Every morning, over breakfast and Earl Grey, I watch the same YouTube Channel: McBallen. I like his story telling methods as well as the subjects covered. Ghost stories, stalkers, divers who dove too deep. 

I got into the show late in October, when Beau was ill. Beaus’s my Bassett mix. Beau liked to listen to 

Mr. Ballens voice so, since we thought Beau’s weary bones were checking out, we did what Beau wanted. 

 I just really like starting my day this way.

A couple weeks ago, it did take a weird turn.

Mr. Ballen covered the crash of PSA flight 182, which went down in 1978 over San Diego.

I am well aware of this crash because my dad’s friend was on it. My uncle was supposed to meet Chuck at the airport to travel together. Uncle Dean “got a weird feeling” and never picked up his boarding pass.

At 9:03 everything was fine, they were landing.
9:05 and everyone was dead. It changed that quick.

My dads friend, Chuck, is in that inferno.

It was me, at 15, who took the call telling us about our loss. I had to go tell my dad Chuck Bren was gone

I watch a lot of shows dealing with strange events. Sometimes I get ideas for stories. Sometimes I just run with one idea into another.

 This was the first time I saw my history being explained in ways I had never expected. There was no internet when this happened. You had to follow the news as it updated then wait for People Magazine to put out the compilation issue with the lost faces on the cover. I never saw those photos of the actual doomed plane until Mr. Ballen’s show.

Charles “Chuck” Bern was a close friends of dads.  He was a really great guy who taught me personally about maintaining character and value. He taught by example. It was a great loss to my family. 

One really cool fact about Chuck? His mom was Academy Award Winner, Claire Trevor, from Key Largo. His brother, Donald Bern, owns Orange Country. I think all of it.

  The top photo is Claire with Chuck onset.

TV's Forensic Files: Jacqui Summary ~ The Shoes

Woman misses her morning class.  Going over to her house, the husband and some other teachers, find her at the base of the stairs in the basement with a basket of laundry at her side. Her head is severely bashed in. Her shoes are on the stairs.

The police find no blood at the scene. They do find blood in the kitchen. When sprayed with fluorescent dye to illuminate, the whole room lights up bright. The table edge has signs of boo boos, as well as the chairs.

Mr. Husband, convincing everyone it was an accident, is not informed of this find.

In a room at the police station he is seen pounding his fist, yelling. "Those god damn shoes. I told her once, I told her six times those god damn shoes will kill her."

The coroner finds that she didn't die of the blow or blood loss.

She died by manual strangulation.

Cops aren't interested in the shoes after that.

Conspiracies ...

For the record ... I believe OJ did it, Oswald acted alone and Marilyn committed suicide ... all conclusions I came to by studying the cases. 

Greystone Murder, Beverly Hills, Cali

On Feb 16, 1929, a mentally unstable, Hugh Plunket, confronted his employer (possibly lover) in one of the rooms of The Greystone Mansion. He fired, killing Edward Doheny, Jr. Ed’s wife found them, *did not* call the police for almost four hours. Witness statements were said to “seem rehearsed”.

The “in depth” investigation into this politically contented family...lasted two days.

Okay...looking into records. The two men “were very” close. But no confirmation.

The autopsy revealed that Plunket’s wound had been fired from 18"; Doheny’s had stippling, the gun had been less than 3' away.

It was Dohenys gun. Wiped clean.

The Doheny family, devote Catholics, had a family plot at Calvary, Catholics only. 

Ed was buried in Forest Lawn Glendale in a secular ceremony.

Catholics who commit suicide cannot be buried in a Catholic cemetery.

Speculation is that history recorded the wrong victim.

And really...with the of size Forest Lawn, these two guys were buried within 100' of each other.

 Cool Sidebar: In 2008, I attended a play *at* The Greystone that was the playwrights interpretation of what happened that night. Her ideas did not match these facts.

‘All of Me’ with Steve Martin and Lilly Lilly Tomlin was filmed here.

The Villisca Ax House

I'm only going to touch on this one quick right now. The method in which this crime was committed fascinates me. In a house this size, in 1912, eight people were murdered by ax. A father, mother, four kids and two young visitors--all killed by someone they think was hiding in the attic when the family came home. That's creepy, too.

How do you kill one person by ax without the other seven noticing and trying to escape the building?

I'll come back to this later, but will tell you, if you are interested in this "most haunted place in America, you can now book a chance to spend the night.

I like visiting cemeteries. I have a real problem visit the actual site where some left this world by violence.

Hitch-Hikers ...

When you study crimes, it's important to follow the facts to come to the true conclusion. Sometimes though, in small stories, it is hard to find those facts. A name might be missing, the time and location, but the message is still something you want to share.

There is a story of a woman on a stormy night, picking up a hitch-hiker. Good looking guy, clean cut. They started talking right away. Supposedly, it was a good conversation.

When they arrived at his destination, he thanked her and they exchanged phone numbers to catch up later.

He made an impression on her and she found herself thinking about him a few times.

After a week, he finally called. After pleasantries, he dropped his bombshell:

"My plan was to steal the car and dump your body in the river. The storm would help hide it. You were too funny and I liked you too much. Don't pick up hitch-hikers anymore!"