True Crime

  Classification:  Murderer Characteristics:  Alcoholic - Lesbian love triangle - To collect insurance money Number of victims:  1 Date of murder:  March 15, 2007 Date of arrest:  2 days later Date of birth:  September 14, 1980 Victim profile:  Rebecca "Becky" Klein, 32  (her lesbian lover) Method of murder:  Suffocation  with a plastic bag Location:  Villa Park, DuPage County, Illinois, USA Status:  Sentenced to 50 years in prison without parole on July 27, 2009 Nicole Abusharif  is an American woman who was convicted of the 2007 Villa Park, Illinois murder of her lesbian lover, Rebecca "Becky" Klein. After being found guilty of first-degree murder in May 2009, Abusharif was sentenced to 50 years in prison at the Dwight Correctional Center in Nevada Township, Illinois. The case made national news due to the intrigue of a "lesbian love triangle" murder. Murder and Investigation On March 17, 2007, the body of Rebecca K...

  John Haigh: The Acid Bath Murderer John Haigh was known to the other residents of Kensington’s Onslow Court Hotel as a successful businessman. He wore smart suits and drove a sports car, but his money did not come from his business. It came from murder. When residents of the Onslow Court Hotel came down for breakfast on the morning of 19 February 1949, they immediately noticed that one of their number was missing. Mrs Olive Durand-Deacon, a wealthy 69-year old widow, had been a permanent resident at the hotel for some years and was noted for her punctiliousness. It was unlike her to be late for a meal. Mrs Constance Lane, another resident and a close friend of Mrs Durand-Deacon, was particularly concerned and decided to make a few discreet enquiries. Her concern deepened when the hotel’s chamber maid told her that Mrs Durand-Deacon’s bed had not been slept in. Later that morning Mrs Lane was approached by another of the Onslow Court’s residents, Mr John George Haigh. Haigh was so...

Christmas is the season of goodwill. But in Birmingham in 1959 it was marked by a gruesome attack on a helpless girl by a homicidal maniac. On 23 December 1959, 20-year-old Margaret Brown's thoughts were of Christmas, which she was spending at her parent’s home in Edinburgh. It was late afternoon and she was getting the last bits of her washing and ironing done in the laundry room before leaving on Christmas Eve. Her lodgings were at the YWCA Hostel known as 'Edencroft', a large Georgian-style house in Wheeley Road, Edgbaston, one of Birmingham's more select districts. In common with the other girls there she had her own room with the annex off the main building, but ironing and washing facilities were shared. This annex was a single storey block, so each room was on the ground floor. Most of her fellow lodgers had left the hostel and gone their various ways for the Christmas holidays, but a few were still in the common room watching television. Margaret's priori...