A Calender of Creeps and Crimes

Gerald Eugene Stano was actually born by the name of Paul Zeininger in Schenectady, New York 1951. His mother was unfortunately unable to look after him properly. At six months old his mother brought him to a local orphanage. He was severely malnourished and it is thought that he was being fed his own faeces to survive. Staff at the orphanage were horrified as they described that even at 6 months old, the baby was functioning at an animistic level and were reluctant to take the baby in as they feared he would never be adopted or fostered into a home in his current condition. It was decided that taking the baby away from the mother was a better choice. One of the women who worked in the orphanage as a nurse, Norma Stano, took pity on the infant and decided to adopt him, renaming him as the Gerald Eugene Stano that we've all come to know.  While the Stanos provided a safe and loving home for Gerald his behavioural problems continued as he grew up. He was a below average student in sc...

Dallas in the early 90's was a booming city full of growth and prosperity in the south west but as every story has two sides, there was also a darker side to Dallas at this time. In 1991 there were over 500 homicides in the city of Dallas, their largest ever in a single year. As with most cities, there was one particular area of Dallas that was known for it's violent reputation, it was more seedy than the rest of the gleaming city and city officials at the time are believed to have been ashamed of the area, Oak Cliff, in the south of Dallas. It was a rundown area where the degenerates of Dallas seemed to flock to. During the day time hours prostitutes were seen commonly on the streets and as the sun set on Jefferson Boulevard, proceedings during the night did not get any more charming. Cops in the area monitored the area but the workers in the area were mainly known to police and many of them had drug problems which made it difficult to find help for them. Today we will be look...

John and Anne Darwin were living happily married in the Durham County area of England. They owned a number of homes that they rented out. Anne worked as a receptionist at a doctor's office and John was a former teacher who was now working as a prison officer. The couple owned 12 homes in Durham and were looking to expand their property portfolio when they purchased another two houses in Seaton Carew in 2000. Seaton Carew was along the coastline of The North Sea in the North East of Durham. The couple then moved into one of the homes. However, the rent they were receiving from tenants was unfortunately not enough to cover the mortgages on the houses and the couple were slowly drowning in debt.  On a cold March 21st 2002, John Darwin went out canoeing in the calm waters on The North Sea and when he failed to show up for work that day, he was reported as missing. A large search and rescue operation began in the seaside town, no sign of John was found. The following day a paddle, simil...

Annie Le was born in 1985 in San Jose, California. She spent her childhood living mainly with her aunt and uncle and their tight knit Vietnamese-American family. She was named as one of the smartest in her graduating high school year and was described as being an exceptional person. Having earned a scholarship to attend The University of Rochester, she majored in cell developmental biology. Annie was then accepted to a post grad programme at Yale University in Connecticut where she started studying for her doctorate.  She was due to marry her college sweetheart, Jonathan Widawsky, on September 13th 2009. So when one of Annie's roommates reported she had not come home 5 days before the wedding, many believed she had become a runaway bride. Police checked on Annie's office and found that personal items such as her cellphone and purse were left neatly on her desk while CCTV footage showed Annie entering the laboratory building at 10 am on September 8th but she was never seen exiti...

Elizabeth Smart was a 14 year old girl living in the affluent neighbourhood of Federal Heights in Salt Lake City with her mother (Lois), father (Edward) and siblings. She grew up in a loving Mormon family and was very much adored by those who knew her. On the 4th of June she had received an award for excellence in physical fitness and academics from school. The next morning, around 4.30 am Elizabeth's 9 year old sister, Mary Katherine, went into the room of her parents to tell them that Elizabeth was gone and they would not find her. Unsure of what she meant her parents got out of bed and began to search the house for Elizabeth, assuming that she must have woken with a bad dream and confused it with reality. Having been woken from their sleep, groggily the reality was beginning to set in, they realised that a screen in the kitchen had been cut open and Elizabeth was nowhere to be found.  When questioned Mary Katherine told police officers and her parents that she had pretended to b...

  On March 10th 1928 Christine Collins handed her son Walter, aged 9, some money to go and see a movie in The Mount Washington Area of Los Angeles. Christine, who worked as a telephone operator, would report him missing 5 days later on March 15th, claiming that this was the last time she had seen her son. The city of Los Angeles started a massive campaign to try and locate Walter and reported sightings came in from all over the state of California. In one unusual reported sighting, somebody claimed to have seen a boy who looked like Walter standing outside a gas station in Glendale wearing nothing but newspaper. However, nothing of value came of any of the sightings for the next five months.  In August 1928 a boy matching Walter's description was found in DeKalb Illinois, almost 2000 miles away from Los Angeles. The boy claimed to be Walter Collins from Los Angeles and gave the police a story of having been abducted but gave no real details about how he had ended up on the oth...

Matthew Beck had been an employee of The Connecticut Lottery for eight years when he walked into work on this day 1998. He had gotten up that morning and fed his cat, he'd made plans to go and see Titanic in the cinema with a friend when he finished work that evening. He said goodbye to his father as he headed out to work. Matthew Beck had a history with depression and his father was happy to see him doing well after his recent bad moods and suicidal thoughts. Making plans to go and see a movie, to get up in the morning to go to work were all signs of Matthew being in a good place and doing well. Matthew was no longer the "all American guy" he once used to be and had began to grow facial hair and had began to look what some people have described as "scruffy". In 1997 Matthew's father had found him in a comatose state having overdosed and had to call paramedics to save his son's life, his father remarked that Matthew had acted "perfectly normal"...