Few names evoke as much dread in modern Iraqi history as that of Uday Hussein. Born into privilege as the eldest son of Saddam Hussein, Uday could have led a life of diplomacy or governance. Instead, he chose a path of unchecked brutality, making even his father’s brutal regime appear, by comparison, coldly pragmatic rather than maniacally sadistic. For Iraqis, the name Uday came to symbolise more than corruption or power—it ... View more
TRUE CRIME
Velma Barfield: America’s First Woman Executed by Lethal Injection
In 1969, a North Carolina home went up in flames. Inside, Thomas Burke, husband to Velma Barfield, was found dead. At first, no one suspected a thing. But this incident marked the beginning of a deadly pattern. Over the next nine years, friends, family members, and employers of Velma Barfield would die under suspiciously similar circumstances. Velma Barfield would become the first woman in the United States to be ... View more
The Chilling Case of Diane Downs: The Mother Who Shot Her Children to Win Back a Lover
"My mom." That’s all eight-year-old Christie Downs needed to say. After surviving a stroke and slowly regaining her ability to speak, this soft-spoken reply to investigators shattered the alibi of her mother, Diane Downs — and confirmed what many already suspected. On 19 May 1983, in a quiet corner of Oregon just outside Springfield, Diane Downs pulled her car over on Old Mohawk Road and did the unthinkable: she ... View more
The Killing of Derrick Robie: Eric Smith and the Juvenile Crime That Shook America
On 2 August 1993, in the sleepy village of Savona, New York, an act of violence so shocking in its brutality would forever alter the landscape of juvenile justice debates in the United States. The victim was four-year-old Derrick Robie, a cheerful, red-headed boy with a love for nature and baseball. The perpetrator was thirteen-year-old Eric Smith—another redhead, known in the village for his quiet nature and trademark thick ... View more
Phil Hartman And The Night He Was Killed By His Wife
It’s hard to imagine a man so gifted at delivering joy being consumed by such a grim ending. Phil Hartman wasn’t just another comic in the lineup—he was the glue of Saturday Night Live, the golden voice behind Troy McClure, and the everyman with a wicked twist in sitcoms like NewsRadio. And yet, despite a career laced with humour, fame, and respect, Hartman’s life came to a haunting and violent end in 1998, killed while he ... View more
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