Location

Defendant(s)

Date of Alleged Crime

Patrick Swiney was convicted of murdering his wife, Betty Snow Swiney, and her ex-husband, Ronald Pate. One night, when Swiney was approaching his house, he blacked out, stating that he felt as though he'd been hit on the head with a baseball bat. He awoke in his house with a serious bruise on his head and with the rifle he kept in his truck lying near him. He found his wife and her ex-husband lying on the floor, shot dead with bullets assumed to have been fired from the rifle.

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Police officers Walter E. Evans and Miles H. Ledbetter, both detectives, were convicted of extorting a $750 bribe from Harry McDonald, a person with a criminal record of felonies.  After being arrested in 1929 for receiving stolen property, McDonald surprised the District Attorney by confessing to conspiracy transactions involving over 50 LAPD officers.  Among those were officers Evans and Ledbetter.  McDonald claimed that the officers had in 1928 extorted a $750 bribe from him in exchange for suppressing evidence that McDonald had purchased stolen diamonds from a Jack Hawkins.

At trial, McDonald, his wife, and his maid all swore that Evans and Ledbetter had visited McDonald on a Saturday and Sunday in 1928 and that McDonald had paid the officers a bribe.  The officers countered that they had indeed visited McDonald on Saturday July 7 and Sunday July 8, 1928, but the visits were to investigate an unconnected robbery of two diamond rings.  In rebuttal, McDonald and his wife testified that the detectives could not have visited them on the specified dates as the McDonalds moved to a bungalow in Venice, CA on the Sunday before July 4, and that they were not in Los Angeles for the two weeks thereafter.  The jury chose to believe the McDonalds and convicted the two officers.  In 1930, following unsuccessful appeals, the two officers started serving their sentences in San Quentin.

Later evidence surfaced that McDonald signed a safety-deposit record of a Los Angeles bank on July 9, 1928, so he could not have been out of town that day as he and his wife swore.  Also evidence surfaced that their maid had not been in their employ until after August 8, so she could not have been present on July 7 or July 8.  Coupled with these disclosures, and other discovered facts, California Governor Young pardoned both officers in 1931.  Evans and Ledbetter later received $4533.36 and $3313.39 in compensation.  (CTI)  [11/07]

David Camm, a former Indiana state trooper, was convicted in 2002 of the murders of his wife Kimberly, daughter Jill, 5, and son Bradley, 7.  Inside the garage of the Camm residence, the children had been shot to death while sitting in the back seat of the family's Ford Bronco.  Kim was shot to death next to the Bronco.  The residence was on Lockhart Road in Georgetown, IN.

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Francis M. Carroll, a deputy sheriff in Oxford County, was convicted in 1938 of the murder of Dr. James G. Littlefield.  Littlefield and his wife, Lydia, disappeared from their home in South Paris on Oct. 13, 1937.  On Oct. 16, Paul Nathaniel (Buddy) Dwyer, 18, also from South Paris, was found sleeping in the couple's car by police in North Arlington, NJ.  The bodies of the dead couple were found in the trunk.  Dwyer confessed to killing the couple and was extradited to Maine the next day.  He was placed in the custody of Francis Carroll, the father of Dwyer's former girlfriend, Barbara (Babs) Carroll.  On Dec 2, Dwyer pleaded guilty to the murder of Dr. Littlefield and was sentenced to life in prison.

Within months, Dwyer accused Deputy Carroll of having killed Dr. Littlefield to prevent him from disclosing that the deputy had engaged in incest with his daughter, Babs.  Babs allegedly acknowledged that she engaged in sexual activity with her father on several occasions beginning when she was eleven years old.  Carroll was soon convicted of the murder of Dr. Littlefield, primarily because of Dwyer's testimony.  Carroll and Dwyer could not both be guilty of murder under the conflicting prosecution theories on which their convictions rested, but both were imprisoned until 1950, when Carroll's conviction was vacated.  In vacating the conviction, a Superior Court judge declared that the prosecutor in the case “deliberately, purposely, and intentionally . . . practiced fraud and deception on the court and jury.”

While there is reasonable doubt about Carroll's conviction, Dwyer's story implicating him is quite believable and it would appear that Carroll is most likely the killer.  In Oct. 1959 Maine Governor Clausen commuted Dwyer's life sentence to 28 years, making him immediately eligible for parole, a parole Dwyer was soon granted.  (CWC) (NY Daily News) (AP) (Life) (Murdered in Jersey) (NY Times) (56) (58) [10/09]

E. L. “Lefty” Fowler was convicted of the murder of Helen Beavers.  Fowler was a Duncan policeman and had been with her a short time before she was killed.  Following Beaver's murder, Fowler quit his job, failed to pick up his last check, and engaged in conversation indicating that he was considering suicide.  He also began an excessive round of drinking.

Less than two months after Beavers' murder, Fowler was arrested in Waurika and imprisoned for drunkenness in the Jefferson County Jail.  Three Crime Bureau Agents then fraudulently conspired to transport Fowler to Stephens County for interrogation.  They freed Fowler (by paying his fine) on condition he drive a supposedly drunk cellmate, who was actually an agent, to Stephens County.  Once in Stephens County, Fowler was arrested on bogus charges that were never filed.  He was then denied access to a magistrate and a lawyer, and interrogated under coercive conditions for 12 days.

Fowler eventually confessed to the murder of Beavers, but the County Attorney thought the confession was inconsistent with the facts.  Beavers was then required to give another confession, which was signed at 5 a.m., apparently after an all night grilling.  Even this confession was not regarded as sufficient and Beavers had to give two more before authorities were satisfied.

In 1960, Fowler was granted habeas corpus relief due to his coerced and illegal interrogation.  He presumably was released.  (Argosy)  [4/08]

Jeffrey Scott Hornoff, a Warwick Police Detective, was convicted of bludgeoning to death Victoria Cushman with a fire extinguisher and a porcelain jewelry box.  Following the murder, Hornoff denied being anything other than friends with Cushman.  Detectives knew otherwise and Hornoff soon admitted that he had two sexual encounters with her.  Hornoff's alibi was that he was at a party with his wife and friends on the night of the murder.  People at the party confirmed his presence.  A grand jury considered the evidence, but did not indict him.

The Rhode Island State Patrol took over the investigation in 1991 and Hornoff was indicted in 1994.  At trial in 1996, the prosecution dismissed his alibi, saying he slipped away from the party and returned without anyone noticing his absence.  Hornoff's initial claim of only having been friends with Cushman was presented as evidence that he tried to cover-up the murder.  Hornoff was sentenced to life in prison and, in 1999, the Rhode Island Supreme Court unanimously rejected his appeal.

Realistically, it was time for Hornoff to abandon hope.  But then a miracle occurred.  On Nov. 1, 2002, Todd Barry walked into the attorney general's office and confessed to murdering Cushman.  Barry said he was consumed with guilt that an innocent man was serving time for a crime that he committed.  Barry's confession revealed how the murder investigation had focused exclusively on Hornoff.  Barry lived near Cushman, had dated her on and off, his name and number were near the front of her Rolodex, and he was known to her friends.  Yet he was never questioned about the murder, either by the Warwick PD, or by the state police.

Hornoff was soon released and cleared of all charges.  In 2006, Hornoff was awarded $600,000 plus $47,000 a year for life from the City of Warwick.  He may also be awarded additional money from the Rhode Island State Patrol.  (American Justice) (caught.net) (JD33 p10) (TruthInJustice) (TIJ2) (CrimeLibrary)  [7/07]

Paul William Ferrell, a rookie sheriff's deputy, was convicted of the murder of Cathy Ford, a 19-year-old waitress from nearby Maryland. Her body has never been found and no one had ever seen her with Ferrell. Some time after Ford's disappearance, her boyfriend, Darvin Moon, discovered her badly burned truck 75 yards from Ford's trailer home. Some believed that the truck was burned elsewhere because there was no scorching on the vegetation surrounding the vehicle.

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John Maloney, a detective in the Green Bay PD, and an arson investigator, was convicted of strangling his estranged wife, Sandy, and setting her body on fire.  Maloney was a suspect because of their impending divorce, ongoing child custody battle, and history of domestic disputes.  Sandy was a heavy user of prescription pills and was very drunk at the time of her death.  She apparently tried to hang herself shortly before her death, but the cord broke causing her to bruise her head on a coffee table.  She then apparently started a fire by careless smoking or perhaps deliberately.  The state maintained that Maloney hit her on the head, strangled her, and then set a fire that was staged to look like the result of careless smoking.

Special prosecutor, Joe Paulus, (DA of Winnebago County), withheld evidence.  Initially the fire was labeled an accident but circular reasoning developed:  “The fire guys decided it must be an arson because it was murder.  The coroner decided it must be a murder because it was arson.”  (TruthInJustice) (Article 2)  (Article 3) (48 Hours)  [11/05]

Evan Zimmerman, a former Augusta, WI police officer, was convicted of murdering his former girlfriend, Kathleen Thompson.  Thompson had had a violent fight with her husband just hours after their wedding.  Following the fight, both were taken to the Eau Claire County Jail.  Thompson was last seen walking away from the jail at 3 a.m. and later was found strangled on a Eau Claire street.  Her husband was never considered a suspect as he was in jail at the time of her murder.  Zimmerman's conviction was based on allegedly inconsistent statements he gave to Eau Claire police about his whereabouts around the time of the murder.  None of Zimmerman's interrogations were taped.

Zimmerman's son, Shannon, said the alleged inconsistencies were due to his father being in an alcoholic haze at the time of the crime and during subsequent police interviews. He said the case against his father consisted of “out-of-context statements, misleading statements and very, very shaky facts.”  With the help of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, Zimmerman's conviction was overturned.  At retrial in April 2005, the prosecution's case did not proceed well, and in mid-trial the prosecutor asked the judge to throw out the case, saying he lacked the evidence to show “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Zimmerman had killed his former girlfriend.  The judge agreed and acquitted Zimmerman.  Zimmerman had served 3 1/2 years in prison for the crime.  (Wisconsin State Journal)  [1/08]

Lawrencia Bembenek, also known as Bambi, was convicted of murdering Christine Schultz, her husband's ex-wife.  Bambi's husband Fred Schultz was a police officer as was his ex-wife.  Bambi had become a police officer and was stunned by the amount of graft going on in the department: officers selling pornography from their cars, accepting oral sex from hookers, frequenting drug hangouts, and harassing minorities.

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