys of society, their first names are becoming bloody good options for moms and dads-to-be, per a nightmarish new report. Baby names inspired by true crime icons, such as accused con artist Anna Delvey and mass murderer Ted Bundy, are on the rise, according BabyCentre UK and its Top 100 Baby Names of 2025. But the bloodcurdling trend has less to do with wrongdoer-worship and more to do with Hollywood's outlaw obsession. 'These names aren't being chosen because of crime,' SJ Strum, a BabyCentre naming expert and author, explained in a statement. 'More often, parents are unconsciously absorbing popular culture, and these names creep into our minds via gripping TV, podcasts and viral content.' 'It's a fascinating lens on how culture shapes language, and by extension, baby names,' she added. Nursery rhymes and true crime. The killer kiddos of Generation Beta — tots born this year and beyond — can blame the theme on the streams. Streaming platforms, like Netflix, have recently made a killing off of shows, documentaries and movies that spotlight salacious sins of notorious rouges. Think Zac Efron as Bundy in 2019 flick 'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,' Joe Exotic's story in 2020 series 'Tiger King' and Delvey's 'Inventing Anna'-inspired thriller in 2022. In a number of cases, the cinematic sneak peek into the lives of the offenders has offered audiences a new perspective on the men and women behind the crimes, humanizing the antiheroes as misunderstood martyrs. And the names currently flooding the maternity are living proof of the media's freaky influence. Here are the true crime-inspired monikers featured in BabyCentre's top 100 baby names for 2025. Anna – The 'Fake Heiress' Anna Delvey Arthur – Arthur Lee Allen, 'This is the Zodiac Speaking,' suspected Zodiac Killer Bella – Inspired by wellness scammer, Belle Gibson Erin – Erin Patterson, The Mushroom Killer Freddie & Rose – The story of serial killer couple Fred and Rose West, featured in Netflix's 'Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story' Joseph – A nod to 'Joe Exotic', Tiger King Luca – From the documentary 'Don't F** with Cats' Teddy – A nickname inspired by serial killer Ted Bundy Ruby – From doc 'Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke,' an alleged child abuser Ronnie & Reggie – As in the notorious London gangsters, the Kray twins, featured in film 'Legends.'
Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night's TV: Will we ever know the truth about ALL this serial scammer's evil lies?
Despite her eager smile and open face, Samantha Cookes is a compulsive liar. She is also a deeply evil woman. As the true-crime documentary Bad Nanny unfolded, chilling parallels with another highly plausible but evil criminal emerged. For anyone who finds it impossible to believe in killer nurse Lucy Letby 's guilt, this two-part report, which concludes tonight, should be required viewing. None of the charges against Cookes, a 37-year-old serial scammer, is as appalling as Letby's murder of at least seven babies on a neonatal ward — though there are disturbing circumstances around the death of Cookes's own infant daughter in 2008. Letby operated by befriending the people whose babies she murdered. Gloucester-born Cookes has a record of defrauding friends with scams of exceptional callousness. In 2012, for instance, she posed as a willing surrogate for a Yorkshire couple desperate to have a baby. She took thousands of pounds from them, and then disappeared. Turning up in Ireland under another name, she sought out mothers with disabled children and weaselled her way into their lives, before taking their money. In 2022, at the height of the TikTok craze, she launched her most brazen fraud — masquerading as a terminally ill patient facing death with inspirational courage. Social media is so overpopulated with people seeking attention for their diseases, real or imaginary, that a word has been coined for them: 'sickfluencers'. But Cookes, now calling herself Carrie Jade Williams, took her pretence to extreme levels, by claiming that she was being sued by an American couple who had rented her home on Airbnb. These paying guests, she said, had been traumatised by her illness, and were now demanding £450,000 in compensation. Stated so baldly, it's all an obvious lie, but Cookes is a highly convincing liar. Money poured in to help her. She has been diagnosed with a psychological condition called 'pseudologica fantastica', or pathological lying. But that doesn't explain her obsession with targeting mothers of young, often fragile children. Cookes was eventually arrested for benefits fraud and is serving a four-year sentence. The whole complex saga was recounted by a dozen or more of her victims, but the fraudster herself refused to comment, so we never fully understood what drove her to invent such vicious lies — just as no one really knows what goes on in Letby's head. On at least two occasions, when she fled a neighbourhood overnight, she left sheafs of incriminating notes — similar to the confessions scrawled on Post-its that helped to convict Letby. 'I stand shoulder to shoulder with the coroner that I did not murder my daughter,' read one. Her baby, Martha, was found suffocated in her cot, hours before she was due to be handed over to social workers from an adoption agency. A verdict of accidental death was recorded. Whether that or anything else in Cookes's life can be taken as true, we'll never know.
Fox News
08-07-2025
- Fox News
Read Bryan Kohberger's signed killer confession
Bryan Kohberger put his guilt in writing and signed the bottom – without giving any explanation for the Idaho student murders that left four college students dead in a home invasion massacre days before they would have gone home for Thanksgiving in November 2022. Kohberger, in a one-page document published by the Fourth Judicial District Court in Ada County, admitted to breaking into the off-campus house at 1122 King Road, in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022, with the intent to commit murder. Then, with premeditation and malice aforethought, he stabbed Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. Each of them suffered multiple stab wounds from a large knife, believed to be the Ka-Bar that came from a leather sheath found next to Mogen's body. While the knife has not been recovered, police found Kohberger's DNA on a snap on the sheath. The confession is dated July 1, a day before Kohberger pleaded guilty to all charges in court. The killer is due to return on July 23 for formal sentencing. He is expected to receive four consecutive terms of life in prison without parole, plus another 10 years. As part of the deal, he waived his right to appeal and the right to move for a future sentence reduction. Kohberger's trial would have kicked off next month. Read Bryan Kohberger's signed confession: If he were convicted, it would be up to the jurors whether he received life in prison or the death penalty, and he would have been expected to appeal the case for decades, up to the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals or beyond. Mogen and Chapin's parents have voiced support for the plea deal. Goncalves' family vocally opposed it.
CTV News
08-07-2025
- CTV News
The Windsor Slasher: 80 years since fear stalked the riverfront
Historians recount Riverside slashings from 80 years ago. CTV Windsor's Travis Fortnum has more. This month marks 80 years since a series of brutal attacks left Windsor gripped by fear — crimes that remain largely forgotten, even as their legacy lingers. In the summer of 1945, Windsor was alive with post-war celebration. Victory in Europe and the Pacific brought home soldiers and filled the downtown with energy. 'Mid-1940s Windsor was a pretty interesting town,' said Mary-Lou Gelissen, local historian with the Windsor Public Library. 'It was a great place to be. But when the night came up, Windsor was a very different town.' Soon, the city would find itself in the grip of a terrifying mystery. 'There occurred a series of attacks and then very brutal killings,' said Patrick Brode, author of The Slasher Killings. 'Men were being attacked by night and very brutally killed.' According to Brode's research, the wave of violence unfolded in a city already marked by wartime anxieties and shifting social values. The return of soldiers, rapid industrialization, and deeply ingrained social conservatism created a powder keg of tension. These attacks lit the match. Each new killing amplified the unease. Rumours spread faster than facts and speculation dominated the headlines. Attack one: July 24, 1945 The first known attack came the night of July 24. George Bruner was found near death in a riverfront park, stabbed seven times. He lived, though the attack left him with severe injuries. 'They said it was an absolute miracle that he survived,' said Gelissen. Bruner told police he had been napping in the park after drinks with friends. While he avoided commenting on his sexuality, Gelissen notes the area he was attacked in was known as a meeting spot for gay men. Homosexuality was a criminal offence in 1945 and revealing what really led him to the riverfront could have seen him arrested. 'George understood the consequences of indicating why he was down there,' Gelissen said. Attack two: August 7, 1945 Just weeks later, 56-year-old mattress factory worker Frank Sciegliski was found dead in an overgrown lot near Windsor's downtown. He had been stabbed six times in the back. 'There were stab wounds in his buttocks, and they were so deep and so violent that he had actually had his pants shredded,' Gelissen said. There were no signs of robbery. His glasses were still on and his straw hat was found beside his body. The murder occurred not far from where Bruner was attacked. WINDSOR SLASHER Windsor police detective surveys the site where Scegliski's body was found, August 8, 1945 (Source: Windsor Police Service, via. Patrick Brode) Attack three: August 16, 1945 A week later, 67-year-old First World War veteran William Davies was found bludgeoned to death with a machinist's hammer inside the G. Tate Easton Garage. His skull was shattered and his face unrecognizable. Though Windsor police initially dismissed it as a robbery gone wrong, the public quickly connected it to the earlier attacks. While Davies had not been stabbed, the level of brutality and timing created widespread fear that this was the work of the same perpetrator. 'It was a very odd and dangerous time in the city,' said Brode. Attack four: August 18, 1945 The most gruesome attack of the summer came just two days later. Sgt. Hugh Blackwood Price, a 45-year-old soldier recently returned from Europe, was found stabbed more than a dozen times. His body was discovered less than 150 yards from where Sciegliski had been killed. Price's throat had been slit, with many of his wounds inflicted after death. 'Society didn't know who to trust anymore,' Brode said. 'People became hysterical with fear. You couldn't go out at night. Everybody was at risk.' Gelissen said copies of newspapers from the time and surviving artifacts paint a picture of a city gripped by panic. 'There was a huge paranoia that happened and fear and what's really sad is that it distracted from the actual crime,' said Gelissen. The letter In spring 1946, a chilling note arrived at Windsor Police headquarters: 'This is a challenge to you. 'I' will strike in the near future... I am not a returned soldier. This is no prank. THE SLASHER.' WINDSOR SLASHER The cover of Brode's book 'The Slasher Killings' features the letter sent to Windsor police in 1946. (Source: Patrick Brode) Written in red and accompanied by a blood-red sketch of a knife, the message revived fears that had just begun to fade. 'It was really a very spooky letter,' Brode said. 'The Windsor police still has about.' As part of the research for his book, Brode was able to examine the letter himself — along with other preserved artifacts still held by police. Summer 1946: The Slasher returns That summer, two more men were attacked. One, John Villeneuve, survived the brutal stabbing. Another, Howard Ainsworth, was not so lucky. Ainsworth, a known gay man, was found dead near the riverfront. 'All of a sudden people realized that it was no mystery,' said Brode. 'The serial killer was not targeting women or children or straight men. He was victimizing one particular group. He was after gay men only.' A weapon, a tip, an arrest One of those attacks led to a break; a butcher's knife with a distinct missing rivet was found at the scene. 'It was a very unusual weapon,' Brode said. 'It was a butcher's knife, but one of the rivets in it was missing.' A Windsor Star photo of the weapon led to a tip — and the arrest of 18-year-old Ronald Sears on Aug. 21, 1946. He had been just 17 when the killings began. 'The final piece of information came from his sister-in-law,' said Gelissen. 'She recognized the murder weapon.' WINDSOR SLASHER Ronald Sears was arrested for the Slasher attacks in August, 1946. (Source: Sears Family, via. Patrick Brode) Who was Sears? 'Ronald Sears was an unusual young man,' said Brode. 'He felt that he was justified in what he did. He was a Robin Hood. These people deserved what he was giving to them.' Brode said police reports show Sears confessed to the attacks, but that confession was deemed inadmissible. He was convicted only in the stabbing of Villeneuve, who had cooperated with police. Villeneuve was charged with gross indecency under Canada's anti-gay laws of the time. Despite being the victim, he was sentenced to ten months in jail — longer than Sears, who was soon transferred to a psychiatric hospital and later a sanatorium for tuberculosis. 'He spent less time in prison than Villeneuve, and yet he killed people,' said Gelissen. Sears died in 1956. A policing legacy with controversial roots The public panic triggered by the Slasher attacks led Windsor to implement nighttime park patrols. According to the Windsor Police Service, those patrols were the earliest form of its modern auxiliary force. But Brode said its roots are troubling. 'They weren't formed to catch the killer,' he said. 'They were formed to catch the gay men he was targeting.' Gelissen said those patrols were effectively a 'morality squad' meant to disrupt meetups between gay men in Windsor's parks by any means necessary. 'They took advantage of their position,' she said. Windsor's Auxiliary Unit still patrols the riverfront parks today, but has mostly evolved into a modern volunteer team that supports public safety through community events and outreach. The Slasher case fades ... but its impact lingers As quickly as the attacks began, they ended. The case faded from headlines. Brode said few in Windsor today know the story of the Slasher — but the legacy of moral panic and media sensationalism remains. 'It's hard to see how society — then or anytime — can be led into this kind of moral panic by media saying things that are demonstrably untrue,' said Brode. 'But it happened then. It could happen again tomorrow.' The Windsor Public Library's Local History Branch holds a wide collection of historical newspapers and materials on Windsor's past — including more information on the Slasher case. Brode's book The Slasher Killings is available on library shelves, too, as well as at local bookstores.
Wall Street Journal
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
Arts Calendar: Happenings for the Week of July 6
• 'Superman' (July 11): Director James Gunn offers the first film set in the rebooted DC Universe, which is home to heroes and villains such as Batman, Wonder Woman and the Joker. Starring David Corenswet ('Twisters') as Clark Kent and Nicholas Hoult ('Nosferatu') as Lex Luthor, the movie follows the almost-invulnerable man of steel as he faces off against his adversary and works to rebuild his reputation. • 'Sovereign' (July 11): In this true-crime thriller, Nick Offerman ('Parks and Recreation') and Jacob Tremblay ('Room') star as an anti-government extremist and his son who come up against a police chief played by Dennis Quaid.
