Murder Most Foul James Sulanowski

On May 31,1985, two days before her high school graduation, Shari Faye Smith was abducted from the driveway of her family home in South Carolina.

For several days after the abduction, the kidnapper called and sent letters to the family, taunting them with details of abduction and murder of Shari. Ultimately, he revealed the location of Shari’s body on a phone call to Shari’s older sister, Dawn.

But he wasn’t finished. Two weeks to the day of Shari’s abduction, the murderer snatched another victim, 9-year-old Debra May Helmick, who came to a similar fate. The authorities realized they were dealing with a sadistic, narcissistic serial killer of young women.

 

WHEN A KILLER CALLS is the haunting story of Murder,
Criminal Profiling and Justice in a small town, written by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. John and Mark have written 7 previous books, including Mindhunter, the number one New York Times bestseller that was the basis for the hit Netflix series of the same name.

Mark drew the short straw, and he joins me today on
Murder Most Foul.

I saw her standin' on her front lawnJust a twirlin' her batonMe and her went for a ride, sirAnd ten innocent people died

From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska With a sawed off .410 on my lapThrough to the badlands of WyomingI killed everything in my path

I can't say that I'm sorryFor the things that we doneAt least for a little while, sirMe and her we had us some fun

Now the jury brought in a guilty verdictAnd the judge he sentenced me to deathMidnight in the prison storeroomWith leather straps across my chest

Sheriff, when the man pulls that switch, sirAnd snaps my poor head backYou make sure my pretty babyIs sittin' right there on my lap

They declared me unfit to liveSaid into that great void my soul'd be hurledThey want to know why I did what I didSir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world

 

Those are the lyrics of the song, “Nebraska,” written by Bruce Springsteen in 1982 immortalizing the killing spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate in Lincoln, Nebraska and nearby Wyoming in 1958. Were Charlie and Caril Ann a new breed of Bonnie and Clyde? Was 14-year-old Caril Ann, a willing and equal participant in 10 ruthless and gruesome murders, or was she a hostage? Books, movies, and endless documentaries have tried to answer that question.

Harry N. Maclean has an “inside track” on the story having grown up at the time in Lincoln contemporaneously with Starkweather and Fugate. Today on MURDER MOST FOUL, Mr. Maclean shares his recollection of the period and what it was like to return to Lincoln to research his book, “STARKWEATHER: The Untold Story of the Killing Spree that Changed America.”

“A Murder in Hollywood” - the dark story behind the bright lights of Tinseltown.

Before there was Jodie Foster and Brooke Sheilds, there was Judy Turner. You may know her by her stage name, Lana Turner.  Discovered at a malt shop in LA in her early teens and thrust before the cameras, she seemed to have it all―a thriving film career and the kind of fame and fortune that most people could only dream of. But she was soon physically abused by directors and studio honchos and sexually preyed upon by the matinee idols of the era, including Errol Flynn, Fernando Lamas and even Ronald Reagan. But that wasn’t enough.

When Lana began dating mobster Johnny Stompanato, thug for the infamous west coast mob boss Mickey Cohen, her personal life became violent and unpredictable.  Eventually, the physical and emotional abuse became too much to bear, and Lana attempted to break it off with Johnny―with disastrous consequences - Stompanato ending up dead on Lana's bedroom floor, with her young daughter, Cheryl, claiming to have plunged a knife into him in an attempt to protect her mother. The subsequent murder trial made for the biggest headlines of the year, its drama eclipsing every Hollywood movie.

New York Times bestselling author Casey Sherman pulls back Tinseltown's velvet curtain to reveal the dark underbelly of celebrity, rife with toxic masculinity and casual violence against women which took place in Hollywood in the 40s and 50s, long before modern day’s MeToo Movement.

A Murder in Hollywood transports us back to the golden age of film and illuminates one of the 20th century's most notorious true crime tales.  Return guest, Casey Sherman, joins me now on Murder Most Foul.

It’s every mother and father’s worst nightmare to discover your daughter has vanished after a night on the town. Finding Amy is the story of just such a nightmare, written by Detective LT, Joseph K. Loughlin, who led the investigation into 25-year-old Amy St. Laurent’s disappearance and his co-author, Kate Clark Flora. The story is especially compelling because of the personal accounts of Lieutenant Loughlin--- his thoughts, emotions, and reactions as the investigation unfolded in 2001. Unlike Law & Order or CSI, there were no quick solutions that wrapped-up the case in a conveniently short time. What does take place is the passionate belief of the dedicated team of detectives, and police that they will find Amy, bring her abductor to justice, and give closure to her family and the people of Maine. It is my pleasure to welcome Lieutenant Joseph Loughlin to MURDER MOST FOUL.

In the early 1970’s, F.B.I agent, John E. Douglas, created and managed the FBI's Criminal Profiling Program, now called the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Agent Douglas became the inspiration for the character Jack Crawford in “The Silence of the Lambs,” played by actor Scott Glenn.

Douglas has interviewed numerous serial killers and other violent sex offenders at various prisons, including David Berkowitz, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson and
others.

In the late 1990’s he formed a partnership with author and documentary producer, Mark Olshaker, called MINDHUNTER, INC. Together they wrote numerous True Crime books, based on John’s experiences in the field. One of their books, Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit was the basis for the popular Netflix series, of the same name.

Author and Mindhunter, Mark Olshaker, joins me today on Murder Most Foul.

In the winter of 1982 in Brighton, New York, a bedroom suburb of Rochester, Jim Krauseneck came home from work to discover his wife, Kathleen, lying in bed, dead, with an ax lodged in her head. Their 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Sarah, was unharmed alone in the dark, cold house. She had attempted to dress herself and make herself breakfast, which was evident by the cereal strewn all over the kitchen floor.

For over 30 years, no one was charged with Cathy's murder, until the Brighton Police Department collaborated with the FBI to reopen the case in 2015 with their sights set on her husband, Jim Krauseneck, as the primary suspect. It wasn’t until 2022, after Covid loosened its grip on the city, did a trial ensue and justice finally prevailed.

Dennis O’Brien was a local TV news producer at the time of the brutal murder who not only covered the case until it quickly got cold but remained committed to it for over 40 years hoping to see a just resolution.